Chapter 26

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"Kyle!" she exclaimed. The drop was fifteen or twenty feet, but she could jump that far, thanks to her time in the wild. She slid out until she was hanging on the edge with her hands, then pushed off the wall with her legs, hugged Pepper as she fell, landing on her feet with a thud.

"Kyle, you're a genius!" Madelyn exclaimed. Pepper jumped off her and she ran up to Kyle and hugged him.

Kyle was dazed for a second, but hugged her back. "Couldn't just leave you in there," he said bashfully.

"Looks like Karina did her job. I knew she could. Really, she never meant any harm, she did think you were dangerous," Jackson commented. Madelyn rolled her eyes. Karina this, Karina that, at least he's off my case, she thought.

"Ahem," Karina said. Kyle and Madelyn let go and turned away from each other, embarrassed.

"Right. So we need to get back to my Dad," Madelyn said. "Technically, Koil's not allowed to imprison anyone until midnight tonight, when his contract begins, so he's been responding illegally. If I can make sure my Dad finds that out, all this should be fixed. But we have to make sure we tell him before midnight, or Koil might arrest me again, and this time, he might take you guys too."

"He's going to be at the parade in the Presidential Garden," Kyle said.

"That's where Koil is," Madelyn reminded him.

"But of course he's going to be there, the parade is on for him, so there's no avoiding it," Kyle explained. "At Termonian parades, they circle around the center garden; the garden in the middle of the entire Presidential gardens that's about forty feet in diameter. Before it starts, that's where President Wolfe waits. Then, on the third lap, he'll have slipped onto one of the floats and appear on top. Every parade, people place bets on which one he'll be on. He waits in the garden before it starts so that he isn't seen favoring one over another."

"Since when does he do that?" Madelyn asked.

"It's probably one of the things his social secretaries came up with to give him a trademark. He's in the shape to sneak on a float, so they might as well take advantage of that. It's become a tradition. So because of that, the center of the center garden is tall, with trees, and the whole middle garden is thick, so you can't see through it and spot him getting on the float. That means you can be completely hidden when you're in the very center of it. It's impossible to see through it from any angle."

"So that's where he'll be, that's where we need to get to, but we have to sneak past a whole parade?" Madelyn inquired doubtfully.

"If you want to reach him before midnight, then yes. It's already ten thirty. It'll be past eleven by the time we can get to him at least, but he won't join the parade until midnight. So we have at least a half-hour window we can get to the center garden and meet the President."

"Question, how exactly do you plan on passing all the floats? They go agonizingly slow," Jackson said. Everyone looked at him for a second, surprised he had any remote vocabulary. Karina backed away, reproachful. "I mean, they go super slow, like, slower than Kyle on the chin-up bar, man." Karina settled back in, smiling again, once again pleased with her man.

Madelyn rolled her eyes. Karina sighed, lovesick. Kyle said, "We don't know what floats will be there, so we'll have to figure that out when we get there. Everyone good?"

"Karina, if you want to make sure you don't get caught and in trouble, you could stay if you want to," Jackson offered. "I wouldn't want to drag you into anything you don't want to do."

"No, Jack, I'll stay with you. I'm never leaving your side ever again." Something glistened in her eyes, something that had nothing to do with Jackson. Madelyn narrowed her eyes.

"Good, because I would give the world to make sure I never lost you again," Jackson said. They looked at each other all lovesick-puppy-eyed.

"Come on, and you give me grief for hugging Kyle?" Madelyn protested. "We need to get going. Can we take a taxi, bus, or train for that matter, anything that could get us there any sooner?"

"Everyone's at the parade already. It starts in ten minutes, and everyone always comes early to see the floats," Kyle explained. "Karina, do you still have your phone? It's probably the only way we'll find a taxi, and the buses and trains are down for ceremonies."

"No, it fell out the the helicopter when we picked Dad up. They came to get me first, then we stopped by what used to be your..." She knew the subject was touchy, and continued slowly. "...your home. And we got him, but he refused to go back and get it when I'd realized I'd left it behind. He just doesn't care about me." She sniffed dramatically. Jackson gave her a reassuring hug.

"Wonderful," Kyle said sarcastically. "We can't walk there, it's in the middle of town, and we're almost on the edge; we wouldn't arrive till one. When I said we'd get there past eleven, I meant with a taxi. Anybody else got an idea?"

Madelyn glanced down the street to a bike shop. "I've got an idea."


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