Pausing at the traffic bridge going over the freeway, Johnny saw Keenan enter the Yacht Club and disappear inside. Finishing his tea, he let Velma chow down on her bento as he mulled over their options for infiltration.
"While our last attempt of going in by the front door worked out fine, I get the feeling we won't get that lucky again," said Johnny.
"We should probably go around the side and see if there's a rear entrance for staff," said Velma between bites.
"I'm not too keen on doing this without an exit strategy, unlike you and your friends I'm not the sneak around and look for clues type," said Johnny.
"Leave the sleuth work to me, watch my back, and I promise not to leave you behind this time," said Velma with a smile as she finished off her tea.
The grass lawn surrounding the yacht club was well-manicured but there was a clear path made by pedestrians who cut across it on the regular. With a quick look to either side, they ran across the parking lot up to the side of the building, unsure if there were any high-altitude cameras watching them. Peeking around the back corner, Johnny saw a camera right above the rear door and reached for his camera.
"Okay, let's see if this works the way I think it does. Mama Told Me Not To Come," said Johnny with a shout as his stand appeared beside him and ran its comb through metal strands of hair, collecting a layer of 'hair gel' which it whipped at the security camera. With an electrical charge, the camera visibly shorted out and Johnny ran over to the door with Velma right behind.
Pulling out her magnifying lens, Velma examined the security keypad and seemed to be able to see the code somehow. Punching in five numbers, the light clicked green, unlocking the door. Once inside, the dim hallway they found themselves in seemed to connect the storeroom with the employee lounge and the kitchens.
Giving the floor to Velma, Johnny let her take the lead for the investigation as he kept watch at the doors. But the kitchens and dining hall just beyond were both empty, which seemed strange for this time of day.
"There are depressions in the floor here, old wheel marks carrying something very heavy. The ones running between the storeroom and kitchen make sense, but what about this room here? Membership records, in the corner by the employee lounge seems a little out of place," said Velma, running her hand along the tracks on the floor by the door. Opening the door, Velma found it to be a relatively small room with only a few cabinets in it, a slight puff of air across her legs gave her a strange feeling that she couldn't quite place.
The sounds of voices from two rooms away caught Johnny's attention so he grabbed Velma and quieted her protest as he closed the door to the records room before going into the storage room. The voices entered the hallway, seeming to have a heated exchange. One was heated, nasal, with a hint of pretension, the other was cool with tension, on the edge of frustration, and was clearly the voice of Chancellor Keenan.
"You're not the only one with dietary requirements, Susan. But everyone else seemed fine with the lunch buffet table we provided. All of this behavior of yours makes you come off as a bit of a prima donna," said Keenan, emphasizing the name Susan with a passive-aggressive tone.
"I think you'll find the proper term is primo uomo, though that was originally used to refer castratos and tenors," said Susan.
"I know that voice, that's Mandark Astronomonov," said Velma, covering her mouth to quiet her voice.
"Who?" asked Johnny.
"Genius teenage prodigy, he's not even eighteen yet and he already has eleven doctorates and has done work for Star Labs and Lexcorp that make my papers seem elementary by comparison," said Velma.
"So, what's he doing here?" asked Johnny.
Pausing for a moment, they both realized that the hallway had grown quiet again, and upon peeking out of the door it was completely empty.
"Now where the devil did those two go?" asked Johnny again, more to the universe than to Velma, as the situation was starting to get on his nerves.
Returning to the membership records doorway, Velma returned her hand to the bottom of the door and seemed to be feeling for the airflow.
"I thought so, this room is under high pressure, its sending a lot more air out than a usual fan or heating system would," said Velma, opening the door and going inside, she yelled out in surprise as she started to fall forward down an open shaft.
Leaping forward, Johnny caught her as his stand grabbed him by the shoulder and braced them by grabbing the doorposts.
"I got ya darling," said Johnny, trying to steady himself despite only having one foot on the ground behind him.
"Jinkies," exclaimed Velma, utterly shocked by the experience of walking through a door into an open elevator shaft.
"Do you see a service ladder or are cables all we have to work with?" asked Johnny.
Quickly looking around the elevator interior, Velma swung to the side and caught hold of a ladder to the right. With her safely on the ladder, Johnny let go and jumped just above her as she started descending as MTMNTC closed the doorway above them.
"I remember your legs being a bit skinnier back in the day," said Velma.
"Oh, I used to skip leg day, bad habit I corrected when I came back from India," said Johnny.
"Was it a good experience for you? Traveling the world I mean," asked Velma.
"It's weird," said Johnny, pausing for a moment to think about it, "Like, I had personal and professional success over in India, but it never felt right. Partly because I felt like it wasn't the right place, but mostly because I realized that those things I thought I wanted weren't actually making me happy."
"And running a dojo/gym in a strip mall does that?" asked Velma.
"After seeing how movies work behind the scenes, I realized how little the actors actually do. So, now I have a little something I can take pride in because I built it up from a couple of empty rooms. In fact, I'm thinking of buying out the sandwich shop next door and turning it into a health food/supplement shop as an extension to my business. Keeping all the employees on of course," said Johnny.
Reaching the top of the elevator, Velma seemed quiet, part of her was focusing on the top of the elevator, but she also seemed to have other things on her mind.
"There," said Velma, disconnecting a wire at the top of the elevator before opening the hatch and dropping inside. Looking up, she saw the elevator camera had gone dead, just as she intended.
Upon joining her inside, Johnny carefully peeked out the door and saw a large underground railway car dug deep into the rock. Looking back up through the elevator hatch, he raised his eyebrow and stopped to wonder just how far down they had gone.
"Over here," whispered Velma from the room outside.
Half a dozen rail cars with a white bubble-domed shape sat waiting to the side of the main rails which ran in two lanes leading out into dark tunnels in different directions.
"Well this has all sorts of 'movie villain lair' vibes to it," said Johnny.
Along the back wall, Velma was examining what seemed to be a map of sorts, which showed the railways running south underneath the bay out to a series of islands.
"Grissom, White, Freeman, and Chaffee. These are the man-made oil drilling islands off Los Angeles in the 60s, and someone built these tunnels connecting all of them underground. To think they built all of this in secret, fascinating," said Velma.
Leaning against a railing, Johnny realized too late how slick the metal would be and nearly fell, but caught himself before hitting the ground. Still engrossed by the map, Velma did not look back at him. Getting to his feet, Johnny took a good look at what he had caught himself with, some sort of metal lever, which he had accidentally bent out of shape.
All around them, the whir of motors began to sound as an overhead crane picked up a track car from storage and load it onto the track, after a moment, the car sped away down the tunnel. And then another car was picked by the crane and the process started over again, faster this time. This time, Velma took notice as the track car sped by her with a gust of wind.
"Johnny, what did you do?" asked Velma.
"I-I-I, you know what, let's just roll with it," said Johnny, picking up Velma and jumping into the fifth track car just as the crane set it down on the track and sped away at frantic speed into the darkness.