I was lucky. Kind of. Totally off balance, both feet went right off the girder. Which meant that as I went down, I spun and hit the steel beam with my chest. I felt a flash of intense pain as all the air was knocked out of my lungs. Just by reflex, both hands grabbed onto the far edge of the I-shaped girder. But right away, my fingers started slipping. And I still couldn’t squeeze in a full breath. I’d only delayed my long fall into the harbor. And from this high up, hitting the water would kill me.
For a minute there was just the sound of the waves, the traffic above me and my ragged breathing. The steady wind was making me feel cold and clammy. I started to shiver.
“Gimme your hand.”
I looked up and there was Kieran, sitting next to me with his arm outstretched. His long hair was out of the ponytail and was matted with sweat to his forehead. He must have somehow spidered across the girders to get here. Now he was the only thing that could keep me from dropping like a rock.
I released my left hand and held it out to him. He locked onto my wrist with two hands. Slowly, carefully, we worked to get me back into a sitting position on the girder.
Now Kieran and I looked like two kids facing each other on a playground teeter-totter, legs dangling almost a hundred feet above the water. I laughed, kind of high-pitched and nervous.
“You think that was funny?” said Kieran, but he was smiling. “You’re crazier than me, man.”
“I’m crazy? You’re the one who pitched my gear into the bay. You’re the one who got us up here.” Despite my relief, the anger started to seep back in.
“I saved your life too.”
“Yeah. I guess you did,” I admitted.
“But that thing with your backpack, that was an asshole move. I get carried away sometimes, kind of lose control, you know? I’m sorry.” Kieran was looking straight at me like he meant it.
“There was a hundred bucks of climbing gear in that bag. I don’t have that kind of money to lose.” More than angry, I was just feeling sorry for myself all of a sudden. I was shivering pretty badly now. I was starting to hurt. Kieran was staring at me.
“Let’s get down from here. You look like crap. Then you tell me how much you need and I’ll take care of it.”
By the time we carefully picked our way down off the bridge, it was about 11:00 pm. I’d told my parents I was hanging at Jake’s tonight. On Friday nights they usually let me stay out until midnight. So I agreed when Kieran offered to buy me a coffee before I headed home.
We found a place that was still open. The sour-faced waitress didn’t look impressed by our appearance when we walked in. Two dirty, tired teenagers in ripped-up clothes. But she took our order without complaint. We settled into a brown vinyl-covered booth at the back. I watched as Kieran dug some pills out his pocket, washing them down with his coffee. Kieran saw my look.
“Headache,” he explained. “So money’s an issue for you?” I was working on a donut with one hand and cradling my mug of hot coffee with the other. My fingers were starting to thaw out.
“It’s not that big a deal. Both my parents are working now. It’s not like we’re poor. But, yeah, I need to find my own cash. And I don’t have a job right now. Or anything lined up for the summer.” That brought back memories of Asha. I was pretty sure she’d been avoiding me after our conversation in the lab.
“Fair enough. Like I said, I feel bad about chucking your gear in the bay,” said Kieran. “Is this enough to cover it?” He pulled out a wad of bills and peeled off a couple of fifties. He slid them across the table. I just stared at them.
“Where’d you get that kind of cash?” I said. Kieran laughed.
“You want it or not?” he said. I did. So I took the money. Like Kieran had said, fair enough. He might act crazy, but at least he knew how to make things right again.
“You know, I might be able to help you earn some serious scratch,” Kieran said. He leaned back in the booth and squinted at me. “Despite your slipup there, you were pretty awesome. I still don’t know how you got ahead of me. I gave myself a pretty good head start.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice,” I answered. “My parents are always busy, and I don’t have any brothers or sisters. So there’s no one to look over my shoulder. Which means I’ve been crawling all over the city since I was, like, twelve.”
“It shows. You’re good,” he said. Then he leaned across the table. “I want your help. I need to get in somewhere, and I don’t know how to do it. You figure it out, and there’s money in it for you.”
“What, you’d hire me to be your tour guide? You messing with me?” I said.
“No, I’m dead serious,” he said, dropping his voice. “It’s like this. My dad works at a company called DMA. They do high-tech stuff for the military. Building drone planes, putting satellites together. My dad said that they even used to build rockets for NASA back in the 1960s. They used to be a huge company, but now they’ve cut back.
“A couple of months ago, my dad transferred to this branch of DMA. Then, after we moved, there was about a week before I could start school. So my dad decided to bring me to work. Didn’t want to leave me alone in the house, he said. Like I needed a babysitter. Anyways, I was able to explore around some of the DMA buildings while I was there. It’s like a small city out there, big gate around the whole thing. Here, take a look at this.” He pulled out his smartphone, swiped at it for a moment, then handed it to me. There was a series of pictures on it-a bunch of big ware-houses, clearly unused for a long time. The inside of some kind of lab, lots of wiring and computers, crazy-looking equipment scattered around. It looked like an abandoned mad scientist’s lab. It looked totally amazing.
“So I had this idea,” Kieran continued. “The company owns a ton of space with all these warehouses and labs. But they only use a tiny part of it now. Most of that place is basically abandoned.”
“But your dad still works there, right? So it’s not all abandoned. Doesn’t that mean there’s security? If it’s military, pretty serious security?”
Kieran looked smug. He lowered his voice.
“My dad is the head of security for the DMA site. That’s why I’ve got blueprints, plans of the entire place. Everything we need to figure out how to get in.”
“You stole them from him?”
“Copied them from his laptop to mine,” said Kieran. He pulled out his lighter and started fiddling with it. “So what do you think?”
“What if your dad figures out you stole stuff from him?”
“Whatever. Forget about my dad. We won’t get caught. It’s not like he’ll suspect me. He barely knows I’m around most of the time.”
Kieran’s cold blue eyes studied me. The whole situation seemed seriously sketchy.
“You just want to get in there to explore? It doesn’t seem worth the risk,” I said at last. I drained the last cold puddle of coffee from my mug.
“Well, I haven’t told you every-thing,” said Kieran. “This is where the money comes in. In these files I got from my dad’s laptop, there was an email. The company is storing a bunch of stuff in one of the old warehouses. Crates of high-end smartphones that DMA was going to use for testing or something.”
“So what?” I asked.
“So we figure out a way in. We bring a couple of backpacks, fill them up with the phones and stuff. I’ll take care of selling them and give you half the profits.”
I shook my head. “I’m not a thief. I’ve never taken a thing from the places I’ve been. No way.”
“This isn’t even stealing. DMA won’t even know that the stuff is missing. And we could make five grand, easy.” The number was a shock to me-that was a ton of money. My bank account had never broken a thousand, even when I was working after school.
All of a sudden, exhaustion came crashing down on me.
“I don’t know. I need to think about this,” I said. The coffee shop felt over-heated and damp. I looked at my watch. It was close to midnight. “I need to get home. My parents are going to freak if they catch me out this late.”
“Don’t sweat it. I’ll drive you home. So you never steal and you always stick to your curfew?” Kieran said. He tossed some cash on the plastic table, and we left. His car was parked nearby, a used sports car, a little beaten up. We took off, Kieran accelerating hard. The way he drove, I’d make it home before my curfew. No problem.
“One more question,” I said, watching as Kieran steered expertly in and out of traffic. “Why me? Why not just do the whole job yourself?”
Kieran stared straight ahead, wrist draped over the wheel. Cars blurred by.
“Why you?” he said. “Because you’re actually as good as your online rep. You’re smart. You know what you’re doing.”
We were driving faster now, the speed pushing me back into my seat.
“I want to get into DMA,” said Kieran. “And I know exactly how tough it’s going to be. I can’t do it alone. I need you, man.”