Three weeks had passed since Alison’s injury. The bruising all but disappeared, she could get around with only an occasional twinge of discomfort. Samuel and Sarah had taken the children through the debriefing several times, pointing out areas of concern as well as incidents worth praising. While Samuel had deferred to Sarah’s insistence that the war games, as she called them, be put on hold for a bit, he’d asked Sam to quietly work on devising another. When the time was right, they’d present it to Sarah for her consideration.
In the meantime, they focused on the standard school academics as well as reading and understanding building blueprints and city grid maps. The latter being completely foreign to the children, presented challenges the parents anticipated and countered with treasure-hunt games. As the children became more skilled, the stakes became higher and timeframes shorter. It wasn’t long before they were given mission scenarios and asked to come up with plans to accomplish the stated goal. While not quite as proficient individually, the twins working together, excelled.
It was a chilly spring morning when Samuel met the children in the school room and told them they would be putting their new-found skills to a practical test. Their mission was to penetrate a warehouse and recover an item hidden there. They were to avoid detection and/or capture at all costs. Caleb and the twins looked at each with uncertainty. Capture meant others were involved. Anxiety settled deep.
Samuel handed them small electronic devices that had blueprints of the warehouse and a GPS map of the surrounding area. The unit held an additional file that contained the mission instructions and a picture of the item they were to recover. Samuel told Caleb to get in his truck and the girls to go get in their mother’s vehicle. Departure was in five minutes. He turned and left the building, leaving the children staring after him. Alexa was the first to move. She grabbed Alison’s hand.
“C’mon, let’s go.” Turning to Caleb she smiled. “I bet we recover the item before you even figure out where it’s at.”
“In your dreams!” Caleb rushed out the door to his father’s truck.
The warehouse was located on an area of the farm dedicated to the working portion of the land. More accurately described as a large barn and storage facility, for the purposes of the exercise, referring to it as a warehouse was sufficient. Multiple levels and various internal rooms would present a challenge to the children, particularly as they had never been to this area of the property. They also did not know the blueprints they’d been given were incomplete. They wouldn’t discover that until they breached the building, which would offer its own set of traps for the unwary.
The parents navigated to different landing stages for the mission and stopped approximately two miles from the target. This would force the children to approach the building from different directions, causing them not only to have to deal with whatever confronted them in their individual treks, but also to force them to avoid being spotted and compromised by their competitor sibling unit.
Sarah turned to the girls. “Good luck. Use all your skills. Work together. Don’t get caught.”
The twins left the vehicle and shouldered their packs. Quickly moving off and finding cover to review their mission and plan their approach, they were barely aware their mother had driven away.
Alexa was studying the GPS unit.
“It looks like we can stick to cover almost until we get to the warehouse. I’m guessing it’s not quite two miles from here.”
“Guessing?”
“Well, it’s the best I can do with this.”
“Let me see,” Alison reached over to take the unit from her sister. After studying it for about thirty seconds, she grunted. “I see what you mean. Here, you seem to be better at this than me. You guide us in. But it looks like the last bit is wide-open territory. That’s not good.”
“No, but it’s that way all around the building, so Caleb is going to have the same problem.”
“Any thoughts on where the item might be inside?”
Alexa frowned. “I’ve been thinking about that. They wouldn’t make it too easy. But at the same time, just how many places could they hide something like that?”
The item they were looking for was a small statute of a horse. The picture made it look like it was bronze or something. They’d been told it was very valuable. Although all three of the children knew the parents were exaggerating the value, they played along with the ruse. It added to the excitement of the game. They knew the most important part of the whole exercise was to not be seen or get captured. Missions could be aborted and replanned. Capture could mean death in the real world. No recovering from that.
“Going along with the parent’s story that it’s valuable. You’d put something valuable in a safe or something, right?” Alison thought out loud.
“Right! And you’d put a safe someplace that wouldn’t be immediately noticeable. Like behind furniture or a picture or something,” Alexa picked up her sister’s thoughts.
“Or in the floor. Under a secret trap door!”
The twins looked at each other and grinned. They high-fived one another, somehow knowing they’d hit on the solution to a question they knew they should have asked in their mission briefing. They’d remember next time. Such a simple question to not ask. The answer might be unknown, but unless asked, the opportunity to gain additional information was most certainly lost.
Rechecking their current location against their target location, they started toward their objective. They’d gone barely two hundred feet when Alexa suddenly stopped and grabbed Alison and pulled her to the ground.
“What?” Alison asked in a loud whisper.
“Up ahead. I saw a flash. I think there’s a camera or something and the light reflected off the lens.”
“Where?”
Alexa pointed and Alison followed the direction with her eyes.
“I don’t see anything.”
“Sway back and forth a bit.”
Alison did as she was told. Sure enough, she saw something in a tree branch.
“Do you think it’s directed this way? Do you think we’ve already been spotted?”
“I don’t know. But if there’s one, there may be more than one. And if there are cameras, there may be other detection devices.”
“Funny the parents didn’t mention that,” Alison grumbled.
“We didn’t ask. Again. But they did tell us to avoid being seen or captured. We should have figured there was more involved than just avoiding Caleb.”
“Any suggestions?”
Alexa reached out with her senses. Not detecting anyone within her range, she told Alison she thought they could go around the camera.
“What if there’s another one pointed towards this one?”
“Who would do that?”
“Someone trying to cover all their bases,” Alison said.
“Good point. But I don’t think so. And we’re not even sure it’s really a camera. Let’s flank it and find out. Stay low, move slowly.”
They worked their way to the left. It took nearly twenty minutes but when they finally got close enough to discern the flash in the tree, they giggled. What they thought was a camera was nothing more than a small square of glass tucked into the branches. As they approached it, they saw a note attached. If you found me, congratulations. You’re being diligent. I could have been a camera. Bring the note with you.
Just as Alexa reached to take the note Alison called out.
“Stop!”
Alexa froze. She turned back to Alison with a question in her eyes.
“There’s a wire attached to the paper.”
Alexa looked closer. Sure enough, a very fine filament wire was attached to a corner of the note.
“Can’t believe you saw that,” Alexa carefully backed away.
“Let’s see where it goes.”
They followed the wire. It led them to a concealed lever which, when they examined the mechanism, they realized that had the note been pulled, it would have released a beaker of paint. That paint would have landed directly on whoever was standing in the position Alexa had been in just moments before. The twins giggled again. The parents were raising the stakes. No way they could have hidden this mistake.
“C’mon. Let’s get the note,” Alexa said. “Without the paint.”
She carefully cut the corner off the note and, before pulling it away from the glass, double-checked there weren’t any other booby traps. Seeing none, she held her breath and secured the note. When nothing happened, she released her breath in a whoosh.
“Let’s get out of here,” Alison said.
Aware there may be other traps waiting for them, their progress slowed to a crawl. Their heightened alertness was beginning to tire them.
“This sucks,” Alexa muttered.
“We’re almost to the clearing,” Alison whispered back.
“Then what? How are we going to cross the open area without being seen? What if there are trip wires or something?”
“One thing at a time. Do you sense anyone in the area?”
Alexa reached out. “No.”
“Then let’s make it to the edge of the clearing and regroup.”
They sat in the tall grass staring out over the open space. Whispered ideas passed back and forth but nothing they came up with seemed feasible. Shoulders drooped in discouragement, Alison sipped water. A slight movement caught her eye. She touched Alexa and pointed with her head. Alexa looked in the direction and saw Caleb emerge from the opposite side of the clearing and move slowly towards the building. Both girls grinned when they saw the splotch of blue paint on his shoulders and hair.
“Guess he didn’t see the wire,” Alexa whispered.
Alison giggled softly. She was studying the terrain carefully. Because the sun was slightly behind them, she wasn’t concerned about the lens of her field monocular reflecting the light. She was paying particular attention to the path Caleb seemed set to take. She couldn’t see any traps, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there.
“Why not make our way around to Caleb’s location? We can watch and wait. Whatever traps he sets off, we won’t have to worry about if we take his same route.”
Alexa thought about that. “But he’ll see us and we’re not supposed to be seen.”
“He won’t see us if we wait until he enters the building. We can make a run for it as soon as he enters. If we stay on his path, we should be good.”
“What about surveillance cameras? They’ll see Caleb and they’ll see us.”
“If they exist, he’ll be the one they’ll see and go after. While they’re doing that, we can slip in.”
“We can’t be sure of that.”
Alison sighed. It seemed Alexa was coming up with every excuse possible to not go forward with the mission.
“You have any better ideas?”
Alexa shook her head, frowning.
“Then let’s do this. Stay low.”
Alison started moving to her left, looking for anything that might indicate a place she shouldn’t step. It was slow tedious work but eventually they reached the place where Caleb had entered the clearing. While they had been changing their position, Caleb had been advancing in an army crawl across the clearing. Suddenly they heard him cry out. They raised up and peeked through the tall grass. Caleb was on his knees shaking his head and frantically rubbing his face. He seemed to glow in the sun, and all around him the air was alight with sparkles.
The girls pressed their hands to their mouths suppressing their giggles. Caleb had somehow released a glitter bomb. He was covered in the stuff and it floated through the air in a kaleidoscope of colors. But what happened next silenced the girls as they watched in awe. From somewhere within the warehouse came shouts as Sam and Ben, in full tactical gear, came running out with weapons pointed at Caleb. Each grabbed one of Caleb’s arms as they half-propelled, half-dragged him into the warehouse. It had taken mere seconds.
“Guess he’s done. But now they have him, they’re going to be looking for us even more. We’ll never get in,” Alison murmured.
“Maybe, maybe not. We don’t know how much they know. We don’t know if the parents told them it was just Caleb’s exercise, or if all of us were involved. And speaking of parents, we don’t know if they’re part of all this. Can we really trust that they just dropped us off? Remember last time?”
“What do we do?”
“Well, they came out in a rush, not paying attention to where they stepped. So, from where Caleb was nabbed to the building must be OK.” Alexa was thinking out loud.
“But we don’t know if it was Caleb’s noise that brought them out or if they saw him on camera.”
“Maybe we should wait until dark.”
“That’s hours away!”
“Yes, but we weren’t given any timelines. Just told to get the item and not be seen or caught. Makes sense to use darkness to approach. Besides, if there’s no further attempts, Sam and Ben might think it was only Caleb and relax a bit.”
“What if Caleb rats us out?”
“Doubtful. He’s probably mad he got caught. He’s going to want to see them lose. He may even figure out a way to help us.”
“I’m not excited about spending another night outside,” Alison said, thinking about her last experience.
“We shouldn’t have to. If we can get the item and make it back to the pickup point, we can call in for our ride.”
Alison wasn’t convinced, but she nodded her head. Looking behind her, she reassessed their position.
“Let’s retreat to that area over there and make ourselves more comfortable. We can study the blueprints again. See if we can figure out where the object might be hidden.”
The girls shimmied back through the grass into the edge of the forest.
“Up or down?” Alison asked.
Alexa studied the area, then looked up into the trees. “Up.”
They climbed up into the branches and secured themselves. Although they hadn’t planned it, their new vantage point gave them a direct view of the building and surrounding area. They could easily see where they’d been, as the grass was crushed down. They could also make out Caleb’s route for the same reason. Both memorized the area, knowing they would need reference points in the dark to guide them. They sipped water and slowly ate a protein bar as they studied the blueprints. Alison was the first to notice.
“Hey! These blueprints aren’t right.”
‘What do you mean?”
“Look. According to the drawings, there should be a door here, and two windows there.” She pointed to the offending places on the pictures. “Look at the building. Do you see a door and two windows? I see the door, but no windows.”
Alexa looked back and forth between the drawings and the building. She rechecked the orientation to make sure they were looking at the correct part of the image. Alison was right, the door was there, but not the windows. There weren’t any windows on the side of the building facing them. In fact, as they thought about it, they hadn’t seen any windows on the other side of the building when they’d approached it from the opposite side of the clearing. They now assumed the building had no windows at all.
“Do you think there are other doors? Do you think it’s possible there really is only one way in and out? Did they give us the wrong images by mistake?”
“No. I think they gave us exactly what they gave us. Another challenge to overcome. But there have to be other ways in and out. The building is too big to have just one door. It wouldn’t be safe. What now?”
“Well, if this is wrong, there’s a good chance the inside doesn’t match what we have, either. But we won’t know that until we get inside.”
“If we get inside,” Alison muttered.
“Oh, we’re getting inside.” Alexa’s tone indicated her total frustration with the scenario. “C’mon, let’s memorize the floor plan as we have it, so that even if it differs, we have a reference point to work off of.”
They spent the rest of the afternoon studying the images and making plans, only to revise them when a new thought occurred. Through all of it, they observed no movement in or around the building. Unless there was some secret way out the back through a tunnel or something, they felt assured that everyone was still inside. What they couldn’t know for sure was whether it was just their three brothers or if the parents or someone else were also inside.
As the light faded, they made their way back to the ground. Mixing a bit of their water with dirt, they rubbed the resulting mud on their face and hands. Their new look made them grin at each other.
Per their plan, they split up. One would stay outside as the watcher and act as a distraction, if needed, while the other slipped in and searched for and hopefully obtained the object. Since Alison was the better of the two at concealment, they’d decided she would enter the building. When they reached their predetermined staging points, they sent each other mental good lucks and began their attack, for that’s how they now classified their mission in their minds.
Alexa watched as Alison made it to the edge of the building without incident. Hugging the wall, she inched towards the door. But she didn’t try to open it. Instead, she continued to the corner of the building and peeked around it. She saw a large sliding set of doors. The kind of doors all barns seem to possess. That’s more like it, she thought. I knew there had to be more than one way in. Soft light poured out from a slight opening. She carefully moved towards it, stopping when she heard voices.
“Do you really think the twins are out there?” Sam asked Ben.
“Yes.”
“Caleb says they’re not. That the exercise involved only him. He says the girls were assigned to some kind of language challenge today.”
“You believe him?”
They both looked over to where they had tied Caleb to a chair and grinned. He appeared to be dozing. He looked like a demented unicorn, between the blue paint and the glitter.
“No,” Sam smiled. “I think he’s lying. I think he’s pissed he got caught and will now do anything to foil our attempts to get the girls.”
“That’s what I think, too. Besides, wouldn’t the parents have come for us by now if it were only him?”
“Good point. Stay vigilant.”
At that moment an owl let out a loud hoot, followed by the sound of a twig snapping.
“Do you think that was real?” Ben asked.
“Not sure. Go check it out.”
“Why me?”
Sam smiled. “Because I’m older than you and I said so.”
“Jeez, that’s no answer,” Ben grumbled as he slid the door open further.
Alison quickly retreated around the corner as Ben stepped out. He was backlit by the light from the building. She watched as he snapped on a flashlight and headed out towards the middle of the clearing.
Rather stupid, Alison thought. If Alexa or I were set up as a sniper, you’d be dead. She shook her head in wonderment as she made her way slowly back to the original door. Passing it again, she got to the other corner of the building and peeked around it. On this side she saw what appeared to be an open stall of some sort. She hurriedly made her way towards it and ducked behind a piece of machinery just as Ben came around the corner flashing his light all around. She scooted further back behind a large tire just as his light passed the area where she’d been crouching.
Alison stayed where she was as Ben moved to the end of the building and disappeared around the corner. She was pretty sure the owl had been Alexa, but she didn’t know why Alexa had made the noise. Is something else going on that I can’t see and she can? If so, what? She sat and thought through what she’d heard. She now knew it was only the three brothers inside the building. And she knew they were almost as clueless as she was. Smiling, she had a brief appreciation of her parents’ deviousness.
Looking around the area she found herself, she saw it was filled with equipment of all sorts, the biggest being the tractor she was leaning against. As her eyes further adjusted to the low light, she saw a small window on the back wall. She moved towards it. Standing just enough to look over the edge, she rubbed enough dirt away to be able to see inside. There wasn’t much to see. The room was dark and looked empty. Testing the window, she found it opened easily enough, so she slowly raised it hoping it wouldn’t squeak. It didn’t. So far, so good, she thought. Now if I can just get in without making too much noise.
She saw a large toolbox in a corner of the stall and went to it. She tested her weight on it. Seems okay. She picked it up and brought it back to the window and placed it just beneath it. Here goes nothing, she thought. Stepping on the box she hoisted herself into the window opening and shimmied through, managing to land with only a small thud. When no alarm was raised, she slowly stood and looked around. The room wasn’t quite as empty as she’d thought, but the few bits and pieces of miscellaneous materials presented no threat. No opportunities, either. Shrugging she crept towards the door. Hope the stupid thing isn’t locked. She tried the knob. It turned easily enough in her hand and she was able to pull the door open just enough to see what appeared to be an empty hallway. She quietly re-closed the door.
Sitting down, she mentally reviewed the blueprints. She didn’t remember seeing any hallway. On the other hand, she also didn’t remember seeing the stall where she’d hidden. It was as if this entire part of the building had been left off the plans. She wondered if these had been added later and that’s why they weren’t on the plans. If that were the case, then maybe the rest of the building was as depicted in the drawings they’d studied. But then again, maybe it isn’t. Only one way to find out.
She stood and carefully opened the door again. Slipping into the hallway, she stayed close to the wall hoping the floor wouldn’t squeak. She’d gone about fifteen feet when she came to another door. This one had light spilling under it. She crept closer and put her ear to the door. She couldn’t hear anything. Always works in the movies, she thought.
Lowering herself to the floor, she flattened out and looked beneath the door. There wasn’t much to see. Her viewing angle allowed for a straight-ahead view of a floor. An empty floor. Sitting up, she sighed. This is accomplishing nothing. I’m just going to go for it.
Standing, she tried the door. The knob turned and the door opened easily. She opened the door just enough to look into the room. It was a large open area with almost nothing in it. Almost nothing. A small desk sat in a corner, a chair pushed into the leg opening. A few papers were on the desktop and the surface looked clean. No dust. She assumed that meant it was being used. No pictures were on the walls. That rules out hiding a safe behind a picture. There was a shelving unit against another wall containing a few books and some assorted tools. Most looked rusty. She looked closely to be sure there wasn’t a box or anything large enough that could hold the object she was searching for. She realized that unless she opened the door further or stepped into the room, or both, she couldn’t see what else the room held. Hoping her brothers weren’t standing in her blind spot, she pushed the door open further and stepped into the room. She had a quick mental picture of the blueprints she’d studied and realized she knew where she was. No one else was with her so she took her time to look around more thoroughly. There was a cabinet against the wall she hadn’t been able to earlier observe, and she moved towards it. Carefully opening the doors, she looked at the papers and file folders stacked neatly on the shelves. On one shelf the folders were standing upright, being held in place by a weighted object. She smiled as she realized the object was the horse statute they had been sent to retrieve. It can’t be this easy, she thought. What am I missing?
She looked for wires or other odd things that shouldn’t be there. Seeing nothing, she reached for the statute. Holding the folders, she carefully lifted it off the shelf, then arranged the folders in a way they wouldn’t slide to the floor. No alarms. Closing the cupboard doors, she backed away towards the door she’d come through.
“Not so fast, little ninja.”
Sam’s hand clamped down on her shoulder. It so startled her she almost dropped the statute. Without thinking, she whirled and kicked him in the shin.
“Ouch!” he yelled, letting go of her shoulder.
She ran for the door and just got through it before he could recover and grab her again. As she hurried down the hallway she heard him yelling to Ben. With no time to lose she ran to the window she’d come in through and quickly climbed out. Figuring stealth at this point was no longer an option, she ran headlong into the clearing towards the forest. It was so dark she couldn’t see where she was running. She only hoped she wouldn’t fall. Sam and Ben were now outside the building and using flashlights to light their attempt to follow her. She smiled when she realized their desire for light simply gave away their positions and allowed her to evade them by going in the opposite direction they were searching.
Reaching the edge of the clearing without incidence, she retreated further into the forest. She wondered where Alexa was. She didn’t have to wonder long. Like a spiritual being, Alexa appeared before her out of the darkness.
“C’mon! This way!” Alexa whispered loudly.
Alison followed Alexa down a path that differed from their approach to the building earlier in the day. She hoped Alexa knew where they were going because at this point, she was totally lost. The two girls didn’t talk, using all their skills to escape their brothers.
Twenty minutes later they came to a small clearing. Stopping to catch their breath, Alexa looked at Alison.
“You got it!”
“Yes. It was just sitting on a shelf, holding up some folders. But Sam caught me before I could get out. I kicked him in the shin and ran.”
Alexa giggled. “You kicked Sam? He’s not going to like that.”
“He didn’t.” Alison giggled with Alexa. She looked around. “Where are we?”
“We just need to go down this trail a bit and we’ll hit the pickup point. I’ve already called in.”
“But this is different from how we came. How do you know where we’re at?”
“I checked it out earlier while you were creeping around the building.”
The two high-fived, turned and continued down the trail, listening for signs of pursuit. When they arrived at their designated pickup point, they kept to the cover of the bushes. Within five minutes they saw headlights coming their way.
“Let’s make sure it’s a friendly before we show ourselves.” Alison murmured.
“Good idea.”
The vehicle rolled to a stop and sat idling. The girls watched for signs of hostility. They could see their mother in the driver’s seat, but they didn’t know if anyone else was in the car. Alison motioned to Alexa, gesturing a circle with her hand. Alexa nodded and the girls moved to where they could approach the car from the back passenger side. Coming up carefully beside the car they peeked inside the back window. Not seeing anyone they quickly opened the door and slid in. Their mother watched them in the rearview mirror.
“I saw your approach. We’ll need to work on that. Otherwise, I can assume the mission was a success?”
Alison held up the statute.
“Good job. Let’s get out of here.”
Sarah put the car in gear and they headed back to the farmhouse.