JEM SLOWLY GOT OUT of the car and looked around. On the other side of the Kia, Petar did the same, then skipped around the front of the vehicle to get off the road. They were parked on the side of a quiet four-lane road at the edge of a long lawn that sloped gently downward to a square, white-roofed building.

A few feet from the road a wide, white pedestrian walkway ran parallel to the street, and about two dozen feet away, down the sloping lawn, grew two massive pinyon trees, their thick boughs bent with a heavy growth of clustered needles. It looked like a cross between an industrial block and a recreational park.

In the distance, Jem saw the peaks of the Rockies rising over a nestled bundle of buildings and homes that stretched like a doll's village in the middle distance. The sky was an irridescent blue that shimmered around a scattering of fluffy white clouds.

"This is your father's lab?" Jem asked, confused. He'd been expecting something different. Lightning maybe. A distinctive Tesla coil or two, tossing out showers of sparks. Farther down the lawn, an elderly lady with a poodle stopped to scoop something off the grass with a plastic bag.

"It was. At least, I think it was," Petar added after a moment. "See, in 1900, the year after I was born, the lab was torn down and sold as raw materials to pay off some of the debts my father had accrued. At the time, it didn't seem particularly important to mark the spot, and it's only recently that anybody's had any real interest in where it was located."

"Well why are we here if the lab's gone?"

"When they tore it down, they only took down the surface building. That was where he was doing most of his wireless power transmission experiments. It was a beautiful cover – a fifty-foot-high Tesla coil, high-voltage sparks lighting up the night sky, a razor-wire fence around the entire property with massive signs saying 'Keep Out.'

"A lot of that work led to amazing developments, but the whole time, the real work was going on underground. How did my father manage to lose all of his investors' money in just nine months' time? Easy: He funneled most of it into a state-of-the-art underground lab. It was completely off his books. All the journals and diaries that mentioned it – and the work he did there – were kept in the lab itself. You only knew about it if you already knew about it."

"So that's underneath us?" Jem's excitement had returned. The worries about his mother and sister seemed to have slid back under the plucky spirit that kept bubbling to the surface.

"That's what I'm hoping," Petar said slowly.

"You don't even know?" Jem exclaimed.

"Well, magnetic surveys have shown a dense magnetic field directly under this area – those are records available here on Earth. The field stretches for about four hundred feet square, which was, as far as I can tell, the general area of the underground lab. It makes sense that this is the right spot."

"So how do we get in?"

"That's the fun part," Petar smiled. "I hope you're not squeamish." As Jem watched, Petar glanced up and down the street to make sure nobody was coming, knelt at the edge of the road beside the Kia, and lifted a sewer grate out of its frame. It swung up with a rusty groan.

"You're kidding, right?" Jem said.

"I'd keep my mouth shut, if I were you," Petar said with a grin. "And watch for splashes." With that, he dropped out of sight into the sewer. A watery squelch resonated out of the hole.

Jem paused, looking around the street. This was crazy. Adventure, he wanted. As far as he knew, that didn't usually include splashing around in a city's toilet soup.

"Come on in, the water's fine!" Petar's voice floated up, followed by a crazy laugh.

Whatever. He'd come this far. Squinching a cupped palm over his nose and mouth, Jem lowered himself through the hole.

It wasn't as deep as he'd expected; the street opening hung barely a foot over his head, beaming down a square of light into the dark tunnel. It was just tall enough to stand up in, and the smell wasn't exactly pleasant, but it didn't overwhelm him. He slowly lowered his hand and took a precautionary sniff.

"Welcome to the presidential suite," Petar was standing a few feet down the tunnel, ankle deep in the stagnant water, waiting for him. "Mint?"

"Oh, now you have a sense of humor," Jem said sarcastically, then smiled in spite of himself.

"Sure I do, you just never get when I'm joking. Ready?"

"Won't someone find the car?"

"Maybe. Don't worry, though. You'll have a way back home either way. Which reminds me. Here."

Jem splashed over to where Petar was holding out his hand. In it was a square piece of plastic that looked exactly like a credit card.

"Intergalactic credits?" Jem asked.

Petar guffawed. "Debit card. From the bank. Well, not really from the bank. But close enough. It's unlimited. Go to any ATM and take out anything you need. Burn it within twenty-four hours of your first withdrawal, though. That's important. Use it any longer, and it might get tracked. Rent a car, buy food, a plane ticket, whatever, just burn it before the end of the day. I also left $50,000 in a purse beside your mother's bed. I hope that's enough."

Petar put his hand on Jem's shoulder. His voice grew serious. "What you've done...what you're doing, is beyond what I should have ever asked of anyone. You've put your life on the line for me, and I really am grateful for everything you've done. I won't give you any 'good of the world' crap. I'm grateful. It's good people like you who made me care about this world. Once we find the lab, I'll be gone within minutes, and I want to thank you now in case I don't have the chance once the breach is open. You're an incredible kid. Take as much money as you need to keep your family happy. You're lucky to have people like that who care for you."

Jem tried to find something to say and came up blank. "It's no problem," he finally mumbled, suddenly feeling shy. He was fine as long as the spotlight was somewhere else, but once its beam fell on him, it was blindingly uncomfortable.

"I have to ask one more thing from you," Petar continued. "After this is over, after I'm gone, go home to your family and make sure they're taken care of. You understand?"

Jem nodded. He did. It was unspoken, but Petar might not succeed on his mission. If that happened, Jem planned to be ready to weather the eventual invasion.

"Okay, let's get going," Petar said. He worked his fingers and a blue circle surfaced on his wrist. Watching it, he started off down the dark tunnel.

"So how are we going to find it?" Jem hurried to keep up.

"This is a helium vector magnetometer," Petar said, indicating his wrist. "Sort of like a metal detector for magnetic fields. We're just going to follow it to the strongest point, which should be a part of the lab. And this," he pulled a small metal cylinder from his back pocket, "is a flashlight." He flicked it on.

"The sewer system will take us to the lab?" Jem asked.

"Not entirely. This system wasn't around in the early 20th century. But it should get us close enough to dig through."

Petar turned a corner, then another, eyes constantly flickering to his wrist readout, then to the thin cone of light that jittered in front of him as he walked, then back to the readout. Less than a minute later, he stopped and turned toward a blank wall.

"This is it. Step back a little ways. Here, hold this."

Petar handed Jem the flashlight, a stumpy red Maglite. Jem backtracked a few steps, keeping the beam on Petar while he compressed his hands into a tight fist three times in quick succession. A metallic skin unfolded over his palm, and a low whine filled the air. Petar pressed the palm flat against the wall and turned his head away.

"Cover your ears!" he shouted.

The whine got louder and rose in pitch. Jem clapped his hands to the side of his head and looked away as Petar had done. A blinding flash filled the sewer, followed by an ear-shattering blast that echoed down the dank corridor. Mortar dust showered down on Jem's head. The flashlight dropped from his hand and splashed into the ankle-deep water. Its glow quickly dimmed, then went out. Jem turned around, and the spot where Petar's hand had been pressed to solid wall was now a gaping hole about three feet in circumference.

"Whoa. Iron Man," Jem said.

"What's that?"

"Just a thing. I, uh, dropped the light." He held up the dripping Maglite apologetically.

"No worries. There should be lights inside. Would you like the honors?" Petar gestured to the smoking cavity. He smiled. "After this, we're home free.

Jem stepped up to the hole and looked through. It was dark on the other side, a cavern of vague shapes, but he caught a minute gleam of polished steel glinting through the darkness. Suddenly, he stood straight and cocked his head.

A low rumbling sound made its way to them from somewhere behind them, somewhere off in the maze of sewer tunnels. It was followed by a muffled thump and a splash.

"What was that?" Jem asked.

"Aftershocks from the blast," Petar said reassuringly, but he kept his eyes on the tunnel behind them. So low that Jem wasn't sure he'd really heard it, a deep growl sounded from the direction from which the rumble had come. Another spash. Jem turned back to the hole.

"Sure this is it?" he asked.

"Only one way to find out. Get going." Petar's voice sounded light, but Jem thought he detected a note of urgency.

Head first, Jem squeezed through the rough opening and tumbled to the ground on the other side. The floor was cool and smooth under his hands, like the concrete floor of his garage. It certainly didn't feel like a sewer.

Hearing Petar scrabbling through the hole beside him, Jem stepped to the side. He could just make out the shadow of Petar's head poking through. It reminded him in a weird way of the birth of a newborn.

Like Jem, Petar dropped to the inner floor and let his legs slide the rest of the way out of the hole, pulling himself forward on his hands like a crab. His broad shoulders barely fit, but he managed to push them through.

Petar hopped to his feet and stood beside Jem, gazing out into the shadows.

"We made it," he breathed. The whispered words fled like a ghost into the unseen room. Jem got the impression of a vast space beyond their field of vision, as if he were standing in the mouth of a great cave.

"Let's see about a light," Petar said.

"We'll get that for you." The voice slithered out of the darkness like a snake. Jem's heart leaped into his throat. He felt Petar tense beside him.

Like a nuclear blast, the lab flooded with sudden white light. Shadows disintegrated and clusters of lab equipment and strange machinery took their place, gleaming coldly in the electric bulbs.

In the center of the floor stood two dozen blank-faced men in leaf-green fatigues, rifles aimed at Jem and Petar. They looked edgy. Uncertain. In front of them was a tall, dark-skinned man in a pressed officer's uniform. His eyes were shadowed by the stiff-brimmed officer's cap on his head.

"It's about time you showed up," he said with a devilish smile.

Thanks for reading my story! Please VOTE and let me know what you think of it so far, then check out Chapter 41!