The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages, page 23
Constance looked ready to scream, but she squeezed her lips tightly together, balled her hands into fists, and said nothing.
“Okay, then, what’s plan A?” asked Kate.
Sticky turned to the monitor control board, scanned it, and flipped a switch. One of the monitor displays changed, showing a long, empty dead-end corridor. Sticky pressed a button that zoomed in toward the dead end. High up on the wall, painted the same neutral color as the wall (and therefore difficult to make out), was a small electrical panel.
“The security cameras aren’t the only thing we can control from this room,” Sticky said. “I can also drop the barriers myself. But I can’t drop just one. If I enter the command, there’s a ten-second warning, and then all the barriers fall. Here’s our loophole, though. The barracks entrance—the security door with the barrier over it—is on the other side of the wall with that electrical panel, which just so happens to control the mechanism for that barrier.”
“So we can disable it?” Constance asked.
“Not exactly. The barrier will fall if we try that. But we can rewire it to make it think it’s already fallen. If we do that, it won’t be triggered when McCracken breaks into the facility. We can also use the override codes to get through all the security doors between us and the barracks. The overrides won’t drop the barrier, either—”
“Because it will think it’s already down!” said Constance.
“Right,” Sticky said. “I mean, it would be nice to have that barrier between us and the Ten Men once we get into the barracks, of course, but—”
“We can!” Reynie said. “Listen, after Kate rewires the barrier so it won’t be triggered, the rest of us can figure out the code and use it to open all the security doors except the last one—the one into the barracks. Then we’ll hold the doors open for Kate. There are enough of us, right? If we don’t let the doors close, we won’t have to reenter the codes. Kate rewires the barrier again so that it can be triggered, rejoins us by way of the doors we’re holding open for her, and then, when we use the override code to get through the final security door—”
“That barrier will drop down behind us ten seconds later,” Sticky said. “Yes!”
“Great, let’s make this happen,” Kate said, rubbing her hands together. “George, if you’ll just show me where that electrical panel is, I’ll get going.”
Sticky pulled up a schematic on the computer. “Okay, before you can even reach the corridors, you’re going to have to run up all these ramps to the next level of secret passages, which is right below the old classroom building. Then you have to follow this passage all the way around the perimeter”—Sticky traced his finger around the edges of the computer screen—“until you reach these stairs here. That’s the only way you can get to the corridors where the electrical panel is.”
“Roger that,” Kate said.
Sticky pulled up another schematic, this one showing the classroom building corridors. They resembled an extremely simple maze, rather like a rectangular version of a nautilus shell, with dozens of corridors running parallel to one another. “See this security door here?” he said, pointing at the bottom right of the screen. “Once you’ve rewired the panel, the rest of us can use the override code to get through this door, take this long straight shot, pass through two more security doors near the midway point, and then all the way to the final security door—the entrance to the barracks. But first you’re going to have to go down every single one of the other corridors to get to the electrical panel, which is right here.” He pointed to a spot near the top right of the screen.
Kate whistled. “This is turning into quite a little jaunt!”
“Yes, it adds up to about two and a half kilometers. You won’t have to come all the way back to our starting point, though. Reynie had the right idea, but we’ll actually only have to hold open one door. This one here.” Sticky moved his finger slightly lower on the screen. “See, it’s close to the barracks entrance. That will be your shortcut. Once we open that one for you, you can rewire the panel and meet us there.”
“Perfect,” Kate said. “Now, what should I expect at the electrical panel?”
Sticky pulled up another schematic. “Need me to explain it to you?”
Kate peered intently at the screen. “Nope. This will hardly be the first time I’ve rewired a control mechanism, you know. Easy-peasy.”
During this time, as Sticky and Kate were conferring, Constance had been staring with greater and greater intensity at the display of the barren front plaza. Something wasn’t right, and she suddenly realized what it was. “They’re going to the back door!”
“What? Are you sure?” Kate asked.
“Oh boy, that does make sense,” Reynie said. He quickly switched a monitor to display the interior of the back door, still closed. “It’s out of view of the mainland, after all. I guess they knew about it from their days at the Institute. The question is how they’ll handle it.” He switched to a view the group hadn’t seen yet, that of the cavernous space Kate had jumped into. It truly was amazing, like the interior of the largest cathedral in the world, if only the largest cathedral in the world were ten times as big.
Reynie used the controls to zoom in on one corner of the ceiling, where the metal-cage elevator Kate had described was plainly visible. It looked, bizarrely, like a jail cell attached to the ceiling, with doors that opened on either side. A few meters away from it was the bottom of the duct through which Kate had dropped before deploying her parachute. Reynie felt queasy again just imagining it.
“At least it’s empty for now,” Kate said. She turned to Tai. “Hey, you saw how high up on the wall that electrical panel is, didn’t you? I have the tools I need, but I don’t have a stepladder. Do you have any ideas?”
Tai’s eyes widened. “You need your bucket!”
“Now, that,” said Kate, “is an excellent idea.”
Tai eagerly handed her the bucket, and the sight of her strapping it to her hip with her utility belt was surprisingly comforting to everyone.
“Okay, I’m off!” Kate said, going to the door. She threw it open to reveal a long series of ramps leading up to the higher level. The sight of them gave her an unexpected shiver, for they triggered vivid memories of the way Mr. Curtain had rocketed along in his demonic wheelchair, how very frightening it had been to all of them back then. She turned to her friends and could tell from their faces that they were having the same unpleasant recollections.
“What’s that?” asked Tai, who was looking not at the ramps but at the monitors.
Everyone’s eyes followed his pointing finger. In the opening at the bottom of the duct, something was moving. Reynie checked the controls. The camera couldn’t be zoomed in further, but as it happened, there was no need.
A pale bald head emerged from within the duct. An upside-down face, followed by an upside-down body in an elegant suit. Soon the entire figure of Crawlings, right down to his shiny black shoes, hung suspended beneath the duct, twisting slowly left and right. A line—on the monitor it looked scarcely thicker than a thread—was tied about his ankles; he resembled an elongated spider hanging by a strand of web. As he dangled there over the abyss, Crawlings casually buttoned his suit coat and tucked his tie into it to prevent its falling over his face, which, because of its inverted state, appeared to be frowning.
In fact, Crawlings was smiling.
“What are they going to do?” Constance whispered. “No way they just happened to bring parachutes, right? Will they blast open the door?” She squeezed her eyes closed, trying to search her way to the answer.
“We don’t have much time, Kate,” Reynie said.
“I’m on it,” Kate said, and she was gone.
The others watched as Crawlings made a signal and was drawn upward into the duct again.
“They have a different plan,” Constance murmured, her eyes still closed. “The Listener was afraid of the explosion, but then McCracken said something that made her less afraid.”
“Can you read McCracken’s thoughts?” Reynie asked.
Constance shook her head. “Not from here. If I could see him, maybe, but…” She was silent a moment, then opened her eyes. “Sorry, no.”
“That’s okay,” Reynie said, still looking at the monitor. “I think we have our answer.”
Crawlings was lowering into view again. In his hands was Kate’s crossbow.
“The grappling hook!” Constance cried. “Kate forgot her duffel bag!”
Sure enough, in the next moment Crawlings fired the grappling hook at the bottom of the metal-cage elevator. The security cameras were not wired for sound, so there was no telltale twang or clang, only the unhappy appearance of a taut cable now stretching from Crawlings to the elevator. With an almost careless gesture, he reached up and released his feet, then swung in a graceful arc to the wall beneath the elevator. He began to climb. Smoothly and swiftly he ascended, until he was clinging to the exterior of the elevator cage. He withdrew something from his pocket, a bright red light appeared on the elevator door, and then Crawlings was inside the elevator. A moment later he was out of sight.
“He’s just going to let them in through the door,” Sticky said. “Just like that.”
Reynie switched the monitor to display the interior of the security door. Crawlings stood before it, speaking into a walkie-talkie.
Constance had closed her eyes again, focusing on the Listener. “McCracken’s angry. He didn’t want Crawlings to waste a laser pointer getting into the elevator. Now she’s scared there’s going to be violence.”
“She definitely doesn’t know them well enough yet,” Sticky muttered.
“She’s also not warding me off. She’s scared and confused. Her defenses are down.”
“Why isn’t he opening the door?” Tai asked.
On the monitor, Crawlings checked his watches. He shook his head and crossed his arms. Then he simply stood there.
“They’re worried about the sirens,” Constance said.
“They don’t realize the alarm’s deactivated,” Reynie said.
“Something else, too. They’re setting something up,” Constance said. “She doesn’t quite understand it, but when it’s ready, Crawlings is going to open the door. And they’re going to come after us at top speed. She’s really focusing on it because she’s afraid of what will happen. McCracken is talking about the secondary control room. He’s sure that this is where we’ll be, and he knows the way here.”
“Of course,” Sticky said. “They’ve all been here before, including her.”
Reynie, doing his best to seem calm and unworried, had put an arm around Tai’s shoulders. “It took us a few minutes to get from that door to this room,” he said. “And we were hurrying. But they’ll be much faster than we were.” He considered a moment. “I think once Crawlings lets them in, they’ll be here in two minutes, tops.”
“George,” said Tai, looking very nervous now, “could you please use the computer to drop the barrier thing over the door? Before they get here?”
“I will, Tai, I promise,” Sticky said as calmly as he could. “The trouble is that when I enter the command, the barrier over the barracks entrance will fall, too.” He got out his walkie-talkie. “Kate, what’s your status?”
A few seconds passed before Kate replied, her voice loud and tinny against a background of rapid footsteps. “Believe it or not, I’m just now reaching the level below the corridors. My bucket handle came loose at the top of the ramps, and my bucket went crashing all the way to the bottom again, so I had to go after it. I honestly can’t believe this. Never happened once in my life! Has Tai been fiddling with the screws or something?”
A quick glance at Tai’s face told everyone in the secondary control room that Tai had, indeed, been fiddling with the screws or something.
“It’s okay, Tai,” Reynie said, trying not to panic. He had his own walkie-talkie out now. “Stand by, Kate,” he said. “I mean, keep running, but stand by.”
“Roger that.”
“Okay, let’s think!” Reynie said. “If we have to drop the barriers before Kate rewires the panel, we’re stuck in this section.”
“Crawlings is going to open the door for them in exactly six minutes,” said Constance, who was scowling with her eyes closed. Even as she spoke, they saw Crawlings check his watches again.
Reynie spoke into his walkie-talkie. “We have eight minutes, Kate. Maybe less.”
A pause. Then: “Roger that. I can do this.”
Reynie looked at Sticky, who was shaking his head and murmuring to himself.
“George doesn’t think she can make it!” said Tai in a thin voice.
Sticky met Reynie’s eye. “It’s two and a half kilometers. I don’t know of any official world records for that specific distance, but I know the ones for the two-thousand-meter and three-thousand-meter races, both indoors and outdoors, men’s and women’s—”
“Please hurry,” Reynie prompted.
“Right. Sorry. The best I can do is take a kind of complex average. And that would be about eight minutes, Reynie. But keep in mind those are record times set by world-class athletes, running on tracks with track shoes. Kate’s wearing boots—”
“And carrying a walkie-talkie and a bucket,” said Constance with a look of despair.
“And when she gets there, she has to rewire the panel,” Reynie said.
Sticky shook his head. “She can’t do it. Nobody could. It can’t be done.”
For several seconds, they were all silent.
Tai tugged on Reynie’s hand, and looking up at him with wide eyes, he whispered, “Is there a plan B?”
It took Reynie about three seconds to form a plan B. It was far from a perfect plan, but it was a start. He squeezed Tai’s hand.
“Of course there’s a plan B,” he said. “Here’s what we’ll do: We’re going to solve the riddle for the override code. We’ll give it to Kate and tell her to forget about rewiring the panel. Instead, she’ll take that shortcut George showed her. After she uses the code on the first security door, she’ll have ten seconds to reach the barracks entrance and use the code to get through it, too—which for Kate will be easy. The barrier will fall, but at least she’ll be on the other side.”
“But she doesn’t have the serum!” Constance protested.
“The main control room is in the barracks,” Sticky said quickly. “If Kate can get to that, maybe she can figure out another way in for us. I can help her—we’ll use the walkie-talkies. There’s only so much I can see from this side.”
“But McCracken—”
“We’ll have that barrier between us,” Reynie said, pointing to the gap above the door, “plus the codes to the security doors, which they don’t have. We can get through those doors and—well, that will slow them down, anyway. We’ll avoid them as best we can. In the meantime, we can at least save Kate—and then maybe she can save us.”
Constance glared at him. “Why don’t you say the rest of your plan?” she snapped. “The part where you’re thinking Tai and I can hide and you and Sticky will try to trick McCracken into taking you hostage!”
Reynie closed his eyes. “You really need to stay out of my head, Constance.”
“Also, Reynie’s right,” Sticky said. “Only you can protect Tai if it comes to that, Constance—only you can keep him hidden from the Listener, right? And you could nudge the Ten Men away if they got close.”
Constance turned her glare on Sticky. But then it softened, and her eyes filled with tears. “I know you two just want to protect us, but…” She sniffed and wiped at her eyes.
“We promised to,” Reynie said. “And it would be a way to get the serum to Mr. Benedict, Constance. Mr. Curtain’s instructions called for McCracken to have a couple of us with him. If we can just get there with the serum, we can figure something out.”
“Would that be a plan C?” Tai asked, nervously bouncing on his toes.
“We’re down to five and a half minutes,” Sticky said, with a significant glance at the others.
Constance covered her face with her hands. “You’re still not telling me things!” she growled. “And I’m trying not to look! Okay, okay, fine! Let’s get that code! What’s the riddle, Sticky?”
Tai stopped bouncing. Indeed, everyone held still and looked at Sticky, who wasted not a moment. He began to recite:
“A rose by any other name is still a rose, it’s said.
One’s favorite flower’s much the same, although it isn’t red.
The Institute, now called the KEEP, once had an evil in it.
(One’s secret agents took a peek and saw that in a minute.)
This the Institute once had in common with the flower.
The truth remains: all names contain a clue or hidden power.
One name has changed; it’s still the same; it’s not a place you miss.
Another name, once rearranged, will help you to do this.”
“This is hard!” Tai exclaimed after a short pause. “Can you say it again?”
Sticky recited the riddle once more; then, noting Reynie’s narrowed eyes, he quickly said, “Listen, I’ve spent all day trying not to think about it. I was afraid if I did solve it, certain people might, you know, pick up on the answer.”
“Right!” Reynie said. “Thanks for the reminder. Constance and Tai, I’m sorry, but we need to be extra-careful. Can you two cover your ears and hum songs and think about ridiculous things for a minute?”
Constance scowled at the suggestion, and Tai giggled, but both immediately complied. It was unclear what song Constance chose to hum, for Tai’s rendition of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” was quite loud and enthusiastic.
Sticky stepped close to Reynie and said quietly, “You have it, don’t you?”
Reynie nodded. “The flower is ‘violet.’ Rearranged, it will help us ‘to live.’ I assume the keypads are alphabetical.”
