“Okay, hand me the rope-ladder,” said Jack.
Ben opened his backpack, withdrew a jumble of rope and plastic rungs and handed two hooks up to Jack. Setting the hooks on the lip of the entrance, Jack fed the ladder inside the building. He peered into the darkness, trying to see how far the ladder extended.
“Hit the switch,” said Stephen from below.
“Oh yeah,” said Jack. He reached up and flipped the switch mounted to the ceiling of the hatch. “I think it goes almost all the way down.”
“Come back down for a second,” said Ben.
When Jack reached the porch roof the three stood in a circle, eye-to-eye. “What’s up?” asked Jack.
“Okay,” said Ben, “this is where it gets serious. We could get into real trouble for going in here, and not just being grounded. There could be really dangerous stuff ahead—we don’t even know what.”
“Anything is possible,” said Stephen, “but we’ll just take it slow and we’ll be fine.”
“Who’s going down?” asked Jack.
“I want to,” said Ben. “But I’m just going to go down the ladder, look around, and then we’ll figure out what to do next.”
“Okay,” said Jack, “but I get to go second.”
“And I get your video games if you don’t come back,” added Stephen.
“We should have brought the walkie-talkies,” said Jack.
“You’ll be able to hear me,” said Ben. “It’s not that far.” He started up the stepladder. When he reached the top, he turned around and lifted his leg backwards through the hole. Jack and Stephen watched as he disappeared into the hatch. When his right hand let go of the edge Jack went up the ladder to look over the side. Ben was about halfway down the ladder.
“Can you see anything yet?” Jack asked.
“Nothing yet,” said Ben. He paused and leaned back and to his left. “Well, there’s a room down here.”
Jack held the hooks attached to the edge of the wall. Ben dropped the few feet from the bottom of the ladder to the floor and then took a couple of tentative steps away from the wall. His head turned for a few seconds, like he was scanning the room, and then he turned back to the ladder.
“Coming back up,” Ben said. When he was at the top, Jack cleared out of his way and they reconvened on the porch roof.
“It’s not very big,” said Ben. “Maybe a little smaller than your room,” he pointed to Jack. “Three of the walls are blank—kinda white or gray. There’s a picture of a man on one wall; like a biology picture or something. No doors or anything, but on the right wall there’s a ladder attached to the wall and a hole in the ceiling. I couldn’t see up there because it was dark.”
“Any vents, or outlets, or anything?” asked Jack.
“Nope, just blank walls,” said Ben. “I think the floor is concrete.”
“What kind of ladder?” asked Stephen. “Would it hold us?”
“Yeah, I think so,” said Ben. “Looked real sturdy.”
“We’ve got lights—let’s go,” said Jack.
“I think only one of us should go all the way in,” said Ben. “What if the hatch closes behind us, or something else happens. We need someone to go back to your house and tell your mom.”
“That sucks though,” said Stephen.
“Well, look,” said Ben, “you guys can go and see the ladder and I’ll stay here for now.”
“Yeah, and we’ll come back when we figure out where the ladder goes,” said Jack.
“Just make sure one of you stays close enough so I can hear if you yell or something,” said Ben.
“Okay,” said Stephen, “I’ll stay at the bottom this time.”
With that agreement, they took their places. At the bottom of the rope ladder, Jack and Stephen were impressed with Ben’s understatement. Three walls were blank, but the fourth wall was an amazing depiction of the inner workings of the human body. The painting was life-sized and stood about six-feet tall. The left half mostly showed skin and the right was a collection of muscles, bones, and organs.
“Wow,” exhaled Jack.
“This thing is creepy,” Stephen yelled up the chimney to Ben.
Ben didn’t meet Stephen’s gaze, but replied: “I know.”
“Okay,” Jack said to Stephen, “let’s check out this next ladder.”
They reviewed the ladder that was attached to the side wall. It was wooden and nailed together. Made sturdy by its attachment, it didn’t look like it would stand alone. At the ceiling the ladder passed through a hole cut into the drywall—the ceiling was about a foot thick and the sides of the hole were framed with lumber. Jack shone his light and realized that the ladder went just higher than the ceiling, stopped for a few inches, and then another section of ladder continued. The darkness above swallowed their lights, but it looked like there was a room up there.
“You ready?” asked Stephen.
“Don’t rush me,” said Jack.
“Want me to go?”
“No way.” Jack tucked his flashlight into his back pocket and started up the ladder—testing each rung. When his head was level with the ceiling, he paused and pulled out his light. He swept it around the space above him.
“Can’t see much,” said Jack. “There’s definitely a room, but it must be pretty big—I can’t see the walls.”
Jack put the flashlight in his mouth and climbed another rung. He was twisted away from the wall so he would see what was in the space behind him.
“Anything?” asked Stephen.
From just outside, Stephen heard Ben—“What’s going on?”
“He’s looking—there’s a room,” answered Stephen.
His left foot up to the next run, Jack prepared to rise into the room above. He looked around one last time and reached past the gap with his left hand. As Stephen watched, his impatience grew.
“What do you see?” Stephen asked.
Jack’s mouth was full of flashlight, but he began to answer as his left hand grasped the rung that was in the room above — “Huuu oy” he said and then several things happened at once. Jack bit down hard on the light, his body went rigid, and a panel began to seal the hole in the ceiling—closing at a measured pace towards Jack’s hand. He fell from his perch on the ladder, letting go of the rung just as the panel sealed shut above him. Stephen’s jaw fell open at the sight of Jack in a pile at his feet.
He rushed to Jack’s aid—“What happened?” he asked.
Spitting out the flashlight, Jack raised his hand to look at it. Stephen was now staring up at the ceiling—the panel fitting nicely into the gap in the ladder.
“It shocked me,” Jack finally announced. “Hey! Go back up there,” he yelled at Ben who was descending the rope-ladder.
“Okay, whatever,” Ben said and started back up.
“Let’s get out of here,” said Jack.
The two climbed out, pulled up the rope-ladder, and joined Ben on the porch roof.
“Maybe it’s not safe to hang out here,” said Jack. “Let’s go in the woods.”
“But what happened?” asked Stephen.
“I’ll tell you away from here,” said Jack.
**********
They collected their gear and crept back to the the path in the woods. Just out of sight of the hotel, they formed a small circle to discuss the event.
“It was some kind of shock,” said Jack.
“Like electrified?” asked Ben.
“Yeah,” said Jack, “when I touched the rung above the ceiling, I felt it in my fingers. I think the backs of the rung had metal or something. At first I couldn’t let go and I thought that door was going to crush my hand.” Jack rubbed his left hand.
“What door?” said Ben.
“It was like a trap door that shut off the hole,” said Stephen. “It must have been triggered when he touched that ladder; it was moving fast.”
“You have to be grounded to get shocked,” said Ben.
“Maybe the other part of the ladder was electrified too,” said Jack. “All I know is I started to grab that rung and when my hand closed on it, I got shocked.”
A branch cracked behind Stephen and their heads snapped around. When they saw no threat Jack sighed and they all relaxed a bit. For a moment they were silent as they collected their thoughts.
Ben spoke first—“Do you think you could get it open?” he asked.
“What?” Jack was astonished. “You want to go back there? It’s a trap.”
“It’s not a trap,” said Stephen. “He doesn’t want us getting in, but he didn’t try to trap us.”
“But it’s dangerous,” argued Jack. “Even if we do get the panel open, who knows what else is there.”
“We’ll have to be careful,” said Ben, “but what you found just makes it even more likely that there’s something worth hiding in there.”
“Look at my hand.” Jack held up his palm to Ben and Stephen. A line of blisters stood out across the top of his palm. “This guy is not afraid to hurt us.”
“But it could have been worse,” countered Stephen. “I think he wanted us to get scared off, not hurt.”
Jack tried a different tack—“We
just
promised my parents that we would run to them the second we found anything dangerous. Don’t you think this qualifies?”
“The first thing they’ll ask is ‘Why didn’t you tell us about this before, Jack?’” said Ben. “I mean, we’re really deep in this now. No way we’re telling them we’ve been trying to figure out how to break in this hotel for days.”
“You gotta admit, this is the coolest thing you’ve ever seen,” said Stephen.
“No way—we’re not going near that place again.”
“Oh, come on,” said Ben. “We have to go back in a week, to see if anyone puts money there.”
“Yeah, they’ll probably figure out we broke in and shoot us,” said Jack.
“Oh please,” sighed Ben.
They argued all the way back to Jack’s house. His mom was out so they had no problem sneaking the ladder back into the garage. They had a late lunch of peanut-butter sandwiches while Jack put ice on his fingers.
Stephen was the first to bring up the hotel. In a hushed tone, he said “Look, we have to go back.” he looked at Ben. Turning to Jack—“You don’t have to go if you don’t want.”
“Yeah, right,” said Jack. “I’m not letting you guys get yourselves killed.”
“Hey!” said Ben, brightening. “What if we cut power to the place?”
“How are we going to do that?” asked Jack. “That’s probably more dangerous than the traps.”
“Besides, the hatch must be powered,” said Stephen. “We won’t be able to get in if we cut the power. Why don’t you just grow a pair, Jack?”
“Look,” said Jack, “this is simple—we’re not going back, and if you guys try, I’m going to tell my parents. It’s just too dangerous.”
The boys were silenced by the impasse.
**********
When Ben awoke Saturday morning, he was in a good mood until Stephen reminded him of Jack’s threat. Their room shared a wall with Jack’s parents, so they conspired quietly.
“You gotta talk to him,” Stephen said to Ben.
“Yeah, I guess,” said Ben. “He seemed like his mind was made up.”
“There’s probably something really cool in there though,” said Stephen. “I gotta know.”
“Okay,” said Ben. He threw off his covers and checked the clock. It was seven in the morning. Cracking the door, he looked down the hall and noted that all the bedroom doors were closed. Ben slipped into the hallway and closed the door silently behind him. Tapping once on Jack’s door, he let himself in. On his bed, Jack studied the letter they had found.
“Hey,” said Ben.
“Hey,” Jack replied. “I think I figured part of this out.”
“Oh yeah?” said Ben.
“Yeah,” said Jack. “It has several riddles in it and there’s a code to it, too.”
“Yeah?”
“And he makes direct reference to the trap I hit, as well as others,” said Jack.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” said Jack. “Anyway, if I’m right, it means there’s another trap in that room.”