The Light Brigade - Chapter 18
Will’s heart felt like it was about to beat out of his chest. The intercom system wasn’t there. They had failed their mission.
This is an installment of my new serialized middle grade novel - The Light Brigade. When new kid in town Will finds himself in the midst of a sea of brainwashed middle schoolers, he has to join the Light Brigade, an unlikely group of heroes, to save them. Can he trust the Man Upstairs who guides them with fortune cookie directions? Will he find his place in the Brigade? Will he be able to stop the shadowy New Moon Group from forcing his classmates to collect acorns for a cartoon squirrel until they all collapse? Subscribed? Get caught up here.
Previously on The Light Brigade: The group is undertaking their mission to save the school. Lily and Gabriella have successfully gotten the antidote topped cookies to the teachers, but Will and Austin have hit a snag. The computer and intercom system that they are supposed to disable are gone. Will they be able to stop the New Moon Group’s mind-control music?
Will’s heart felt like it was about to beat out of his chest. The intercom system wasn’t there. The computer wasn’t there. There was nowhere to put the program. They had failed their mission.
“Uh, guys, what’s up?” asked Tamara.
Will could only stare at the empty space on the screen, but Austin spoke up. “The intercom is gone. The computer, too. Thoughts?”
“Get the Mama Spider off the top of the desk, for starters,” said Tamara.
Will stayed frozen until Austin elbowed him in the ribs, saying, “Dude! Didn’t you hear her? Get the robot down off the desk. You’re going to get us caught.”
Shaking his head to clear the fog, Will started the robot on its way to the floor. Even in his dazed state, he expertly guided it under the desk, well out of sight. His nerves were completely on edge, and he felt defeated. Austin, though, seemed totally unfazed by this apparently catastrophic development. Why does he always have to be so cool? thought Will.
“It’s ok, Will, you’re doing great. Just stay calm,” said Tamara, “Do you think you can use the Mama Spider to look around the office? Hopefully it is still here somewhere.”
“Yes,” gulped Will, “I can do that.” Wishing he could just keep the Mama Spider in it hiding place, Will nevertheless carefully guided the robot out from under the desk. “There aren’t any Spidercams in here, right?”
Tamara sighed, “Unfortunately, no. We are flying blind. All I can see in here is the Mama Spider’s camera. I am keeping an eye on the hallways still, though.”
As the robot reached the ceiling, Will rotated the spider around so that they could see the whole office. No intercom in sight. That’s when one of Will’s more brilliant ideas came to him. As he navigated down the hall, keeping to the shadows as much as possible, he spun the spider so that they could get a moving 360 degree view of the hallways and rooms.
“Perfect Will! I was worried we were going to miss it with the Spider’s little camera,” said Tamara.
“Yeah, that’s really a great idea,” echoed Austin, sounding surprised but impressed nonetheless.
There were about half a dozen doors down the little hallway with a copy room at the end. Fortunately, most of the doors stood open, allowing Will to pop the robot into each for a look around. Every time, he worried that someone would see it – he knew there was at least one person still back here somewhere. Will became more and more tense with each passing room, expecting each to hold a small army of nefarious operatives. But as the Mama Spider neared the end of the hallway, he still hadn’t found anyone. Unfortunately, he hadn’t found the intercom, either.
“Is it possible it’s not here at all? Like, they’re playing the music some other way?” asked Will.
“Seems unlikely,” said Austin, “They have to have some way to embed the waves, so they must be using some kind of computer. I also doubt they could have it somewhere else, I mean, how would they get it to play? Keep looking.”
“But that’s all the rooms,” said Will.
“Go check the copy room at the back. Who knows, maybe it’s there,” said Tamara.
The Mama Spider scurried on down the hallway like a lazy top and into the room with the copier. At first, all they could see were cabinets and reams of paper, but as the Spider spun around to the opposite side of the room, they saw it. The computer and intercom system were tucked into the far corner with not a person in sight!
Will quickly navigated the robot down to the computer, stopping next to the keyboard. “Should I go ahead and plug the flash drive in?”
Austin shook his head. “No, wake it up first so we can see if everything looks the same.” But as soon as Will moved the mouse with the Spider’s leg, it was clear that something had changed. Rather than showing the desktop like the day before, it showed a prompt to scan your thumbprint. Sure enough, a new fingerprint reader had been installed. The two of them let out groans.
“Shoot,” said Tamara, “Let me guess: that wasn’t there yesterday. Any ideas, Austin?”
“Mr. Turner usually puts some decryption software with any programs that he gives me. Y’know for times like this when the New Moon Group decides to set up some real security. Let me see if there’s something on the flash drive that will let me get past the fingerprint scan.”
Will was already on it, maneuvering the Mama Spider to the USB port. With some careful piloting, he was able to get the flash drive in on the first try. He let out a sigh of relief – the worst part of his job was over.
“Dang, dude! You just lost me five dollars,” said Austin.
“What?” said Will, bemusedly.
Austin shrugged. “I bet Gabriella five bucks that it would take you at least five tries to get the flash drive in. Sorry, man. I underestimated your mad skills.”
Will rolled his eyes. He wasn’t sure whether he should be offended or flattered, but at least he had been able to prove himself. He already had the Spider back over at the keyboard, where the screen now showed a tiny picture of lighthouse in the corner.
“Sweet!” said Austin, “It’s there. OK, Will – time to get to work. Type this…” He proceeded to rattle off a long string of commands.
Will sent the Mama Spider tap dancing all over the keyboard as quickly as he could. It was quite a struggle; he did not want to know what would happen if he typed something wrong. Finally, with a last tap on the Enter key, the screen changed to the usual desktop and a bar popped up with the download progress of Mr. Turner’s program.
They waited on pins and needles as the progress crept forward. Tamara’s voice came through the earpiece, “Just a heads up, all the New Moon Group operatives are heading back to the office. I know you’re going as quickly as you can, but you might have to abort or hide really quick. Keep an eye out.”
Will moved the camera on a pan from the computer screen across to the door and back again. He wished the camera feed had sound so they could hear if someone was coming, but this was going to have to do. To get his mind off his heightened nerves, he asked, “What does this virus do, anyway?”
“It adds an interference pattern to the mind control signal so that it won’t work any more,” Austin said, “Its hidden as another song file, so hopefully they won’t be able to find it. It will slowly increase in power throughout the day, so we should start to see people snapping out of it some time after lunch. 10 percent left.”
As soon as the bar reached the end, the progress screen disappeared. Will logged off the desktop back to the security screen, and removed the flash drive. “Should I try to drive the Mama Spider back?” he asked.
“No, see if there is somewhere you can hide it. There are way too many people in the halls to try to get it back now. Lily’s distraction seems to have set off some serious alarms,” answered Tamara.
Will spun the camera around and found a trashcan that was nearly full sitting next to the copier. “Can I put it in the trash?” asked Will, “We might not be able to get it back.”
“That’s OK,” said Tamara, “just so long as it isn’t found.”
Will nestled the Mama Spider into the middle of the trash bag, making sure that it couldn’t be seen.
“Good work everyone,” said Tamara. “Don’t forget to put your doses of antidote into the lunches. I’m turning off the earpieces now. Will, we usually just leave them in until we get back to the Queen Anne. I’ll see you guys there after school.”
And with that, they were done. Will and Austin exchanged excited looks and quiet high fives. They had done it. They had completed their mission. Will could have smiled for days. Everything would be fine now….hopefully.