Kadic Cafeteria, 12:00 NOON
They confronted him about it at lunch. Just beforehand, Ulrich instructed Odd, Jeremie, and Yumi how they were to go about it. "Remember, too obvious and he'll clam up. Be subtle."
"So, Eric, where did you get sewer goop on your shoes from?" Odd said brightly as they sat around Eric. Ulrich winced and clutched his forehead.
"From a sewer, of course. Where else?" Eric answered, deadpan.
"Feel like a more definitive answer?" Jeremie asked.
"Yeah, we know it wasn't 'jet lag' that made you late," Yumi added.
"Weeell..." Eric deliberated. "You're half right. It was the jet lag that made me oversleep, but it was technically Nicholas who made me miss math."
"I should have guessed," Ulrich said. "Nicholas doesn't have the best sense of humor."
"But you seem to have all your limbs, unless those are just remarkable prosthetics," Yumi added. "So I'm going to guess that you avoided him somehow."
Eric's eyes glowed. "Did I ever."
"Sounds like there's a story here," Odd chirped. "Wanna share it?"
Eric looked around the lunch room for eavesdroppers. "Can you keep a secret?"
"So there's a secret passage from Kadic to the old factory?" Yumi asked.
"And you have to go through the sewers to get there?" Odd added.
"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up," Eric confirmed. "Now, if we're going to get down from that platform I told you about, we're going to need rope."
"Um, are you sure there's no ground floor entrance?" Jeremie queried nervously.
"Aw, you scared of heights, Jeremie?" Odd mocked.
"Yes," Jeremie said gloomily, his face turning an ashen shade.
"Well, you could check the sewers for another way in," Odd said.
"Odd, do you have a sewer hang-up?" Yumi asked.
"There's rope in the garden shed," Ulrich interrupted. "I saw it during gym with Jim."
"So there's the rope," Eric said. "I say we get into the shed after dark and bring it to the factory."
Ulrich pointed out the plan's flaws. "First, the shed's locked. Second, it took you all period to get there and back. We'll have to be faster."
"Got a skateboard?" Eric asked. Odd and Ulrich nodded.
"I've...got a scooter," Jeremie said hesitantly, as if confessing to a crime.
"And I can get my hands on a skateboard," Yumi said.
"Perfect," Eric said.
"And the lock?" Ulrich asked.
"You're persistent, aren't you?" Odd stated.
"I'm sure one of us can pick a lock," Eric said. "We're smart, right? How hard can it be?"
"I can't believe this is so freakin' hard," Eric said. "They make it look so easy in the movies." A pile of broken paper clips and hair pins next to him attested to the lock's strength.
"You want me to try?" Eric challenged. "This baby's a Krom. No way you're getting into that with a few wiggles and twists—"
Ulrich snatched the pin from Eric, twisted it deftly, and the door popped open. "You were saying?" he asked pointedly. For once in his life, Eric was speechless. Ulrich darted inside and began rummaging around for the rope. "This had better be worth it," he warned Eric. "I don't feel like getting expelled over some abandoned factory."
"As they say Down Under, no worries, mate," Eric said. "All we have to do is get into the sewers."
"Isn't the passage inside?" Odd asked.
"Yeah. Why?"
"The building's locked. There's no way to get there!" Odd exclaimed.
"Au contraire, mes amis," Eric said. "There's a conveniently placed manhole in the park on campus. Jeremie and Yumi are waiting for us there," he continued. "Any further objections?"
"I'm all out," Odd said.
"Good," Ulrich said. "Now let's get out of here before Jim comes by."
Eric pulled and tugged on the iron manhole cover, but to no avail. Panting, he rested his tired arms for a moment. "It's stuck pretty tight."
"Let me try," Ulrich offered. With one swift heave, he lifted the cover and set it next to the hole.
"I was getting there," Eric huffed.
"Mm-hmm. 'Course you were," Ulrich said, declining to comment further. Eric seethed under his breath, but decided to let the matter drop (a rare occurrence). Yumi climbed down the rusty ladder into the depths, reaching the slime-encrusted platform at the bottom. Jeremie tossed her the flashlight, and she flicked it on. In the pale, wan light, she could see the walls dripping with fetid scum of the ages, and the aroma rising from the swift running current was indescribable. After the skateboards and Jeremie's scooter were safely lowered down, Eric pulled aside a piece of corrugated metal hiding a Schwinn bicycle. The gleaming blue and silver paint stood out in the flashlight's circle of brightness.
"You've got a bike?" Odd asked rather dumbly.
Eric rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I got a bike down here through the janitor's closet, Odd. I don't know where it came from, but as far as I can see, its owner's not coming back for it any time soon, so..." he trailed off, his meaning implicit.
"Well, let's get this over with," Ulrich muttered.
"Have a little faith, Ulrich," Eric said, adopting a hurt expression. "Have I ever led you wrong in the past?"
"What past?" he asked.
"Exactly, never. Let's move, people."
They finally reached the factory entrance at quarter of one. Eric turned to his followers. "Here's hte plan. There's no inner brace structure on this support beam running from here to the other side. So, we tie a loose slipknot at this end, using half the rope, lower the other half to the floor, and one of us climbs down. Then the people on the platform tighten the knot so the rope doesn't slide on the beam. Sound good?"
Yumi eyed Eric a bit nervously. "Who gets to slide down the unstable rope?"
"Since this is all my crazy scheme, I guess I 'volunteer,'" Eric said. Ah, well. Could be worse. If it was a tree this tall back home, I'd have to worry about fisher cats."
Odd and Jeremie exchanged puzzled glances at Eric's last remark as he began tying the knot. "Looks stable enough," Ulrich proclaimed. "All the same, be careful."
"Thanks," Eric said. He looped the rope through his belt, cinching it tight so that it would provide friction.
"So, is that supposed to slow your descent?" Jeremie asked, trying vainly to avoid thinking about how high they were.
Eric grinned crazily, his eyes twinkling. "'Descent' is a much gentler term than I would have used." He stood at the edge of the platform. "Bon voyage," he said, stepping backwards onto thin air. He quickly disappeared from sight, but they could hear him "Agh...rope burn!" He tumbled to the wide expansive floor, standing up and pulling the rope towards the center of the beam. "All right, tighten it up now!" With the rope secure, all of the others, with the exception of Jeremie, were able to clamber down to the floor.
"I don't smell any ozone," Yumi said, always practical.
"Me, neither," Ulrich said.
"Me, three," Odd added, never one to miss a chance at immaturity.
Eric sighed. "Oh, ye of little faith. Look, there's a freight elevator right there. I know that's where I would put anything big and secret." He pressed the large red button on the exterior, causing the door to rise. Inside was an electronic console, which lit up automatically and requested a password. "Damn," Eric said. "It wants a password to go down."
"Why is there a sticky pad in here?" Odd asked.
Eric turned to him. "Where? Let me see it." He grabbed the pad out of Odd's hands. The top sheet had been ripped off, but he could see the faint indentations from writing of the upper sheet. "Odd, give me a pencil." Wordlessly, Odd handed him one, and Eric rubbed furiously on the blank sticky. Words began to appear in reverse, white on black. They formed a column, with all but the last one crossed out. "'Kadic,'" Eric read. "Curiouser and curiouser." He typed in the code, and the display dimmed for a moment, then, the door dropped in front of them and they began to descend.
