Danny

The elevator doors open to the basement floor, which is bunch of gray corridors winding this way and that.  It's kind of dark down here, and smells like the library at my school- except with way more cameras watching us from the ceiling.  There's numbers by the doors as we walk by, but for the most part, everything looks the same.  I stay close by K, listening closely as he tells me what happens in each room, sometimes even opening a door so I can see the stuff inside. 

I love visiting the college when K's around.  I like to pretend that I'm Fry and I'm following Professor Farnsworth around while he shows me all his inventions.  K even looks like the Professor, in a way, if the Professor didn't wear glasses; he's really old, and bald, with lots of wrinkles in his forehead, and he moves kind of slowly. 

We have a bunch of old friends, I just realized.  The Deacons are old, K's old- even Dr. Preus is in his forties, and he's Mom's boyfriend. 

Makes me wonder how old Dad was.

As we're turning down another hall, we walk past one steel door with no numbers and a funny- looking panel-box just above the handle.  Except for a big yellow sign with a "Radioactive" icon (the thing that looks like a fan with three big blades), the door's completely blank.

"What's in there?" I ask.

"Oh, that," K answers slowly.  "That's- just where we put all the waste until we can dispose of it properly."

"So that's where you guys put the needles?  You know, like for shots?"  I remember I've seen that picture before at the doctor's office- and I shiver.

"Oh, no, we have receptacles for that in each room."

"So you guys do give shots?"

"If we have to."

I nod, hoping he won't think he has to give one to me.  Strange, but there's two rotating cameras hanging nearby, trained directly on this door. 

After another little while, I ask, "K, what's T-Rod?"

K blinks.  "You know about T-Rod?"

"Just a little."

The old man puts his hands on his sides.  "Your mother promised me she wouldn't-"

"It wasn't my mom who told me."

"Then who?"

"My Uncle John.  He said that's how she met my dad." 

I don't go on to tell him how angry Mom became when she found out I knew the word T-Rod- or how upset she sounded through her bedroom door when she was talking to Uncle John on the computer a few days later.  She wasn't yelling, though; she doesn't do that when she's mad.  When Mom is mad, really mad, she doesn't yell or scream or get red in the face.  Her jaw clenches, and her eyes look hard and cold.  And she speaks very, very quietly.  I hate it when she's like that; it scares me to death.

"Has she ever told you what that meant?"

"No," I say.  "So what was it?"

K takes a deep breath and puts his hands behind his back.  "T-Rod, so they say, is basically VR, or virtual reality, on steroids."

"That's all?" I squint.  "Everybody has VR stuff.  I mean, I don't but only 'cos Mom doesn't like it."

"There's more to it than that, Danny," K goes on.  "It wasn't just a headset, it was a full-sensory experience.  Have you seen the Matrix?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Like that, but without the pink goo and the wires.  And your mother- was the very first person for it to be tested on."

"Really?"  Mom never told me that.  "So why is it so secret?"

"People aren't supposed to know that T-Rod exists- at least, people who aren't me, or Stuart, or anyone in that hall upstairs.  It's very important that until we get the technology right, and secured, the public doesn't know.  And that's all I can tell you about it at present."

"But what about Dad?  Was he, like, your partner?"

K thinks about it, and then shrugs. "Of a sort.  I guess.  Yes."

"So you knew him too."  I look up at him eagerly.  "What was he like?"

K thinks about it a minute, then sighs.  "Well, I didn't know him very well- or for very long.  I only met him once."

"But you remember what he was like, right?  Was he magic?  Mom says he was."

"I don't know about that, but- your dad, I will say, was- he did me a big favor.  He and your mom together- helped me out of a jam when I was much younger."

"So he was nice."

"Oh, yeah.  A very nice man."

I rock back and forth on my heels, so glad that my Dad was not only cool, but nice.  "What did he look like?"

"Who?  Your dad?"

"Uh-huh- I mean, yes, sir."

K softly cuffs my chin and smiles.  "He looked like you."

I huff.  Big help.  "Everybody says that."

"Only because it's true," K replies.  "And now, I think it's time we went back up and joined the others.  Preus will be starting his lecture in a few minutes."

"Aww," I sigh.

"There's not much else down here anyway," K said.  "If you'll give me one second, I'm going to use the men's room, and I'll be right back and we'll go up."

With that, K slips into the restroom a few doors down, telling me to wait.  I think of maybe going in with him, but I don't.  Instead I stand there alone, getting a little bored. There's a smudge on one of the lenses; I clean my glasses on my shirt. I can't wait till I turn eleven, and Mom will let me wear contacts.  I look so silly in these.

Then I hear a click, further down one of the halls.  On instinct, I turn, peer down whichever corridor the sound seems to be coming from. 

"Hello?" I call. 

The word bounces off the wall and comes back. "..Ello?  ...Ello?  ...Ello?"

I grin.  I love echoes.  "Echo!"

"...Echo!  ...Echo!   ...Echo!"

"Banzai!"

"...Banzai!  ...Banzai!  ...Banzai!"

I think of the echo in a Prince song I'm learning to play on guitar.  "Cream!"

"...Cream!  ...Cream!  ...Cream!"

And for no reason at all, I shout, "DAAAAY-OH!"

"...AY-OH!  ...AY-OH!  ...AY-OH!"

"Good God, it's in the blood," a deep voice says right behind me.

I whirl around, the echo forgotten.  There's a man standing in the shadows a few feet away.  He's a big man, too, way taller than K, or even Dr. Preus- and he's six feet tall.  I know because I asked. 

"Who are you?" I ask, taking one step back.  The man walks into the light, and I let out a quiet "whew."  "Oh, you're one of those guys."

"Yes, I'm one of -those guys.  I guess."  He's dressed up like the security guard that met us at the front, but his badge looks a little different, and it's too dim for me to make out.  I can't decide what his accent is; it's like he's trying to choose between British or American, sort of the way Mom talks.

Then I remember what he said that scared me so much.  'What's in the blood?"

"What you were doing," he replies.  "The echo thing.  That's very much the kind of thing he would have done."

"Who?"

"Where's your mother?"

"She's up there."  I point at the ceiling.  "With the other people.

"I might have known."  He shakes his head.  "How much does she expect one to give away before she gets it?  I even told her the day to expect, but no-"

"You know my mom?"

But again, he doesn't answer me.  Instead he points a little remote control at the two cameras by the "radioactive" door.  He pushes a button, and suddenly they stop moving, and their red lights go out.  Before I can ask him how he did that, the tall man walks straight toward the door and opens the panel, entering in the passcode. 

"Mister, it's just a bunch of chemicals in there, you might die," I warn him, but he pays no attention.

I guess he entered it correctly, because the lock beeps once, and the door pops open.

Before he walks in, he looks back at me and waves his hand.  "Come along."

"But- but aren't you afraid you'll die?  There's gross stuff in there-"

"That's only what he told you," the man says.  "Didn't you want to see the lab?"

"Lab?"  My eyes widen.  "The secret lab?"

"That's the one."

I glance back at the Men's room, where K is still taking care of business.  "I'm, uh- he said I should wait... How do you know that's his lab?"

"I know a lot of things."  A second later, he adds, "I knew your father, too."

I feel the hair on the back of my arms and neck stand up.  "My dad?"

"Make your choice, Danny," the man commands. "We don't have forever, the cameras should break suspension in another ten seconds."

My jaw drops. "How do you know my name?"

But then he darts into the darkened room with five seconds left on the camera, and the heavy door quickly swinging back to snap closed again.  I don't know what I should do.

Four.

Three.

I bolt.  I run for the door and slip inside just before it closes, and the camera comes back on a second later.  It's completely dark in here, and kind of cold. 

"Mister?"  I call, my voice shivering in the silence.  But there's no answer.  My stomach starts working in knots.  Quickly I turn around to open the door back up, but it's locked from the inside.  I'm getting scared.

"K!" I yell, beating on the heavy door.  "Mom!  K, help!  MOM!" 

My voice rises higher and starts squeaking, the way it does when I'm about to cry.  I want my Mom.  I wish I'd never left.  I wish I hadn't run off and followed the big man, I didn't know he'd just vanish and trap me here!

But even in panic, I have an idea.  This works in the movies, maybe it'll work now.  I take a few steps back, about to ram my shoulder or my foot into the door when the lights start flickering on around me.  I guess they were those motion-activated lights or something.  That makes me feel a little better.  I'm still trapped, but now I can see.

I turn away from the door, and stare, eyes widening so much they almost fall out of my face.  "Whoa..."

It's a huge, bright, round room, full of screens and glass and hard clear plastic.  Spellbound, I walk further down the steps and decide to explore.  On one wall, there's something that looks like a first-aid kit, but way more intense, thanks to the defibrillator underneath.  All the screens are blank, except one.  This one is showing a logon screen, asking for a username and a password.

To my surprise, there's already a code entered in on the username box.  It's just a bunch of numbers: 09051985.  I've seen them before, Mom says they are Dr. Preus's special teacher ID number here at the university.  He sent the number to her once when he needed her to do something document-wise or email-wise, and he didn't have the time that day.  I remember Mom was pretty ticked off about that, muttering to herself about how he had two other secretaries, "but today that's apparently not enough.  Okay.  Whatever you say, Stu."

But the password box, however, is blank.  Hmm.  Passwords are fun to crack; all I need is a hint.

So, forgetting to be scared, I march up to the white keyboard screen and type a random word, which of course gives me the message "Access Denied."  I press Enter, hoping for a hint-

Ah!  There's one.  "Hint: Heritage."

Heritage?

Well, I know Dr. Preus is German; Mom says Preus is a very solidly German name.  So I tap in "German," and then "Germany."

The computer says, "Access Denied."

I try to rack my brain for any other family he has in other countries, but all I know is, he's German.  Maybe a certain city?  I only know three German cities off the top of my head.  I know all about the Japanese, but nothing about Germany except for World War II and Cold War stuff, and the fact that Beethoven was born there.

So I try Berlin, but it says again, a little more rudely, "Access Denied.  You have exhausted 3 of your 5 attempts."

I don't want to know what happens if I screw up five times, but I still want to figure out the password- see if I'm on the right track.  So I type in Hamburg.

"Access Denied.  You have exhausted 4 of your 5 attempts."

I gulp.  I have one more chance.  I'd better make it count.  Anyway, the worst that can happen is that an alarm goes off or something, which means Mom finds me and grounds me for a week.  That's not so bad.  So long as I don't get spanked, too, that's not nearly so bad.

One last chance.  Here goes.

I type in the word, being extra careful not to misspell, "M-U-N-I-C-H."

The screen blanks out.  My heart is pounding.  What have I done?

And then, all of a sudden, the floor in the middle of this vast room starts to rise.  All the screens come on, everything hums to life.  All the computers start beeping and playing their startup noises.  My jaw drops.  I've hacked into Dr. Preus's computer in his super-secret lab!

"Danny Phantom strikes again," I say aloud with pride.

But what is this thing standing in the floor?

It's some big metal rectangular box that opens longways, and reminds me of a clam.  There it is, hissing open and lighting up inside, and I haven't even touched anything.  There's screens all in there as well, and space for about three people to fit sitting down.

Maybe this is that T-Rod thing K was talking about.  The full-sensory VR machine!  If Mom can do it, I can do it, right?

"Cool!" I cry, racing to climb inside.  I sit down on one of the round dots in the floor, and try to pull the hatch closed when the machine kicks in and does it automatically.  Once it closes, I start to feel a little claustrophobic, but the button near my seat that says "Emergency Open" makes me rest a little easier.

A small screen flickers in front of me that reads "Implant tracker device now."

I look around, confused.  What tracker device?  There's nothing like that in here.  Maybe this is just part of the program.  I press "OK" to skip the message.

A box appears in front of me on this same screen, similar to the keyword boxes Google and Bing use.  It has a drop-down arrow; I tap it with my finger.  What appears is a whole long list of suggested names; some I recognize, like "Amelia Earhardt," and others I don't, like "Lee Harvey Oswald."  Are these people you can "meet"? 

I look around eagerly in the menu, hoping to see Prince's name, but no such luck.  Then I remember K saying something about Mom being the first person to use this machine.  Wonder who it was she saw?

If this thing works like Google, the way it seems to, the oldest history is at the very bottom of the list.  So I scroll all the way down to the bottom (and it's a long way down, wow, that's a lot of names).  And I squint, confused.

Who the heck is Freddie Mercury?

But in the next second, I smile.  Guess I'm gonna find out. 

I select the name.

Then two more boxes appear.  I roll my eyes, assuming it's for the username and password again.

So I type in, like before, saying the numbers aloud in annoyance, "Oh-Nine-Oh-Five-One-Nine-Eight-Five," and "Muuuu-NICH!"

With a satisfied sigh, my finger hovers over the highlighted "Go" image. 

"There.  Be happy!" I say to T-Rod.

And I press the button.