Page 23 of The Dauntless (Spy Girl 5)
She introduces herself as Aziza and says, “Welcome to the TerraSphere. We’ll be closing the city gate for our protection and proceed to the inner court.”
We follow her inside, and although nothing specific is coming back to me, I do recognize our path—from both my visit with my mom and from the video game, which was rendered in even greater detail than I realized.
“We are a self-contained city, meaning all the food we eat is grown here and the stream that flows through the city and in the fountains is part of our water purification system,” she says as we walk toward the center of the Sphere. “Here we have our main gathering space. In the States, we’d call it the center of town, but we call this place the dome.”
“The ceiling of the dome is beautiful,” I say, remembering lying on the floor and staring up at it with the girl I met here.
“The designer of the Sphere made sure there would be art and tranquil spaces for our citizens,” she says.
She gives us what I am assuming is her basic tour, showing us around but not really revealing much information. I have a feeling she doesn’t even know our names. We’re just some VIPs from some company that she has to deal with.
After an hour, she brings us back to the dome. “That concludes our tour. We have prepared an early lunch for you, and then you can make your return trip to the base.”
“Um,” I say, “maybe no one told you, but I’m Huntley Von Allister.”
“As in you’re related to Ares?” she says in shock.
“Yep. We’re attending a Von Allister Industries board meeting in London in a few days, and we need to inspect all of the facility.”
“I see. I was under the impression that this was just a typical topside tour.”
“No,” I say bluntly. “I have studied the plans at my father’s laboratory, and we will be seeing it all.”
“But I’m afraid that’s not allowed. Everything here is compartmentalized for security reasons. I don’t have access—”
“Find us someone who does,” Peter says, his eyebrow raised and looking very much like his father.
“That won’t be necessary,” I tell her. “We don’t need a guided tour. I have the blueprints and know where I’m going. And I am pretty sure the code my father gave me will allow me access to all areas. A fail-safe code, if you will.”
It’s just a hunch, but I know in my gut that I’m right. When we were here before, my mother had access.
She gives me a once-over, and I can tell by the look in her eyes, she doesn’t believe me.
“Well, let’s just do a little test,” she says with a smirk, leading us down a path, straight to Ares’s personal residence.
I stand in front of the keypad, enter my mother’s birthdate, and wait for the doors to open.
“Oh,” she says, backing away and bowing slightly in awe. “I’ll leave you to yourselves then.”
Peter leads the way inside with Viktor and me following.
I am immediately struck with a memory.
“Open that long drawer and bring me what’s inside,” Mom said. She’s sitting at the worn wooden table, notes spread out in front of her.
I do as she asked, pulling out a set of papers and taking them to her. “What’s all this?”
“They are called blueprints and show all the rooms in the building, including the ones underground.”
“Underground? That’s where Sophie’s dad works. He’s a scientist who works with dangerous germs.”
“Yes, most of the people who work underground are scientists.”
“I asked if we would find buried treasure here, and you said you wanted to find answers. Have you found them?”
“Not yet. That’s what the blueprints are for.”
I walk straight over to the same cabinet and open the drawer, hoping they are still there.
“What are you doing?” Viktor asks.
“Ares had a similar set of drawers at his office in DC. I thought maybe the full plans for the Sphere might be in here.”
“And it appears that they are,” Peter says, taking them out and spreading them across the same table from my memory. He moves his hand across the page. “Wow, look at this. There are thirty-three laboratories here. And some of them are research facilities for companies we know. McClellan biotech, Olander technical, Von Allister military development, Dupree pharmaceuticals, Prescott water purification as well as numerous governmental agencies. What do you say? Should we shake things up around here and go take a look?”
“I think we should.”
We visit each of the thirty-three underground facilities. No one seems to care that we are there. No one seems to be hiding anything. Mostly, there are a lot of scientists and tech people hunched over laboratory tables or computers. Really, the whole place reminds me of Von Allister’s lab in DC.
I ask a few extra questions when we visit McClellan’s space, trying to discover something sinister, but everyone who works there is super friendly, and honestly, they seem excited to have guests to talk to. The lead chemist there speaks to us at length about all the things they are doing to make crops drought resistant so that we can better feed the world.
“That was pretty cool,” Viktor says after we see the last one. “Like the TerraSphere itself, most of the research here is to help better the world.”
“Minus the military endeavors,” Peter quips.
“No, even those are to help cut casualties and reduce conflict time,” Viktor argues. “I mean,
I want peace as much as anyone, but sometimes, wars must be waged to protect the innocent.”
Peter rolls his eyes but doesn’t engage further, so we go back to the main drag of the Sphere. Since it’s now afternoon, the area is busier than it was earlier.
Viktor checks his watch. “We probably want to hit the road. It’s a six-hour flight to London, and I’d like to be there at a decent hour.”
“You have big plans?” I ask.
“Yeah, a good night’s sleep on thousand-thread-count sheets and a firm mattress,” he says seriously.
“Oh, you didn’t like the cots?” Peter teases. “Wuss.”
“Before we leave,” I say, “do you mind if I have a few minutes alone in my father’s room?”
“What for?” Peter asks. “We’ve gotten the full tour. I’m ready to get going.”
“I just want to, I don’t know, absorb his brilliance or something. You are both lucky that you know your fathers,” I add for effect.
“I think you should,” Viktor says, glancing at his watch. “Let’s see. It’s almost four. Why don’t we meet back here in twenty minutes? Just enough time for us to grab a snack, Peter.”
On my way there, I’m stopped by an old scientist from one of the Von Allister labs.
“Miss Von Allister,” he says, “may I have a word with you?”
I don’t have time to stop and talk to him, but I don’t want to be rude. “We’re getting ready to leave, but—”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be quick.” He pulls me out of the hall we’re in and leads me down the path to Ares’s quarters. Once we’re at the door and out of sight, he pulls a flash drive out of his pocket. “I worked with your father for more than twenty years. He was here not long before he passed, working on a project. One that would affect the future of the Sphere.” I give him a confused look, so he continues, “Quantum computing runs the Sphere, and while that is wonderful for this project, it can also be used in a bad way. The TerraSphere model is about to be launched at the Olympics. Ares worried about what could happen if his technology got into the wrong hands.”
