He tugged at the metal for a few seconds and then sat on the floor and braced a foot on either side of the vent and pulled with both hands. When it gave a little, he doubled his efforts. In a few more tugs he popped off the cover.
The light on the other side came through several windows. He put his left arm through first and then pulled until his head was on the other side. Turning his shoulders, he managed to get his chest and other arm free.
Suddenly, he imagined an unseen axe descending on his naked legs and he struggled to get his legs to safety. He scrabbled across the floor of the new room, desperately trying to free his feet. When he made it, he cautiously looked back but the hallway he had left was empty. The boy screwed up his nerve and then reached for the cover, back in the hall. He did his best to pull it back into position.
Relieved, he tiptoed over to one of the windows. The window was two or three stories up and overlooked an overgrown field bordered with woods. A nearly full moon hung low, just about even with the treeline. He pressed his face close to the window so he could look straight down; the ground looked a long way down. A door on the adjacent wall was open a crack, he walked as quietly as he could and swung it open.
CHAPTER 16
Jack
Planning to do extra errands before her appointment, Kate left the house at nine-thirty. She hung a note up on the fridge which told Jack and Stephen to eat leftovers for lunch. They snuck into the front room to listen for the garage door opening, and then they watched from there as she pulled away from the house.
“Let’s go,” said Jack.
They wore their exploring-clothes and already had their bags packed. Once out of the yard and safely out of sight of the neighbors, they moved fast — running to the hotel.
Their ladder routine didn't work well with two people instead of three. Jack helped Stephen carry the ladder, and then doubled back to inspect the fishing line stretched across the path. Up on the porch roof, Stephen was anxious to see if the money had been replaced. He fumbled with the trick clapboard, and yelled at Jack when he tried to help.
When Stephen finally got the section of clapboard loose, the sight of a new envelope delighted the boys.
Stephen grabbed it and tore it open. Squeezing the sides, he shook the contents into his hand. Another seven crisp hundred-dollar bills slid out of the envelope. “Sweet,” he said. “Now we’ve got seven hundred each.”
“What about Ben’s share?” asked Jack.
“Oh yeah,” said Stephen. “Still pretty good though.”
“Is there another letter?” asked Jack.
“Yeah, but it’s the same,” Stephen skimmed the letter folded up with the bills.
“That makes sense,” said Jack.
Once inside the hotel, Jack and Stephen had very little trouble getting back to where Ben had fallen. Jack only consulted his notebook at the beginning. They felt that they could negotiate the hotel’s intricacies without reviewing the diary.
When they got back to the vents, Jack put his hand on Stephen’s shoulder to slow him down — “Hold up — I want to check the map,” said Jack.
“Yeah, okay. What time is it?” Stephen asked.
“Uh, it’s eleven-thirty,” said Jack, consulting his watch.
“Let me see the drawing,” said Stephen. Jack held his flashlight on the map painted on the door. They hunched over in the small passage and their heads nearly touched. Tracing a finger across the drawing, Stephen checked each line and mark on Jack’s reproduction. He asked questions about lines that appeared on the door, but not in Jack’s notebook. Some of them were reference marks, pertaining to ducts or utilities as opposed to corridors, by Jack’s calculations. When they agreed on the accuracy of Jack’s map, Stephen handed the notebook back and then crawled into “the vents.”
Jack pulled duck tape from his pack and they marked the first turn. Only one path didn’t end in a skull and crossbones, so their choice was easy at first. As they had seen two days before, the only viable choice was the second right and then the left turn before the trap Ben triggered. After that, they had two choices that didn’t have a trap, and both ended abruptly. They reached the crossroads and paused.
On the map, the left wound around for a bit and then stopped near the top. The right looked straighter and shorter, and ended near the right-hand side.
“I guess we’ll just have to check both,” said Jack.
“Seems pretty risky,” said Stephen. “We don’t have any idea if they have traps or not.”
“I don’t know — why bother to mark some traps and not others?” asked Jack.
“Who knows,” said Stephen. “The guy who made this place was a nut-bag.”
“How about this: one of us goes and the other follows, like ten feet back, so if there’s a trap, we’ll just have to figure out how to rescue the lead guy,” said Jack.
“Who’s going first?” asked Stephen.
“You can go,” Jack smiled. “I don’t mind.”
“Good one, son,” said Stephen. “Think I’ll pass.”
“We’ll flip for it,” said Jack.
“Okay.”
Jack produced a quarter and said, “Call it in the air.” He hunched further and flipped the coin in a low arc.
“Heads.”
It came up tails, and Jack elected to go second.
“Okay, but you better figure out how to get me out,” said Stephen. He headed off to the right and worked his way down the hall, testing each step before he committed. Stephen made the first corner without incident and poked his head and flashlight around to see what was coming. “Looks clear,” he said.
“Take your time,” said Jack, sarcastic. “Not like we have to get back soon or anything.”
“I know, she’ll be back at three.”
“That’s right.”
Stephen rounded the corner and continued down the shaft. He noted that the passage was getting smaller, and Jack confirmed his observation. When they got to the final corner, Stephen was almost too apprehensive to continue.
“It’s got to be right here,” said Stephen.
“Back up — I’ll go,” said Jack.
“No, I got it,” said Stephen. He disappeared around the final corner and then called back for Jack. “Hey — here’s the end, you’ve got to see this.”
Jack followed the sound of Stephen’s voice to the end of the passage. He found Stephen looking down a hole in the floor. Centered in the hole was a brass pole like Jack would have expected in an old firehouse.
“Weird,” said Jack.
Stephen was shining his light down the hole, trying to make out some detail. “Looks like it goes down forever,” he said. The pole was screwed to the ceiling and Stephen reached out to grab it.
“Don’t touch!” yelled Jack, but it was too late. Stephen gripped the pole and then looked quizzically up at Jack.
“What’s wrong?” asked Stephen.
“I just thought it might be electrified or something,” said Jack.
“Oh, nope. Unless it’s off for some reason,” said Stephen.
“Can you seen anything?” asked Jack. The hall was very small at this point and Jack couldn’t really get close to the hole with Stephen in the way.
“Nope — nothing,” said Stephen. “Just goes down and down.”
“Want to take it?” asked Jack.
“No way!” exclaimed Stephen. “How the hell would we get back up?”
“I don’t know — maybe that’s the boss trap,” said Jack.
“I say let’s go check out the other direction,” said Stephen.
They agreed to investigate the other passage before making a decision. Stephen managed to convince Jack to take the lead. Turning around, they made their way back to the crossroads and then started down the left turn.