“You want us to…what?” Michael asked.
Everyone was still staring at Asante. After hearing his plan for finding Dr. Reed, Michael was sure he misheard him. Even he had to admit this idea was a bit far-fetched. He was willing to break school rules, skip classes, and even do some digging into the faculty’s personal lives to find the clues needed to rescue Dr. Reed. But this was beyond his scope of expertise.
“You really think that five, ten-year-old students are capable of reconstructing a government-commissioned mech suit?” LaNiya asked, “None of us know anything about engineering.”
That was true, except for David. Michael and LaNiya must have had the same idea. They both turned to David, who quickly began shaking his head.
“No way,” David said, “The shop mainly focuses on repairing vehicles like cars, trucks, and the occasional motorcycle. But nothing of this scale.”
“Can we go tell Principal Mays now?” Zuriya asked.
“What? Why? You didn’t even find your proof yet,” Michael said, “What exactly are we supposed to tell her?”
“That Asante has a way to track him down,” she answered, “If he’s really missing, then they can locate him using that…thing.”
She pointed to the mess of wires Asante had pushed out from the room.
“Maybe she or one of the grownups knows how to get it working again.”
“Not likely. She shouldn’t even know about the basement. None of the faculty should,”Asante said.
“Really?” Michael asked.
A secret place only they knew about? Just thinking about it made his eyes light up with excitement.
“How can the principal not know about this place? Does she need to approve everything that goes on at the school?” Zuriya asked.
“Nope,” Asante said. “That wasn’t part of the deal.”
“What deal?” LaNiya asked.
“And how do you know about any of this if even Principal Mays doesn’t know?” David asked.
“And what haven’t you told us about Dr. Reed? What was he really doing?” Michael asked.
Asante took the tablet back from LaNiya and placed it inside his bag.
“I don’t know all the specifics. Just what Dr. Reed told me and the few things I could pick up,” he said, “Mainly, Dr. Reed was commissioned by someone to build a mechanical suit.”
“What for?” Michael asked.
“Don’t know. He just said that he was taking over for someone else. I guess whoever was working on it before him,”Asante answered.
“Any idea who?” LaNiya asked.
“Not a clue. I don’t think Dr. Reed knew either.”
“Okay. What about the lab? Why doesn’t anyone else know about it?” David asked.
“Because that was part of the donation deal. Dr. Reed agreed to work on the commission, and in exchange, the school received a huge donation to be remodeled.”
“So, they installed this place over the summer?” Michael asked. “That was quick.”
“Then, he was hired to make the suits. There was no way he was kidnapped then.” Zuriya said.
Michael could only glare in her direction. He shared a look with LaNiya. She also looked conflicted. If that was all there was to it, the police would interfere. No one would. It would be seen as just business. But Michael couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to the story.
“Keep going, Asante,” Michael said.
“Why bother? It sounds like he had a business agreement with whoever you saw last night,” she continued, “They probably just wanted to talk—.”
“Except, those guys from last night weren’t the same people who hired Dr. Reed to make the suits,” Asante interrupted. “I’ve never seen them before.”
“So, someone else wanted access to his project?” LaNiya said.
“Who else knew about it?” David asked.
But Asante only shook his head. “Other than Dr. Reed, no one else should’ve known. I only know because he eventually got tired of my intrusions and let me help with the networking and programming. But he made me swear not to tell anyone else.”
“Then why did you tell any of us? Why did you even bring Michael and LaNiya with you?” Zuriya asked.
“I didn’t. I said you guys were free to stay or leave. I didn’t ask any of you to follow me.”
“Honestly, I just wanted to get into the ceiling,” LaNiya said, earning a small smile from Asante.
“Michael?”
“I thought it was odd he wanted to get into the room so badly. I was just curious,” Michael answered. “But good thing we did follow you.” He patted Asante’s back. “You almost didn’t make it.”
“Yeah. Thanks again for that,” Asante said.
“Sorry to ruin the moment, but you still haven’t shown any reason as to why we can’t tell Principal Mays,” Zuriya said, crossing her arms over her chest. “If anything, we should do her the favor and let her know about the dealings going on beneath her school.”
“You’re one of those people that can’t keep secrets, aren’t you?” Michael asked.
“I’m a realist. And a good student,” she retorted.
“You’re a follower. Incapable of doing anything without adult permission and supervision,” Michael said.
“Whatever,” she said. “You’ve got nothing to argue with. We’re not capable of building a mechanical suit. Wouldn’t we need some kind of manual or something?”
“Well, you’re not too far off,” Asante said.
He pulled out his tablet again. After a few taps, he lifted it up to show the group.
“We just have to follow this.”
The four leaned in, trying to see what was on the screen. But Michael didn’t understand any of it. He couldn’t even read it. The screen looked like a jumbled mess of poorly drawn diagrams, illegible equations, and randomly scribbled notes squished in the margins. How could anyone read this?
“Well, that’s definitely an engineer’s handwriting,” David said.
Michael took the tablet from Asante. He studied the screen and tried to see if he could make out some of the writing. He brought the screen up closer to his face as though it would aid in deciphering it.
“We can’t read this,” Zuriya said.
“The mind must do mental gymnastics when in the zone. How did he expect to be able to reread any of this afterwards?” Michael asked, handing the tablet back to Asante. “Can YOU even read it?”
“Umm…Kinda,” Asante said. “Most of the diagrams are self-explanatory. The math may prove some difficulty, though.”
“Maybe not,” LaNiya said, holding out her hand for the tablet. She quickly started swiping through the notes. David leaned over her shoulder.
“There’s no way that you can read that?” he exclaimed.
“Sure I can. All math looks like this when working through an equation.”
“What about you, Zuriya? Wanna give it a shot?” Asante asked.
But there was no response. Everyone lifted their heads up, looking around for their missing classmate.
“Zuriya? Where’d she go?”
The group scanned the basement room. Zuriya couldn’t have just wandered off. She didn’t have an interest in anything down there. But she wasn’t anywhere to be seen. The only other way out was up the stairs. Michael walked over to the base of the stairs and listened. There were faint steps echoing from the stairwell. He cupped his hands over his mouth.
“Zuriya! Where are you going?” he yelled.
“To the principal’s office,” she yelled back. “She needs to know about this.”
Michael couldn’t believe it. Here they were, in a secret, underground laboratory, a kidnapped teacher and clues to figure out where he was taken. They had the means to find him themselves. Why did she feel the need to trust the grownups to handle this?
Before Michael could say anything back, Asante had dashed past him. He was running up the stairs after Zuriya. He shared a confused look with both LaNiya and David before all three followed up the stairs. When they reached Zuriya and Asante, the boy had spread his arms wide, blocking her from continuing up the rest of the stairs.
“Get out of the way, Asante,” Zuriya said.
“I can’t let you tell Principal Mays or anyone. It would just put them in danger.”
“There is no concrete proof that anyone is in danger,” she said, raising her voice. “You didn’t prove Dr. Reed was kidnapped. Just that he was hired to build something.”
Zuriya turned back to the trio behind her, pointing to Michael and LaNiya.
“Frankly, I’m more convinced that this was all just a misunderstanding,” she said. “I mean, are you sure he was even forced to leave with those guys?”
“You calling us liars?” Michael asked.
He took a step towards Zuriya, but David pulled back on his shoulder. His face clearly warned him not to start another fight.
“And what about you, David? You on her side?”
David looked conflicted. He kept glancing between Zuriya and Michael.
“I-I don’t know. It’s hard since I wasn’t there,” he said.
“See?” Zuriya said.
“But regardless, Asante said that those guys weren’t who initially hired Dr. Reed,” LaNiya added. “They shouldn’t have access to the suits. But they took them anyway. That’s gotta be something, right?”
“Right,” Asante said, still blocking the pathway.
“Then shouldn’t that count?” Michael asked Zuriya.
“No. Because—”
“We’re not likely to find concrete evidence, Zuriya. Bad guys don’t leave behind notes detailing all their plans.” Michael interrupted. “He’s gone. His suit is gone. And the rooms upstairs were deep cleaned and straightened back up. That sounds like people who don’t want to leave any evidence behind.”
“W-well,” Zuriya stammered.
“The best chance we have to find him is with the GPS. We even have the manual you asked for. So why do you feel so inclined to trust the adults? All the adults in the story have been keeping secrets. You really think they’re all going to be in favor of finding Dr. Reed.”
He knew nothing was going to happen if they left it to the police. At most, they’d start looking into the matter after 72 hours. Who knows what could happen in that amount of time? They had a lead, and he wanted to take it.
“Why do you care so much about saving him yourself? Why don’t you want the adults to help?” Zuriya asked, pointing to Michael.
“I don’t trust officials,” Michael answered. “Plus, we don’t know who else is working for those guys from last night.”
“True,” LaNiya agreed. “What if they start coming after us?”
“Plus, the police won’t even consider looking for him. The school said he’s on leave,” David added.
“You said it yourself, Zuriya,” Asante said, “There’s no concrete proof. But I know what I saw.”
“Me too,” LaNiya said.
“Same,” Michael added.
“Regular people wouldn’t have chased us out of the school,” David continued. “Doesn’t that seem suspicious?”
“Nor would they have brought weapons into the school building,” LaNiya stated.
“So, what do we do then?” Zuriya asked.
“We take it one step at a time,” Asante answered. “Reconstruct the suit and the GPS.”
“We can confirm where Dr. Reed is. Then we take it from there,” David said.
“Can you promise not to go to the adults, at least until then?” Michael asked.
Zuriya hesitated. Michael worried that she was just going to push past Asante and make a mad dash to Principal Mays’s office. But she soon let out a long sigh. She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Until the GPS is finished,” she said. “We’ll see about afterwards.”
“Deal,” Asante said, finally lowering his arms.
“I’m in for now, then,” David said.
“Me too,” LaNiya added.
Michael felt his shoulder fall and relax. He didn’t realize how much tension he had been holding in.
“Awesome. Hang on,” Asante said. He turned his back to the group and lifted the tablet. He opened the camera and switched to mirror mode.
“I officially declare the first meeting of the STEM Club. And commemorate our first assignment.”
“What assignment?” Zuriya asked.
“Operation: Copy Cats,” he said, taking the picture.