Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab

by Bob Pflugfelder

“And a trip to a store,” Nick said. “We’re out of Mentos.”

  “Mentos?” DeMarco said.

  “Sure. Let me show you.”

  Tesla picked up the notebook they’d been writing their plan in and began drawing a diagram of the mint-and-cola-powered RoboSquirrel. Silas stopped her after she’d reached step five of the construction process.

  “Here,” he said, taking the pen and paper from her, “let me sketch out my idea.”

  Nick nodded, impressed. “It’ll take a lot less time and effort to build, and I bet it works just as well as RoboSquirrel.” He turned to his sister. “Do you ever get the feeling we overthink things?”

  Tesla didn’t answer him.

  “What’s up with the eagle?” she asked instead.

  “He just likes drawing eagles,” DeMarco explained.

  “So? Should I get the bologna?” Silas asked Tesla.

  “Sure. And the string,” she said. “But don’t let anyone see you bringing them back here.”

  “Don’t worry! I’m like a ninja!” Silas called out as he dashed away. “Too fast for the human eye to … oh. Hi, Mrs. Casserly.”

  Uncle Newt’s neighbor Julie was standing in her yard, arms folded across her chest, glaring at them.

  “Don’t worry, ma’am!” Nick said to her. “We’re not doing anything explosive today! Promise!”

  Julie just kept glaring.

  DeMarco turned his back to her.

  “What about me?” he said. “What’s my job?”

  “You’re going to be more bologna,” Nick told him.

  “What?”

  “Another distraction—and one that’s just as important,” Tesla said. “Those attack dogs aren’t the only thing between us and the girl that’s vicious and nasty.”

  The kids didn’t have watches to synchronize when they split up, so they decided to just start counting and hope that they all got to one hundred at more or less the same time.

  Silas went to the north side of the fence around the Landrigan place. Nick and Tesla went to the south side of the fence. DeMarco went to the gate.

  “Seventy-seven,” said Nick as he and Tesla crept closer to the fence. “Seventy-eight. Seventy-nine.”

  Far away, they could hear dogs barking and snarling as only Rottweilers fighting over old lunch meat can.

  “Silas must be a fast counter,” Nick said.

  “Well, we may as well go then,” said Tesla. “That bologna won’t last forever.”

  She moved to the fence and started climbing. Nick was right behind her.

  Once they were on the ground on the other side, they darted toward the Landrigans’ mansion. A bark stopped Nick cold as they crossed the driveway. It wasn’t coming from the far side of the yard, on the other side of the house, where Silas was supposed to be.

  “Listen,” Nick hissed at his sister.

  Tesla stopped and cocked an ear.

  The dog barked again. The sound was muted, yet close.

  Nick and Tesla turned toward the garage behind the house. More muffled barks rang out from inside it.

  “I heard that dog back there last time I was here,” Nick said. “I guess Jaws and Claws have backup.”

  “Yeah, but he’s locked up for some reason, so we don’t have to worry about him,” said Tesla.

  She started toward the house again.

  “Well, maybe we don’t have to worry about him,” Nick muttered as he followed her. “But I think I will anyway, thank you.”

  Tesla shushed him.

  Up ahead, someone else was talking.

  Nick and Tesla reached the side of the old house and peeked cautiously around the corner.

  No one was there. A window was half open—it was a warm day—and voices were coming from inside.

  “—practically flattened me when that van of yours came zooming out into the street,” DeMarco was saying, his voice loud and squawky and staticky. “My mom says we might sue.”

  He was talking over the intercom from the gate, just as they’d planned.

  Tesla sneaked under the window and started to stand to peek through it. Nick waved his hands and shook his head and mouthed “NO … NO … NO,” but his sister ignored him.

  She ducked down again after looking inside for all of a second.

  “Vince and Frank,” she whispered. “They’re both just standing there.”

  “Well, they’ve gotta move or we can’t go in,” Nick whispered back.

  Tesla rolled her eyes. “Yeah. I know.”

  The whole time, DeMarco kept jabbering away over the intercom.

  “I mean, my knee got scraped up real bad, and the paint chipped on my bike. But you know what? We might be willing to forgive your recklessness if you were to buy me a new bike and throw in … oh, let’s say five hundred dollars for pain and suffering. Did I mention my back’s been hurting ever since it happened? And my neck? Ohhhhh, it’s starting to act up right now. The pain!”

  “I’ll give that brat a pain in the neck,” Vince snarled.

  “I swear, he looked fine when I left,” Frank said. “He just fell is all. The van didn’t touch him.”

  “You should’ve told me about it.”

  “I didn’t think it was a big deal.”

  “You should have told me.”

  “We haven’t filed a police report yet,” DeMarco went on. “Maybe we won’t have to … if you do the right thing. Come on. How much does a bike cost, anyway?”

  “He’s bluffing,” Frank said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Vince snapped back. “We can’t have him out there yakking at us all day. Not when we’re so close to finally finishing this thing.”

  “Well, what do we do? Run him off or play nice?”

  “Nice would be better. We don’t want any fuss. Not now. Not today.”

  “But, Vince … do you even do nice?”

  “Not really. But I’m willing to try. Come on.”

  There were loud, clomping, echoing footsteps. As they faded away, Tesla stood for another look in the window. This time, Nick peeped in, too.

  Just beyond the window was what must have been the kitchen, once upon a time. There was a rusty sink and an ancient stove and a cobweb-covered space between the faded cabinets and stained, chipped countertop where a refrigerator had probably stood.

  More important, though, was what wasn’t there: Vince and Frank.

  Somewhere else in the house, a door creaked open and then slammed shut.

  Vince and Frank were on their way to the front gate.

  “Well, one thing’s for sure,” Nick said. “If those guys are fixing up the house, they did not start in the kitchen.”

  Tesla grunted, then turned and started toward the back door nearby.

  “We’ve gotta move fast,” she said. “We’ve probably only got a couple minutes before … oh, great.”

  She had her hand on the doorknob, which wasn’t turning. The back door was locked.

  “Through the window,” Tesla said, whipping around and rushing back the way she’d just come. “Hurry.”

  “Hurry?” said Nick.

  He’d never climbed through a kitchen window slowly. How was he supposed to hurry?

  He got his head and arms through the window, then tried a jump that landed him on his chest on the sill. He started wiggling and kicking his legs, but he could feel himself sliding out again.

  “Oh, come on,” he heard Tesla groan, and there was a sudden pressure on his butt that lifted him up and forward.

  “Hey!” Nick said as he slid over the sill and the sink and went plummeting to the floor. He just barely managed to hit the grungy old linoleum hands-first, not head-first.

  “Thanks a lot,” he grumbled as he stood up and dusted himself off.

  Tesla was already slithering in after him.

  “You’re welcome,” she said. “Little help?”

  Nick grabbed his sister’s hands and helped her land more gracefully than he had.

  “Stairs?” he said once sh
e was firmly on her feet.

  “Stairs.”

  They set off in search of a staircase.

  The girl—assuming she was in the same room as before—would be exactly one floor above the kitchen.

  Nick and Tesla passed through what was probably a dining room, to judge by its proximity to the kitchen and the grimy low-hanging chandelier. Someone had even been dining in it lately. The floor was littered with crumpled beer cans, empty potato chip bags, and plastic wrappers for beef jerky and cheap convenience store sandwiches.

  “Classy,” Nick said.

  The dark hallway beyond was in even worse shape. Loose floorboards squeaked under their feet, chunks of fallen plaster from the ceiling were heaped here and there like snow, and the washed-out wallpaper was peeling away in big curling strips. The foyer and spiral staircase they found at the other end of the hall were every bit as ramshackle.

  There were no tools in sight. Nothing seemed to have been repaired or restored or even so much as dusted.

  Nick and Tesla passed a little portable TV as they headed for the stairs. Near it was a deck of cards spread out on the floor for a game of solitaire.

  “Hey,” Nick said. “You can’t play the five of spades on the six of clubs.”

  “Someone who’d cheat at solitaire is capable of anything,” Tesla said ominously.

  Nick couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.

  “This way,” Tesla said when they got to the top of the stairs.

  “I know, I know.”

  They started down another dark plaster-pocked hall. At the end of it, at last, was some sign of renovations. Weird ones.

  There was a shiny new latch on the hallway’s last door. And a small hole, about the size of a silver dollar, had been drilled through the wall nearby. Sunshine streamed through it from the room beyond, creating a thin shaft of radiance that cut through the gloom like a little spotlight.

  When Nick and Tesla reached the end of the hall, they both moved to look through the hole.

  Before they could start arguing about who got to go first, an eye appeared, squinting out at them.

  “Yah!” Nick yelped.

  “Eeahh!” someone else shrieked.

  “Shhhhhhh!” said Tesla.

  The eye disappeared. A moment later, though, it was back.

  “You shouldn’t have come in here. You’re going to ruin everything.”

  It was a girl’s voice, quiet and quavering.

  Tesla reached out toward the latch. As she unhooked it, she and Nick looked at each other.

  The girl had been locked in. There could be no doubt now: Frank and Vince were indeed bad, bad guys.

  “Don’t worry,” Tesla said. “We’re here to help you.”

  She opened the door.

  The room beyond was almost empty. All that was in it was a ratty blanket, a pillow, a radio, a notepad, and a pen.

  And the girl, of course. She was still in the nightgown she’d been wearing the first time Nick had seen her. She looked even skinnier and more pale up close.

  “But what about Mr. Snugg?” she said.

  “Don’t worry,” Tesla told her. “He went down to the front gate. If we hurry, we’ll be out of here before he gets back.”

  “Which one is he, anyway?” Nick asked. “Frank or Vince?”

  The girl looked mystified.

  “What are you talking about?” she said. “Mr. Snugg’s locked up somewhere, like me. We have to find him.”

  “Wait,” Nick said. “What?”

  “Nick! Tesla! Run!” someone shouted behind them.

  Nick and Tesla spun around.

  Vince and Frank stood at the top of the stairs.

  DeMarco was between them, one of the big men’s meaty hands on each of his slight shoulders.

  “Shut up, kid,” Vince sneered. He shoved DeMarco toward his friends. “There’s nowhere to run to anyway.”

  Vince was right. They were trapped. All Nick and Tesla could do was watch as Vince and Frank herded DeMarco down the hallway.

  “I tried being nice,” Vince said, giving DeMarco another push. “But this kid just wouldn’t shut up. Wouldn’t go away. And now I see why.”

  Vince shook his bald head. Nick could tell what he was thinking.

  He was through being nice. It wasn’t his strong suit, anyway.

  A final shove sent DeMarco into the room with Nick and Tesla and the girl. He looked scared but unhurt.

  “There any more little snoopers out there?” Frank asked.

  “No!” Nick and Tesla blurted out at the same time.

  Vince scoffed and jerked his head at DeMarco. “Yeah. That’s what he said. Frank, get Jaws and Claws and take a look. If you see anyone else sneaking around, we should probably go ahead and wrap things up here. You follow?”

  Frank nodded. To judge by the grim expression on his face, he followed all right—all the way to something extremely unpleasant.

  He turned and stomped away.

  Vince stayed behind, blocking the doorway to the girl’s room. He blocked it well. He wasn’t as muscle-bound as Frank, but he wasn’t small either, and there was an intensity about him that seemed to buzz and crackle like an electric current. To Nick, he seemed like the sort of person you could hang signs on.

  HIGH VOLTAGE

  DANGER

  BEWARE OF PSYCHO

  “Why’d you have to stick your noses in now?” Vince said. “Just a couple more hours, and it’d all be over. Oh, well. It’ll still be over in a couple hours. It’s just a little more complicated now. But we’ll smooth all that out … one way or another.”

  Vince tried a smile, but it came out crooked. It didn’t look like he’d had much practice with them.

  “Just sit tight and keep quiet, and everything’ll work out fine,” he said.

  He closed the door, and Nick could hear him drop the latch back into place and stalk off down the hall.

  “Work out fine for him and Frank, he means,” Tesla said.

  “What do you mean?” said DeMarco.

  Nick knew better than to ask. He could feel what the answer was, and it made him shiver.

  Tesla turned to the girl. “Okay. Who are you, and why is Vince keeping you and Mr. Snugg prisoner here?”

  The girl slumped to the floor and sat, legs crossed, back hunched, head hung low. Maybe for a second or two she’d allowed herself to hope, but obviously that was over now.

  “My name’s Lily Lawrence. Vince and Frank kidnapped me five days ago. They’re holding me for ransom. They want a million dollars.”

  “Whoa,” said DeMarco. “You must be rich.”

  Lily Lawrence shrugged listlessly. “Yeah, I guess.”

  “Is Mr. Snugg from a rich family, too?” Nick asked.

  “In a way. His full name is Mr. Alonzo Morningstar Snugglesgood. He’s my Chihuahua.”

  Tesla slapped a hand to her forehead. “ ‘The mastermind,’ ” she groaned. “A dog.”

  “They took him when they took me,” Lily said. “Told me if I tried to escape or didn’t cooperate, they’d feed him to their Rottweilers.”

  “Hey!” Nick said. “He must be the dog in the garage!”

  Lily nodded sadly. “That’s him. Vince and Frank say all they have to do is open the garage door and whistle for Jaws and Claws and … no more Mr. Snugg.”

  “What I don’t get,” DeMarco said, “is why your family hasn’t just paid the ransom. Don’t they want you back?”

  Before he knew what he was doing, Nick was punching DeMarco on the shoulder.

  “Nice one, Mr. Sensitive,” he said.

  “Hey!” DeMarco started rubbing his shoulder. “It’s a fair question.”

  “For your information, my parents have been trying to pay the ransom,” Lily told DeMarco. “A million dollars is a lot of money, though. You can’t just go to the ATM for it. There’s all kind of things you have to do to get that much cash, even when you’re rich. That’s why Vince and Frank have had to keep me here so long.”
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  Tesla nodded along as Lily spoke, as if she knew everything the girl was going to say before she said it.

  “Frank’s trips out every night—that was to talk to your parents,” Tesla said. “He had to go someplace new every time and use a disposable cell phone so no one could trace the call.”

  “Yes, exactly,” Lily said, looking impressed. “He’s been taking me with him, locked up in the back of the van. That way I could talk to Mom and Dad and let them know I’m not … you know.”

  Tesla was nodding again.

  “And while Vince and Frank waited for the money, they kept you in the perfect hideout,” she said. “A nice, big, abandoned house all to themselves, with no one around who might accidentally see you.”

  “Except she was seen,” Nick said.

  “And Vince and Frank have been seen, too,” said Tesla. “By all of us. Which means we can describe them to the police.”

  “But they promised to let me go once they get the money,” said Lily.

  Tesla gave the girl a dubious look.

  DeMarco finally caught on.

  “Oh, man,” he groaned, voice trembling. “What are we gonna do?”

  Nick put a hand on DeMarco’s shoulder, the same one he’d punched a minute before.

  “Maybe Silas will bring help,” he said.

  “Yeah, maybe … if Vince and Frank don’t catch him first,” said DeMarco.

  Tesla walked to the room’s one window.

  Nick shook his head. “We’re up too high to jump. And the roof slants too much to crawl out onto.”

  Tesla turned and stared at the tattered old blanket on the floor.

  Again, Nick read her mind. She was thinking of pulling the old Rapunzel routine.

  “That blanket’s not big enough or long enough to get us to the ground,” Nick said. “And there’s nothing in here to tie it to, anyway.”

  “Little Mr. Sunshine,” Tesla muttered. But apparently she agreed with him.

  She walked to the door and looked out through the hole drilled into the wall beside it.

  “They use that to watch me,” Lily explained. “Like, every time they bring me food, they make sure I’m standing on the far side of the room before they open the door. As if I’d try to jump out and karate chop them or something.”

  Tesla began poking and probing the plaster around the hole.