Cursed Blessing

by J. M. LeDuc

  He gave both girls a copy of the map and put the originals in his backpack. “Let’s get out of here. We have a lot to do before ten forty-five.”

  CHAPTER 33

  As they walked to the parking lot, Maddie told Brent and Chloe she needed to stay and get something ready for that night. She hugged each of them, thanking them for their trust and then turned to walk back down the hall. Brent and Chloe headed for Brent’s house. Memories flooded into Chloe’s mind. Most were good, but she remembered the last night she had been there and their argument. Sensing her emotions, Brent squeezed her hand, “You did the right thing. I’m just surprised you didn’t kick me to the curb long before that.”

  Chloe smiled. “If you weren’t so cute, I would have.”

  As they walked to the front door, Brent said, “I know my grandfather gained access to the house without using the front door. He used to sneak up on me when I was a kid and scare the heck out of me. The front door makes way too much noise to ever sneak through it. There has to be a tunnel entrance on the first floor somewhere.”

  Brent took his keys out to unlock the front door, but then remembered that it had been busted in by his nighttime visitors.

  A door stood to the right of the entrance. Brent unlocked that door. A strong musty odor greeted them when he opened it, the smell of stale, damp air that had been trapped in the hot room for a long time.

  “Whew, a little musty down here, wouldn’t you say?”

  “Yeah, Gramps said there was no reason to air-condition the first floor since we didn’t live in it. All the living space is up above. The ground level is just there so the other stories can’t flood in case of storm surge from a hurricane. Even the lights are on an entirely different circuit.”

  Brent reached over and flipped the breaker on the wall by the door. As the lights came on, they saw a rat scurry across the floor and disappear into a drain in the middle of the room. Chloe grabbed Brent’s arm and squealed.

  “Don’t worry, you’ll never see it again,” Brent said. “They’re more afraid of you than you are of them.”

  “Never will be too soon.”

  The floor in the room sloped toward the middle on all sides. The grate where the rat had disappeared into was in the center. The room was designed so that any flood water would run toward the center and down into the drain.

  They walked over to the drain and found that the grate had been welded shut on all sides. “Unless my grandfather was a magician, he didn’t gain access from here.”

  “At this point, nothing would surprise me about your grandfather,” Chloe said. She looked around the room and spotted an air vent in the back corner. “I thought you said there was no air-conditioning down here.”

  “There’s not.”

  “Then what’s that?” she said, pointing to it.

  He looked to where she pointed and said, “That must be it.” He ran his fingers along the top of the vent and felt a latch. With his fingertips, he pulled the latch open and the vent cover opened on one side. He pulled the open side out away from the wall and the entire vent swung open on a hidden hinge. Behind it, there was an air-conditioning filter. When he lifted the filter out, Chloe and Brent saw a large opening behind it, large enough for a man to squeeze through. “Well, I’ll be,” he said slowly. “No wonder I never heard him come in. He came in through the tunnel system.”

  Brent stepped through the opening where he noticed a solid steel door, which slid on a track above and below.

  “That’s odd that it would be open,” he said. “My grandfather must have been in quite a hurry the last time he used the tunnel.” Standing on the other side of the wall, he noticed that the landing was very slippery. “Chloe, take my hand and be careful. It’s slick on this side of the wall.”

  Chloe squatted down and stepped through, feeling the cement under her feet. She put her hand on the wall and felt the slippery surface. “Brent, it’s awfully dark in here. Do you think we should go back for a flashlight or something?”

  Brent held her hand securely and, with the other hand, felt the wall on both sides of the door.

  “If I know my grandfather, we won’t have any need for a flashlight.” Next to the door, on the right side, he found what he had been feeling for. “Jackpot,” he said, as he flipped the breaker up and it snapped open with a loud click. The lights in the tunnel began to flicker. A minute or two later, they remained on and illuminated the entire tunnel system. “Incredible,” he said, looking down its length.

  “More than incredible, more like Eighth-Wonder-of-the-World-ish,” Chloe said.

  “How’s that?”

  Feeling along the wall, Chloe said, “These walls are made of solid coral and stone. By looking at them, I can tell that this tunnel is at least one hundred years old, maybe closer to two. These tunnels were built without the use of technology and machinery.”

  “Someone dug these by hand?”

  Nodding, Chloe said, “Even more amazing, they’re below sea level. The fact that they haven’t caved in or collapsed is a miracle of modern architecture. I have got to study this construction.”

  “These tunnels belong to us now, so you’ll have a lifetime to study. But first things first.”

  CHAPTER 34

  Maddie walked through the maze of hallways inside S.I.A. until she reached the laboratory. She took Joseph’s note from her purse and flipped it to the back page, the page with the formula written on it. She sat down on a lab stool and studied it, really studied it for the first time. It was a long formula, divided into twenty steps. The more she read, the more she understood why it needed so many steps. The formula was so volatile that if it was mixed too quickly or recklessly, it would cause such an explosion that it would make nitroglycerin look tame. Maddie studied the formula for the longest time. She wondered how it could be ingested without killing the person. She realized it was the way the steps were laid out that made it possible. Each step either made the last step volatile or inert. If these steps were combined in any other order than the one shown, there would be a whole lot of cleaning up to do around here, she thought to herself.“All right, let’s get this thing started,” she said. Looking up toward heaven, Maddie said, “Trust, Joseph, this is all about trust.”

  She gathered the various chemicals she needed. Once that was done, she had to devise a way to put them together without the test tube falling or breaking. One wrong move and she would be with Joseph a lot sooner than she expected. She again thought about nitro, when it was first made and transported to the gold mines in the Old West via wagon train. To keep it from jostling and exploding, they would tie a string between two poles and hang the glass containers from the string. That way, they wouldn’t hit each other as the wagon train bumped along the cart paths. If it worked back then, it should work now, she thought. Maddie ran a wire between two very heavy, stable test tube racks. Then she took a thinner wire and wrapped it several times around the neck of a test tube and hung it from the wire between the racks. She took a deep breath before she composed the formula, one drop of each chemical at a time. The reality of what she was composing became clearer and clearer. Excitement crept into her psyche. She had to step back and calm herself. This is so simple, yet so amazing, she thought.

  As soon as she cleared her head, she returned to the task at hand. By the time she had finished the second to last step, it was clear to her how the formula worked. It would cause some genetic changes at the cellular level that would alter not just the molecular structure, but the way the brain perceives those changes.

  After pipetting the last drop of the last chemical, she thought she was finished. She looked at the formula one last time and realized there was another step. Her eyes grew wide and her pupils dilated. This makes no sense! Why would I add this to the mixture? she wondered. Totally confused, she wondered if Joseph had made a mistake. She went back over each step, drop by drop, to make sure she had
n’t missed something. Then she re-read Joseph’s letter and the passage that said, If it comes down to it, and there is no way out, compound this formula and give it to Donavan. Let him know that it’s what he’s been looking for. Come on, Joseph, she thought, talk to me. What is it you’re trying to tell me here? Maddie looked at the formula yet again, then back at the letter, back and forth. Suddenly, the answer jumped off the pages.

  She flew out of the lab and down the hall to the medical library. She pulled Guyton’s textbook of medical physiology from the shelves and a textbook on digestion and ran back to the lab. Maddie flipped through the pages until she found what she’d been looking for. I’ll be, Joseph. You’re a genius. Maddie closed the books and cleared the lab bench of all unnecessary items. This last step was so volatile that she didn’t want anything to even remotely disturb her. She donned a mask so that she wouldn’t inhale any fumes. Even the slightest inhalation could cause genetic changes. With a trembling hand, Maddie dripped the last chemical into the test tube. The entire constitution of the mixture began to change. She watched as it turned from a milky white liquid to a clear one, and then it morphed into a black syrupy mixture. Maddie stepped away from the bench and walked to a cabinet at the back of the lab. There, she reached for the small vials she had once planned to use for her perfume samples. With an eye dropper, she carefully transferred the formula in the test tube to the vial, and then she sealed it. As long as it stays within the glass tube, it will remain inert, Maddie thought.

  CHAPTER 35

  “Watch your step, they’re slippery,” Brent cautioned as Chloe followed him down the steps into the underground world of the Endowment.

  “I just can’t believe what I’m seeing. In all my years of studying, I have never seen anything like this,” Chloe exclaimed.

  “Someone sure went to a lot of trouble to keep everything related to the Endowment a secret,” Brent remarked. “I don’t know why these tunnels would be necessary, but something tells me we’re going to find out.”

  Brent took Chloe’s hand and they began their walk through the tunnel. They noticed words and phrases etched into the stone walls as they walked past:

  “God’s Law, not man’s, must be followed.”

  “Mankind before self.”

  “This world is only our temporary dwelling place.”

  “Morality.”

  “Our lifetime is but a fleeting moment when compared to eternity in heaven.”

  “Trust.”

  “Patience.”

  Chloe read each one aloud. “I guess the Ambassadors needed encouragement.”

  “They were human, Chloe, and that makes them flawed. They must have been curious to see what would happen if they were to eat this plant or whatever.” As the words were leaving his mouth, Brent thought about his own flaws. His lack of being able to deal with emotion, the way he treated Chloe, the person he love the most in this world, and his walking out on the Squad.

  “Are you?”

  Chloe’s voice brought him back into the moment, “What’d you say?”

  “Are you curious?”

  “I haven’t had much time to think about it, but, if and when I do, I’m sure these words will encourage me to do the right thing.”

  The corridor eventually came to a fork and they had to decide whether to go left or right. Brent took the map out of his pocket just as they heard a screeching sound followed by a loud clank. The sound made Chloe jump.

  Instinctively, Brent pulled his pistol from his waistband and in the same movement released the safety. The move was so fast that Chloe didn’t even see his hand move toward his pants.

  “What was that?” Chloe asked.

  “I don’t know. Stay here and I’ll be right back.”

  Retracing his steps back to the entrance, Brent saw nothing unusual, but he had an eerie feeling something wasn’t right. He didn’t want to leave Chloe alone for too long, so he went back.

  “Nothing,” he said, and shrugged his shoulders.

  “It could have been something from the street above us,” Chloe said. “We’re only about ten feet below the surface. Sound can easily penetrate that deep.”

  “That’s probably it then,” Brent said. “Now, which way do we go?”

  Chloe opened the map so they could both look at it. “We entered here,” Chloe said, pointing to the box representing Brent’s home. “That means we’re right here where the tunnel divides. Left will take us to the airport and right will take us back into town and everywhere else.”

  “Chloe, if they incorporated the old airport building into the hospital, maybe there is still a tunnel entrance. If there is, it could be our way of getting Lucille out without being seen. Can we tell from the map how far it is from here?”

  “If the map is built to scale, and I’m pretty sure it is, the vein that leads toward the hospital runs for approximately…” Chloe closed her eyes as she computed the distance in her head. Brent saw her lips move and it took all his willpower not to lean forward and kiss her. When she opened her eyes, she saw Brent staring at her.

  “What?”

  “Are you finished?”

  “Um, yeah. Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Because.”

  “Because why?”

  “Because this,” he said, and pulled her into him. He kissed her hard and full on the mouth. “You, Miss Adler, drive me insane.”

  “Hmmm, I like insane. No, I love insane, but right now we need all the sanity and energy we have left. The way I figure it, we have about a mile and a half until we hit the end point.”

  Loosening his embrace, he checked his watch. “We’d better step on it then. We don’t have much time, and we still have a lot to do.”

  “Aye aye, Captain!” she said, saluting him.

  “I’m not a pirate!”

  “Well then, Captain, how should I address you?”

  “Master works for me.”

  “Master? Kiss my butt, Captain.”

  “That definitely works for me, but then we’re back to that insanity thing again, so it’ll have to wait. Let’s fall out, soldier.”

  They jogged through the tunnel, hoping it would lead them to the hospital. The further they went, the mustier and denser the air became.

  “I hope we’re almost there,” Chloe huffed. “It’s getting harder to breath.”

  “We’re getting further from a fresh air supply,” Brent huffed back. “That could mean there is no entrance or that it’s been sealed up.”

  “I hope not,” Chloe said in a winded voice. “I’d hate for you to have to carry me back.”

  Finally, they reached the end and another staircase just like the one they’d come down earlier. Brent could see the door, but it was shut and there was no handle. He felt around the edge of the door for a hidden opening. There was none.

  “I don’t get it,” he said. “How would anybody get out of the tunnel if there’s no way to open the door? There’s a seam around the door and that tells me it hasn’t been sealed shut. What am I missing?”

  Chloe took out her copy of the map and reviewed it, hoping something would shed light on the problem. She couldn’t find any clue that might help with the door problem. Brent walked back down the stairs and felt along the wall for some sort of button or lever that could activate a releasing spring. He felt only the smooth surface of the coral and stone wall.

  “Looks like a dead end, cowboy. We’d better start back, or we’ll run out of time.”

  But Brent hadn’t heard a word Chloe said. He was crouched down and moved his hands as if he were sifting dirt through his fingers. His eyes were open, but they stared blankly into space. It was as if he were back in the squad again. His mind went back through the happenings of the past half hour, ever since they’d entered the basement floor of his house. To put himself into a meditative state, he hu
mmed. Chloe had never seen Brent do this before. She didn’t want to say anything that might distract him so she watched him, bewildered. He left the altered state as quickly as he’d entered it. Standing up, he looked up at the door, then at Chloe.

  “Back when we entered the tunnel system,” he said, “the door behind the air vent was open. Knowing my grandfather and how meticulous he was, that didn’t make much sense to me. I rationalized that everyone makes mistakes, so he could have left it open. But he couldn’t have, not him. He never left a room without shutting off the lights and closing the door. He never left the house without checking the stove and door locks at least twice. He wouldn’t have left it open.”

  “What are you saying? That someone else knows about this tunnel and has entered it?”

  “No, I don’t think so. If they had, they would have been able to get into the bank vault and they would have taken the ark.”

  “Then what?”

  “Let’s think this through. The door was open, right?”

  “Right.”

  “And it was solid steel on a track against the wall, just like this one. That means that there are literally millimeters of space between it and the wall. There’s no room for a doorknob or handle on the outside surface of the door.”

  “So how was it opened?”

  “You said it yourself, this place is a marvel of human engineering. I’ll bet there’s an electrical trigger that causes the door to open and close.”

  He went back up the steps and felt along the steel rack. “Yes!” Brent exclaimed excitedly when he felt a wire attached to a small solenoid. “This must trigger the operation of the door. But what causes the triggering effect?”

  “You said there was no way your grandfather would have left that door open, so we must have done something to cause it to open.” Brent went over everything they did from the moment they walked into the house until they moved into the tunnel. “We entered the front door which was busted open. I unlocked the door that led to the basement floor. We went inside and looked around and found the vent and…”