Beneath

by Roland Smith

  She fell asleep in the back of the black SUV on the way to the airport but perked up on the airplane when one of the agents passed her a document. The cover was stamped: CLASSIFIED. Below the red stamp were the words: BENEATH BY PAT AND COOP O’TOOLE.

  Bertrand said, holding up the document.

  He and Ariel sat across the desk from Agent Ryan, whom they’d never thought they would see again.

  “It’s all true,” Agent Ryan said.

  “How do you know?” Ariel asked.

  “As soon as I read it I led a team into the Deep.”

  Ariel and Bertrand both began to speak at the same time, but Agent Ryan held her hand up and cut them off.

  “There’s more to the document … a lot more. And it started before Coop inadvertently blew up your neighborhood.”

  “Cooper,” Bertrand corrected.

  Agent Ryan frowned. “I need you both to listen to me before you say anything else.”

  “Sorry,” Bertrand said, surprising both Ariel and Agent Ryan.

  Agent Ryan got up and started pacing as she talked.

  before I joined the FBI, I was a cop in New York City.

  “After we decided that Coop was just a kid digging a tunnel and not a terrorist, I had several conversations with him.” Agent Ryan stopped pacing and looked at the O’Tooles. “Do you know why Coop dug that tunnel?”

  “It was a lark,” Bertrand said.

  “Something to do,” Ariel added.

  “You didn’t ask him, did you?”

  “Not specifically,” Ariel answered.

  “I’m betting not at all,” Agent Ryan said. “He said he was looking for something, but he didn’t know what it was. Obviously not treasure. As you both know, Coop isn’t interested in money. He told me that he had an overwhelming sense that he was destined to make an important discovery underground.

  “Of course we had a team of psychologists examine him while he was here. They all came up with same verdict: perfectly sane.”

  Agent Ryan started pacing again.

  “Coop and I got along well. I liked him. He stayed in touch with me. Once or twice a year he would drop by the WFO unannounced to check in with me. If I wasn’t here, he’d leave a message saying that he had stopped by to see how I was doing. If I was here, he’d wait patiently until I had time to see him, and we’d talk.”

  “Was he still digging tunnels?” Ariel asked.

  Agent Ryan shook her head. “He said he promised you he wouldn’t. I don’t think that means he wasn’t doing some urban exploring underground, but he didn’t take a shovel with him.

  “In fact, he came by here on the day he argued with you two about his future. And for the record, I told him that he should go back home and go to college. I’m glad he didn’t listen to me. But let’s get back to what’s not in the story Pat wrote down, because what’s not there is even stranger than what is.”

  She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  “My maiden name is Muñoz. On Christmas Eve, nineteen years ago in New York City, I was the detective in charge of the man and the woman found shot to death in the Dumpster next to Pallotta’s Italian Grill.”

  “Kate’s parents?” Bertrand said.

  “That’s right.”

  “And you never told Cooper about this?” Ariel asked.

  “I only discuss cases with other law enforcement officers. I don’t even talk about them with my husband.”

  She took a flash drive and a cell phone out of her desk drawer.

  “They dropped the flash drive in a trash can down the street next to the Ford’s Theatre, along with the disposable cell phone they used to call me, and Pat’s journal.

  “When I started reading the document on the drive I thought it was a prank, even though that would have been so unlike Coop. But when I got to the part about Kate’s parents I knew it was all true. There is no way any of them could have known about my involvement with that case. I had never talked to anyone about it, including other cops, because that case left a scar on me. All cops have one or two unsolved cases that they never get over. The so-called Dumpster Deaths case was mine. I knew it wasn’t a random killing. I knew there was a child involved. But there were absolutely no leads. The blood trail stopped the moment Lawrence Oliver Dane walked out of the alley with Kate in his arms.”

  Agent Ryan looked out her window.

  “You see,” she continued, “the night they were murdered, everyone was staring at the sky. There wasn’t a cloud from Ohio to New York. When Lawrence Dane shot his son and daughter-in-law, and his brother, we were all watching a lunar eclipse.”

  Agent Ryan turned back to the O’Tooles.

  Both of their faces had paled.

  Ariel took Bertrand’s hand.

  “Kate’s parents were murdered around the time you were giving birth to Coop on the 495 Beltway in Virginia,” Agent Ryan said. “Strange, isn’t it?”

  Stunned, Ariel and Bertrand nodded.

  “I have no idea what it means. Or if it means anything. You’re both scientists. What are the chances?”

  “I’m an astrophysicist,” Ariel said. “Not a metaphysicist, but I’ll admit that it’s a very strange coincidence.”

  “I’m a molecular biologist,” Bertrand said, shaking his head, tightening his hold on Ariel’s hand.

  “Where are our sons?” Ariel asked.

  “I’ll let them speak for themselves in a moment. First, I want to tell you what we found in the Deep.”

  She opened a case folder marked: MR. LAWRENCE OLIVER DANE.

  She showed them a mug shot of the man known as Lod.

  Underneath the photo was a stamp that read: DECEASED.

  Agent Ryan said.

  “And he no longer looks like this. And he’s not a mister, he’s a doctor with PhDs in computer science, psychology, and dual master’s degrees in business administration and agriculture. He attended UC Berkeley when he was fifteen, got his first undergraduate degree when he was seventeen. He’s always liked nicknames. In his university days he was known as the Old Man … OLD being a play on his initials. He also liked staying under the radar. When we rounded up the Weathermen, we not only thought Dane was dead, we also thought he had been just a minor player. But it turns out that he was a big dog in the organization and happy to hide in the background. We reinterviewed the Weathermen who are still alive, and it seems that they had all conveniently forgotten to mention Dane and his involvement in the Weather Underground. They said they thought he was dead, and therefore unimportant, but I think some of them were lying. They knew he was still alive, and he’s kept in touch with a select few over the years. It was clear from the interviews that they were afraid of him.”

  “Afraid,” Bertrand said.

  “Perhaps that’s too mild,” Agent Ryan corrected herself. “Terrified would be more accurate. We threatened his former conspirators with heavy jail time if they didn’t tell us what they knew, but we were unable to turn any of them. Dr. Dane still has a hold on them. And I’m not sure if they are afraid that he’ll kill them, or if he knows things about them they don’t want us to know.”

  “Surely you have enough evidence to convict Dr. Dane of the murder of his son and daughter-in-law now,” Bertrand said.

  Agent Ryan shook her head and pointed at the document. “All we have is the word of a girl who alleges to be the victims’ daughter. We would have to exhume their bodies. Run DNA on them, Kate, and her grandfather. Even if their DNA was a match it would be circumstantial evidence. There is nothing to connect Lawrence Dane to the alley on that night, except his brother, Alex, but he’s long gone and I seriously doubt we’ll find him until he wants us to. The good news is that we don’t need any of that to convict Dr. Dane. We found enough in his compound to put him away for several lifetimes …”

  On December 31, Agent Ryan led a task force of fifty people Beneath using a detailed map that Kate, Coop, and Pat had included on the flash drive.

  was the Community.

>   It was abandoned.

  There was a partially cooked turkey in the oven.

  It took the task force several hours to reach the Deep.

  It took them fifteen seconds to secure the area.

  Seventy-nine people were arrested.

  Sixteen dogs were captured.

  Seven dogs got away.

  Inside Lod’s headquarters they found a secret room hidden behind a false bookcase. Inside the room was a bank of sophisticated computers. The hard disks had been wiped clean except for a single program called Fog. There was a digital timer ticking down on all the flat-screen monitors.

  Second by second …

  75:03 … 02 … 01 … 75:00 …

  74:59 … 58 … 57 …

  One hour and fifteen minutes to stop tens of thousands of people from dying.

  The program was a fuse.

  At zero it would release deadly sarin gas into Penn Station, Grand Central Terminal, several skyscrapers hosting New Year’s celebrations, and the Deep.

  They shut the program down with four minutes to spare.

  As soon as it stopped another program booted up called Quake.

  3:59 … 58 … 57 …

  This program was the fuse for nearly forty pounds of C-4 explosives.

  The plan was that after the Pod had been killed by the gas, Lod would bury them under several tons of debris.

  “We stopped it with fifty-three seconds to go,” Agent Ryan said.

  “Cutting it kind of close,” Bertrand said.

  “The whole operation was too close,” Agent Ryan said. “Coop and Pat put the flash drive in the trash can on the twenty-seventh. It took me three days to convince my superiors that this was a credible threat.”

  “Mass suicide,” Ariel said quietly.

  “Not quite mass, and certainly not suicide,” Agent Ryan said. “Dr. Dane and the Originals were not in the Deep. According to those left behind they took off the day after Christmas to find his granddaughter, Kate. They expected them back any time. They knew nothing about his plan to gas and bury them.”

  “He got away?” Bertrand said.

  “I’m afraid so.”

  Bertrand shook his head. “On the black market, sarin and C-4 would cost a fortune. How could a street person come up with that kind of money?”

  “Larry Dane is no street person.”

  “Where did Dr. Dane get his money?” Ariel asked.

  “Cloud’s Mushrooms. The biggest supplier of mushrooms in the US. We have no idea how much money he made selling fungi over the years, but we believe it was tens of millions of dollars. The business was completely legitimate. The people running it above had never met the company’s reclusive owner, and they didn’t care. And they knew nothing about the mush rooms, two words.

  “The blissfully ignorant corporate guys on top were making huge salaries. But that all ended Monday morning, December twenty-seventh. The company’s cash was liquidated. It was transferred in rapid succession to different offshore accounts, then the money vanished altogether.” Agent Ryan snapped her fingers. “Poof!”

  “So he and his cohorts are on the loose with millions of dollars,” Bertrand said.

  “Right. When Kate and Coop and Pat got away, Lawrence knew it was all over for him. Kate and Alex were right. Lod was planning something big. Their escape moved the timetable up.

  “And we have reason to believe the sarin gas and C-4 were just a prelude. He’s been planning this for more than twenty years. The hornets are out of the nest, but we don’t know where they are, where they’re going, or who they’re going to sting next. That’s why we staked out both of your houses.”

  “My house too?” Ariel asked.

  “And Wayne’s,” Agent Ryan added. “We’ve done a profile on Dr. Dane, and we believe that his brother is correct. He’s looking for Kate and your sons. You and Bertrand are the only leads he has. You’re both in grave danger. You’ll be under twenty-four-hour surveillance until we apprehend Dr. Dane and his people.”

  “What about Cooper and Patr —” Bertrand stopped and glanced at Ariel. “Coop and Pat?”

  Ariel smiled.

  Agent Ryan did not smile. “I asked Coop to come in, but he refused. We’re looking for them, but Kate is an expert at staying off the grid. And in a way, that is probably the safest place for them to be. Because Dr. Dane wiped his computers, we have no idea of the extent of his intel capabilities, but we think it’s extensive. He’s managed to obtain, or manufacture, sarin gas; procure military-grade C-4 explosives; and operate a multimillion-dollar business right under our noses without any of us knowing a thing about any of it.”

  “Do the kids know that Lod escaped?” Ariel asked.

  “Not unless Alex told them.” Agent Ryan took a digital tape recorder out of her pocket. “There was one other item with the flash drive … A memory stick. It was marked ‘personal’ and addressed to you two. Sorry, I listened to it. I’m a cop.” She set the recorder on the desk. “I’ll wait for you outside.” She started out of her office, then stopped and looked at Bertrand. “Did you see a keel-billed motmot?”

  “I did,” Bertrand said. “But it wasn’t worth it.”

  still holding hands, stared at the tape recorder, then looked at each other.

  “What do you think?” Bertrand asked.

  “Frightening and bizarre.” Ariel paused, then added, “But Coop and Pat are heroes.”

  Bertrand nodded. “We underestimated them.”

  “Their whole lives,” Ariel added. “I’m ashamed.”

  “I am too,” Bertrand admitted.

  “What happened to your face?”

  “The tropical rain forest.”

  “How’s Denise?”

  “Unimpressed. How’s Wayne?”

  “Unhappy with my maternal instincts.”

  A few seconds of silence passed.

  “I was thinking …” Bertrand began awkwardly. “I don’t know what your situation is with —”

  “I’ve missed you, Bertrand,” Ariel said. “It would be easier for the FBI to keep an eye on us if we were together, and I really don’t want to bring Wayne and his girls into all of this. It has nothing to do with them.”

  Tears welled up in Bertrand’s eyes. “I’ve missed you too. Please come home.”

  Ariel smiled. “I will. I want to.”

  She picked up the recorder and slid the button to …

  If you’re listening to this, it means Agent Ryan went garbage picking and found our package.

  Hopefully she’s acted on it.

  If she hasn’t, you need to convince her that everything on the flash drive is the absolute truth.

  I know I’m a little quirky, as Pat says, but one of my quirks is that I don’t lie, or exaggerate.

  We don’t know what Lod’s up to, but I think it’s going to hurt a lot of people.

  He needs to be stopped.

  As for us …

  We’re fine.

  So far.

  Pat and Kate are with me.

  We’ll lie low until we know we’re safe.

  If Alex knew everything about me, that means Lod knows everything too.

  He also knows about you.

  Lod is going to come looking for Kate.

  It’s too dangerous for Pat to come home right now.

  Don’t worry, I’ll watch out for him.

  Although it turns out that he was the one watching out for me. If it weren’t for him, I’d be dead, or picking mushrooms in the dark.

  And then there’s Kate …

  I think she’s the reason I was driven Beneath.

  Someday you’ll meet her.

  When you do you’ll know why I had to look.

  I was sorry to hear you two broke up.

  I hope it’s not permanent.

  You make a good team.

  You managed to keep us alive, which wasn’t easy.

  I know Pat wants to say something, but before I hand over the recorder I need to give you some warnings,
which I hope don’t freak you out too badly …

  Kate is convinced that Lod had a contingency plan and put it into play as soon as we escaped.

  She knows him better than anyone on earth.

  I believe her.

  Lod would not wait in the Deep for the FBI to show up.

  He and the Originals have probably escaped.

  We’re proceeding as if he has.

  Watch out for strangers hanging around the house or the university.

  They might be Shadows.

  Keep an eye out for stray dogs.

  They might be Seekers.

  Harden the security on your computers and phones, both at work and home. If you don’t, Lod is going to hack into them.

  Agent Ryan should be able to help you with this.

  This last one is going to be hard for both of you …

  You need to change your routines.

  Daily.

  Leave the house at different times.

  Take different routes to wherever you’re going.

  Don’t shop at the same grocery store.

  Don’t eat at the same restaurants.

  Try not to let anyone know where you’re going to be.

  Basically …

  You can’t trust anyone.

  If Lod can’t hack into your personal information, he’ll hack into someone’s who knows you.

  I’m so sorry to have put you into this terrible situation.

  If something happens to either of you, I will never forgive myself.

  Never.

  Here’s Pat …

  Hi, Mom …

  Hi, Dad …

  There’s not much I can add to what Coop just told you, except to say …

  I love you.

  I’m doing okay.

  We’ll be moving around until we know Lod and the Originals have been captured.

  We’re a little scared, but we are safe.

  We are above …

  This book would not have been possible without my editor at Scholastic, Anamika Bhatnagar. You are the best! And a big thank-you is due to my wonderful agent, Barbara Kouts, and to the fabulous art director Phil Falco, who designs these books. Thanks also to Ellie Berger, David Levithan, Ed Masessa, Robin Hoffman, Lizette Serrano, Emily Heddleson, Antonio Gonzalez, Charisse Meloto, Saraciea Fennell, Elizabeth Starr Baer, Megan Bender, Adelle Pica, and everyone else in the Scholastic family. Big thanks to my good friends and first readers, Susan Stronach and Bob Jonas. But the biggest thanks, as always, goes to my wife, Marie, the kindest person in the room, every room, always.