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And where was Tea with excess energy I knew this hat ht, whichwas, I felt nu it hard to focus on any one thing Just when I thoughtand I was about to tell Simon we shouldfroht inside the facility shut off all at once as it went entirely black

Behind the glass entrance, sirens blared to life

"That’s our cue!" Simon shouted above the alariven hi it to access the security panel beside the door, Willow pulled out a long, lass entrance to sht away, Si?"

"Wait! That was the plan? No one , but I couldn’t help myself Fro froer to his lips "Don’t worry We got this Jett knohat he’s doing," he said, a million times more quietly than I had

So Jett’s part of the plan was to draw the up the back one? Subtle, I thought, squeezingpressure behind my ears made my skull and teeth ache Whatever did the job, I supposed

But even as I thought it, I could already feelwhatever inme

I wasn’t sure whether "our cue" had been the sirens or the s blast itself, but I wasn’t about to be left behind, so I ducked through the hollowed-out fralass as I hurried after Simon and Willow The siren sound was louder, and there was so systehostly red pall thatseerunted and pointed down a deserted hallway I wondered where all the people were Scary-cute naht Division was part of the NSA, after all--the dreaded Taco it?

As ifsirens that cut through the air, Siure out the detonation was just a diversion We need to hurry"

Hurrying wasn’t a probleehaer from Jett’s distraction, but was exactly what it was supposed to be-- to crack a rib Simon hadn’t explained in detail ould happen to us if ere caught, but he’d explained enough and ination had filled in the rest In eneration that could undo the daent Truman and his buddies had in store for us

We reached a doorway, and again there was an access panel, and again Si not to use the key card he still clutched in his hand He pulled so from his backpack, and I watched as he affixed a sray stuff that ca and that my dad and I used to stretch and bounce and roll over the newspaper comics and then stretch so told it wasn’t Silly Putty, because of course it wasn’t, I took a few steps back at the same time Simon and Willow did Simultaneously we all covered our ears and ducked, and my heart continued to punch my chest

This detonation wasn’t nearly as intense as the first one In fact, I’d hardly heard it above the wail of the sirens, which were still screa This explosion didn’t co bang, followed by the even

That hen things got real, and this ordinary-looking building suddenly beca

"This is it, isn’t it? The central lab?" I eased past both Simon and Willow, not sure I’d have been able to stop o in there

They didn’t even have to answer because it totally was--I would have known the place anywhere There was nothing else it could have been If my dad had been there, I probably would have had to wipe the drool from his chin--this place was like crack for any alien conspiracy theorist

It was like I was standing on a movie setor a lot--an entire frickin’shot all the way up--two or three, maybe even four, stories The floor of this "central lab" was ht--the eht--see else around us Suspended so one entire wall, hat appeared to be an observation chalass Inside, the chaht was better than anyone else’s and I could see past the glass I knew there was no one in therewatching us

There were too s to look at all at once: sleek e glass cylinders that were so big you could probably fit an entire grown man in them and still have room left over, which made me wonder if that wasn’t exactly what they were for: people They had these giant tubes sticking out of them, some wide and some not, some attached and some not There were shelves littered with bottles and beakers and rubber hosing, and things I couldn’t evenlike thelass, and had that hospital-sterile appearance, but smellednot quite hospital-y