The Madrona Heroes Register: Underneath It All

Chapter 4 - The Accidental Summer Camp

“I want you to sit here and not move.”

“For how long? What am I supposed to do?” Ollie fidgeted on the black leather couch.

Gore Grater stood a few feet away inside Samantha Trace’s office doing a fair bit of fidgeting of his own.

“I thought you brought your sketchpad?” Samantha asked her son impatiently.

“I did, but what am I supposed to draw?” Ollie whined.

Samantha scanned the outer area briefly lighting on a potted plant a few feet away. “What about that plant?”

“It’s fake.”

Grater cleared his throat.

“It’s gonna have to do for now. I need to start my first meeting. Stay put until it’s done and then we’ll see if we can find a better spot for you.” With that, Dr. Samantha Trace entered her office and closed the door.

§

“What if I sit very very quietly? I’ll be invisible.” Cassie pleaded with her brother giving him a knowing raise of her eyebrow.

Zach laughed a little despite himself, “Isn’t there anything else you can go do right now?”

“Nope.” Cassie shook her head giving her best earnest look.

Zach looked at his sister for a few moments before he let out a resigned sigh and turned back to his computer screen. Zach took a deep breath and seemed to recommit to whatever task he had in mind. 

Zach loaded a mapping program. It showed a map of most of the planet. He typed in the Jordan’s home address. The program zoomed with lightning speed to an aerial view of the Madrona neighborhood in which the Jordans lived. Zach used his mouse to move up the hillside until he could see the Madrona park where he’d met Zoe and Gabe and the white-haired boy the previous evening.

Zach dropped a virtual pin on the spot where he’d seen Zoe create the huge hole in the ground. Then Zach drew a line from the pin outwards on the screen. The line was the radius of a circle that kept expanding as Zach drew the line. The circle grew until a little figure of a person in the upper right hand corner of the screen read “5 min”. Zach thought for a moment and then extended the circle further until the readout said “10 min”.

§

Victor Barrios was no closer to understanding his supervisor than he had been at any time in his several years of employment as a security guard at Luce Labs. It wasn’t that Grater was a particularly complicated man. Quite the opposite. He was overly simplistic; viewing the world in only black and white. And often, mean. In Victor’s mind, the combination was dangerous.

Victor couldn’t help but think back to the incidents of the previous summer and the venom that had possessed his boss when they had failed to capture a little girl running around the campus. While Victor didn’t think kids should be running around Luce Labs, he was relatively certain that a few children didn’t represent a real threat to the proprietary research of a big company.

Maybe it was the thought of Victor’s own young daughter’s face judging him, or maybe it was Victor’s appreciation of the steady job, or maybe it just wasn’t in Victor’s nature. Whatever the reason, Victor had a hard time feeling that kind of anger at anyone. Especially at a little girl. 

So when Victor saw what looked like a young boy with almost white hair sneaking into the Greenhouse on the Luce Labs campus, he wasn’t angry, but he was eager to make sure that this boy didn’t end up on the receiving end of his boss’ rage. Avoiding that outcome would be best for all involved.