“It’s not true,” I tell myself again. “Like Mom said, she’s exhausted. It was just a slip of the tongue.”
But as I stand there, trying to convince myself of what I know to be true—what I want to be true—I catch sight of her coat draped across the granite. Her coat…with her security badge.
She may have cut my pass to pieces, but hers is right there. She’s planning to be dead to the world for the next dozen hours. I could take her card, reassure myself that there is no secret sub-level at ESH, and get the stuff I forgot at the lab too.
She’ll never even know her badge was gone.
I stand there for another minute, staring at the badge. It’s the answer to all my problems. Well, at least, all my non-Rebel problems. Then, before I can talk myself out of it, I snatch my mom’s pass and slide it into my pocket. In a few short hours, as soon as the sun sets and the security guards change shift, I’m going in.
I’ll prove Rebel and the villains wrong.
Chapter 6
Sneaking out of the house isn’t a problem. Once my mom falls asleep, it would take a foghorn or a full-scale villain assault on her bedroom to wake her before she’s ready to get up.
Getting into the lab isn’t a problem either. The night security guards haven’t seen my mom yet, so they don’t know that I’ve been banned from the facility. They don’t bother to check the badge—they just let me scan my way in like I do every night.
Even packing up my research isn’t a problem. There’s a lot of it, and some of it is kind of hard to carry, but I find a couple boxes that will hold the fragile stuff pretty well. It’s not ideal, but I’ll just continue my experiments at home until Mom gets her sanity back.
Everything goes like clockwork. All that’s left is to find sub-level three. The problem is that I don’t have a clue how or where to look. There must be an entrance. But where?
This building is huge. There are three levels above ground and two—well, maybe three—below. Plus, the layout is downright labyrinthine. A million different hallways crisscross each other, and each hallway leads to four or five separate labs or storage areas or offices. I explored a lot of them when I was younger. There’s not much else to do when your mom is obsessed with her job and you’re too young to actually touch anything in a state-of-the-art research center.
It was annoying when I was little, but now I’m glad, because I don’t have to waste time wandering these halls. I already know where they lead. At the same time, if sub-level three exists, that means, even with how well I know this place, I’ve missed something.
Even worse, it means I’ve been in the dark for a very long time.
The thought doesn’t sit well. But it makes me even more determined to prove these crazy suspicions wrong.
Unsure of where else to start, I search my mom’s lab—back to pre-Nitro condition, thanks to the Cleaners—from top to bottom. I feel a little ridiculous pressing against walls, pushing buttons, and checking out every nook and cranny. But I don’t know what a secret entrance is supposed to look like, so I’m trying to examine anything and everything that might fit that bill.
My mom’s lab is clean, just like I expected it to be. But really, I consider, while one might imagine the center’s top scientist would need access to the supersecret level, she wouldn’t be the only one. I think about Mr. Malone, about the Superhero Collective—the elite group that makes all the decisions in the super world—and their immensely huge egos. They would demand access to a special level. And not just access, easy access.
Which means I’m totally looking in the wrong place. Although my mom is down here on sub-level one, the Superhero Collective’s offices are all above ground. They have huge offices with huge windows that reflect how important they are. Of course access to supersecret sub-level three—if it exists—would be wherever they are.
Leaving my research in a pile near the door so I can swing by and get it later, I head for the elevators and the building’s third floor.
As the elevator whooshes me upward, my stomach sinks. What am I doing? I almost reach for the button to take me back down. Not only is this a ridiculous wild-goose chase, but I could be in big trouble if I get caught.
I’ve never been good with unanswered questions though.
I have no choice. I have to follow the goose.
The good thing about my mom’s pass? She has access to everything—even the inner sanctums.
I decide to search Mr. Malone’s office first. I’ve seen my mom swipe her access card at the entrance to his suite.
It works. I’m in.