CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The truck rumbled up to the laboratory construction site, which was surrounded by a high chain-link fence topped with razor wire. The building was set back from the road, built into a steep rock face. It was still unfinished, but the central wing of the building looked mostly complete, and there were lights on inside.
Mr. Mendizabal pulled the truck into the driveway, bringing them face-to-face with a security gate and a frowning guard. Mr. Mendizabal quickly reversed the truck around the fence and out of sight. “Tontolapiko!” he said angrily. “I apologize,” he told the others. “When I was last here, there were no guards.”
“There’s only one,” said Uchenna hopefully. “Maybe we can just run past him.”
“What if there are more inside?” asked Elliot. “This one would sound the alarm, and they’d be all over us.”
“There is only one option,” said Mitxel. “One of us must distract the guard while the rest sneak inside. Since he is my countryman and speaks my language, I am the obvious choice for the diversion. That means, however, I will not be able to accompany you for your assault on the factory.”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Mendizabal,” Uchenna reassured him, patting his shoulder. “We’ve got this.”
“What?” said Elliot. “What do we have? We’re supposed to find the dragon without Mr. Mendizabal? And what do you mean assault?”
“Don’t worry, children,” Professor Fauna said. “I have much experience with mythical creatures.”
“With dragons?”
“Well . . . a little.”
Elliot buried his head in his hands.
Mr. Mendizabal got out of the truck. “Wait for two minutes, then move quickly. Keep against this fence, close to the ground, and be quiet.” He turned to the children. “Zorte on. That means ‘Good luck.’”
Mr. Mendizabal turned the corner and disappeared behind the fence. Professor Fauna kept time on his watch, which was attached to his wrist by a sparkly pink band and had galloping unicorns on the face. After two nerve-racking minutes, Professor Fauna and the children crept around the corner after Mr. Mendizabal, staying as close to the fence as they could.
They saw that Mr. Mendizabal was talking to the guard, holding a big map, folding it, unfolding it, and turning it around in his hands, acting very lost and confused. He and the guard were both looking away from Uchenna, Elliot, and the professor. Mr. Mendizabal asked the guard a question and pointed to his left, but the guard responded and pointed in a totally different direction.
As quickly and quietly as they could, they made it past the guard post, up the driveway, and to the main door of the building. Uchenna tried the door, and it was unlocked.
“This is the second time I’ve broken into a Schmoke brothers’ property this week,” Elliot murmured. “I’d never broken into anything before! Ever! What has happened to my life?”
“Welcome to the Unicorn Rescue Society,” Professor Fauna said. And he led them inside the Schmoke-Mendizabal Pharmaceuticals complex.
They found themselves in a large lobby, still under construction, with exposed girders and electrical wires dangling from the ceiling. On the other side of the lobby was a single cherrywood door. Professor Fauna crossed the lobby and tried the bright brass doorknob. That door, too, was unlocked.
Behind the door was a small room with a few desks, some filing cabinets, and big schematic plans pinned up on the wall.
“A map!” Elliot whispered, pushing past the professor. “Now I feel more comfortable.” He craned his neck up to study the plans—they were placed at adult height. Uchenna pulled a chair over, and Elliot gratefully climbed up on it. His thin finger ran over the passageways and schematic lines. “We’re here,” he announced at last, pointing to a room on the plan. “In the administrative office.” He pointed to another area of the plan. “These rooms here are marked research laboratories, these are bathrooms, and this is the cafeteria. These green lines are the motion detectors, these blue ones are the sprinkler system, these red ones are the computer network cables.”
“How do you know all that?” asked Uchenna.
“When I was little, I got separated from my mom in a big shopping mall. It was the worst three minutes of my whole life. Now, I try not to go anyplace where I don’t know my way around. If that meant I had to learn to read forty-seven different kinds of schematic maps, so be it.”
“Okay, then, Mr. Map Expert. What’s this tangle of blue lines?” Uchenna pointed right in the center of the map.
“That’s in the basement. It looks like an intense fire safety system. Sensors and sprinklers and the like.”
Uchenna’s eyes lit up. “Why would they need an intense fire safety system in the basement, unless—”
Elliot finished her thought. “There was a dragon down there!”
“Brilliant, children!” Professor Fauna said. “Now we can go into the dragon’s lair!”
Elliot sighed. “Just another day in the life of Elliot Eisner.”
“Yeah,” said Uchenna, “because your life is awesome.”