Tracy Tam: Santa Command (13 page)

Tracy jumped to her feet. “Are those…?”

“They certainly are,” Chris said. “Are you ready to go for another ride?”

“One second.” She pulled her neck pouch from beneath her shirt and emptied all of the contents onto the ground. Chris raised an eyebrow at some of the things she had collected. She chose not to comment and held the pouch over the magic box. Before she took any, she stopped herself. “Can I have some of this?”

“If that's part of your plan,” Chris said. “But we better hurry. Time is waiting.”

While Tracy filled the bag, Chris harnessed up the reindeer. When the bag was full, Tracy plucked an empty Ziploc bag from her pile on the ground and ran to the sleigh. Within moments, they were soaring over the forest once again.

As they flew, she explained her plan and how she knew it was going to work. After all, she had performed an accidental test of the experiment back in the warehouse. When she had finished, Chris punched a red button on the dashboard. It was small and tucked in a corner, so Tracy hadn't noticed it. A TV screen appeared in the middle of the dash, where before there had been nothing but a red, wooden board. His sleigh wasn't old-fashioned after all.

Mary's face popped onto the screen, and Chris gave her a few directions. Based on the urgent way he spoke to his wife, Tracy knew her plan was going to work.

She bounced up and down in the seat, chanting “Faster! Faster!” under her breath, hoping that would somehow make the reindeer pick up their speed.

They were nearly at the edge of the forest when a cry far below them cut through her thoughts.

“Help!”

Jared

Jared was submerged up to his armpits. After he'd fallen into the river, he'd kicked hard and fast, but his hands slipped right across the ice, and he couldn't pull himself out. The only thing that had kept him from slipping under completely was his grip on a tree branch frozen into the ice.

He didn't know how long he'd been there. It was probably minutes, but it felt like hours. He was so cold. He couldn't feel his legs anymore. His hands were throbbing, and he didn't think he could hold on to the branch much longer.

That was the moment he looked up and saw the sleigh and reindeer flying above him. He didn't know whether they were real or imaginary visions, and he didn't care.

“Help!” he called, but his throat was frozen, and the word was barely a whisper. They couldn't hear him. Soon, they would be too far away. A knot formed inside his chest. This could be his only chance. He cleared his throat, then called out louder. “Help!”

A small face appeared over the edge of the sleigh.

Tracy!

“There!” She pointed down at him. “It's Jared!”

As the reindeer guided the sleigh downward, Jared cried with relief. They came for him. Chris came.

They landed. Tracy immediately popped out of the sleigh and ran for him.

“Hang on,” Chris called to her as he pulled a thick, coiled rope out of the sleigh. He tied one end to a bar on the back of the sleigh and handed the rest to Tracy. “Toss this to him, but don't get too close. We don't want you falling in too.”

“Got it.” She did just as she was told and tossed the rope to Jared when she was about five feet away. It smacked him hard in the face, but he was too relieved to snap at her. He didn't have the voice anyway.

He let go of the log and threw his arms as quickly as he could around the rope. When he did, the coil unraveled, and he slipped under the water.

“No!” he cried, but all that came out of his mouth were bubbles. He kicked furiously as he slid further under. He clamped his mouth shut and pulled on the rope. The rope uncoiled, foot after foot of it slipping through the hole in the ice, like it wasn't attached to anything at all. What good was the rope if it was too long to help him? His lungs burned. Every part of his body hurt. He shut his eyes.
Please let me get out of here. Please. Please let me get out of here.

Suddenly, the rope tightened. He didn't realize he was clutching it to his chest. He held on as his body inched up through the water until finally, he burst through the surface.

He gasped and spit. “Get me! Help!”

Chris guided the reindeer forward as they pulled the sleigh, and the sleigh pulled the rope, and the rope pulled Jared. He held tightly to that rope with one hand and dug his fingers into the ice with the other, scooting himself forward until he was finally out of the river.

As soon as she could, Tracy grabbed his arm and helped him to his feet. Her eyes were as big as lumps of coal, and he could tell she was scared. But nothing could compare to how scared he'd been.

He only stood for a second before he crumpled to his knees. His legs were too frozen to support him.

Chris raced to his side with a large, brown bundle in his arms. It was a blanket, which he wrapped around Jared. The old man was dressed in his Santa outfit again, and he knelt beside Jared on the ground.

Jared let Chris take his hands. Warmth filled the boy instantly, like he was being dipped in a hot bath. It wasn't coming from the blanket, but from Chris. It entered through his palms, snaked up his arms, and filled his body. It wasn't possible, but it was happening, and he was grateful. Within seconds, his clothes were dry, and his bones stopped shivering.

Jared took a few breaths before he said what he had to. “Thank you.”

“You are quite welcome.” Chris let go of Jared and pushed himself to his feet.

“Wait,” Tracy said, like something had just clicked in her mind. “We flew over the forest when you had the ability to simply pop us straight to Alabama. You knew Jared had fallen through the ice.”

“You did?” Jared felt his face heating up just like it had in the kitchen. “Why didn't you come sooner?”

“My dear boy, when will you learn to believe in me? I'll always come for you.”

“But how did you know where he was?” asked Tracy.

“Haven't you heard the song? I know when you're sleeping. I know when you're awake.” Chris tapped the side of his head. “I've got my own personal GPS right here. I knew we'd get there in time.”

“But I didn't,” Jared wailed. “I thought I was…I was going to…”

With his face all scrunched up and tears pooling at the corners of his eyes, Jared didn't feel like the angry kid from before. It had been terrifying, sliding down into that water, not knowing if he was ever going to breathe again. Chris may have known what he was doing, but no one told him.

“Jared,” Tracy said quietly. “I'm glad you're okay.”

Jared swiped his sleeve under his nose and looked at Tracy, like he was seeing her for the first time ever. “Thank you.”

Tracy squirmed a little, tugging at the hem of her Santa coat. “You're welcome.”

Chris cleared his throat, and Jared was glad for the interruption. His face switched from concerned caregiver to man with a mission. “Jared, since you're feeling better, how about I give you a job?” He didn't wait for Jared to answer. He simply turned on his heel and walked toward the sleigh.

Jared stood still for moment, wondering why Chris was in such a hurry.

As the old man hefted himself into the sleigh, Tracy tugged on his sleeve. “Come on!”

The two of them took their places on either side of Chris, and before Jared could ask any questions, the wintery forest had vanished. Chris, Jared, and Tracy, along with the sleigh and all eight reindeer were now sitting on the edge of a forest. On one side of them were bare winter trees, but on the other side was a gigantic, pulsing wall.

Santa Command—Phil's office

December 25
^th

0410 hours

Walt ushered Phil into the office, then slammed the door shut behind them. Phil's framed “Employee of the Year” certificates bounced against the walls.

Phil backed up against his desk. He gripped the edge to hold himself steady.

Walt stood before him, his face glowing Santa suit red. His stubby finger sliced the air between them. “First, you bring the girl here against my orders. Then, you let her get loose. And then…” Walt's face turned a deep shade of purple as he geared up to explode. “And then, you purposely give her access to our computer. She crashes it, and of course you decide to fix it by knocking thirty four million people out of time. And after all that, I still don't think you understand the magnitude of what you've done. If you did, you would have handed in your badge two hours ago.”

Walt paused. His breaths came in short, angry puffs as he stared at Phil's collar.

No, he stared at the ID badge dangling from Phil's collar.

Phil unclipped the badge, which had been a source of pride for him for so long, and with shaky fingers, handed it to his boss. “You know why I brought her here.”

Walt stuffed the badge in his pocket. “And you know why you shouldn't have. I want you out of Santa Command by morning.” He ripped one of Phil's certificates from the wall and threw it to the ground, then stomped out the door.

Shattered glass covered the floor like ice. It was almost pretty except Phil knew that it was a symbol of his failed career.

Phil shrugged sadly. Once the Inklings dusted him, he wouldn't remember the plaques or his job or anything real about the last fifteen years. He'd never spend another Christmas Eve squaring off against the kids, because this year, he'd lost.

Soon people would start waking up. A couple hundred of them would be wondering why Santa hadn't delivered their presents. The rest would be wondering why they couldn't call family in other states. Confusion would soon turn into panic, because for them, the rest of the world would simply disappear like someone took scissors and cut them away. Why hadn't he considered the consequences before he acted? Would
someone
eventually fix it?

Phil wondered if the night could have played out differently. What if he had wiped Tracy when he was supposed to? What if he had put a guard by her window at Santa Command so she couldn't escape? As Phil struggled to think of how he could have fixed the computer without stopping time, a message in red letters appeared across the bottom of his monitor.

Incoming Call. Press enter to accept.

What?

He pressed enter, and Mary's image popped up on the screen. “Good morning. It's been quite a night, hasn't it?”

Phil angled his screen, because he didn't think he was seeing it correctly. “How is this even possible? We're out of sync with you guys.”

Mary smiled like she knew a secret. She'd always been good at keeping them. “You're probably wondering how I'm speaking to you. This is a recording which I uploaded to your main frame, programmed to run on every computer at this exact time.”

Phil sighed miserably. Of course, she and Chris had found a way to scold him. At least, he wouldn't remember it for long. He looked forward to the Inkling dust.

“I know you think I'm probably going to yell,” continued Mary, “but I'm not. This is far more important, and you need to listen to every word.”

Phil sat up. Had they found a solution? He grabbed a pen and notepad.

“The first thing I'm going to give you is a warning, and the second is a request.”

Tracy

Tracy and Jared jumped out of the sleigh, Tracy with her pouch and Jared with the Ziploc bag so the magic was as far away from the plastic as possible. There was no way she would risk an explosion before they were ready.

The wall was even scarier in person. It stretched up as far as she could see, and it hummed, like there was an electrical current flowing through it. Jared reached out to touch it. Tracy grabbed his arm.

“You might not want to do that.”

Why not?” he asked.

“Just a feeling. Here,” she held out her neck pouch, “open your bag.”

He held the gallon bag while Tracy poured the yellow magic into it. The first sparks zoomed around the bottom of the bag, like they were inside a washing machine. They were pretty angry about where they were being placed. Tracy quickly dumped the rest in, not caring that a couple of specs dropped to the ground. She had a feeling this wouldn't take long.

“Now, zip it up.”

His fingers fumbled, and he nearly dropped the bag. “Ow! This stuff is getting hot.”

“Oh, give it to me.” Tracy zipped it up, even though the heat scorched her fingertips. Then, she threw it, hard and fast at the time wall.

The plastic bag stuck to the wall, sparking and hissing like a sparkler on the Fourth of July. Streaks of lightning scattered along the wall's surface away from the bag. That was why she didn't want Jared touching it. If it sizzled a plastic bag, she didn't want to see what it did to a boy.

The bag pulsed as the magic inside it heated up and expanded. The seams of the bag grew tight. The contents inside turned red with fury.

Tracy shouted, “Run!”

Tracy, Jared, and Chris dove for cover behind the sleigh. For extra protection, Chris wiggled his fingers and put up his own wall of magic on the other side of the sleigh, shielding them and the reindeer.

And then the magic exploded.

Jared plugged his ears and closed his eyes, Chris rested on the ground with his back against the sleigh, but Tracy crouched behind the sleigh and watched it all.

Balls of fire rocketed from the bag and punched through the time wall, shattering it into a billion pieces. On the other side, time seemed frozen, but then it popped into fast forward. The fireballs rushed through the forest, ripping it to shreds. Baseball sized rocks hammered their shield. Branches and dry leaves blasted against it. For several long minutes, the shield quivered, but it held.

When it was finally over, Tracy stood up and gasped. The wall was definitely gone, but so was at least three acres of forest. In its place, sat a black, smoking pit.

Jared stood beside her and let out a low whistle.

“Um, maybe I used a little too much magic,” Tracy said.

“You think?”

Chris stood up too, wobbling as he did so.

“Are you okay?” Tracy tucked her hand under his elbow and helped him right himself.