Jupiter told himself to calm down. He took a couple of deep breaths and listened carefully. There it was again! Now he could decipher it — gravel against his second-story window. Who?…
He opened the window and peered down. “Ty!” he said in a husky whisper. “Be right there.”
He padded quickly downstairs and unlocked the front door.
“Hi, cuz,” Ty said, grinning from ear to ear. He was rumpled, red-eyed, and wearing his battered back-pack. Jupe guessed he hadn’t seen a bed that night. Nevertheless, he looked oddly happy and excited. “What’s up?” Jupe said. “You want to sleep here?”
“Naw. I’m outta here. Got to meet a dude in Albuquerque. I just stopped by to let you know I found the Reasoner Corporation. Here.” He handed Jupiter a greasy slip of paper.
“No kidding!” Jupiter was really impressed. “How’d you do it?”
“The name stuck in my head like I must’ve seen it before.” He shrugged. “So I hitched to the other side of town and hiked around till I found it. I remember cruisin’ past it a few months ago when I was tryin’ out a Jag. No big deal.”
“No, really. That’s great. Thanks! Want something to eat before you go?”
“What ya gonna give me?” Ty laughed. “Peanut butter and bananas? Thanks but no thanks!” He hitched up his backpack. “One more thing. Here’s a piece of advice: Good drivers don’t get stuck in the fast lane. See, I don’t know what’s goin’ down at the Reasoner Corporation, but after I spotted it, I got a feelin’ it ain’t good.”
“What did you see?”
Ty shook his head. “Go slow and easy, cuz. The other lanes are good for drivin’ too.” He touched his index finger to his forehead in salute, then slipped away.
Uneasily Jupiter watched his lean, wiry cousin disappear into the street’s shadows. Jupe returned to bed wondering what he’d find tomorrow when he visited the Reasoner Corporation. What had spooked Ty? What was this outfit hiding — or hiding from?
The next morning proved long and frustrating for Jupiter. He called Norton Rome’s home telephone several times, but no one answered. Then he had to help out Aunt Mathilda in the junkyard. Some hot prospective buyers needed to know right away what sinks the yard had in stock. Unfortunately for Jupe, the sink inventory was included in one of the blocks of computer data — the 2033 to 2092 file — that the virus had eaten.
So while Pete spray-painted his van, Jupe worked through Uncle Titus’s pile of sinks, updating the inventory list that had been printed out earlier in the month. There were complete descriptions of bathroom and kitchen sinks — colors, sizes, shapes, dimensions, fittings, manufacturers… more about sinks than he ever wanted to know.
Finally at two o’clock he finished the list and turned it over to Aunt Mathilda. By then the Ford van had a shiny blue paint job, and Pete was cleaning his equipment.
“How much longer?” Jupiter asked as he wiped a sweaty arm across his red face.
“Ten minutes.” Pete looked up. “Why?”
“Gotta grab a bite.” Jupiter headed for the workshop. “Want some?”
“Your
Seated on a stool in the workshop doorway, Jupe munched happily. This was the most satisfying diet he’d ever tried. Very filling, and he knew the pounds were melting away.
“Yo!” Bob called across the junkyard. “What gives?” He trotted up in jeans and a black Batman T-shirt.
“You got my message?” Jupe licked his fingers.
“Yeah. So where are we going?”
“The Reasoner Corporation.”
“You found it?”
Jupe filled Bob in about Ty’s discovery.
“Cool!” Bob said. “A lead! But I wonder why Ty said go slow?”
The three guys piled into Pete’s car and zipped off.
“Two hours is the magic number,” Bob reminded Pete. “Remember, we’re taking the girls to
“Relax. No way I’m going to forget this time.” Pete assured him.
“Or you won’t live long afterward.” Jupe chuckled. “That is, if Kelly has anything to say about it!”
“This is from the shy dude who dates only when we make him?” Pete asked Bob. “How’d you get to be such an expert on babes, Jupe?”
Jupiter grinned. “Listening to you two Romeos!”
Twenty minutes later the Investigators found the Reasoner Corporation on a dusty, little-used street in Rocky Beach’s industrial area. The top of an old wooden warehouse, painted gray, showed beyond a tall wall. A faded, painted wood sign just under the warehouse’s domed roofline named the company but gave no information about what it did or produced.
“It looks like the joint!” Pete slowed his Aries in front of the old building. “I mean, it could be Alcatraz!”
The warehouse stood back on a huge parcel that appeared to be completely enclosed by a tall concrete block wall. Rolled barbed wire topped the wall. Nothing but a few trees could be seen inside.
“No wonder this place spooked Ty,” said Bob as they drove by. “Check out the security!”
Pete turned the car, and they coasted past again. The entrance and exits were blocked by solid steel gates that stood two feet taller than the walls. Next to one was an electronic sentry box.
“Uncle Titus’s bank has a sentry arm with an electronic box on the employee parking lot,” Jupiter informed the others as he studied the steel gate. “The only way you can drive in is if you have a plastic employee ID card. You stick the card in a slot, an electronic eye ‘reads’ the numbers, and if you’re for real, the gate opens. Of course, that’s just the entrance.”
“What do you mean,
“I’ve got a feeling there’s a point to this,” Pete told Bob. “Come on, Jupe. Give!”
“The Reasoner Corporation,” Jupiter said with maddening logic, “wants not only to keep people from driving in but also from
“Sure. With an open security exit,” Bob figured, “people can just walk around the prongs to get in.”
“Right.” Jupe nodded, peering toward the gate and its electronic sentry box. “Probably there’s an intercom on the box for outsiders to try to talk their way in. But you get the message from the tight security and the out-of- the-way location that the Reasoner Corporation does not want visitors.”
“What kind of work do you suppose they do?” Pete wondered.
“Check in on the intercom and ask,” Bob said. “Be my guest!”
“No thanks.” Pete shook his head. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the guards here carry Uzis!”
As they passed a stand of eucalyptus trees, Jupe said, “Park in there. It’s good cover.” No curb blocked the street, and behind the trees was an open field.
“Cover for what?” Pete said. “A break-in? You go first, Jupe. I’ll lend you my wire cutters.”
“Big of you.”
Pete parked in the field. The Investigators got out of the car and slipped among the tree trunks. Bark crunched under their feet, seeming very loud on the silent street. From the trees they stared at the prison-style warehouse.
“Maybe they do something illegal,” Pete said.
Bob said, “Yeah. Maybe it’s a weapons dump for terrorists… or a factory for illegal drugs.”
“Or maybe… ” Jupe said slowly, “all the security is designed not only to keep people out but also to keep them
The grim meaning of Jupe’s latest idea started to sink in. Then suddenly shouts and cries erupted behind the Reasoner Corporation’s wall.
“Help! Help!” Pleading voices floated across the street.
