“WE OBVIOUSLY CAN’T DO THAT,” SAID MOM. “RIGHT? I MEAN, CAN YOUR little box thingy do anything to pretend you’re . . . whoever?” She gestured to the device Dani had been using to hack all the computers in Omega City.
“Anton Everett,” said Dani. “And it would be something of a challenge. I have enough recordings of him to make a voice model, but I don’t have access to the program we use from here, and I don’t know if I could even make a model in time to appease them.
“What happens if we don’t respond?” Mom asked.
“They might lock down the whole facility. They’ll definitely be sending people in to check on us. The clock is ticking.”
“The clock is ticking for what?” I pressed. I wasn’t letting go until I had answers. “To call Dr. Underberg?”
“What?” said Dani. “Oh. Yes.”
“Why would he pick up now?”
“Excuse me?”
“If you could always call Dr. Underberg from Omega City, then the Shepherds must have tried, right? Sometime in the last ten months? And he wasn’t interested in talking to them.”
“Well, yes,” said Dani, “but this time it’s me . . .”
“How would he know that?” I asked. “If you could pretend to be anyone.”
Dani sighed. “Okay. Fine. I wasn’t planning on calling him from Omega City.”
There it was. I looked at the others, but the significance of her words didn’t seem to have sunk in.
“Then where were you going to call him from?” Mom asked.
Dani turned back to the screen, where the security alert still blinked, and tapped a portion of the map marked Restricted Area. “From there.”
We leaned in to look. The map of Omega City sometimes felt like it was permanently marked on my brain, but I wasn’t familiar with this section. We hadn’t traveled through it on our first visit, but it looked familiar to me, even so.
“It’s a silo,” I whispered.
“Another silo?” Eric said.
And Howard put it together. “Another rocket ship?”
A thrill coursed through me as I realized her plan. A second rocket ship. Another way to get to space. To get to Dad.
“Oh dear,” said Savannah.
“Wait.” Mom held up her hands. “You brought us here to get on one of Dr. Underberg’s rocket ships? Are you delusional?”
“No one said you had to get on,” Dani replied. “I’m getting on. I’m going into space and I’m going to find my father and bring him home.” She pressed another key and the screen went dark. “And, if you help me, I’ll bring home Dr. Seagret and Nate, too. There’s no way Dr. Underberg can do that on his own. He was an old man before he went into space. He’ll need help. My help.”
We all stood there for a moment, letting it sink in. On one hand, I understood why she hadn’t told us the truth earlier. Mom definitely wouldn’t have signed on for a rocket-ship launch, given that the last one had nearly killed us all.
But on the other hand, Dani was right. If we wanted to save Dad and Nate, we were going to have to do more than just call Dr. Underberg. What could he do, anyway? He was an old man, and going alone to Infinity Base would just be playing into the Shepherds’ hands.
On the other hand, Dani, with her piloting experience and cliff diving know-how and quick trigger on the tranquilizer—well, she was probably better equipped than anyone to actually rescue Dad and Nate. Once she got into space.
“I don’t . . . ,” Mom said, flustered. “I can’t . . . how would that even work? You can’t just launch a rocket into space like you’re taking your car out for a drive.”
“Why not?” Dani said. “Underberg did it, and his rocket ship was in far worse shape than ours. His whole city was. I’m a much more experienced pilot than he is, too. Not that there needs to be much piloting. I’ll program the flight path in advance, so basically all piloting will take care of itself.” She looked at her watch. “That is, if we manage to get to the rocket before security shows up. The clock is ticking. Either you trust me to do this and you’ll help me, or you don’t, and we should all just surrender now.”
Mom glared at her. “That is an incredibly unfair thing to say. You put us in this situation without all the information, and now you’re holding it over us?”
“I beg your pardon, Dr. Seagret,” Dani replied, “but did you really have an alternative?”
Mom stood very still for a long moment while we all looked at her. Somehow, I resisted the urge to clasp my hands in front of me and beg, but if my face was anything like Eric’s, I didn’t need to.
There was no other option. And there was no choice, either—not really. Not if we wanted to save Dad’s and Nate’s lives. And there wasn’t a single person in the room who was willing to walk away from that.
“How do we get to the other rocket?” Howard asked abruptly.
“Wait a second,” Mom said, holding out her arms as if to keep us from rushing off. “You guys aren’t going anywhere. I read The Forgotten Fortress, remember? I know what happens to those silos when the rocket launches. They burn up. You’re staying right here.”
“Where the security guards can get us?” Savannah asked, then hesitated. “Actually, that’s a good point. After you blast into outer space, where are we supposed to hide?”
Dani grimaced.
“Great, she hasn’t thought through this part, either.” Eric groaned and pushed past her toward the map. “Excuse me while I look up the Omega City Panic Room.”
“So this is an escape . . . for you.” Mom folded her arms. “We’re going to end up exactly where we started.”
“You could come into space with me,” Dani suggested.
“Yes!” Howard nodded vigorously.
“Pass,” insisted Mom. “Hard pass.”
“Then where do we go?” Howard asked. “Everyone gets to go into space but me!”
“Don’t worry, Howard,” said Savannah. “I’m not going into space.”
“My brother, Dani. Everyone.” He folded up the hood of his suit, I guess in protest.
But I didn’t have time to worry about hurting Howard’s feelings. “We do need a place to hide.”
“This was supposed to be your place to hide,” Dani admitted. “At least until I eliminated the threat up there.” She tapped her foot. “We’re running out of time. If I don’t get to that rocket soon, I won’t be able to save any of you.”
“I appreciate that,” said my mother. “But my priority is these children. I can’t let them fall into the wrong hands. There’s no knowing what the Shepherds might do if they find us here. They might—” She stopped herself from completing that thought. But we could all figure out what she was going to say.
They might even kill us.
Dani considered this. “Okay. Then call the police.”
“What?” Mom said. “I thought you said calling the police wasn’t going to do any good. That they’d never believe us about what the Shepherds were doing.”
“Don’t call the police on the Shepherds,” Dani clarified. “Call them on yourself. You’re trespassing in Omega City. Get arrested. You’ll be safe in jail.”
We all stared at her. I think my mouth was open.
“You’re . . . really twisted, did you know that?” Mom whispered.
Dani didn’t even flinch. “Can’t help it. It’s how I was raised. Now, will you help me?”
FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, we were all standing at the launch terminal of another missile silo, staring into the hollow cylinder at the gleaming white sides of another rocket ship. This one was marked on its side with the name Wisdom.
Eric seemed skeptical. “For a man who left the Shepherds because he thought we should all stay on Earth, Dr. Underberg really likes his rocket ships.”
“Duh. He was a rocket scientist,” I said. “Besides, that’s not why he left the Shepherds. He was just really sick of them lying to get their way.” I glared at Dani, but she ignored me, as she was busy hacking into the computers there and readying Wisdom for takeoff.
Mom put her hand up against the glass and leaned forward, looking down into the depths of the silo below. “I’m still not sure how this glass is supposed to keep us safe.”
“It’s not,” explained Howard. He pointed to the edges. “Before the missile takes off, there are multiple layers of blast doors and ceramic shielding that cover us and protect us from the rockets.”
“Still,” said Mom, her brow furrowed.
Dani wore a similarly uncertain expression, but I don’t think it was because she was nervous about the safety of the launch station. After all, that would require her to actually care about us. No, she was busy working on the actual launch and flight plan, as well as making sure Wisdom was capable of life support and other mechanisms.
“You know what I don’t get?” Savannah asked. “Why the Shepherds never found this place before we did.”
Dani sighed. “They thought it was destroyed, and Dr. Underberg with it. Fiona was the only one who suspected the truth. But Guidant has all the money in the world to fix things up now, so as soon as we were made aware that it was here, we stepped in.”
All the money in the world, I thought, as long as their secrets and lies stayed buried.
Howard was still admiring the ship. “So the Shepherds rebuilt it, just like the rest of Omega City?”
“Yes.” Dani typed on.
“Why did they do that, if they had their own spaceships?” he asked.
“Howard, dear,” said my mother. “Maybe don’t bother Dani while she’s, um . . . hacking?”
“It’s okay,” said Dani, not looking up from the screen. “They originally rebuilt the ship because they were trying to launch it to intercept Underberg’s ship, Knowledge. The ships are twins, and have built-in flight plans meant to allow them to automatically join and link up once in orbit.”
That made sense. If the people on the ships were all from Omega City, it only stood to reason that they’d want to find each other in outer space. “So you guys rebuilt it hoping that would be an easy way for you to find Dr. Underberg?”
“Exactly.” The tapping of the keys became more furious.
Savannah made a face. “So why didn’t you do it? I mean, wouldn’t catching Dr. Underberg have been so much easier than kidnapping all of us and planting us on your space station as a trap?”
“They tried. Unfortunately, they never could figure out how to disarm the kill switch that kept the rocket from launching.”
“What’s a kill switch?” Savannah asked, her eyes wide.
“It’s an automatic shutoff,” said Eric. “You know, like the one in that elevator that almost gassed us when it thought we were Russians?”
“Oh,” said Savannah. “Yeah. That’s just like Dr. Underberg to put something like that on his rocket ships, to keep outsiders like the Shepherds from using it.”
Dani pressed one more button, then sat back in her chair, a satisfied smile playing across her face as the lights on the launch terminal came alive. “But I just fixed it.”
Above our heads, a dozen screens flickered to life, showing the silo and the rocket from different angles. There were also views of what must be the interior of the spaceship. It looked a lot like I remembered Knowledge, with the big chairs for the astronauts and small rooms connected by round hatches and covered with storage and control panels.
“Wow,” said Howard. “Are you sure I can’t go inside? Just to see?”
Mom shook her head. “Who do you think you’re kidding?”
Savannah leaned forward. “Wait, you fixed it? Just now?”
“Yep.” Dani brushed her aside to set up the launch sequence.
“But aren’t Guidant people all excellent computer programmers? You said earlier that the computers in Omega City were so ancient that a five-year-old with a cell phone could break in. So why couldn’t they?”
“Maybe it’s the same reason no one found Omega City before we did,” I suggested. “Dr. Underberg hides things so only people who are his friends can find them. I’m sure it was something personal, right, Dani?”
“Uh-huh.” She nodded, typing. “What Gillian said. Personal.”
“So what was the code this time?” Savannah asked. “More Pluto stuff? Another number code?”
“Okay,” conceded Dani. “Maybe not exactly the same.”
“Do you ever stop lying?” Mom sounded exasperated.
And so did Dani. She groaned in frustration. “It was me, okay? I hacked the hackers. I didn’t want them catching Underberg, so I made sure they couldn’t disarm the switch and launch the ship. And now, I’ve undone my beautiful work.”
“So you can catch him,” I said, studying her. Mom was right. She lied about everything. She lied so much, maybe she didn’t even know what the truth was.
“Yes.”
Actually, she told me she didn’t believe in the truth, just whatever story worked best for her. Which meant I’d better make sure her story was set before she left.
“And rescue my father,” I prompted. “And Nate.”
“Yes!” She threw her hands in the air. “Do we have to keep going over this?”
“Not if you don’t keep changing your story.”
She rolled her eyes. “I think that’s my cue to blast off.”
Howard came forward again. “Are you going to get in a space suit?”
Dani shook her head as she unzipped the hood of her utility suit. “These suits are positive pressure suits. All I need to do is hook them up to the machines inside and it should be sufficient for my flight. This isn’t the moon mission, guys. Our technology is way better. I will, of course, be wearing a helmet. But those are inside the rocket, too.”
Mom sat down at the launch chair Dani had vacated. “And it’s all automated? To . . . blast you off and fly you to the other spaceship and everything?”
“Should be,” said Dani as she tucked her hair inside her hood.
“And the blast doors and stuff? That’s automatic, too?” Eric added. “I don’t want to be fried.”
“Yes, yes, yes.”
I couldn’t believe how casual she was acting about going to outer space. Then again, she said she’d done it before. I wondered if that was what happened when you were raised as a Shepherd—you came to believe that spaceflight was no more special than an afternoon drive.
She turned to my mother. “You’ll call the cops when I’m gone, right?”
I guess that was another thing Shepherds were used to saying.
“Yes. I hope they can get in here without your voodoo.” Mom gestured to Dani’s box.
“Of course,” said Dani. “I’ve disarmed the entry system. Anyone can come in now. I had to make it look like you all really broke in. And don’t worry. I’m sure the police will believe you. After all, this isn’t the first time the kids have trespassed in Omega City.” She took one last check of her programming. “Well, this is it. Any messages for your father? Or Nate? Or Dr. Underberg?”
“Stay safe?” suggested Mom.
“Come home?” suggested Savannah.
“Remember everything you can. I can’t believe you get to go into outer space!” whined Howard.
I looked at Eric. Eric looked at me. I couldn’t think of any messages I’d trust Dani to deliver.
“Stay safe,” I echoed at last.
“Yeah,” agreed Eric. “And come home.”
“And—” we both said at once, then stopped, gesturing at each other to finish.
“And we love you,” I said.
Dani nodded. “Okay.” Then she left the room. A few minutes later, we saw her silver-encased figure cross the walkway to the rocket, far below. A few moments after that, her frame came into view on several of the interior monitors. She was aboard Wisdom. We watched as she busied herself getting settled in the cabin, making sure everything was operational and online, and going through her final launch checks.
Eric sidled up to me. “Is this really going to work?”
I shrugged. I had no idea. “We’ve gotten this far.”
“Yeah,” he said. “And we’ve messed up every time.”
“Not every time.” I had to cling to something. “We got into Omega City okay.”
“Sure,” he said. “But do you think we’re going to get out okay?”
I folded my hands in front of me, ignoring the sour pit of dread in my stomach. All this work to get out of Eureka Cove, and we were still in Shepherd territory. I watched Dani on the monitors. She was our last chance to save my father, and I barely trusted her.
Eric nudged my shoulder. “The good news is, we managed it last time, right?”
“Right,” I mumbled.
He looked at Mom. “You know, I don’t think you actually need to call the cops. They came the last time when the rocket took off.”
Mom clasped her hands in front of her, squeezing tight. It made her seem nervous and small. I glanced down at my own interlocking fingers, and quickly released them. Oops.
“So we just wait, then?” Mom asked.
“Or we go,” said Savannah. “Like, now.”
“No!” cried Howard. “I want to see the rocket launch.”
“Well, I want to not get caught by the Shepherds,” said Savannah. “So which is more important?”
And then a loud, booming voice sounded through the room. A voice I knew well. Dr. Underberg and his recorded messages for Omega City residents.
Launch sequence activated—Rocketship Wisdom.
Please evacuate all personnel and equipment from launch silo.
“Here we go!” Howard bounced again. He ran toward the window but, as promised, large plates of steel began to fold up and cover the view.
Mom watched the shields slide into place, but still looked concerned. “Do you think we’d be safer waiting elsewhere?”
Launch sequence paused. Deploy hex key to continue.
On-screen, we saw Dani pause whatever she was doing and look up, her helmeted face impossible to read. She quirked her head to the side as Dr. Underberg’s voice repeated the instruction, then turned her attention to the terminal before her and started pressing buttons.
“What’s a hex key?” Savannah asked.
“It’s probably a hexadecimal code,” Howard said. “It’s a type of computer code. Base sixteen.”
More codes. Well, at least Dani was well equipped to handle that. I watched her on the TV screen for a few minutes more. Her work was steady, unhurried and deliberate as the seconds ticked by.
I really hoped she knew what she was doing.