"So if there's a computer down there that we've got to hack into in sixty seconds, you're going to do it?" Liz asked, strapping a belt on over her pajamas.
"And you really think I'm going to miss this?" Bex pulled her belt from the top of the pile.
We all looked at Macey. "You need me," she said reaching for her belt like a queen taking her scepter.
As I leaned down and disabled the security devices around the small grate, I felt Bex watching over my shoulder.
"I always thought the elevators to Sublevel Two put us somewhere over there." She pointed in the opposite direction. I smiled up at her. "But we're not going to the elevators, are we?"
At precisely 0147, The Operatives tested their theory that the mirrors in the new compacts from McHenry Cosmetics are the appropriate sixe to slide over and deflect the laser beams that cover the opening of all ventilation points.
(The Operatives were correct.)
At precisely 0207, The Operatives tested the new Electromagnetic Signal Reallocator (Official Name and Patent Pending) that Operative Sutton had developed for the occasion.
(It was successful.)
At precisely 0208, Operative Baxter said a prayer. And jumped.
The airshaft was small. Crazy small. I'm-really-glad-I-skipped-dinner-after-all small.
There was no way a grown man could have fit. It was an entrance that was only suitable for a girl. A Gallagher Girl, I thought as I slid down the cable like it was a fireman's pole, the clamp in my hand growing hot, searing into my gloves as I zoomed into the depths of the ground.
I knew Bex was below me, but I couldn't see a thing, Macey and Liz were above me, and I hoped that was why I couldn't see even the faintest hint of light above me as I hurtled into what felt like the world's tiniest volcano.
Deeper and deeper I went. Faster and faster I fell. I felt the air rushing past me, my hair blowing away from my face, the cable burning hotter in my hands until . . .
"Look out!" Bex yelled, as suddenly I broke free of the shaft. My arms felt as if they might pop out of their sockets when I squeezed the clamp and slammed to an almost instantaneous stop. I was dangling from the cable, looking down into the cavernous space of Sublevel Two.
"I can't believe that worked," I admitted, breathless.
"Cam!" Bex shouted, stopping me before I could release my hold on the cable. "Don't.
Move. A muscles."
We were suspended thirty feet above the hard stone floor of a room that, despite a semester of studying in Sublevel Two, I'd never seen before. The subs are a vast and winding maze of classrooms and offices, resources libraries and storage for some of the covert world's most highly classified secrets. And right then, Bex and I were looking through the dim glow of security lights at a massive room filled with hundreds of shelves and filing cabinets, a complex system of wiring and explosives . . .
And the most complex laser grid system I had ever seen.
"So," Bex said, smiling up at me through the pulsing glow of the emergency floodlamps,
"wanna hang out?"
A moment later, the vibrations on the cable grew stronger, and I looked up in time to see Liz hurtling toward me through the air, stopping just above me.
Macey was close behind and out of breath as she asked, "What if all this?"
Bex and I looked down at the rows of top secret information and the high-grade explosives that ran the length of the room, neither of us able to hide the awe in our voices. "It's a burn bag," we said in unison.
"What's that?" Macey asked.
"It's the stuff that can't fall into the wrong hands. Ever. It's the stuff that rigged to blow up in case . . . in case the worst happens."
Which was true. But scary. Because at that moment, technically, that worst that could happen was us.
Bex was the first to drop to the floor, nimble as a cat, landing between the red beams, then flipping and jumping through the air, navigating her way to the small panel on the side of the room. It if hadn't been so utterly terrifying, it would have been beautiful. Like ballet. But with a way higher casualty rate.
"Now, Liz," she yelled, and Liz pulled out her crossbow and took aim at the wall six inches above Bex's head.