Chapter 4
Guards and Radiation
Thirty minutes later Ryan was clinging to the tree limb that extended over the fence. They had agreed if they got caught he would do the talking while Regan would look small and innocent. He would explain they had been on their bikes, had seen the tree limb running over the fence, and decided to use it as a short-cut to visit their parents. They would play dumb if asked about anything else.
Ryan searched long and hard for any guards. All was clear. He slid along the branch until he made it over the fence. He was now ten or eleven feet off the ground and more than a little stressed. The branch hadn’t seemed all that high when he was looking up, but now that he was looking down and preparing to jump, the ground seemed awfully far away.
Ryan took a deep breath and lowered himself the full length of his body. He searched for the flattest, softest landing site possible and prepared to let go.
And froze!
A man inside the fence had appeared from nowhere and was coming straight toward him! Worse still, the man had a gun, and it was drawn! Ryan’s heart beat like a jackhammer in his chest. He quickly pulled his legs up under him so they weren’t dangling down at the man’s eye level.
The man hadn’t looked up yet, but he would in a matter of seconds. And even if he didn’t, Ryan couldn’t hold on for much longer. They would be caught before they had even begun. He was a sitting—or in this case, hanging—duck.
“Jim, come in!” bellowed an anxious voice from the man’s waist. “Emergency! Jim, do you read?”
The man holstered his gun and lifted a small walkie-talkie from his belt, bringing it to his mouth. “Collins here,” he said quickly.
“Jim, we’ve got a problem,” squawked the walkie-talkie. “Make your way to the west perimeter immediately! We spotted two intruders . . .” There was a long hesitation. “Coming out of Prometheus Alpha.”
The walkie-talkie almost slipped from the man’s grasp and he had to juggle it before he regained his hold. “Did you say out?” he said in astonishment. “That’s impossible. No intruders have ever gotten in,” he insisted.
“Well apparently these two did,” snapped the voice. “And Jim,” he continued. “We think they’re kids.”
The man—Jim—looked at the walkie-talkie in disbelief. “Kids?”
“We think so. Alan almost had them but they made it to the west woods. I want you to join him in the search,” the other man ordered. “Immediately. We have to find them!”
Ryan listened as he fought to hold on, very near the limit of his endurance. His muscles were aching and he was certain his arms would pop out of their sockets at any moment.
Just as his hands finally slipped from around the branch the man turned and began racing off at a full sprint in the other direction. Ryan landed as quietly as possible and held his breath. They were safe. At least for now.
Ryan froze in a crouch for several minutes until the man was out of sight and then motioned to his sister. Moments later she joined him on the ground. He would never tell her so, but he was impressed. The height from which he had dropped had seemed awfully scary, yet Regan—because she was smaller—had plunged an even greater distance, and without hesitation. He didn’t know any other girl her age who would have had the nerve to do the same.
“Did you hear that guy mention Prometheus?” whispered Ryan.
“Yeah,” his sister whispered back. “I wonder who those kids are that they’re after.”
Ryan scratched his head. “I don’t have any idea. I guess just a few kids who wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time. Lucky for me they did, or that guard would have caught me for sure.” He breathed a sigh of relief as he reflected on just how helpless he had been hanging from a tree, a mere ten feet from both an “intruders will be shot on sight” sign and a heavily armed guard moving steadily toward him.
Ryan pulled the bag of talcum powder from his pocket once again. He scooped out a handful of the fine, white powder and tossed it out in front of him. As expected, two bright red laser beams magically became visible where they sliced through the billowing white cloud that he had created. Lowering his head and right shoulder, Ryan carefully threw his body forward, hands extended, and rolled between the two beams onto his shoulder, making sure to lift his legs high enough to easily clear the lower beam. Regan repeated this maneuver and quickly joined him on the other side of the hidden laser perimeter.
So far, so good.
Crouching low, they headed toward the main building, alert for security guards. They chose an indirect path to their destination, avoiding being out in the open at all costs, staying in the cover of trees and high weeds. Soon they passed a bunker-like gray building constructed of huge slabs of thick concrete. It was about the size of a very large house, and almost entirely hidden by trees and thick growth. There were no windows or openings of any kind to mar the plain, ugly, rectangular structure, except for a huge steel door, so big it encompassed almost an entire side of the building. A large metal sign hung above the door.
DANGER! RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE. LETHAL RADIATION LEVELS INSIDE. DO NOT ENTER!
Ryan shook his head. What was with this place? Every sign warned of impending death. Why couldn’t the sign have said, Free Chocolate Inside?
Ryan began moving toward the Proact building again when his sister touched his arm. She pointed at the concrete building. “I think we should go in there and check it out.”
“Go in there?” repeated Ryan as if he had heard wrong. “I don’t think so. The lethal radiation in there isn’t going to wait before harming us because you’re little and cute.”
“You really think I’m cute?” said Regan with an impish grin.
“No, of course not,” insisted Ryan, trying to cover for having accidentally done the unthinkable, giving his sister a compliment. “You know that wasn’t my point.”
“Look,” said Regan. “Let’s think about this for a second. The Proact building isn’t finished yet and it’s totally out in the open. This building is finished and also well hidden. You wouldn’t see it unless you almost walked into it like we did. Then, to top it off, they put a giant radiation warning sign on it. They really, really don’t want people to enter this building. Which is why I think they must be hiding something important inside. The sign is just a fake to scare people away.”
“And what if there really is deadly radiation inside? What if you’re wrong?”
She thought for a moment and then smiled. “If I’m wrong, then I guess we’ll be the only kids in Pennsylvania who will glow in the dark.”
Ryan smiled despite himself. She had certainly made some good points. But even if the radiation warning was a bluff, it was too big a risk to take. As much as the little brat could drive him crazy, he was the older brother. It was still his job to protect her. It had been his idea to break onto the grounds and he had endangered her enough just letting her come with him. No, he would not be the one responsible for her getting hurt. “There’s no way we’re going inside,” he said firmly, but then after a brief pause added, “but I guess it can’t hurt to take a closer look at the building.”
Regan nodded. At least it was a step in the right direction, and she could make another attempt to convince him later.
They carefully approached the large steel door. The steel looked to be just as thick as the concrete, but there was no door handle or knob of any kind. Why have a warning sign when there was no way to enter anyway? As far as they could tell, the building was completely sealed. Ryan stepped closer to touch the door. He reached out with his right hand and—
Ryan jumped back as if he had been shocked! When he touched the door a panel near his hand had slid open to reveal a steel keypad, with numbers zero through nine. It had startled him nearly to death.
“Please enter a ten-digit password,” said a computer voice from a small speaker at the bottom of the keypad. “Please note that an alarm will sound immediately if an incorrect digit is entered.”
Regan raised her eyebrows. “Radioactive waste storage facility, huh?” she said. “Very interesting, don’t you think?”
Ryan nodded. “You were right,” he said, now convinced. “Something very important must be going on inside this building.” He took a determined step closer to the door. “Let’s find out what it is.”