Rowan slid down the door and sat on the floor. He looked like he was close to tears. “I just want to go to my dad.”
I knelt in front of him. “Don’t be scared. We’re safe in here.” I pointed at the door. “And your dad’s fine too. He’s probably locked in with everyone else in the cafeteria.” I gave a smile. “At least they have pizza.”
“And you’re stuck here babysitting me,” Rowan said pointedly. His eyes blazed.
“Aw, come on. Noah was just joking,” I explained. “And he was making fun of me, not you.”
Rowan’s lower lip trembled. “Then why were you laughing so much?”
I slid over to sit beside him. “Look, I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting to have… a sidekick for this field trip. And that’s what Noah was joking about.” I shrugged. “But it turns out that you’re a pretty cool guy. I’m having fun showing you around.”
Rowan stood and wiped at an eye. I didn’t think he believed me.
“What about that?” He pointed to an air vent high up on the wall. “We could get out that way.”
“You watch way too many movies,” I said. “Besides, if this is a real emergency, we need to stay put.”
Rowan’s shoulders drooped. “You’re right. A place like this probably has laser beams or saw blades to keep people from sneaking through the air vents.”
Wow. The kid did watch way too many movies.
“Look.” I put a hand on his shoulder and led him toward one of the offices. “There’ll probably be police cars outside already. Maybe even a couple of news vans.”
Hey, what if Rowan’s dad didn’t write the story about me after all? The bigger story had to be the lockdown, right? I mean, I would hate it if one of the academy students accidentally broke a vial holding some dangerous disease. It seemed unlikely, but who knows what caused the alarm. Whatever happened, Mr. Kavner would have an inside exclusive. I was torn between worrying about the quarantine and being relieved that I may no longer be the focus of the story.
We entered the office and peered out the large window. Luckily, we faced the front of the building, the main entrance, the parking lot, and the academy across the street. Unluckily… the scene was dead outside. There were no cop cars, fire trucks, and not one news van.
“Where is everyone?” Rowan asked.
“I don’t know,” I said as I scanned the scene.
Then I spotted a pair of headlights moving down the street. “There!” I pointed. As the lights grew closer, I saw that they were indeed on a police car. “See? There you go.”
“Just one car?” asked Rowan.
“They probably only send one out at first to see if it’s a false alarm,” I explained.
The cruiser slowed as it reached the main entrance. A spotlight burst from the car, aimed at the academy front doors.
“What are they doing?” Rowan asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
The spotlight shut off, and I sighed with relief as the cruiser turned into the Swift Enterprises parking lot. But then it stopped.
“What are you waiting for?” I asked, rubbing my hands together.
The police car backed out, merely using the parking lot entrance to turn around and face the way it had come. I frowned as the cruiser pulled away, headed up the dark street, and disappeared into the night.
“Hey!” Rowan shouted, waving his arms. “Over here!”
“They can’t see or hear you,” I said, knocking on the window. “The glass is reflective and too thick and we’re too far away.”
“Well shouldn’t there be an alarm or something?” Rowan asked, panic rising in his voice. “If this were a real emergency, shouldn’t the police know about it?”
“I would think so,” I replied.
“But what if something’s really wrong and nobody knows about it?” Rowan asked.
He had a point there. I wished I could call the police myself, or at least call my dad. The phone lines shouldn’t be down for just that reason. I knocked on the glass window again. Then I got an idea. I dug my phone out of my pocket.
“I thought our phones wouldn’t work,” Rowan said.
“That’s right,” I said as I turned on my phone. Sure enough, no signal.
“Then what are we going to do?” asked Rowan. “We have to do something!” His voice rose in pitch and cracked, as if he was holding back tears.
“Here, help me move this desk over to the window,” I said as I grabbed one side.
Rowan went to the other side and pushed as I pulled. When the desk was next to the window, I climbed on top of it. I faced the window and slid my phone back into my pocket. When I stretched my hand up toward the corner of the window, I could just barely reach it.
“Do you know what a Faraday cage is?” I asked, but I didn’t give him a chance to answer. I had to keep his mind busy so he wouldn’t start panicking. “No? Well, let me tell you. It was invented by Michael Faraday, and it’s a wire cage that surrounds something and keeps electricity from getting through.”
I scraped at the corner with my fingernail. “It can also keep radio signals from getting through. Like cell signals.”
My nail caught the edge of the invisible film covering the glass. “When they shield buildings like this, it’s easy to put a metal cage or mesh in the walls,” I continued as I began to pull at the thin film. “But the signal can still get through the windows. That’s why they add this special film that blocks them.”
I caught more of the film now. “So if I can pull away enough of this, I might be able to get a signal out.”
I flicked the corner of the film with my finger some more until I finally got a grip. I pulled at it and it began to peel. I got about four centimeters free before it stopped. I pulled as hard as I could but I couldn’t get any more to come off.
“Maybe this will be enough.” I dug out my phone and held it up to the exposed corner. It was no good. I still didn’t have a signal.
“Well, I thought it was a good plan,” I said as I turned to face Rowan. I scanned the empty office. He was gone again.
Like I said, tracking device.
“Rowan?” I called as I hopped off the desk.
I left the office and scanned the large cubicle bay, but he was nowhere to be found. I ran to the exit and tried the handle. It was still locked. He hadn’t gotten out that way.
I was about to start checking cubicles, when I spotted the desk pushed up against the far wall. A stool stood atop the desk along with the faceplate from the air vent. There was also a letter opener on the desk next to a couple of screws.
He didn’t.
I jumped onto the desk and climbed on top of the stool. I stuck my head into the opening. “Rowan?”
There was no answer.
“Rowan! Come back here!” Still no answer. “What about the laser beams, Rowan?”
Nothing.
8 The Constrained Estrangement
I COULDN’T BELIEVE I WAS doing this. I was crawling, Bruce Willis style, through the air vents of my dad’s company. It was cramped, dark, and, worst of all, very, very cold. They don’t tell you about that in movies, do they? They’re called air vents because, you know, air blows through them—cold air, as in air-conditioning. If it wasn’t so dark I bet I would’ve been able to see my breath. As it was, I could barely make out the thin metal surface around me.
“Rowan!” I shouted. My voice echoed down the shaft ahead of me.
Again there was no reply.
I crawled farther, toward a dim light ahead. As it got closer, I saw that it was another slatted vent cover. I reached it and peeked out through the slats to see another set of offices and cubicles. The cover was still attached, so I know he hadn’t gotten out there.
And come to think of it, how was he supposed to get out once he found a vent leading to where he wanted to go? He had unscrewed the first cover from the outside. You couldn’t do it from the inside. Did he even have a plan for getting out? Maybe the kid was more like me tha
n I’d thought—act first and plan later.
I crawled farther along, the only light coming from the occasional vent cover I passed. I soon entered a stretch where there were no vent covers at all. Even as my eyes adjusted to the dim light, there were no more outlets along the way. Soon, I was in total darkness.
I tried to remain calm as I felt my way along. It was cold, pitch-black, and very cramped. I’d never been claustrophobic before, but with my shoulders sliding along the sides as I moved and having to keep my head down to avoid bumping it, I was beginning to see why some people were.
“Rowan?” I called again. This time I heard a little shakiness in my voice.
Suddenly, the pressure was gone from my shoulders. I stopped and felt around. I was in the middle of a four-way junction. Which way could he have gone? It was too dark to spot any clues.
“Rowan!” I shouted. “Come on, answer me!”
I listened for a reply, but none came.
I relaxed and tried to think. Which direction would he have chosen? He wanted to get to his dad. And Mr. Kavner was locked in the cafeteria along with everyone else. Now, in what direction would the cafeteria be from here? I backed up and took the shaft on the left.
I crawled through more frigid darkness with no light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. It seemed weird that there was such a long stretch of venting without output to any more offices or hallways.
That wasn’t the only weird thing. I slowly got the sensation that the shaft was sloping downward. The farther I crawled, the steeper the incline became. Soon, I had to push back with my hands as I crawled just to keep from sliding down. Now I was doing more pushing than crawling.
Okay, it was official. This was a bad idea. I could’ve done a little more planning before I acted this time.
I tried to back out the way I had come. I placed my hands on either side of the wall and pushed myself backward. My legs flailed as I strained to go in reverse. It was no use. The incline was too steep. I had no choice; I had to move ahead.
Keeping my palms planted on the walls, I let gravity take over. I slid forward, slowly at first. Then the slope increased and it was all I could do to hold myself back. My hands squeaked against the walls as I tried to keep myself from going faster.
Suddenly, my right hand came off the wall and I slammed forward. “Ahhh!” I shouted as I slid down with nothing to slow me. I covered my head with both arms and closed my eyes as I picked up speed.
My heart raced as I sped down the shaft like I was on a slide in a water park. Except there was no water, I could barely see anything, and I had no idea where I was going.
Finally, I slowed as the vent shaft leveled out. I squeaked as I slid to a stop.
“Tom?”
“Ah!” Startled, my head shot up and slammed against the top of the shaft.
I opened my eyes and could make out Rowan in the shaft ahead of me. He was a couple of meters away and his face was lit from below.
“Are you okay?” he asked me.
“I’m trapped in an air vent chasing after you,” I replied, crawling toward him. “No, I’m not okay.”
He pointed to the bottom of the shaft, the source of the light. “We’re not trapped. Look.”
I crawled closer and saw that a large vent cover was attached to the floor of the shaft in front of him. I peered through the slats and saw several white lines painted on the black floor below. Suddenly, someone sped through the scene. It was Sam. We were above the testing track.
“Sam!” I shouted.
“Sam! Up here!” Rowan added.
I waited to see her come back into view, but she never did.
That was weird. The ceiling above the track wasn’t so high. She should’ve been able to hear us. I craned my neck, trying to see where she’d gone, but we must have been positioned near the far wall of the huge room. I could only make out a small section of track.
“Could you see her from your side?” I asked Rowan.
“For a while,” he replied. “But she kept skating.”
I looked up at Rowan. We were face-to-face above the vent cover.
“Hey, how did you turn around?” I asked him. He was smaller than me, but not small enough to easily spin around in the cramped shaft.
Rowan jutted a thumb over his shoulder. “There’s a four-way split back there.”
Huh. It didn’t even occur to me that I could use the split to turn around. Smart kid. I craned my neck to see through the vent slats again. I could barely see any of the room below.
“Back up past the junction,” I said. “I want to turn around to get a better look.”
“Okay,” Rowan replied as he shimmied backward.
Once he was clear of the cover, I began to crawl over it. I was almost across when I realized I had made a serious miscalculation—I weighed a lot more than Rowan did.
The vent cover fell away beneath me. My stomach sank and my arms flailed as I tried to grab on to something. My hands quickly found the edge of the dangling cover. Luckily, one side of the cover was hinged to the overhead vent. Still, my hands slid down the sides as momentum carried me downward. I grunted as I clamped on to the cover as hard as I could. My hands stopped sliding and my body slowly swung to a stop as I dangled over the track below.
My feet were only a meter over the floor, but I held on a moment to catch my breath. I turned my head and saw Sam barreling toward me. She was watching the track and not what was hanging above it.
“Sam!” I shouted. She was so close that I didn’t have enough time to drop and roll out of the way. “Sam!”
Finally, she glanced up and her eyes widened. She folded into a crouch as I lifted my legs as high as I could. She sped safely beneath me.
She slowed to a stop as I dropped onto the track.
“What in the world are you doing?” she asked, skating back to me.
“Well,” I began, still catching my breath. “Funniest thing…”
“Hang on,” she said. Then she reached up and removed the wireless earbuds from her ears.
“That’s why you didn’t answer us,” I said.
“Us?” she asked.
I looked up and Sam followed my gaze. Rowan’s head appeared through the opening in the air vent. He gave a small wave.
“Okay.” Sam put her hands on her hips. “What are you two up to?”
I pointed up at Rowan. “Someone didn’t like being locked up,” I explained. “He got a little creative with his escape plan.”
“Locked up?” asked Sam. “Why was he locked up?” She cut me a harsh look. “What did you do to him, Swift?”
I raised my hands. “Hey, I didn’t do anything. I’m talking about the quarantine.”
Sam shook her head. “What quarantine?”
No wonder we found Sam skating around the track like nothing happened. She was listening to music and didn’t hear the announcement. I quickly explained about the quarantine lockdown and how the authorities didn’t seem to know about it.
Sam’s eyes widened. “Do you think there’s some kind of contagious disease outbreak?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think my dad works with anything like that.”
“Some kind of chemical spill?” Sam suggested. “Why else would the building even be set up for a quarantine?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
She glanced at the doors on the other side of the track. “No wonder no one came back from the cafeteria.”
The testing track and gym took up most of the second floor. And thanks to the lockdown, we seemed to have the whole floor to ourselves.
“Uh…” Rowan said from above. “Do you think there’s a ladder around or something?”
Sam pulled off her skates and ran toward the end of the track. “Give me a hand,” she said. “I have an idea.”
I followed her to the wall end of the track, toward the pads that lined it. The pads were a safety feature lining the wall in case someone or something lost control on a turn. Sam reached up and pul
led at a large pad attached to the wall. The Velcro fasteners made a ripping sound as the pad detached. I did the same with the pad next to it. After we made two more trips, they were soon in a stack almost as tall as me and directly under Rowan.
“All right,” Sam said to Rowan. “Slide your feet out and then just drop down.”
“Are you sure?” Rowan asked nervously.
“You got this,” I called up to him. Then I turned to Sam. “He does, doesn’t he?”
Sam waved me away. “It’ll be easy,” she told him.
Rowan dangled his feet out of the opening. He then took a deep breath and pushed off. He plopped onto the pads, which slowly compressed with a loud hiss. Sam and I helped him down.
“Okay, now what?” asked Rowan.
“Did you try calling security?” Sam asked.
“We were stuck in some offices,” I replied. “None of the phones worked.”
Sam pointed to the other side of the track. “Let’s try that one.”
We ran across the track to the abandoned security desk beside the glass entry doors. The guard that was supposed to be posted there was probably in the cafeteria with everyone else.
Sam picked up the receiver and held it to her ear. She pressed a few buttons and listened again. “This one’s dead too.”
“Hey, look!” Rowan pointed to the computer monitor at the desk. A small window showed black-and-white footage from one of the security cameras. The image cycled from one empty hallway to another and then to an empty office space.
“Think we can bring up a camera from the cafeteria?” asked Sam.
I sat down at the security desk and moved the mouse. After some trial and error, I finally clicked on the correct icon. Rows of thumbnail images filled the screen. I clicked on one labeled CAF_001.
Footage from the cafeteria security camera filled the screen. Just as we thought, most of our group were still there. Some kids milled around, while others sat at tables. A group of adults stood talking way in the background.
“Is there a camera near them?” Rowan asked, pointing at the group of adults.
Restricted Access Page 5