“I’m sorry,” she apologized, “but you know what I mean. The person we’re dealing with doesn’t seem to be the same Mouse who led the League – not if he’s attacking us and breaking into the Vault.”
“And I still say he wouldn’t do that without a reason.”
“You’re also saying he wouldn’t leave without his bug-out bag, and yet…”
She trailed off, gesturing towards the backpack.
“There is another possible explanation,” I stated.
Electra gave me an inquisitive look. “Like what?”
“Maybe he didn’t go anywhere,” I said.
Chapter 40
Comically, we spent a few minutes shouting for Mouse to come out. Of course, he never responded or appeared.
“Do you honestly think he’s hiding somewhere nearby?” Electra finally asked.
“Anything’s possible,” I confessed with a shrug. “That said, ‘nearby’ doesn’t necessarily mean within shouting distance.”
“But he didn’t go far enough to need his bug-out bag.”
“Not according to the video,” I replied. As I spoke, a thought occurred to me. Brow crinkled, I walked over to the monitor that had turned on the day before. It was dark – still shut down.
Electra, who had followed me, asked, “What are you thinking?”
“I made an assumption about the video file that was flat-out wrong yesterday. It just occurred to me that maybe I overlooked something else, but the machine isn’t turning on this time.”
“So what turned it on yesterday? Did one of us inadvertently flip a power switch?”
I shrugged. “Who knows? Almost everything in here was designed and built by Mouse from scratch. It may not necessarily conform or operate in a way we expect.”
“So what now?”
“Well, I guess we–”
I was cut off by the sound of my phone ringing. Pulling it out, I saw that it was Alpha Prime calling.
“Hey,” I said upon answering. “Where are you?”
“Outside the gate,” he answered.
“Okay, we’ll be there in a sec,” I stated before hanging up. I then told Electra, “Alpha Prime’s waiting on us. We’ll have to pick this up later.”
She gave me a nod and I teleported us, taking us just outside the gate of the embassy. As expected, Alpha Prime was there, sitting in the driver’s seat of the SUV. To my surprise, however, there was someone in the front passenger seat as well: Smokey.
“Oh, man – I’m sorry,” I began apologizing upon seeing him. “I completely forgot–”
“Don’t worry about it,” Smokey interjected, opening the door and stepping out. “I stayed an extra night like we talked about, hung out all day yesterday, and then Vestibule volunteered to take me home.”
“And then I found him wandering around the halls of HQ,” my father added. “Didn’t think it would hurt to have an extra pair of hands on deck.”
I frowned but didn’t immediately comment on my father’s statement, while Smokey and Electra exchanged greetings. Following this, Smokey opened the rear door of the SUV, obviously planning to relinquish the front seat to me.
“Hey,” I suddenly said to him, “why don’t you keep riding in front?”
He gave me an odd look, then glanced at Electra. Suddenly a light bulb seemed to come on in his mind.
“Oh yeah,” he blurted out as he gave the two of us a sly look. “Sure.”
With that, he quickly got back into the front seat while Electra and I got into the back. A minute later, we were on the road.
Electra immediately began asking Smokey about his trip to the West Coast. I used the opportunity to open a telepathic channel to my father.
<You sure this is smart?> I asked. <Bringing Smokey along on this?>
<You don’t think he can handle it?> Alpha Prime shot back.
<It’s not about him being able to handle it. The issue now is that you’ve got three teens tagging along on a mission that may have global implications. If we needed another pair of hands, I’m wondering why you didn’t snatch up another full-fledged, card-carrying member of the League.>
<Because they’re all on duty, smart guy. A good number are out on assignment, but anyone who isn’t has been given a duty post at HQ in case Mouse comes back. We have to be prepared. Plus, I know Smokey is a good sounding board for you, and since you’re still our best shot at finding Mouse, it made sense to have him with us.>
I hated to admit it, but Alpha Prime’s reasoning came across as sound. I stated as much to him and then broke the connection. I spent the next few minutes pondering everything that had happened and was trying to figure out what, if anything, I might have missed when a question from Electra cut across my thoughts.
Focusing on my father, she asked, “So, where are we going?”
“DTG,” he replied.
I raised my eyebrows in surprise, as did Smokey and Electra.
“DTG?” Smokey repeated. “They’re one of the largest tech companies in the world.”
“Not just tech,” Alpha Prime corrected. “They’re a huge conglomerate that owns everything from casinos to manufacturing plants.”
“Yeah, they’re massive,” Electra added. “They’ve got something like a thousand-acre corporate campus just outside the city.”
“And that’s where we’re headed,” Alpha Prime noted. “After we make one quick stop.”
“Where?” I asked.
My father glanced at me via the rearview mirror and winked, saying, “Breakfast, of course.”
Chapter 41
Like the day before, we stopped at a fast-food place for breakfast. Personally, I didn’t have nearly the same appetite this time around and thus ordered far less. After we got back on the road and began eating, Electra brought everyone up to speed regarding my theory on Mouse’s bug-out bag.
After mulling over what Electra had said, my father asked, “So if you don’t think he went far, where’s he most likely to be?”
The question was seemingly directed to me. I shrugged in response, saying, “I don’t know. If you remember, League HQ was practically razed to the ground last year.”
No one commented, but it was unlikely anyone had forgotten the prior attack on the Alpha League, which had actually been orchestrated by one of our own.
“Mouse actually oversaw the reconstruction efforts,” I continued. “He could have had any number of secret rooms
