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I turned the knob, just to see, and lo and behold-the door began to open.
We were all silent. The door swung all the way open without a sound, and a gentle wash of fresh, cool air wafted over us. After the fetid, dank stench of the sewers, it was amazing.
Feeling like Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole, I stepped forward, my filthy shoes sinking into thick carpet. Yes, carpet.
Dim lights showed me another door, and, almost shrieking with tension, I opened it.
This all suddenly seemed horribly easy, suspiciously easy, scarily easy.
We went through this second door, then stopped and stared.
We were in a lab, a lab just like the one back at the School, thousands of miles away in California.
“We’re in the Institute,” I said.
“Uhm, is that a good thing?” asked Gazzy.
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“Holy [insert a swear word of your choice here],” Fang said, stu
“No kidding,” I said. There were banks of computers taller than me. And tables with first-class lab equipment. Dry-erase boards covered with diagrams-many of which I’d seen during my brain attacks. Things were in “sleep” mode, quietly humming but not working-it wasn’t yet dawn.
We wove our way among the tables, trying to take it all in while quaking in our boots. I knew there were Erasers in this building-I could feel them.
Then I saw one computer still on, its screen bright, data being processed as we watched. This could be it-our chance to find out about our past, our parents, the whole amazing enchilada.
“Okay, guys,” I said quietly. “Fan out, stay on guard, watch my back. I mean it! I’m going to try to hack in.”
I climbed on the lab stool in front of the counter and grabbed the computer mouse.
Password?
I cracked my knuckles, making Fang wince. Well, it could only be about a hundred million different things, I thought. How hard could it be?
I started typing.
I won’t bore you with the whole list of what was rejected. I was thankful that the system didn’t lock me out after three bad tries. But “School.”
“Batchelder,” “Mother.”
“Eraser.”
“Flock,” and a whole lot of others didn’t cut it.
“This is pointless,” I said, my nerves frayed.
“What’s wrong, Max?” Nudge asked softly, coming to stand close to me.
“Who am I kidding?” I said. “There’s no way for me to crack the password. We’ve come all this way for nothing. I’m such a loser! I can’t stand it!”
Nudge leaned closer and touched the monitor with a finger, angling it so she could see better. She read the screen, her lips moving silently. I wanted to push her away, but I didn’t want to be pointlessly mean.
Nudge closed her eyes.
“Nudge?” I asked.
Her hand fa
“Hello?” I said. “What are you doing?”
“Um, try big x, little /, little n, big p, the number seven, big o, big h, little j, and the number four,” she said in a whisper.
I stared at her. Across the room, Fang was watching us, and my eyes met his.
Quickly, before I forgot, I typed in what she’d said, seeing the letters show up as small dots in the password box.
I hit Enter, and the computer whirred to life, a list of icons popping up on the left-hand side of the screen.
We were in.
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I stared at Nudge, and she opened her eyes slowly. A bright smile crossed her face. “Did it work?”
“Yeah, it worked,” I said, stu
“The computer,” she said, looking pleased. “Like, when I touched it.” She reached out and touched it again. “I can see the person who works here. It’s a woman, with frizzy red hair. She drinks way too much coffee. She typed in the password, and I can feel it.”
“Wow,” I said. “Touch something else.” Nudge went to the next chair and put her hand on it. She closed her eyes and, a few moments later, smiled. “A guy sits here. A baldie. He bites his nails. He went home early yesterday.” Opening her eyes, she looked at me happily. “I have a new skill!” she said. “I can do something new! This is so cool!”
“Good for you, Nudge,” I said. “You saved our butts here.”
Trying to focus despite this latest mind-blowing development, I skimmed icons and right-clicked my way into Explore. I searched for “avian.”
“School,” “genetics”…
Then, oh, my God… document files filled the screen.
My fingers flew across the keyboard, searching out names, dates, anything I could think of to make a co
Origins. That looked promising, and I clicked on it. My eyes raced down the lines of text-and my throat closed. I almost went into shock on the spot.
I saw our names, names of hospitals, names of towns-even what looked like names of parents. Then I saw pictures of adults that seemed to go with the names. Were these our parents? They had to be. Oh, God, oh, God. This was it! This was exactly what we needed!
I hit Print, and pages started spewing out of the printer.
“What are you doing?” Fang asked, coming over.
“I think maybe I found something,” I said breathlessly. I knew we shouldn’t stop to look over the amazing pages here. “I’m going to print it, and then we should get the heck out of here. Start getting the others together.”
I grabbed pages as they came out, folding them up and cramming them into all my pockets. I didn’t even know how many there were, but finally the printer stopped. I was bursting to tell the others everything, but I didn’t. I bit the inside of my cheek until it hurt. See why I’m the leader?
“Come on!” I said urgently. “Let’s split! Let’s go!”
“Uh, just a second, Max,” said the Gasman, sounding really, really weird.
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The Gasman was standing by a fabric-covered wall, and with typical curiosity, he had pulled the fabric aside. Slowly, we walked over to him, six sets of eyes opened wide as saucers.
When I was two feet away, my heart slammed to a halt inside my chest. I put my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. Angel did scream, until Fang cupped a hand over her mouth.
Behind the curtain was a glass wall. Okay, no biggie.
But behind the glass was another lab room, with lab stations, computers, and… cages.
Cages with sleeping forms in them. Child-size forms.
Dozens of them.
Mutants.
Just like us.
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I couldn’t speak. My gaze raked the glass wall, and I saw a small pad at eye level. I went over and pressed it in that cute don’t-think-it-through way I have.
The glass wall opened, and we tiptoed through, our nerves as taut as rubber bands.
Sure enough, there were mutant kids sleeping in cages and in large dog crates. It brought my awful, gut-twisting childhood whooshing back to me, and I felt on the verge of having a panic attack. I’d forgotten about my headache for maybe a minute, but now it was back, throbbing as if my brain was getting ready to blow.
Angel was looking sadly into one cage, and I went to her. Out of hundreds of genetic experiments, only we and the Erasers had been at all viable-as far as I knew. The two little creatures asleep on their cage floor were clearly horrible failures and probably couldn’t last much longer. What with some of their vital organs on the outside of their bodies and all. Kidneys, bowels, a heart. Oh, the poor babies.
“This is pathetic,” Fang whispered, and I turned to see him looking at a large cat, like a serval or a margay. I’d never seen a real animal in one of the labs before. Just as I was wondering what its deal was, it woke up, blinked sleepily, then turned over and dozed off again.