“Are you okay?” I asked her. Sometimes I got a little nervous in elevators, too. Especially since Omega City. But Dani was a pilot. She’d been in space.
“Found it,” Savannah announced. She held up the zipper pull. “See? Another side. A bumpy one.”
“Let me see.” Eric reached for the piece of metal. “How do you do it?”
“Pinch two of the triangles next to each other together, and then fold the opposite ones down. . . .” She showed him, closing her hands around his. “Wait . . . what did you do?”
He yanked his fingers back. “What? What did I do?”
“It’s another side!” She shook her head in disbelief and ran her fingertip across the uncovered surface.
“A hexahexaflexagon,” said Dani absentmindedly. “Well, never let it be said that Underberg doesn’t overdo things—”
There was a small jolt as the elevator halted. The doors slid open, and all talk of zipper pulls ceased.
Before us lay the main chamber of Omega City. But it was Omega City like I’d never seen it before. The last time I was here, the chamber was dark and flooded, with collapsed buildings and rusty, rickety walkways. Now everything was clean and repaired. Blue-white light illuminated the cavern like the inside of a sports stadium, and I could see for the first time how large the space truly was. Everything sparkled and shimmered, and the buildings had all been freshly painted. I imagined this was what it looked like when Dr. Underberg first built it, although instead of the old red omega symbol, all the doors and walls were marked with the globe and crossed crooks of the Shepherds.
“Wow,” said Mom. “This is even nicer than I expected. In Sam’s book, it sounded a little sketchy.”
“It wasn’t like this,” Savannah assured her. “Everything was broken. And wet.”
“Mrs. Dr. S!” said Howard to Mom. “Mrs. Dr. S. That’s where they shot at us!” He pointed at the base of the stability springs. Each coiled round was bigger than a car. I remembered Dad explaining that the buildings were positioned on springs to help them remain stable in case of a direct nuclear attack.
“And there’s where the grain storage and the greenhouse was.” The old buildings had been razed, and a new structure in that location looked a bit like the biostation under Eureka Cove—a large, bubbly dome, glowing faintly red.
“And over there was the entrance to the missile silo.” He pointed at a door across the cavern covered in construction scaffolding.
“Where are we headed?” I asked Dani.
But she said nothing, just stared. The bag dropped from her arms and clunked on the concrete floor.
“Dani?” Mom said.
She swallowed, and her eyes glistened. “The pictures don’t do it justice. All this . . . all this.”
“Wait,” I said, suddenly realizing why she’d been so quiet. “You’ve never been here?”
She seemed to catch herself and looked away, swiping her bag off the ground. “It’s not my area. Not many computers around here. At least, not the kind that can’t be hacked by a five-year-old with a cell phone.”
“But you didn’t even come, just to see?” I asked, amazed. “Your father built this place!”
She turned left, then right, then left again. “This way, I think.”
“She thinks?” Eric echoed, incredulous. “Great, just what I need, to get lost here again.” He trotted after her.
I ran to catch up. “Why didn’t you want to see it?”
“Lots of people built this place, Gillian,” she said coldly as she marched along. “It wasn’t just Underberg down here with a hammer and some nails.” She approached a door marked Staircase 3: Training, Medical Offices, Communication. “Here we are.” She went inside and started taking the stairs two at a time.
I raced after her, heedless of whether the others were following behind or still giving my mother the tour. “Yeah, but it was his baby. His entirely after the Shepherds tried to destroy it, and him. He lived here. For ages. Weren’t you curious? Didn’t you want to find out more about what he was doing all those years?”
Dani ran faster. She had almost a foot on me, and had done all those wacky physical training regimens the Shepherds taught, but I didn’t give up, even when she got so far ahead of me I couldn’t hear her feet on the stairs.
I didn’t understand her at all. If I’d found out my father had spent years hiding out somewhere, I would definitely have wanted to see it. Plus, it was a Shepherd project. It didn’t make any sense.
I heard another door open, high above me, and sprinted up the last flight of stairs.
The corridor looked familiar, and then I remembered. This was the way to the communications room, the central nerve center of Omega City. This was where I’d fought with Fiona and refused to surrender. This was where I’d first seen the videos of Dr. Underberg arguing for the importance of saving mankind. I stood there for a moment, catching my breath and getting my bearings. I hadn’t given in the last time I was here. I wasn’t going to do it now.
The door to the communications room was ajar, and I saw Dani’s bag lying on the floor inside. I pushed the door wide and saw her seated at a desk. The video library with its neat, hand-lettered messages, which once had made the room seem crowded and cramped, was entirely gone now, replaced by large servers and other electronic equipment. The giant control panel was still there, with its map of Omega City, paths of colored lights, and millions of switches, but it was now covered with enormous pieces of plexiglass, over which was suspended a large touch-screen monitor that replicated the patterns on the analog panel below. Dani plugged her little hacking device into this monitor and got to work.
Again a palm print flashed on the screen; again the computer spoke another person’s name. “Anton Everett. Security access granted.”
All of a sudden, I understood everything. Why she was using Anton’s identity, why she didn’t know her way around Omega City . . . why she was helping us at all.
“You’ve never been here before,” I said, still panting a bit from my haste to catch her, “because you weren’t allowed.”
Silence. Dani kept working. “Yes, you’re very intelligent, Gillian. As you know.”
But not smart enough to have figured her out before she brought us this far.
“You weren’t allowed,” I went on, “because they didn’t know if they could trust you to see this place and not feel a connection to your father.”
“In which matter,” she replied, as calmly as ever, “they were clearly correct.” She stopped working for a second, and her lips pursed. “You know what this place is. What it meant to him. He built this for humanity. He built it for my mother, and for me, and for everyone he ever loved. He disagreed with the Arkadia Group that it should be kept secret from humanity, that everything they did should be kept secret—and they retaliated.”
Then, just as now, it was more important for the Shepherds to keep their secrets than to do right by the human race. They might talk about looking to the stars, but their corporate arms seemed to have their eyes on the bottom line. First the Arkadia Group, then Guidant Technologies. They weren’t afraid to destroy what they’d built, destroy Dr. Underberg, to protect themselves.
I remembered what Elana had said on the phone.
We have to protect Guidant, even if that means sacrificing Infinity Base.
And I still had questions.
“They’ve been working on Omega City for ten months. You’ve read my father’s book and seen what Dr. Underberg was trying to do here. If you can hack into Shepherd security and come here whenever you want, why didn’t you?”
She swiveled around in her seat and met my eyes. “I never had a reason to risk my place with the Shepherds before. Right or wrong, they’re my family, not Dr. Underberg.”
I shook my head. “But you don’t think they’re wrong, do you? You never did.”
She turned back to her machines, all business again. “Of course I did. I told you so.”
She did. But Shephe
rds lie.
“When did you decide they were wrong?” I pressed. “It wasn’t when Anton genetically engineered bees to die. It wasn’t when the Shepherds tried to ruin the career of an innocent history professor. It wasn’t even when they kidnapped Mom and Dad and Nate. I saw you that afternoon, on the cliff. You told me to run, but you didn’t try to help.” I heard the others in the corridor behind me.
“I think this is where they went,” Eric was saying.
“You’d know better than me” came Savannah’s voice. “I only got here through the air vents.”
“Right,” said Mom. She sounded overwhelmed.
I only had a few seconds to get this out. “You weren’t interested in helping us or saving us then. That wasn’t enough to risk your position with the Shepherds.”
“You’re right. It wasn’t.”
“And what was?” I went on, although I thought I already knew.
“When Elana told me she planned to kill my father.”
This was the answer I was waiting for, but it still felt as if a big metal hand was squeezing my heart.
She swiveled around and fixed me with a glare. “I’d do anything to stop that. I’m sure you understand.” Then she went back to work.
Yes, I did understand. I didn’t like it one little bit, but I understood it perfectly. I was doing the same thing. Elana had threatened my father, and I’d let Dani tranquilize me and stick me in a pod. I’d talked my mother into letting us come to Omega City. I’d followed Dani no matter how worried I got that she had no idea what she was doing, no matter how strange or untrustworthy she acted. Because she was the only one who was willing to tell me that we could save Dad.
“Hey, guys,” Eric said, when the four of them reached the threshold. “What’s up? Did you guys get hold of Dr. Underberg yet?”
“No,” I said without taking my eyes off Dani. She didn’t look up from her work to greet them, either.
Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if we could get in touch with Dr. Underberg from here. Because if all Dani had to do was pick up a phone from Omega City and call him, why go to the trouble of sending out her stupid number codes? She said she hadn’t been willing to risk her job until the Shepherds threatened to kill him, but if she could just hack into the system and pretend to be someone else whenever she wanted, why hadn’t she done so a long time ago?
Had she brought us all here—had I brought us all here—only to get smacked in the face with more lies?
“How long will this take?” Mom asked. “I’m beginning to get worried about staying here. It’s too dangerous.”
“You’re right, Mom.” It was dangerous. I just wanted to find out how much danger we were in. I realized now that though Dani had promised to contact Dr. Underberg, she hadn’t exactly told us how.
“I’m right?” Mom laughed. “Never thought I’d hear that from you, honey.”
Dani frowned, looking at the screen. “Well, that’s going to be trouble.”
“What?” Mom asked.
Dani tapped the screen, where an orange alert flashed. Personnel: Security Check Required.
“What is it?” I asked.
“They want us to call in and verify our identities,” Dani said. “They’re onto us.”
8
KNOWLEDGE VERSUS WISDOM
“WE OBVIOUSLY CAN’T DO THAT,” SAID MOM. “RIGHT? I MEAN, CAN YOUR little box thingy do anything to pretend you’re . . . whoever?” She gestured to the device Dani had been using to hack all the computers in Omega City.
“Anton Everett,” said Dani. “And it would be something of a challenge. I have enough recordings of him to make a voice model, but I don’t have access to the program we use from here, and I don’t know if I could even make a model in time to appease them.
“What happens if we don’t respond?” Mom asked.
“They might lock down the whole facility. They’ll definitely be sending people in to check on us. The clock is ticking.”
“The clock is ticking for what?” I pressed. I wasn’t letting go until I had answers. “To call Dr. Underberg?”
“What?” said Dani. “Oh. Yes.”
“Why would he pick up now?”
“Excuse me?”
“If you could always call Dr. Underberg from Omega City, then the Shepherds must have tried, right? Sometime in the last ten months? And he wasn’t interested in talking to them.”
“Well, yes,” said Dani, “but this time it’s me . . .”
“How would he know that?” I asked. “If you could pretend to be anyone.”
Dani sighed. “Okay. Fine. I wasn’t planning on calling him from Omega City.”
There it was. I looked at the others, but the significance of her words didn’t seem to have sunk in.
“Then where were you going to call him from?” Mom asked.
Dani turned back to the screen, where the security alert still blinked, and tapped a portion of the map marked Restricted Area. “From there.”
We leaned in to look. The map of Omega City sometimes felt like it was permanently marked on my brain, but I wasn’t familiar with this section. We hadn’t traveled through it on our first visit, but it looked familiar to me, even so.
“It’s a silo,” I whispered.
“Another silo?” Eric said.
And Howard put it together. “Another rocket ship?”
A thrill coursed through me as I realized her plan. A second rocket ship. Another way to get to space. To get to Dad.
“Oh dear,” said Savannah.
“Wait.” Mom held up her hands. “You brought us here to get on one of Dr. Underberg’s rocket ships? Are you delusional?”
“No one said you had to get on,” Dani replied. “I’m getting on. I’m going into space and I’m going to find my father and bring him home.” She pressed another key and the screen went dark. “And, if you help me, I’ll bring home Dr. Seagret and Nate, too. There’s no way Dr. Underberg can do that on his own. He was an old man before he went into space. He’ll need help. My help.”
We all stood there for a moment, letting it sink in. On one hand, I understood why she hadn’t told us the truth earlier. Mom definitely wouldn’t have signed on for a rocket-ship launch, given that the last one had nearly killed us all.
But on the other hand, Dani was right. If we wanted to save Dad and Nate, we were going to have to do more than just call Dr. Underberg. What could he do, anyway? He was an old man, and going alone to Infinity Base would just be playing into the Shepherds’ hands.
On the other hand, Dani, with her piloting experience and cliff diving know-how and quick trigger on the tranquilizer—well, she was probably better equipped than anyone to actually rescue Dad and Nate. Once she got into space.
“I don’t . . . ,” Mom said, flustered. “I can’t . . . how would that even work? You can’t just launch a rocket into space like you’re taking your car out for a drive.”
“Why not?” Dani said. “Underberg did it, and his rocket ship was in far worse shape than ours. His whole city was. I’m a much more experienced pilot than he is, too. Not that there needs to be much piloting. I’ll program the flight path in advance, so basically all piloting will take care of itself.” She looked at her watch. “That is, if we manage to get to the rocket before security shows up. The clock is ticking. Either you trust me to do this and you’ll help me, or you don’t, and we should all just surrender now.”
Mom glared at her. “That is an incredibly unfair thing to say. You put us in this situation without all the information, and now you’re holding it over us?”
“I beg your pardon, Dr. Seagret,” Dani replied, “but did you really have an alternative?”
Mom stood very still for a long moment while we all looked at her. Somehow, I resisted the urge to clasp my hands in front of me and beg, but if my face was anything like Eric’s, I didn’t need to.
There was no other option. And there was no choice, either—not really. Not if we wanted to save Dad’s and Nate’s l
ives. And there wasn’t a single person in the room who was willing to walk away from that.
“How do we get to the other rocket?” Howard asked abruptly.
“Wait a second,” Mom said, holding out her arms as if to keep us from rushing off. “You guys aren’t going anywhere. I read The Forgotten Fortress, remember? I know what happens to those silos when the rocket launches. They burn up. You’re staying right here.”
“Where the security guards can get us?” Savannah asked, then hesitated. “Actually, that’s a good point. After you blast into outer space, where are we supposed to hide?”
Dani grimaced.
“Great, she hasn’t thought through this part, either.” Eric groaned and pushed past her toward the map. “Excuse me while I look up the Omega City Panic Room.”
“So this is an escape . . . for you.” Mom folded her arms. “We’re going to end up exactly where we started.”
“You could come into space with me,” Dani suggested.
“Yes!” Howard nodded vigorously.
“Pass,” insisted Mom. “Hard pass.”
“Then where do we go?” Howard asked. “Everyone gets to go into space but me!”
“Don’t worry, Howard,” said Savannah. “I’m not going into space.”
“My brother, Dani. Everyone.” He folded up the hood of his suit, I guess in protest.
But I didn’t have time to worry about hurting Howard’s feelings. “We do need a place to hide.”
“This was supposed to be your place to hide,” Dani admitted. “At least until I eliminated the threat up there.” She tapped her foot. “We’re running out of time. If I don’t get to that rocket soon, I won’t be able to save any of you.”
“I appreciate that,” said my mother. “But my priority is these children. I can’t let them fall into the wrong hands. There’s no knowing what the Shepherds might do if they find us here. They might—” She stopped herself from completing that thought. But we could all figure out what she was going to say.
They might even kill us.
Dani considered this. “Okay. Then call the police.”
“What?” Mom said. “I thought you said calling the police wasn’t going to do any good. That they’d never believe us about what the Shepherds were doing.”
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