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Election Season
Two months after The Librarian's explosive rescue from the palace dungeon, Brix came bounding across the monastery lawn from the scooter corral, through the crunchy leaves, to the back deck of the cottage. He slid open the door and stepped inside, where preparations for a party were underway. Lada and Tenner were messily making a cake in the kitchen, and Elena and Seven were stringing a celebratory banner in the living area. Though the presidential election was less than two weeks away, and danger for the forgotten five had ramped up significantly in Estero City thanks to Martim, the supers were trying to enjoy a normal autumn Wednesday to celebrate Birdie's fourteenth birthday.
"There are protesters gathering outside the main gate," Brix said urgently, breathing hard. A helmet dangled by its chin straps from his fingers, and he wore sunglasses along with a black buzz-cut wig that disguised his wavy honey-brown hair. Puerco came hopping and sliding down the stairs and careening around the corner to greet and sniff him.
No one immediately shared Brix's concern. There had been nonstop protests in Estero for months, mostly election-related. But some of the protests were against supernatural people, who'd started to come out of hiding lately due to Magdalia Palacio's support and encouragement. "I thought I heard something," Tenner said, looking up, "but I tried to tune it out. What are they chanting about this time?"
"Protesters, schmotesters," Seven grumbled from the living area. He and Elena were trying to secure a happy birthday banner so it hung evenly, but it was frustratingly difficult because it went invisible every time he touched it. He kept having to climb onto a dining chair to adjust it, then let go of it to see if he'd put it where he'd wanted it, then get off the chair to get the full view of the banner, then climb back up and adjust it again. All of Seven's work over the past months to try to conceal items and people had led to him fully concealing everything that weighed less than about forty pounds. Things larger than that faded partially, like Birdie when he held her hand. She didn't mind.
Elena glanced at Brix. "How many protesters? Are they anti-Fuerte or anti-Magdalia?"
Brix shook his head. "Neither," he said. "They're anti-us."
Everyone stopped what they were doing. "What do you mean?" Lada asked. "They're protesting supernatural people outside the monastery? Don't they realize they'd never get the monks' support on that?" She had flour all over her sweatshirt and some on her cheek and nose from adjusting her glasses. "Only a coincidence, I hope. Or do they think the monks are supers or something?"
"What did the monks ever do to anybody?" Tenner wondered. "They're the best people Estero has. National treasures."
Brix shook his head impatiently. "No, you don't get it. The protesters are against us kids-the children of the supernatural criminals."
"Holy expletive," Seven muttered under his breath. "They couldn't have found us." Occasional rumblings against the forgotten five had been happening since Martim had released the damaging article that revealed the existence of the five children on the loose in Estero. It had described the kids as armed and dangerous. President Fuerte had referenced the article in a speech a few days later, telling his constituents in a dark voice, "Magdalia's other child is among them. Isn't that interesting? Why didn't she tell us about him?" Murmurs had begun throughout Estero.
In response, Magdalia immediately changed the bio on her website to reflect that she had two sons-her recently adopted son, Paithoon, and her son with Martim, Seven. Then she released a statement saying the reason she hadn't disclosed the existence of Seven was because she was protecting him, as he and the other children had been in hiding. But now that Seven was here in Estero, she was thrilled to be reunited with him. She assured the people that the children of the supernatural criminals were only interested in helping Estero become a better place, and that President Fuerte was recklessly endangering their lives with his lies. Magdalia's constituents accepted the explanation. But a persistent group of Fuerte's followers latched on to the fear of a supernatural gang of armed child bandits and was determined to track them down and . . . Well, no one was sure what they planned to do if they managed to catch them.
"There was a group protesting us at the park last week," Seven continued. "I saw them when I was sneaking around searching for Birdie's snake." He'd found it, too, living a nice life in the lush grass near the fountain where Birdie had flown off the police horse and cracked her skull months before. It had been a nerve-racking walk home with a venomous snake-invisible because it touched Seven-slithering between his fingers and around his wrist. "The protesters there were just a bunch of kooky Fuerte followers who hate Magdalia and decided to hate us kids, too, because why not? Fuerte has been telling his base that they need to be cautious and vigilant and watch out for us, as if we're out to hurt everyone."
"Fuerte has been riling them up," said Tenner. "Offering us as targets to go after." His eyes shifted, making his extra-large pupils shimmer when they caught a stream of late-afternoon sunlight coming through the window. "Maybe the protesters decided to wander the streets today instead of staying in the park." He didn't add what they were all worrying about: that one of them had been recognized coming or going. Because it wasn't simply Birdie's forensic sketch out there now. Actual photos of all the kids except Seven had been in the newspapers over the past weeks. The photos had come from video footage taken in the palace dungeon during the surprise attack to rescue The Librarian. In the chaos, nobody had noticed that Fuerte had installed cameras sometime after they'd busted Elena out of there many months earlier. They'd suspected that Fuerte had been anticipating their return, but now they were sure.
"No, Tenner," Brix insisted. "The protesters aren't just wandering-they're stationed here, carrying posters with blown-up photos of our faces on them. As I was about to sneak in through the gate, someone recognized me from the photo, even with me wearing this wig, and almost got me." He caught his breath and tried once more to get them to understand what he was telling them. "They definitely found us. We're not safe here anymore."
Breach
So they tracked you into the monastery?" Seven asked, appalled. "Why did you let them see you enter? What were you doing out there, anyway?"
"Not everyone can be invisible, Seven!" Brix said, his voice pitching higher. "I was just coming home from the library. I needed some information. And I was wearing my wig and sunglasses like I always do, which everyone said would be fine, so I don't see what I did wrong. Besides, they didn't see me come in-I saw them as I was about to come in the main entrance. Someone spotted me, so I stopped and went the other way. I rode around for a bit to throw them off, then came in through the secret alley door. Nobody caught up to me-I was too fast for them on my scooter."
"What makes you so sure they discovered our hiding place, then," Elena asked, "if they didn't see you enter?"
Brix sighed, exasperated. "Because they're at the main entrance trying to break the gate down right now." He was tired of the questioning. Tired of not being taken seriously. After finally proving himself a valuable member of the team-despite being only ten-by figuring out how to save The Librarian and rescue Seven, who'd been left behind, Brix was still having trouble getting the older generation to see that he could be trusted. Even his own mom.
Elena looked like she believed there was a problem now, though. "Well, I'm glad you're safe. Did you tell Amanthi?" She started toward the door at lightning speed. Amanthi, the abbess of Monasterio de Piedra, would want to assemble more monks to help out with an altercation like that.
"She knows," Brix said. "She was by the gate trying to reason with them." He grabbed his wig and pulled it off, leaving his longer waves flopping wildly. "What I'm trying to explain is that people on the outside discovered we were in here sometime before they saw me. They'd already gathered before I came, and maybe seeing me gave them confirmation that it was true."
"But how did they originally discover it?" Lada asked. "Who told them?"
"Maybe someone saw one of us enter," Seven said, realizing Brix's frustration. "Or maybe they saw Magdalia's campaign vehicle come here and figured out why."
"What if Fuerte finally made the connection and tipped them off?" asked Tenner. "He knows from the security footage of the dungeon attack that we're working with Troy. Plus, Fuerte's goons tracked Troy all the way back here when he first left Fuerte's team. It doesn't seem like too much of a stretch that they'd figure out something's going on here."
"And tell some key people so they could cause us lots of trouble," said Brix.
Elena was texting furiously during the conversation. "Okay, I let everyone on the extended team know to be extra cautious coming or going. We'll have to see if this problem goes away or gets worse. If it gets worse . . . Well, we'll deal with that when we come to it." She paused with a worried look on her face. "I hope The Librarian and Birdie and Cabot can get in okay. They can't use the secret door in that huge SUV. The alley isn't wide enough."
"And E-kat," said Lada as Tenner put the cake into the oven. Lada still wasn't ready to call E-kat
"Mom," but they were both enjoying getting to know each other better, and Lada really cared about her.
"I'm not too worried about E-kat getting home," Elena said to reassure Lada. E-kat was an extremely large, superstrong woman who had little to fear, plus her photo wasn't being paraded around on a sign outside. Elena's phone chimed, and she looked down at it. "Birdie says they're driving through the crowd now. The police are out there helping to clear a path. The Librarian sees Collazo trying to push the crowds back."
Viviana Collazo was the police commander who had been blackmailed by Fuerte because her husband and children were supernatural. She and her family were on the side of the good supers, despite the commander having arrested Birdie some time ago.
Another text message chimed on Elena's phone. "Birdie is crouching on the floor of the front seat so nobody can see her. Cabot's doing the same in the back."
Worried, Seven used his stylus to text Amanthi: Do you need any help?
The abbess didn't reply.
Elena zipped outside to see if the vehicle had made it in safely, then returned. "They're inside, and the gate is closed behind them. The protesters were shouting at Collazo for protecting them-they must suspect there are kids in the vehicle."
Moments later, Birdie and Cabot, in disguise, and The Librarian, looking like her usual self, burst into the cottage and set down their packages, recounting the harried scene outside the monastery. Birdie scooped up Puerco, giving him a hug and a kiss between the ears.
Seven listened in but kept glancing at his phone on the table. He texted Amanthi again to let her know the others had made it safely to the cottage. When Amanthi still didn't reply, Seven shoved the phone into his pocket and grabbed his jacket, which disappeared in his hand as he put it on. "I'm going to see what's happening out there." He took off through the sliding door and headed over to the main gate, where a battalion of monks protected it from the protesters outside. Some of these monks had joined in the supers' efforts, coming to occasional meetings, and had signed up to be on the group newsletter that Cabot had started to keep everyone informed. They were special people.
Seven could see the angry crowd through the iron bars. It was much bigger than the group in the park last week, and it seemed like new people were arriving every minute, as if word had gotten out that the criminal supers' kids were definitely here. Seven spotted Amanthi inside the gate, surrounded by a group of unfamiliar monks, and went to check in with her. If needed, the supers would use their abilities to fight off the public, and Seven wanted to make sure Amanthi knew that. But they didn't want to send that message to Estero if they didn't have to. They needed to prove that they were peaceful and only used their powers for the good of the people. Fighting protesters, even ones that threatened the monks, would be a bad look.
He drew near Amanthi and overheard the monks, who were animatedly speaking instead of being silent, talking about what to do. "To be honest, Amanthi, I've had enough of these disruptions," said one monk. "It's been one distraction after another since that team moved in. Do they ever plan to leave? We've been protecting them for months. Perhaps they've worn out their welcome by now . . . Don't you agree?"
Seven stopped in his tracks, and his blood ran cold. Another monk chimed in, backing up the first. "While we understand our mission here at the monastery is to protect those in need," the second monk said, "we've passed the threshold of reason with this group. These protests are only going to grow now that they know the criminals' kids are hiding here. The protesters are loud, and the supers are loud, and we can't really get any studying or meditating done if we're spending our time defending the gate."
When a third monk started detailing all the times the supers had interrupted the silent dormitory with their exclamations during training or conversations on the cottage deck, or by holding meetings in what was supposed to be a quiet space on the lawn, Seven's heart dropped, and his face flushed with shame. He began slinking away. Their group had become a nuisance. And worse, everything the monks were saying was true. The newcomers had slowly claimed the monastery as their own. They'd broken rules and forced poor Amanthi to make exception after exception for them while their numbers continued to grow at a rapid pace. The place had turned from a restful learning and meditation center to a sprawling enclave for bumbling supers who were taking over the dormitory and who kept forgetting to be quiet when they were outside.
And now that their cover was blown, things were going to get exponentially worse. By the time Seven reached the cottage, he knew without a doubt what the group needed to do. When he walked in, he made sure to close the sliding door firmly before speaking. They'd made enough noise on these grounds.
