15.If all else fails, refer to the instructions on how to initiate the Base Security Breach Self-Destruct Sequence
Simple. Right? Just fifteen simple steps to save the world.
As the bus drove up the winding path toward the huge parking ramp at Mount Rushmore, everyone around me buzzed with excitement. Most of us had never seen the monument before, at least not in real life. Had I not been so distracted worrying about my mission, I’d have been pretty excited myself.
We pulled onto a huge parking ramp and then walked up wide granite stairs toward the monument visitor center. Tons of flags and plaques lined the walkway. It was all pretty impressive. I figured that we’d just be pulling over on some hillside and there would be Washington’s face and Jefferson’s and the rest of them carved into a mountain in the middle of nowhere. But it wasn’t like that at all. The visitor center was huge and impressive. The gift shop alone was almost as big as my whole house. And the entire park was packed with people despite it being early in the morning and near the end of tourist season.
The chaperones tried to keep us corralled as we all headed down the long concrete path toward the monument itself. We bypassed the visitor center and gift shop and headed right to the initial viewing area.
Then, finally, we saw the monument. Four massive presidential faces peered out into the Black Hills from a mountainside high above us. It was a pretty amazing sight. I couldn’t believe how intricate the carvings were. Even the pictures I’d seen couldn’t have prepared me for how cool and detailed the monument looked in person.
“It’s way smaller than I expected,” one girl complained.
“Yeah, no kidding,” Dillon agreed. “Especially since I know there’s a secret vault filled with gold stashed inside Lincoln’s face.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be taking that hiking trail to get a closer look,” said Mr. Gist. “After a quick bathroom break, that is.”
I looked down below into the shallow valley where he was pointing. There was a hiking trail leading up to a series of wooden platforms and steps that winded their way partially up the hillside toward the monument itself. It ended a little under a quarter of the way up to the base of the faces. After that, the hillside got much steeper and rockier. That was the terrain I was going to have to climb. I glanced over at Mr. Jensen, who was looking at me meaningfully.
I tried to swallow, but my throat was suddenly broken. This just kept feeling more and more impossible with each passing minute. I was now convinced that Agent Nineteen and all the other agents trapped inside were going to die that day. And it would be my fault.
“MAN, THIS IS . . . NOT WHAT I . . . EXPECTED,” OLIVER SAID, panting as we ascended a series of wooden staircases and concrete walkways leading farther up the mountainside.
Oliver was by far the heaviest kid on the trip. But to be fair, even I had to admit that it was a ton of steps up to the highest public-viewing point. We were almost to the top of the man-made trail now, and I did my best to stay at the back of the pack so I could sneak away unnoticed when Agent Blue finally initiated his diversion.
The only kids near the back with me were Oliver, Dillon, and Jake. It made me nervous since it might be kind of hard to shake my two friends unless Agent Blue’s distraction was particularly spectacular. Then again, most of their attention was on scanning the forest around us for signs of Smallfoot.
Danielle was sticking near the front of the group, partially so she could ingest all the information that the three chaperones were dispensing along the way, and also partially, I suspected, because she was annoyed that Jake and Dillon were hanging out so much. I couldn’t really figure out her problem with Jake. He had taken the fall for Prankpocalypse, after all. And it was usually Dillon who had a harder time trusting and welcoming new kids into our group of friends.
According to my watch, I now had two hours left to find Agent Nineteen and help him. If Agent Blue was going to make his move, he’d better do it soon. I’d been watching him the whole time, and he was doing a pretty good job of pretending like he was just a chaperone on a school trip. He’d been basically ignoring me the entire hike. Which was probably a lot smarter than what I was doing: making it all kinds of obvious by staring at him constantly. But I couldn’t help it. I was nervous.
We got to the top platform and everyone looked up inside the former presidents’ nostrils for a while, made some funny comments, listened to the chaperones doling out more information and took notes in their journals, and then eventually started back down the trail. Was Agent Blue ever going to make the diversion? Had he already done it, and I’d missed it?
But it was then that I realized he’d been waiting for a reason. He might as well wait until everyone was heading down so that me being in the back of the pack would also mean I was higher up the hillside than everyone else. It was smart.
As we started down the trail, Mr. Jensen launched into another informative speech about the monument.
“It took fourteen years and four hundred workers to carve the monument,” he said. “Many people worry that it will eventually erode, but it actually only erodes about one inch every ten thousand years. In fact, the mountain was only ever cleaned once, by a manufacturer of cleaning machines who did it for free.”
“Man,” Oliver breathed hard, hunched over next to me. Could seventh graders have heart attacks? I wasn’t sure, but with how red and glossy his pudgy face looked, it certainly seemed possible. His face resembled the honey-glazed hams my mom sometimes made on holidays. It was making me uncomfortable.
“Come on, the way back down will be a lot easier,” Dillon said, putting an arm around Oliver’s shoulder.
I was now dead last as the group continued down the trail, with Jake, Oliver, and Dillon just a few steps in front of me. And I knew the diversion would be coming soon. What I didn’t know was that it had already happened.
It just took me a few extra seconds to notice.
I HEARD THE SHOUTING FIRST. THEN I SAW MR. JENSEN LEANING over the railing, continuing his string of yelling, which was obviously causing even more of a commotion among the kids since it was coming from a teacher. Everyone rushed over to see what had happened.
“I dropped my camera!” he yelled.
This was my moment. All I saw were backs of heads as everyone hurried over to see the damage. I ducked under the wooden railing and quickly hopped down onto the hillside. The wooden staircase was slightly elevated in most spots to keep it as flat as possible, which worked to my advantage since I was able to stay under it and out of sight as I scrambled back up the hillside through crunchy late fall brush.
There were a few boulders and stones to get over, and I dashed as far and as fast as I could. I didn’t bother looking back until I was at least fifty yards past the end of the wooden trail. Then I dived behind a huge evergreen tree to catch my breath.
Slowly, I poked my head around the trunk and looked back down toward our field trip group. They were still gathered on the platform where Mr. Jensen had “accidentally” dropped his camera. They looked shockingly small from up here. Most of the kids were still peering over the side of the rail. As far as I could tell, nobody had a clue that I was gone. I steeled myself and continued working my way up the hillside, making sure to keep behind as many trees as possible.
The going got steeper and rockier as I went. But I kept moving, despite my aching muscles. After several minutes, I was now actively climbing on all fours. In fact, it was so steep that if I tried to stand on just two feet, I’d probably tumble over backward and roll down the hill.
I wanted desperately to look back, but knew the view would only make me more nervous. So I kept facing forward, looking up at the four massive stone faces above me. Their chins were getting surprisingly close. But that also meant the mountainside was getting a whole lot steeper. Which meant there were fewer trees to hide behind.
Nevertheless, I pushed on. A few minutes later, I reached a huge boulder that formed a sort of ledge. I climbed up onto it and t
hen knelt down to once again catch my breath. Sweat soaked the clothes underneath my jacket and dripped through my bangs and into my eyes. I wiped it away with my sleeve.
My countdown watch indicated I had just over an hour left.
I checked my maps. My entry point was underneath Teddy Roosevelt’s face. The problem was what stood between me and old Ted: sheer cliffs, massive boulders, and terrain so steep I didn’t think I could climb it. There appeared to be a clear trail on the map, but I had no idea if I was on it, or how to get to it if I wasn’t. The topographical maps had been a lot easier to read when I wasn’t standing in the middle of the area they depicted.
Eventually, I decided to stick to paths I could see that seemed the least likely to get me killed. I put the maps away and then crawled to the edge of the boulder and peeked down.
I couldn’t even see the wooden stairs of the tourist path. It was completely obstructed by trees and rocks and the angle of the hill. At least I didn’t have to worry about being spotted by the group anymore. People down at the viewing center might be able to spot me if they were looking through the coin-operated binoculars. But I couldn’t worry about that now; all that mattered was getting to Agent Nineteen as soon as possible.
Using tree roots and larger rocks as handholds, I started climbing once again. I was so close to the faces now they were nothing more than huge, smooth stone outcroppings.
My focus remained on making sure I always had something solid to grab and somewhere to lodge my toes. I was so focused on those two things that it caught me by surprise when I looked up and realized that I was just twenty feet or so from the underside of the presidents’ faces. Twenty feet from somehow surviving this climb.
I’d passed the last of the trees now. All that stood between me and the base’s secret entrance was one last cliff off to the right of Lincoln’s face. Once I was under his chin, I’d be able to crawl my way toward Teddy Roosevelt, who was tucked farther back into the mountain.
Being so close seemed to remotivate me despite how exhausted I felt, despite the fact that the next few phases of the mission would be even more difficult.
I resumed climbing. Every time I was convinced that I’d just found the last good grip or foot ledge, I’d locate another, then another. Before I knew it, I was just a few feet from the top. My arms were hurting so badly they were going numb. But I pushed on.
Or, at least I tried to. The moment I reached up for the next little ledge, my foot slipped and I began to fall.
OKAY, I DIDN’T ACTUALLY FALL TO MY DEATH.
Instead, I managed to somehow hang on with both hands. But as tired as my raw fingers and aching arm muscles were, I knew it was only a matter of time before I did actually fall.
I kicked my feet along the cliff, searching for any sort of foothold as my fingers already started slipping off the rock ledge above me. It was all I could do to not look down and pee my pants. I felt my throat close up and I flailed my legs wildly.
My feet found nothing to anchor to, and my heart sank. I’d been so close. Just a few feet from the top. But there was no way I’d make it now. My fingers continued slipping and I knew I was likely seconds from imminent death.
But then suddenly a hand came out of nowhere and grabbed one of my wrists. Then another hand grabbed my other one. The hands were small, but surprisingly strong.
“Come on, I’ll pull, but you got to kick!” a voice yelled out from above me.
And so I did. I dug my feet into the cliff and pushed up as my savior pulled. I heard a loud grunt and before I knew it I was on top of the cliff, sprawled on the grainy stone ground.
I lay there facedown for a few moments trying to figure out if I was actually still alive. Then I looked up to see who had saved my life.
Jake sat just a few feet away, breathing hard.
“What . . .” is all I managed to say.
“That was close,” he said, climbing to his feet.
He held out a hand and helped pull me up. My legs felt unstable and wobbly, like those of someone trying to use crutches for the very first time. The adrenaline from almost dying made me feel like I’d just ingested eighteen pounds of pure sugar. My arms and hands were vibrating.
“You saved me,” I said. “How . . . ?”
“I saw you sneak off and so I followed you.” He shrugged and smiled. “After last night, I could tell you were up to something. Lucky for you, right?”
My brain tried to register what he was saying, but something else was bothering me even more than all of that.
“But how in the world did you get past me and beat me up here?” I said.
“There’s a much easier path over there, with way less climbing.” He pointed across the ledge over toward the base of Washington’s face. “I lost you along the way and figured you were still in front of me. Then I got up here and didn’t see you. That’s when I heard you yelling.”
“I was yelling?” I said. I didn’t remember yelling.
“Yeah, you were screaming,” he said with a grin.
I just shook my head. I guess that would have been the benefit of being able to read that stupid map once I got up here. It likely would have directed me to the easier path.
“How did you get away from the group?” I asked.
“Dillon was busy explaining to Oliver the importance of eating kale. I don’t think he noticed when I left.”
I nodded. Dillon loved kale. He called it the MVP of the American Food Revolution and would always lecture me about how it’s secretly the only truly healthy natural food in existence, and how the government doesn’t want us to know about it so they can make money off our unhealthy lifestyles. Or something like that.
“So, what are you up to?” Jake asked. “A prank?”
“Well, not exactly . . .”
“You might as well tell me now and let me help,” he said.
I sighed. Here we go again, I thought. Telling Jake the truth would be breaking the number-one most important rule of being a secret agent. And not only would I be doing that, but I’d be helping an outsider infiltrate a secret Agency base. Director Isadoris and Agent Blue would be furious, even if I did somehow manage to successfully complete my mission.
Still, it was impossible to deny that having him along for the mission would make things loads easier. Him saving my life a minute ago was proof enough of that. I began to sweat. I didn’t know what to do, and Jake was growing more and more confused by the minute. Could I really tell him what was going on?
I laid out the facts in my head:
Jake had just caught me red-handed. The only real alternative to blowing my cover would be to throw him off the cliff, which I didn’t think I was even physically capable of doing, let alone would ever want to.
Jake would make phase two of the base infiltration a million times easier. Scratch that: He’d make it possible. I still had no clue how I was going to input the two codes simultaneously. Using the extendable rod was ridiculous, and yet it was still my best option unless I could figure out how to push buttons telekinetically in the next few minutes. If I was being realistic, bringing Jake along was the only way to be sure that part of the mission would go as planned.
Agent Nineteen was going to die in forty-five minutes, and the clock was continuing to tick as I stood there debating this whole thing.
It really all boiled down to one question. What was worse: exposing my cover, or letting everyone inside the base die and possibly allowing a deadly apocalyptic virus to escape containment?
When considered that way, it was no choice at all.
“Okay, here’s the thing,” I said. “I’m on my way to save the lives of several government agents, and prevent the outbreak of an engineered bioweapon, all of which are contained in a top secret lab hidden inside Mount Rushmore.”
The look on Jake’s face was so priceless, I almost laughed.
“I know this sounds ridiculous,” I started, “and even if you don’t believe me at all, I don’t care because I need your hel
p either way. Basically, the long and short of it is that there’s a secret government agency operating in Minnow and they’ve hired me to break into one of their secret laboratories here. There was a virus outbreak and I need to get inside to deliver the cure.”
Jake finally broke his silence. He laughed. But as he kept staring at me, the laughter slowly subsided.
He didn’t believe me. I wouldn’t have believed me either. But as I stood there with him, I couldn’t help but notice how amazing it felt to finally be able to come clean to someone. It was like there had been a relentless buzzing noise inside my brain, and now, suddenly, it was gone. The air felt cleaner, easier to breathe.
“I know,” I said. “It’s quite a story. But if you come along with me now, and you promise to help me, I’ll prove it to you.”
He smiled again, but more cautiously. “Sure, man. I’ll go along with this.”
“Okay then,” I said. “Follow me.”
We moved around to the base of Roosevelt’s face and I took out the blueprints and map that Agent Blue had given me. The map was directing me toward a crevice somewhere around that area.
“And this ‘Agency’ . . . they hired you to do this job why?” Jake asked, clearly struggling to wrap his head around the story.
“There’s not a lot of time to explain,” I said. “But mostly, they didn’t know which agents of theirs they could trust, and they needed someone who had a believable reason to be at Mount Rushmore on this particular day. Now: We need to find some sort of crevice around here, one we can crawl into.”
I ran my hand along the smooth rock. There were plenty of cracks and crevices, but none that looked large enough to fit a textbook into, let alone a thirteen-year-old kid. We kept walking along the wall of the mountainside. The ledge we were on got deeper as we went farther back toward where President Roosevelt’s Adam’s apple would have been, had they carved that part out.
“You’re messing with me,” Jake said. “There is no way this is real.”
Countdown Zero Page 8
