Atherton #3: The Dark Planet (No. 3) (27 page)

"You will get out of my way," said Commander Judix. And now

she spoke with the old Commander Judix majesty and cunning

that had been such an important part in her rise to power. She

could not be denied.

She had pushed a button on her chair and already Grammel

could hear the sound of metal boots approaching from different

directions. He stepped aside, astounded at the reception he'd

been given, and two men arrived.

"Give him whatever he wants," said Commander Judix. "I'll only

be a moment."

"That's more like it!" said Captain Grammel. He wouldn't be

pushed around by anyone, especially not a desperate woman

on a forgotten outpost in the middle of nowhere. There were

plenty of 4000's along the shore, and he could--and did--throw

them away when they became more trouble than they were

worth.

He ordered the two men to bring him something strong to drink

and whatever they had to eat that was fresh off the kill from the

forsaken wood. It was the one thing he loved about this place

that kept him coming back. It was the only place with fresh

Cleaner, a delicacy hardly anyone in the world knew about, and

he aimed to keep it his secret for as long as he could. All those

bizarre creatures in the forsaken wood were dangerous, for

sure, but my, they tasted so good!

As Commander Judix rolled toward the laboratory she began to

feel a migraine rising up the back of her neck. It was a

dangerous move, leaving Grammel to fume while she chased

an unthinkable dream. Could Atherton be back within her

grasp? Was that even possible? She turned down a side hall

that would take her to a communication box. She would get Red

Eye on the line again, just to be sure he'd gotten the name right.

"You're getting heavy!" said Vasher. Teagan was standing on

his shoulders and Landon had climbed up the side of them both

to the ceiling, as if they were a human ladder.

"Hold on! I almost have it," said Landon. He was so excited to

be out of the Silo his hands wouldn't stop shaking.

"What's going on up there?" asked Edgar from the hall. He and

Aggie stood by nervously, wondering if the door to the Silo was

going to open. The hallway ran a good eighty feet long before

there were any turns to speak of. If someone found them, there

would no place to hide.

"Have you ever been in here before?" whispered Aggie. It had

been years since she'd been out of the Silo at all, and she had

never set foot in Station Seven.

"I've only been in the woods and the Silo. This place seems

big."

"And empty. Like it's haunted or something."

They both looked down the long hall and wondered how far it

went. At some point it became too dark to see where it ended.

"I got it!" said Landon. "Push me higher."

"Not so loud up there," said Edgar.

When Aggie and Edgar looked again they saw Vasher lifting

Teagan up on his hands, which sent Landon right through the

grate he'd opened in the ceiling.

"He's in," said Edgar, marveling at Vasher's strength. Years of

working in the Silo had made him wiry and strong.

"You next," said Edgar, pulling Aggie gently toward Vasher.

Aggie began climbing up at the same moment Edgar heard a

noise he didn't like the sound of.

"Hurry! I think someone's trying to open the door!"

Socket was on the other side, spinning the dial and trying to

remember the code. Because the door was almost a foot thick,

he couldn't hear the green team scrambling.

"Curse this thing!" howled Socket. "What are those numbers?"

He kept spinning and stopping until the door finally clicked and

swung open.

The hallway was empty and still as he crept through.

"Anyone there?" he said softly. Socket hadn't had a lot of

experience in Station Seven and it seemed deserted since the

last time he'd been there. "Hello?"

Landon, Aggie, and Teagan had made it up into the space

above the ceiling. They'd secured the grate in place just in the

nick of time. Teagan looked at Aggie, both of them thinking the

same thing.
Where are Edgar and Vasher?

Socket kept walking nervously, becoming anxious from the loud

sound of his own boots. He didn't want to meet anyone and

have to explain himself.

Socket didn't really think they'd come this way--how could they

have without the combination?--but he kept going just to be

sure. He was approaching the place where the passageway

split off into three directions. He paused, wiping the grime from

his eyes. Here it was dark enough not to need his goggles, but

his eyes were forever leaking watery goo that had to be wiped

away. As he stood clearing his eyes he heard something, soft at

first but growing louder.

Clang, clang, clang.

Boots,
thought Socket.
Someone is coming!

Socket backpedaled toward the door.

The green team's not in here. This was stupid! They're up to

some mischief in the Silo, and time's wasting!

He dashed back through the passageway of lies and slammed

the door shut behind him.

Vasher and Edgar breathed a sigh of relief where they stood

hidden around the corner, barely out of view.

"What now?" said Vasher. Their little adventure was off to a

frightening start and he was breathing at twice his normal

speed.

"Up!" said Edgar, running back down the hall toward the door.

They both heard the steps getting closer and closer.

"Hurry!" whispered Edgar. By the time they reached the door

the grate was already out of the way again and Aggie held both

arms down out of the ceiling.

"Come on!"

The footsteps were getting frightfully close. They were down to

seconds or they'd be caught. Edgar and Vasher scrambled up

the wall, and soon they were hidden in the ceiling like the rest.

A lone guard, brandishing a weapon in one hand, came into

view down the hall. He slowed, seeing that the door to the Silo

was shut. The guard crept toward the door and touched it as

Aggie and Teagan slowly lowered the metal ceiling grate back

into position.

The guard examined the unlock mechanism.

"What are those fools doing over there?" he said, and then for

good measure he yelled uselessly at the door. "Stop banging

the door!"

Everyone on the green team stayed perfectly still. It was

harrowingly difficult, especially for Vasher. He wanted to move

so badly that a nervous twitch began to form in his wrist. They

listened for a long time until the sound of footsteps disappeared

in the distance.

"That was double close," whispered Teagan. "It feels like

everyone is looking for us. Maybe we should go back."

"No way!" said Landon. "Socket'll beat us senseless. We can

do this. I know we can."

"No one's going to find us up here. Let's go as far as we can

and see where it leads."

They all nodded, at once excited to be out of the Silo and

scared speechless by two close calls in a row.

It was a maze of pipes and ducts hidden in the ceiling, and all

the while they could see out of the tiny square holes in the

grate. Once they stopped short, hearing someone moving, and

watched as a black head of hair passed beneath them and

moved on. But finally, with everyone's nerves frayed to the point

of breaking, they arrived at a place where they were forced to

stop.

"This looks right," said Edgar, seeing the concrete wall in front

of them. It was an impasse but for a round hole above their

heads.

"It's a retaining wall," said Aggie. Everyone looked at her

inquisitively. "It holds the building up," she explained. She had

never told anyone at the Silo, but her father had once been a

craftsman. She knew a little bit about how things were

constructed.

"Once we pass through the hole we need to drop back down,"

said Aggie, holding out her hand so that Edgar would give her

the piece of paper. "That will put us on the other side of one

door and leave us only one more to go through."

Edgar tingled at the idea of entering the room behind that door,

because he knew what was there. The door was marked on the

map with an MH for Maximus Harding.

"You first," said Edgar.

Aggie handed back the piece of paper and wriggled through the

opening to the other side. She stood and looked back at

everyone.

"Looks good over here," she said, but Vasher wasn't so sure.

Every step away from the Silo had been a little bit more difficult

for the oldest and most anxious of the bunch.

"Are we sure about this?" he asked. His twitching wrist betrayed

how nervous he was.

Teagan touched Vasher's arm. "It's going to be okay, Vash. Just

hang in there a little longer."

They were all afraid of being so far away from home. The Silo

was all most of them could remember in any great detail, and

even though it was a dreadful place to live, it had its comforts.

They were fed, clothed, and given a bed. Life on the outside felt

wide open and dangerous in a way none of them wanted to

think about.

Vasher looked back toward the Silo, wiped his brow, and shook

his hand as if it had fallen asleep.

"You ready, Landon?"

"You bet I'm ready!"

Landon passed through the hole feeling as free as a bird out of

the Silo. He could imagine living among the hidden pipes and

beams, sleeping up there and sneaking food. Teagan was next,

then Vasher, and finally, Edgar.

"What's wrong?" asked Aggie, seeing that Edgar had a troubled

look on his face.

"It feels like we're forgetting something. I keep thinking of that

diagram with the exploding dots and those words--Hugin and

Munin. What if it means something important?"

"We'll have to cross that bridge if we come to it," said Aggie.

"But right now I think we're standing in front of your dad's

laboratory. Don't you want to look inside?"

No one had ever said it quite that way before.
Your dad.
Edgar

nodded almost imperceptibly. How had he ever managed to get

here, standing in front of the dial that would open Dr. Harding's

laboratory on the Dark Planet?

"Fourteen... twenty-seven... twenty-one..."

Edgar reeled off five more numbers and then the door clicked

and popped open, much like the door to the passageway of lies.

He pushed and the heavy door moved, silent and fluid, as if it

sat on a layer of water.

"It looks deserted in there," said Aggie. Dr. Harding's laboratory

hadn't been used for over a decade. It had barely even been

entered. Murky shadows hung heavy over every part of the

enormous room.

Everyone filed inside cautiously and the door was shut behind

them with a soft click. The lab was lit from the outside by a giant

windowpane that hung out over the water. The window was

tinted in such a way that they could see out, but the light coming

in was soft and dim.

"No need for goggles here," said Teagan, glad she didn't need

to pull them down off her forehead.

The window rose high overhead in a wide half circle. Outside

smog lay low on the waves of the ocean where Edgar spotted

the long jetty of piled rocks and the shadow of Captain

Grammel's ship.

The view of the outside world took everyone's breath away. No

one besides Edgar had seen anything other than metal and

machines and buzzing fluorescent light in a very long time.

There were the vines in the vine room, but this was completely

different. This was
outside
!

"I think that's where the passageway of lies leads to," said

Vasher, mesmerized by the vision beyond the glass. "Socket

told me once.
Down the path of rocks and into the ship.

That'swhere you're going. And you're never coming back.
He

laughed and laughed. I thought he was just being mean, but it

looks like he was telling the truth."

Edgar was overwhelmed by the room. So much about it

reminded him of home and of his father. Models of Atherton at

different stages were every where. A glass-encased chamber

was filled with dead fig trees like the ones in the grove back

home. Baskets and pulleys and ropes hung from the towering

ceiling. Though he'd never been here before, he knew this

place better than anyone else on the green team.

"Your father was amazing," said Aggie, examining all the tables

filled with scientific tools and gadgets, the rows and rows of

books with sliding ladders rising to the high ceiling, the giant

chalkboards covered in scribblings beyond anyone's

comprehension.

Everyone else had scattered in different directions, picking up

strange objects and peering around corners.

"Look at this!" said Landon from somewhere deeper in the

laboratory. He'd found a wide table filled with skeletons and

bones and drawings.

"You guys?" Vasher stammered nervously from deep inside the

chamber. He was staring at something behind a soaring shelf of

teetering books.