CHAPTER 10
The Hotel
The next day, Stephen’s prediction came true. The boys could hardly focus on anything except waiting for the night. They bounced between activities, nervous and killing time. After dinner, they put on a boring movie and attempted to fall asleep early. Ben set his watch’s alarm for three a.m., and by ten p.m. they thought they would never get to sleep. Eventually, they dropped off and Ben’s alarm woke them up.
They were alert instantly, and none wanted to call off the trip. They crawled carefully out of their pillow-fort and uncovered the hidden stash of dark clothing.
Jack felt his heart was about to burst as he tried to silently open the back door. He could hear his breath and held it to control his twitching hands. Once outside, they crept between the bushes until they were out of sight. On the path they nearly hovered with excitement.
“This is the best,” said Jack.
“Yeah,” said Ben. “Where’s the mark?”
“Almost there,” said Jack.
They moved through the woods without lights. The moon was bright and the clouds had mostly disappeared. They were right to worry about wet clothing. By the time they made it to the tree, they were wet from rain hanging on the leaves.
“Do you see it?” asked Jack.
Stephen bent down — “Nope. Let’s wait for a second and see if maybe a leaf is in the way.”
They backed away from the path a bit and hunkered down behind some brush. Each stared at the spot on the tree until they could almost hallucinate anything there in the bark. After almost ten minutes in silence, they were rewarded by the red spot flickering back into existence.
“There it is!” said Stephen.
“Are you sure that’s not just my eyes?” joked Ben.
“Then it’s my eyes too,” said Jack.
“Come on,” ordered Stephen.
Stephen rushed over to the light and thrust his hand in its path. He strode confidently into the woods, following it. Jack and Ben trailed close behind. They made it farther than the previous night, but the light flicked out when Stephen’s hand was almost shoulder-height.
“Let’s just keep going,” said Stephen. “It’s got to be coming from this direction.”
“What’s through these woods again?” asked Ben.
Jack replied — “As far as I could tell, it’s Route 203. There are houses and a couple of businesses.”
“We’re about to find out,” said Stephen. “Look.” He pointed up to a small sapling. On a leaf, at about eye-level, the dot of light shone. “See, if it turns just a tiny bit, the leaf doesn’t block it.” He reached out and tore the leaf from the tree.
“There’s a clearing,” Jack was looking back in the direction they had been traveling.
“Let’s go carefully,” said Ben.
The three spread out and crouched down into the brush. They made their way with all the stealth they could muster. On the edge of an over-grown field, they stopped. The grass was about a foot high.
“What is it?” asked Stephen.
Across the field they saw the back of a long building — three stories high. Immediately ahead of them, the gabled roof was adorned with three small windows, but to the left there were many windows on each floor. A swing-set off the to right looked half-collapsed in the moonlight.
“Must be a business or something,” said Jack. “Too big to be a house.”
“Could be the back of an apartment,” offered Ben. “I’ve seen an apartment building almost like that.”
“Whatever it is, it’s deserted,” said Stephen. “Look, those windows are boarded up.”
Straining to see across the field, Jack and Ben could barely make out that the windows indeed looked boarded up. They also noticed a couple of bare spots on the roof where the shingles had blown away.
“Let’s go check it out,” said Ben.
“When did you grow a pair?” asked Stephen.
“We should skirt the field over to that ditch,” said Jack. “That way we won’t leave any footprints in the tall grass.”
Jack led the way. They circled the clearing until they came to a drainage ditch lined with big rocks. Only a small amount of water trickled down the rocks, and the boys made it to the corner of the building without getting more wet.
“How are we going to figure out where that beam is coming from?” asked Jack.
“I already know,” said Stephen.
“What? How?”
“Right after I tore down that leaf I turned around and saw this building. The light hit my eye a little bit,” said Stephen. “Anyway, it’s coming from right over that porch.” He pointed to the side of the building.
About ten feet up, a small back porch roof protruded from the building. They approached and saw the porch covered a cracked concrete pad.
“Looks sturdy enough to me,” said Ben. He climbed the rickety lattice-work that ran up the overhang’s support.
“Jeez, be careful,” said Jack.
Ben paused — “Thanks, that’s helpful.” He crested the top of the porch-roof and turned to look back over. “It’s sturdy — come up.”
Stephen and Jack deliberated and Ben disappeared. When the other two boys had gathered their nerve and made it up, Ben was studying a small hole in a clapboard.
“It comes out here,” said Ben. He waved his hand in front of the hole and angled it so Jack and Stephen could see the red dot on his hand.
“Man, that thing goes a long way, doesn’t it?” asked Stephen.
“Who’s got the smallest flashlight?” asked Ben. “I don’t want to ruin my night-vision.”
Jack produced a key-chain light and they clustered around the hole while Ben illuminated the wall. The red beam danced on Stephen’s chest as he breathed in and out.
“There’s a line,” said Ben.
A faint gray line descended from the laser hole an pointed straight down. They had to get their faces within a foot of the wall to trace its progress. The arrow ended five clapboards below the hole.
“Check it out — it’s only this wide,” said Jack. He pointed left and right, showing his friends that the arrow terminated on a clapboard that had end-seams only sixteen inches apart. “It’s a really small piece.”
Stephen felt the seams of the clapboard and then pressed on the center. It moved slightly. He tried the corners — the board seemed loose, but stayed put. Finally, he pressed hard on the bottom-center of the board and the three boys heard a loud click.
“It’s a latch!” exclaimed Stephen. As he removed his hand, the bottom of the clapboard came loose and then dropped off.
The boys had found a four-inch-tall, sixteen-inch-wide hole in the side of the building.
“Holy fuck,” breathed Ben. “What’s in there?”
Jack bent down to look in the hole. He had to get down on his belly — the hole was just above the surface of the porch roof on which they crouched.
“Give me the light back,” said Jack. Ben handed it down to his upturned hand.
Jack moved with the measured pace of someone defusing a bomb. He swept the light from side to side and focused it back to the middle of the hatch.
“Okay,” he began. “There’s a button and an envelope.”
Ben and Stephen knelt down to look over Jack’s shoulders.
“Let’s see what’s in the envelope,” said Stephen.
“What if it’s a trap or something?” asked Jack.
“Trap? It’s a letter in a hole,” said Stephen. “Don’t be so paranoid.”
“I don’t see anything attached to it,” said Ben. “Just move it a little.”
“Okay,” said Jack, and he put his hand near the hole. He took a deep breath and let it out.
Stephen whispered: “The suspense is killing me.”