The Light Brigade - Chapter 10
Will was excited to be given his next mission before heading over to visit his dad’s office. He was sure that the New Moon Group were behind this, but he still wanted to see where his parents worked.
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.
The atmosphere back at the Queen Anne that afternoon was the most lighthearted of Will’s time yet. There was a palpable feeling of nearing the end of this crisis. Lily had even baked sugar cookies covered in pink and purple sprinkles in a fit of high spirits. Despite his close brush at school, Will was excited to be given his next mission before heading over to the paper mill to visit his dad’s office. He was sure now that the New Moon Group were behind all of this, but he still wanted to see where his parents worked.
The kids were chattering away happily when Mr. Turner came into the kitchen. “Hello, my young compatriots! Good news on my end – I have found an antiparasitic against our nasty bug and am working on synthesizing enough for everyone as we speak. Also, before I forget, I have a note for Austin from the Man Upstairs.”
Will watched him take the note with a twinge of jealousy. There’s another private message. Looks like the Man Upstairs has some favorites.
“Any luck on the school front?” asked Mr. Turner.
“Yeah,” said Austin, “we were able to find where the music is coming from. There’s an external hard drive connected to the school’s PA system in the front office. I was able to copy its files onto my computer.”
“Excellent work, my boy!” beamed Mr. Turner. Will was a little stung – he had been there, too. Without him the mission would have failed, but Austin didn’t think to mention that. And to think it was starting to seem like we could get along after all, thought Will.
“Also,” continued Austin, “I took a look through the files during the rest of the day. Most of them are just regular songs, one of them is a recording of the messages, and, here’s the kicker, one of them is a computer program. It’s some seriously complicated coding, though, like nothing I have ever seen before. I’m guessing that it overlays the recording on top of the song and does the encoding that you worked through last night, Mr. Turner, but that’s only a guess. I think you’re going to have to take a look at it.”
“Not a problem!” said Mr. Turner. He quickly copied some of the files off Austin’s computer. “I’ll take a look at these this afternoon while the antiparasitic is synthesizing. Maybe we’ll be able to find a way to disable to program. I’ll have more to share about that after dinner time.” Everyone nodded approvingly.
Gabriella raised her hand. “Lily and I had a thought at lunch about distributing the medicine. What if we just do the same thing that they did? Put it in the school food? But we thought of the teachers – we’re not sure where they eat or how we could get it to them.”
“Hmm,” said Mr. Turner, “That is a tough problem. You will certainly want to account for that, but I think that putting it in food would be a good delivery method.”
Tamara raised her hand, “Did you all notice all the men in green polos around the school towards the end of the day?”
Everyone nodded, and Will said, “Sure, that’s the shirt that people wear at the mill.” They all looked at him with stunned faces. “What? That’s what my parents wear to work. Don’t yours?”
Austin shook his head, “No, man, the mill workers wear these green t-shirts.”
“Huh,” said Will, “that’s weird. Maybe it’s because they work in the office section? My parents are accountants. They’ve always worn those same shirts, even when they worked for the New Moon Group up in Chicago.”
“Hang on,” said Austin, “You’re telling me that your folks were working for the New Moon Group before you moved to Millville. Maybe they’re in on it.” Will shot a glare at him. It might be fine for Austin to badger him but he needed to leave Will’s parents alone. They were good people.
Tamara sighed, “We don’t have time for this. It doesn’t matter what involvement Will’s parents have – he is his own person. Besides, the Man Upstairs called him for a reason. So lay off him, ok Austin?” Austin nodded, but continued to glare at Will like he was sure he was up to something. “Anyway, there were all of these people in green polo shirts all over the school after about lunch time. They were everywhere, including the cafeteria and the front office. Any idea what might be up with that?”
Will tentatively raised his hand. “I think I might know what they were doing. Austin and I almost got caught while we were trying to get the files. After that, someone started to search the building. Did you guys get the air horn treatment, too?” A couple of the others winced at the memory. “You don’t think they’re all going to be there again tomorrow, do you?”
Tamara considered this. “I think we’re going to have to plan like they will be there since we don’t know. These guys were definitely not affected by the parasite, so we’re going to have to be on our toes to keep from being detected. This plan is going to be really complicated.” She tapped her pen on her notepad, lost in thought. “It looks like we might need two teams on this one. There’s the food situation and the music – ”
“Wait, wait, wait!” Will interrupted, “We’re supposed to come up with our own plan for stopping a giant, evil corporation that employs most of our parents from brain-jacking our classmates? What about the Man Upstairs? Isn’t he going to tell us what to do?”
Tamara shrugged. “This is the way it always is. The Man Upstairs helps us out, sure, but we have to do our part, too.”
“But we’re kids! We can’t do stuff like that!”
Mr. Turner’s expression softened and a look of pity stole over his face. “I know. It’s not fair that you are so young and have so much responsibility. The fact is, though, that someone has to stop them, and you have been called.”
“By who? The Man Upstairs? This mystery man who doesn’t do anything but feed us riddles and put us in danger?” retorted Will, frustration bubbling up at the injustice of what was being asked of him. These people were dangerous, and apparently the Man Upstairs thought that children should be trusted to make the plan. He had already had one close shave with these people and he wasn’t eager for another. Why won’t the Man Upstairs actually help us, he thought.
“Will,” said Lily, “I understand your frustration. It’s all so very scary and confusing, but we don’t need to worry. The Man Upstairs has always taken care of us. He always tells us the exact thing we need to hear right when we need it. He is wise and a good leader.”
“If he knows so much, he should be the one giving us the plan,” said Will, “This is insane. We should just call the police and let them take care of it like normal people.”
“Nah, man,” said Gabriella, “the police are totally in on it. No, I’m totally serious this time! Don’t you remember that one crisis with all those ducks? I swear the police were helping.”
“No, actually, I don’t remember the time with the ducks. I haven’t been around for nanobots or robot cockroaches or any of other thousand ridiculous things. And I certainly haven’t made any plans to fix them. The Man Upstairs might be right about a lot of things, but he made a mistake when he picked me.”
Austin let out a derisive laugh and leaned against the back of his stool with this arms crossed. “Figures you wouldn’t be up for it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I just mean that not everyone has what it takes to handle these crises,” Austin said, his smug look never leaving his face.
“Are you calling me a wimp?” yelled Will.
Tamara held out her hands toward both of them like a traffic cop trying to stop two speeding trucks about to have a head-on collision. “Get it together you two. You’re part of a team!”
Will flew to his feet. “Maybe I don’t want to be on this team any more. I’m out of here.” And he rushed to the exit as fast as his feet could carry him.
Mr. Turner caught up with him in the entryway as he was yanking on his shoes. “Wait,” he said, “I have a message for you from the Man Upstairs.”
Will glowered at him, not in the mood for riddles. “What is it?”
“The message is: Go straight home.”
“Got it,” he said, grabbing his backpack and heading out the door. He had absolutely no intention of going straight home. He was going to go visit his dad at work like he had planned. He was going to go back to his normal life.