The SVE Club

43. Tower

When the SVE club burst out the front doors of the archives, they were met with an eerily empty campus. Only a few supers were running to and from buildings and they payed the team little mind as the music continued to blast from the intercoms.

"Where is everyone?" Midas wondered.

"It's late," Sam answered. "Everyone's either gone home or fighting Overdrive."

    "I'm guessing that's the control tower," Nate said, pointing at the lofty building in the center of the campus.

    "Guessed right," Midas said. "Let's head over there. As long as nobody recognizes us, we should be okay now that we're inside."

     As quickly and casually as they could, the team walked down the path towards the control tower. When they were at last in the shadow of the building, Midas motioned for everyone to take cover behind an enormous statue. The statue, which had a large base and stood about fifteen feet high, was a stone rendering of one of the earliest known superheroes, who was simply known as Lowman.  Without a word, Willow took her yellow spray paint and began painting stripes of yellow on the base. Evan joined her with his blue paint until the base looked like a banana-blueberry disaster.

     Evan stood back to examine their handy work. "Well, I don't think either of us have a future as graffiti artists," he said ruefully, examining the crooked lines.

    Willow nodded. "Agreed," she said.

     Midas meanwhile was watching the tower entrance door like a hawk. "Sam," he said, "Do you have the tower door ready?"

     "Just a sec," Sam replied. A moment later, she could be heard muttering something to herself.

    "Something wrong?" Midas asked, turning the volume up.

     "Yeah. Something's wrong. I have the hacks for all the doors that you guys might need, but I'm missing the tower door..."

     "What do you mean?"

     "I mean somebody didn't give me the code for the door," Sam huffed.

      Everyone turned to look at Taro. He groaned. "Aw come on," he said. "There was a lot going on today."

"Looks like we're gonna have to improvise," Midas said. "We need to find a different way to get in that building."

"I'm putting the maps team on it. Maybe they can find another route," Sam said. "By the way, there's someone about to exit the building right now, so stay where you are until she leaves."

"Are these doors complicated, Sam?" Nate asked, pulling Midas' head down so he could speak into the ear piece. "Lots of locks?"

"No, it's just a single latch sort of deal," Sam replied. "But you need a key card to get in."

Nate smirked as he took a deck of cards from its holster. "How about a playing card?" he said, pulling one from the deck.

Midas, seeing where this was going said, "No way. Your aim is terrible."

"Was terrible. Was terrible," Nate said, extending a finger to make a point. "But I know something you don't."

"Oh really?" Midas said. He glanced back at the door. A guard was opening it and heading out into the school. The door began to creak shut.

"I've been practicing," Nate said. With that, he flung the card with all his might.

The others watched, frozen in surprise, as the card flitted silently past the guard and into the door latch, just as the door closed.