Codename Zero

by Chris Rylander

  So we hopped on our bikes and headed out, just the three of us. I rode my bike, and Dillon and Danielle shared Olek’s bike.

  Once there, we paid the admission at the circus main gates and went inside. The circus in our town was more like a circus–fair hybrid. There was still a giant tent where there were shows every four hours on the weekends consisting of elephants and trapeze artists and all that stuff. But there was also a whole other section with a few carnival games and rides and a freak show and a fun house.

  “So where do you suppose the actual headquarters for this evil organization is at?” I asked once we were inside.

  “It’s in a small gray building behind the fun house,” Dillon said.

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  He nodded as if I’d asked the most obvious question possible.

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because I saw suspicious-looking guys going in and out of that building when I came here to investigate last week.”

  “You came out here investigating last week?”

  “What? You think that just because you never come with me that I don’t still check things out? The world doesn’t revolve around you, you know? I don’t need your approval to believe in my theories.”

  His words stung, but only because they were so true. Was I really all that great of a friend to Dillon? I mean, hadn’t I really just been using him for my own enjoyment all these years? I realized how selfish I’d been all this time, never truly considering that he actually took his theories seriously. And it hurt even worse now that I was starting to realize he’d probably been right about more of them than I ever would have guessed.

  “You’re right. But I’m here now, and I believe you. So how do we get into this building?”

  “The only way to get in is through a secret entrance in the fun house mirror room,” he said.

  “How could you possibly know that?” I asked.

  “Pfft,” he said. “Because I know. It’s kind of obvious, if you think about it.”

  I didn’t know how that made any sense, but as usual with Dillon it was best to not try to make sense of the way his mind worked. Besides, after how badly his words a second ago had cut through me with their brutally sharp honesty, I wasn’t about to start arguing with him about his theories again. At least not so soon.

  “But that’s definitely the headquarters?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I know it is,” Dillon said.

  “Well, let’s go, then.”

  “Is this really such a good idea, guys?” Danielle spoke up.

  She had come along because I imagine she thought this all might be kind of fun. But now she looked really worried, as if there was a chance she thought Dillon might be right as well. Because if he was right, then she’d know like I did that this was no game.

  “Isn’t this kind of dangerous? I mean, what are you planning to do if we do break in and you’re right?” she added.

  “We’ll take them down, of course,” I said.

  Which was sort of true, but really my primary directive was what it had been from the beginning: to find Olek and keep him safe. That’s all I was really focused on at the moment.

  Dillon nodded, and so, with a sigh, Danielle relented. We all headed to the fun house. Once we got to the hall of mirrors, we stopped and Dillon looked at me.

  “Well?” I said.

  He looked unsure of himself for the first time. Then he started inspecting the various mirrors, his distorted concentration reflected all around me. I watched him with interest, wondering if this was really going to go anywhere.

  There was a nondescript gray building behind the fun house. We’d all seen it as we approached. So he was right about that, at least. But it looked to me like it was probably just a maintenance or utility building. The only thing that kept me from abandoning the plan was my pure desperation to save Olek.

  “It should be here somewhere,” he muttered.

  “You don’t really know if there’s a secret entrance, do you?” I asked, too anxious to keep waiting.

  He sighed and shook his head. “No, but I really do think that building is where all the evil plots go down, because of what I saw the first time I came here.”

  Danielle nodded. “You know, I came with him that time, and even I have to admit, now that I think back, there was something kind of sinister about the guys going in and out of the building that day. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but . . .”

  That sealed it. Danielle had never once agreed with her brother. It must be the right building. Which meant we had to find a way in.

  “Wait,” I said. “If you saw them come out, then that means the building has its own door?”

  “Well, yeah, duh,” Dillon said. “I just assumed it was locked and that there had to be a secret entrance somewhere.”

  I rolled my eyes, and wanted to laugh even in spite of the situation. But I didn’t. I couldn’t even smile until I found Olek, let alone laugh. Time was ticking away. I kept forcing myself not to think about the possibility that it might already be too late. And also the scary fact that I’d pressed the red button on my transponder almost an hour ago and still hadn’t heard from the Agency at all. What did that mean? I forced myself to forget all that. Now was a time for action.

  “Come on, let’s go,” I said.

  We left the fun house and circled around to the back. There was a chain-link fence that blocked us from actually getting to the building behind the fun house. I mean, we could easily climb it, but there were several guys milling around near the building’s front entrance. They would definitely hear and see three kids climbing the fence.

  Not only that, but then there was the problem of how to get past those guys and into the building even if they didn’t catch us climbing the fence. And suddenly I realized that I shouldn’t be thinking in terms of “we” anymore. There was no way I could let Dillon and Danielle come inside with me. Not with how dangerous I knew this would be.

  “We need to create a diversion of some kind,” I said. “So I can get in there.”

  “Why are you getting so gung-ho about this?” Danielle asked.

  “Because, what if Dillon were actually right for once? I mean, we need to stop these guys!” I said. “I’ll check it out, but I still need your help.”

  “Why don’t we just call the cops?” Danielle said.

  “No way!” Dillon said. “The cops are in on it!”

  “I agree with Dillon,” I said.

  “What?!” Danielle said.

  “I mean, not about the cops being in on it, but do you really want to call the cops with no proof whatsoever? What do we tell them, that our crazy friend has this theory that the circus is a front to an evil organization with aspirations of world domination? They won’t even hesitate before hanging up on us, let alone send out any uniforms to investigate.”

  “Good point,” Danielle ceded. “Plus, this will be more fun, right?”

  That was the thing about good pranksters. We all knew how to put aside danger for the excitement of creating mayhem. Of course, now the mayhem actually served a purpose. So it was more of a distraction than a prank.

  “The question is, how do we create a diversion big enough to get all of these guys away from the building?” I asked.

  We all pondered this for a bit. An elephant roared somewhere in the distance behind us. Then Danielle smiled.

  “I got it!” she said. “Remember a few weeks ago? The goats? Nothing can clear an area better than herds of animals.”

  CHAPTER 37

  WE WENT BACK TO THE MAIN CIRCUS TENT AND THEN WALKED around behind it. There was a high fence running out of the sides. The fence was lined with green tarp, but through a few holes, I could see rows of animal cages and trailers. Some large and some small. But I didn’t even need to see it, because I could definitely smell it. There were also some trailers for people as well, which I assumed were for some of the performers.

  On Thursday they only did one main circus sh
ow at night, which didn’t start for at least an hour. That was likely about as good as we could ask for since it meant there probably weren’t too many performers back there getting ready yet.

  We followed the fence back to the far corner. The only other things in that area were a few port-a-potties, an old maintenance shed, and a bunch of garbage bags waiting for pickup.

  “Do we just climb it?” Dillon asked, looking up at the top of the high fence. It was at least nine feet tall.

  “I’m going to climb it,” I said. “You guys head back to the fence’s gate and wait there. Once I’m in, I’ll come let you in and then we can get to work.”

  They nodded and helped boost me up to the top of the fence. I dropped down on the other side. It was a lot higher than I figured, because when I landed, my ankle rolled. I grabbed it and curled up, doing everything in my power not to yell out in pain.

  “Carson, are you okay?” Danielle whispered from the other side.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Go,” I whispered back.

  I looked around. There were no people in sight at the moment. There were, however, two cages containing several huge tigers. They stood, like statues, and stared at me with a look of hungry curiosity.

  I also saw a few massive pens that I could only guess must house the elephants.

  Then I heard a voice. I crawled desperately behind a large garbage can that was clearly used for animal poop, trying not to gag as I crouched among the spill off. I covered my nose with my shirt, but it didn’t help.

  “Hey, Tigress, what’s up?” the voice said. “What do you see? Huh? What about you, Dan, you see something, too?”

  Who names one tiger Tigress and the other one Dan? But I pushed the question aside, because it didn’t matter right then. I peeked out from behind the trash can and saw a guy wearing jeans and a flannel shirt standing by the tiger cages.

  There was a giant ring of keys looped to his belt. It was like a gift from the circus gods. I said my thanks and then tested my ankle. It was sore and already swelling, but I had so much adrenaline pumping through my body that I barely felt any pain. Although I knew that by tonight it would be impossible to even walk on it.

  I dug out the tranquilizer pen from my bag as quietly as possible and then crawled out from behind the poop can and worked my way toward the trainer. He was facing away from me. I readied the pen. The tigers saw me and tensed.

  “What’s the matter?” the trainer asked them again as if he actually expected an answer.

  I was six feet away now and one of the tigers started making a low, guttural, and menacing noise. It wasn’t really a growl so much as it was a promise to eat me. The trainer, realizing something had caught their attention, whirled around.

  “Hey” is all he managed to say before I jabbed the pen into his thigh and released the toxin. He stumbled back and slumped against one of the tiger cages.

  The tiger started toward him. I saw where this was going and didn’t like it. I hurried over and grabbed his shirt and pulled him away before the tiger could turn him into dinner. I wasn’t strong enough to drag him, but I was able to get him to slump forward, just out of the tiger’s reach.

  I reached down and unhooked his huge key ring. I’d been planning to let out all the animals, but upon seeing the tigers’ hungry faces up close, I decided that might not be the smartest thing to do. So instead, I stayed low and made my way over to the fence’s gate.

  After trying a dozen keys, I found the one that opened the lock. Dillon and Danielle were waiting outside just like we planned. I handed her the key ring.

  “I’m going to make my way back over to the building,” I said. “The window of opportunity to sneak in might be small, even with this big of a diversion, so someone should be there, ready to get in.”

  “You’re gonna go in alone?” Dillon asked.

  “No sense in all of us risking it,” I said. “One person can sneak in way easier than three.”

  “He’s got a point,” Danielle said.

  “After you let out the elephants and horses and all of the non-carnivorous animals, just run. Head to the bike rack out by the front entrance and lie low. If I don’t meet you back there in one hour, then get on the bikes and take off.”

  “What’s going on?” asked Dillon. “You know more about this than you said, don’t you?”

  Normally, this kind of accusation from Dillon would be met with eye-rolling and groans. But this time, he was right.

  “Look, I can’t explain everything right now,” I said. “But . . . I think Olek might be in trouble. He told me once that he had gotten into some trouble with the circus. At the time, I had no idea what he meant, but now it all makes sense. He went missing last night, and I think he’s here somewhere. Promise me that if I don’t show up in an hour, you’ll just get out of here.”

  Dillon and Danielle gaped at me with blank stares.

  “Please say you’ll follow those instructions,” I said. “Please!”

  They both nodded slowly in unison. It was rare moments like this when I remembered that they were twins.

  “Good. Thank you. Now go let loose some animals. Let’s wreak some havoc on this place.”

  They nodded again and started toward the elephant pens as I turned to exit through the open gate. But then Danielle called out to me.

  “Wait, Carson,” she said.

  I turned back.

  “Good luck,” she said. “And please be careful.”

  “You, too,” I said back.

  For the first time in history, we would be pulling a prank together and likely not have a whole lot of fun doing so. But at the same time, I had to admit that it was too bad we weren’t at school; this would have been the greatest prank in school history. The look on Gomez’s face alone would have been worth the likely expulsion.

  CHAPTER 38

  THE SCREAMING STARTED JUST A FEW MINUTES AFTER I’D exited through the gate. By that time I was already halfway back to the fun house, even with my swollen and stiff ankle. I stopped to rest it for a second and looked behind me.

  There were animals everywhere. Some were calmly sitting around, eating grass. But others were wreaking havoc. One elephant had already tipped over a small food stand. Monkeys were bouncing around and screeching and throwing stuff. It was pretty awesome. I just hoped nobody ended up getting hurt.

  As I got back to the fun house, I saw men in uniforms and employees running by me, heading toward the growing chaos without even giving me a second glance. I was as good as invisible among the growing crowd of people running away from the circus tent and the few employees running toward it.

  By the time I’d used the key grappling hook to scale the fence separating the fairgrounds from the gray building and lower myself slowly down the other side, the area was nearly deserted. I ducked behind some Dumpsters just across from the building. I only saw one door, and it appeared to have an electronic lock. Which meant that some sort of keycard would be needed to get inside.

  I dug the Agency transponder from my bag and pressed the red button again. Then I hid it under the Dumpster. If I got captured, I didn’t want the enemy to find it. But I still had some hope that the Agency would eventually respond and that it would lead them here.

  As I crouched there and watched the building, I reloaded my tranquilizer pen. At one point the door opened and some guy dressed as a clown came rushing out. Probably an armed clown. He dashed off toward the circus tent. I guessed with a mess this big they needed as much help as possible.

  After he ran off, I sprinted as fast as I could with my bad ankle across the pavement toward the building and put my back to the wall right outside the door, behind the hinges, so the door would hide me from view when it opened again. I figured I wouldn’t have to wait long. Even from here, I could see a huge elephant charging across the fairgrounds, a massive banner dragging behind him.

  A few minutes later, a guy wearing a security shirt came bursting out and started toward the big tent area. He didn’t even make it thr
ee steps before I’d jammed the pen into his back. After he fell, I grabbed his security card and used it to enter the gray building. Once inside, it took me a moment to remember to breathe. My heart pounded so hard in my chest, I felt like I might start choking on it.

  After taking a few deep breaths to calm myself, I realized I was looking down a long, brightly lit hallway, not unlike the hallways at my school. But I didn’t waste any more time taking it all in.

  I fired several smokescreens into the hallway. In a matter of seconds the whole place was clouded in a gray haze. I stayed low and against the wall as I worked my way from door to door, coming out of my crouch only long enough to look inside the window on each door.

  Most of the rooms were empty. I imagined most of the employees were out trying to help contain animals. The circus was a good front for an enemy spy cell in that nobody would ever suspect it. Well, nobody except for Dillon. But its one major flaw was that there was a lot that came with running a circus.

  As the smoke started dissipating, I fired several more smokescreens down the hallway in front of me. So far, I had yet to see another person in the building, but it was better safe than sorry. After maybe twenty rooms and two full hallways, I finally found what I was looking for.

  I knew it as soon as I saw it. It was a door without a window. The only one I’d come across so far. I held up the keycard to the reader, but the light on the lock stayed red. I tried it again and this time it beeped at me but still didn’t open.

  So I reached into my pocket and took out a fruit roll-up. After unwrapping it, I stuffed it inside the door frame by the lock. The soft gooey fruit roll-up explosive squeezed in pretty nicely. Then I found the paper detonator. I moved down the hall a few feet and pressed down on the microchip.