The tunnel went quickly, now that we knew what to look out for. I used the collapsible pole to poke ahead of us until we hit the drain tube that had caught Jake. Kieran was a strong swimmer, so he went first. He fought his way up the tunnel against the current, holding one end of the climbing rope. When he’d gotten far enough, he got his footing again, then held the rope while I pulled myself over the drain tube.
Kieran had barely said a word since we’d left his house. The entire way up he seemed jumpy, constantly checking the rearview mirror. It was like he kept seeing something that I wasn’t, or hearing noises that weren’t there. I was worried about those pills he was taking. He’d popped some on the drive up here. They couldn’t be helping the situation.
Eventually we reached the end of the tunnel. We were too tired to celebrate. At this end of the tunnel, there was a metal grate similar to the one covering the entrance. But this grate was attached to the concrete with hinges on one side, and a padlock on the other. I pulled out my bolt cutters and snapped it off. With a strong push, the grate swung open. We were in.
We were underneath the engine testing platform, hidden from sight by some high walls protecting the tunnel entrance. The platform was awesome in the moon-light, a towering framework of rusted metal and concrete soaring three stories up. It was clearly old and abandoned, overgrown with bushes. There was crumbled concrete scattered all around. I paused for a moment, imagining a rocket engine strapped to that thing, flames gushing down over where we stood, funneling down the tunnel we had just come up. The black-and-white photos I’d looked at when I’d been researching this place didn’t do it justice. I thought about taking some pictures to post on the Citycrawler website. Nobody would believe that I’d gotten in. Then I realized that I didn’t want any evidence of what were doing.
“C’mon,” said Kieran. “Enough sightseeing.” He was right. We pulled dry clothes out of the garbage bags in our backpacks. We both dressed the same, in dark hoodies, black cargo pants, black boots. Then we carefully closed up the metal grate, placing the broken padlock back together so no one would suspect a thing.
I got a bearing using the gps and the map on my smartphone. I pointed in the direction we needed to go. Silently, Kieran and I ran across the facility grounds. We stuck to the shadows, clinging to the sides of big dark buildings. In the distance, I could see lights glowing in a few places. It felt like we were creeping through a strange city during a power outage.
I paused to stop and check the map. Cradling the phone in my hand, I tried to keep the light from the screen from giving us away. We were about halfway to our target, the gigantic ware-house that loomed up in the distance. The trouble was, we were on the south side of the warehouse. According to the information Kieran had given me, there was an old loading dock on the north side that we could probably break in through. So now we just had to get around to the other side of the warehouse.
I was distracted by trying to figure out the best way to do this now that I could see things on the ground. That’s why I hadn’t noticed the low, mechanical noise in the distance. But then the noise got louder. I realized what it was when I saw the headlights. A truck. A guard. Coming our way.