Infiltration by Sean Rodman Read Free Book Online Page B

our game had finished and I was walking home that I fully realized what I was doing. I’d just lied to my best friend. Even if it was to protect him from getting hurt again, I’d crossed a line. And I wasn’t sure where I’d end up.
    The week blurred by. Saturday afternoon, I was back on the bus out to Kieran’s house again. We’d agreed that the two of us would meet up at his place, pack up our gear, then sneak out to the site around midnight.
    â€œAre you sure we need all this stuff?” said Kieran. He was looking over the pile of gear spread across his bedroom floor. I was cross-legged in the middle of it all, sorting.
    â€œWe want to do this right, we come prepared.” That said, I probably was over-compensating for our disaster last time by going heavy on the equipment. There was a full climbing setup, with a long length of black climbing rope, carabiners, belay devices and two harnesses. I’d dug up a collapsible hiking pole from our garage—might come in handy finding that pit in the tunnel again. There was my pair of bolt cutters, and smaller wire cutter. We each had a full set of dry clothes for when we came out the other end of the tunnel. Then we each threw in some extra personal stuff too. Kieran put in four steel bottles filled with energy drink and a bunch of energy bars. I added a can of bear spray from my hiking gear, hoping I’d never have to use it on anything. Or anyone.
    For me, the most important piece of gear was also the smallest—my phone. I’d copied every map, satellite image and picture I could find on Kieran’s laptop— and some extra stuff I’d pulled off the Internet. The phone would help guide us through the site once we emerged from the tunnel. While I had worked out how to get through the tunnel and under the fence, I still didn’t know exactly what we’d do on the inside to get into the warehouse.
    Everything went into two black nylon backpacks. Then, there was just the waiting. We’d decided to go in after midnight. But by 10:30 we were both hyped on coffee and nerves.
    â€œScrew it,” said Kieran. “Let’s do this now.” Then we were in the car and outbound from the city, lights blurring by.

Chapter Eleven
    The tunnel went quickly, now that we knew what to look out for. I used the collapsible pole to poke ahead of us until we hit the drain tube that had caught Jake. Kieran was a strong swimmer, so he went first. He fought his way up the tunnel against the current, holding one end of the climbing rope. When he’d gotten far enough, he got his footing again, then held the rope while I pulled myself over the drain tube.
    Kieran had barely said a word since we’d left his house. The entire way up he seemed jumpy, constantly checking the rearview mirror. It was like he kept seeing something that I wasn’t, or hearing noises that weren’t there. I was worried about those pills he was taking. He’d popped some on the drive up here. They couldn’t be helping the situation.
    Eventually we reached the end of the tunnel. We were too tired to celebrate. At this end of the tunnel, there was a metal grate similar to the one covering the entrance. But this grate was attached to the concrete with hinges on one side, and a padlock on the other. I pulled out my bolt cutters and snapped it off. With a strong push, the grate swung open. We were in.
    We were underneath the engine testing platform, hidden from sight by some high walls protecting the tunnel entrance. The platform was awesome in the moon-light, a towering framework of rusted metal and concrete soaring three stories up. It was clearly old and abandoned, overgrown with bushes. There was crumbled concrete scattered all around. I paused for a moment, imagining a rocket engine strapped to that thing, flames gushing down over where we stood, funneling down the tunnel we had just come up. The black-and-white photos I’d looked at