After a moment, the light faded from blinding to bearable. As soon as they were able to see, Adam signalled for the others to stay quiet. He knew it would be difficult with nerves on high and hearts pounding.
They waited in the strange light, listening for the smallest noise. Being far down the 7:30 tunnel, the sound of footsteps and soft voices weren’t able to make the distance. Once in a while, one of the group would move as though they heard something, only to re-adjust and dismiss the thought.
Time ticked slower as they waited, and soon the ceiling faded back to black.
Even though the flashlights were still on, it took a few moments for everyone’s eyes to adjust to the darkness once again. In that time, they took deep breaths to calm their nerves.
"Better get moving," said Adam as he stood up. The others followed his lead.
Adam continued down the tunnel. It curved left then right a few more times before it started going down slightly. After a while it flattened out, and soon Adam thought he saw the tunnel straighten. A few paces further, a door began to appear, bottom first. After a few more steps, the full door was in view at the top of a ramp. Just twenty steps back the tunnels looked as if they continued forever.
Because they wanted out of the tunnels already, each boy had the urge to rush up to the door, but Adam stopped as they reached the bottom of the ramp. "We don't know where this leads. I'll open it and take a look while you wait here," he whispered.
The others agreed.
Adam shone his light around the door as he approached, searching for the impression. Before he reached the door he found it exactly where the other ones had been.
The door looked like another slider, so he placed the pin and pulled the handle. The mechanism was quieter than the one in the file room, and so was the movement of the door. He opened it a little and peered through but saw nothing in the darkness. He shone his light into the crack and realized there was something in the way. As he pulled the sliding door open he found another door on the other side.
The door was normal and plain, like an interior door in a house. It was painted a strange green color and had an old style knob. The lock assembly looked like it took a skeleton key like to the ones Adam had seen in old cartoons. He turned the knob and pushed on the door, but the lock held it in place. Unless they had a skeleton key, they weren't getting through that way.
Adam called the group to the door and they each took turns looking at it. When Mark saw it, he smiled.
"I know where that door leads," he said, happy that he knew something the others didn't.
He paused, and the others stared at him. Jimmy rolled his hands in a 'get on with it' motion.
"The weather monitoring station," he finished.
"Are you sure?" asked Kevin.
"Oh yeah. That door leads into the basement."
They looked at him and said nothing.
"I used to play down there when Dad needed to do things at work. Once the twins were born, he had to take me along on weekends, and I would end up in the basement. Unless there's another door around town that is painted the same green as this one, it leads into the basement of the weather station."
"Did you ever ask him about it?" asked Jimmy.
"Yep. He just said it was a storage room where they kept old equipment."
"So how are we going to get through?" asked Kevin.
They all looked at Adam, who felt strange in their gaze.
"So?" asked Mark, looking at Adam.
"So what?" Adam shot the question back.
"You're the mechanical guy, can't you figure something out?"
Adam looked at Mark, paused, and then decided to put his mind to the task.
He thought out loud, "Ok, so far we've gotten in and out of the tunnels just by using the pin as a key. We've made it here, and now it looks like they added another door and another lock. Why would they do that?”
The others shrugged while following Adam’s logic.
Adam thought for another moment and then spoke. “Nobody has this type of magnet lying around,” he said showing the pin, “so the sliding door had to be safe enough. Did they put the second door up just to hide the sliding one? It is just a common old door."
“It worked for me,” said Mark. “I’ve seen this door fifty times and didn’t think anything was strange. If I saw that sliding door, I would have wanted to see what was on the other side.”
"There's got to be a way to get through this door with the pin. I wouldn't go through the trouble of building all of this," Adam motioned to the tunnels and the doors, "only to have a standard lock on this last door."
He moved in to take a closer look at the lock. He shone his light around the rectangular lock plate. The paint beside the lock plate was scratched in one area. Adam placed the pin on the scratches and immediately heard the bolt sliding. He tried the handle and opened the door just a crack.
After looking back at the guys and giving them a thumbs-up, he opened the door as slow as he could. It opened easily but made a small creak. Adam worried that it was loud enough to alert anyone that might be in the building, so he paused and listened. Once he was satisfied that no-one was coming to investigate, he finished opening the door. He waved for the others to follow and slipped through.
The basement of the monitoring station was empty, except for an oil furnace and some shelving units with old computer equipment on them. The dirt floor smelled musty, causing a slight gagging feeling in Adam’s throat.
Mark slipped past Adam and walked to the stairwell. He made a motion telling everyone to stay put as he disappeared up the stairs. A minute later he called back down.
"Nobody's here, you can come up."
Jimmy and Kevin climbed the stairs while Adam closed both tunnel doors, since he had been keeping them open as an escape route.
"There's no alarm in here, so nothing to worry about - except being here without permission," said Mark.
"Better to be caught here than in the tunnels," replied Kevin, “…at least for us three.” He pointed at himself, Jimmy and Adam.
Even Mark agreed. “At least I might be able to talk my way out of being found here with you guys. Not so much in there,” he pointed downstairs toward the tunnel.
"If the tunnel leads here, it has to be more than just a monitoring station,” said Adam. “I always wondered why they built it at the bottom of a valley instead of up on the flat prairie. At least up there you could see the weather coming."
"If I have to hear that joke about it being 'so flat you can watch your dog run away for three days', I'm gonna punch someone in the throat," Kevin said, half joking.
"Whoa big guy," said Jimmy, "no one was going to say that. Calm down. We're all sick of hearing that joke too."
Mark brought them back to the original subject. "I asked Dad why they built this place in a valley once. He said that they don't have to see the weather; they use the data from the instruments in that big golf ball looking thing about a mile south of here."
"Oh yeah, I remember seeing that ball. It's in the middle of nowhere," said Kevin
"Mark, are there any files here?" asked Adam.
"Nope. Everything’s always been electronic, as far as I know."
"Do you know any of the passwords?" asked Jimmy.
"Nope."
"Are you sure?"
"Yep."
"A while ago you were pretty sure your dad didn't know anything about all of this either," said Jimmy.
"Yeah yeah, so I was wrong about that - but I've spent loads of time here being completely bored, so I know there are no files here. If there were, I'd have probably looked through them for something to do," said Mark.
"So, nothing to do here I guess. We might as well head back to town while there's still some light outside," said Kevin.
Reluctantly, Adam agreed.
They stepped outside onto the balcony that surrounded three sides of the monitoring station’s upper floor. The station was built into a hill, with the back
side of the basement buried and the front side exposed. One steel fire exit was the only access to the basement from the outside as there weren’t any windows. The balcony covered the basement, and in turn was covered by an overhanging roof on all four sides.
After closing the door, Mark told the other three to look away while he punched in the code to lock the door. It was a keyless entry keypad. "I'm not supposed to know the code, but I've seen Dad do it enough times to remember," he said.
They climbed down the stairs and started the trek back into town. Walking quietly, each was lost in their thoughts. The monotony of their footsteps didn't help, having been mentally tired from the excitement in the tunnels.
Step after step, they trudged along, and after they had made it halfway home, Adam's brain started firing again. He pictured the tunnels from outside, like a map viewed from above. Lines and curves were drawn on the mental map, and a picture came into view.
He remembered something that got him excited.
"We need to get back to my place. I think I have a map there."
The others looked at him wondering how he could suddenly realize he had a map, but then seemed to get excited as well.
They picked up their pace and Mark started complaining soon afterward.
"Slow down! I'm not built for this,” he said, gasping for air.
Jimmy laughed. "Just what do you think you're built for then?"
"I'm fast in short sprints, but not long distances!"
“I’ll bet you are Gimli,” Jimmy mocked. The others laughed at the ‘Lord of the Rings’ reference.
“Funny guy,” Mark replied.
“No, really, I believe you,” said Jimmy. “You’ve had years of training with all those short sprints between the couch and fridge.”
"Not funny," replied Mark between great puffing breaths. "At least I'm not skin and bones like you and Adam. You guys are built for jogging long distances."
"Kevin's not having any problem, and he's not built like a stick," replied Jimmy, faking insult. He loved teasing Mark, and often said it was one of the few ways Mark ever got his heart rate up, so he was only looking out for Mark's health. "Besides, we're not even jogging. You could barely call this speed walking," his eyes gleamed with fun.
Mark grumbled and was quiet from then on, trying to conserve his energy. Soon they were at the edge of town and walked more casually toward Adam's house. They waved at a few passing cars, trying to look as if they were only out for a walk. They didn’t want to raise any suspicion.
After a few minutes they arrived at the garage, ready for a rest and curious to see Adam’s map.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN