Upbeats

by Erin Sheena Byrne

  Chapter Fifteen

  The next day was a Saturday.

  Any other kid would have been out, enjoying the break in the rainy weather, playing in the park, shooting baskets, skating with friends or just hanging out somewhere where they could soak up the few precious rays of the sun.

  Not me.

  I woke up with a keen sense of optimism. The victory of yesterday’s rescue was finally dawning on me. Maybe it hadn’t gone all entirely to plan, but we had succeeded, nonetheless.

  Now we were going to tackle the next big assignment: locating Gemini.

  As soon as I was awake, I switched on the home computer and got onto the official City of Rockwell website.

  On our first encounter with System, he had mentioned that Gemini was based in Rockwell. That could have meant a number of things: he had a secret lair here, he had an organization here or he resided in this town.

  I decided to take a long shot and see if he had set up some sort of business in his name. It was a gamble but I concluded that anything was possible and nothing can be ruled out if you don’t try it.

  I typed Gemini into the search engine and waited a few anxious seconds for results to come up.

  There were three results: Gemini Plumbing, Gemini Dental Clinic and Gemini Foot Wash and Scrub Co.

  I discarded the last possibility as that was just not something I could imagine a felon from outer space getting into.

  Gemini Plumbing was a possibility. A slight one, but it could just pan out into something.

  The dental one, though, struck me as a career a villain would willingly pursue.

  I printed out the list, as well as directions on where to find the buildings, and wasted no time in getting dressed and running out the house. I had to get to Robyn’s: we had to use today wisely and work out where Gemini was.

  System said that, before he crashed, he got a signal from Gemini. That signal could mean anything but I’d bet my life that it was something dangerous and fatal to the human race.

  We needed to find Gemini, find some obscure clues, paste them together and see if we could piece together the mystery. And then we would have to work on how to stop Gemini before he carried out whatever plot he was plotting.

  As I darted out my house, I ran into a group of neighbourhood kids. I had grown up around them. They were my friends.

  Johnny, the kid who lived next door to me, waved to me as he brushed past on his scooter. We’d gone to preschool together.

  I felt a strong urge to drop the hero act and join in their carefree day.

  But I turned away and raced to the countryside, not slowing down for a second. I was going so fast, the message that I needed to take a breather never even reached my brain.

  I got to Robyn’s. Knocking on the door would have woken up her mother who would be sleeping in today. Saturday was her day off work. The hospital she worked in ran her ragged.

  So I searched the driveway for a small stone and hurled it at Robyn’s window. It made a cracking sound that echoed through the trees and then it bounced off the glass, hitting me in the face.

  As I was rubbing my cheek, Robyn opened her window.

  "Hi, Luke," she said, happy to see me.

  "Are the others here yet?" I asked.

  Robyn spun around, as if to remind herself. "Brooke’s up here. Ned’s just out collecting System and Smithy said he’d come. He promised."

  Good, Smithy was coming. Whether he harboured bad feelings toward me or not, at least I could tell him I was sorry and that he was still a member of this team.

  I’m not one for touchy-feely stuff.

  But I had to make sure Smithy knew he was needed and that we couldn’t proceed without him.

  "Climb the gutter," Robyn called down. "The front door squeaks."

  I bit down on the papers I had printed, to free my hands, and climbed up.

  It was slippery and mushy, courtesy of the rain and wintry weather. By the time I got to Robyn’s window, my hands were a mix of pale tan and blue from the cold.

  "Hey, Luke," Brooke said, cheerfully, as I fell, clumsily, onto Robyn’s floor.

  "Hey," I replied, picking myself up and rubbing my hands together, feverishly, to warm them up.

  Robyn’s room is rather big. It’s about two times as big as my room. And it was decorated in a classic style with Robyn’s own personal touch. A king single, dark, oak wood bed with little roses curved into the wood, a hand-sewn quilt, a desk and a dresser with a mirror made from the same wood as the bed and a huge book shelf filled with hundreds of books. Robyn was a known bookworm.

  A few seconds after I had hauled myself through the window, Ned climbed through the window with System clutching onto the back of his shirt.

  "For a skunk, you’re actually quite heavy," Ned said as System hopped off.

  "I am a Systematic," he corrected. "And I am denser than normal skunks."

  "Good, better remind me of that one when we come to an underwater lair," Ned mumbled. "Speaking of which, we’re going to have to figure out where Gemini is hiding."

  "He’s not really ‘hiding,’" I said. "He’s just keeping a low profile. He hasn’t got anything to hide from. Unless he’s got eyes and ears everywhere, he doesn’t know we exist."

  "And, even so, I don’t think he’d be that terrified by our existence," Ned added.

  "Could you at least try not to be such a pessimist?" Brooke said, indignantly.

  "It’s a gift," Ned shrugged.

  "Anyway," I said, stopping Brooke and Ned’s argument. "As soon as Smithy gets here, I’ll tell you what I’ve found."

  Silence descended. Ned tilted his head to the side.

  "Luke, say that again."

  "Say what?" I asked.

  "Well, you know how it works: whenever you say aloud: ‘I wonder where Smithy is,’ he turns up, gives everyone a mild heart attack, and fades straight into the background again," Ned summarized. "Go on, try it, you know it works."

  I had to admit, Ned was right. Every time, so far, when someone had said ‘Where’s Smithy?’ he appeared.

  "I don’t think it actually works that way," I said, eventually.

  Just as I said it, Smithy appeared in the middle of the room, as if on cue. "You’re right, it doesn’t," he confirmed. "But I do get it pretty spot on."

  I wasn’t sure if the rest of the team knew of what happened up in the apartments. I could trust that Robyn wouldn’t have gone around telling everyone.

  So, I didn’t say anything about it. I just had to have faith that Robyn had said enough last night to cover it over.

  "Alright," I said, getting down to business. "I figured Gemini would try to blend into the background, lay low and maybe even create a cover for himself," I said. "So, I did a little bit of digging and found that there’s three businesses in Rockwell that have the name ‘Gemini’ in them. Gemini Plumbing, Gemini Dental Clinic and Gemini Foot Wash and Scrub Co. Now, I don’t really think the last one is a possibility but the first two I’d like to consider. Do you guys know anything about those two businesses?"

  "The Gemini Dental Clinic opened only two months ago," Smithy supplied. "Around the same time I came."

  "Gemini Plumbing has been open for ages," Robyn said, looking like she was thinking aloud. "Decades, actually. It doesn’t stand to reason that Gemini would be operating that one. But a dental clinic . . ."

  "That dental clinic has a great reputation," Brooke said. "I went there just last month and they are really good."

  "To think that a sinister, intergalactic criminal could be managing your local friendly dental clinic . . . it’s just nuts. What is this world coming to?!" Ned exclaimed.

  "It could come to nothing if we don’t act now," I said, flatly.

  Ned shut up.

  "What do you plan on doing now?" Brooke asked.

  I sighed. "I don’t actually know. We need to find out what Gemini is up to. We have to just start somewhere and I think an examination of his office would help . . ."

&nbs
p; "We can’t be sure that Gemini is a dentist," Smithy said. "He might just be the founder and the clinic was named in his honour."

  "It’s an outside chance, I admit. But we can at least give it a shot. Perhaps it’ll pan out into something and if it doesn’t, then we haven’t lost anything except maybe our Saturday."

  Smithy considered it and seemed to agree with me.

  "How exactly do you plan to get into a dental clinic?" Robyn asked me.

  I cringed. This was the part I hadn’t been looking forward to having to say aloud. "It’s not a fantastic idea, but, hear me out: we can’t just break in and spy out the place. Because, if it leads us to a dead end, then we’re liable for a number of criminal charges. So . . . we’re going to have to make an appointment with the enemy."

  No one was leaping at the opportunity. And I could understand: who, in their right mind, would schedule an appointment with a dentist, for the sheer thrill of it?

  "Three of us go in," I explained, as if it would make the situation sound any more appealing. "Robyn has to come with to keep tabs on the other two. Someone has to get into the offices and check them out. That should either be me, as I can go through walls, or Smithy, who can just teleport in and out and around. Then . . . we’re going to need someone to keep the dentists busy . . ."

  Everyone looked at each other, reluctant to offer themselves for the mission.

  "We’ll draw straws," I eventually said, tired of all the waiting.