The Light Brigade - Chapter 11
Will had made it home to retrieve his bike for the ride to the mill at the edge of town before he finally calmed down enough to realize what he had done.
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.
Will had made it home to retrieve his bike for the ride to the mill at the edge of town before he finally calmed down enough to realize what he had done. He didn’t used to be such a hothead, losing his cool all the time, but lately everything seemed to push him over the edge. And now he had done it again, this time breaking ties with the only group that was trying to help the town, to help Sydney. He mentally beat himself up the whole ride, replaying the encounter in his mind on an endless death loop.
A few minutes later, he texted his dad that he had arrived and locked his bike to a lamp post with a deep pit in his stomach. He didn’t like the danger or the mystery or the suspense. He certainly didn’t like the enigmatic Man Upstairs who seemed to be trying to control them like a puppet master. What he did want was to help the town. He knew he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he sat by and let people get hurt.
But what could he do? He had just exiled himself from the group, probably for good. They would never trust him again. Why would they? He didn’t even trust himself not to flake out again. With this gloom hanging over him, he went into the office building where his dad worked.
After stopping at the front receptionist desk where his dad was waiting for him, he got a visitor’s badge and headed to the third floor. For the headquarters of a supposedly nefarious group, it was surprisingly boring – gray carpet, white walls, fluorescent lights, motivational posters with mountain views lining the hallways. Everything seemed so ordinary that it gave Will the creeps. How can somewhere so normal be the source of something so bad?
“Well, here it is! My palace and my domain,” said Mr. Sanders as they went into the office. It was small but had a nice view of the river. “What do you think? Pretty sweet digs, huh?”
Will couldn’t help smiling at how geeky his dad was, “Yeah, it’s pretty cool. Where’s mom’s office?”
“My beautiful bride is right next door. She’s on a conference call right now, though, so you’ll have to check out her office later. In fact, I’ve got a call in just a couple of minutes, too. I thought you were coming by later.”
“Oh, yeah,” said Will, not meeting his father’s eye, “I was going to go to my study group, but we kinda got in a fight….”
“You want to talk about it?”
Will sighed. He did want to talk about it but didn’t know where to begin. “I just wish that…I just wish that I could stop losing my temper. It keeps happening, and it’s like I can’t stop….”
“Ah, yes, wrath – one of the deadly sins,” said his dad, nodding wisely with a chuckle.
Will raised his eyebrows. His dad always seemed so calm and collected, what did he know about losing his temper?
Seeing Will’s skeptical look, his dad smiled, “Oh yes, I have lost my temper a time or two or y’know twenty-five in my day. It’s never pretty. Getting older helps, but so does prayer and putting in the hard work to do better. You’re growing up, which means that you are going to have to decide what kind of man you want to be. Are you going to be the kind of man who is in control of his emotions or are you going to be the kind of man who lets his emotions control him?”
“I guess I want to be like the first guy,” said Will.
“Me, too,” said his dad with a twinkle in his eye, “but let me tell you, it is hard work and takes a lot of courage sometimes. It’s worth it, though, I think. It’s what we’re all called to do.”
Will gazed out at the orange and red leaves reflected in the water below. He knew what he would have to do – go and apologize to the Light Brigade and beg them to take him back. He would really have to humble himself, but he prayed that he would have the courage to do the right thing. I hope I have the courage that my father has, he thought.
“Well, anyway, buddy, I got to hop on this call with someone over in Indonesia,” said Mr. Sanders.
“Whoa! You get to talk to someone on the other side of the world? Why?” asked Will.
“They’ve got money over there, don’t they? Then, they need accountants, of course! So, it’s Rob Sanders, CPA, to the rescue!” joked Mr. Sanders. Will laughed; his dad never failed to make him feel better. “Besides, why do you think I have to work so late all the time? It’s early morning over there since it’s 5:30 here. Can you find your way out or do you need me to walk you?”
“I can find my own way out,” said Will. “Thanks for showing me your office. Your view is really great.”
“I’m glad you like it! I’ll see you at home,” said Will’s dad as he closed the door behind him, no doubt already dialing away to the other side of the world.
Will set off down the hall, still lost in thought about how he could make it up to the Light Brigade for his bad behavior. He turned a corner and realized that he must have walked right past the elevators. This wing of the building had shiny white tile floors and cool blue paint on the wall that seemed designed to be soothing but failed. Straight ahead were a pair of swinging doors labeled “Research & Development.”
What could they be researching at a paper mill? Something about this place made him think of Sydney. What if there were answers in there? And that was when he got the best and worst idea he had had all day: he was going to go spy on the R&D department, gain valuable information, and then go report back to the Light Brigade. That was how he could earn his way back into the group.
He looked around to make sure that he was alone and then crept towards the doors. His heart was pounding hard in his chest. He had no idea whether he was putting himself in danger or not, but if there was any valuable information here, they would surely want to protect it.
As he put his ear to the door to try to hear if anyone was there, a voice seemed to float up from the back of his mind: Go straight home. That was what the Man Upstairs had said. Lily said that the Man Upstairs protects them, so maybe he should listen to him, even though he wouldn’t earlier. But he couldn’t listen to him. He had to regain the respect of the Light Brigade, and this was his chance. I have to do this, he thought, I don’t have a choice.
Hearing nothing beyond the door, he slowly pushed it open and peered inside. It was a large room that was fortunately deserted at this late hour. The room wasn’t very interesting, just rows of desks with computers and stacks of file folders. Will crept over to the nearest desk and looked through the folders.
They were each labeled “Operation Squirrel” followed by a number. Operation Squirrel? Sounds suspiciously like a code name for Acorn Grab. Could these numbers all be for people who are affected? Will wondered.
He randomly chose “Subject 000236” and looked inside. There were pages and pages and pages of graphs with squiggly lines on them. Looking more closely, he saw that the graphs were labeled EEG – he’d watched enough medical dramas to be pretty sure those were for measuring brain waves. What do brain waves have to do with a mobile game? He didn’t know, but he clicked a few pictures with his phone camera anyway; they were low res, but he hoped Mr. Turner would be able to understand them.
A quick look through the rest of the stack showed they were all full of the graphs, except the very bottom folder. It was labeled “Operation Squirrel Progress Reports.” Jackpot, Will thought. There were several reports each day, summarizing the effects that they were seeing in the EEGs. He didn’t really understand any of it, but it kept talking about terabytes of information, like on a computer. He quickly snapped pictures of the last few reports with his phone. He really needed to get out of there.
He was carefully putting the folders back in order when he heard footsteps approaching and realized that he was out of time. He sprinted for the door, only to discover that the footsteps were coming from the main hall. He darted towards the back of the room, where an open door beckoned him like a lighthouse for a safe harbor. Will almost made, he really did. That is until he bumped into the desk at the end in his panic to escape, producing a loud scraping noise that echoed through the room.
“Hey!” bellowed a burly voice, “What are you doing in here?”
Will didn’t stop. He took off running through the door without any idea of where he was going. He definitely should have listened to the Man Upstairs.