Chapter 28

Bolivia

The last few days had been some of the most hopeful Penny had experienced since their mission had begun.

When Bolt had come up to her, scratched and bruised, his nose bloody from a deep scratch on it, she had only just woken from her nap on the bench. She had no idea what had happened, and had initially been fearful that bolt was more seriously hurt than he seemed to show. But aside from the scratches on his nose, he seemed fine. She was even more confused when he had dropped a newspaper in front of her, seemingly pushing her to read it. After staring at him for a full minute, wondering if he was ill or something, she finally complied.

When she saw the article on Calico's supercomputer, and the revelation of exactly what the Bolivia facility was, and where it was, Penny was shocked. Here, in the newspaper, the damn newspaper, was the answer! It was right in front of her this whole time! And Bolt, of all creatures, had found it! This was it, she had finally found where Calico was hiding...and where he was keeping Richard! She had a lead, and she took it!

That very afternoon, Penny and Bolt had taken off, heading straight for Mexico. But before she had gotten very far, she had realised several dangers. The first was that, quite simply, it was too obvious, and Penny had been the victim of enough traps for a lifetime. She was going to have to be extremely careful...which meant no planes. If Calico had been able to use Highton street cameras to try and stop her escaping, he probably had to ability to monitor flights into Mexico. She finally decided to go on foot, which was not going to be that bad, anyway. Pentland beach was not that far from the border, being on the southern coast of the States. And with her scooter having some sort of self-renewable power source, and with Bolt's powers, they could make good time anyway. On top of that, she also realised that there would almost certainly be traps and ambushes waiting for her at the Bolivia facility...if she wanted to get in, she was going to have to approach this in a new, unexpected way.

But over the course of the trip, Penny could not help but notice that Bolt was acting strangely. He seemed down, as if he was carrying some sort of deep-seated regret, a thought which was only enhanced by the fact that Bolt had an odd tendency to keep looking back, particularly over the first day since they left Pentland Beach. It worried Penny for no other reason than, quite simply, Bolt had never acted this way before. He seemed to always run around with the idea that his place was firmly by her side, but now...it seemed that he had left something behind at the beach. But, after a couple of days, as they crossed the border into Mexico, Bolt seemed to throw off his regret, and was soon back to his normal, power-enhanced self, although Penny still remained curious as to what had caused Bolt to have second thoughts. But by the time they found the location of the Bolivia, deep in a rainforest on the northern stretches of Mexico, Penny had forgotten about it, as it seemed, Bolt had as well.

And now here she was, running with Bolt alongside a dirt track cut into the rainforest, knowing she was closing in on the Bolivia facility. It had taken her a lot of time and effort to figure out where this place was, since Calico guarded its location so secretly, even if people knew it was somewhere in Mexico, but here, now, it all seemed worth it. She was close...really close, to finding her dad, she could feel it. All it would take was one last test, one last effort, and they would be back together, at last able to run and hide, Calico's dream never to be fulfilled.

Penny snapped her mind back to the present as she ran through the dense foliage beside the dirt road through the forest, Bolt right beside her, as always. She stayed close enough to the road so that she could follow it without getting lost, but far enough away so that any vehicles passing along it, or guards watching it, would not notice her. She slowed as she saw lights up ahead, bright against the evening twilight, a gloom that was enhanced by the dense forest canopy, which left the forest floor covered in a dense darkness, one that Penny struggled to see through. But then that was the point, she constantly reminded herself. If she was struggling to see, the guards must be having just as much trouble as she was.

She continued through the gloom, until finally she got close enough to the source of the bright lights to see what was causing it. She stopped, using a large, leafy bush to conceal herself, before peering through it, smiling slyly to herself when she finally beheld Calico's Bolivia facility.

She had found it!

As far as Penny could see, the entire facility was made up of one small, squat building, which was made entirely of concrete, and about the size of an oversized garage. It was nothing more than a security checkpoint, where any people and vehicles entering the facility were forced to go through some serious inspections before being allowed in. The inside of the building was not visible to Penny, lost in a bright haze of white artificial light. It was impossible to tell what was going on, but one fact perplexed Penny: This facility was meant to house the world's most advanced super-computer, and yet, judging by the outer size of the building, it did not look big enough to fir any more than two rig trucks in it, let alone a super-sized, super-advanced computer. Something definitely was not right.

Then, as Penny watched, a small truck rumbled past Penny's secluded hiding spot, rolling to a stop at the security checkpoint. Penny watch as the security team guarding the base did a very thorough inspection of the truck. Two men searched the cabin of the truck, and two more went to the back to search the storage container. Two more, still, walked around the truck, using mirrors mounted on poles to inspect the undercarriage of the truck, looking for any anomalies of stowaways. After those two had circled the truck, a third man actually got down on his hands and knees, and manually inspected the undercarriage. Only when the security guards, all of whom were equipped with Calico's black full-body suits, and wielding bulky, dangerous-looking guns in their hands, were completely certain that the truck was what it said it was, did they let it into the facility itself. Penny watched in dissapointment as she saw the truck rumble on into the massive doorway. There was absolutely no way, given the exceptionally thorough security here, that she was going to get in that way. And since this was the only building, this was the only entrance. Penny's hopes plummeted as the realisation hit her.

It had all been too obvious, she realised. She could see it now, Calico had used the public announcement of his super-computer as a lure, to try and get Penny to try and sneak into the facility, where the enhanced security would most certainly nab her. Penny's previous encounter with traps and ambushes had given her the caution that had saved her from walking into this trap, but at the same time, it allowed her to see that her situation was hopeless...there was simply no way into the facility.

But then, as Penny continued to watch the truck as it entered the facility, her mouth fell open. The truck was descending into the floor as it rolled on forward! It took Penny all of two seconds to figure it out...this building was not the facility, it was simply an entryway, a ramp that lead underground...the facility - the entire facility - was actually hidden beneath her own two feet! For a quick moment, Penny considered the possibility that there was a second entrance, another way into the facility, but the thought was obliterated almost as soon as it had struck her. There had been no forks in this road...this was the one, sole entrance...and it was impenetrable.

Sighing Penny, tried to think...tried to find some weakness, some hole in their security system, a way to sneak past them and get into the facility. But as darkness began to completely engulf her and the facility, the last of the twilight fading away, Penny could come up with no answer. In desperation she turned back to Bolt. "Okay, boy...you have any ideas, or..." she stopped.

Bolt was gone.

Penny looked wildly around her. There had been no soft paw steps, no rustling of bushes...nothing, he had simply vanished, disappearing while she had been focusing on the truck entering the facility. She wanted to call out for him, but she knew that doing so would give away her position to all the guards at the entrance to the facility, which frustrated her even more. The situation was taking one bad turn after another. First, the facility she needed to sneak into was proving impenetrable, now Bolt had had run off, and she could not call after him! All she could do was slowly slip away from her position, and go looking for him, silently praying that she would find him quickly.

She slowly snuck around the side of the facility entrance, pushing through the dense shrubbery, moving faster as she moved further away from the security checkpoint, finally beginning to whisper loudly after Bolt, once she was certain that she could do so without the guards hearing her. Her calls and frantic searching went unanswered, and two minutes later, Penny was really starting to worry. What if he had been found? What if he...

She froze, listening intently. She thought she had just heard something, but she could not be sure what it was. "Bolt?" she called softly, praying she would be answered by one of the familiar calls of her beloved companion. Silence greeted her, her heart sinking...then she heard a soft whine.

If was a very low sound, Penny could barely pick it up. But she had, and in an instant, she was rushing towards the sound, abandoning any thoughts of moving covertly, just wanting to get back to her friend's side as soon as she could. She pushed past trees and through bushes in desperation as she heard another whine, this time much closer, before eventually rounding one final tree...and finally reuniting with Bolt.

But Penny forgot about her worry for Bolt the very next second...what the Shepherd had found grabbed her attention. Whatever Bolt's reasons for leaving Penny's side, he had stumbled across the top of some sort of ventilation shaft, a large, round metal manhole sticking up a foot out of the ground. It was obviously part of some sort of air flow system, which ensured that sufficient supplies of air flowed constantly through the sealed underground facility. It the only air source was the main entrance, the far extremities of the facility would fast run out of breathable air, and become death traps for anyone trying to enter them.

But Penny did not think of any of this, rather she just stared at the manhole in astounded shock. This was it...this was her way in! The thick, strong metal grating welded to the top of the manhole did not disturb Penny in the slightest. It was for exactly these sort of situations that her father had enhanced Bolt. She may worry about Bolt, but that did not mean that she would not use his abilities if the situation called for them. She looked at Bolt, amazed at his hunting skills. "Okay, boy, you found our way in, now...you think you can open it up?"

Bolt looked up at her, taking in her words for a few seconds. He still did not understand English completely, and since none of his powers had shown any signs of strengthening since the first three days on their adventure, Penny doubted that they would increase any more. He had reached his limit...his powers had peaked. But after a brief paused, he smiled up at Penny, as if he had understood, and had expected a bigger challenge. He moved up to the grating covering the manhole, taking one look at the tight mesh of inch-thick steel bars, before raising his head...and slamming it down hard against the grating with all his force.

The steel bars never stood a chance. The grating simply bent inwards at the impact with a loud clang, steel bars bending and breaking under the force of Bolt's head butt. The end result was that most of the bars had split in two and peeled away from the point where Bolt had struck them, leaving a two-foot-wide gap in the grate...easily enough for both him and Penny to slip through.

But as Penny looked down through the new hole, she realised that there was another problem; the ventilation shaft fell away into inky blackness, with no way of telling how deep the shaft was. Penny quickly pulled a flash light out of her bag, flicked it on, and pointed it down the shaft. But that only served to increase her trepidation; even the flash light's beam, which was quite powerful, simply lit up the steel walls of the shaft until they all faded into darkness once more. The shaft was deep...and sheer. Penny could not hope to climb down it herself.

Bolt, on the other hand, seemed to have an idea. He leapt up onto the remains of the grating, looking down the shaft casually, seeming to inspect it for a way down, looking for some sort of way to get down himself. Then, completely without warning, catching Penny by surprise, he leaned through the hole in the grating, and struck the steel side of the shaft with his paw. With a loud clang, his paw hit the side of the shaft with such force that he actually left a massive dent in the sheer wall.

Penny just watch the dog, curious, as he did this a few more times, each time creating deep dents in the side of the shaft. Once Bolt had created four such dents, he then pulled his paw back up, dipping his head down the shaft, inspecting his efforts, seemingly considering something. Penny realised what it was a few seconds later. "Wha...oh, no! Bolt, stop!"

But Bolt was one step ahead of her. Before Penny could stop him, he jumped down the shaft, disappearing completely down. Penny, powerless to do anything, simply stared at the point where Bolt had fallen, wondering what had come over him that would make him...

CLANG!

The massive, reverberating sound made Penny jump violently, looking wildly around herself, checking to see if anyone else had heard the loud noise. When no guards come rushing in her direction, she breathed a mild sigh of relief, before looking down the shaft, to behold a bizarre and amazing sight. There, a few feet below the rim of the shaft, was Bolt, all four legs splayed wide, his paws jammed into freshly-made dents in the shaft, held up by nothing more than the makeshift footholds, and his own strength. "Okay, wow!" Penny breathed. Of all the interesting uses Bolt had found for his powers, this was by far the most impressive...not to mention the strangest. But, in doing so, he had given himself a way down, a way to infiltrate the Bolivia facility...a way that no-one inside the company could have anticipated.

But how was she supposed to get down herself? Bolt, with his enhanced strength, would have no problems punching a ladder for himself all the way down, but Penny seriously doubted she could keep her grip on the makeshift ladder for long. And all it would take was one fall...

She stopped as Bolt yapped up at her expectantly. He had not moved, but remained where he was, looking up at Penny, as if expecting her to do something. "What?" she asked, looking at him. "What is it, boy? What do you want me to..." Her voice trailed off as she realised what Bolt's plan was. "Aw, no way!"

Bolt was waiting for her - a human - to climb onto his back! He intended to carry her all the way down the shaft! At first glance, the plan seemed absolutely crazy. Penny may be small, but she wasn't exactly light, particularly considering Bolt's size. Plus, the pack on her back, with all the gear in it, only served to make her heavier. But then, as Penny thought about it, Penny had seen Bolt do some incredible things with his powers...maybe it was possible. "You...you're sure, boy?" she asked tentatively, worried. If her weight was too much, the consequences could be very bad...for both of them.

But Bolt seemed quite certain of his abilities. So, very carefully, Penny clambered up onto the remains of the vent grating, looking down at Bolt's waiting back, her mind going haywire. Oh, this is crazy! This is absolutely nuts! But even so, she knew, as Bolt did, that it was the only way, and as such, she gingerly lowered herself down the shaft, very slowly and carefully placing one foot on Bolt's dirt-smeared back, testing her weight. When Bolt showed no signs of discomfort, she very slowly lowered her full weight down, until she finally let go of the shaft sides, and put her full weight onto Bolt's back. She immediately began to worry when Bolt's legs began to shake with the effort, but after a few moments, it subsided, and - very slowly and deliberately - Bolt started climbing down the shaft, punching footholds into the shaft, Penny riding on his back, the two of them slowly descending into Calico Technology's Bolivia facility...and the final hiding place of Calico and Richard.