The closer we get to the Mercurio Institute, the more I remember visiting when I was a boy. I recall science labs filled with signs and symbols my father had to explain to me. It was like a giant playground for me at the time. I doubt it will be like that now.
As I drive, I trust my memory and intuition, letting it guide me through the streets of Corning, through the center of town where I had lunch with my father so long ago, and along Powderhouse Road until a facility comes into view.
I pull off the road and study it from a distance.
There is a high fence around it that did not exist back then, and a military-style guardhouse at the entrance where cars must stop to gain access. The one building I remember has grown into three. I note people moving along paved walkways. A small placard next to a doorway reads MERCURIO INSTITUTE with no other identifying information.
“We’re going inside, right?” Tanya asks.
She’s kneeling in the backseat, looking over my shoulder at the view out the front window.
“Howard and I are.”
“You’ll stay here on watch.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“In the movies, the one on watch always gets in trouble.”
“That’s true,” Howard says. “I’ve seen those movies, too.”
“What are you talking about?” I say.
“You know how it is,” Tanya says. “Someone from the group keeps watch while the others break into the place. It seems like the plan is working until the one on watch gets knocked out with a rifle butt.”
“That’s in the movies, not reality,” I say.
“How do you know it’s not reality?” she says.
I glance over my shoulder at Tanya. She stares back at me, stubborn, her jaw set tight. For a moment she seems older than her years. Then she makes a silly face and I remember how young she is. Maybe just a couple of years younger than me, but still, she’s a kid, and I am—
“So can I come?” she says.
It could be beneficial to have her with us. If we are discovered inside, two boys alone are more threatening than two boys with a girl. And the thought of all three of us together gives me an idea about how we might get in.
“Come on,” Tanya says. “You don’t want me to get knocked out by a rifle butt, do you? My nana paid a lot of money for Invisalign braces. I don’t want these beauties to get messed up.”
She smiles wide, revealing perfect teeth.
“Okay,” I say. “You can come.”
“I told you he’d let me,” she says to Howard, like she planned it all along.