In the half-light of the arctic summer night Tressa, Mason and Clyde slipped around the corner of the office building and took off running into the power plant’s jungle of pipes and tubes heading toward the reactor building. As they got closer to the reactor’s towering, faded blue power tornado they slowed and tried to move forward quietly. Clyde located two of the three barrels he bumped into earlier and managed to knock them back over onto their sides.
In the lead, Tressa motioned for them all to stop and crouch down. She signaled to Mason to come forward and peer around the last section of pipe with her. He crawled forward slowly and soon was at her shoulder. Tressa put her mouth near his ear and whispered, “I just saw two security goons carrying what looks like the crates from New Omaha. I think they contain the explosives, and for some reason Zimmer seems to be blowing up his own power plants! One guard just went into the reactor building and the other off into the jungle of pipes. I think the Colonel plans on blowing this place up tonight.”
Mason nodded and sat back on his knees for a moment. He leaned back toward her and whispered, “Maybe they are going to blow this place up. We should grab Fergus and get out of here. NOW!”
“What about the reactor? Or the innocent people at the party? We’ve got to try and stop anything bad from happening. Or at least warn someone.” Tressa was determined not to see anyone else get murdered if she could help it.
“I still think we should get Fergus. He can find some police around here somewhere to handle it.”
Tressa was disappointed that Mason didn’t act like the heroes he brought to life in his stories, but she knew that couldn’t stop her from doing what she knew was right. Frustrated she said, “There’s no time. You go back and warn everyone to get away from the party and we’ll try to stop them here.” She pointed and sent him off toward the tent. Mason quickly disappeared from view.
Tressa quietly backed up and pulled Clyde’s head next to hers. Quickly listening to her instructions he nodded, and then slipped back and away circling through the pipes toward the rear of the reactor building. Tressa then took a deep breath and raced toward the front door of the building. Stopping against the outside edge of the open door she peered into the darkness within. Bent over she entered the building and tried to stay low and listen for any kind of movement. She checked several side rooms but they were all empty. Finally, she came to the reactor room door and silently gripped the doorknob and gave it a gentle twist. It swung open and she slowly eased inside the reactor control room.
The darkness of the control room was punctuated by soft green lights blinking here and there as they had during this afternoon’s tour. Standing straight up she could see the silent maelstrom of the reactor’s power vortex constantly climbing up and out through the roof to power the entire town. Unlike this afternoon, a security man was pulling out bricks of the explosives and placing them around the reactor.
Tressa froze in fear for a moment. Gathering her courage, she found the entry door to the reactor chamber and opened it, swiftly running into the reactor area. The man there finished pushing something into the pile of explosives and looked up in surprise at the interruption. Before he could prepare himself Tressa bounced into the air and snapped out a kick toward his head. Attempting to duck the blow the security guard raised his arm and the kick’s main force was softened.
As she landed Tressa spun around and faced the security man. He smiled as he reached behind his back and pulled out a long, thin knife with a gleaming edge. Tressa could feel cold sweat form between her shoulder blades and forced herself to slow down and concentrate. Rushing here could be fatal, she realized. She needed control and restraint over her emotions now more than ever.
The security guard started backing her toward a corner and as he moved he switched the knife from hand to hand. Waving it between handoffs he taunted her. “Little girl wants to be a hero? She may want to save the day, but she’ll die trying!” Suddenly, he lunged at Tressa with the knife blade extending out toward her chest at the last moment. Tressa had seen a similar move from Master Tanaka as he trained with the older boys. She pivoted her body sideways and chopped hard at his wrist when it went by her torso. Tressa heard a cracking sound, the security guard dropped the knife and it clattered away under some of the reactor monitoring equipment.
Holding his broken wrist against his body the man again moved in toward Tressa. “I don’t have time for this. There’s not time for this.” He moved his head a little and brought his good hand up in front of him like a boxer. Throwing short feints he got a measure of the distance between them. Without warning he changed directions and with a weight shift was able to throw a hard straight punch that hit Tressa squarely in the face.
Everything in her world slowed down as it all became just a blossom of white-hot redness in her brain for half a second. When she cleared her eyes she saw the security guard standing in front of her smiling with confidence. “Like that? There’s plenty more where that came from, but I’ve only got time for one more. You’re going sky high with this whole place in three minutes.” He started to bob his head again and move toward her.
Tressa took one step to the right and pushed off hard. Jumping high in the air she pushed his leading hand out of the way and twisting quickly connected to the side of his head with her elbow smashing into his ear. He wobbled from the blow and shook his head. Before he could find his balance she followed her own movement, reaching in, she grabbed his injured wrist. Pulling it toward her body she twisted it, forcing him onto his toes to try and get ahead of the joint lock hold. Powerfully turning away from him with his wrist firmly in her grasp she forced his body to follow and he sailed up and over her hip. Flying through the air the security guard went head first into the side of the support machinery for the reactor. She waited for him to move but he was knocked out cold. “I don’t know if I’m a hero, but I hate getting hit in the face.” She finally had time to notice a timer embedded in the explosives that was rapidly counting down toward zero. She realized she had just moments left before the explosives would detonate.
Tressa quickly made her way out to find Clyde and make sure Mason had emptied the party tent. As she was approaching the door leading out of the reactor building Tressa almost threw a punch into a shadow outside until she saw the oversized hands and goofy smile. “I got mine.” Clyde said holding up an unconscious security guard by one ankle. “Let’s see whose is bigger!”
“No time. Seriously! NO TIME!” Tressa sprinted for the party tent as she yelled for Clyde to drop that guy and follow her. They worked their way out of the maze of pipes and could see the top of the tent ahead in the distance. They finally passed the last obstacle between them and the party, and Tressa’s only goal was to get to the singer’s microphone and have everyone move as far away as possible.
Clearing the tangle of pipes Tressa and Clyde skidded to a stop within a semicircle ring of security vehicles. They could see the empty party tent beyond and Tressa knew that Mason had gotten the crowd to safety. Without warning, floodlights blasted them and they shielded their eyes from the intense light. Tressa yelled, “You’ve got to get away from here! There’s a bomb about to go off!”
Colonel Zimmer replied from behind the lights. “We were hoping to stop you from another such disturbance. You will not get away with this sabotage.”
Before Tressa could reply the false arctic twilight lit up with a light so bright it blinded them all for a moment. Then the shock wave hit and lifted Tressa and Clyde up and smacked them into the ground. It carried forward, shattering every window in the office building and breaking the spotlights on the security vehicles encircling the pair. Tressa couldn’t hear anything and tried to get up but her legs didn’t cooperate. As she tried to yell for help she sagged to the ground and everything went black.
Chapter 17
Tressa found herself in a low rent part of town sharing a bug-ridden hotel room with Fergus and Mason. Even after four days, stretching and yoga poses were painful to her bac
k and shoulders. With bruises up and down her spine sleeping had been very difficult. She didn’t have the slightest idea where Clyde had gotten to.
She had no memory of leaving the power plant grounds. Mason had told her that during the confusion after the blast he found her and Clyde partially buried in some rubble. After Mason quickly dug them out Clyde awoke first and took off at a run into the city. Mason was able to lift Tressa and get her into an empty trolley left by a driver who was helping to put out small fires around the grounds. They had slipped away as emergency vehicles arrived and security people ran around trying to figure out what to do first. After a few minutes of artful driving Mason had her well hidden a couple blocks away and he cautiously went back to find Fergus.
Meanwhile, Fergus had been looking through piles of debris and wreckage vainly trying to find Tressa and Mason. Covered from head to toe in soot and ashes and breathing heavily, he had feared the worst and thought them dead. His mind repeatedly jumped ahead to what awaited him at home and he was heartbroken about having to tell Gianna that another of her loved ones had died while on a journey with him. Mason found Fergus and pulled him away from the rest of the rescue crews. “I’ve got Tressa stashed around the corner,” He whispered to Fergus.
Because Fergus had been in the party tent and just happened to be talking to Colonel Zimmer when Mason came in and grabbed the microphone – just as Tressa had planned to do – Fergus was not immediately implicated in the sabotage plot. He quickly joined the search teams, but Colonel Zimmer made it clear to Fergus during the early stages of rescue and searching through the mess of the blast that he fully suspected Mason, Tressa and any helpers as the people behind the explosion.
Fergus was shedding small clouds of dust and his eyes were bloodshot from the smoke in the air. He appeared dazed and disoriented from the blast. “You both need to turn yourselves in to Colonel Zimmer so we can get this straightened out. I’ve known Zimmer for years and once we all sit down together the truth will come out. How could he believe you two are involved in a plot to blow up power plants?”
Mason grabbed Fergus’ shirt front and tried to shake his senses back to normal. “You don’t understand. There’s more to this than you think. Zimmer is the one behind the explosions. Tressa had it all figured out, but I thought she was making up stories. Fortunately, I listened enough to get the people at the party far enough away that they didn’t all get caught in the destruction. Once the plant here blew up I knew she had been right all along. Come with me and we’ll explain it all to you.”
Fergus followed Mason to his hiding spot and they found Tressa passed out where she had been hidden. The trio managed to get away undetected even though the Colonel had dispatched roving trolleys with searchlights to look for them or anyone else appearing suspicious. After checking in by himself to the cheap hotel under an assumed name, Fergus helped Mason carry Tressa up a rear staircase and into the room. Since then only he had gone out to get small take-away meals which they shared. Tressa spent most of her time trying to sleep and Mason kept an eye on her to make sure she was not suffering from anything worse than a good bruising.
After filling him in on all the events that had happened from New Omaha up to the present, Fergus had kept them up most of that first night peppering them with questions about what they had seen and found out about Colonel Zimmer, the explosives, Clyde and all the rest. “I can’t believe Zimmer has fooled me all this time. He has a seat on the Board of Directors of Perpetual Power, you know. All this time…. And you kids, figuring all this out on your own. And trying to stop him. It’s truly amazing.”
“Well, I have to be honest. It was mostly Tressa. She’s the one who saw Zimmer and found the explosives. She’s the one who got Clyde to help us change our travel plans. And she’s the one who tried to stop the bombers from blowing up the plant.” Mason looked crestfallen. “All I did was yell into a microphone.”
Putting his hand on Mason’s shoulder he said proudly, “And saved the lives of several hundred people, including me.”
“I guess so. But what are we going to do now? Tressa’s injured. Clyde has disappeared. Everyone’s looking for us…the police, the Colonel’s people and probably everybody else from the Caribbean to the North Pole. How can we ever make it home?”
Trying to be upbeat, Fergus said, “I have a few ideas about that. Let’s have Tressa heal up for a few days and then we’ll take our next step. In the meantime, you two consider where to look for your friend Clyde.”
One week after the explosion at the power plant. Tressa was finally able to move well enough that travelling was possible. She and Mason had spent considerable time thinking about Clyde and how to find him. Discussing their options with Fergus the trio put together a plan to get themselves out of Nome. Fergus told them that their best possibility of getting Colonel Zimmer to understand their innocence would be to seek him out at his headquarters in Munich. Tressa asked him, “Fergus, what number Elevator goes to Munich?”
~
Later, she and Mason laughed a little with each other as they fashioned makeshift disguises from the tattered blankets, old pillows and towels they took from the cleaning closet in the hallway of the hotel. Mason smiled and said, “If only Clyde were here. He could judge how well we’re doing.”
Tressa had stuffed several pillows under her coat in front and in back and she looked as big around as she was tall. Mason had fashioned a hooded cape of sorts from the worn-out blankets and looked like a street person who might beg for handouts. Fergus wrapped two towels around his arm and made a sling from a torn up sheet. He thought a very noticeable “broken arm” and sling might keep passersby from looking too closely at his face.
Following Tressa’s intuition and educated guess they made a roundabout approach to the Space Elevator station. Carefully entering through a side doorway they watched from the fringes at the busy activity of a normal day inside SEW-AK. Buggies and trolleys were carrying freight back and forth. Passengers were looking at displays to see which Elevators were preparing to go and when.
Fergus tugged at the costumes on Tressa and Mason and pulled them back so they were partially hidden behind some stacked wooden crates labeled ‘Buenos Aires – Medical Supplies’. “We need to be careful,” he said. “Look at all the security guards around. We’ll have to be a little lucky to slip out without being caught. Now, where do we look for Clyde?”
Spying a doorway marked “Janitor Only” in scratchy block stencil Tressa pointed and said, “Right there. Let’s go one at a time and we’ll meet back together inside the janitor’s closet.” The others nodded agreement.
A few minutes apart Mason, and then Fergus and finally Tressa wandered nonchalantly around the piled luggage and packages and ended up standing in front of the target doorway. Each looked around and slowly reaching behind them turned the knob and quickly spun through the door closing it behind them.
Inside was the obligatory row of mops and slop buckets. This Elevator station was not as well appointed as the one in New Omaha, but there were still floors to clean, windows to wash and trash bins to empty. Further down the hall the trio passed a break room with snack machines and a coffee maker that looked to be older than the station itself. Four unmatched chairs were loosely arranged around a well-worn table in the middle of the small room.
The corridor turned to the right and the next several gray, metal doors were locked when Tressa tried turning the knobs. The short hallway ended with just one door remaining before terminating in a blank concrete wall. As they approached Tressa turned to look at her companions. She hoped she had guessed right about Clyde returning to a habitat with which he would be familiar. After all, it’s what she would have done in his place.
After finding the first few doors locked all three of the fugitives were mildly surprised when the knob turned easily and the door swung inward. As they entered the softly lit room their mild surprise turned to outright bafflement as they walked across a heavy nape red, black and blue Persian car
pet. The elaborate design wound around the perimeter of the rug and the colors chased each other back and forth across the center of the carpet.
Sitting lightly on the carpet was a highly polished, matched set of love seats with gracefully carved legs and dainty yellow cushions propped in the corners. The seats framed a low mahogany coffee table with several large books that advertised their contents with cover photos of exotic destinations and instructions on how to spend your leisure time while on expensive yachts.
Beyond the sitting room was a fully set 12 place dining room table. Each place setting contained all the expected implements as well as two extra spoons and a handful of forks. Each diner could probably eat their fill without having to use the same utensil twice. Hanging majestically above the table was a pair of crystal chandeliers that shone like a thousand small stars twinkling in the low light of the room.
The final surprise was a comfortable area of sectional couches and end tables with expensive looking lamps. A fully stocked bar with six leather barstools occupied the majority of floor space in one corner. Various game tables were spaced about including a massive full-sized billiards table. Two nicely stocked cue racks were mounted on the wall. A set of pool balls were perfectly set - ready for a game. The only thing that seemed less than luxurious was the giant man holding a cue that looked like a symphony conductor’s baton against his huge frame. “Hi guys. Nice disguises!” said Clyde. Then he snapped his cue forward and broke to start a new game of 8 Ball.
“Where….I mean, what….or rather, how…” Tressa couldn’t decide to where to start. Swallowing and taking a deep breath and resting her arms on her recently inflated midsection she tried again, “Please tell us what happened to you after the explosion at the power plant.”
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