SUNGLASSES AND ROCKETS Part 1 : New Moon

PLAN B

I don't know how we managed to leave that lethally icy lake. We went up the staircase like madmen.

We reached the control center. Darwin ran towards an instrument panel. I saw that he was heading for a key inserted into a red base. I looked at my watch. In 48 seconds the doctor and Felix should appear. They had only seconds to board the shuttle!

"Get hold of the other key!" Darwin ordered. Turn it clockwise when I say ready!"

I found the key on the control panel about 16 feet away from Darwin; it was stuck into a tubular, red-colored base.

Thirty-nine seconds. You still couldn't hear footsteps. The water running down my body mixed with waves of sweat. My sight was completely blocked. But I couldn't rub my eyes. I was afraid I might lose my concentration.

Fifteen seconds. Nothing. It all depended on the hatch. We could not afford the luxury of being discovered by the satellite that would pass by in 15 seconds. That would no doubt mean signing our own death sentence...

Seven seconds. You could hear footsteps.

"Doctor!" we shouted in unison.

Three seconds.

"Shut the gates!" you could hear.

One second.

"Ready!" Darwin shouted.

We turned the keys. Two green lights flickered on the control panel, and just at that moment, you could hear a heavy scrape. The hatch started to close. That meant that the flight to the Moon was cancelled.

No more than a second passed, when Felix and the doctor came in, agitated.

"The start-up system is completely broken down," the doctor lamented; he took a deep breath and continued, "it would take more than a month to repair it..."

Felix went towards a control panel. He started to work, as impassive as ever; alien to all emotion. You could barely hear him breathing. Doctor Masterton, on the other hand, seemed furious. He crossed the room and gesticulated, enraged.

"I don't have that much time!" he shouted out loud, flinging up his arms. "A month is too long!"

There was a silence. Darwin and I exchanged a glance. I knew it. The mission had ended.

In spite of the doctor's inevitable frustration, a sense of victory came over me. I had shown courage. I had fought for my life and I had not let the doctor down. Besides, I desperately wanted to go back to the surface. I was prepared to ask Uncle Moses for his niece's address. I had to see her!

After the silent pause, Darwin dared to express his doubts.

"So, has the mission concluded?"

The mission has concluded, I answered mentally, nodding my head.

"No," the doctor responded. "Not yet. There's another abandoned silo in a forested region of the Atlantic coast."

Oh no! Please, no!

"The region is called..."

"Izabal," Felix completed, placidly tapping button after button.

"It's our last hope," the doctor affirmed. "It so happens that the Bat is a little older...but I've decided to take the risk." The tone of his voice went up: "Moses Masterton is never beaten!"

I suppose that that sentence also covered Darwin and I.

"We'll look for a guide in the morning," the relentless scientist continued. "As far as I understand, the silo is found in the same mountain as some nickel mines..."

"Coal," Felix corrected.

What a capricious destiny was ours! Now there was nothing else for it, but to leave the silo. But, at what time, exactly?

"When do we abandon the silo?" I intervened resignedly. "Colonel Croft will get impatient..."

"If you two didn't show up at 10:31 at the indicated spot," the doctor responded, "the colonel would leave. To remain in the surrounding area would compromise the mission."

"And if we communicate with him by radio?" Darwin interrogated. "Maybe he could come back and wait for us someplace not so close by?"

"Impossible. Sending out a radio signal from underground would uncover us...there could be a leak..."

"Are we going to walk to the hotel?" I asked fearfully.

"We're going to run," the doctor rectified.