The hallway was dimly lit by a safety light on the wall above the alarm panel, making it eerie and dark in the spot where the boys stood. There were no windows in the hallway, but some natural light flowed from the hallway exit ahead.
"Let’s leave the lights off just in case we get stuck in the tunnels again," said Jimmy. "There are windows and safety lights all over the main floor, so we don't need light until we get to the basement." The others nodded.
"Shouldn't there be safety lights in the basement too?" asked Mark.
“You would think,” replied Jimmy, “but I don't know why there aren't any. Mom always told me not to get stuck down there if the power went out because there's absolutely no light.” He shrugged, and motioned for the others to follow.
Trying to be quiet, they made their way through the building and down the basement stairs. Kevin waited at the top of the stairs, as hidden as possible. The others continued on toward the storage room.
After winding through the maze of boxes, Mark examined the drawbridge door.
"Hard to believe this is a door," he said.
Jimmy pulled Mark toward the boxes, moving him out of the way. Adam placed the pin against the wall and they watched the drawbridge door slowly fall.
"That is just cool," said Mark with a wide grin on his face.
"That's what I thought," said Adam, "but the other two just rushed me into the room."
“You would still be here tinkering if we didn’t,” said Jimmy.
Adam shrugged, switched on his flashlight and stepped inside. Mark was right on his heels, his flashlight searching everywhere. He seemed in awe of the secret file room.
"I'll bet these files are sorted the same way as the files in the main part of the basement, so let’s just do what we did before," said Adam. They each walked to one of the well-worn wooden file cabinets that lined the left wall.
Adam flipped through the first cabinet, but nothing caught his eye. He found financial records from the Town, as well as financial records from the monitoring station. Not knowing the cost of everyday expenses like power and water, all of the bills looked like a lot of money spent.
A quiet noise in the direction of the storage room caused them all to look. The drawbridge door was closing by itself.
"You guys keep reading; I'll try and open the door," said Adam, walking while pointing his flashlight around the opening.
He found the impression right away and re-opened the door soon after. When he turned back to the files, he saw the worried look on Mark's face lighten as the door fell open. Mark must have been putting up a brave front with all of his excitement for adventure earlier, but the thought of being locked in the file room made him quickly give up his cover.
"It must be on some type of timer. I'd love to figure it out, but I'll do that later," said Adam. "At least we know we can get out next time it closes." The statement didn't seem to relax Mark much.
Adam kept searching his files. He found more and more financial records, but nothing else. After a half hour, he decided to move to the next cabinet and immediately had better luck. The first drawer he opened had a file labelled 'Ed McTaggart'. He pulled the file and started to look through it.
‘Director of Special Site Operations,’ was Edward’s official title, according to the file. Adam had never heard that before. Although he knew his father was in charge of the monitoring station outside of town, he didn't know what else Edward was responsible for. What was a "special" site?
Adam leafed through the papers in the folder trying to see if anything stood out. Mostly he saw the minutes of meetings discussing the monitoring station, pretty boring stuff. He stopped at a picture. It was a headshot of Ed, who must have been in his early 20's. Adam pulled the page out to look at it more closely.
"Listen to this," said Jimmy.
The other two turned toward him.
"Following the destruction from the battle of Tunguska, Larix fled after we recovered the object. Special teams lead by Gupta and McTaggart attempted to track him for the following month, but once again he has disappeared. Meetings to discuss the future of the object will take place August 18 at headquarters." read Jimmy. "Signed, Clay Campbell, Director, Sentinel League, August 4, 1908"
"Did you say Tunguska 1908?" asked Mark.
"That's what it says. Why, is it near here?" replied Jimmy. Adam looked as curious as Jimmy to hear what Mark knew.
"You guys never really read or watch anything educational do you?" said Mark looking slightly frustrated.
Jimmy was going to reply, but Adam stopped him and motioned for Mark to continue.
"Anyway, I just watched a documentary on Tunguska. It’s an area in the middle of nowhere in Russia. In 1908 something exploded and wiped out everything for miles, and no one knows what caused the explosion. There have been a lot of theories over the years though. People have said it was aliens, swamp gas, a meteor, and even an invention by Nikola Tesla."
"Nikola who?" asked Jimmy
Mark palmed his forehead and was about to start in on Jimmy, when a hurried knock interrupted. It came from the drawbridge door.
Adam looked at the others with a worried face as the adrenaline started pumping. He bolted to the drawbridge door and fumbled with the pin. It felt like it took an hour to lower the door. Kevin stepped into the room in a hurry.
"Someone's here!" Kevin panted as he spoke, visibly excited. "I heard the door open and someone said that Jeff must have forgotten to arm the alarm again, so I assume there are at least 2 people."
"Who was it?" asked Mark.
"The voices are so hollow in this building that I couldn't tell, and I didn't exactly hang around to find out."
Adam grabbed a light and ran out the door. He danced through the box maze, shut off the lights, and retraced his steps. Once back in the file room, he pulled the pin from his pocket.
"I hope this works," muttered Adam as he looked at the others.
He placed the pin, and the drawbridge started to retract. Adam looked slightly relieved. He turned to the others, "If they come in here, we're in trouble."
The others nodded.
Even though everyone was nervous, Mark was by far the most visibly stressed. His eyes darted between the other three and he couldn't stop playing with his hands. "W..w..what are we going to do? Not go into the tunnels?" He looked at the others in the silence. "Guys? ... Guys?"
They said nothing but each boy understood what had to happen, so they walked to the tunnel entrance.
Adam spoke as he opened the door. "You guys wait further inside the tunnel and I'll keep this door open a little to watch the drawbridge. It goes down slow, so if it starts to move, I'll just close the door the rest of the way. We'll have to wing it from there."
The others filed past and Mark looked terrible. Adam positioned himself where he planned, then slid the door into position and waited. He heard Mark fidgeting with his hands, and after a few long moments he gave a "shhh" in Mark's direction.
Thoughts ran through Adam’s mind. What if the people came into the file room? The boys couldn't stay in the tunnel on the other side of the door in case the people continued into the tunnels. Should they try the same tunnel they had already been down? Someone was already suspicious in that direction and it was probably being watched. Should they try the tunnel to the immediate left instead of right this time? That probably led to the Fire Station where they would be trapped. Maybe one of the tunnels straight ahead, but where could they possibly lead?
Adam's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a simple click. He recognized it immediately as the start of the mechanism to open the drawbridge door. He slid his door shut and hoped that the sound of the drawbridge lowering hid the sound of it closing. He turned to the others and whispered, "Go!"
Mark's eyes couldn't have gotten any wider after hearing that single little word. The others grabbed him and forced him to move down the tunnel. At any other time he would have been teased about
the look on his face, but that was far from anyone's mind at the time.
They stopped at the junction to all the other tunnels and all looked at Adam. Adam paused for a moment and pointed at the second tunnel to the right, next to the one they had previously taken.
They ran down the tunnel, again curving gently right. In their haste, they didn’t notice they ran through an intersection. Immediately afterward they nearly hit a wall, as it blindly turned to the right. It continued left after a couple of steps, and left again after a few more, opening into a room.
They swept their flashlights around trying to take in the size of the room they had just entered. It was only 8 feet high, but was a wide open expanse, with a few support columns scattered throughout.
"Whoa," Kevin commented quietly.
Before they could say anything else, an all-encompassing light blinded them from above.
Adam's heart raced, and all he could think was,
We’re dead!
CHAPTER THIRTEEN