Chapter 12
Secrets and Peril
The room became eerily silent. Every scientist in the room had long since considered the dangers of tinkering with technology far beyond current human understanding, but Mrs. Resnick’s statement had been a forceful reminder of this point.
Finally, Dr. Harris cleared his throat to break the tension in the room and said, “I think it’s time to come back to the issue at hand. What do we do now that these kids know about the Prometheus Project?” He paused and rubbed his chin in thought. After almost a minute had passed he finally shook his head and said, “I’m afraid I don’t have a ready answer.” He turned toward the security chief. “Carl,” he said, “you’re the expert in these matters and most qualified to make this decision. I’ll stand behind whatever you decide.”
Carl nodded solemnly.
“It goes without saying,” said Ben Resnick, his brown eyes now locked onto Carl’s in a cool, unblinking gaze, “that you’re not just deciding what to do about two kids, but what to do about me and Amanda as well.”
Carl nodded unhappily. “Yes. I do realize that. This is truly a horrible situation with no easy answers. This does not involve criminals, spies from other nations, saboteurs, or terrorists. That would be easy. No, this involves innocent kids who are the children of two of our key scientists. Not to mention that Ben here just made an incalculable contribution to this project. Yet the importance of keeping this project absolutely secret could not be greater.”
“We won’t tell anyone,” pleaded Regan. “We swear.”
Ryan vigorously nodded his agreement beside her.
Carl pursed his lips but said nothing. He considered the two young intruders in silence for an agonizingly long time, his mind obviously running through a number of possibilities. No one in the room spoke or even seemed to breathe. “Although I believe it is a great risk,” he said at last, “it may very well be that trusting you to keep this absolutely secret is the best option we have.”
“But kids are terrible at keeping secrets—even if their intentions are good,” said a plump woman with glasses who, like most of the scientists in the room, had remained silent until this point.
The same is true of most adults, thought Carl, but aloud he said, “We don’t have a choice. Not a real one, anyway.”
The head of security sighed and turned toward the kids with a very serious, and very troubled, expression. “Listen very closely,” he said. “I need for you to understand just what is at stake here. This city could easily change the world’s balance of power. Even though we don’t intend to apply what we learn here to create weapons—the world has plenty of these already—there are many governments that would never believe us. If they knew this city was in our hands they would panic. It’s not a stretch to say that this panic could ultimately lead to World-War Three.”
Ryan and Regan gulped.
“Are you with me so far?” said Carl.
They both nodded. Every word was etched in their minds.
“This is one possible nightmarish consequence of this secret getting out. But there are many others. What if terrorist groups got wind of this? What would they be willing to do to try to get this city under their control? The technology here could make them unstoppable.” He paused. “I could go on for hours, but I trust you get the point.”
“Absolutely,” croaked Ryan while Regan nodded beside him.
“Good. The stakes could not be higher. Because of this we have considerable power to protect this secret. If you keep this a secret, everything will be just fine. But if we ever learn you discussed this project, or joked about it, or talked in your sleep at a campout about it, we’ll be all out of pleasant options.”
He turned toward Ben and Amanda Resnick and gave an apologetic look. “And your parents will be affected as well. What options am I talking about? Imprisonment. Planting evidence that your entire family has a history of mental illness leading you all to rant about aliens and spies and ray-guns. Probably both. And if you fail to keep this secret, don’t think for a moment that we won’t find out. We will.”
Carl leaned in as he finished, looming over his far smaller listeners to add even more menace to his words. “Now—have I made myself perfectly clear?”
“Perfectly,” they both whispered at the same time.
“Amanda? Ben?”
“Understood,” said Mr. Resnick. “Given the circumstances, this is a very fair solution. I know my kids. They will keep this a secret.”
“Kids,” said Dr. Harris gently. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am that this has happened and how sorry I am that the seriousness of this situation had to be spelled out in this way. If we could undo things so you would never discover this city we would. We have truly placed a great and terrible responsibility on your young shoulders.” He nodded solemnly at them. “But given the initiative, guts, and cleverness you displayed finding your way here, I’m confident that you’re up to it.”
“We won’t let you down, Dr. Harris,” Ryan assured him. He took a deep breath and mustered his courage. “Now that this is settled . . .” he began. “Now that this is settled . . . can we . . . well, can we help you explore this city?”
Dr. Harris shook his head as if he had heard wrong. “What?” The entire group looked just as shocked. “Are you kidding?”
“Ah . . . no,” said Ryan timidly. Then, far more firmly added, “Why not? It’s a huge city and you have a very small team. We would stay out of your way and I know that we could help.”
“Ryan’s right,” added Regan. “We could help. You could think of us as assistants. We could do whatever you told us to do.”
“We promise not to cause any trouble,” insisted Ryan.
“I’m afraid it’s totally out of the question,” said Dr. Harris. “You heard your mother. This city is likely to be the most dangerous place on Earth.”
“I don’t know, Harry,” said a tall, bald-headed scientist. “Maybe the kids have a point. We could use all the help we can get. And we’re being extremely careful to limit the danger. I know it would be unusual, but I think adding a couple of bright kids to the team could prove very valuable. I think they could turn out to make unexpected contributions. Kids aren’t afraid to think of ideas that adults would consider crazy. We need that here.”
“You do have to admit that any kids able to get past our security the way they did might just come up with a few clever ideas, at that,” added another of the scientists.
“I’ve already acknowledged that these kids are very impressive,” said Dr. Harris. He paused for several long seconds in thought, but finally a frown crept over his face and he shook his head. “But the answer is still no. I believe that—”
“Mom!” shouted Ryan in horror. “Look out!”
A bolt holding a heavy portable generator to the pole above Mrs. Resnick had worked its way lose. Ryan had caught it out of the corner of his eye as it popped free and the generator began its fall—straight down toward his mother’s head.
Ryan watched the generator fall in horror, knowing that his warning had been too late to save his mom.