Ambush. Part 12

"That was it," Kate whispered almost reverently.

"You wanna push it?" I asked.

"More than anything," she replied.

Kate stuck out the pointer finger on her right hand and firmly pushed the b.u.t.ton. The metal gate dropped down as the sound of something wheezing to life could be heard above the ceiling of the closet. Kate held onto me as I held onto her. There was the sound of clicking and then a small rocking motion.

"Do you . . ."

I didn't have time to finish my thought. It felt like the world had dropped out from under us. The elevator dropped about five inches and then caught itself. The whole thing groaned and continued to move slowly downward. We watched the bathroom floor rise, and in no time it was dark inside the elevator with the only light coming from the dim, glowing b.u.t.ton. We could hear the cables and gears clicking and grinding as we descended. Other than that, the air seemed deathly still.

"This might be a bad idea," Kate said, the gravity of what we were actually doing sinking in. "What if it doesn't go back up?"

"At least we're together," I said, trying to keep things light.

"That's sort of comforting," Kate admitted.

The elevator was dropping slowly. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small flashlight I had brought. I clicked it on and was surprised to see how happy Kate looked. We were blindly traveling into the bowels of the earth, and she was still smiling.

"I like you," I said honestly.

"I know you do," she replied. "But there's a good chance we could be in trouble."

I moved the beam of the flashlight and shined it out the metal gate. We could see the solid stone wall moving upward as we went down. As we pa.s.sed the first floor there was a mark with the number one carved into the stone to indicate how far we had gone.

"We're almost to the bas.e.m.e.nt," I reported.

"Do you think it stops there?"

"Why would it go deeper?"

I kept the light shining out the metal gate. I could see a mark in the stone indicating the bas.e.m.e.nt. We dropped right past it.

"We're going deeper," I said as the gears continued to creak and moan.

There was another mark in the shaft-then another, and another.

"It's going to stop eventually, right?" I asked Kate as if she were an expert on secret elevators and how they operated.

"This is so scary," Kate admitted.

"Don't worry," I said calmly. "Elevators are actually the safest form of travel-even safer than walking."

Kate shook her head.

"What?" I asked. "I read that in a magazine."

"Did that magazine take into account elevators like this?"

"Probably not."

After another thirty seconds, we both began to wonder out loud about whether or not we should press the b.u.t.ton again. Kate thought it might reverse the direction we were going and send us back up to safety. I was worried that it would stop the elevator and that it would never start back up. If that happened we'd be stuck here until we were dead.

I made the mistake of thinking about how deep we were and how closed in the walls were. It made me remarkably uncomfortable. Suddenly there wasn't enough air, and I thought I was going to suffocate or have an anxiety attack.

The elevator began to slow.

The cables and gears ground and squealed in a group effort to stop us softly. With the flashlight shining out the gate, we could see the elevator shaft open up as we came to a stop and the box settled. There were two clicks, and then everything was silent.

"We're here," I said casually. "This floor is sporting goods and appliances."

Kate ignored my joke and bent to grab the gate and lift it up. I helped as much as I could, while still holding the flashlight in my left hand. I shined the light out into the darkness, and Kate put her hand in mine. Together we stepped out of the elevator like two explorers taking the first step into unknown territory.

We were in some sort of small underground cavern. I waved the flashlight around, and everything sparkled. The walls were like mirrors, and there were thick, stubby crystals growing from the wall and ceiling. Even the dirt shimmered. When I shined the light down, the entire place lit up like a ma.s.sive dis...o...b..ll. Kate lifted her right hand to shield her eyes.

"Wow," she said loudly.

"Yeah," I commented. "All we need is some groovy music."

The cavern was breathtaking. It wasn't huge, but it was compact and colorful like a prism that had grown out of control. We walked around the entire s.p.a.ce marveling at how gorgeous and otherworldly it looked. I touched the ground and could see that it was dirt, but it had grains of gla.s.slike sand in it. There were some big pieces of crystal lying on the ground. Like a true gentleman, I picked one up and gave it to Kate.

"It's so heavy," she said in awe.

"Only the heaviest for my girl." The sentiment sounded more romantic in my head.

"You have a way with words," Kate said kindly.

We walked around the room a couple of times, checking it out. There were no other doors or openings or elevators for that matter. Kate described it beautifully by saying, "It's like a gla.s.s house in the belly of the earth."

One of the most surprising things to me about the s.p.a.ce was that it was so empty- there was no furniture or structures.

"Why would there be an elevator coming down here?" I asked Kate.

"Why not?" she replied. "It's spectacular."

Kate was right, of course. I could understand why one of my crazy ancestors might have believed it was a worthwhile endeavor to create a way down here. Me? I saw its potential in a different way.

"Should we get in the elevator and see if we can get back up?" I asked.

"Yes," Kate responded quickly. "It's hard to completely enjoy this place not knowing if we'll be able to get out."

We stepped back into the elevator and turned around to face the gla.s.s cavern. Kate closed her eyes, and I reached out and pushed the glowing b.u.t.ton. The metal gate dropped, and the box began to shake and then move upward.

I shined the light at Kate. She wiped her forehead to show her relief.

"Let's just hope it makes it all the way," I said.

The elevator made it up with no problem. When we were safely in the fifth-floor bathroom, we put the closet shelves back into the elevator and shut the closet door.

"We've got to find a purpose for that s.p.a.ce," Kate insisted. "It's too incredible not to do something with it."

"I agree," I agreed, not having the heart to tell her that I already knew exactly what I was going to do with it and knowing it would break her heart if she knew.

Eventually the desire to pillage was too strong to fight. It was a dark day when the gift of growth became a perversion of nature. No one saw

Chapter 16.

Carry That Weight Only I could be so quick to break a promise. As soon as Kate left, I started my plan in motion. I carefully hiked out of the manor and back behind the garage. I kept a close eye out for Scott or any other person who might wish to stop me.

Going behind the garage, I followed the train track that led to the mountain. Once I got to the mountain, I hiked up the horrible stone stairs to the cave where we had spent so much time with Lizzy. I wouldn't have minded hanging out for a few minutes, but I had things to do. I went back into the deep part of the cave and trimmed off a small piece of one of the plants that was growing there. I took that piece with me and returned to the manor.

By the time I got back to my room, it was dark. I grabbed the stone, used the hidden stairs, and returned to the bathroom on the fifth floor. I took the shelves out and hid them in one of the empty bedrooms next to the bathroom. I had rounded up a dozen flashlights from the garage and stables. I figured I would need to always have one on hand. I put the flashlights in the tub to use as I needed. I took one of the flashlights and wrapped a wire hanger around it. I then hooked the flashlight to the top of the elevator so that I would have a light on all the time. It was perfect. All I had to do was reach up to flip it on or off.

I turned around in the elevator and closed the closet door so that if someone did come looking for me they wouldn't just see an open elevator shaft. I pushed the b.u.t.ton, the metal gate dropped down, and the descent began.

My legs were still tired from the long hike and from climbing the hundreds of stairs to and from the cave, so I was pretty thankful for an elevator.

It was a long, steady ride down.

When I finally reached the gla.s.s cavern, I took the plant I had harvested from the cave and planted it in the center of the room.

I stood up, dusted off my hands, and commanded the plant to grow.

Instantly, the plant began to grow and fill out. In a few seconds it looked like a small bush. Seeing the plant grow made me happy. There was no way what I was doing was completely wrong if even the plants were cooperating.

"Perfect," I said to myself.

I pulled the stone out of my backpack and looked at it carefully. I knew all the danger and destruction it held, but the part of my brain that paid attention to stuff like that was turned off. All I could see was the glory and thrill of raising another dragon. I could envision the strength it would have and the pillaging power it would possess. Sure, I knew that what I really was supposed to do was grow the dragon and then destroy it, seeing as it was the only way to completely heal my family. Deep in my heart, however, I hoped it wouldn't come to that. It had taken everything I had to destroy the dragons I had grown before. I wanted this dragon to be different. I wanted this beast to be n.o.ble and good so that I'd be able to keep him around.

"And maybe oil will gush from my nose," I said, knowing how unlikely that would be.

I hefted the stone a few times, begged it to please produce a dragon that would bring calm and not calamity, and then stared at it closely.

"I shouldn't be doing this," I told myself.

I set the stone in the dirt near the plant. It sunk into the soil a couple of inches, acting as if it weighed a thousand pounds. The plant next to it shook and then shot out leafy shoots into the ground near the stone. The tangled stalks burrowed under the stone and then popped back up and began to wrap the rock up. The plant twisted over and under the rock until there was no sign of stone.

The soil around the plant seemed to relax and exhale-it was as if nature recognized that it finally had its stone. No more stalking me in museums. No more picking on me in the forest. No more attacks from cornstalks or destruction of school property. Nature and the Pillage gift had come together one final time. Now the future and fate of my family was in the hands of destiny.

"Kate's going to kill me," I whispered as I stared at the leafy stone. I picked up the flashlight and shined it around the gla.s.s cavern. Light bounced and bobbed like lasers all around me. "How about we keep this our little secret for a while," I called out.

There was no echo, no reply, and no peace of mind. I had done what I knew was inevitable, and there was no turning back.

I walked back into the elevator and pressed the b.u.t.ton.

Before the family knew it, things began to get hairy. They were quick to reap the rewards and slow to calculate what the pillaging would ultimately produce.

Chapter 17.

Act Naturally Coming to grips with what I had done was remarkably easy for me. Since I had planted the stone, every day for the next week my schedule was pretty much the same. I got up, had breakfast, made sure Millie and Wane saw enough of me to ignore me for the rest of the day, and then headed straight to the elevator.

Each time I went down to the gla.s.s cavern, I would bring buckets of water and hay I had stolen from the stables. My plan was to little by little stock up on the food that the dragon would need once it hatched. The only way to get stuff down there was the elevator, and I couldn't take that much with me each trip. I also hauled a small portable gas generator and a couple of lamps down. The light helped immensely. When the lamps were on, the gla.s.s cavern was spectacular, and if I hadn't been actually standing in it, I don't think I would have believed it was real myself.

The plant around the last stone was growing thick and large, rapidly. It was now as big as a waterbed mattress and it hovered just above the dirt like all the pods had always done. The green closed nest made all sorts of odd noises and sounds, burping and gurgling like an impolite stream and making the room feel a bit like a simmering volcano.

The worst part about what I was doing was having to keep it a secret from Kate. She had come over every afternoon after school, and every time she was here she wanted to take the elevator down and explore the cavern. I had thought of a number of ways to explain what I was doing, but in the end I went with a lie that sounded like this.

"Someone turned the electricity off."

"Who?" she had asked.

"Probably Thomas," I replied. "And now he's asking me questions about closets. He knows something."

"So what should we do?"

I had told her we should lay low for a few weeks, not go anywhere near the elevator. Kate thought that was very responsible and grown-up of me. She also thought it showed great restraint. I thought it was more like rock-solid proof of what a horrible person and liar I was. Still, there was no way I was taking Kate down there. I had a feeling that when she saw the water and the hay and the lights and the generator and the growing nest that she might suspect I hadn't been completely up-front with her.

So Kate had no idea what was happening, and I tried to convince myself that keeping her in the dark was actually helping her. Unfortunately, as I was getting older, I was getting harder and harder to convince.

At the end of the week, Kate came over after school as usual. She spent some time with me down in the main hall helping me do some of the schoolwork I should have been doing during the day. She was an excellent tutor and made me wish I was bad at everything just so she could slowly explain it to me. I loved the way she talked in almost a whisper as if we were in a library instead of the manor.

"Do you understand?" she asked.

"I think so," I replied. "So Washington, DC, isn't in the state of Washington."

"Right," she smiled.

"You learn something new every day," I said happily.

"Of course, most people learn that on a day when they're in second grade," she pointed out.

"My childhood wasn't easy," I said defensively.