Chapter 9
Big Trouble
“Follow me,” ordered Carl.
He stepped on what was clearly designed as a sidewalk or walking path. Ryan and Regan followed and Dan took up the rear.
The surface of the walking path was extraordinary. It was soft and cushiony and at the exact right moment it would trampoline them forward so that their steps were effortless. Ryan guessed it was allowing them to walk three or four times faster than usual. “It almost seems as if this walkway is alive,” he whispered in wonder. “As if it’s intelligent and knows exactly when to bounce us so we don’t ever lose our balance.”
“I know what you mean,” agreed Carl. “In fact, this entire city almost seems alive to me sometimes.”
“Ah . . . where are we going?” asked Regan, not sure she wanted to know.
“A building about a twenty minute walk from here—well, twenty minutes as long as we stay on this walkway. This is the only walking path we’ve found so far and it leads directly to the entrance of a single building, so we decided this building was worth investigating.”
“So what’s all this about?” asked Ryan. “How did you find this city? Do aliens live here? Do you—”
“Save your questions,” interrupted Carl. “Until we arrive.”
Twenty minutes later, after passing a cluster of domed buildings, they spotted their destination, a five story building in the shape of a soccer ball made from a light blue, metallic material.
Sure enough, the path led right up to the entrance of the building and stopped there. Soon they had entered and made their way toward a massive oval doorway that served as the entrance to an even more massive room. The entrance was cluttered with heavy equipment including several blowtorches and electrical generators.
Inside, fifteen or twenty people in white lab coats were all gathered around an airy staircase made of thread. The thread formed net stairs so thin they were nearly invisible. Three other scientists were sitting on individual stairs and looked almost as if they were floating, yet somehow the stairs supported their weight. The scientists had affixed a thick pole firmly to the staircase and a spotlight, an electrical generator, and several other heavy pieces of equipment had been bolted to the pole.
A man was on his knees, carefully placing a small piece of the staircase webbing in a container with a pair of tweezers. The others looked on in celebration, cheering and patting each other on the back.
Several scientists turned as they approached. Two of them were particularly familiar.
“Mom! Dad!” shouted the kids in excitement, rushing forward into the arms of their thunderstruck parents.
Their mom, Amanda Resnick, was a short, attractive woman with soft features, blue eyes, and strawberry blonde hair like Regan’s, although cut shorter. Now, however, she looked sick to her stomach and wore an expression of shock, horror, dismay and worry all at the same time. “Are you alright?” she asked anxiously.
Ryan nodded while Regan found herself speechless.
Benjamin Resnick was a short man with a friendly face who always looked a little sloppy. His shirt never managed to stay tucked in and his brown hair was always pointing in several directions. Now, however, his eyes gleamed with demon-like intensity. “Regan, how about you?”
Regan looked up at her father. The man in front of her was no longer the frumpy, playful, teddy-bear daddy she had long known. Instead, at that moment, her father had transformed into a man Regan was certain would take on the entire world singlehandedly if anyone or anything had hurt his children.
“We’re okay Dad,” she assured him. “Really.”
Mr. Resnick studied his two children carefully for several seconds to satisfy himself that they really were, in fact, okay, before finally turning to Carl. “What’s all this about?” he demanded.
Carl met his stare. “I blew it, Ben,” he said simply. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am about this. Your kids defeated our security. It’s as simple as that.”
“Defeated security?” repeated Amanda Resnick in dismay. “You can’t be serious. Are you telling me that these kids made it past a razor-wire fence, the laser perimeter, and your guards patrolling outside?”
“No,” said Carl miserably. “I’m telling you that they did all that, and then came up with correct passwords to get into Prometheus Alpha. And then tricked me to get into this city after they were caught.”
An older scientist stepped forward. He was white-haired and grandfatherly, with a pear-shaped body, a beard, and inch-thick glasses. “How did they manage to do all this, Carl?” he asked.
Carl shook his head. “I don’t know, Harry. Given that they’re Ben and Amanda’s kids, I thought it best to bring them here immediately rather than interrogate them.”
The white-haired scientist nodded. “Ryan, Regan, could you tell us how you happened to end up here today.”
Both kids swallowed hard. They were surprised to be addressed by name, but both realized they shouldn’t be. While they didn’t know any of the scientists in the room their parents obviously did.
“Go ahead kids,” instructed their mom. “This is very serious, so be totally honest and don’t leave anything out.”
It took ten minutes for them to complete their story and answer questions.
“Thank you,” said the white-haired scientist when they had finished. “I appreciate your honesty. My name is Dr. Harry Harris. As you may have guessed, I am the one in charge here. First, let me say that I’m quite impressed. You two are remarkably clever and resourceful. Your parents didn’t violate any security procedures and I can’t fault them for having such clever children. I can’t fault you two for acting on your understandable suspicions. I can’t fault Carl’s security either—you beat it fairly and squarely. Unfortunately,” he continued, “none of this changes the fact that we now have a big problem on our hands. We need to figure out what we’re going to do now.”
“We didn’t mean to cause so much trouble,” said Regan softly. “We just wanted to know what was going on here.” She paused and scratched her head. “Come to think of it, what is going on here?”
“You can’t blame them for being curious, Harry,” said her mom. “Is there any reason, now, not to tell them? After all, they’ve made it this far.”
Dr. Harris considered. She had a good point. And he wasn’t against finding an excuse to put off deciding what to do about this situation for a few more minutes.
He nodded. “Go ahead and tell them.”