SUNGLASSES AND ROCKETS Part 1 : New Moon

THE BAT CAVE

The bat cave, the doctor was heard to announce. Felix went up to a hole in the wall, about six feet from the floor. At one point, it must have served as a kind of window. The doctor followed him.

Darwin and I drew closer. A continuous rumbling sound came from the inside of the house. I took a few steps backwards.

"What was that!" my friend shouted.

I knew it. There was something evil in that ancient mansion. But Felix and the doctor ignored the peril. They began to climb.

"Let's go!" the doctor said, leaning into the hole. "Don't be afraid! There're just a few rats!"

Rats. What a relief!

We climbed the roughly hewn wall, which looked like it had been built out of adobe, and reached the window. We started to clamber inside, lighting up the interior as we went. Felix and the doctor were waiting for us several feet away. We jumped. We fell upon a damp, flattened-earth floor. Felix immediately looked at his watch and gestured at the doctor.

"Everything's working out just fine," the doctor said. "Let's get going!"

Just as I heard him saying that, I shone my light on a swarm of black rats packed together at the edge of a wall. Panicked, I followed the line of the frieze around the room with my lantern. Oh God! There were rats everywhere!

"I hope they're not hungry," I murmured, horrified.

"I hope not..." my friend agreed.

We slowly advanced. My fear was that the rats would all jump on us at any moment. As the light fell on them, many bared their teeth instead of being scared off.

"I'm assuming that President Clinton didn't have to come in this way..." Darwin complained.

"Remember that the visit was cancelled at the last minute," the doctor responded.

"However, the underground entrance is still intact," clarified Felix, who up until then had not uttered even a syllable. "Follow me."

We went out into a narrow corridor in which there were still fragments of the floor. Now we walked among the rats. You could hear the rodents' high-pitched squeaks. I felt as if I were stepping on some of their tails...I held my breath. It was like I was walking in a mine field. Fortunately, it did not take us long to get to a wide, open-air corridor next to a large patio with huge trees.

"Two minutes before ten," the doctor announced.

Felix was making his way towards a fountain in the middle of the patio. We followed him.

You could easily understand the relief I felt as I walked on solid ground again instead of walking on, or rather squashing, defenseless rats... It was a miracle that none of the rodents had sunk a tooth into my leg, especially since I was wearing shorts! ...Although I have to admit, my thighs didn't have much meat on them.

All in all, up until then there were no accidents or scrapes and bruises to report...but our mission was hardly underway; and I had no idea what to go by or expect.

And quite clearly, my restlessness worsened when we suddenly stopped a few steps away from the fountain, in the middle of the enormous patio.

We shone light on the area; there was stagnant water all the way up to the top. Brown leaves partially covered the surface. We stopped a few feet away from the fountain. Felix took a few steps towards the fountain and stepped inside it without missing a beat. The water went up to his waist.

"Light," he said, pointing at the center of the structure.

We approached. The three of us directed our flashlights towards the point in question.

"Just one," he asked.

Darwin and I shone our flashlights away from the area. Without haste, and with machine-like precision, Felix took a sophisticated hand drill out of his backpack and submerged it in the water. Almost immediately, an ochre color spread over the surface.

After a few minutes, Felix got out of the water.

"Ready," he said.

He then leaned over the edge.

"Let's push," said the doctor, going up to the fountain.

Let's push? We obeyed without questions. The four of us lay our hands on the edge of the structure. And we pushed. Suddenly the fountain was sliding!

"Harder!" the doctor exclaimed.

The heavy structure quickly gave way, as if mounted on rails.

"Go back!" he ordered suddenly.

Underneath the fountain appeared some kind of deep shaft, set slightly to one side. It seemed to have steps sculpted out of the earth.

"The only entrance," Felix pointed out, in the way of explanation.

"Let's go," said the doctor, lighting up the interior of the mysterious entrance.

I instinctively looked up at the sky and prayed for my life. My only wish now was to come back out of that deep hole alive.

The doctor went in first. I got ready to follow him, but Felix stopped me.

"Wait," he said, gesturing for Darwin to enter.

Darwin went in without any questions.

"The two of us will close the entrance," Felix clarified.

We went down about five steps and pulled on some kind of hook things on the metallic base of the fountain. The fountain slid back into place and completely covered the entrance. The tunnel remained hermetically sealed. I started to go down, but Felix stopped me again.

"Wait. You should look at the code."

"The code?"

Felix lit up a control board on the base of the fountain that was now our roof. He immediately began to push buttons.

"We have to lock it," he explained. "We can't take risks."

I directed all of my attention on the sequence of numbers and letters, but at the ninth push of a button, my memory started to fail me. Suddenly, Felix stopped tapping the keys.

"Let's go."

I started the descent. Felix came after me.

"Did you get the sequence?" I heard him asking.

"Yes," I answered.

Although in reality I was not very sure. It was more than 12 numbers and letters. What was for sure was that I was scared to look like an idiot in front of one of Moses Masterton's colleagues.

"Good," he said. "You should remember it, or else you won't be able to get out."