The Lost Tribes, page 21
Everyone glared at Serise.
“Sorry. I guess my parents thought it would be obvious. Now what do we do?” She began whimpering. “I don’t want to die down here! Let’s go back!”
Ben knew going back was hopeless. They were stuck in the middle of nowhere, swallowed by a portal that was now closed. “I don’t know how to open the gateway from here because I don’t know where we are. Serise, does your watch trick work?”
Serise reset the time. The light shot around the cavern and disappeared to the right of the staircase. The portal, however, did not open. “I guess it’s a one way switch,” she sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“Okay,” Ben said. “Let’s not panic. This stop is obviously supposed to serve a purpose on this underground railroad, so it must be on this thing.” Ben scrolled through the menu and returned to the notation for the museum. It didn’t mention “palindrome” as an option.
“Okay, now we’re stuck.” Ben examined other options. The device listed notations for countries around the world: England, Indonesia, Italy, Tibet and so forth. There were several gateways within the United States, but the only Sunnyslope code lead back to Paradise Circle. Like several others it showed in gray.
Inactive.
Gone.
Destroyed.
Ben scrolled back to “Safe Harbor” which was listed as if it were just another country. When he tapped the screen with his fingernail, a compass appeared in the right corner. Coordinate points appeared to the left.
“Finally, something I understand.”
The black arrow pointed north. A red arrow printed with hieroglyphics and the eye of Ra pointed in the opposite direction toward the right of the stairway.
“It says go southeast.” Ben hoped that he was interpreting the compass correctly. There wasn’t any other option. Going north meant jumping into the abyss.
“Okay, wise guy,” Carlos said. “Any idea which way that is?”
“This way.” Ben wasn’t convinced, but he tried to sound confident. “Follow the light from Serise’s watch.”
“I looked there already. There’s nothing back there but a blank wall,” said Grace.
April and Aris took off ahead of them.
“April! Wait for us.”
April stopped at the opening of a large dark room. “Hey guys! I think we’ve found it!”
“I don’t understand,” Grace said.
“Is this it? Is this the Safe Harbor?” asked April.
Ben’s heart sank as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. “If it is, our situation just got a lot worse.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
When In Rome
To get lost is to learn the way.
African proverb
The beam from Carlos’s flashlight swept across a steel and glass room — parts of it charred as if hit by a tremendous blast. Beefy conduits snaked in and out of the walls. Catwalks criss-crossed overhead finally connecting to circular stairway on the left. A central platform was littered with toppled chairs, dormant consoles, and half-filled cups of unidentifiable liquids. Equipment was strewn across the floor. Metal panels had been torn away, revealing the stone walls behind them.
Acrid smoked burned Ben’s eyes and the scent of ozone and burnt electronics assaulted his nose. Something else lingered in the air — death — but he wasn’t sure how he knew that.
“Looks like it was some kind of spy command post,” Serise said. “With ‘was’ being the operative word.”
“Is this where we are supposed to be?” asked Grace.
“I hope not,” Ben said. “Look at this place. Smells like something died. Like a rat or something.”
He touched the walls. Green slime dripped from the surface. He quickly wiped his hands on his pants. “Dad said to catch a ship. But ugh! Down here? Maybe he meant to say catch the subway.”
Serise frowned. “A subway? In California?”
“Got a better idea? They’ve got a lot of other stuff no one else has. Why not some kind of underground transportation?” Ben pushed controls on the nearest panel to see if he could get anything to work. “Everything’s dead.”
“Really bad choice of words, Ben,” Grace said, frowning.
“What I meant was that we need to find the power source. Carlos, got any batteries in your pack?”
Carlos looked defeated. “No. But we can take them out of the flashlights.”
“Then what will we use for light?” Grace asked. “It’s pitch black in here without them.”
Something skittered away in the dark.
“Was that a rat?” yelped April. “Please tell me that wasn’t a rat!”
Ben swiveled toward the sound, and saw only Aris sniffing in search of a meal. “Everyone stay close, till we get some power going.” He searched for electrical outlets or switches and came up empty. The only other source of light came from the cave.
Carlos tugged on the base of his flashlight. He slid it open to create a lantern.
“Wow, that’s bright!” Ben said, as Grace flicked hers open as well.
“Halogen,” said Carlos. “It gets kind of hot, but it puts out a lot of light.”
“Not enough, said April. “It’s still spooky and smelly down here. Maybe the spies forgot to pay the electric bill.”
“I don’t think the electric company supplies service to secret underground spy hideouts,” Serise said, “otherwise it wouldn’t BE a secret would it?”
“Then what do we do?” asked April.
Serise perched on the edge of a chair. “Guess we get comfortable while we wait for rescue.”
“Comfortable” was nowhere to be found. Grace’s flashlight illuminated a wider section of the room but created shadows that gave Ben the creeps. The cavernous room swallowed every sound. Ben almost craved the companionship of the cave echo.
“Got an ATM card, April?” he asked wearily.
April slumped. “Okay … guess it was a stupid idea.”
Serise whipped a debit card out of her backpack. “I’ve got one. If it will help us get out of this spooky place faster you can max it out!”
Ben noticed everyone looking at him quizzically. He shrugged. “It won’t. So we’re going to have to treat this setback like it’s just part of the game,” Ben said. “I know it will keep me from freaking out. We can set up our own safe house until our parents rescue us. Might as well explore our new digs and figure out why we’re the only ones here.”
Carlos nodded. He set his lantern on the console near the girls, pulled a smaller one from his pack and began searching the room.
Ben opened his pack and retrieved his own flashlight. “There’s got to be a generator somewhere around here. I’ll see if I can find it.”
Something brushed against his neck. He spun around and — seeing nothing — wiped at the spot where the sensation lingered. A single strand of maroon hair clung to his fingertip.
Serise’s hair.
Get a grip, Webster! His jaw clenched. His muscles tensed. This couldn’t possibly be a safe harbor. He entered a corridor on the opposite end of the chamber but didn’t get far. Metal panels and debris formed a cave-in twenty feet ahead.
The same was true for the second corridor; only this one continued at least fifty feet before ending abruptly. No exit. No sign of a dialer or any other “how to get out of Dodge” clues. Doors lined the hallway, all fused shut or locked, each flanked by glass booths — like display cases — only human size. Ben’s reflection startled him. He steadied himself and peered inside the hollow spaces. An odd green ash covered the floors. The foul odor of decay grew more distinct, like rancid meat. The darkness closed in, smothering him. If there had been a confrontation where did the people go? Were these booths for storage? Escape pods? Or was this ash all that was left of the missing people?
Panic overwhelmed him. He rushed back to the control room where Serise, April and Grace were turning knobs, pushing buttons and opening compartments.
Ben froze as footsteps clanged on the metal walkway. He swung his flashlight upward and was relieved to see the familiar shape overhead.
“Carlos? Find anything?”
“Not yet. You?”
“Uh uh.”
Carlos paused on the first level of the catwalk and swung his beam from side to side. Ben joined him, thinking two lights would speed up the search. They peered into a room and found several crates. Carlos opened one and held up a raw potato. Onions, other vegetables and fruit filled the other containers. “At least we won’t starve.”
Ben groaned. Were all spies vegetarian except for the Lopez family? “Let’s find some oil and make french fries. Can we start a camp fire in here?”
“No!” shouted Serise. “No vents. We’d burn off all the remaining oxygen and suffocate.”
Ben leaned over the railing and stared at her.
Serise shrugged. “Girl Scout survival training.”
April frowned. “I signed up for Spring Break. Guess I’m going to miss the class.”
Ben and Carlos tested several doors but found no visible handles.
“Electronic controls,” Ben said.
“Probably,” Carlos mumbled. “No way to activate them without power.” He paused at an open doorway and froze.
Ben rushed to his side, swung a light into the room, then swung it away and slapped his hand over his nose. Something had definitely died in there. The smell was overwhelming.
“We can’t stay here,” he whispered.
“I know.” Carlos’s response was barely audible. “And we can’t let the girls come up here.”
“Right. The smell’s worse up here.”
“No.” Carlos’s voice cracked and lowered even more. “There’s people in there. Or what’s left of them.”
Ben froze. He was tempted to look, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. “You serious?”
Carlos nodded, a pained expression on his face, then turned away from the door.
“Find anything?” yelled April.
“No!” said Ben and Carlos.
“Coast is clear. Everything’s deserted,” Ben continued.
Something dropped on to his hand. He jumped, swatted at it, aimed, then sighed in relief as it fell to the floor. A Daddy long-legged spider. He raised his foot to stomp it out of existence. Carlos caught him and shook his head.
“It’s just trying to find a way out. Like us.”
The creature skittered away in search of its own escape route.
“You’ve never killed a bug?” asked Ben. “Not even a mosquito?”
Carlos shook his head. “Told you. Major disappointment in the Lopez family.” He headed for the staircase, then stopped at the first room. He reached into a crate, pulled out another potato and stared as if it were a work of art. “Help me drag one of these downstairs.”
“Good thinking. We can gather provisions.” Ben tucked his flashlight under his chin and grabbed a handle.
Once on the main floor, Carlos opened a digital console and frowned.
“What ya looking for?” asked April.
“I’ll know when I find it.” Carlos continued his quest, mumbling to himself every time he pried open a cabinet or piece of equipment. He looked as if he were about to give up when he stopped at a storage locker filled with old equipment. He yelped in victory and, with a mighty yank, pulled wires and circuit boards from the back of a rusted black box.
“What are you doing?” asked Ben.
“Going to see if I can get a monitor working. Might tell us something.” Carlos returned to the center of the room and dumped his new treasure on the floor.
Ben was incredulous. “Using what? Potato salad?”
“Yep.” Deep in concentration, Carlos pulled a pocketknife from his backpack and removed the insulation from the ends of the wires.
“You’re serious?”
“Yep.” Carlos pulled out his wallet and dumped change on the floor.
“I don’t think we have to pay for the food,” Ben said.
Carlos ignored him. He was like a man on a mission as he cut the wires into twenty pieces. He slipped one hand into his pack and pulled out a container of paper clips.
“Here,” he said. “Can you guys wrap one end of each wire around a paper clip?”
Everyone looked at Carlos as if he had lost his mind.
“We’re stuck here. Might as well keep busy.”
“Fine.” Ben grabbed a length of wire and looped the bare metal end around a paper clip. Grace and Serise sat cross-legged on the floor and did the same before handing them to Carlos.
“April,” Carlos said. “Count out twenty pennies please. The shiny ones are the best.”
April fished through the pile of coins and pushed her selections across the floor. Carlos, in turn, wrapped the free end of the wires around a penny.
“Now what?” asked Ben. “Make a sculpture?”
“Watch and learn how and why things work on a starship,” Carlos said, quoting a line from a Star Trek movie. “I won the second grade science fair with this experiment.” Carlos cut two parallel slits, in each potato. He lined the potatoes up, side by side.
“Oh! I get it,” Serise said. “You’re making a battery!”
“Yes!” Carlos nodded and seemed a little calmer. “I bet one potato is not enough, so we’ll have to connect them in series. Push one wire and penny into the slit in potato number one. Then put the other end, the one with the paper clip, into potato number two.”
Ben mashed his penny into the potato. The thin wire tip broke off. He cut more insulation from the wire and started over with more success and held it up for all to see. “Got it!”
Carlos seemed pleased. “Grace, April, grab a wire and do the same thing. Make sure each wire is connected to two different potatoes and make sure you don’t connect two pennies or two paper clips in the same potato.”
Everyone assembled potatoes until they ran out of supplies. At each end of the chain one wire remained that hung loose. Carlos removed the penny from the wire in the potato on the right end, and the paper clip from the potato on the left end.
“Very artistic,” Ben said. “But will it work?”
“In theory,” Carlos said. “One or two potatoes can power a digital watch for two weeks. Maybe a bunch of them can power this thing for a few minutes so we can find out what happened or where we are. It shouldn’t require a lot of juice.”
Carlos placed the free ends of the two wires on leads in the back of a console. Nothing happened.
“Oh well,” Ben said. “It was worth a shot.”
“Maybe I have the leads reversed.” Carlos removed the wires, scraped them with his knife and returned them to the console.
Nothing happened.
“We need something smaller.” Serise groped around in the dim light, opening more cabinet doors and searching under the debris. She returned with a handheld device the size of an iPod and connected the leads. It remained dormant.
“Okey dokey,” Serise sighed. “Time for a new plan.”
Carlos looked dejected. “Sorry. I’ll try to fix it but first I’ve got to find a bathroom.”
“You should’ve gone before we left the museum,” Ben growled.
“I didn’t have to go then!” Carlos growled back.
“Well, where are you going to go now?”
“There must be a bathroom around here somewhere. Even spies have to take a leak once in a while.” Carlos poked his head into passageways and other openings in the rock walls.
“Pretend you’re camping,” Ben said. “Go in the cave and pee off the side of the cliff. Who ya gonna hit? The devil? It will evaporate before it hits him in the head.”
“Anyone remember where we parked the cave entrance?” asked Carlos.
Ben took a minute to get his bearings, ran to the spot where they’d first entered the chamber and searched the walls with his flashlight turned to high beam. Like Dr. Hightower’s office in the museum, the opening was gone without a trace. That explained why the light had grown dimmer. Everyone frantically patted the walls. Solid.
“Uh oh,” Ben said. “Maybe now is a good time to panic!”
“What do we do now?” asked April, poking the wall with one finger in search of another magical door. “Are we stuck here?”
Aris walked out of the shadows. Ben swung a flashlight beam into the corner where the cat emerged, then gestured to Carlos.
“You girls stay here,” Ben said. He didn’t get an argument.
He found another corridor hidden in shadows. It curved out of sight for thirty feet. Ben tried to calm his nerves and slow his breathing as he and Carlos inched down the hallway. It ended at a different cave, a narrow ledge, and an endless drop.
“No escape route but at least Aris found us a bathroom. Guess this cliff is as good as any for giving the devil a bath,” Ben said.
“Okay,” Carlos said, clearly in distress. “I’ll just pretend it’s the Grand Canyon.”
The sound of static erupted as Ben returned to the chamber. A faint glimmer danced on the device they’d hooked up to the potato battery. “All right! Maybe it takes a few minutes for the juice to get going. I owe Carlos an apology. We’re cookin’ now!”
The ground shook. The monitor went dark.
“You mean we’re toast,” Grace said, “if we don’t find a way out of here.”
Ben reconnected a wire that had come loose. The screen snapped on displaying video images of an ornate building filled with with Renaissance paintings. He had seen rooms and hallways like these in both the Vatican and British museums.
Data scrolled along the sides in several languages, none of which was English. The video faded in and out as the device drew power from the potatoes.
“It’s some kind of code,” Ben said. “Can’t these secret agents stick to one language?”
Grace studied the patterns on the screen. “One of them is Mandarin.”
Ben tensed. “So what does it say?”
Grace furrowed her brow. “Wait! I think I got part of it. It keeps saying the same thing over and over again. Evacuate outposts. Set auto destruct. Teams ordered to the Harbor.”
