“Hey, Devon,” greeted Dylan moving over to the other guy.
“Dylan! Hey, man, I got your message. It said you needed my help?”
“Yeah, I need to bypass some guards and I need your skills.”
Devon nodded and smiled wide. “Ah, yeah. I know what you mean. You need me to kick some guard butt so you can get in and do your thing.”
“Of course, what else would I ask your help for?” Dylan laughed and did that weird handshake I saw him do with Max a couple days ago.
“Hi, Allie, I bet you don’t remember me. I was at Dylan’s party two days ago.” Devon held out his hand.
I smiled warmly and shook his hand. I stared at him, trying to remember him amongst all the people who were at the party. He had a handsomely chiseled face with skin much darker than Max’s. He was somewhat taller than normal, skinny, and had great posture for a guy. He seemed very kind, but also maybe somewhat of a jokester. Then it hit me, he was one of the guys on Dylan’s team one.
“Oh, yeah, I remember you. You’re the one who took the motorcycle portion of the competition.”
“Yup, that’s me. I would have taken the fighting portion, but Dylan insisted he had to go against Samantha so he could take her down.”
“Well, yeah, if you had taken that part of the competition then there wouldn’t have been a fair chance for Samantha. She would have been defeated in the first ten seconds.”
“Well, I didn’t get the nickname Triple F for nothing.” Devon grinned wide, sporting ultra-white teeth.
“Well, we need that now.”
I frowned at both guys, puzzled. “Triple F? What do you mean?”
Devon responded to me. “Triple F stands for Fists and Feet of Fury. I know every kind of self-dense and fighting style there is. I want to go into Sports Medicine and also be a Physical Trainer for our sports teams.”
“Yeah, Devon knows every type of martial arts there is. He’s kind of a freak at it.”
“Hey, don’t hate my skills just cause you don’t have them.” Devon playfully punched Dylan in the arm. “Are we almost there?”
“Yeah, we’ll be there soon. When we get there, all you need to do is subdue the guards. Allie and I will find a way into Dr. Wilcox’s lab.”
“Dr. Wilcox? You mean the engineering quack. You still hanging out with him?”
“Yeah, I am. He’s pretty cool.” Dylan paused and then added, “Well, sometimes.”
The train stopped and Dylan looked at both of us. “You guys ready?”
“Come on, man, we don’t need a pep talk. Let’s go.” Devon darted off the train with Dylan and me following close behind.
We ran to Dr. Wilcox’s place and instantly noticed two guards standing on either side of the stairwell down to Dr. Wilcox’s basement laboratory. Devon took them down so fast I would have missed it if I had blinked. He waved us on and we took the stairs down to the lab. At the bottom, two more guards stood waiting. This time, I did blink and both guards lay unconscious on the floor. I had missed everything.
“Hey, Devon, do you think you could keep watch while we’re inside?”
“Yeah, of course. If I hear anyone coming, I’ll do this.” Devon whistled in a great imitation of a bird’s chirp using his hands to amplify the sound. “Got it?”
“Yeah, let’s go, Allie.”
Dylan and I entered Dr. Wilcox’s lab and immediately began calling out for him.
“I’m over here.” Dr. Wilcox came into view tangled with all sorts of wires. “I’m glad you’re okay, Dylan. I had no idea what they did to you when they caught…oh.” Dr. Wilcox noticed me for the first time. “Allie, why are you here?”
“There’s really no time for explanation, Dr. Wilcox. We need some kind of proof that Oceania exists. We need a blueprint or building record. Any sort of records on supplies being sent here in the early days. Anything.”
“You’re going to take that back to the surface, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but we need to hurry. I’m sure that Mayor Aldridge is on to us now.” Dylan began shifting his weight from one foot to the other in annoyance.
“Right, right.” Dr. Wilcox hurried over to his computer and began typing away.
After about ten minutes, he placed a small input drive into Dylan’s palm.
“This is for you to take. I’m not sure if Allie’s world has the technology for this, but it can be scanned or put into a computerized device to be read. It has all of the blueprints of Oceania as well as census records. It proves this place exists and that there have been people living here for nearly 150 years. There’s also a bit of construction footage of the city. This should be enough to convince your people of our existence, Allie.”
I nodded and impulsively gave Dr. Wilcox a hug. “Thank you so much for all you’ve done. I hope we can be successful and our worlds will be joined again just like they were always meant to be.”
I stepped back and Dylan tugged on my arm. “Come on, let’s go.”
We ran up the stairs to where Devon stood waiting for us.
“Where to next? I’m guessing that you two are on the run and will need my help to get out.”
“Yeah, that is kinda the issue. Do you mind going all the way to the docking bay with us?” wondered Dylan.
“The docking bay?” Devon dropped his folded arms and glanced in confusion at Dylan and me. “Why the docking bay?”
“Yes, Dylan, tell him why you need to go to the docking bay so badly?”
All of us spun around to see Mayor Aldridge standing behind us, swarming with guards.
Chapter 28
Mayor Aldridge’s smug smile made me sick to my
