by Lucas Flint
It was huge, a skyscraper that dominated nearly every other building in Golden City. Perhaps the only building taller than it was the Atmos Building on the south end of the city, but the Munroe Acquisitions headquarters was far fancier than the Atmos Building, in my opinion. Its windows reflected the light of the sun brilliantly, making me squint my eyes even through the tinted windows of the Rubbermobile. On the top of the building, in giant letters, the words ‘MUNROE ACQUISITIONS, INC.’ towered above us, while beautiful palm trees stood near the entrance, making it look more inviting than it normally would be.
It was funny. I’d always seen this building, but until today, I had never entered it. I’d always wanted to, though, because I’d always seen people entering and exiting it, important-looking people at that, and I wanted to know what they were doing. Yet now that I was about to enter the building, I felt nervous, like I wanted to run away. Maybe it was because of our mission, which had the distinct possibility of getting us into deep trouble if it went south.
I looked at Rubberman. “Ready to go, boss?”
Rubberman nodded. “Yes. Are you?”
I nodded, although not as confidently as Rubberman. “Yeah, of course. I’m ready when you are.”
“Excellent,” said Rubberman. “You remember the plan, right?”
“Definitely,” I said. “It’s not like we’ve gone over the plan a million times over the last couple of days or anything. I could recite it in my sleep backwards if I had to.”
“Exactly what I wanted to hear,” said Rubberman. “Well, let’s not keep Sasha waiting, then. She’s a very impatient woman and she might just decide not to let us in at all if we delay this too long.”
Rubberman and I climbed out of the Rubbermobile and walked up the parking lot to the entrance to the Munroe Acquisitions headquarters. As we walked, I reviewed the plan in my mind. I know I just told Rubberman that I remembered it, and I did, but I wanted to go over it myself one last time just in case there were any points I may have overlooked. It wasn’t a very complicated plan, per se, but I’d never done anything like this before and felt like there was a lot that could go wrong, even though Rubberman had assured me that the plan would work as long as we kept our cool and didn’t do anything stupid.
A couple of days ago, Rubberman had called up Sasha to arrange a business meeting with her. She didn’t even hesitate to agree. No doubt she believed that she was finally going to get the Rubberman business which she had been lusting after for the last five years. Of course, Rubberman had no intention whatsoever of selling her anything, but he had made it sound like that he was thinking of selling it just to make sure she agreed to the meeting.
But the true purpose of this meeting was to get Rubberman and I into the Munroe Acquisitions headquarters, not to do business. Once inside, Rubberman would go to the meeting with Sasha, while I would slip away as soon as possible to explore the building itself. I was supposed to find evidence that would help us prove that Sasha was behind the recent bank robbery at the First Golden City Bank, while Rubberman would keep Sasha distracted at the meeting. Rubberman said he’d drag the meeting on as long as possible in order to give me as much time as I needed to find what I was looking for, but he couldn’t guarantee anything longer than an hour, especially once it became clear to Sasha that he had no intention of selling her the business or anything related to it. Still, Rubberman was confident that I would find something incriminating, though I’d have to be discreet about it in order to avoid drawing attention to myself.
That was my biggest worry about the plan. My training with Rubberman had included some stealth, but most of it had been focused on combat training. I wasn’t very good at sneaking around and it would be hard to come up with a decent reason for why I would need to excuse myself from the building. For that matter, I’d have to avoid running into employees or being spotted by security cameras in the building itself.
But we’d already hashed that out before we left the Elastic Cave. While we did not know the full extent of the building’s security systems, Rubberman was able to teach me a few tricks about how to spot security cameras and sneak around them without being seen. He also gave me a small device which could apparently render me briefly invisible. It was a small, watch-like device which I could strap to my wrist. It looked like an ordinary watch to anyone who didn’t know better, but with a press of a button, it could turn me invisible for five seconds.
This was a pretty amazing bit of tech, which Rubberman told me was a gift that he’d received from Myster, who had had Cyberkid build it. Supposedly, it was a prototype for a more advanced invisibility watch that Cyberkid was developing, which Myster planned to sell to other superheroes when it was ready. The watch was supposed to be used by Rubberman alone, but he told me I could borrow it for this mission and use it when necessary. He said Sasha would likely not even notice it, because it looked like an ordinary watch and didn’t stand out very much even on my costume.
Despite all of the precautions we’d taken, I had a very bad feeling about all of this. It was probably just my relative inexperience doing these kinds of missions, but I wondered if it was perhaps not too late yet for us to turn around and leave. Not that I said that aloud. Rubberman would probably just tell me to stop being so scared. Rubberman may have been a reasonable boss, but I’d learned that he was also the kind who didn’t let anyone sway him from doing what he wanted to do when he decided to do it.
Once Rubberman and I passed through the revolving doors, however, that was when I knew we had gone beyond the point of no return. As we entered the lobby, I looked around at our surroundings, curious about what this place was like.
It was a pretty fancy lobby. An elevator with two golden doors stood on the right side of the lobby, while to our left was a sitting area with a very soft-looking blue couch and two chairs with matching colors. A large, wide-screen TV was on, showing the news, while several newspapers—ranging from the local Golden City Journal to national publications like The Modern Times—were stacked on a coffee table neatly. A crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, providing more than enough illumination for me to see every corner of the lobby. A large Christmas tree, with fake presents arranged underneath it, stood near the elevator doors, its lights shining softly.
As it turned out, however, we were not the only people in the lobby. Aside from the receptionist sitting behind the desk at the other end of the lobby, two people sat in the waiting area, one a woman and the other a man. I recognized the woman right away: It was Sasha Munroe herself. Although I’d never seen her in real life, I’d spoken with her over the Elastic Cave’s video phone once. She wore her usual blue pantsuit, although her hair had been done in elaborate curls that must have taken hours to do. She was as short and plump as I thought. In fact, I didn’t even realize she was sitting down she was so short.
The man sitting in the chair next to her I did not recognize, however. He was taller than Sasha, equal to Rubberman in height. He wore a finely-pressed dark suit and had a very intense look on his face. His sky blue eyes were familiar, but I could not remember where I had seen them before. All I knew was that when the man looked at me, I cringed for a split second, as if he had thrown something at me, although the man did not even rise from his seat. I could have sworn that he was watching me and Rubberman carefully, as if he expected us to cause trouble.
“Ah, Mr. Pullman!” said Sasha, rising from her chair and walking over to us, with the man following closely behind her. “So glad to see that you and your sidekick are on time for our meeting. Of course, I shouldn’t have expected any less from the famous Rubberman, who is known for his business acumen just as much as he is known for his heroism.”
“Sasha?” said Rubberman, looking at her in surprise. “What are you doing down here? I thought you would be waiting for us up in your office.”
Sasha and the man stopped before us. I couldn’t get over how short Sasha was. I was not a very tall guy myself, but Sasha was about a head shorter than even m
e. She was probably bigger horizontally than vertically, although I was wise enough to keep such thoughts to myself, because I knew from experience that women didn’t like it when men commented negatively on their weight.
“Oh, I was just so excited to see you that I wanted to greet you myself,” said Sasha, using the exact same false sweet tone she’d used the last time I spoke to her. “It’s been a while since we last talked, after all. We can catch up on the way up to my office on the top floor.”
“I see,” said Rubberman. He looked at the man standing silently behind Sasha. “And who is this? I don’t believe I remember him working for you the last time I was here.”
“Excuse me for my rudeness,” said Sasha. She gestured at her silent companion. “This is Takeshi Yamamoto. He is my assistant and personal secretary. He’s a very diligent worker, but don’t expect him to say much. He prefers action over talk, you understand.”
Neither Rubberman nor I exchanged glances, but somehow I could tell that Rubberman was just as surprised as me to learn who this man was. Was this Takeshi the same Takeshi in the email? It seemed likely, because Golden City didn’t have a whole lot of Japanese people, much less Japanese people named Takeshi. Takeshi did not say anything when Sasha introduced him. He merely bowed once at Rubberman and then once at me in a respectful manner; however, when he stood upright, I thought he glared at me for a moment, even though I hadn’t done anything yet to make him hate me.
“And this must be Beams,” said Sasha, turning to look at me. I didn’t like the way she looked at me. “The talk of the town, you are. You are far more strapping in real life than you are on TV, I must say.”
“Uh, thanks,” I said, somewhat taken aback by Sasha’s sudden politeness. “We’ve already met once.”
“Oh, yes, of course I remember our first meeting,” said Sasha. “You’ve come a long way since that day I called the Elastic Cave. You look much stronger already.” She leaned toward me. “My nephew, Michael, is a huge fan of yours, by the way. He wants to be a sidekick because of you, but he’s only about six, so he’ll probably grow out of it by the time he reaches your age, I’m sure.”
Sasha sounded like she didn’t like the idea of her nephew becoming a sidekick. I didn’t know what to say, mostly because I remembered what Rubberman had told me about Sasha being untrustworthy. Although she came across as polite and nice, I thought I caught a current of a cold, calculating mind underneath all of that. Perhaps I was just thinking too much, but it seemed to me like Sasha was putting on an act.
“Well, now that we’re all introduced, why don’t we go up to your office and discuss business now?” asked Rubberman. “I know you’re a busy woman, just as I am a busy man, so let’s get on with it, shall we?”
“Of course, Mr. Pullman, of course,” said Sasha. “Please follow me and Takeshi to the elevator. My office is at the top floor, so it will take us a while to get there.”
“Lead the way, Sasha,” said Rubberman.
As Sasha and Takeshi made their way to the elevator, Rubberman tossed me a quick glance. To anyone watching, it would have looked like an ordinary glance with no deeper significance to it than any other glance, but I knew that it was Rubberman’s way of telling me that it was time for me to act.
We walked up to the elevator where Sasha and Takeshi stood. When the doors opened, Sasha, Takeshi, and Rubberman entered, but I stayed outside, feeling a little awkward but knowing that this was part of the plan.
“Beams?” said Sasha, looking at me in confusion. “What are you waiting for? Is there something wrong?”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” I said, waving off Sasha’s concern. “I just, er, need to use the bathroom. Really, really badly. Like, now.”
I glanced at Rubberman when I said that. Rubberman looked a little exasperated, perhaps because I said more than I needed to. Hey, I was nervous. It wasn’t every day that you lied to the face of the richest woman in Golden City in order to get the freedom to look through her headquarters for evidence of criminal activity.
“The men’s room is down the hall to your left,” said Takeshi suddenly, pointing down the hallway to the right of the elevator. “You can’t miss it.”
“But can’t you hold it in?” asked Sasha. “I have a bathroom in my office you could use.”
“Sorry, ma’am, but this is an emergency,” I said. I stepped to the right to make it seem like I was going to bolt off any moment. “I don’t think I’ll be able to make it up to your office, if you catch my drift. I need to use the bathroom now, not later.”
“All right, Beams, just go and do your business,” said Rubberman, flicking his hand toward me as if telling me to leave. “When you’re done, you can just come up to the top floor where Sasha’s office is and rejoin us there. Not a problem.”
Rubberman winked when he said that. I thought Takeshi might have glanced at Rubberman, but the Japanese man moved so quickly that it was hard to tell.
“All right,” said Sasha, who sounded more than a little disappointed. “If you need any help, you can just ask Jenny at the desk. She knows where my office is.”
I nodded and began walking away down the hall, in the direction Takeshi had indicated. I heard movement behind me and looked over my shoulder to see that the elevator doors had closed and the elevator itself was starting to descend, if the numbers on the display above the door indicated which floors the elevator was on.
Then I ran down the hall, but I didn’t enter the bathroom. I instead went further into the building, hoping to find the evidence I needed before someone found me out.
CHAPTER EIGHT
I’ll admit it: I got lost.
Hey, it wasn’t my fault. I’d never been in the Munroe Acquisitions headquarters before. Rubberman and I had consulted the blueprints for the building prior to coming here, but there was a big difference between looking at a building’s layout on paper and actually walking around inside the building yourself. I recalled that we had agreed that any evidence of Sasha’s wrongdoing was likely to be in a room labeled ‘DATA ROOM’ on the second floor. Either that, or on Sasha’s computer, although we agreed that it would not be possible for us to steal from Sasha’s computer in her office, so I needed to make my way to the Data Room.
But even though the Data Room was clearly marked on the blueprints, it did not appear to have been clearly marked in the actual building itself. It took me ten minutes to locate the stairs on the first floor, but when I got to the second floor, that’s when I got really lost, because the second floor was even bigger and more confusing than the first floor.
I should explain how the building is laid out. The Munroe Acquisitions headquarters is twenty stories tall, making it one of the tallest buildings in the city. The first floor is mostly made up of the lobby and a hallway, so it’s pretty simply laid out, but the upper floors are more confusing. The upper floors are where all of the employees work, where their offices are kept. Each floor has a dozen different offices, each one staffed with a different office worker who probably spent more time messing around on the Internet than actually working. That’s not even counting the other rooms in the building, such as janitor’s closets, storage rooms, and the like. Or the basement, for that matter.
As a result, the headquarters was like a huge, multistory maze, at least to someone like me, who was not very familiar with the building’s layout. The plan was that I would spend less than an hour searching for the evidence and then rejoin Rubberman, but so far I’d already spent ten minutes searching for the staircase and another five minutes looking for the Data Room on the second floor. That left me with approximately forty-five minutes in which to located the Data Room, find the evidence that proved Sasha had committed a crime, and go up to the top floor to join the business discussion. Actually, I probably had a lot less time than that, because Sasha would probably be wondering what was taking me so long in the bathroom and when I would return. I hoped that Rubberman would keep Sasha too busy to think about me, because if she realized that it
was taking me far too long to use the bathroom, that would put our plan into jeopardy and might even force us to abort the mission.
I knew all of that, but that did not make it any easier to find the Data Room. While the hallways of the second floor were empty, that did not mean the second floor was unoccupied. I heard grunts and keys being tapped coming from inside some of the offices, which meant that Sasha’s employees were hard at work doing whatever it is she needed them to do. Because they all sounded so busy, I doubted I would run into any of them. Still, I had to advance down the hallways carefully and quietly, because if I didn’t, I risked drawing their attention, which would definitely ruin the plan.
But even if I managed to avoid the office workers, that didn’t mean I would be able to look around with complete freedom. There were still security cameras, not-so-subtly attached to the corners of the ceiling recording every moment in the halls. Thankfully, the cameras were completely stationary; thus, whenever I spotted one (and I saw them all, because Rubberman had trained me how to spot them), I would activate my invisibility watch and walk right past them without being seen. If anyone looked at the security camera footage later, they wouldn’t see anything except a boring, empty hallway.
The invisibility watch itself was interesting. I had my doubts that it would work, even after I practiced using it back in the Elastic Cave, but so far it had activated each time I used it. Despite being a prototype, it worked so well that I would have assumed it was the final product if I hadn’t known any better. Granted, the invisibility effect itself worked for only five seconds at a time, but that was more than enough time for me to sneak by security cameras or open office doors. I kept expecting it to conk out, but Cyberkid must have been an even better inventor than I thought, because it always worked very well.
