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Authors: Michael Carroll
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length of a football field in each direction. It was almost featureless except for a wide stairway that led down to a set of steel doors and a hangar that was just large enough to take the StratoTruck.
“Come on, Colin!” his father shouted from the top of the stairwell.
Colin hurried over to the others and followed them down to the doors.
As he got closer, he saw that the man he’d spotted from almost a mile away was wrapped in a thick coat. He was smiling at them, his cheeks red with the cold.
“Hi, I’m Josh Dalton.” Josh was in his early thirties, with thinning hair and a touch of flabbiness around his face and neck. “So everyone’s here? Great!” He pointed to a glowing glass panel next to the doors. “Handprint reader,” he explained. “These doors are impossible to open to anyone not registered on the system. Right now, you’re all being scanned to check your identities. It’ll take a couple of minutes.”
“What other security does this place have?” Warren asked.
“Very thick walls,” Josh said, with a sly smile. “Seriously. The whole shell of the building is four-foot-thick concrete reinforced with steel beams. Its pyramidal shape means that structurally it’s very sound. The windows are two-inch Plexiglas, completely bulletproof. Nothing short of a nuclear weapon is going to breach this building. This is the
only
way in; the doorway on the ground level is fake. Inside, every room has only one doorway and all the doors can be sealed remotely. In the unlikely event of someone breaking in, we just seal all the doors and they’re trapped.”
“What about people? I mean, actual human security guards?”
“We have two security specialists; they’re the men currently guarding your homes.” Josh smiled. “With our system, we don’t really
need
security guards.”
Rose Cooper said, “That’s all very well, Mr. Dalton, but locking all the doors doesn’t sound too safe if there’s a fire!”
“Every room is equipped with at least two CDH delivery systems. CDH is Carbon Dioxide Hydrate. If a fire is detected the system shoots out hundreds of tiny CDH pellets. They react to the heat and release water and carbon dioxide.” Josh smiled again. “Trust me on this, Rose…Your boys will be safe here.”
The glass panel beeped once and a green light came on. Josh pressed his hand against the panel and the doors slid quietly open. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your new home, headquarters and general base of operations. Welcome to Sakkara.”
7
W HILE THE OTHERS WERE BEING SHOWN to their rooms, Solomon Cord took Colin, Renata and Danny on a brief tour of Sakkara.
Their first stop was what Cord called “Nostalgia Central”—a large, mostly empty room that contained a dozen life-sized mannequins, each in its own glass case. Most of the mannequins were bare, but three of them wore replicas of the costumes once worn by The High Command.
“Josh says he’s been planning to turn this room into a sort of superhero museum,” Cord explained. “If you ask me, it’s a little self-indulgent.”
Colin stopped in front of the mannequin wearing Max Dalton’s costume. “Doesn’t look much like him.”
“Yeah,” Danny said. “Shouldn’t it be wearing a prison uniform?”
Renata walked around the blank mannequins and said, “Hey, most of these things have names on them! Apex, Titan, there’s Energy over there! What’s this empty one for…? Oh.” Her face fell.
“What is it?” Danny asked, walking over to her.
“It’s me.” Renata pointed to the small plaque on the base of the empty glass case. “Diamond. Real name unknown. Why is there no mannequin in it?”
Solomon Cord said, “When you got frozen, everyone thought you were dead. Josh was going to put you there.”
Renata shivered. “God, that’s just creepy!”
“Max had put your body into storage. Josh said that he’d never been able to figure out a way of getting you back without alerting his brother as to
“Come on, Colin!” his father shouted from the top of the stairwell.
Colin hurried over to the others and followed them down to the doors.
As he got closer, he saw that the man he’d spotted from almost a mile away was wrapped in a thick coat. He was smiling at them, his cheeks red with the cold.
“Hi, I’m Josh Dalton.” Josh was in his early thirties, with thinning hair and a touch of flabbiness around his face and neck. “So everyone’s here? Great!” He pointed to a glowing glass panel next to the doors. “Handprint reader,” he explained. “These doors are impossible to open to anyone not registered on the system. Right now, you’re all being scanned to check your identities. It’ll take a couple of minutes.”
“What other security does this place have?” Warren asked.
“Very thick walls,” Josh said, with a sly smile. “Seriously. The whole shell of the building is four-foot-thick concrete reinforced with steel beams. Its pyramidal shape means that structurally it’s very sound. The windows are two-inch Plexiglas, completely bulletproof. Nothing short of a nuclear weapon is going to breach this building. This is the
only
way in; the doorway on the ground level is fake. Inside, every room has only one doorway and all the doors can be sealed remotely. In the unlikely event of someone breaking in, we just seal all the doors and they’re trapped.”
“What about people? I mean, actual human security guards?”
“We have two security specialists; they’re the men currently guarding your homes.” Josh smiled. “With our system, we don’t really
need
security guards.”
Rose Cooper said, “That’s all very well, Mr. Dalton, but locking all the doors doesn’t sound too safe if there’s a fire!”
“Every room is equipped with at least two CDH delivery systems. CDH is Carbon Dioxide Hydrate. If a fire is detected the system shoots out hundreds of tiny CDH pellets. They react to the heat and release water and carbon dioxide.” Josh smiled again. “Trust me on this, Rose…Your boys will be safe here.”
The glass panel beeped once and a green light came on. Josh pressed his hand against the panel and the doors slid quietly open. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your new home, headquarters and general base of operations. Welcome to Sakkara.”
7
W HILE THE OTHERS WERE BEING SHOWN to their rooms, Solomon Cord took Colin, Renata and Danny on a brief tour of Sakkara.
Their first stop was what Cord called “Nostalgia Central”—a large, mostly empty room that contained a dozen life-sized mannequins, each in its own glass case. Most of the mannequins were bare, but three of them wore replicas of the costumes once worn by The High Command.
“Josh says he’s been planning to turn this room into a sort of superhero museum,” Cord explained. “If you ask me, it’s a little self-indulgent.”
Colin stopped in front of the mannequin wearing Max Dalton’s costume. “Doesn’t look much like him.”
“Yeah,” Danny said. “Shouldn’t it be wearing a prison uniform?”
Renata walked around the blank mannequins and said, “Hey, most of these things have names on them! Apex, Titan, there’s Energy over there! What’s this empty one for…? Oh.” Her face fell.
“What is it?” Danny asked, walking over to her.
“It’s me.” Renata pointed to the small plaque on the base of the empty glass case. “Diamond. Real name unknown. Why is there no mannequin in it?”
Solomon Cord said, “When you got frozen, everyone thought you were dead. Josh was going to put you there.”
Renata shivered. “God, that’s just creepy!”
“Max had put your body into storage. Josh said that he’d never been able to figure out a way of getting you back without alerting his brother as to
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