The Return of the Titans (33 page)

Aaron watched all of this silently. But when
Justin smashed the camera, he stood up with a jerk. “Justin, are
you nuts? Why did you do that?”

Justin held up his hand. “Wait for it,” he
said quietly. Seconds later, the phone rang. “Thought so,” he
muttered and picked it up.

“Justin, what do you think
you are doing?” It was the colonel.

“We have a decision to
make and I want some privacy while we make it,” he told the man
firmly.

There was a moment of silence. “I see,” the
colonel said. “Very well, Justin. You may have your privacy. But
please do not destroy any of the other cameras, or my men will be
sent up immediately.” He hung up.

Justin put the receiver back on to the
telephone. “That buys us a little bit of time,” he told Aaron.

“Time? Time for what?”
Aaron looked puzzled. “They have us, Just. Whether they come in now
or in a few minutes, we're toast.”

Justin smiled slightly. “Maybe not.” He
looked around the kitchen but couldn't see any other devices in the
corners. Still, he lowered his voice as he looked at Aaron. “When
my Mom wanted to leave me a private message, those times that she
had to go out and I was at school, she would hide it from Mrs.
Petropoulos.”

“Hide it?” Aaron sounded
puzzled. “Why hide it?”

“Because,” Justin said
with a little laugh, “while she may be a nice lady, Mrs. P. is very
nosy.”

“So where would she hide
it?”

“In the one place that old
fashioned Mrs. Petropoulos would never look.” He walked across the
room to the counter. “The microwave,” he said and opened the door
of the appliance. He reached inside, lifted the glass plate on the
bottom and pulled out a slip of paper.

Aaron gasped. “How did you know?”

“Mom told me herself.
Remember when we talked to our parents in the Ocular
room?”

“Yeah, of course. But I
don't remember your mother mentioning a note.”

Justin sat down again and looked at Aaron.
“She didn't. Well, not openly. She said she might write the
old-fashioned way.” Justin smiled at Aaron. “And then she winked.
That's what she used to call the notes; an old-fashioned way of
writing. She never liked using email.” He opened the slip of paper.
Then he frowned.

“What is it, Just?” Aaron
asked anxiously.

“All it says is 'library
basement'.” Justin sat back and thought a moment. Then he swore.
“It figures,” he said. “Sometimes I'm really thick.” He looked up
at Aaron who was just watching him with a puzzled
expression.

“I don't know if I told
you, but the day I was attacked, I was followed home from the
library.”

Aaron just shrugged. “Yeah, so?”

“So, while I was in there,
the librarian disappeared and these three guys that I found out
later were with the government showed up. The rest of the place was
empty.” Justin was thinking furiously. “I'm guessing that they're
holed up in the library itself. That's how they could control it so
that I was the only one in there that day.”

“I think that's a bit of a
stretch, Justin.” Aaron said skeptically.

“Yeah, maybe.” Justin held
up the note. “So how do you explain this?”

Aaron took the note and read it. He shook
his head. “I can't explain it. Okay, so what if you're right? What
should we do?”

Justin stood up and began pacing. “We have
to get her out,” he said. “And if she is in there, maybe Wilson is
too.” He began to get excited at the idea of finding not just his
Mom but his friend as well. Aaron still looked unconvinced. Justin
stopped pacing and stared at his friend.

“What?” he asked. He felt
irritated at Aaron's attitude.

“Nothing. But how are we
supposed to get anyone out of there. There have to be guards,
alarms, more cameras.” He sat back and sighed loudly. “Not to
mention the fact that we have to find a way out of here
first.”

“Actually, that's the easy
part,” Justin said.

“What? Are you nuts, Just?
That colonel guy said his men are in the lobby. If we do anything,
they'll rush up here and grab us.”

Justin nodded. “I'm counting on that,” he
said with a small grin.

“Oh great,” Aaron said in
exasperation. He looked at the ceiling. “He's counting on it. Okay,
magic man, how do we get out?”

Justin rested his hands on the table and
leaned toward Aaron. He lowered his voice even more. “I'm guessing
there's a camera in the hall, just over the front door. If we go
out there and smash it, the guys downstairs will run up. Now, at
the end of the hall is a big window that overlooks an alley.” He
raised an eyebrow as he watched Aaron. “With me so far?”

Aaron swallowed loudly. “Yes. And I have a
feeling I know where this is going.”

“You probably do, bud.
When we hear the troops coming up the stairs, we jump out the
window. I'm betting I know the streets and alleys in this
neighborhood better than any of these guys. Once we're on the
ground, it will take them a few minutes to get back downstairs.
That will give us a head start. Then we make our way to the
library.”

He stood up and watched as Aaron digested
the plan.

“Okay,” Aaron said
finally. “That might get us out of here and to the library, but
then what?”

Justin had to shrug. “One crisis at a time,
Aaron. Let's just get there and see what's going on first. Then we
can decide our next move.”

“You're the boss, Justin.
But I hope the guys who told us about falling a long way weren't
exaggerating or this is really going to hurt!”

“Yeah, I hope the same.
Could I have the note?”

Aaron handed the paper to Justin, who put it
in his pocket. “You ready?” he asked his friend.

Aaron shook his head. “No, but let's go
anyway, before I either lose my nerve or those guys get impatient
and come up ahead of schedule.”

Justin picked up a chair, nodded to Aaron
and walked into the hallway. He had been right. The camera was
stuck just over the front door frame. He put down the chair under
the camera, stepped on to it and reached for the small device. Then
he hesitated, grinned widely into the camera and flipped it the
finger. He heard Aaron giggle behind him.

Justin grabbed the camera, ripped it off of
the wall and threw it on the floor. Aaron quickly stepped on it and
ground it into the carpet.

“Well, that should
irritate the colonel,” he said to Justin, who hopped down off the
chair and stood listening at the door. The phone rang just as he
thought he heard the distant thumping of many feet running up the
stairs. He ignored the ringing of the phone and looked over his
shoulder at Aaron.

“They're coming,” he
said.

“Right, let's go,” Aaron
replied and they ran down the hallway to the far window. Justin
opened the window, which shuddered and squealed as it rose, then he
looked down to the alley below. There were a few garbage cans and
some litter but otherwise the narrow lane was deserted. He looked
at Aaron.

“On three?” Aaron just
nodded and took a deep breath.

“Okay. One, two...” The
door at the end of the hallway burst open with a loud crash. Justin
had time to see several figures crowding in the hall beyond before
he turned back to the window.

“Three!” he yelled and
jumped over the window sill. Aaron leaped at the same time and
Justin heard his friends clothes fluttering in the wind as they
fell.

Both of them hit the ground at the same
time. Justin rolled and then collapsed on to his back while Aaron
seemed to skitter along the ground and then he smashed into the
opposite wall.

Justin lay there for a moment looking up.
There was no pain at all. In fact, he wasn't even winded. He was a
bit dizzy though and he lay for a moment trying to let the world
steady around him. Then he saw a head poke through the window above
him and someone yelled.

Justin leaped to his feet and turned to see
Aaron leaning against the wall, brushing the dirt off his clothes.
He looked at Justin and grinned.

“Well, that was
different,” he said with a chuckle.

Justin returned the grin then said, “We have
to run, Aaron. Before they get back down here.”

Suddenly serious, Aaron glanced upward.
“Right. Which way?”

“Follow me, bud,” Justin
said and, turning to the north, began to run.

Justin zigzagged through back alleys, narrow
streets and several backyards before coming to a stop about a half
hour after they had escaped from the apartment. They stood bent
over as they tried to catch their breath. Then Aaron looked around
curiously.

They were standing in an alley, next to a
large, corroded metal dumpster that reeked of garbage and rotting
food.

“Whew! Where are we?”
Aaron asked as he waved his hand in front of his face.

Justin pointed toward a large white building
that rose over it's neighbors a half block away.

“That's the library,” he
said. “If we cross the street here and follow the alley, we'll come
out in the rear. From there, I have no idea what we're going to
do.”

Aaron looked at the building then back at
his friend. “Playing it by ear? Okay, I guess that's all we can do,
isn't it?” Justin nodded and Aaron glanced around the corner. “The
coast is clear. Let's go.”

This time Aaron led and Justin followed, but
as they walked, they looked around constantly.

“You have any idea how
your Mom found out about them hiding in the library?” Aaron asked
as they walked.

“Not a clue. But she told
me a few times that people often underestimated or overlooked sick
people. Just a guess, but I think maybe she overheard her
bodyguards discussing it. It's possible that the Guardians know
where the government guys are stationed.” He glanced at Aaron.
“They seem to know a lot more than they've told us.”

“Yeah, I can't argue with
that.”

They approached the rear of the library;
both of them looking around nervously. But they saw nothing. From a
position a hundred yards away, behind some parked cars, Justin
scanned the building.

There was a large loading dock, with two big
doors standing open. A truck had been backed into the dock and,
from the sounds they could hear, was apparently being unloaded. To
the right of the dock there was a smaller metal door with no
window. It was closed.

“I don't see any cameras,
Justin,” Aaron said quietly. “Not the tightest security for a
government operation, is it?”

Justin frowned. “Yeah, it's weird. Probably
just a temporary office.” He looked around once more but there was
no movement. “Should we just try the door?”

Aaron shrugged. “I guess so.” He stared at
the plain metal door. “Wish there was a window in it. We have no
idea what's on the other side.”

“Yeah, I know,” Justin
said and started walking toward the door. Aaron followed
closely.

When they tried the door, it opened easily
and Justin's sense of unease deepened. He peered inside and saw a
hallway weakly lit by several flickering florescent bulbs. The
hallway was empty and Justin could see a single door at the end of
it. There were no cameras in sight.

The two boys slowly entered and closed the
door quietly behind them. It was silent and their cautious
footsteps echoed lightly around them as they made their way toward
the far door.

After listening for several long minutes,
Justin opened the door into an empty room with a closed door on
each wall. There was no furniture in the room and the air smelled
stale and unused. He looked at Aaron who shrugged.

“I don't know, Justin.
This place looks deserted. Maybe your Mom made a
mistake?”

Justin thought about it for a moment. “Yeah,
it's possible. Could be she meant a different library.” He looked
around the room again. “Or maybe they were here and cleared
out?”

“Well, let's look around a
bit more, just to be sure.” Aaron said. “But I don't think we
should take too much time. Those government guys are definitely
looking for us and I'd like to get out of the area as soon as we
can.”

With a nod, Justin entered the room and
picked the door to the left at random. The next room was filled
with boxes stacked to the ceiling. The labels on the boxes listed
their contents as books. The two boys spent several minutes walking
from one storage room to another. There were no signs of anyone in
the area.

Finally, Justin admitted defeat. “I guess
Mom was mistaken,” he said, as he opened yet another door and
stepped inside. “If someone was here at one time, they're long
gone.”

“Oh, I wouldn't say that,”
came a voice from the gloom in front of them. Lights flashed on and
they boys were momentarily blinded. As Justin squinted through the
glare, he saw someone sitting behind a desk at the far end of the
room. “Welcome, gentlemen,” the figure said.

Chapter 21

Justin's eyes quickly adapted to the bright
lights and he stared at a man whose voice identified him as Colonel
Green.

The Colonel was sitting behind a large
wooden desk. What Justin noticed first was the man's piercing blue
eyes. What he noticed next was that the Colonel was in an electric
wheel chair. A keyboard rested on his lap and he was typing rapidly
while staring at the two teens. On the wall behind the man, there
were about a dozen flat screens set up in rows and Justin could see
images of various locations including some rooms in his apartment
and the back door of the library. He looked back at the man, who
smiled slightly.