Edgewood Series: Books 1 - 3 (64 page)

I leaned down so I could look her in the eye. “We’re not in a cave. This is a manmade tunnel that leads to somewhere. Somewhere big. Somewhere with lights and equipment. Think of this as a hallway. We just need to get through it. You can do this, Nadia. I know you can.”

“I understand what you’re saying,” she said. “I’m not stupid. I know it doesn’t make sense, but I can’t help it. It’s an irrational fear, but I can’t control it.” She looked back the way we came like she wanted to take off in that direction.

I directed the light upward. “Look, there are air vents. I’m willing to bet this place is more structurally sound than most buildings above ground.”

“I know you’re trying to help,” she said, her face aimed at the ground. “But it’s not working.”

“Do you want to go back?” I asked gently, twisting around to look. As far as I could see, we only had two choices, and since one of them involved a guy threatening to shoot I was pretty clear on which way we should go.

“No.” She twisted her hands together and looked like she was going to cry. “I know we can’t go back. I just don’t think I can keep going.” Her words were strangulated. “You know what? Why don’t you go ahead, Russ? I don’t want to hold you back. I’ll wait here.”

I lost the light and took hold of her shoulders. “I’m not leaving you, Nadia.”

It was silent for a moment and then her voice rang out clear and strong. “I feel a little better now!” she said, clearly relieved. “Being in the dark helps, I think.”

“Close your eyes,” I said. “I’m going to carry you.”

“You can’t carry me. I’m too heavy.”

She barely had the words out of her mouth when I’d scooped her up into my arms, cradling her in front of me with her head against my chest. “Keep your eyes closed,” I said. “Take a little nap. I’ll wake you up when we get there.” When I heard Nadia giggle, I knew she’d be okay.

“You won’t be able to hold me like this for very long,” she said. “And now you don’t have a hand free to make light.”

“I can hold you like this for a very long time. And I’m not going to drop you, so don’t worry about that.”

“But you don’t have any light,” she repeated.

“I don’t need the light. I only did that so you could see.” I was following the pull of the electricity. I didn’t need a visual to know the way. The electricity was my path, my guide.

With Nadia snuggled up against me, I continued forward, knowing that I was getting closer with every step. We could be heading into a trap, or worse, but I had a good feeling about this. It was better than getting shot at anyway. I walked ahead at a steady clip, leaving the sound of the Humvee behind. Soon someone would be following us in the tunnel, which made getting to our final destination urgent. Really, we should be running, but I couldn’t go that fast and carry Nadia at the same time. And I wouldn’t have left her behind for anything. It was the third and final location on Gordon Hofstetter’s map, and if my hunch was right, I would finally find out what happened to his grandson David. Nadia’s head rested against the key Carly had given me or I would have reached for it for reassurance. I thought of it as my good luck charm. So far it had kept me safe.

Behind us in the tunnel, I heard the faint sound of voices and the squawk of a communicator, some kind of radio. We were being followed. I upped my pace going as fast as I could considering I had a hundred pounds of girl attached to my front.

“Is everything okay?” Nadia’s voice was muffled into my t-shirt. I felt her body stiffen in alarm.

“So far.” I tried to keep my tone light. “In a few minutes we’ll have company, but by then we’ll be on to the next part.” Whatever that was.

She relaxed, and I paused to readjust her weight, giving the top of her head a brush of my lips. Twenty yards later, right after I’d rounded a curve I felt a change. We were at the edge of the source of power. I set Nadia onto her feet. “We’re here.” I held a hand out to see where “here” was and the sparks that danced above my palm illuminated a large steel door with a bar across the middle for access. I pushed against the bar but it didn’t give.

“There’s something here.” Nadia pointed to a steel rectangle on the right hand side of the substantial door frame. She pulled at the piece and it lifted up like the cover on the keypad of my garage door opener back home. Underneath was a display screen with the word “START HERE” in green letters. Beneath that was a large slot, as wide as a playing card, but larger in the middle and tapering off either side, and below that there was a traditional keyboard displaying the letters of the alphabet. Nadia pressed the buttons randomly, but nothing happened. “Maybe you should zap the door?”

I pressed a palm against the surface. “I have a feeling it’s zap-proof.”

“We need some kind of key card,” she said, pointing to the slot. “One with a big lump in the middle.” She looked nervously behind us; the sound of footsteps echoed in the tunnel. Judging from the sound we only had a few minutes.

I dug my wallet out of my back pocket and took out the silver medallion I’d gotten from Mr. Hofstetter. Octagonal in shape, it had a clear gemstone in the middle that bulged from its center. I said, “Or maybe it’s not a card, but something else.” I held up the silver medallion to show her, and then slid it into the slot. A perfect fit. With the medallion inserted, I was rewarded with the sound of tumblers locking into place, an old fashioned touch no doubt added by security specialists with a sense of humor. The display pad changed from “START HERE” to “WHO ARE YOU?” Nadia and I exchanged a look, wondering who should do the honors. Finally, her shoulders rose and she gestured for me to go ahead.

Behind us I heard a man shout, “Russ Becker, halt! We need to talk to you.” Another man called out instructions to the group. “Stay together. Hold your fire.” The yelling was accompanied by the clattering of hard soled boots against rock. So close. Too close.

I inhaled and turned to the keypad. “Here goes nothing.” Carefully, I typed in my name, RUSS BECKER. No sooner had I pressed the last “R” than the display lit up with the word “WELCOME” accompanied by the click of the lock release. The medallion popped out and I stuck it in my pocket. Nadia leaned on the bar and we slid through the door’s opening. As I pushed the door shut, I saw the beams of light from the group of men rounding the corner. We’d just made it. They were too late. And judging from the thickness of the door and the security features, they weren’t getting in.

The other side of the door led to a more conventional sort of hallway, the kind you’d find in an office building. White walls, beige tile, and recessed lighting that made it as bright as day.

Nadia gave me a hug, and I wrapped my arms around her. My pulse quickened suddenly as if my heart had just registered the close call. “I can’t believe you pulled that off, Russ. You knew just what to do. You’re amazing.”

I smiled down at her and shook my head. “It’s not over yet.”

Nadia

The first time I set eyes on Russ Becker, I was smitten. Mallory had arranged for him to meet up with us one night, and she had me check him out first, which consisted of me holding my hands a few inches away from his body and assessing if I got good vibes from him. He hadn’t thought much of me at the time; he was all about Mallory back then. But I felt my way deep into his soul and mentally claimed him for my own. My powers let me tap into his essence and at that moment I knew him in a more intimate way than people who’d known him his whole life.

I didn’t let on that this was the case though. I just told Mallory and Jameson that he was okay, a good addition to our group.

After that I was always watching and waiting for my chance to become someone important to him. I didn’t admit this to anyone because it sounded pathetic even to me. But is it so wrong to secretly want someone? Someone you know would be perfect for you?

So I waited, and I got my chance. Lucky for me, Mallory underestimated both of us. She’d discounted me as a worthy adversary, and left Russ dangling while she explored all her other options at school. Her hesitation had given me an opening. And now I was on the adventure of my life. If I were with anyone else I’d be terrified at this moment, a quivering mass of nerves. At home, I was nervous and shy even doing the smallest things. My hands shook when I paid the pizza delivery guy. I didn’t want anyone to see my face so the simplest things overwhelmed me.

With Russ though, it was different. He knew just what to do to calm me down in the tunnel, and I was sure he could handle anything else that happened today. I’d never felt such a range of emotions in such a short period of time. Even when I was afraid, it was invigorating. This, I thought, is what it feels like to be alive and in love.

Russ

Talk about pressure. Nadia had more faith in me than I had in myself. For the moment, though, we were safe. We held hands and made our way down the hallway, which appeared to be deserted. I had entered my name on the punch pad and been let in, so someone knew I was here and it was a safe bet we’d be meeting up with them soon.

“Do you think this is the headquarters of the Associates?” Nadia whispered. By then, we’d passed several closed doors. I’d tried the knobs and they were locked.

“I don’t know.” I remembered that when I’d been tested by the Associates in Wisconsin the office area looked much like this one, but don’t all office buildings sort of look the same?

The hallway came to an end, branching off to a T. On the wall was a sign with arrows pointing in both directions. To the left. It said, “Lobby.” To the right, “Loading dock.”

“Hey,” I said in hushed tones. “Let’s try the lobby.”

This hallway had a friendlier feel with framed prints of floral arrangements every eight feet or so. Nadia walked alongside me with no sign of being alarmed. I flexed my free hand, ready to shoot a lightning bolt if someone with a gun popped out of nowhere threatening to shoot us. My nerves were raw and exposed. Right on edge. Once again, there was a part of me that wished I could rewind my life so that I could have avoided the meteor shower. Without my powers I’d just be a normal teenager, and my biggest worries would revolve around taking my driving test and getting good grades. But then I wouldn’t have met Nadia and wouldn’t be in Peru now. My life was scarier now, but richer than I’d ever imagined. No, there was no way I’d go back, even if it were possible.

We heard the squeaky wheels of the cart before it came tearing out of one of the side doors ahead. The pile of file boxes on top of the push cart were stacked so high they nearly obscured the man behind it. “Watch out. Coming through,” he yelled, whizzing past us. Nadia and I flattened ourselves against a wall, letting him go by.

She looked at me like,
what the hell was that all about
? Before I could say anything, another cart came out of the same room, this one pushed by a trim blonde woman wearing cat-eye glasses. She struggled to push the overloaded cart. When she approached us, she asked, “Did you see which way he went?” I jabbed my thumb in the opposite direction and she nodded. “The loading dock. Okay, makes sense.”

We continued on down the hall, hearing voices and the whir of a mechanical device off in the distance. When we reached the lobby, we saw a sitting area. A low counter delineated the waiting area from a work space. Behind the counter were rows of desks, but no one was sitting. All of the people working there, a dozen or so men and women, were in motion, as busy as bees in a hive. About half of them worked diligently, almost frantically, feeding paper into a shredder. The ones that weren’t shredding were stacking and sorting through boxes.

When we approached the counter, one of the women feeding the shredder paused and looked up.

“Do you know English?” Nadia asked.

She looked irritated. “What do you need?”

Nadia gave me a quizzical look, and I took over. Leaning against the counter, I said, “We’re here to see David Hofstetter.”

She threw her hands up in the air, like we’d just given her another chore when she already had plenty going on. “Well isn’t that just great,” she said and sighed. “Wait a minute. I’ll call and see if he’s available.”

“Okay,” I said. Nadia gave me a delighted look, each of us in disbelief that David Hofstetter was really here. There had to be some catch. A trap? A different David Hofstetter? There had to be more to it that we just weren’t seeing yet.

“Name?” she asked, picking up the phone.

“Um, David Hofstetter?”

“No.” She rolled her eyes like I was the world’s biggest moron. “
Your
name?”

“Oh. Russ Becker.”

She punched in some numbers and put the receiver up to her ear.

I waved to get her attention. “Just one more thing?”

“Yes?”

I said, “What is this place?”

She looked puzzled. “It’s our research facility, of course.” Deliberately turning away, she spoke into the phone. I heard her say, “Yes, Russ Becker and some girl. They’re here now.” Her head swiveled toward us. “I’m looking right at him. Believe me, he’s here.” She hung up without saying good-bye, then pointed to a hallway leading off the lobby. “Room 138. Knock on the door and he’ll buzz you in.” She turned and fed another piece of paper into the shredder before we’d even registered what she’d said.

Nadia waved an arm in the air. “One more thing?”

The woman stopped, the paper fluttering in her hands. “Yes?”

“We came in through the tunnel and we were followed by some guys. They didn’t get in, but you might want to watch the entrances.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” she said dismissively. “This facility has the most advanced security in the world. There are cameras everywhere and no one gets in unless they’re authorized.”

As we walked away, Nadia said, “You heard me try to tell her, right? Do you think I explained it okay?”

“You explained it fine,” I said. “The woman said not to worry about it.”

On the way to Room 138 we passed several other open doors, a few of them leading to research laboratories with counters and glass-fronted storage cabinets, and one of them an office space. In each room people were packing up equipment, taking pictures off walls, stacking boxes. “Looks like moving day at the underground bunker,” Nadia commented, reading my mind.