Philby blocked a second swipe and then a third. He backed up and moved to his right, noticing that the troll pivoted on its left foot as it turned to stay with Philby. Philby raised his sword as if to strike a blow to the head. The troll crossed its sword to block, but Philby released the sword, allowing it to fall and, as it did, he bent forward and was there to catch it before it hit the ground. He swung at the troll’s left leg. It sliced in two at the knee. The troll stepped forward and fell over onto its face. It tried to stand but was useless without a left leg.

Philby stepped around it in time to engage the sword of the third troll to attack Wayne, who was already busy defending himself against two of the attackers. Philby caught this troll’s sword as it swung back over its head. The contact spun the troll around and it came at Philby with a series of swift slices to the air, narrowly missing the chest of Philby’s avatar, which was in steady retreat. The troll reared back and lowered its sword with power and speed. Philby sidestepped, tripped, and his avatar went down.

The sword smacked into one of the purple networking cables, cutting it in two. The purple color immediately switched to gray, and Philby realized that since this was an internal maintenance site, anything done to the mechanism was for real and affected the real world. Wherever that data feed had been headed, it was now null and void. He considered cutting all the cables. Wouldn’t that have the desired effect? Wouldn’t it stop all the data—and more than likely all the DHIs? He thought it would, but at the same time, without that vivid color, he wouldn’t be able to follow the cables to their source—the second server. And that was the ultimate prize.

A troll left the fight with Wayne. It squatted and jumped a phenomenal distance, landing right in front of Philby. It raised its sword to do Philby in. It was now two against one. Philby spun in a full circle, his sword outstretched. It was similar to a martial arts move, and it caught the two others by surprise. He hit the first in the arm, severing it. The second took the tip of his sword across its chest. Philby spun again, this time taking a step forward.

The one-armed troll merely switched hands, now holding the sword with its right. It lowered it at Philby, who danced to the left just as the blade came down like a guillotine. It chopped off the end of Philby’s right foot.

Philby moved and saw his avatar sway, about to fall. He jerked left and maintained his balance: he could still stand, but his steps had to be shorter.

Wayne had dispatched the remaining troll. He came at the two on Philby from behind, and soon there was a flash of swords as Philby battled the one-armed troll and Wayne took the wounded one. Philby moved to his right, seeing that Wayne was moving that way as well. And now Philby saw Wayne’s scheme. The two trolls were battling in close quarters, too near one another. They each pivoted on one leg as they turned—a faulty design—and Wayne was working to tie their legs together, to cross their legs.

It worked beautifully. One more move to his right, and Philby watched as the two trolls tumbled over. Before Philby could even lift his sword, Wayne had removed these two from the game as well. Wayne hurried to the one spinning on the floor and stopped it with a sword thrust.

[ ]: if we don’t hurry, they’ll generate another fifty of these and send them our way. can you find the server?

philitup: I’m sure I can.

[ ]: then do it. and tell your friends up top we may need their help, my guess is these trolls aren’t going to let us anywhere near that server.

56

THEIR EYES ADJUSTING as they climbed up the small ramp and out of the open hatch, Finn and Jez beheld an intimidating sight. The upper tiger yard was a large enclosure, an open expanse of sloping green grass surrounded by fifteen-foot-high walls. The enclosure’s boundaries were broken by bamboo trees, wild grasses, and jungle shrubs. In the shade to their left, and just coming to her feet, was an enormous tigress, six feet from shoulders to tail with a huge head, and paws the size of oven mitts. She glanced back at them with her amber eyes and let out a thunderous growl—they were intruders and she didn’t appreciate being awakened from her nap.

Directly ahead of them, coming over the crest of the small rise, were two more tigers—barreling toward Finn and Jez at full speed and, to the right of the yard, a half dozen monkeys and four large orangutans were also charging. The number of wild animals, as well as their combined ferocity, every twitch of muscle aimed directly at Finn and Jez, froze the kids. They stood absolutely still, which was a good thing.

Then Finn spotted the ivy creeping along the right wall—just behind the gang of monkeys. Charlene.

“Finn?” a terrified Jez said, her voice breaking.

“No fear,” Finn whispered. He had tried to cross over on his way out of the hatch, but his excitement had prevented it. He didn’t want Jez to know this, so he spoke with authority.

“Move to your right,” he said. “Stay close to the wall.”

“But the monkeys!” she said.

“I know.”

A hollow growl reverberated from behind them: another tiger, this one coming through the tunnel from the lower yard.

Finn picked up a stick and stepped forward, putting himself between the charging monkeys and Jez. The two center tigers continued their advance, while the one in the shade to the left had spun fully around to face the hatch. If he didn’t do something quickly, he and Jez were going to be animal crackers—a late afternoon snack.

“Go!” he said.

Jez took off along the wall at a run.

Finn attacked the line of advancing monkeys and apes, swinging the stick like a baseball bat. The monkeys skidded to a stop, forming a semicircle around him. He saw a flash in the eyes of one of the orangutans: the ape had spotted Jez fleeing along the wall. He chose this ape to go after, chanting under his breath: Nothing can hurt me.

He charged the orangutan, swung the stick, and forced the ape to dance backward, out of the way of contact. In doing so, the orangutan left a small gap between him and the ape to his side. It was just big enough for Finn to squeeze through. He ran forward and shot the gap. The ape turned.

This offered Jez the opportunity to run even harder, quickly moving along the wall toward the slowly advancing Charlene, who, posing as DeVine, was high atop her stilts.

The large cat to the left stepped out of the shadows, her strides calculated and controlled: she was hunting. If not Finn, any one of the monkeys would make a worthwhile snack.

The monkeys saw the cat as well, their hackles raised in alarm.

Finn was facing the wall of monkeys as the second cat climbed up and out of the tunnel. He glanced over his shoulder: the other two cats would arrive at any moment.

He’d done a fine job of pulling attention away from Jez, but his own situation was far more tentative. If he didn’t think of something quickly, his lone stick was not going to be enough to defend himself.

He held the stick high overhead and cried out loudly in a war cry.

“Go ahead, try it!” he shouted, watching Jez continue her progress. But the monkeys grew daring, tightening the circle around Finn.

Preparing to strike.

57

PHILBY’S AND WAYNE’S AVATARS ran along a catwalk of steel mesh, following the few remaining cables like train tracks toward an unconfirmed destination. But everything pointed toward the Dino Institute. Finally, the first wall of the institute appeared, and then the identification on the schematics.

The trick for Philby was to juggle back and forth between the DS and the computer terminal. It wasn’t easy.

philitup: it’s definitely dino-institute.