Here he works.
Dana shows surprise. His name?
J-A-D B-E-L–L but J-O-N-A-T-H-A-N real name.
Him I know! Dana nods quickly, smiles. Very important man! Here in the park very important!
Athena looks aside, feeling herself blushing, not sure why she’s doing that. The anger is abating, still nameless and insubstantial. She shakes her head, then has a horrible thought and glares at Dana suspiciously.
Not your boyfriend!
Dana jerks her head back. American Sign Language is conveyed as much through expression as through gesture, and Dana’s expression is perfectly eloquent. Surprise and amusement and just a touch of disgust at the suggestion, so that when she’s shaking her head, Athena already knows what she is saying, what she is going to say. Too old!
Athena laughs, relieved, amused, and she thinks Dana is, too, from the look of her. Someone nearby looks their way sharply, surprised, but Dana ignores it and Athena doesn’t care. It’s her hearing that’s gone, not her voice. Now Joel is tapping her arm lightly, and Athena turns to face him. He had cochlear implant surgery a couple years ago, when they were all in ninth grade, and he’s supposed to talk aloud when he signs now, but sometimes he forgets. Not this time, and Athena can see his lips moving as he points.
“Come on come on come on!”
He holds out his right hand for her, and Athena smiles, takes it, and they’re running together toward the pyramids. Because Dana’s with them, they get to avoid almost every line, led instead along private paths that parallel the regular queues. Dana makes them wait for Mom and Mr. Howe, and then they’re plunging into the shade.
From the shadows, Athena sees Agent Rose watching them. Joel points and she just catches a glimpse of Flashman-she can’t remember which one it is, the boys know that stuff-jumping from an overhang and disappearing into the pyramid. Agent Rose sees him, too, pulls a pistol from beneath her coat, firing at him, shouting something after him. Athena can’t hear her words, of course, because of the comedy-tragedy mask that Agent Rose wears, but she totally understands what she’s saying, just from the way she shakes her fist.
I’ll get you, Flashman!
Agent Rose disappears deeper into the pyramid, and they follow. Around them, fake torches flicker, and the air is turning cooler on her bare arms. Beneath her feet, Athena feels a thrum, a rumble, a vibration moving into her body, and it makes her eyes widen. The whole pyramid shakes, and then there are spiders, great big hairy evil-looking spiders, dropping down from the ceiling all around them.
Athena feels herself shriek, and now they are being led down a passageway by a man who looks like the same Flashman she saw before but she thinks probably isn’t. Air blows past Athena’s face, kicks her hair up, and a ghastly ghost appears above them, swoops down low. Everyone ducks. She doesn’t scream so loud this time, because she kind of was expecting something, and she’s also laughing, and then Flashman is turning to Dana.
Get in cat!
Dana leans forward to whisper to Flashman, and he nods, takes a half second, then indicates a different direction.
Get in those cats!
She lip-read that wrong, she must’ve, but Dana is nodding, and she signs as quickly as she can-still slow, but she’s trying-and indicates the side, and Athena gets it then. The ride itself, the cars, are shaped kind of like miniature sphinxes, but with a canopy top, and they all tumble into them. Dana makes sure everyone is in their cars, moves along the line, checking seat belts.
Everyone is buckled up? Good. Keep your hands inside and do not get out until the ride ends!
She climbs into the back of Athena’s car, so she’s sitting behind her, and Athena has Joel to one side and Gail on the other. There is a sense of urgency that leaves Athena breathless and excited, and she knows that’s silly, that there is nothing real about this, that it’s all an illusion. Joel is laughing, looking all around, trying to see everything at once, and Gail is squeezing her arm, pointing and signing, smiling big and delighted. Then their sphinx-car shudders, lurches, and suddenly they’re diving into darkness.
A bright light bursts before them, and Agent Rose appears, floating in the air ahead and above. It’s the same Agent Rose from the movies, and even though the one they saw before looks the same, Athena knows it wasn’t this one, the real one, because this one has removed her mask. She’s a projection, but all the same, she’s very pretty, but a little scary, too, her hair flowing out behind her in a blood-red nimbus, her black trench coat flapping. She holds a big red gem in both hands, the Eye of Ke-Sa, that’s the source of the light, and she’s raising it high above her head as she speaks. On the windshield of their sphinx-car, closed captioning appears. It’s well placed, high enough for Athena to read it without having to ever look away.
Agent Rose: YOU FOOLS! I HOLD THE EYE! YOU WILL NEVER LEAVE THIS PLACE ALIVE! I HAVE THE POWER! I AM INVINCIBLE!
Then Agent Rose lowers the Eye and looks right at them and smiles this very sinister, kind of sexy smile. Gail’s grip on her forearm tightens.
Agent Rose: YOU WILL SERVE ME…FOR ALL ETERNITY!
Then, out of nowhere, Flashman is there, swinging down from high above on a rope. Like Agent Rose, it’s not the same Flashman, another projection, and like Agent Rose, it’s the movie Flashman, too, played by that actor that Lynne has all those pictures of, the one who keeps going to rehab. He has a revolver in his hand, and he’s pointing it at Agent Rose.
Flashman: ROSE! DON’T MAKE ME DO IT!
Agent Rose: YOU CAN’T STOP ME!
A beam of light shoots from the Eye of Ke-Sa, just as Flashman fires his gun.
(SOUND OF A GUNSHOT. AGENT ROSE SCREAMS.)
The light goes out, total darkness, and the car dips, turns, it feels like they’re spinning out of control. For a second, Athena actually thinks they’re going to flip over. More ghosts race past them, dressed in tatters and dripping decaying flesh; one of them actually seems to be inside their sphinx-car, and then the ride begins in earnest. They race along the track as pieces of pyramid fall all around them, as snakes hiss and spit, as animal-headed gods and goddesses pursue them through twists and turns. Athena can’t tell if she’s laughing or screaming now, out of breath, buffeted by the ride. At one point, the canvas canopy of their car is torn away by an unseen claw, and she sees above them a sky of blood-red, clouds boiling away into an infinite darkness.
The sphinx-car judders to a sudden, sharp stop.
Joel, Gail, Athena, they’re all thrown forward, so hard that those seat belts Dana made sure they fastened dig into hips and waists, keep them from smashing into the windshield. Around them, the darkness flickers. All of them are turning in their seats, catching their breath as they crane their necks, trying to see a hint of what will happen next. There’s dim light in the car, and Dana looks puzzled. From that, from the expression and the posture and the way her mouth has just tightened like that, just a little, Athena knows this isn’t right.
Something is wrong.
She looks the question at Dana.
Stay seated.
Athena shrugs, shrugs to Gail, to Joel. The closed captioning on the windshield returns, this time with an image of Gordo, Betsy, and Pooch.
PLEASE REMAIN SEATED. WE ARE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES.
Nothing else. Just that message.
Athena’s starting to get a little nervous when the lights come on, dispelling the illusion of the Pyramids of Ke-Sa. Now Athena can see other sphinx-cars all along the track, cars that had been hidden in the darkness. Mom is in the one right behind them, riding with Mr. Howe, Leon, Lynne, and Miguel. Everyone is looking around, curious and confused. Joel taps her shoulder and then points at a mass of snakes on the ground ahead of them. They’re inert, rubber-looking, surprisingly fake in the light.