Priscilla Sum

Part 22--Intelligence

We had almost reached the end of the line when Derrick ran up to join us.

"Guys!" He gasped, panting heavily with wide eyes. "You won't believe--"

"Derrick!" Jordyn cried, interrupting him. "How was your afternoon back at the camp?"

"Boy, did you miss out on a bunch of stuff that happened to us down in those tunnels!" Kayce needled him.

Derrick wagged his head and joined us in line. "I think I might have seen something..." he began, but as he glanced over my shoulder, I could see him flinch, and he stopped talking.

I glanced back at the line behind us. Herrin wasn't there anymore, but I saw Stephanie talking to Greg as they joined the back of the line. Did he find out something concerning the cheery camp coordinator?

Dinner tonight was fried chicken and mashed potatoes and peas, with a sundae bar for dessert. I selected a breast and drizzled it liberally with the savory brown gravy. Derrick seemed more guarded than I'd seen him before as he stayed close to our group and led us toward an empty table.

Professor Silver stopped next to a table occupied by Dane and Kaity. "Hey guys," he waved to us. "Why not sit over here?"

He might not have been talking to them, but his shouting certainly seemed to disrupt a conversation underway between the mechanic and the linguist.

We ignored the professor and sat down at the table anyway. Derrick started eating for a while, at least until it didn't feel like people were watching us. Finally, he leaned in.

"Okay, so I went back to the mechanics station with Kaity because she had a motor that needed fixing, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it was a generator thing, wasn't it?"

I couldn't read the expression on Derrick's face as he nodded slowly. "That's what she said... but the thing she was working on had nothing to do with generator components."

Kayce wrinkled his nose. "What?"

Derrick leaned in and his voice got even lower. "What I'm saying is, whatever they're working on here, it's not just about digging for artifacts and discovering history. They've got equipment here like you wouldn't believe!"

Jordyn toyed with her fork in her mashed potatoes, doodling, I noticed, Greek letters in the foamy white surface. "It's just, like, digging equipment and seismic scanners, isn't it?"

Derrick shook his head. "More. I saw--"

"What are we talking about over here?" Professor Silver appeared, standing over us beside the cheerful Stephanie. He didn't seem aware of what we were talking about, but he pointed to us. "Are you telling Derrick about the cool inscriptions and puzzles we found? Or how about that gauntlet of death we had to travel through to get there?"

Derrick's head whipped around to face him. "Gauntlet of what now?"

"It's just some booby traps we had to walk through," Tony waved his hand. "Half of them were already sprung, and so we just had to be careful around the rubble that they left behind. I want to hear what you saw back here at camp, though, Derrick!"

Derrick hunched his shoulders. "Nothing..." he muttered. "It was nothing. I saw the back-up generators and the motorized winch and stuff, that's all."

Stephanie sidled over to him, her face full of concern. "You're looking a little nervous there, Derrick. Anything going on here in camp that you feel puts our safety in jeopardy?"

Derrick shook his head. His shaggy hair hung in his face as he mumbled, "No ma'am."

His eyes lifted and he met mine with a gaze that said there was most certainly suspicious behavior going on, but he didn't want her to know about it.