How Zoe Made Her Dreams (Mostly) Come Tr - By Sarah Strohmeyer Page 0,73

got my ID, and placed it in her hand along with the master key and iPhone. “That’s it. Can I go?”

“Hmm.” The Queen set aside my ID and master key, but, as I’d feared, she searched my phone.

“I thought so.” She frowned and flipped the phone around to show me RJ’s number. “Do you know what this is?”

“It’s RJ’s number. On speed dial.” I mean, really, what did I have to lose? I was already history.

“What’s RJ doing with a cell phone?”

I was tempted to tell her the truth. But then I realized that RJ was acting with good intentions. He was trying to save the Pinelands and the endangered amphibians and the spike-nosed whatnot, so I wasn’t about to turn him in for that. No reason both of us had to lose our jobs.

“I have no idea, ma’am. But I can assure you that I never called him.” Or gave him the progress report.

“Then I will simply ask him himself.”

I braced for the worst as she pressed his number and put the phone to her ear. “No, RJ,” she snapped. “This is not Zoe. This is your boss.”

Crap!

There was some frantic mumbling on his end. The Queen straightened her posture, clearly not buying whatever excuse he’d invented.

“You have precisely five minutes to be out of bed and presentable,” she said. “A security patrol officer will escort you to my office, where I will hold an official inquiry. Don’t be tardy.”

Oh, god. This was going to be bad.

She slid the phone to Off and then unhooked the radio from her belt, the radio she used only to call the trolls. Speaking into it, she said, “I need you to bring RJ to my office posthaste. Also secure the perimeter and make sure no one exits or egresses until I give the command.”

Lifting her finger from the button of the radio, she turned to me with a sly smile. “Very good, Zoe. You have managed to trap our spy.”

Spy?

But Ian had been the spy—or, to be more accurate, the one who’d been crossing into the Forbidden Zone—and before that, Marcus.

Poor, innocent Marcus.

I rushed to keep up with her as the Queen sailed down the hall to her office, brimming with power. Two trolls on alert outside her door parted to let her in. The door slid open, and there, chilling with Andy over a couple of cups of coffee, was RJ wearing a huge grin.

The door slid closed, and the three of them erupted into enthusiastic applause.

“Brilliant!” The Queen clapped madly. “Simply brilliant, Zoe. With that kind of Wow! spirit, I knew you’d win.”

“What?” I said. “What did I win?”

The Queen placed her skeletal fingers on my shoulder and pushed me into a chair. “Why, the Dream and Do, my dear.”

But . . . but that was impossible. I was supposed to be on the bus back to Bridgewater in just a few hours. I’d been fired!

Andy raised his hand. “I’ll confess. I didn’t think she could do it.”

“I know, right?” RJ chimed in. “When I was laying it on her, I kept thinking this is crazy. It’s too much. How’s this girl expected to turn down fifty grand and a chance to save the environment?”

“The spike-nosed hornbeam turtle.” The Queen erupted into a full-throated laugh, even pinching her nose to stop. “I mean, honestly, RJ. Where did you come up with that?”

RJ threw up his hands. “Beats me. Discovery Channel? I dunno.”

I had no idea what was going on. Had my firing and RJ’s bribe been lies? Or was this more of their cruelty?

“Wait,” I said. “Is Fairyland building another theme park or not?”

The Queen dabbed her eyes with a doily. “Oh, there was a PUD:1,001 once upon a time. But that project was jettisoned years ago for environmental reasons. Since then we’ve been using those files for the Final Exam, which you passed with flying colors when you decided against giving RJ the progress report. Brava!”

I glanced from RJ to the Queen to Andy, who was busily helping himself to coffee and breakfast laid out on the side table. “In other words sending me to get the PUD:1,001 report had been a setup.”

The Queen said, “We prefer to think of it as a test.”

“A test?” None of this was rational. “What for?”

“To win the Dream and Do, silly.” Andy shook his head. “Seriously, Zoe, are you just caffeine-deprived? You took the test. You passed. And now you’ll win the Dream and Do. In other words you are now twenty-five