“You find anything out about that rented jet?” asked Nando.
“Nothing so far. Still checking.”
“Jet?” said Nick. “What jet?”
Will held a finger to his lips at Nick and mouthed, “I’ll explain later.”
“Not like they walked out of Costco with a toaster under their arm. That’s a multimillion-dollar takedown, homie. Surprised I ain’t seen nothin’ on the news. Say, how’s your dad doing?”
“He’s feeling better. Thanks for asking.”
Ajay looked askance at Will; Will held up a hand, gesturing for patience.
Nando reached the back door. His hands came into view and searched around the window.
“Hey, my cousin Freddie tracked down a website for that National Scholastic Whatever Agency,” said Nando. “I emailed you the link. You get that yet?”
“I’ll check when we’re done,” said Will.
“Got something here.” Nando lifted a small metal box into view, slid open the lid, and pulled out a house key.
“That’s it,” said Will.
Nando moved to the door and inserted the key. The door swung open. “Going in,” he said. Nando stepped inside and closed the door. The floorboards creaked.
Seeing the inside of his old house sent queasy waves of unreality through Will. Sweat dripped under his arms.
“No lights on. Gonna leave it that way, case the Caps got it scoped out.”
“Where are your parents?” whispered Ajay.
“Not home,” whispered Will. “Still at work and … out of town. Out of town on work.”
Nick and Ajay glanced at each other. Nando moved down the hall into the living room. Will’s heart sank when he saw it.
It was completely trashed: Books scattered, chairs broken, wallpaper ripped from the walls. Floorboards had been pried up and left in jagged stumps. The sofa had been torn apart and the stuffing pulled out. Dad’s plaster bust of Voltaire had been shattered. They’d smashed his prized turntable, too, dumped out his record collection and stomped most of the priceless old disks into shards.
“Dude,” whispered Nick. “You been robbed.”
“Doesn’t look too good, holmes,” said Nando.
“The bastards,” said Will, gritting his teeth.
“Did you know about this, Will?” asked Ajay, more wide-eyed than usual.
“I had a pretty good idea,” said Will. “Check upstairs.”
Nando backed out of the room and climbed the stairs. The light grew dimmer; all the doors on the second floor were closed.
“Hang a left at the top,” said Will.
Nando rounded the corner. The whole house was deathly quiet. All they could hear was Nando’s breathing. “Hot up here, man,” he whispered. “A lot hotter. They must’ve left the heat on.”
“My room’s straight ahead of you,” said Will. “Look in there.”
The hallway flooded with light as Nando opened the door. It took a moment for the camera to adjust and then Will saw his room. Or what was left of it. It looked like wreckage caused by a hurricane. Everything had been chopped to pieces. The banner over the window—THE IMPORTANCE OF AN ORDERLY MIND—hung to the floor in tatters.
“Oh, Will,” said Ajay in sympathy.
They were looking for something. Something Dad must have hidden. But what?
“Dude,” said Nick. “All kidding aside. This is serious.”
Will felt sick, hoping and praying that the same kind of violence hadn’t been done to his parents. What do these people want from us? From me?
“Check my parents’ room,” said Will. “Down the hall, last door on the left. There’s a shelf of files next to my dad’s desk.”
Nando padded down the hall. When he reached the door, the camera tilted down. Nando’s hand came into view, turning the knob. He pushed the door open.
As he walked through the doorway, a thin gossamer strand of filament that had been stretched across the threshold snapped. Nando never noticed. And in the furnace room under the basement stairs, a ring on a round steel mesh drum the size of a beer keg rotated slowly to the left. A plug rose out of the barrel with a hiss, and a thick yellowish vapor began to fill the room.…
Upstairs in Will’s parents’ bedroom, Nando surveyed more of the same destruction. Will’s parents’ bed had been slashed and stripped to the coils. His father’s desk had been emptied, drawers pulled out and smashed.
“The shelves are all empty, man,” said Nando. “Maybe the Caps took the files out in those boxes.” The camera focused in on a thermostat near the door. “No wonder it’s so hot in here. Thermostat’s turned up to eighty-five.”
“Check the closet,” said Will.
Nando moved to the open closet; it was a walk-in, deep and spacious and dark. He raised a pocket flashlight and switched it on. The camera followed the flashlight beam around the closet. Clothes and hangers had been pulled off the rails and tossed into a big pile on the floor.
“There’s nothing in here, man,” said Nando. “And they’ve searched it.”
“There’s a false panel in the ceiling,” said Will. “Near the back right corner. Try looking there. You’ll need a chair.”
Nando dragged a chair from the bedroom to the rear of the closet. He stood on it and examined the ceiling, which was covered with a layer of sprayed white insulation.
“Think I see it,” said Nando. “There’s a seam here.” He poked around until a panel, about a foot square, shifted out of its frame. Nando pushed it up and out of the way. “I can see the rafters. There’s like a crawl space. And there’s something up here.”
“Can you reach it?” asked Will.
“I’ll try,” said Nando. The screen went blurry as Nando tilted his head to the side. “I got it.” He brought a black bag down into view and pointed his light at it. “It’s like a doctor’s bag. Real old leather.”
“That belonged to my dad,” said Will.
“Something’s printed near the handle, kind of faded. It’s initials, I think.”
Will didn’t remember seeing lettering on the bag before. “Is it J. W.?”
“No, man. That’s not it. Looks like … H. G.”
“That can’t be right,” said Will.
“Take a look,” said Nando. He held the bag in front of the camera. They saw faded gold letters on the worn pebbled leather below the handle: H. G.
“Open it,” said Will.
“Hold on a sec,” said Nando. “Thought I heard something.”
A moment later they heard a muffled boom, as if something heavy and metallic had hit the floor downstairs.
“What was that?” asked Nick.
“Maybe the furnace?” said Ajay.
“No,” Nando whispered. “I think somebody’s in the house.”
Will leaned in, alarmed. “You need to get out, Nando. Get out of the house.”
Nando jumped off the chair and started toward the open door. “Oh, man,” he said. “What is that? Something really stinks in here.” Then he stopped at the door. “I hear something moving in the crawl space.”
Will shouted at the screen, “Nando, get out of there now!”
Nando spun around. His flashlight whirled and found the hatch in the ceiling. Something stood on the edge of the opening. Will’s first thought was that it looked like a huge version of an insect kids called a potato bug.
But this thing was worse. Much worse. It had a tiny head on a pale stalk; pincers sprouted from its jaws. Big bright eyes protruded from an almost human face. It reared up on its hind legs, revealing a waxy segmented belly and the rest of its limbs, wriggling rows of what looked like black, stubby fingers.
“Aw, sick!” said Nando.
The thing emitted a high-pitched rattling screech and leaped off the ledge at the camera. Ajay, Nick, and Will jumped back from the screen. Nando swatted it away, turned, and jumped out of the closet, slamming the door behind him.