of the two reels turn slowly, winding up its cable. Josh held his breath, unconsciously counting the seconds as the reel kept turning, the old motor and gear system rattling noisily as they worked. Almost thirty seconds later the reel was full and the motor clanked to a stop.
Josh remained where he was, rooted to the spot. A moment later the other motor came to life. The second reel began to turn, much faster, and with barely a sound. Once again Josh counted the seconds.
This time it was only twenty seconds before the elevator came to a stop, but Josh was certain the reel had been turning at least twice as fast as the older one. No more than five seconds later, the elevator began running again.
Someone, Josh realized, had taken the antique elevator to the fourth floor, called the hidden one, then ridden it down to wherever it led.
Hildie?
Had she come back? How long had he been in the basement? He didn’t know. But if it was Hildie, he could get back upstairs now, while she was still down in whatever was below the basement. Turning off lights as he went, Josh hurried back through the cellar to the foot of the stairs, his mind already working out what he would do next.
If the hidden elevator was run by a computer somewhere deep under the mansion, there had to be a way to get to that computer! And if he could get to it …
His mind churned with ideas as he climbed up the stairs, switched off the last of the lights, and pushed the door to the butler’s pantry open, nearly knocking a tray out of the hands of someone who was carrying food from the kitchen to the dining room.
“Jesus!”
Josh stared up at the boy he’d hit with the door. It was one of the university students who worked part-time in the Academy’s kitchen, and he was glaring angrily at Josh.
“What the hell are you doing, kid?” the boy demanded.
“I—I was just putting my suitcase down there,” Josh stammered.
The boy rolled his eyes. “Well, watch it, okay?” Then, brushing past Josh, he went on into the dining room. Josh followed after him, threading his way through the crowd of children who were now gathered around the buffet, and went into the foyer. He was at the bottom of the stairs when Brad Hinshaw came barreling down.
“Josh! I’ve been looking all over for you!”
“I was putting my suitcase—” Josh began, but Brad cut him off.
“Jeff’s back! Can you believe it? Only one night, and he’s back already!”
“Jeff?” Jash echoed, the strange message he’d seen on the computer last night suddenly coming back into his mind.
“Yeah! I just saw him come in with Hildie!”
Josh’s heart skipped a beat. “W-Where are they?” he breathed.
Brad pointed upward. “Up in Dr. E’s apartment. I saw them in the elevator a couple of minutes ago! Come on—we’ll get a table and save a place for Jeff. I can hardly wait to find out how he talked his folks into letting him come back this time.”
But Josh wasn’t listening anymore, for he knew that Jeff and Hildie weren’t in Dr. Engersol’s apartment at all.
They were somewhere under the building.
Why?
Turning away from Brad, he started up the stairs toward the second floor, and his room.
His room, and his computer.
27
Jeff stared up at the image of his brother on the monitor above the tank that contained Adam’s brain.
Weird!
Although he was seeing it with his own eyes, Jeff could still barely believe it. Adam was still alive. And it was even better than he’d thought it would be. Adam could see, and hear, and talk, all through the massive complex of electronic circuitry in the big Croyden computer in the next room.
He could even see the frustrated fury in Adam’s eyes, as clearly as if it were Adam himself on the screen, rather than a graphic image that his brother had created, and which the Croyden had produced for the monitor.
“I didn’t mean for Mom and Dad to die,” he said, his own voice now tinged with the same anger he’d just heard when Adam had accused him of deliberately killing their parents. “I told you, I just wanted to scare them!”
“Don’t lie, Jeff.” Adam’s voice was cold, and held a strength Jeff had never heard before. “I shouldn’t have helped you. But you said—”
“What was I supposed to do?” Jeff challenged, his tone truculent. “Just let them ground me? If you could’ve kept your big mouth