***
The secretary’s desk was made of a different type of wood, a lighter reddish grain. A plugged-in air freshener filled the room with an overpowering vanilla smell. Tina pointed out the wall color, some sort of greenish gray, slightly different but not by much. The bell was the same. Brendan took the key that was there. He heard no alarm. The lobby window in this world hadn’t been broken.
“They’re not onto us here,” he whispered.
Tina was searching around the desk. She then checked the kitchenette. “I feel like we should have a weapon of some sort.”
“To go along with our well-thought-out plan?”
“Exactly. Let’s take the stairs.”
The lobby was dark but for the lights shining through the front glass. Tina paused to catch her breath.
“It’s like the air is heavier here,” she said.
“It’s the same.”
“But what if it isn’t? We’re breathing air not meant for us, you know? This is air someone here is supposed to breathe. What about the me and you that might be here? What happens if we run into them?”
“Maybe a really big explosion. Maybe nothing. Maybe they’re not here.”
“What, you think the me in this world isn’t smart enough to get into this school?”
He looked outside through the glass and saw nothing but the walkway lights and the buildings of the campus, identical to the ones on their Earth. “I don’t know. Maybe you go to a different school. Maybe your family won the lottery here and they all live in the Hamptons and you have tutors come to your house and teach you.”
“Huh. My family already has money, and they sent me to a boarding school to get rid of me. I was thinking about some darker scenarios. Now I want to look me up.”
Brendan went to a second stairwell that led down. A sign on the door read “Staff Only.” He put a finger to his lips and pointed to the elevator. The light bar at the top indicated it was in the basement. Tina nodded.
They went downstairs and emerged into a lit intersection of corridors next to the elevator. The headmaster’s voice was echoing on the tile and cinderblock walls. Tina pointed up. White pipes. Brendan nodded. He walked as quietly as possible to a corner. He peered around but saw no one. He noticed a pair of metal doors with a safety sign that read “Danger—High Voltage.” Next to the doors was a yellow fire extinguisher. He tried not to feel excited. Maybe all fire extinguishers are yellow here. But they were even attached to the wall with the same style of clip.
Now they heard a second voice, coming from an open room halfway down the hall.
Behind them, the elevator came to life. It was going up to the first floor. Brendan and Tina hurried into the hall and tried the first door beyond the power closet. It was locked.
The elevator began to descend.
The next door was also locked. The voices from the open doorway got louder. They only had two more doors to try before they would have to step past the open door or go back. The elevator would be down in moments. Brendan checked a narrow door with a large vent screen on its bottom. It opened for him. Two shelves filled with cleaning supplies and a stack of plastic trash cans were in the way. The space was tight, but he and Tina pushed inside and closed the door behind them.
The elevator dinged and footsteps approached. Brendan could smell food as someone walked past.
“Good, you’re back,” he heard the headmaster say. “You’ve got things under control here. I’ll leave you two to your business. I have things to attend to.”
There came the sound of sliding chairs on tile and a pair of voices speaking in low tones, one male, one female. Then hard-sole footsteps passing them heading towards the elevator.
“That’s him,” Tina whispered. She gripped Brendan’s arm as he cracked the door and looked out. The headmaster appeared particularly large and broad shouldered. Perhaps it was his imagination or the narrow hallway. The headmaster rounded the corner. The elevator dinged and began to hum. Brendan squeezed out of the janitor closet and moved out into the hallway. As he approached the one open door, he got down. He motioned for Tina to stay put. Ever so slowly, he peeked in.
Two security guards, one man and one woman, were sitting inside a neatly arranged lounge at a table. A large television and a couch filled much of the space, but the TV was off. There was also a sink and refrigerator. Both guards had unwrapped hot sandwiches, fries, and drinks with straws. They had a tablet propped up between them that displayed a four-way split screen. Brendan inched further out for a better view. The screen showed four cells from a high angle. Each had a bed and a toilet, and two of the cells were occupied. He couldn’t see clearly enough to make out who the occupants were, but he could guess.
His father was here somewhere. But if all the other doors were locked, he’d need a key.
There was one door on the far side of the guards’ lounge. But the cells could be anywhere.
“Hey you!” a voice called from down the hallway.
A third guard was heading his way. With all his attention on the screen, Brendan hadn’t heard the elevator. He jumped up. The man had one hand out for Brendan to stop and was pulling a long metal flashlight from his belt. With no time to see if Tina was still in the closet, Brendan ran. Soon the other guards were joining in the shouting. Brendan rounded a corner, turned, and saw several doors near him. There was also a long corridor that ended at a short flight of stairs. He tried a couple of doors, but they were locked. He vaulted down the stairs.
They led down to a dark room with three large machines, all linked to a mass of cables that connected to a complex of steel junctions. One wall had panels and a set of meters. Brendan had toured the inside of a hydroelectric dam once, and this reminded him of what he had seen inside the power control station. The panels had padlocks. He jogged to the far side of the room. The machines made a low hum that he felt inside his head and teeth. The sound made him feel queasy. He tried the three doors he found. Only one opened, and it was another closet.
“Down here,” a voice called. “Hey, you, come on out. This is a restricted area.”
He entered the closet and closed the door, immediately knowing it was a futile act. The closet had no lock, and what would be the point if he could lock the guards out anyway?
The door was thrown open. All three guards stood there. Unlike his own campus security, one held a Taser while the other two had their flashlights in hand. A brilliant white light blinded him.
“Step out of there.”
Brendan complied with his hands up.
“What are you doing down here?”
Brendan tried to smile. “Sorry, I was just taking a look around.”
“This building is off-limits and the basement doubly so. You should know that. Are you a student here?”
Brendan tried to block the light. The guard lowered the flashlight, allowing Brendan to better see the three guards. They were alert, yet relaxed. The woman who held the Taser didn’t have it pointed at Brendan. One of the guards took his arm.
“Yes, I’m a student. I didn’t steal anything.”
“Are you alone?”
He saw a flash of motion by the stairs, tried not to look. The grip on his arm tightened.
The female guard turned her head. “Who else is here with you?”
“Secure him.”
The male guard pushed Brendan forward and pulled his arm behind his back.
“Tina, run!” Brendan shouted.
The other guard headed down between the machines, his flashlight playing from side to side.
Pain shot down Brendan’s arms. While the man held him, the woman tried to place plastic restraints on his wrists. Brendan jerked away, and he was surprised when the guard let him go. The flashlight went crashing to the floor.
“Hold still!”
The guard grabbed him again and a hand slammed down on the back of Brendan’s neck. Brendan swung back with an elbow, missed, and then reached up and took the guard by the wrist.
The man screamed. Brendan pushed the guard away, sending him tumbling to the floor gripping his wrist. Brendan could only stare in disbelief. The man had seventy pounds on him at least.
The female guard brought up her Taser. Brendan grabbed at the first thing he saw: the guard’s dropped flashlight. He flung it at her, and it knocked the Taser out of her hand.
“You little creep,” she said as she closed on him. Her hands came up into a fighting stance. Brendan had no real fighting skill. He knew how to make a fist and swing, but most of his fights had been pushing matches until someone broke them up. Knocking out Paul had been the exception. He raised his arms up defensively.
“Hit her!” Tina shouted.
The guard feinted high and punched low. Pain exploded in his midsection, doubling him over. He reached out to push the woman away and grabbed her shirt. As she pulled away, he shoved and sent her sprawling.
Tina ran to his side and helped him up. The woman guard got up, a look of confusion on her face.
“Watch this,” Tina said. She went over to the female guard and, in one motion, pitched the woman into the closet.
“How did you do that?” he asked, not believing what he just saw.
“You try.” She pointed to the guard with the hurt wrist.
The man had a look of terror on his face. He shook his head. “Look, kid, don’t touch me. I think you broke it.”
Brendan pointed to the closet. The man hesitated, but when Tina took a step in his direction he went inside. She relieved him of his belt and patted both down, removing keys and phones.
“Get the third one,” she said. “I thumped him over by the stairs.”
Brendan found the guard. The man appeared to weigh over two hundred pounds and wasn’t moving, his nose leaking blood. Brendan dragged him by the hands, finding it took no effort to do so. He took his possessions and pulled him into the closet. Both of the other guards kept their distance.
“Boo!” Tina said and laughed.
Brendan closed the door and Tina dragged a large workbench over to block it. He could only shake his head in disbelief as he watched her move the massive piece of furniture.
“The drug?” he asked.
A wicked grin lit up her face. “This is the most awesome thing ever. It explains how the guard could lift Vlad. It wasn’t just water or Gatorade the nurse gave us.”
“How is this even possible?”
“When the guards chased you, I was gripping the doorknob. It broke. That’s when I knew. I don’t know how long it will last.”
The door shook.
Brendan felt light-headed. “You guys stay put in there. If you come out, you’ll get hurt.”
“I’ll tie you all into a pretzel,” Tina added.
The prisoners in the closet went silent.
“We have their keys,” Tina said. “Let’s see what we find.”
The basement was more secure than anything Brendan had seen back at the academy on his Earth. The high half-windows had bars and were frosted opaque. All the doors needed keys except for the janitorial closets. Brendan even found a schedule for maintenance posted by the elevator, the names and initials on the checklist of assignments matching the names on the guards’ own tracking sheets. Everyone signed in and out as they went, except for the headmaster. Proficient. Organized. They were guarding something, and security did the janitorial work to limit other people’s access to the basement.
In the lounge, Brendan examined the security guards’ tablet. The footage from before was still onscreen. The view into one cell showed him his father sitting on a cot. The second prisoner appeared large. He had expected to see Poser, but whoever this was looked like an adult, taller and more muscled. The man lay on his cot, curled up and facing away from the camera. The other two cells were empty.
The door from the lounge led to a dead-end hallway with the four cell doors. Brendan went to unlock them with the keys.
Tina held one of the guard’s heavy flashlights and was flipping it in her hands. “A girl could really hurt someone with this power.”
“Keep watch. Listen for the elevator.”
The first door he opened was empty. The second cell held his father.
He was perched on his cot and he stared blankly at Brendan. A muted television sat on a nightstand. Besides a sink, toilet, and a small shower stall there was little else to the cell. Brendan stepped over a plastic tray on the floor that held a soiled paper plate and plastic utensils.
“Dad?”
His father blinked, frowned, and asked, “What are you doing here?”
Brendan went to hug his father. “I’m here to get you out.”
His father patted Brendan’s back and broke off the embrace. He got up and leaned on Brendan. “Give me a hand. I’m sorry, I must smell.”
“Don’t worry about it. Who else is here?”
His father just shook his head.
Brendan called Tina and gave her the keys. She unlocked the other doors. The next cell was empty. The fourth held the second prisoner, who was waiting by the door. Tina clicked on her light and shined it on the prisoner’s face. The headmaster squinted in the glare.
***
Sperry Appleton’s cheeks were sunken, his eyes dark with circles. His white hair hung limply around his face. The dark suit he wore was rumpled and torn. This wasn’t the headmaster who had commanded such fear in Brendan during their last interview, but a faded shadow of the same man. Brendan looked down at the man’s hand and saw that he wore no ring.
“Get me out of here,” the headmaster said, his voice holding none of the thunder of his counterpart’s. He tried to move forward out of his cell.
“Hold on,” Brendan said, blocking the way. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“I’ve been kidnapped. You’ve got to get me out so we can call the authorities.”
“Is this your world? Your building? Are these machines yours?”
“There’s no time for this. Let me go.”
By the look in his eyes, Brendan could see the man didn’t recognize him. “Hold on,” he said. “The other you. He put you here?”
“Yes. He’s an imposter and a criminal. He’s kept me down here for so long.”
“How long?”
“Two whole years. Please, we must go, before he returns.” There was real fear in his voice.
“Brendan, let’s get out of here,” his dad said.
“Before I let you out, tell me about the machines. Did you build them?”
The headmaster tried to get past, but Brendan pushed him back with the slightest shove, and he had to lean on his cell wall for support. “Why is this so important to you? They’ll be back soon.”
“Tell me.”
The man hesitated, looked side to side, and was clearly uncomfortable. Brendan stood immobile. Finally the headmaster nodded. “The imposter showed me his machines, yes. But he built them. I have designs for machines like this, but I never completed them. There was always a part of my calculation just out of reach, so I never saw the point of going forward with a prototype. Without the math to back me up, I could never find backing. I’m a scientist, and this was my research. But then he came and took me. Wanted me to help him on his work, as if he didn’t know how to recreate his own invention. Now please, boy, we have to go.”
“These machines have caused a lot of harm. Do you have a daughter?”
The headmaster shook his head. “The imposter spoke of her. Says she understands the machines and did something to perfect them. But I have no children.”
“What about other prisoners? A boy named Brian, another named Paul, possibly other security guards from our Earth.”
“Not here. I don’t know where. We can look later, but first we need to go and summon help.”
Something in the headmaster’s face made Brendan want to slam the cell door. Perhaps it was because he was identical to the man who had threatened his father. Was this man not cut from the same cloth? But for having a brilliant daughter, he might ha
ve built his own machine and brought on another disaster to an unsuspecting Earth further downstream.
“Let’s go, Brendan,” his father said.
“Can you walk?” Brendan asked the headmaster.
He nodded and followed them towards the elevator, pausing to catch his breath a few times but refusing any help.
Tina led the way with exaggerated vigilance. Once she got to the corner by the elevator and stairwell she waved them forward.
An alarm sounded. It rang in four quick pulses, paused, and repeated the pattern. It sounded different than the alarm of their admin building.
“Get the elevator,” Brendan said. “The headmaster can’t walk up the stairs.”
Tina nodded and hit the call button. The elevator began to descend from the fifth floor. The other headmaster was up in his office or had passed back through. Brendan didn’t want to confront him, but he saw few other options. With the alarm, more security would be on the way, and perhaps the police from this Earth. Whatever enhanced strength they possessed wouldn’t be enough against such odds. Brendan didn’t want to know if he was bulletproof.
“What do we call you?” Tina asked the headmaster.
“Mister Appleton, young lady.”
Tina rolled her eyes. The elevator dinged and they got in. As the elevator climbed, Tina said to Brendan’s father, “So you’re a real supervillain. That’s cool.”
Myron shrugged. “It’s meant to pay the bills. Doesn’t always work out so well.”
“But how many guys did the headmaster send to take you down?”
“I got hit by a stun gun. I don’t remember much else.”
“What about your gunshot wound?” Brendan asked. “How are you feeling?”
“Better, besides atrophied from being cramped inside that cell.”
They arrived at the fifth floor. The alarm sounded muted once they left the elevator and the doors slid shut. Tina waited for Brendan at the door to the office. Once he was beside her, she swung it open. There was no one inside.
“He must have gone back and used his ring to turn the machine off again,” she said.
The Supervillain High Boxed Set: Books One - Three of the Supervillain High Series Page 20
