by Katrina Cope
Charlie’s brow creased into deeper lines, and his faded-blue eyes looked to be processing the information in his head. “Actually, I would have to agree that this is not such a bad assessment of me. It is really quite correct.” He chuckled to himself. “But I wouldn’t mind if you would add to her program not to hit me, ’cause, believe it or not, she has quite a strong hit for a little girl. It is probably all that metal in her. It is a big shock after being blown away by her cuteness.” He gave Shelly a puzzled look.
“Absolutely, Charlie. I will reprogram that part of her ASAP,” Robert agreed. “I’ve already had to reprogram her a little when it came to Eva.” He chuckled a little, though he held most of it in, which caused his rounded belly to jiggle. “If I didn’t, I think I would have lost a friend.” He smiled sheepishly at Eva. “She kept calling Eva ‘Diva.’”
Eva was looking quite relaxed, unoffended, and pleased with Robert’s explanation, at least until Shelly spun her torso right around while still in Avando’s arms, pointed her little pointer finger at Eva, and exclaimed, “Diva!” She then pulled her two little hands back, cupped them over her mouth, and giggled into them.
Robert had a look of shame and horror on his face as he looked at Eva, his eyes almost pleading for her forgiveness. Avando threw his head back in a hearty laugh as Charlie chuckled to himself next to him. Aaron and Jayden were trying to suppress their laughter as Eva threw a stunned look at Shelly. It wasn’t long, though, until she saw the funny side and started to laugh wholeheartedly with the rest of them. Jayden was pleased to see the pressures of the day lifted off her shoulders with her laughter.
- Chapter Eleven -
Exploits in the Night
Liam was wrapped comfortably in his sheets and fast asleep. His lack of trust was manipulating the theme of his dreams—secrets, lies, and conniving professors and friends filled them. He wasn’t typically one to have trust issues, but the complexity of his relationships with a few of his close acquaintances was raising questions in his mind. He tossed and turned. The more he dreamed of them, the less clarity he had of the issues at hand. He was growing more apprehensive by the minute.
Among his dreams, deep within the darkness and confusion, a hand reached out and grabbed his arm. From the shock of someone grasping him, his body involuntarily sat bolt upright on his bed, pulling him dramatically out of the dream. His eyes flew open, and he searched the room.
A cold sweat had broken on his skin as he waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness in the room. Before him stood a dark figure, and fear gripped at his soul.
“Liam.” A familiar voice pulled him back to reality.
“Who’s there?” Liam’s panic dulled slightly.
The person chuckled. “It’s me, man. Brendan.”
“Jeez, Brendan! You scared the heebie-jeebies out of me. What’re you doing?”
“I’ve got the code, so I’m waking you guys, as I promised.”
Liam rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and ran fingers through his hair. “Oh. Okay.” His eyes were adjusting to the dark. He glanced at Dryden’s bed to see him still fast asleep. “Better wake Dryden, then.”
Brendan did as Liam suggested while Liam woke himself up then threw on a pair of shorts and a shirt. He chuckled when he saw Dryden react in a similar way as he did when Brendan woke him.
“Wakey, wakey, sleepyhead.” Brendan playfully shook Dryden. Dryden looked confused. “It’s time to go. We’re going on our little discovery.”
Dryden immediately pulled himself out of bed and started getting dressed. He managed to put a shirt on the wrong way and shrugged when he realized his mistake.
“Have you told Hayley?” Liam asked. “She would be furious if we left her out.”
“All organized.” Brendan chuckled. “I’ve got someone working on that right now.”
“Why is that so funny?” Liam asked.
“I’m sure you’ll find out shortly.” Brendan grinned. “Come on. We’re going to meet her under one of the trees outside.”
They snuck out of their bedroom, closing the door behind them in case someone was wandering through the halls and saw that they were not sleeping in their beds. They made their way down the hall as covertly as was possible for a group of uncoordinated geeks. Liam was the main one having trouble—he struggled with his two left feet to make sure he did not knock or trip over anything. It was harder to achieve when the hallway was only lit half the amount it was during approved waking hours.
At one stage, Liam thought he had heard something behind them and tried to look behind while attempting to keep up with the others. He didn’t see anything. Instead, Liam found himself flying forward, his body quickly descending toward the ground. He turned back around just in time to place his arms out in front of him and brace for the hard fall.
Brendan dived at a large potted plant, catching it and steadying it back into place before it managed to hit the floor with a loud crash.
“Jeez, man! You really are uncoordinated. No wonder you’re not moving up in Tae Kwon Do.” Brendan’s voice was a half whisper.
“Yup.” Liam breathed the word, relieved that Brendan had managed to stop the pot from falling to the floor or against the wall.
With that little drama dealt with, they continued down the hall and out into the darkened yard. Sticking to the dark spots away from the occasional yard lights, they moved in stealth mode. They made it to a low-lying shrubby tree not far from the admin building and crept into the safety of the bushy foliage.
Hayley streaked past Liam and Dryden, beelining straight toward Brendan then delivering an open-handed slap on his arm.
“Ow!” Brendan cried.
“Don’t you ever wake me like that again!” she hissed through clenched teeth.
“What are you talking about? I didn’t wake you.” His face portrayed innocence.
Hayley placed her hands on her hips. “You personally didn’t wake me up, but your messenger sure as heck did.”
Brendan’s face broke into a cheesy smile. “Why? What did they do?”
“Don’t go and act all innocent on me!” she snapped.
“I honestly don’t know what they did.” He shook his head and shrugged while lifting his opened hands.
Seeing steam still coming out of Hayley’s ears, Liam asked, “Who woke you, and what’d they do?”
“I have no idea who woke me,” she spat. “I still haven’t seen them.” She poked a finger at Brendan’s chest and said, “You’re lucky I didn’t scream the house down.”
Brendan put his hands up in defeat. “Jeez! It was just a little payback from before and how you don’t trust me. I won’t do it again… I promise.”
Liam was confused. “Why? What’d he do?”
Hayley turned to Liam with the fire in her eyes matching her hair and explained, “He got some doofus to open my bedroom window and sneak into my room wearing a balaclava. I woke up to see this dark silhouette standing over me. They handed me a note, telling me to meet you all here.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I nearly jumped out of my skin!” She glared at Brendan. “I thought it might have been that guy we have been looking for. I thought maybe he had caught on and had come to get me, to stop us searching for him.”
The boys laughed, which made Hayley more annoyed.
“Looks like Hayley’s finally got her checkmate for pranks and teasing,” Dryden said.
“About time.” Liam couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.
Hayley glared daggers at the two boys. “Who was that, anyway?” she asked Brendan.
“Just a friend of mine. No one you’d know.” Brendan was still wearing the smirk of amusement.
“Well, I don’t want to see them in my room again.” Her eyes narrowed.
“Okay, okay. Never again. Got it.” He withdrew from her. “Now, are we going to go check out this door, or what?”
“Yeah, let’s go,” Dryden said, and Liam nodded. “She’ll get over it eventually.”
“Oka
y, then. Let’s go.” Brendan stuck his head out of the foliage and had a quick scout around, looking for any sign of movement. A moment later, he indicated for the others to follow him out from the protection of the tree. They crept over to the dark shadows, making their way toward the admin building.
When they were nearly there, Liam spotted a security camera. “What about the cameras? We forgot about the cameras.” He was frustrated over their negligence.
“You may have forgotten about the cameras, but I haven’t.” Brendan held something in his hand and was pointing it at the cameras. “I borrowed an electromagnetic radiation device from an acquaintance I know.”
“You do have some strange acquaintances.” The suspicion had returned to Hayley’s voice.
“Yeah, yeah. Moving on.” Brendan rolled his eyes. “Now’s not the time for this. We can deal with your trust issues later.”
He pointed the device at the next camera before they were within its vision. When they reached the admin building’s external door, they stopped. Brendan pulled what looked like a blank white key card out of his pocket. He swiped it then entered the code into the pin pad, and they watched as the door opened.
“Jeez! How many times have you broken into this building?” Liam whispered, his eyes wide with disbelief.
“A few,” Brendan whispered back, shrugging. They slid into the building behind him. “It took a few times to figure out the right code for the door,” Brendan said.
“I bet you’ve already been in this room.” Hayley glared at him.
“No, I haven’t.”
Liam was surprised that Brendan had broken into the building a few times, but he left it alone. Perhaps he’d been practicing for that night.
The inside of the building was mostly dark, much darker than the dormitory halls. A couple of very dim lights shone mostly from the exit signs. Brendan continued holding the electromagnetic radiation device toward each of the security cameras as they approached them.
They crept down the hall, following Brendan’s lead toward the mysterious locked door. When they finally reached it, Brendan stopped in front of the door and entered the code. He pressed down on the handle, and the door swung open, revealing to the unsuspecting students a cozy little garden with four park benches sitting around the edges of the open area.
Brendan indicated Hayley and directed her toward the room. “Ladies first.”
Cautiously, Hayley entered the room while gazing around at the garden and the waterfall in the corner. The three boys followed suit. Having already taken in everything visible in the place, Hayley turned to Brendan with a questioning look on her face. “It’s just a garden,” she said.
“How odd.” Liam searched the room slowly.
“Why would they lock a garden?” Dryden looked as confused as Liam felt.
“It is rather strange, isn’t it?” Brendan said. He too looked puzzled. After a while, Brendan sat down on the park bench. “It’s quite a pretty garden, yet it’s all cooped up. No one from the general public can come and see this place.”
They continued to search the room, looking in every place possible to figure out why the garden was locked away. They weren’t coming up with any ideas, and the search felt fruitless.
“I’m done looking.” Dryden threw his head back in frustration.
“Me too,” Liam said.
“Why don’t you come and sit over here, guys?” Brendan tapped the park bench next to him. “Come. Sit down for a bit, and we can think together what this room is all about.”
The other three students didn’t need much coaxing to come and sit next to Brendan on the bench.
“I don’t understand it.” Liam frowned. “I know we’ve said it before, but why the heck would you lock up a garden?”
“It’s bizarre.” Hayley nodded while still looking around. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe it’s some kind of asylum.” Dryden looked amused and puzzled at the same time. “This could be where they lock up the bad students to try to calm them down with the pretty waterfall garden.”
Brendan laughed. “Not a bad thought. But for that to be plausible, the room would have to be locked from the inside as well.”
“I’ll check.” Liam jumped up and went to the door. Much to his disappointment, it opened straight away. “Nope. That’s not it.” He closed the door and returned to the park bench before slumping back on the seat.
Brendan fiddled with the bottom of the seat.
“Well, I’m ready to leave.” Hayley was about to stand up when the floor caved beneath them, taking the four of them down on the seat.
Liam gripped the chair. His arms were rigid with panic as the floor fell under them, leaving them surrounded with solid concrete. A small opening sat stories above them where their seat used to be.
“What the heck!” Liam gaped at the hole. The four students descended quickly into the black depths of the building, the light above growing dimmer.
“Oh my gosh!” exclaimed Hayley. “How deceptive is this?”
“What’s this school up to?” Dryden’s head spun while taking everything in.
“Not a clue,” Brendan said. “But we’re about to find out.”
“How can you be so calm?” Hayley asked Brendan. “We don’t have a clue where we’re going.”
Brendan smiled. “I’m screaming on the inside.”
They hung onto their seat until they stopped moving downward and a new top-secret underground area was opened up to them. Dim lights were shining through the corridors, showing off several labs on each side. Viewing windows into the labs were dark, indicating that the rooms were empty. The workers would surely be sleeping, as it was the early hours of the morning.
Liam let out an impressed whistle. “Holy moly! Has this been down here the whole time?”
“No idea.” Brendan shrugged.
Liam was about to suggest to them to get off the seat and have a look around, but he realized that they were already doing that. He was the only one sitting. He stood up and joined them.
Security cameras lined the corridor, and he noticed that Brendan was already blocking them with the electromagnetic radiation device before they reached them. With their eyes wide in astonishment, they trekked through the corridors, investigating each lab. Liam could feel his mouth gaping each time they discovered a new piece of technology. Whatever they were working on down there was very advanced.
They continued until they reached the end room. Large robots in the shape of humans stood in a few different places. Their eyes seemed to follow Liam everywhere.
“What are those?” Liam asked.
“Surrogate robots,” Brendan said.
“And how do you know that?” Hayley stared at him.
“Relax. I read about them in a science magazine.” Brendan rolled his eyes.
They entered the lab and turned on the light then wandered around, touching and feeling the lifelike robots in front of them.
“What are they up to?” Liam said. When he realized that he had spoken out loud, he said, “I mean, I came here to build robots and stuff like that, but this is way beyond my wildest dreams.”
“Not to mention that they’re so secretive about it,” Hayley said. “It makes you wonder what all that bombing stuff was about last year. Maybe there was more to it than they let on.”
“It does make you wonder, doesn’t it?” Brendan said. “Maybe we should sit down and have a look.” He sat down at the desk with the computer and turned it on. While waiting for it to boot, he spun the swirling office chair to face the room and watch the others.
“What are you doing, Brendan?” Liam asked.
“I’m going to see if I can hack into the system.”
“I suppose you think you’re an expert hacker now.” Hayley mocked him.
“I’m certainly not an expert hacker, Hayley, but I do know a little bit about it.”
The computer had booted, and Brendan turned around. Liam watched from across the room as Bren
dan started shifting to the files on the computer with a touch of expert talent. “Those are some serious skills you have there, Brendan. Where’d you learn them?”
Brendan shrugged. “I’ve picked up bits and pieces here and there.”
Without getting a proper response from Brendan, Liam continued to investigate the things in the room with Hayley and Dryden. They were genuinely surprised by the advanced technology in front of them.
“They should share all these on our first day instead of those fake-looking robot birds,” Liam said.
“True that! I still can’t think of why they’d keep this a secret.” Hayley picked up one of the surrogate’s hands to investigate it closer, marveling over the intelligence at her fingertips. The surrogate’s pieces made a slight noise as she moved it around. The sound was not loud, but it could be heard faintly throughout the room because it was not muffled by the artificial skin that would eventually be on the outside of the robot.
Liam thought he had heard another faint sound in the distance. The others in the room didn’t show any sign of hearing anything. His nerves were already on edge from being somewhere where they shouldn’t be, so he wasn’t quite sure if he had heard anything. Not willing to take the risk, he made his way over to the window of the lab to have a look down the corridor. Because the hall was not straight all the way to the entrance, he couldn’t see the full underground area. Wanting to double check, he turned to Brendan and asked, “Can I borrow that electromagnetic radiation device?”
When Brendan gave him a questioning look, he explained, “I just want to check something down the corridor.”
Brendan reached into his pocket then handed the device to Liam.
“Thanks,” Liam said softly before making his way out the door and down the corridor, pointing the device at the cameras on his way through. When he reached the corner of the first corridor, he thought he heard another faint sound and stuck his head around the corner to peer down the next corridor. To his horror, he saw a dark figure wandering around the far end of the first corridor near the entrance. This figure was zigzagging through the hallway, going from one lab to the other, peering in the windows. When he looked harder at the figure in the distance, he saw that he was a dark-skinned person, and the person was almost bald. Dread ran through his veins when the person turned and confirmed his fear. It was Dr. Ernest.