DESTROYING THE transmitter made the building and tank materialize. Rising from a concrete base at least fifty feet off the ground, the tank was a smooth cylinder in theory, but now it was a silver can of beans where someone shot the top off. The building was two stories high and seemed to be made completely out of solid steel. There were no doors, no rivets, to anything. Just a smooth, enormous block of metal. We walked around it, looking for some opening or even a space we could try to break open. Nothing.

“Great, another dead end,” Johnny said. “We were so close.”

He knocked his head against one of the walls in frustration. It made a loud echoing noise. Johnny continued to knock his head against the wall. I walked over and tried to stop him. After a moment I was able to get him to relent. “Did anyone else hear that?” Johnny asked.

“Hear what, the drum solo with your forehead? Alice said.

“No,” Johnny said seriously. “The voice.” He grabbed me and Alice by the back of our necks and pressed our heads to the wall. The minute my head touched the metal I heard something. It was low. Barely audible. But definitely a voice. Very flat. Like a robot trying to say something.

“Quiet,” I said. “Put your head on the wall. Maybe together we can make it out.”We all stood leaning against it, quiet, listening for some mysterious person. As each person put their head on the wall it grew louder. Finally, the voice came through clearly. It was telling us to do something. It was telling us to open the building. Tape Deck pulled out a notepad and started scribbling down instructions. I kept hearing the word wind over and over again. Something about strong force over the eye and wind. When Tape Deck was done I grabbed her notepad. It said nothing about eyes or wind.

“Do you think he’s telling us different things? Mine was about the wind,” I said.“Mine was about some device I needed to control,” Tape Deck said.

“I didn’t hear anything,” said Alice.

“Neither did I,” said Marcus.

“I’m supposed to turn water into a high potency alcohol. He gave me a very specific formula,” Johnny said. “It’s like whoever it is can read our powers.” Hamilton just stood in the corner, not suggesting anything. I wanted to know what the voice said to him.

Tape Deck looked down at her notes and measured out an exact distance down one of the lengths of the building. She stopped, turned, and placed her hands against it. Her hands sunk a little into the wall and a door appeared. There was a red mechanical eye in the center of the door. Below the eye was the phrase ‘Retina Scan.’

“Who’s supposed to do what?” Kurt said. “I don’t have anything until Johnny does his water thing.”

“I think it might be me,” I said. “Mine said something about an eye.”

“And mine didn’t?” Hamilton asked. “Nah, I’m just playin’. Pretty sure it’s your call, Sarah.”

I looked at the eye. It was scanning us. I told everyone to step back and concentrated my energy on it. I was able to use the wind to move the eye. I blew a small concentrated gust and the eye started moving, faster and faster. I kept my attention focused, until suddenly, the eye blinked, once, twice, three times, then uncontrollably. Finally it got very wide with the pupil dilated so the entire circle was red, and it closed for good. A door slid open revealing another entrance, with a keypad, a screen, and a small dial.

“I guess my work is done,” I said. “Your turn.”

Johnny, Kurt, and Tape Deck walked up to the new challenge. Tape Deck started punching something into the keypad. She was repeating the same pattern of numbers over and over again. Hamilton sent one paintball zooming over to it, but nothing happened.“Long password?” Johnny asked.

“Override code, I think,” she said, continuing to press the numbers. She was counting quietly to herself, repeating the number sequence; and then at the end the number of sequences that she completed. When she got to one hundred she pressed the nine key with a flourish and the keypad popped open, revealing an intricate cabin with chips, drives, wires, circuit boards, and small fans.

Johnny squinted and looked down, examining the panel. He moved his head slowly around, trying to take in every section of the computer guts like they were a map he could read. He is not much of an engineer or scientist, unless tuning a guitar counts so I was confused by his actions.

“There it is, just like the voice said.” Johnny pulled up a small red wire soldered into a small circuit board in the shape of a compass. He handed it to Tape Deck who held it delicately in her hand, like she was defusing a bomb, and put an eyedropper’s worth of water in Johnny’s hand.

Johnny’s face contorted, turned red, and his alcometer started to blink. Normally it took at least converting a bottle of water to set that off, so whatever he was up to, it was noxious. He slowly slid the droplet of water into Kurt’s hand. Johnny popped a pill settling his alcometer—while Kurt cupped his fist and squeezed. After a minute of intense concentration he took the water, which now resembled glassy gum with swirls of white in it, and pressed it onto the circuit board. Tape Deck pushed the substance around with the end of her glasses until it was in position. Johnny pulled out his Zippo, flicked it open, and the other two stood back. He set the flame to low, and slowly, with his arm outstretched, brought the lighter down into the compartment.

WHOOSSHHH!

An enormous fireball shot up. Its flame was blue and it was as tall as my brother. Johnny reeled backward. The air smelled of singed hair. He patted his face to make sure he was okay and Alice ran over to him. By the time she got there, the door was sliding open, revealing the secret interior to the mysterious building. Hamilton shot his paintballs at it, creating a beautiful frame.

Marcus pulled out his phone and started filming.