Supervillain High

by Gerhard Gehrke

  Tina asked no questions as he bypassed the science building’s front doors and went straight to the lab window. He had left it unlatched. They climbed inside.

  “What’s the plan?”

  “Well, we’re the A.V. Club, aren’t we? There’s a good chance we don’t find anything. But I’d like to get a few things together that might help us out.”

  He went to Soren’s workbench and opened the project drawer. He collected some of what he had seen Soren working on, including a small camera and transmitter. After opening his own drawer, he paused. Here were all the bits and pieces he had assembled during class. They weren’t assignments, and not much of it had to do with any personal project. This was just what resulted when he had tools and material to keep his hands busy. Much of it held a resemblance to things his father had tinkered with in Brendan’s distant memories, in the days when they were still a family living under one roof. He had enough parts here to build his own drone, as the lab had more than one junked flying toy in its storage.

  “I’m not going to say that looks like a lot of junk, but that looks like a lot of junk.”

  “It is, mostly. But some of this might become handy later if we need to get creative.”

  Brendan began filling his pack. A few times they froze as they heard sounds within the building—a voice, a door closing—but no one came to their lab. He kept stuffing things into his pack until it was overloaded.

  “You’re taking all of it?” Tina asked. “I’m not sure you’re going to make it out the window.”

  He had to push to get the pack through the gap under the window, and then realized how heavy it was once it popped through and almost slipped from his grip. He lowered it to the dirt behind the shrubs. He and Tina followed, dropping down to the dirt and pausing to listen. No shouts of alarm came, but the guards knew about the window. They had to move.

  Tina wore a wide grin.

  “What?” he whispered.

  “I know the world could be ending out there for all we know and that Poser might have had his brain fried by evil teachers, but this is so exciting.”

  Brendan’s heart was pounding, and his breath was coming fast as if he had just been running. “I wish it was just a little less exciting. Let’s go.”

  ***

  As Tina and Henry stayed behind and watched, Brendan and Lucille approached the front of the admin building. Brendan took one last look behind him. The two appeared uncomfortable together and stood at an awkward distance apart.

  “They’ll be fine,” Lucille said.

  “I know,” he whispered.

  “Stop whispering. People will wonder what you’re up to.”

  She set the pace, walking with confidence to the front door as if they had an invitation, and as if the lobby beyond the glass doors wasn’t dark and empty. She didn’t even try the door first. She touched the key card to a flat white keypad that had a single red LED. He felt horribly exposed in the bright exterior lights that shined down on the doorway. The LED turned green, and one of the doors clicked. She entered, with him close behind. He breathed a sigh of relief once they made it to the darkness of the lobby.

  “We should take the stairs,” he said.

  “I don’t do stairs.” She pressed the elevator button, and the elevator door opened. “Are you coming?”

  Once he stepped inside, she pressed the “5” button.

  Top floor. Mysterious heat signatures, here we come.

  ***

  A single desk light illuminated the headmaster’s reception area, leaving much of the waiting area in deep shadows. The twin wooden doors to the headmaster’s office were closed.

  Lucille went straight to them.

  “Wait!” Brendan hissed.

  She tugged at each door and then both together, twisting their handles. They shook but didn’t open. She turned to look at him and he motioned for her to calm down. Both their tablets chimed and they got them out to check. The intraschool text system was working.

  A message from Vlad read, “Guard went past. Checked doors. All OK.”

  Soren messaged next: “Guard coming.” “Getting close.” “I think he sees me.” “OMG he just talked to me. Said something, but left.” “I think we’re busted.” “He’s gone but knows we’re up to something.” “Think I hear another one coming.” “Just students but I think he’s out there watching me.”

  “I’m going to put your friend on ignore,” Lucille said.

  “He’s excitable,” Brendan said. “I’ll have Tina help him.” Brendan sent a message to Tina to check on Soren.

  “k,” Tina texted back.

  Brendan went to the receptionist’s desk. It was a large slab of dark wood, like most of the other staff desks. She had a computer terminal, a few shallow plastic bins for papers, and a phone. Behind the phone were framed pictures of a child and three cats. He picked up the phone receiver and heard a dial tone. When he pressed “9” for an outside line and punched in the numbers for his mother, the phone began to chime and an automated message let him know that the service was out. The staff hadn’t been lying about that. They were still cut off. The phone could still call other phones within the school, but that was no help. He hung up.

  “What are you doing?” Lucille asked. “That’s not helping getting this open.”

  “I had to check.”

  With great care, he looked in and around every item on and near the desk for a key. He removed the pens from a cup and checked it. He looked under the keyboard and around the monitor and under the trays of paper, putting everything back exactly as it was. Lucille just watched.

  “They have a small kitchenette down that way,” he said, pointing. “See if there’s a key.”

  She rolled her eyes but headed off.

  He got down on his knees and tried the drawers. They opened. No keys inside, just office supplies and more papers. He checked under the fabric mat that the chair rolled on, but he imagined a key there might get sucked up when the floors were vacuumed. The janitors did their work during the day. He realized that meant they weren’t trusted to be in the admin building after hours.

  The walls held photos of faculty with students, school credentials, citations of merit, decorative illustrations of pheasants in flight, a small mirror, and a brass bell. He checked the bell. Tucked flush on the top of the arm that held the bell was a key.

  He looked at it for a moment before trying it on the double doors. The lock clicked.

  “Got it,” he said. He sent a text to those watching outside.

  He waited for Lucille. She emerged from the kitchenette sipping on a paper cup. As she got closer, he caught a whiff of something sour.

  “Is that wine?” he asked.

  “Port. I thought I’d try some while I was waiting.” When he didn’t say anything, she added, “Don’t worry, I didn’t leave any traces that I was there and added water to the bottle so it’s at the same level.”

  “Just…don’t spill any, okay?”

  She just made a gesture for him to get on with it. He pushed the door open and walked into the headmaster’s office. Cold air hit him like a wave. He could now see his own breath. He set his pack down and unrolled the sleeves of his shirt. He rubbed at his arms and knew he would be shivering soon. Using the light from his tablet, he walked the length of the room, trying to figure out what was making the room so cold. It felt like a walk-in freezer. He wondered why there wasn’t frost or condensation or icicles on everything.

  “It’s so cold,” Lucille said. “I thought something hot was supposed to be up here.” She hugged herself and didn’t step further inside.

  Brendan found the floor vents. When he put his hand to them, he detected no air flowing. Wherever the cold was coming from, it wasn’t from the central air system. He checked the bookcases and walls but saw nothing he hadn’t seen during the day. The headmaster’s own goliath desk had little on it but a computer. He turned it on.

  The opening screen asked for a password and another box asked for
an authenticator to be plugged in.

  “Can you hack it?” Lucille asked.

  He shook his head. “I don’t think it’s possible. He has a password and an authentication key. We’d need both just to get on, and even if we did I wouldn’t know what to look for. I doubt he has a file labeled ‘Secret Plans to Take Over World.’”

  Lucille just nodded. Her jaw was trembling.

  Brendan turned the computer off. He went to his pack and began to rummage through it.

  “What do you want me to do?” Lucille asked.

  “Go keep an eye on the elevator. It’s warmer there.”

  She looked over her shoulder. He could tell she wanted to do just that. Her clothes were not made to provide warmth. But she took another sip from her cup and watched him work.

  He removed a pair of remote cameras and connected them to batteries. Each device was small and had no external light that could be seen. He placed the cameras on two high shelves. After a few adjustments for angle, he was satisfied they would see everything without being easily noticed. He grabbed his pack and went back to the outer office, where the warm air felt hot in contrast.

  He texted Soren and Tina. “Cameras are on. Soren, can you receive their signal?”

  After a moment, Soren replied. “Yup.” “Signal strong.” “Room dark.” “Nothing happening.” “Am watching and recording.” “Tina’s here.” “She’s watching too.”

  He put the tablet away as more messages paraded down his screen.

  “I think that’s all we can do for now,” Brendan said. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Lucille closed the double doors. They checked everything before leaving: secretary’s chair pushed in, rug flat, desk undisturbed. Brendan put the key back. It all appeared as it had before, as far as he could tell.

  “So, what’s the rest of that stuff?” Lucille asked, nodding towards his swollen backpack.

  “That’s extra credit work I’ll use in case we don’t find anything here.”

  She didn’t press the subject, and he didn’t explain any further. They rode the elevator down in silence.

  ***

  Soren wasn’t saying anything. He kept his face close to his tablet. The rest could only wait as he reviewed the day’s footage. As far as Brendan could tell the cameras had performed well and hadn’t been discovered.

  The A.V. Club had commandeered one of the lounges in Brendan’s dorm and put a physics lecture from the school catalog on the TV so no one else would join them. Henry leaned on the wall by the entrance and read on his tablet. At first Brendan thought he was only pretending to read, but he had a genuinely creased brow and he swiped at regular intervals, occasionally backtracking to reread a page. When Brendan asked what he was studying he ignored him.

  “Okay,” Soren finally said. “I’ve bookmarked every moment the headmaster is in his room.”

  They crowded around the couch where he sat. When Lucille squeezed close, Soren shifted nervously until Tina nudged Lucille to get her to back off.

  “It’s super boring,” Soren said. “He sits a lot. And then he gets up and paces when he’s on the phone.”

  The footage on the tablet’s split screen showed the headmaster doing just as Soren had said. The man sat, rose, paced, repeated. Soren had the feed playing back at an accelerated rate. The secretary came in a few times, as did several students. When consulting with a student, he rounded the desk and leaned against it. Soren navigated past the periods when the headmaster left the office.

  “He doesn’t look cold,” Tina said. “Maybe it wasn’t as cold as you said.”

  “It was freezing last night,” Brendan said. “I’ve been in his office before, and it was nothing like what we felt. Whatever goes on in that room happens later, after office hours. Where the cold or the external heat comes from is a mystery.”

  Vlad had Soren slow down and repeat certain parts of the footage, but the headmaster’s tiny breaks from his usual movements never amounted to anything. Mail arrived. He had an afternoon cup of tea. He spoke with the secretary a few times.

  The time stamp at the bottom of the screen showed it was past seven. There were only a couple more hours left before they would be caught up and have nothing to show for their previous night’s activities. Brendan checked his tablet’s clock: 9:07 p.m.

  On the screen, the secretary had left. The headmaster was at his terminal, and he switched it off and stood up. He paced a bit behind his desk and then was gone.

  “Is that him leaving?” Vlad asked.

  “Don’t know,” Soren said. “We don’t have a camera outside his office. I guess he was finished for the day.”

  “Go back,” Brendan said.

  Soren slid the play marker back and the scene repeated. The headmaster rose from his desk. Paced at his bookcase. Vanished.

  “What the heck just happened?” Tina asked. “Slow it down, and play it again. Can you do slo-mo?”

  Soren made the change and rewound. At half speed, they all watched the headmaster walk next to his bookcase, raise a hand to face level, and then disappear.

  19. The Break-In, Take Two

  “No. Way,” Tina said.

  “I didn’t know they taught magic here,” Lucille said.

  “No, we missed something,” Vlad said. “Play it back.”

  Soren replayed it again. And again. And again.

  “We aren’t missing anything,” Brendan said. “I looked at that part of his bookshelf. All the books are real. None of them triggers a trapdoor or anything.”

  “We need more data,” Tina said. “We aren’t watching from the rooftop at the same time. We don’t know when he left last night. And who knows if he ever leaves? Maybe he was in his secret room while you were up there. Let’s post people at all the entrances and find out.”

  “We don’t have the manpower. And getting more students involved will only put more people at risk.”

  Soren put the tablet down. “Maybe this is something we’re just not supposed to know. Like maybe Paul and Poser found out the answer, and it drove them crazy.” When he saw Lucille’s irritated expression, he added, “Sorry.”

  “Look,” Lucille said. “You guys are smart. He’s not a magician. There’s something in that icebox of a room that we just don’t understand.”

  Brendan nodded. “But I also can’t get over the feeling that we don’t have much time until something happens to one of us. Maybe Soren’s right. Maybe we need to disengage and quit. But I’m not going to.”

  There was a murmur of agreements.

  “But before we all jump on the bandwagon, think on it. Because I want to head up there now. I should get the card.”

  He held his hand out to Lucille. She offered him a wry smile, showed him the key card, and then tucked it away.

  “I am not staying behind this time,” Tina said.

  “Soren and I will watch the front of the building, I guess,” Vlad said.

  “I have another suggestion,” Brendan said. “Go up to the roof and get on the infrared scope. Then tell me what you see. We’ll get ready to go in once you’re all set.”

  ***

  “Heat sig is there again,” Vlad texted. “Be careful.”

  They had to wait on Lucille. When she showed up with a fur-lined parka, Tina and Brendan said nothing. From the previous night’s observations, security appeared to prefer the side walkways of the building and rarely came around the front except for the door checks.

  They entered without incident. Once up the elevator, they spent several minutes listening at the doors to the headmaster’s office.

  “No change,” Vlad texted.

  “Roger that. Heading in,” Brendan replied. He opened the door with the hidden key. Tina waved her hand in the air by the doorway and exhaled a long plume of white.

  “It’s freezing,” she whispered.

  The three of them went to the bookcase behind the headmaster’s desk. It looked the same as it had before, with nothing out of place. Starting at the to
p, Brendan moved each item before putting it back. Each book and fancy knick-knack was as it seemed. Lucille tapped at the floor with her shoe. Tina began doing the same, pushing with her heel along each inch where the headmaster had been pacing.

  “Open sesame,” Tina said as she went. “Zim-zim-ala-bim. Friend.”

  Lucille mouthed, “What?”

  “Tolkien.”

  Lucille just shook her head and continued to explore her area of the floor.

  Tina was about to say something when Brendan shushed her. He put a hand to an ear. At the edges of his perception he heard a faint hum that reminded him of a clothes dryer. It sounded close. He felt the sound in the pit of his stomach. But where was it coming from?

  Both girls got close to the bookshelf, heads tilted. Lucille stared at the wall behind a porcelain panther. She knocked. Tina slapped her arm and Brendan put a finger to his lips. The hum continued without change.

  Brendan sent a text to Soren. His cold fingers made using the touch screen a challenge. “Can you see where we’re standing?”

  “No,” came the reply. Then: “We could move.” “Thinking about it, still too far down.” “Won’t work.” “Sorry.” “Us come to u?”

  “No,” Brendan texted. “Wait.”

  Tina climbed up onto the headmaster’s desk. She got on her toes and looked around the room, then shook her head and shrugged. “Nothing from up here.” Her entire body was shivering as she got down.

  “This is too weird,” Lucille said.

  “Let’s go,” Brendan said. “We’re still missing something.”

  Brendan had closed the double doors behind them when he heard the slow double click of the stairway door out in the hallway.

  “Hide,” he hissed.

  They crowded under the desk. Soft footsteps approached. Brendan pulled himself in as tightly as possible, with both Tina and Lucille’s elbows and knees digging into his stomach, ear, and more tender parts. Whoever it was went straight to the bell where the key had been hidden. Brendan could make out white sneakers and sweatpants.