SARA – And Daring have snuck into the Spectre’s hideout only to be ambushed by his henchmen.
As Sara started to climb the stairs in the secret passage, Daring was still struggling with Davis. Two punches to the gut didn’t even slow Davis down. His large hands would not let go of Daring’s dark shirt.
“Say goodbye to your girlfriend, Daring,” mocked Davis. “Once she reaches the top of the stairs, she’s as good as dead.” Daring kicked out as hard he could, finally tearing Davis off of him. Daring did not let Davis have time to recover as he delivered punch after punch, until one final punch laid the thug out cold.
Daring took no time to celebrate his small victory. He quickly raced up the stairs after Sara. He reached the top of the stairs just as Sara was opening the door. Without thinking, Daring grabbed Sara and pulled her back down the stairs. They fell down half a dozen stairs. Seconds later, the harpoon fired, impaling itself on the wall opposite it.
Sara helped Daring up. “Thanks,” he said.
“I should be thanking you, from the looks of it,” she replied, examining the harpoon.
“We have plenty of time for explanations later,” said Daring. “Let’s go get Edwards.”
As they entered the room, Edwards was ranting. “I give up! I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you! Please don’t kill me!”
“Relax, Edwards,” said Sara. “We’re here to rescue you.” But before either of them could do anything, the chair that Edwards was strapped into fell through the floor. Daring and Sara watched helplessly as the chair fell into the back of a large truck. A mirthless laugh echoed the room as the Spectre made his getaway with Edwards in tow.
“So, he made off with Edwards yet again,” remarked Doctor Sergoff. Sara and Daring had regrouped at the top-secret installation where Sergoff and four colleagues were building a secret device. Daring was back in his double breasted suit, and Sara was wearing her white casual clothes. With them were Junior, Old Timer, and Johnny Highpitch.
“That varmint’s slipper than an old rattlesnake,” commented Old Timer.
“Pipe down,” said Junior. “You’ve never even seen a rattlesnake before.”
“Have so,” countered Old Timer. “Why, I…”
“Now’s not the time for bickering, gentlemen,” interrupted Sara with a quiet but firm voice.
“What are we going to do next?” asked Johnny.
“It seems like the Spectre has everything he needs,” said Daring. “We may just have to wait until he chooses to strike again.”
“How will we even know that when he has all these secret passages built into this facility?” asked Junior. “It’ll take days, maybe weeks for our guys to map the sections that we found when he was here last. We don’t know how many more there are.”
“How did he even make them in the first place?” asked Johnny.
“This building was designed by five scientists,” answered Sara. “Bryant, Jones, Scott, Edwards, and Sergoff.”
“Most of them are now dead,” reminded Sergoff.
“But still you believe that one of them is the Spectre,” stated Sara.
“Indeed.”
“Why only one? Two of them could be the Spectre. Taking turn as it were,” said Junior.
“If that were the case, even Sergoff could be the Spectre!” said Old Timer.
“I don’t think that’s the case,” replied Daring, calming Sergoff. “If it was, he certainly wouldn’t be here with us.”
“Why do you say that?” asked Johnny.
“Because he’d be with his partners in crime, celebrating. After all, the Spectre’s won. He’s got what he wanted.”
“There’s still a chance that Edwards might not talk!” said Sergoff.
“Unlikely,” dismissed Daring. “Whatever he was strapped into looked nasty. I’m willing to bet that the Spectre has broken him and, as we’re talking, he’s helping the Spectre finish the top secret project, whatever it is.”
“What is the doohickey anyway?” asked Old Timer. “I sure am itchin’ to find out.”
“I can’t tell you,” said Sergoff. “I was sworn to secrecy.”
“Don’t worry yourself about it,” replied Daring. “We’ll get back to your device in a minute.”
“Holy cow!” shouted Junior, standing up. “You know what it is, don’t you?”
“I don’t,” said Daring. “But Marissa and Teresa do. I’ve had them develop theories based on what we know about the device, and I think they’ve finally cracked it.”
“We’ll let them explain it,” said Sara. “They’re back at the Institute, which is where we should be. The Spectre’s already compromised the security of this building, and we’re not safe here.”
To punctuate what Sara had just said, the lights went out. “What happened?” asked Junior. An eerie silence pervaded the room.
“I think the whole building just lost power,” said Johnny. Sara looked nexted to her and saw Sergoff was visibly agitated.
“No one else did,” said Old Timer, staring out of the window.
“What’s wrong,” Sara asked Sergoff. He didn’t reply.
There was a low, groaning sound that rumbled throughout the building. It was directly followed by a large crack that ran down the window that Old Timer was standing at.
“I think we should evacuate the building immediately,” stated Daring, voicing what everyone else was thinking. The groaning continued as small tremors started to shake the building. The other members of the Brilliant 5 ran off to alert others still in the building. Daring turned to see Sara trying to drag Sergoff out of the room. Sergoff was frozen with an unexplained fear; his face was white like someone had bleached all of the color out of it.
“What’s gotten into him?” asked Sara. “You don’t think…?”
“It’s a possible theory,” replied Daring, helping her carry Sergoff. The rumbling became louder, while the tremors increased, now powerful enough to sweep Daring and Sara off their feet. When they got back onto their feet and helped up the terrified Sergoff, they discovered that the ceiling had collapsed, barring their exit.
They made their way back to the room they had just left. The walls had crumpled, crushing all of the windows, denying them any escape route.
“What now?” asked Sara.
“I’m thinking,” replied Daring. But before Daring could come up with something, the building shuddered, and the ceiling came down on their heads.
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Written by J M Emmons. The story and all characters are copyrighted by J M Emmons.
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