The Basement
Caden slowly opened his eyes, but he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Somehow, underneath Salem, was a massive area as wide as the town square and nearly as tall as the church. The ground and walls were covered with concrete, tunnel holes were carved into the sides like an ant colony, and homes built out of a mishmash of scrap metal and plastic were stacked on top of each other along the sides. Multicolored lights were strung everywhere like spiderwebs, and wheels and pulleys constantly cranked ropes transporting crates full of supplies, people, and Iltech to every level.
Iltech. It was everywhere. Everyone was using Iltech as if it was normal. People walked around with Iltech devices in their hands and slung over their shoulders, women carried food in metal bowls, kids sat huddled around bright screens laughing, even piles of discarded Iltech towering up to the ceiling lay here and there just waiting to be explored. Seeing them reminded Caden of the mountain of Iltech behind his dad in his photo. Was this where the picture was taken? Was his dad here, waiting for him?
“What is this place?” Annika asked.
“The best kept secret in Salem,” Jadice said. “There’s a dozen or so entrances all over town. Or at least there used to be. There might be more now. They’ve really spruced the place up since I was here last.”
Annika looked like she wanted to ask Jadice more about that, but her eyes fell to Caden’s leg. She gasped and covered her mouth.
“Gotama’s Ant!” she cried. “Caden, your leg!”
Caden looked down. In the panic of everything he’d forgotten about the arrow in his thigh. He expected a mess of blood on his overalls from the arrow wound, but there was nothing. The same kind of white arrow that had hit Deber was sticking out of his pants, but now that Caden thought about it, it hadn’t been hurting him for a while.
Caden reached down for the arrow. As soon as he touched it, it fell right out of his pants and landed on the concrete ground. There wasn’t even any blood on the sharpened tip. Caden rolled his pants up to his thigh to check the injury, but there was no sign anything had happened. His leg looked the same as usual—there was no wound where the arrow had hit him.
“Well I guess that saves us a trip to the doctor,” Jadice said. Caden couldn’t take his eyes off his unharmed skin.
“How is that possible?” he whispered.
“It takes a lot more than just an arrow to kill you,” Jadice explained. “Trust me, I know. I spent thirteen years trying to figure out how to do it.”
“But I don’t get it,” Caden said, still in disbelief. “There’s not even any blood.”
“Do you really think that’s normal human blood inside you?” Jadice asked, leaning close to Caden. “Do you really think that’s a normal human heart beating inside you? If you want to find out, there’s plenty of devices around here to cut yourself open with.”
Jadice’s way of putting it wasn’t the best, but she had a point. Now that Caden thought about it, there had been plenty of times at the Home when he should’ve gotten scraped or cut but never once had he bled. He’d always just thought he was lucky, same as how he never got sick. But no, it was because he was built that way. He wasn’t sure if he liked that. It made him feel … unnatural.
“Let’s find Watson,” Jadice said, patting Caden on the back. “If you could bleed I’m sure you’d be bleeding questions, and Watson is the only one who can answer them all.”
Jadice strode through the Basement as though she were walking in her own home. Caden and Annika followed behind, drinking in their surroundings. People stared at them, wondering who these new faces were. Most of the attention was given to Deber, limping and clomping on the concrete with her hooves. It was probably the first time a horse had ever been in the Basement.
The people in the Basement looked like the townspeople in Salem, but they were thinner, paler, and their clothes were odd. Unlike the earth tones in the town above, the people in the Basement wore all colors of the rainbow. Some even had shirts with pictures or words on them. And every single person, regardless of age, was wearing a plastic helmet on their head, presumably to protect from falling Iltech and rubble.
“Do all these people live here?” Caden asked Jadice.
“A lot of them do,” Jadice responded, “but most of them are just passing through. They get what they want. medicine or tools or whatver, and then go back to their lives Upstairs.”
“But how could the Church not know about this place?” Annika asked. “It’s so big, how did they even build it? And—wait a minute, you were an Apostle! Why didn’t you have this place destroyed if you knew about it?”
“You really like asking questions, don’t you?” Jadice grumbled. “Why don’t you try staying quiet for once and open your eyes. Maybe you’ll find some answers.”
Annika glared but didn’t say anything more. Jadice led them past piles of Iltech and through jungles of cables and wires to the other side of the massive room. She finally stopped in front of a building built into the concrete wall. It was as tall as the Basement itself and had windows every few stories giving off different colored lights. The bottom floor was open, filled with boxes of Iltech, and at the very front sitting at a desk with a stained yellow computer was the strangest thing Caden had ever seen.
It looked like a human, except for the single massive eyeball it had for a head. It was short, couldn’t have been more than four feet tall, and sat hunched over in a faded camouflage jacket typing away furiously. Caden didn’t want to go anywhere near it, but Jadice walked right up to the desk and slammed down her hand.
“Hey there, Clops! Remember me?”
The giant eyeball swiveled toward her and blinked. Caden and Annika stepped back in revulsion. Then something even stranger happened—the eyeball laughed.
“Well, well, well,” it said in a raspy old voice. “Thought I’d see the sunlight before I ever saw you again, little Jadi.”
It wasn’t a monster; it was a person. The eyeball’s two hands reached up and grabbed the magnifying glass in front of its head, pulled it up, and revealed that it was a pale, rubbery old man with one eye sewn up and a grin full of metallic teeth. The giant magnifying glass was attached to his helmet by a thick cable, and it was now hanging up in the air, making him look like an Iltech angler fish.
“Last I’d heard you’d gone and joined up with the Apostles,” Clops wheezed out. “You’re not planning on turning us in, are ya?”
“Trust me, if that’s what I wanted, this place would’ve been gone ages ago,” Jadice said. “I left the Apostles. Didn’t like what they were doing anymore.”
“Sounds about right for the girl I knew,” Clops said through a cough. “But, if you left the Apostles, does that mean you still have the … well, you know.”
Jadice rolled up her sleeves and showed off her glowing blue palms. Clops gazed at them with his one good eye and drool started spilling out of his mouth.
“A real angel weapon,” he said longingly. “I don’t suppose you came here to sell it to little old me, now did you?”
“Nice try, Clops,” Jadice said with a smirk. “But even if I wanted to sell, you couldn’t afford it.”
“Are you sure?” he asked with a wink. Or a blink. It was hard to tell when he only had one eye. “I have more than you think. You’d get enough money to do whatever you wanted.”
“There’s only one thing I want, and it can’t be bought with money,” Jadice said, suddenly turning serious. She put a hand on Caden’s shoulder. “But here’s something you might be interested in.”
Jadice pushed Caden forward and Clops leaned over the desk to get a closer look. He brought down the giant magnifying glass, making his one eye as big as his face, then quickly pushed it back up again.
“The kid reminds me of one of your old boyfriends, Jadi,” Clops chuckled. “But what about him? I’m a weapons dealer, not a slave trader.”
“You’re not looking close enough. Blondie, show him your hands.”
Caden didn’t appreciate being treated like an animal sold at market, but he did as Jadice said. When Clops saw his glowing red palms, he leaped forward like lightning.
“Is this one for sale?” Clops asked through heavy breathing.
Jadice shook her head. “No, but—”
“Oh, for steel’s sake! Jadi, you’re killing me. You bring two angel weapons in one day and neither are for sale? Are you trying to give this old man a heart attack?”
“This is no ordinary angel weapon,” Jadice said. “Remember the stories you used to tell us when we were kids?”
Clops took another look at Caden through his magnifying glass. His massive eye grew even wider.
“You don’t mean to say …”
He was interrupted by another monster behind him. A seven-foot-tall hairy man came staggering out of the building with boxes of Iltech loaded in his arms. He had white bandages under his helmet and wrapped around his arms. There were holes in his ears and lips that looked like they once held stone piercings.
Caden recognized him right away, but Annika was even faster.
“You!” She thrust an accusing finger. “What are you doing down here?”
It was the butcher from Salem. He had survived Caden’s explosion into the building. Caden readied himself to fight, to try and summon up whatever power he had before. When the butcher saw Annika, he froze, and his boxes crashed to the ground.
“You …” he said, his voice trailing off.
Annika balled her hands into fists and her eyes darted around, looking for anything that might serve as a weapon. But before she or Caden could make a move, the butcher crouched to the ground and hid behind Clops.
“That’s them, Daddy!” the butcher yelled. “They’re the ones who hurt me!”
It didn’t feel right, that deep powerful voice blubbering like a child. It disarmed Caden and Annika, but Clops looked even more shocked.
“These little kids are the ones that gave you those bruises?”
“Yes, Daddy!” the butcher cried. “The little girl and her friend too!”
Annika looked stunned. Her mouth was hanging open as words tried to escape.
“But … but it was because you tried to cut my hands off!” she yelled back. That got Clops’s attention. He glared at the butcher and brandished a wrinkled finger.
“Evan! How many times have I told you? Enough with the hand-chopping! These are our valued customers! Not your stupid little toys!”
Evan cowered in fear as Clops yelled at him. Caden had to hold back from laughing.
“But … but Daddy!” he cried.
“Don’t you ‘but Daddy’ me, young man! If I hear about one more hand-chopping incident, then I’m taking away your dvd player. And you know what that means: no more Star Trek!”
“No, Daddy, please!” Evan begged. “Those are my history lessons!”
“Well then, no more cleaving. Do you understand me?”
Evan sniveled. Tears were streaming down his bandaged face, but he managed to nod. Clops shook his head in disappointment.
“I’m sorry about my son,” he said. “He runs the butchery upstairs alone, and without his pops around to watch over him, he can do some pretty stupid things. Is there anything I can do to apologize for the trouble he’s put you through?”
Caden didn’t have to think. As soon as he heard the words, he pulled Deber in front of the desk.
“Can you help my horse?” he asked. The arrow was still sticking out of Deber’s white hide, now a hideous shade of dark swamp-green. It was seeping down her leg, infection making it spasm every few seconds.
“Well, I can’t make any promises for something that bad,” Clops said. “But I’ll do everything I can.”
Caden thanked him and handed Evan the reins. He caressed Deber’s mouth and she licked it. She was going to get better. He knew it.
“And what about you, young lady?” Clops asked Annika. “I know I can never take back the scare my stupid son gave you, but at least maybe you’ll let an old man try.”
Annika grinned like she couldn’t have cared less about almost having her hands chopped off. She pressed a single finger over her smile as she looked around Clops’s building.
“Do you have any weapons?” she asked. Clops guffawed so hard that he knocked a can of metal pellets off his desk all over the ground.
“Little lady,” he said, a smug look crossing his face. “You’re looking at the number one Basement weapons dealer for fifty years running. I’ve got everything from explosives to long range lasers to blades that pop open like popcorn to surprise and sever your enemies. Whatever you want, it’s yours.”
Annika tapped her finger against her lip, thinking for a moment, until she finally spoke. “I want the strongest weapon you have.”
Clops’s eye lit up. “Right to the point, eh? I like your style.” He turned to his son who was holding meekly onto Deber’s reins. “Evan! Give this young woman your magnetizer.”
“But … but Daddy!” he sobbed.
“Do it or I’ll hide the batteries to your Game Boy!”
Evan gave one last whimper then slunk his way over to Annika. He kept twitching in fear, as if expecting to be blasted away again any second.
“I … I’m real sorry about earlier today,” he whimpered. “I didn’t know y-you were a customer of Daddy’s. Here, you can have this. Just please … d-don’t hurt me again.”
He pulled something out of his pocket. It was a black plastic rectangle with buttons all over. It looked similar to Caden’s old “mute” button Iltech from back in the stable. Evan presented it to Annika like a worshiper making an offering to Gotama.
“And the charge packs too, Evan,” Clops added.
“But Daddy …”
“Evan!”
“Okay, okay.”
Evan peeled off what looked like a bracelet from his tree-trunk arm. It was a belt with metallic cylinders attached all around. Annika’s waist was just barely big enough to wear it. As she clicked it into place, she eyed the black rectangle in her hands suspiciously.
“Is this really your strongest weapon?” she asked.
“Sure is!” Clops said. “That’s a one-of-a-kind magnetizer made by yours truly. It may look like a boring old remote control, but it’s even more powerful—and portable—than a magnet-bow.”
“A magnet-bow?” Caden asked.
“Ah, so you’ve never had the pleasure of meeting a magnet weapon before. Here, wait one second.” Clops leaned backward and rummaged through the boxes of Iltech, grumbling to himself. “Now where did I put it? Where is it? Ah! Here we are.”
With a heaving grunt, he slammed a heavy Iltech crossbow onto the desk, sending metal sheets and containers clanging to the floor. It was shaped just like a Holy Police crossbow, but it was red all over with a shiny silver tip. Clops patted the magnet-bow and flashed a smile of metallic teeth.
“These babies shoot out magnetic fields to suck up Iltech. I imagine with an angel weapon inside you, it’d be pretty miserable to get hit by one. Yet another reason to be rid of it and sell it to me!”
Everyone ignored Clops’s offer. Annika was still staring at the magnetizer skeptically.
“I think I’d rather have the magnet-bow.”
“Nonsense!” Clops said. “The bow is just a glorified vacuum. That magnetizer though, it’s got some real juice to it, thanks to the charge packs. Just press power, push a button one to nine, and hit enter. At level one it just gives a little magnetic pulse, but at level nine it doesn’t matter if your target is made of stone or steel, you’re gonna blow it up.”
It was a lot to take in. Clops was using so many words that Caden didn’t understand. But if Annika was confused too, she didn’t show it. Now she was glowing with excitement as she held the magnetizer, inspecting it, admiring it from every angle.
“What do the other buttons do?” she asked.
Clops chuckled. “Absolutely nothing! They’re just to confuse your enemies in case it falls into the wrong hands.” He motioned to the building behind him. “Why don’t you head on inside? There’s a testing area on the second floor. You can take a practice shot or two.”
“Really?” Annika asked.
“Of course.” Clops snapped his fingers at Evan, making him jump. “Evan, you get that horse Upstairs right away. I don’t care if you have to sell off every last figurine in your collection, make sure it gets the best possible care or I’ll see to it that these three are riding you to wherever they’re going.”
“Yes, Daddy,” Evan said. He took one last terrified look at Annika and Caden, then led Deber away by the reins. Caden gave her an encouraging pat on the back. She didn’t whinny. She knew whatever Caden had decided was for the best. But that just made it all the harder when she looked back at him with big eyes and all Caden could do was wave goodbye.
“All right, all right, thanks for the gifts,” Jadice said, reminding everyone that she was there too. “But we’re here because we have some questions, Clops.”
“Well then, you’ve come to the right place,” Clops said with a grin. “Ask away!”
Maybe it was the thrill of all the Iltech around, or finally meeting someone who was offering to answer questions, but Caden blurted out the first thing that was on his mind.
“Is that a real computer?” he asked, pointing to the grimy plastic box on Clops’s desk.
“Sure is,” Clops said with a hint of pride. He turned the screen so Caden could see it. It was just a black screen with green letters and numbers. The glass was cracked and there were lines running down it, but it was still the most beautiful thing Caden had ever seen. It was real, working Iltech.
“How does it work?” Caden asked in an awed whisper. “Where does the electricity come from?”
“We’ve got a couple of tricks,” Clops said. “Plenty of generators left over from the golden age. Plus, you know all those windmills they have Upstairs? Think they’re for grinding grain? Nope. Most of ‘em are for powering us down here.”
“Have you ever been found out?” Annika asked. “Seems like the Church would realize those windmills aren’t being used to make flour.”
“Well if they have found us out, no one’s told me!” Clops said with a chuckle. “Besides, we’ve got security measures in place to cover our tracks if the worst happens.”
“Like what?” Caden asked. Clops gave him his widest grin yet.
“Self-destruction.”
Caden waited for more, but nothing came. Clops laughed and banged on his desk.
“But don’t worry about that. Only one person around here knows the codes for the bombs: me. And I’m not about to blow up our home unless we have no other choice. Although we’ve had some close calls. In fact, one of the closest was just this morning.”
The memories from earlier today flashed in Caden’s mind. “You don’t mean Mr. Stercus and his calculator, do you?”
“Ah, did you know him?” Clops asked. “Yep, that’s it. He just had to babble something about the ‘Iltech black market’ while the whole Church and Police were on stage. Still didn’t deserve what happened to him though.”
Caden found that a little hard to believe. Annika spoke up for him.
“Mr. Stercus wasn’t a good person,” she said. “He had someone throw me in the air just for fun. If anyone deserved to get turned to dust, it was him. He was evil.”
Clops’s smile faded and his face turned serious. “Little lady, I’m a weapons dealer. I’ve sold weapons to people who have done terrible things, and to people who have done great things. You know what the difference is between them?”
“No,” Annika said.
“The great ones were on my side. That’s it. The only difference is that I believed in what they were doing. For someone else though, the terrible people could’ve been their heroes, and my great ones their enemies. Whether someone is ‘good’ or ‘evil’ has nothing to do with what they do. All that matters is what side they’re on, and whether or not it’s the same side as you.
“And your friend Mr. Stercus, maybe he did some bad things. But he probably did some good things too. No one ever wakes up and thinks, ‘I’m going to be evil today.’ Everyone just wants to stay alive and be happy. They want to be the hero in their own story. But, unfortunately, the hero in one story can just as easily be the villain in another.”
Caden didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure if he agreed with everything Clops was saying.
“Yes, yes thank you for the very interesting and totally-not-weird stories,” Jadice interrupted. “But you’re not the one we need to talk to, Clops. Blondie here needs to speak with Watson.”
“Oh, Watson, eh?” Clops jumped back to his smiling self. He rubbed his hands together and raised his eyebrow. “Of course, of course. All it’ll cost you is one angel weapon.”
“Clops …” Jadice groaned.
“Kidding, kidding! But in exchange I don’t suppose I could have a look at that angel weapon of yours, eh? Maybe copy down a few schematics, make some notes?”
“Sure.” Jadice cocked her head toward Clops’s building. “Blondie, you get in there and talk to Watson. Ask him about your angel weapon, whatever you want. He’s still on the top floor, right Clops?”
“Oh yes, yes.” He turned his single eye to Caden. “But young man, Watson is a little fickle. He prefers speaking to machines, so understand this—you must address him the right way or else he’ll get mad. He only gives answers as questions and only hears questions as answers. Got that?”
“What?” Caden asked. Clops laughed and disappeared behind the desk. He was so short that he wasn’t visible until he came around in front.
Caden gasped when he saw him. Clops had no legs, only two tangled columns of Iltech and wires that extended down from his torso and ended in wheels. He probably used to be much taller, perhaps as tall as his massive son, but with his legs gone he only came up to Caden’s shoulders. He had a cane for balance as his wheels rotated automatically, and he rolled right up to Caden.
“You like my wheels, boy?” Clops asked as Caden stared. He poked Caden in the stomach with his cane. “Take the elevator to the tenth floor, and don’t stop anywhere else. You might accidentally blow up something and end up needing wheels of your own.”
Caden didn’t even ask what an “elevator” was. He just nodded. Clops wrapped his cane around Jadice’s back and led her away.
“Now, Jadi, how about we discuss the power source for that angel weapon of yours. I always thought they were Xanders but …”
Their voices trailed off as they disappeared behind a towering pile of Iltech. When it was just Caden and Annika alone, Annika dropped her serious face and let out a yelp of joy.
“Great Gotama, did you see this thing?” she asked, cradling her magnetizer like a newborn. “I can’t believe he just gave it to me. How do I look?” Annika posed with her new weapon and charge belt, glaring at an imaginary enemy. Caden grinned.
“I’d say you look pretty tough.”
“Right? Do you think it really works?”
“Probably. But why are you so excited?”
Annika had a mischievous grin on her face. “Let’s just get your Watson questions over with so I can try this thing out. Come on.”
She grabbed Caden’s hand and led him into the first floor of the weapons building. It was a wide area, but it was so cramped with crates and boxes of Iltech that there was only one narrow path to follow through. It led to an open metal box with a rope pulley on top.
“Is this the elevator?” Caden asked.
“Must be,” Annika said, pulling him inside. There were ten different colored buttons with a number written on each, looking as if someone had hastily scribbled them. The numbers on some of them were much more faded than others. Floors two and ten were barely legible.
“I guess we press the button for ten?” Caden said with a shrug. He pushed it, and the pulley began to squeak and crank as the metal box lurched upward.
“I wish I knew about this Basement place when I lived in Salem,” Annika said. She patted her magnetizer, now in the pocket of her dress. “Getting one of these would’ve come in handy.”
“Maybe it wasn’t around back then,” Caden suggested.
“I don’t think so. Clops said he’s been doing this for fifty years, and didn’t Jadice say she came here as a kid?” Annika paused for a second. “Although, wait a minute. Does that mean Jadice used to live in Salem?”
“I have no idea,” Caden said. He was too distracted by the view to listen. They passed by floor after floor piled high with Iltech. Caden could have spent a lifetime examining any one of them, or even just the elevator they were riding in. He felt happier than if Deber were let loose in the apple orchard.
“I guess we can ask that Watson guy,” Annika said as they finally reached the tenth floor. “I wonder who he is anyway.”
The elevator came to a stop. At first Caden thought there was some mistake. Unlike every other floor, the tenth floor was empty. The white plastic floor and walls were perfectly sterile. The only signs of life were the faint sounds coming through the windows out to the Basement.
But there was one other thing on the other side of the room: a metallic box taller and wider than Caden with a bright blue screen. Not knowing what else to do, Caden and Annika walked toward it.
“There’s no one up here,” Annika said.
Suddenly a face appeared on the blank blue screen. It was made out of small white squares, and the mouth opened up and down choppily as it spoke in a distorted voice.
“What do most people say when they meet Watson, the smartest computer on Earth?”