Groom Lake by Bryan O

Author:Bryan O [O, Bryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780984820009
Amazon: B006NU48UO
Publisher: MOBO Inc
Published: 2011-12-01T11:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 27

The morning sun seeped into Professor Eldred’s family room where he was still asleep on a sofa that had become his permanent bed. Clutched in his arm was a feather pillow that comforted him in his sleep as his wife once did. Rousing, he sensed Constance’s soft touch caressing his face. Opening his eyes, he still felt her touch, crawling down his neck. Swatting at the sensation, he scooped a roach that had been exploring his body. Disgusted, he threw it.

His son had encouraged him to sell the large home; cash in on his ocean view investment and move somewhere more manageable. He even offered to come visit and help organize for a move, but the professor said no. Too ashamed of the way he had let the house deteriorate, and that was when it still looked admirable. Now he could never let his son in.

At the kitchen counter, he poured a glass of Ensure, then personalized it with a shot of Kahlua. He continued to study his living conditions in dismay, and noticed sunlight squeezing through the curtains. They weren’t like that yesterday, he thought. He hadn’t touched them. Could it have been Blake? The professor decided to ask Blake if he’d used the sliding glass door, then remembered he wasn’t coming in today. He couldn’t understand how the curtains became askew. Certainly nobody else has been here. Pouring another glass of Ensure, he personalized it even more this time. His files. He needed to check his files.

Inside his lab, he walked straight to a large, fire-proof cabinet in the corner. Yesterday, he and Blake spent the day on campus with a mathematician who helped them crunch some formulas. It had been over a day since he opened this cabinet; the cabinet where he kept his most cherished documents. The cabinet’s lock required a special key with a half-inch extension at the tip. He inserted the key in the lock, but it stopped short. Jiggling it didn’t help.

The lock looked like a typical tumbler bolt design, but was actually two locks, one behind the other—same keyhole. The key’s extension, with delicately engraved notches, unlocked a second tumbler that opened a trap door in the cabinet’s floor. If anything but the key was inserted in the lock, a small plate dropped between the first and second tumblers, jamming the floor release and warning that someone had tampered with the keyhole.

Beginning to panic, he ran his hand along the top of the cabinet, felt a piece of cellophane tape and retrieved it. The tape had turned purple, a chemical reaction caused when the sticky side was exposed to oxygen for longer than a few seconds. Someone had opened his cabinet!

He felt uncomfortable, vulnerable in his fortress. Squatting at the cabinet’s base, he inserted his key in a small seam near the corner. Turning the key reset the lock.

Unlocking the cabinet properly caused the base to hydraulically lower six-inches so it could be slid under the floor joists, exposing a two-by-two opening, and a ladder.

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