The Gifted

  Besides the desks, there were filing cabinets in several of the cubicles. Every desk had a computer. They looked old.

  “Kids, why don’t you see if you can get anything off of these computers,” Brock said.

  “No problem,” I said. I took Hayasa with me to a computer and turned it on. Everything was fine until I got to a password screen. “These are old,” I said. “They still use passwords.”

  Meanwhile the other men and Guido were checking the filing cabinets. This lasted a few minutes, and everyone was silent. I kept expecting some enemy to barge in with guns or powers.

  “Interesting,” said Brock.

  “What is it, Brock?” Tracy said.

  “Well, it’s not my best side.” He showed us a file that had his name on it. It had a picture of him and several pages of notes. “It looks like they’ve been spying on us. Here they have where I grew up, what I did at the facility and even how long I worked out each night. They even have marked down how often I used the bathroom. Tuesday I must have been dehydrated. Any luck there with the computers?”

  “Not yet,” I said.

  “Not here,” said Tracy.

  “No,” said Han.

  We kept trying computers and they kept going through files. One of the soldiers said, “Hey, check this out!”

  He held up a file and showed Brock. “Interesting,” said Brock. Then he brought it over to me. It was a file with my face on it. Then they brought out one for Tracy and then Han. The only one who didn’t have a file was Guido. No surprise there. They probably didn’t know he existed.

  We got back to work. Another couple minutes went by and no one came to stop us. Hayasa had just laid down at my feet when Han said, “Got it.”

  “What is it?” said Brock.

  “I got in,” said, Han. “They used an easy password.”

  “What was it?” said Brock.

  “Password,” said Han.

  I laughed. “Of course. I wonder if that will work on mine.” I gave it a try, no luck.

  “Give me a minute,” said Han. “I’ll tell you when I find anything.”

  “You do that,” said Brock.

  “More files with faces we all know,” said a man from the back. “They must have a lot of spies back home.”

  “Or one really good one,” said Brock.

  “Another soldier spoke up, “Huh? Wait, that’s impossible. No, I get it. Brock, you have to see this.”

  Brock approached the man, “McGregor, what it is?”

  “Check this out,” he said.

  Brock checked out the open folder and nodded his head. Then he said, “Hard to believe, but I guess it makes sense.”

  “Okay men, things have changed,” said Brock. “We have a traitor, and evidently a spy.”

  “Who is it?” said some men at once.

  “It’s the general,” said Brock. It was an email to Abe from General Garcia, giving the location of Tracy and her discovered ability. He showed me, but didn’t show Tracy. “This is not good,” said Brock.

  “What are we going to do?” said one of the other men.

  “One thing at a time,” said Brock. “We only do one thing at a time.”

  There were more pictures of men from the facility in the files. Many of the men found pictures of each other. Something about finding a folder with your face on it makes you worry more.

  For a few minutes we all pondered these things quietly, the only sound coming from filing cabinet drawers opening and closing. Tracy and I finished trying all the computers and found that we could not get into any of them. We went over to the filing cabinets and started working on those.

  “Brock?” said Han quietly. He waved him over.

  Several of us headed over to where Han was, but Han yelled, “No, just Brock!” This was shocking, because Han never yelled. We left him alone.

  Brock stepped over to Han. “What is it? Is that what I think it is? Show me the next screen.”

  Everyone was dead silent in the room listening. “This is trouble,” said Brock. “Where did they put it?”

  No one answered, since no one knew what he was talking about.

  Brock stood up and stretched. “It’s been a tough day,” he said. “You’ve all done very well and we’ve covered a lot in one day. You should all be very pleased. By the way, I hope you all have good life insurance.”

  What was he talking about?

  He continued, “It is a beautiful island though, isn’t it? And we saw some of the craziest things. I mean, that bull thing was tremendous, wasn’t it?”

  What was up with Brock? I heard a couple of soldiers whispering to each other.

  Then one of the men spoke up, “What is it, Captain?”

  One of the younger men said, “Captain?” He sounded worried.

  Brock took a deep breath and sighed, “Well, gentlemen. On this island somewhere. . .” He stopped talking as if he couldn’t get the words out. He just stared into space.

  “Yes Captain?” said the young man in a high voice.

  “We. . .we.” Then he shook his head twice, looked up to the sky, and hit his forehead with an audible “whap.” Then, standing up straighter, he announced, “Gentlemen, we’ve got a nuke.”

  Chapter 25: Finding the bomb

  “What’s a nuke,” I asked.

  Guido touched my arm. “You ever see an old movie where a plane drops a bomb?

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “Imagine a bomb that can wipe out a whole city; just that one bomb!”

  “Whoa,” I said.

  “Yeah,” said Guido, “whoa.”

  “How are we going to stop it?” said one of the men. “The nuke, how are we going to stop it?”

  Brock was staring at the wall unblinking. “Stop it,” he said, not even looking at the speaker. “Stop a nuke.”

  I spoke up, “Does the file on the computer say anything about it?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I have no idea. I have no idea about any of this.” Brock just stared into space.

  “We can take it,” said another man. “Come on, we can do it!”

  “There’s something else you should know,” said Brock. “Han, tell them the name of the folder where you found that document.”

  “It was in a folder called Operation Nuke America,” said Han. “The nuclear weapon is named The New York Special.”

  “They’re gonna get New York?” some guy with a high voice said in the crowd.

  “Can’t we shoot it out of the sky?” I said. “We have weapons for that, don’t we?”

  The soldier closest to Brock said, “But Captain, our anti-nuke weapons have been decommissioned for years. No one has a nuke program anymore.”

  “That’s right,” said Brock.

  “You mean they have a nuke that we can’t stop?” I said.

  “That’s right,” said Brock. “All nuke programs were shut down as part of U.N. Peace Initiative 151. You only hear about them in history books and by those who worked with them. So, you know what we’re going to do?” he said.

  “What?” said one of the men.

  “Take out that nuke,” said Brock. “But I don’t expect we’ll survive this one.”

  Silence.

  “D-do you know where?” Tracy said in a small voice.

  “Somewhere underground,” said Brock. “It has to be somewhere underground. Have you seen anything underneath this training facility?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I was hoping not to go back there. There is lava and a dragon and it’s horrible what the dragon says.”

  “Ahhhhh!” said Brock, “Anyone know what that meant?”

  “Yeah,” said Tracy. “Follow me.”

  Tracy led the way and as she did so I realized why she was leading again. She had the best sense of direction of all of us. I had been there too, but I didn’t remember how we got there. Tracy was a natural with directions. Maybe that’s what leadership is, finding the right person for the job, even if they don’t know it
yet.

  We ran through the corridors again, this time with no one stopping us. Hayasa ran next to me, just like a normal dog for a while and then zoomed ahead and came back in a streak.

  I had wondered what happened to our enemies, but then again, we had hurt or tied up a number of them so maybe they were scared to face us now. I hoped that was the case anyway.

  Tracy ran ahead making right and left turns until we were right back at the dungeon where we started. This time she went down the same sloping hallway we had gone down earlier. We came to the door with the scratches on the other side. Once through, a soldier said, “What happened to this door?” He was staring at the scratches.

  “When did that get there?” asked Guido from somewhere to my left.

  “It was always there,” I said trying to avoid eye contact. “I didn’t want to scare you, so, I didn’t mention it.”

  “Great,” said Tracy. “Anything else you failed to mention?”

  “Not that I can think of,” I said. “Let’s go, we’ve got a nuke to catch.”

  “We’re nuts!” said Guido.”

  “Evidently,” I said.

  ***

  We followed the same path we had in our earlier adventures. The only difference was that this time we knew what we were up against. When we got to the part of the tunnel that was dark, a few soldiers took out flashlights. That made it easier.

  At one point Tracy said, “Brock, can I talk with Andy, Guido, and Han for a minute before going on?”

  “Talk away,” he said. “But be quick, I don’t know when we might be pursued again.”

  Tracy took us aside and whispered, “Okay, so far this is the way we went, but up ahead is the dragon. We know that after the dragon, the path only leads out through the mountain, so that cannot be the way. There must be another way.”

  “If there is, we never saw it,” I said. “There was only the path we took.”

  “Not quite, Andy?” said Guido. “I took a different path at first but you didn’t notice me do it. Look behind you.”

  We turned around and saw a section where we could not clearly see the wall. This was because there was no wall. “It was there all the time,” said Guido. “I saw it as we ran past the first time, but we were running out of light and so I didn’t say anything.”

  “Good going, Guido,” I said.

  “Sometimes being practically invisible has advantages,” he said. “I tend to see things others just pass by.”

  We motioned for the soldiers and Brock to follow us and we all walked down the new tunnel. It was dark, so men with flashlights came to the front.

  This went on for some ways. Eventually, the walls, which had been solid rock, turned to cement. “I hope that means we’re headed in the right direction,” said Tracy.

  “Me too,” said Brock.

  After a few minutes the tunnel got brighter. There were fluorescent lights up ahead like the other parts of the cave we had seen before. Suddenly, the cave stopped. At the end there was just a cement wall. There seemed to be no way through.

  “Well,” said Tracy, “it looks solid enough. Maybe we have to go back!”

  “Wait a minute,” said Brock. “Why would they spend the extra effort to put lights all the way through this part of the tunnel if all it did was come to a dead end? That doesn’t make sense.” He rubbed his chin. “No, there must be something here, something hidden, and we have to find it. Everyone search for a way in. There must be a knob, or hidden lever—something.”

  All the men started feeling around the wall. This went on for several minutes until it seemed that we must have felt every part of the walls and even the lower parts of the ceiling. Then we started checking the floor. We couldn’t find anything.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “It doesn’t look like there is anything here.”

  “How about at the beginning of this tunnel?” said Tracy. “Maybe there’s something there.”

  “Okay,” said Brock. “We’ll give it a try.”

  We all headed back through the tunnel until it became stone again, and then back to the beginning of that branch of tunnel. “Okay,” said Tracy, “let’s check here.”

  So we did. We looked high and low. We checked for levers and knobs. We looked for trip wires and special places to step that might open a door. Finally we ran out of ideas.

  “Okay, men. Break!” said Brock. We were all frustrated and tired. We sat down. I had forgotten how tired I had been. We must have run miles since our jailbreak.

  Hayasa laid down and panted quietly at my feet.

  Some men brought out snacks. Military rations. “Here, want some?” said a man with a boyish face next to me. “My name’s Harry,” he said. “Don’t name any kids after me though. I got teased a lot growing up.” I laughed.

  He offered me something in the shape of a brick. I didn’t know what it was, but I was hungry. It was heavy and a bit sticky. I tried a bite and it was good and sweet, and a bit chewy. “Thanks, Harry,” I said. “This is good!”

  “Fruitcake, military style,” he said. “Most people don’t like it, but for me, it’s one of my favorites.”

  “So how long have you been in the service?” I asked.

  “About four years,” he said. “I’m almost done with active duty though. If I get through this alive, I’ll probably give it up.”

  “What’s your plan after that?” I said.

  “I think I’ll go into teaching,” he said. “I like the idea of a teaching life. I have kids of my own and I like to teach them. I’m especially good at math.”

  Guido interrupted, “If you were to hide a lever or switch in a tunnel like this, where would you hide it?”

  “That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out the whole time,” I said. I was upset and tired. I stroked Hayasa, more of a comfort to me than to him.

  Harry was silently eating something out of a bag.

  Guido started up again, “You would put it someplace you could find it, but no obvious place. You don’t want anyone else in unless they belong.”

  “Right,” said Han. “But where?” After a pause, Han said again, “Where things don’t all look the same.”

  Then Han and I looked at each other, “Where rock meets cement!” he said.

  At this, everyone stirred. Brock came over to me and said, “What’s going on?”

  “Brock,” I said, “We have an idea, but let’s not get everyone’s hopes up. Can I borrow a flashlight?”

  “Sure,” he said. He handed me his flashlight.

  Just the four of us, plus Hayasa, who was jogging like any other dog now, walked down the tunnel. We left everyone else to rest.

  Once we got to the place where the rock ended and the cement began, we stopped. There was a clear division between the two materials. We looked at the place where the two met and it was obvious. There was a lever right there at shoulder height. It was the color of the rock, so it was not easy to see unless you were looking right at it, but now it was obvious. Tracy reached for the lever and pulled it.

  At once the floor gave way and we fell. There was no time to think, we just panicked. We screamed and screamed. And we still fell. Finally, there was a gentle slope that slowed us down and we finally slid to a stop. We looked at each other and then Tracy screamed again even though we were stopped. We covered our ears. Then her scream turned into a laugh. “Can we do that again?” she said.

  “You must like roller coasters,” said Guido.

  “Love them!” said Tracy.

  Clearly there was no way back up but the slide, it had been too steep. Lights ran along the walls ahead of us and the tunnel kept going on like that for some distance. “Let’s see where it goes,” said Tracy. She got up, dusted herself off (there was a lot of dust) and began to walk down the tunnel. We followed. Here, the tunnel was smooth and kept going on as far as I could see.

  Rather than fluorescents, these lights were LED’s and they looked much newer. Eventually we came to a door without a door k
nob. On the right side was a number pad. “It looks like we need a code,” Tracy said.

  Han stepped to the front “Let’s try the obvious first.” He typed in 11111. After the fifth 1 the light on the pad turned green and the door slid open.

  I laughed, “So much for high security.”

  “How many people do you really think come down here who don’t belong here?” said Tracy. “This is clearly the back way.”

  Through the door was a large well-lit room. It was completely empty except for a giant troll. “Troll!” I yelled.

  “How do you know?” yelled Tracy.

  I pointed to a large yellow sign on the wall that said, “Beware of Troll.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Ahhh, it’s a troll!” We jumped back through the door so we were out of reach.

  We took another look. It was pink with brown lumps all over its body like rocks. Its ears were like those of a bat, it had a large nose, and I couldn’t see any eyes. Oh yeah, and it was about eighteen feet tall, your regular garden variety troll.

  Tracy and Han yelled. Guido yelled from somewhere on my right. Then the troll yelled. It’s yell was so loud it hurt my ears. Something like the roar of a tiger, but deeper and somehow “rockier.” If a mountain could yell, it would be this yell.

  We all stood still. Since it didn’t have eyes, maybe it wouldn’t be able to find us. It sniffed the air like a dog and then moved so its head was near the door.

  There was another door across the room, and for some reason it was slid only partially open between the floor and ceiling. “Door,” I whispered, pointing. While the troll had turned its head away from the door for a second, Tracy crept silently into the room and started moving toward the other door. “Tracy!” I tried to whisper loudly, “You’re going to get killed!”

  We watched as she walked quietly, making sure her steps were silent. The troll did not seem to notice. In a few more seconds she ducked through the other open door. I could see her jeans and shoes, standing just inside.

  Guido tapped my shoulder, “My turn,” he said. We let him go until we figured he must have made it to the other side. Next Han went. He was especially quiet and made it without incident.

  Last of all, I went. I took my time, moving along the edge of the room. As I was halfway across the room, Tracy said, “Ow!” Then remembering, she said, “oops! Sorry!”

  The troll turned toward the door and was there before I could get through myself. He was blocking my way. I backed away to the other side. I wasn’t sure what to do. I finally ended up back where I started.