“Is someone there?” The figure crouched down and looked under the desk at them. It was Charlotte. “What are you guys doing?”
“Move,” Brendan groaned. He pushed at the other two, and they all tumbled out.
“What are you doing in here?” Tina asked.
Brendan showed her the key. “Looking for this?”
Charlotte hesitated. “Yes, I was.”
“How did you know where to find it?”
“Same way as you. I searched for it.”
She held a hand out, but Brendan kept the key. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“You can’t keep it. He’ll know you were here, and then we’ll never get inside.”
“Inside his room? We were in there twice. There’s nothing there, and the headmaster is somewhere else. And it’s freezing.”
Charlotte stopped to think. “If you’ve been poking around, we should get out of here. We’re making too much noise, and we can’t speak freely.”
“Fine. You first.”
Once they all left, Brendan put the key back where it belonged.
***
“So, you’re Brendan’s girlfriend,” Lucille said. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
Charlotte said nothing.
Both Tina and Lucille watched her with suspicion as they all headed to one of the girls’ dorms. Tina had suggested it, and the rest agreed, with the reasoning that Charlotte had been spotted by security at the boys’ dorm once already. Brendan texted Vlad and asked for a report, but Vlad’s only reply was “Sec.”
The ground floor of the girls’ dorm was as busy as the both of the boys’ dorms, with every lounge full. TV and music and the buzz of conversation mixed together to almost oppressive levels, making Brendan realize he had a headache. At least the dorm monitor wasn’t the same woman who had confronted him earlier, and she appeared busy enough attempting to keep an eye on a dozen different rooms.
They found a table in an alcove of a rec room near a pair of vacant foosball tables. The sounds from all the lounges echoed about the room as if it were the center of a storm, but despite the throbbing behind his eyes there was a comfort to the anonymity afforded by being in the middle of such a bustling place. Students milled about, coming and going, and paid them no mind. But if security had hidden cameras and was paying attention or had the right software, Charlotte would be spotted eventually. He realized he was the only one displaying any concern for their surroundings. Tina and Lucille were intent on Charlotte.
“Going up to his office like that is a mistake,” Charlotte said.
“Maybe it would help if you told us what you were doing there,” Tina said.
Lucille nodded, apparently satisfied with the challenge and interested in the answer.
Charlotte put her hands on the table and looked at Brendan for support. He offered none. “Fine. You all know something weird is going on. I’ll just spit it out. The headmaster has a door that opens to another place that isn’t here. On the other side of this door, he has machines that allow him to move from that world to this and vice versa. He has a key or a remote or something that allows him to open and close the door, and that’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
“Why?”
“Same reason as you. I know he’s behind what’s going on.”
They all started asking questions at once. Tina won out with the most volume. “Why you? What do you have to do with this?”
Charlotte sighed. “Because the headmaster is from the same place as me, another Earth similar to this one. I got stuck here when his machine turned on. I can’t figure out what he’s doing or why, but at the very least he’s trying to control the bridge between Earths, maybe even open more of them. At first I just wanted to go back, but now I realize he needs to be stopped.”
“This is silly,” Lucille said.
“I agree,” Charlotte said. “If anyone explained it to me, it would be impossible to believe. And I’ll just repeat what I’ve told Brendan: this is all dangerous. The headmaster is dangerous. I don’t want any of you to help, and I don’t expect you to believe me. But he swapped your friend Poser with someone from the other Earth and did it with others as well. And every time he does that, maybe every time he turns on his machine, he’s putting everyone’s life in danger.”
“Like his machine causing a fire?” Lucille asked.
Charlotte shook her head. “What happened to Los Angeles two years ago is his fault.”
They were all silent. Brendan considered what she said and compared it to what he knew. Perhaps some of what she was saying was true. She either believed it or she was a seasoned liar. He kept trying to construct more plausible answers, but none fit. Here was an unlikely answer to a mysterious disaster that had baffled the whole country. He felt he had no choice but to pursue the truth of it, if there was any, even if the idea sounded ridiculous.
Brendan remembered the endless news reports. Some of his friends in New York had family who had died in the mystery catastrophe that had destroyed so much of Los Angeles. It had captured the world’s attention. While the disaster had eased international tension, if only temporarily, the uncertainty of its cause had fueled rabid fears that a similar event could strike the planet at any time and any place. When cooler heads offered scientific hypotheses they did little to balm the world’s newfound fear. And so was spawned the age of hyper-escapism. People with power fantasies made costumes and hit the streets. Men like his father went from petty criminal to supervillain overnight.
But what if they were the only ones with this suspicion about the headmaster?
Finally, Brendan said, “We have to call someone. Let others know. This is too big.”
“And tell them what?” Tina asked. “We have a supervillain who nuked L.A.? And he has an invisible lab in his office?”
“I don’t get it,” Lucille said. “Why would the school headmaster do any of this?”
“That’s what makes it so scary,” Charlotte said. “This was all an accident. His work would never have progressed this far.” She paused. As they waited, she began to tremble and tears started streaming down her cheeks.
Tina put a hand on hers. “Take your time.”
Charlotte was now shaking her head. “I’ve never been able to talk to anyone about this. It was his lab, I snuck in there to read his notes. I just wanted to see what he was doing. But then I noticed he had errors in his math. There were settings on his machine that meant it would never work. And I…I fixed them.”
“So you corrected a few math errors,” Brendan said.
“And the next time he worked on his experiments, the machine turned on and ripped a hole between worlds. That was two years ago.”
“So it was you,” Tina said softly.
“It’s her fault?” Lucille said. “You killed a hundred thousand people?”
Tina shot Lucille a look.
Brendan was confused. “Wait a sec. What were you doing in his lab in the first place?”
Charlotte accepted a tissue from Tina and blew her nose. She sighed. “Sperry Appleton’s my dad. Big reveal, huh?”
“What?” Lucille turned to Brendan. “Why are we talking to her then? She’s with him and they’re responsible for thousands of people dying.”
“I’m trying to stop him,” Charlotte said. “He’s not able to recreate the initial event that connected our worlds. He has one door between Earths that he can use, but he wants to make more. That’s why he needs me. I know what made his experiment work the first time.
“I’ve reached out to him to get him to stop in every way I know how. But he won’t. The only reason he wants me back is so I can do more work on his machine. I need to get back to my Earth and get to his machine before he figures out how to open more doorways without my help. That means figuring out how he controls the machine from this side and taking it from him. He has a key of some kind that I need to find, and I don’t know what it is. That’s why I’ve started sneaking in there, searching his office fo
r whatever it is he uses to open the door. I haven’t found it yet. Seeing you in there surprised me. Did you find something?”
“Don’t tell her anything.”
“Lucille, please stop talking,” Tina said.
“I’m still missing something,” Brendan said. “How is it you’re here, then?”
“The door from my Earth stays open until he closes it. I followed him here without his knowledge to find out what he was up to. From my Earth, it was just turning a machine on and off. But then I discovered what happened here. When I finally tried to return home, the door had closed. I decided I had to stop him.”
“How long ago was this?”
Charlotte shook her head. “Two years ago.”
“You’ve been stuck here two years? How did you live? What are you, fifteen?”
“It’s a long story that we might not have time for. But he’s been looking for me ever since. It was only recently that he realized I’ve been hanging around campus. You need to tell me what you found in his office.”
“Fair enough,” Brendan said. “It’s probably nothing you don’t know about. We can hear a faint hum, and the room is super cold inside. Outside, there’s a big heat signature around the top floor of the admin building. We checked everything, the bookcases and all the objects on his shelves. If there’s a secret door somewhere, we didn’t have enough time to find it.”
Charlotte took a second tissue and dabbed at her face. The tears were done. “The key isn’t going to open a door in that sense. It’s just a place in the room where the machine on the other side has punched a hole. If the door is open, you just have to step through.”
“That’s what happened with the headmaster,” Tina said. “He vanished. We have it on camera.”
“You have cameras in there?”
Lucille gritted her teeth. “Tell her everything, why don’t you?”
“If you have cameras, we can figure this out. We can see what he does to open the door.”
“We have it recorded,” Brendan said. “But we didn’t see him using any kind of key.”
There came a knock on the threshold to the hallway. Henry hissed a warning. Brendan and Tina got up to look.
“Relax,” Lucille said. “It’s not like we’re doing anything wrong, and it’s before curfew.”
But she joined them in peering out into the hallway. Officer Foster was speaking to the dorm monitor. Before Brendan could duck back in, Foster looked straight at him.
“Charlotte, security is coming,” Brendan said.
But when he turned around, Charlotte wasn’t there.
20. The Headmaster
“Where did she go?” Tina asked.
It only took a moment for Brendan to search the rec room and its alcove. There were no open windows and no other exits. She hadn’t slipped past them, hadn’t turned invisible. She had to have something that allowed her to do what her father did without the residual effects they noticed in the office. His mind raced, unable to process it all. What, if anything, had she told them that was true? Was her fancy glove actually some kind of teleporter? He checked the room over once more, not believing that she wasn’t somehow still there.
Lucille snorted. “Figures.”
Officer Foster appeared in the doorway. “Ladies. Mr. Klein, Mr. Garza, may I speak with the two of you outside?”
Henry and Brendan followed the head of security out of the dorm and into the night air. When Tina and Lucille fell in with them, Foster held a hand up. “This will take but a minute. I need them alone.” Tina pulled her tablet out and began frantically texting.
Brendan tensed up. He prepared to bolt. If he had to run, he knew he wouldn’t stop until he left this school and its madness far behind him. They would have to physically force him to return. Whatever crazy plot Charlotte was talking about would have to wait. He’d hitchhike back to New York if he had to. Find his father, confirm his mother was okay, see what was going on in the outside world. Charlotte’s mad-scientist story could only be some bizarre smokescreen for whatever she was up to. There were too many rational explanations that had to be considered before he would believe any of what she had said. She and the headmaster were magicians and Brendan just didn’t yet know how their tricks worked.
And if Officer Foster grabbed him, he would fight. His hands curled into fists.
Foster led them out of earshot from the two girls. Henry just followed along with his usual blank expression.
“Are you boys into some trouble?”
Henry and Brendan looked at each other.
“Did someone report something?” Brendan asked.
“Not at all. But seeing you with Mr. Klein here is certainly interesting. Have we mended fences?”
Henry offered a crooked smile. “We’re friends now.”
Brendan patted Henry on the shoulder and grinned widely.
Foster’s eyes narrowed. “How interesting. Then in the spirit of peaceful relations, is there anything I need to know?”
Brendan shook his head. “Nothing at all. We’re discovering each other’s positive aspects and learning that competition can be constructive rather than destructive. We’ve made a real breakthrough. Henry and I have even found common ground in the sciences.”
“Astronomy,” Henry added, but Brendan nudged the larger boy with an elbow.
“Hmmm.” Foster studied them both. An uncomfortable silence stretched on, feeling like minutes. Brendan knew this cop trick, which parents and savvy teachers had perfected, and wished it didn’t work so well on him. He fought the urge to fill the dead air with nervous chatter that might reveal something.
“Well, you boys will be happy to know we expect outside phone service tomorrow morning and will have all students phone home before or during a light class schedule. We’ll make an announcement tomorrow, but we’re telling a few key students now so the word can get out.”
“That’s great,” Henry said. “I can say aloha to my dad.”
Foster lingered. Brendan didn’t say a word, but he wondered about the notion that he or Henry might be a “key student.”
“Is there anything else you’d like to tell me?” Foster asked.
“Nothing,” Brendan said. “Not a thing.”
“All right. I’ll leave you to it. It’s fifteen minutes before you’ll need to get back to your dorm, so I hope you said your good-nights. You kids need your rest.”
***
Brendan led Henry up to Vlad’s room. Officer Foster had lingered at the girls’ dorm, so they hadn’t said anything to Lucille or Tina before parting. Henry had a lost look on his face. Attempts at small talk failed. Henry spoke when spoken to, but his answers were short, often just an affirmative grunt.
“You’ll see Lucille soon enough, big guy,” Brendan said. Vlad and Soren seemed especially wary of him, but once Henry found a place to stand he was quickly forgotten.
Brendan told them about Charlotte, leaving nothing out. Vlad’s focus was intense as he hung on every word. Soren just looked scared.
“That’s pretty out there,” Vlad said. “Our best way forward would be to shelve anything she’s told us, as we can’t confirm any of it. We haven’t even begun to understand what we’re observing.”
Brendan agreed. “What makes me nervous is that everything we recorded can be easily taken. We can’t upload it anywhere for safekeeping. And nothing would stop Officer Foster from grabbing us, if that’s what he wanted to do.”
“They don’t know what we have. At least the explanation Charlotte gave provides motive for what the headmaster might be up to. And why swap us out with doubles from their world? And the attack on the school? How does that fit in? It’s all too crazy and a bit paranoid.”
“While I’m not about to make the leap to believing anything she’s said, we do know something odd is happening in the admin building and with the headmaster. And I don’t know how to explain Charlotte just vanishing. She was there one moment and the next, gone.”
“Like magic,” H
enry said softly. When they all turned to look at him, he was staring at the darkness outside the window.
“We’ll…put that on the list,” Brendan said.
There was a knock at the door. Vlad motioned for Henry to open it. Charlotte was there, her hoodie pulled up over her head. She slipped inside and closed the door behind her.
“Hi. Sorry about earlier.”
“’Sorry?’” Brendan said. “Where did you go? How did you disappear like that?”
“I slipped out when you weren’t looking.”
He just stared at her, but she didn’t elaborate. “You’re going to have to explain that. You vanished. Did anyone see you come up, or did you turn invisible or just teleport here?”
She shook her head. “I know it’s risky for me to be here. You’ve got a lot to process, and I haven’t given you much to go on for you to trust me. But you mentioned you had cameras in my father’s office. I need to see what you have.”
“Show her.”
Soren played the footage. He looped it a few times and Charlotte studied the screen.
“It’s at that moment he reaches up, and he’s gone,” Brendan said. “Like he touches the air.”
“It’s not air. That’s the machine. You don’t see it because it’s on the other side. With his key, he can turn it on and it opens the door. And now I think I know what the key is.”
She took the tablet and zoomed in on the frozen image of the headmaster. Focused on his hand. “There.” She pointed to the only thing on his hand. His ring.
***
Brendan read and reread the text on his tablet.
“Headmaster’s Office: Please come in at 9 a.m. for interview.”
Supervillain High Page 16