“I do,” Eric said. “I was a lifeguard years ago, and I’ve kept it up.”
“I don’t know if I can swim,” Samantha said.
“I can,” Rachel said. “Do you think I let Eric run off to the Y without me?”
Wil nodded. “Then that’s that. You two go in this way. I have a feeling you won’t get caught, since Lorraine managed to get this far without being seen.”
“Maybe it’s been so long since the tunnel was in use that they forgot about it,” Samantha suggested.
“I hope you’re right,” Wil said. “But it won’t be forgotten for long. We’d better get moving.”
They agreed on a rendezvous point, then went their separate ways. Eric and Rachel stripped down to their underclothes, using their belts to tie the bundles of their clothing to their backs. With a deep breath, they both plunged into the water.
52
FROM ALL OUTWARD appearances, Shoaling Aeronautics was not any different from any other factory. It was housed in a long brick-face building with a row of windows along each of its two stories. Armed with the phoney ID’s faxed to them by Wil’s former client, Wil and Samantha approached the front gate. Samantha’s heart beat so hard that she swore the man could hear it as he handed her a clearance badge. They were told to wear the badges throughout the building and to return them on their way out. They went inside, where they were greeted by a man named Wesley Kane.
“You’ll only be allowed in certain areas,” he said. “Of course, you understand that in a place like this we do some very . . . specialized work.”
“I’ll bet you do,” Wil mumbled.
Kane looked at Wil strangely. Then he led the two down the hallway. As they walked, Samantha wondered if the children really were somewhere in here. Did Wil have some kind of plan?
They entered a room, where another guard took a look at their badges. Samantha noted a green border around the ones she and Wil wore, and immediately connected it to the green trim around the door. She wondered if this meant they would enter only rooms with green doors.
Even though Wil and Samantha were authorized, everyone in the room hunched over his or her work to try to hide it. Some people actually stopped working, pushing parts aside and busying themselves with odd jobs like sorting nuts and bolts.
“Why do the people in these places always stop work when I arrive?” Wil asked, as if he’d been doing this for years. “If I can’t see what they’re doing, I don’t know if they’re working within industry standards for job safety.”
Kane gave an apologetic shrug.
“I guess you do the best you can,” he said.
He led Wil and Samantha through the room. Wil pointed out a few things that needed change, and jotted some notes. His former client had even gone so far as to send him the proper blank forms.
At last the tour came to an end. Samantha felt disappointed as they headed toward the front of the building. She hoped Rachel and Eric had gotten through the secret tunnel and that they’d found out more than she and Wil had. As far as she was concerned, this whole episode was a waste of time.
But Wil had a surprise in store. Although there were guards in the building, they weren’t everywhere. As soon as the three of them were alone, he pulled out a gun from beneath his jacket, as smoothly as a magician produces a scarf. Kane was so stunned that he stood staring at the gun barrel, blubbering.
“Not a word,” Wil said. He tossed his head to the side to indicate an unoccupied room, a supply closet he had “inspected” just moments before.
Kane moved inside. Samantha shut the door behind them. If her heart had been pounding loudly when they first entered the factory, it was ready to burst now.
“Who are you?” Kane demanded.
Wil didn’t say a word to him. He waved the gun at some rubber tubing and instructed Samantha to tie Kane up. With shaking hands she did so, in knots so tight it would take scissors to open them. Then she gagged him with packing tape.
Wil removed his ID badge and pulled it out of its green-rimmed holder. He had noticed other badges on the shelf, and chose the one with the most colors. Samantha did the same. They now had access to any part of the building.
“Come on,” Wil said. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
Wil took Samantha by the hand, and the two hurried down the hall. They reached a door marked “STAIRS” and entered a darkened stairwell. Wil finally tucked his gun back into its holster.
“I didn’t know you had that with you,” she said.
“Like I said,” Wil replied, “sometimes I need it.”
He looked down the stairwell.