“If you want to keep throwing that tantrum, you should be prepared to be grounded for two weeks, young lady!” her father shouted through her closed door.
“If you want to keep getting beat up, you’re going to have to do it more quietly,” Ruby hissed at her attacker.
“Kid, I’m not here to fight you. I work for the Secret Service. I know who you are. I know who you work for.”
“Who sent you?”
“General Savage.”
Ruby snarled.
“He just wants to have a conversation.”
“The general?”
“No, the president. Can you let me up?”
“The president doesn’t have security clearance high enough to talk to me,” Ruby said. “Besides, isn’t he in jail?”
“Yes, an innocent man has been arrested, and you’re involved. The very least you could do is go talk to him, kid.”
Deep within the Pentagon, the president sat in a bare room. His hands were cuffed together and he looked exhausted.
“So it’s true,” he said when Ruby sat down in front of him.
She frowned. “What’s true, sir?”
“This country has a spy organization made up of superpowered children,” he said. There was a manila folder on the table with the words TOP SECRET printed on it. He pushed it toward her, but she didn’t open it. She already knew what was in it and who had given it to him.
“Let’s talk about your daughter, sir.”
“Is she one of you?”
Ruby shook her head. “No, but she’s being led by someone who used to be a member of our team.”
The principal opened his folder and peered at a document inside. “Yes, the librarian—Viktoriya Deprankova.”
“We prefer to call her Ms. Holiday.”
“She’s now calling herself Miss Information, right?”
“I can’t tell you anything, sir.”
“I’m the president, young lady.”
“I understand. But you’re not my boss,” she said.
The president growled. “Then tell Tessa’s father. That was her today, right?”
Ruby nodded. She had seen his daughter’s transformation herself. Tessa could change her appearance at will. Miss Information appeared to have built her own upgrade chair and filled her BULLIES full of nanobytes.
“Does it have to do with that virus? The one that made everybody criminals?”
Ruby shook her head. “I can’t be certain that Tessa is not under the influence of something, but it’s not the virus. I want you to know that we’re working hard to find her and stop her—”
“Good. I’ve directed the CIA to take command of the search,” the president interrupted. “They’ll be joining you in your headquarters—the one you call the Playground. I understand you have an incredible amount of technology at your disposal. We’ll need it to find my daughter and stop that madwoman. You and the other kids will support their efforts. General Savage has agreed to come in and head up the mission. I think that will work well since you already have a working relationship with him.”
Ruby swallowed hard. “And when it’s all over and Tessa is safe and sound, what happens to us?”
The president blinked. “You?”
“Yes, what happens to NERDS? Will the CIA go away and let us do our work in peace?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, young lady,” the president said as two men in lab coats entered the room. One was holding a hypodermic needle. “In the meantime these doctors need a little blood test. I’m sure you don’t mind.”
Suddenly, Ruby let out a huge sneeze.
“Ruby, I’m going to get you out of there.”
She had never been so happy to hear Heathcliff’s voice.
All of a sudden, the lights went out, and she sprang to her feet and darted into the dark hallway, with confused and angry guards in hot pursuit. Ruby was allergic to slamming face-first into walls, so she didn’t have to slow down as Heathcliff fed her turn-for-turn directions. Finally, she pushed a fire exit door open and ran into the night. The principal was in his Jeep, waiting for her by the side of the road.
“They know about us,” Ruby said.
The principal nodded. “I know.”
“What do we do?”
“We do what Brand told us to do. We destroy the Playground.”
Heathcliff Hodges collected his few possessions: a pair of sneakers, some clothes, a stack of notebooks, a framed photo of his parents, and the assorted parts of Benjamin. He tossed them into a backpack just as the door flew open.
“Grab your things,” Jackson Jones shouted. “We’ve lost our lease! Everything must go! Take whatever isn’t nailed down and meet the team in the control center.”
Heathcliff veered toward the science room. He found Duncan racing from one table to the next, snatching things and shoving them into two huge duffel bags.
“We should take the jet packs,” Heathcliff said.
Duncan nodded. “I took three. That’s as much as I could carry. There’s some exploding bubble gum back there that could be useful.”
“Actually, I was hoping I might find the potion they wanted to use on my parents.”
Duncan frowned. “I don’t know. I never met the team assigned to it. It could be anywhere.”
Heathcliff stared out at the hundred workstations.
“Attention, all personnel.” An amplified voice echoed through the Playground. “This is the principal. The Playground has been compromised. Agents of the federal government are on their way. I’m activating Directive 86 right now. You have two minutes to leave or you’re staying forever. This is not a test. I repeat, this is not a test.”
Red lights flashed and a loud warning siren blared. Heathcliff raced from table to table. He needed the cure for his parents so that they would remember him, but it was like searching for a four-leaf clover—only the clover patch was going to explode in two minutes.
Flinch appeared, desperately trying to close a suitcase overflowing with candy. “C’mon, we need to get out of here.”
“I have to find the potion,” Heathcliff shouted.
Matilda joined them, dragging her favorite combat dummy behind her.
“You two need to get to the control room,” she yelled.
“I can’t go until I find it!”
The principal and Ruby zoomed into the Playground together.
“Let’s go,” the principal said. “I won’t let them ruin what we’ve built here. You kids are too valuable to the world.”
Heathcliff continued to search frantically. “Who was working on the potion?”
“Son, get in the control room now,” the principal said.
“I won’t go!” Heathcliff cried.
There was a sound like a giant redwood tree splintering and crashing to the forest floor and a thick gray liquid began to fill the room.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Concrete,” the principal said. “We’re burying it alive. If anyone ever stumbles upon this facility, it will be completely useless to them. Heathcliff, I’m only going to say this one more time.”
Didn’t they understand? He needed that potion. “Go on without me.”
“Matilda, does that inhaler of yours have a tranquilizer in it?”
Matilda nodded and aimed her inhaler at Heathcliff.
“Don’t do this!” he begged.
“Sorry,” she said.
There was a loud pop and a sting on the side of his neck, and all the fight in him melted away.
Flinch hefted Heathcliff onto his back and all of the NERDS raced to the control room.
The principal pushed a button and the floor began to rise, though Heathcliff couldn’t be sure it wasn’t the tranquilizer that was making him feel floaty. He watched as the secret headquarters for the National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society vanished below him. There were several loud explosions, and then the lights went out.