by Roland Smith
I heard steel on steel as Coop used the pick on the hasp.
“I just about have it,” he said. “Get ready. We’re almost —”
Clang!
This was followed by a loud whoosh. It felt like I was being dumped down a garbage disposal. My eyes and mouth and nose filled with dirt and rock. Something hit my back. It wasn’t dirt or rock. It was softer. Warmer. I let go of the ladder with one hand and reached out.
Something grabbed it, nearly wrenching my arm out of my shoulder socket. I hung on with all my strength.
The dirt passed.
The air cleared enough for me to squint down at what was threatening to pull me to my death.
It was Coop, covered with dirt, dangling by one hand, grinning.
“Hey, Lil Bro, look up. It’s the moon.”
the sign reads above the grassy area where we have set up our evening picnic. There are signs like this all over Portland.
It’s been over three years since the Deep 2.0.
When we got everyone out the back door, we stumbled down to the command center.
Agent Ryan came out of a trailer.
“Looks like you boys have been digging again.”
“Kind of,” I said.
She looked at Coop. “I thought I told you to quit digging.”
“Well, I was digging up, not down. I think there’s a difference.”
Agent Ryan looked at Kate. “You must be Kate.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Where’s your grandfather?” Agent Ryan asked.
“He’s in the …” She looked at Alex. “He’s in the Deep, and he’s here.” She slipped her arm through Alex’s arm.
“I’m sure there is an explanation for that,” Agent Ryan said. “But I meant Lawrence Oliver Dane.”
“He’s tied up in a cube,” Kate said. “I broke his leg.”
“Good,” Agent Ryan said. “I’m sure the prison doctor will set it for him.”
The agents and SWAT teams swarmed down the shaft like invading hornets. They brought laptops and servers to reboot the Deep 2.0.
They didn’t lose one person.
Or bat.
There was a media blitz.
Court trials.
A worldwide sensation, which Coop and I and Alex and Kate were able to avoid for the most part.
One thing Lod did accomplish is that he forced everyone, individuals and governments, to rethink our dependency on technology. That’s not what he had in mind. But there it is.
Lod, Bella, Bill, and all the other Originals are in prison.
They won’t live long enough to get out.
Everyone talked except for Lod.
It’s said that he hasn’t uttered a single word since they found him in the cube.
I graduated from high school and moved to Portland.
Mom and Dad joined me. They live across the street from us. Dad has become a gourmet cook. His refrigerator is now used for food. He may be the only Nobel laureate teaching cooking classes out of his home three days a week. Mom has set up a foundation that gives free flying lessons to those who can’t afford it. She believes that everyone has the right to fly.
Kate has a lot of dogs now. Dozens of them. She and Coop started a dog-training facility and boarding kennel.
Kate is out with the dogs right now. Six of them in a sit-stay exercise in the field where we are having the picnic that Dad has prepared.
Carl is helping her.
They gave him immunity for all he did for us, and for the world actually.
He lives in a small apartment above the kennel.
He has a dog. Not a Rott. Not a pit bull.
A standard poodle.
It’s the smartest dog Kate has ever known.
Alex lives in the attic of the house Mom and Dad helped us buy next to the kennel. His room is lined with books. He works for Powell’s City of Books part time.
I’m going to Portland State University, majoring in English.
I’m thinking that I might want to teach.
Or maybe write.
Or maybe both.
And Coop?
He’s still tapping. I can hear him now.
Tap … tap … tap …
There is a bridge on the other side of the field where Kate and Carl are training dogs. Coop is under it right now.
Tap … tap … tap …
He spends his free time teaching tap to kids.
It’s getting dark out.
The moon is full.
Tap … tap … tap …
In an hour the lunar eclipse will begin.
Tap … tap … tap …
We missed the last blood moon fourteen months earlier.
We were at the hospital.
The tapping stops.
Coop walks across the field toward me.
He is carrying a baby in his arms.
She is fourteen months old.
Her name is Rebecca.
A huge thanks to my editor at Scholastic, Anamika Bhatnagar, who caught a ton of things I missed in the rough draft. Whew! And thank you, once again, to the Fabulous 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, Rebekah Wallin, Erica Ferguson, Megan Peace, Adelle Pica, and everyone else in the Scholastic family. But the biggest thanks, as always, goes to my wife, Marie, the kindest person in the room, every room, always.
Roland Smith is the author of numerous award-winning books for young readers, including the Cryptid Hunters series and the Storm Runners trilogy. For more than twenty years he worked as an animal keeper, traveling all over the world, before turning to writing full time. Roland lives with his wife, Marie, on a small farm south of Portland, Oregon. Visit him online at www.rolandsmith.com.
Copyright © 2016 by Roland Smith
www.rolandsmith.com
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Smith, Roland, 1951– author.
Title: Above / Roland Smith.
Description: First edition. | New York : Scholastic Press, 2016.
Summary: Pat O’Toole, his brother Coop, and their new companion, Kate, have narrowly escaped a cultlike community below New York City but must try to stop the cult’s leader, Kate’s grandfather.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016019874 | ISBN 9780545564892 (hc)
Subjects: | CYAC: Brothers — Fiction. | Adventure and adventurers — Fiction. | Cults — Fiction. | Underground areas — Fiction. | Portland (Or.) — Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General. | JUVENILE FICTION / Family / Siblings. | JUVENILE FICTION / Nature & the Natural World / Environment.
Classification: LCC PZ7.S65766 Abo 2016 | DDC [Fic] — dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016019874
First edition, October 2016
Cover art and design © 2016 by Phil Falco
e-ISBN 978-0-545-56491-5
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