by Lucas Flint
As for the drawbridge, it wasn’t exactly what you think of whenever you hear the word ‘drawbridge.’ For one, it wasn’t actually made of wood and metal or any other physical material; instead, the drawbridge was made out of hard light, which was created by a projector attached to the main gates of the Castle. The hard light drawbridge was strong enough to hold even the heaviest vehicles, but it could also be shut off in a pinch in order to make intruders or unwanted guests fall into the moat below, where they would then be devoured by genetically modified sharks and crocodiles. How Mastermind made hard light work, I had no idea, but I guess he was just that smart.
And, of course, no castle would be complete without a large array of armed men with guns that looked more like miniature cannons than guns. According to Valerie, the guards—more like soldiers, really—were some of the best trained in the whole world, most of them having been handpicked from Mastermind’s armies due to distinguishing themselves in war. While none of them were superhumans, that didn’t mean they were incapable of fighting superhumans; in fact, most of the weapons the guard carried shot powerless gas pellets or rockets and many had received training in using those weapons to take out even the toughest target.
It wasn’t just human guards who protected the castle, however. Drones that looked a lot like Seeker One—except bigger, blacker, and scarier—could be seen flying around the upper spires or near the rooftops of other buildings surrounding the Castle. Their main job was to take down any enemies in the air, although they also kept an eye on possible threats from the rooftops of nearby skyscrapers. They were equipped with guns that could shoot powerless pellets, just like the guards, but also could switch their ammunition to bullets to deal with normal threats. Some of the drones could even transform into robots, though I was told that was very rare, because the drones’ flying forms were usually enough to defend the castle from outside threats.
From one point of view, then, Castle Rational really was impregnable. That wasn’t even counting the castle’s interior security systems and guards, which were very similar to the exterior ones (or, at least, that’s what the Resistance assumed; since no one had ever been inside that place and Mastermind had never revealed the details of Castle Rational’s security to the public, no one knew for sure how similar Castle Rational’s interior security was to its exterior security).
I now understood why the Resistance leaders had been so hesitant about helping me break into the place. With all of this security, I doubted that even a tiny mouse could sneak in without being detected, caught, interrogated to find out if it was an enemy spy, and then executed on the spot before being thrown into the moat to be eaten by Mastermind’s genetically modified monsters. What, then, were my chances of getting in, finding the dimension-hopping tech, and then going home?
Higher than you’d think. The Resistance leaders and I came up with a plan to get me in there, though we spent hours talking about it; or arguing about it, because despite what Renaissance said, not all of the leaders were on board with this mission. In particular, Arthur thought it was just going to get me killed and, despite his distrust of me, he didn’t want me to die because he saw me as a powerful ally in the fight against Mastermind, since I was one of the very few superhumans in the Resistance.
Nonetheless, after many hours of debate and research, we came up with a plan that would probably—hopefully—get me into the castle. It was dangerous and risky, but since this was both the best chance for me to get home and the best chance for the Resistance to defeat Mastermind, it was going to be worth whatever the risks may be.
The plan was simple: First, Valerie and I would ambush a couple of guards on break. Of course, that would be difficult without knowing their schedules, but the Resistance’s spies had observed the guards long enough to have their schedules memorized.
Then Valerie and I would put on the guards’ clothes and armor and return to the castle. We would then use the guards’ stolen IDs to enter Castle Rational without raising any suspicion and then find our way to the nearest dimensional portal that would take me back home. Valerie would stay behind in order to gather as much intelligence on Castle Rational as she could, because this was seen as a great opportunity by the Resistance to get information about the Castle that they otherwise would not normally have.
There was the fact that the guards used facial scanners on any and all visitors to the castle, but we already had a plan to deal with that.
Of course, just because it seemed simple did not mean that it would be. There was a lot that could go wrong with this mission; for example, if our true identities were found out while we were in the castle, then we would be stuck in the middle of hostile territory with no way of escape or getting backup. But again, it was either we do this or we just hide and wait for Mastermind to take over my world and then try again at some point, but that was not an option for us, not when we didn’t know how far along Mastermind was in his plan to take over my universe.
So, in the morning, Valerie and I left the Resistance’s secret headquarters and made our way to a cafe near Castle Rational that was frequented by the guards who were on breaks. We left very early in the morning, well before the sun rose, in order to take advantage of the darkness of the morning, which would help to make sure that no one recognized us. I did, however, have to ditch my super suit for one of those ugly uniforms that Mastermind forced everyone to wear, though it was only so that no one would recognize me.
Valerie and I arrived at the cafe—which was pretty quiet, due to how early in the morning it was—about half an hour later. We set up our ambush in an alleyway to the cafe’s right, which was parallel to the street that the guards usually took to walk to their favorite cafe. According to the data that the spies gave us before we left, the guards should be coming down the street any minute now, so Valerie and I stayed in the shadows as much as we could so we wouldn’t be noticed by anyone else out on the street. Not that there were a lot of people out at this time; even though this was New York City, the city was eerily quiet in the morning, very much unlike the NYC I knew back home.
In fact, it was so quiet that I whispered to Valerie, “Where are all of the people?”
Valerie looked at me in confusion. We were kneeling behind a dumpster, which was positioned in such a way so as to allow us to see anyone walking out on the street but keep other people from seeing us before we launched our ambush.
“People?” said Valerie in an equally low whisper. “What people?”
“The people of Capital City,” I said. “Back in my universe, NYC is bustling with people at every hour of the day and night. It’s never this quiet. Not even at night.”
“Oh,” said Valerie. “Right. I forgot that things are different back where you’re from. Well, most of the people are probably in their homes due to curfew.”
“Curfew?” I repeated. “You mean for teenagers?”
“For everyone,” said Valerie. “Mastermind set a curfew over Capital City after he took over. Everyone has to be indoors by midnight each night and are not allowed to leave their homes until six in the morning.”
“What?” I said. “That’s crazy. A citywide curfew that applies to everyone? How does he enforce it?”
“The city’s police have the authority to beat anyone who is out after curfew,” said Valerie. “That kind of behavior tends to discourage lawbreaking. But it doesn’t apply to literally everyone; for example, city maintenance workers who need to work overnight are exempt, as are some private businesses. But aside from those exceptions, Capital City is pretty much dead from midnight until six in the morning.”
“Ah,” I said. I glanced at my suit-up watch, which was still attached to my wrist. “It’s five thirty now.”
“Yes,” said Valerie. “Some businesses are allowed to open their doors to the public thirty minutes before curfew ends so they can prepare for morning traffic. That’s why this cafe is a favorite of the castle guards; it is always one of the first businesses open early in the morning,
so the guards are usually the first customers.”
“I see,” I said. “Back in my universe, NYC doesn’t have a citywide curfew. I don’t think it would even be possible to force one onto the population without causing an insurrection.”
Valerie shrugged. “There was some disquiet when the curfew was first put into law, but Mastermind made public examples of some of the law’s more vocal critics, which convinced everyone else to go along with it.”
“But why is there a curfew?” I said. “Does Mastermind just want to control everyone?”
“He just wants the city to be quiet at night,” said Valerie. “At least, that’s what I think. He’s had trouble sleeping since your death—I mean, since the death of this universe’s you. As far as I know, he hasn’t gotten a good night’s sleep since the day that you and Ashley were killed.”
“So he has to force everyone else to do what he wants just because he can’t get any sleep?” I said. I shook my head. “That’s crazy.”
“Perhaps, but for the moment it is working out quite well for us, because the strict observance of the curfew means that very few people will be awake to notice us ambush the guards,” said Valerie. “Of those few who are awake, most are too busy getting their businesses ready for the day’s events, so I doubt anyone will notice a couple of guards get replaced.”
“Yeah,” I said.
All of a sudden, I heard a couple of voices speaking loudly outside of the alley. Well, they really weren’t speaking that loudly, but because the rest of the city was so quiet, they sounded louder than they were. It sounded like the voices of a man and a woman, which was good, because we had been told that the two guards in question were male and female, which meant that their schedule hadn’t changed tonight at all.
I looked at Valerie. “Hear that?”
Valerie nodded. “Yes. Get ready.”
I nodded and then made my way out from behind the dumpster, tiptoeing across the street until I reached the end of the alley. I peered around the side of the alley to see two guards—still wearing their armor and carrying their huge guns at their sides—walking side by side, talking and laughing with each other about something I couldn’t hear.
I immediately pulled my head back behind the alley so that they wouldn’t see me. I balled my right hand into a fist and charged it with red electricity, which crackled and sparked, but not loudly enough for them to hear. I just needed to hit them with one sufficiently strong blast of red lightning and both would go down in one hit.
So I waited patiently, listening to the guards’ footsteps growing ever closer. After a few seconds of waiting, the two guards walked past my alley, still talking and laughing, but that was when I sprung the ambush.
I jerked my arm toward them and unleashed two bolts of electricity that hit both guards square in the back. The two guards immediately collapsed onto the street, but even before their heads hit the street, I left my hiding place in the alley and, grabbing their legs, dragged them both into the alleyway where Valerie and I were hiding.
-
Ten minutes later, Valerie and I were walking back up the street in the direction which the two guards had come from. We were both wearing the armor and uniforms of the castle guards, so, to someone who didn’t know any better, we looked exactly like the guards. The two guards we had stolen this stuff from were currently unconscious and tied up with some rope in the alley from which we had left and would probably not be found or helped until well into the morning; by then, I should be back in my home universe and Valerie should be out of the castle with the necessary information that will help the Resistance take down Mastermind’s government.
But, although I was pleased at how smoothly the mission was going so far, the armor wasn’t exactly the most comfortable or form-fitting. My armor felt loose around me; not loose enough to be noticeable, but loose enough that the armor clinked slightly as I walked along. The guard I had taken my armor from had been taller and larger than me, which explained why his armor didn’t fit me perfectly; still, I worried that it might blow my cover, assuming that any other guards looked closely when Valerie and I got there. I had also taken off my suit-up watch and put it in my pocket, because I didn’t want to be wearing anything that might arouse the suspicions of the other guards.
As for Valerie, her armor fit her body a bit better than mine because the guard she had stolen her armor from had been closer to her in size than my guard had. But she had trouble lugging around the large gun that shot powerless pellets due to how heavy it was. I had no trouble carrying mine around, of course, but Valerie had trouble with hers, probably because she was weaker and shorter than me. But she didn’t complain about it or throw the gun away, because we needed to have all of our equipment on us so that when we reached the castle, we wouldn’t look out of place there.
I had to admit, I was pretty nervous about approaching Castle Rational. It may have been the only way to get back home, but I was still thinking about all of the ways this mission could fail. Mastermind was smart, after all, and probably had several different ways of keeping intruders out of his castle. And if we failed here, then I would probably be trapped in this universe forever while Mastermind was free to take over my universe himself.
But that thought also gave me courage, because there was no way in hell that I was going to let Mastermind or anyone else take over my universe. Regardless of what happened at the castle, I was going to stop Mastermind, even if that meant giving up my very life.
It wasn’t long before we turned a corner and found ourselves staring up at Castle Rational itself. It looked pretty much the same as it did in the pictures that the Resistance leaders had shown me, but it was far more imposing in real life, like some kind of weird combination of modern skyscrapers and medieval castles. I could see drones flying near the upper floors, while guards that looked ten times as intimidating as the two we knocked out were stationed on the walls or at the drawbridge. The surrounding streets were empty of people at the moment, but that was because it was still about twenty minutes before curfew finished. I hoped it didn’t take us that long to get into the castle and find the dimension-hopping technology that would be able to take me home.
Without exchanging any glances (because that might draw unnecessary attention from the guards on the walls), Valerie and I walked up to what appeared to be the guard house on our side of the moat. This guard house, I was informed, was manned by a guard whose job was to verify the identity and purpose of every person who wanted to enter the castle. If the identity was confirmed, the guard would ‘lower’ the ‘drawbridge’ and allow us to enter; but if our identities were not confirmed, we would not be allowed to enter and would probably be arrested for impersonating guards.
This was the biggest obstacle between us and the castle. The guard’s guard house was connected to a database containing every single citizen in Rationalia—yes, that means the entire population of the United States—so that the guard would be able to identify anyone who tried to enter, whether by scanning their faces or their IDs. We’d stolen the ID cards off of the guards from before, but there was a possibility that we might not be able to make it past this point.
Thankfully, however, this was one of the problems that we’d anticipated during the planning stages. Renaissance had assured me that the hackers in the Resistance would hack into the central database and craft fake identities for us to use that would allow us to enter the castle. He’d mentioned that it might be difficult, given the security systems in place around the database, but had assured us that he would have the hackers working overtime to ensure that the false identities were in place. I didn’t know for sure whether or not the hackers had been successful in placing the fake IDs in the system yet, but I hoped they had, because we were drawing closer to the guard house, which meant that it was make or break time.
Walking up to the guard booth, I saw a guard sitting inside it. He looked bored, perhaps because no one had been by in a while, but when Valerie and I approached, he strai
ghtened up and moved closer to us on his office chair, which had wheels that allowed him to move closer to us without having to get up and walk over to us.
“Back already?” said the guard in a Brooklyn accent. He glanced down the street where we’d came from. “I just saw you two leave what, ten, fifteen minutes ago? You got back pretty quickly.”
I smiled, trying not to show any sign of worry that might make the guard suspect that something was up. “Oh, erm, it was just that I had forgotten my wallet in my locker, which has my Rationalian Citizenship ID in it. Can’t buy food without ID, you know?”
That was a fact that Valerie had shared with me during the earlier planning sessions. Apparently, Mastermind had created a law that made it impossible to purchase or sell anything without a Rationalian Citizenship ID, which included buying things like bread and water bottles even. According to Valerie, Mastermind had created the ID card system in order to track the buying and selling history of every individual on the planet, though there was a thriving black market outside of the system that the Resistance relied upon to meet most of their needs.
The guard grimaced when I mentioned the ID, but looked to the left and right before leaning in and whispering, “Yeah, I know. It’s kind of inconvenient; I’m old enough to remember when you could buy a cup of joe from a street vendor without having to flash your plastic at him. But don’t tell anyone I said this, all right?”
I nodded, though I was surprised at this guard’s willingness to confide in us; maybe the guard I was impersonating was close to him. “Uh, sure.”
The guard sighed in relief. “Thanks. I know the punishment for even uttering one word against the laws of Rationalia is death and I’d rather much keep living, thank you very much.”
“Don’t we all?” I said. “Anyway, will you activate the drawbridge so we can go back inside? I would like to get my breakfast before my break is over.”
“Sure, sure,” said the guard. “Here, let me scan your faces. Gotta make sure you guys are who you say you are. You know the drill.”
