Billy had done a wonderful job with her makeup. She almost couldn’t recognize herself in the mirror. The blonde ratty wig definitely looked fake when she saw Billy bring it in, but when it was placed on her head, it fit with the whole hobo look. They didn’t have a wig cap, so Marie had to braid her hair and hope none of the strands would sneak out of the wig. They had left the apartment, Marie sort of leading the way toward where the hobo’s were. Hobo’s would start to trickle in for dinner, and that’s where the group wanted to catch them. Marie was nervous. She had fought a bit with Charles about whether or not she should go. Sophie stayed behind because it was too dangerous for her, and Charles said the same for Marie, but she argued. Marie was almost as good of a distraction as Sophie. If she could find her hobo friends and the S.E.A. could pick up on her being there, that would empty the skyscraper fast. She stayed close to Harriet just to make sure she was safe, and Harriet, dressed as a hobo, was really only there to make sure Marie got out safely. It was a good plan, and Marie felt pretty confident about it.

“Okay, here we are,” Marie said as they approached the hobo’s area. “Remember, spread the rumor quick and fast. The watches are bugged, so stick to the script.”

The others nodded, then they all split up, finding all the hobos they could. Harriet stuck close to Marie.

“Did you hear the news?” Marie said somewhat loudly to Harriet as a small group of hobos passed by. “I heard the S.E.A. already found a cure to the formula, but they are selfishly holding it from us to keep us working.”

One hobo turned, the news registering on his face, but the other hobos shuffled on. It might take a bit to spread, but they had time.

***

Albert paced the room. Everyone who didn’t have an assignment were part of Team Hobo, and they had left to spread the rumor over an hour ago. Charles, Sophie, Sam, and Albert waited by the two remaining walkie-talkies to get the report. They figured it would take a while, but Albert had been checking his watch ever since they left.

Each of their walkie talkies crackled to life.

“Billy’s got a group headed toward the skyscraper,” Harriet’s hushed voice came through. “It should be enough for now. I think the rest will follow.”

“Thank you,” Charles said. He turned toward Albert and Sam. “Team Repair. You’re next.”

Sam picked up his bag and Albert followed him out of the apartment. They were quiet as they walked to the metro. Unlike Team Hobo, they would be allowed on the metro.

They got off at the stop next to the S.E.A. skyscraper. They walked, rather quiet. Sam held the door to the skyscraper open for Albert and they stepped inside the air-conditioned lobby. Either the chill of the air-conditioning or the nerves of what they were about to do caused goosebumps appear on his arms. Sam and Albert walked to the front desk. Albert tried to cover his face with his hat. Even though Billy had done a great job hiding his features, he still had the urge to hide his face.

“We’re here about the elevator repair,” Sam said.

“Yes, we’ve been waiting for you guys for twenty minutes,” the secretary said.

“My apologies. The repair right before this one took longer than we anticipated,” Sam said as he and Albert headed for the elevator with the out of order sign. It had been left open, and no one could figure out how to close it. Albert and Sam stepped inside. Sam pulled out his laptop with some wires. He was starting to unscrew the elevator button control panel when another elevator down the row dinged as it opened.

“I just want to know what they’re doing here, that’s all,” said an official as he and three or four other officials headed toward the door of the lobby. Sam typed a few buttons on his laptop and the elevator doors closed.

“Hopefully this won’t take too long.” Sam grabbed the walkie talkie and tossed it to Albert. Albert caught it. “Report our status.”

“Team Repair here. We’re in position,” Albert said.

“Excellent, how’s our distraction going? Team Hobo had to go quiet,” Charles said.

“We saw a small crowd as we came in. It’s hard to tell, since we’re in an elevator now. But we did see a group of officials heading outside,” Albert said.

“Good. Things are happening smoothly. Keep doing what you’re doing.”

***

Marie followed the hobos as they congregated toward one corner of the skyscraper. Marie couldn’t help but notice they were standing close to the interrogation rooms. A few officials were already there. They began to talk to the hobos and ask questions. It started to get quite noisy as hobos tried to be heard. Marie smiled. This was the kind of distraction they needed.

An official ran back into the skyscraper as the group started getting louder.

“Hey.”

Marie turned to see Abe come up next to her. “Oh hi. I thought we were supposed to be on our own.”

“We were, until I saw you. Wanted to check in to see how you were doing,” Abe said.

“I’m doing fine. Things are going well,” Marie said, her voice lowered so nothing could get picked up by the watches. The hobos were creating quite the commotion, so she felt safe enough to say that. She glanced behind her to see Harriet not that far from her.

Abe glanced around. “No, I’d say the hardest part is next.” He lowered his voice. Marie nodded. Next was getting the hobos to riot.

The official came back out of the skyscraper holding something. Marie tried to figure out what it was, hoping it wasn’t some sort of weapon. The official stood on the shoulder of the other officials and brought out a megaphone.

“Look, I don’t know who was spreading rumors, but there is no cure. Not yet. We’re hard at work finding one, but we don’t have it.”

The disappointment in the group hit like a wave. Those that heard the news around Marie looked down in disappointment, the tiniest spark of hope dissipated from their eyes.

“Why don’t you have it yet?” Marie recognized Billy’s voice, even as he tried to mask it. “You’ve been working on it for years!”

“It’s a complicated formula,” the official said. “If you could go about your business, we can get back to working on it.”

“We want it now! We want it now!” A group was beginning to chant.

“Go back home. We’ll get it to you when we can,” the official said.

“We want it now! We want it now!”

The official tried to say something else, but even with the megaphone, he was drowned out from the chanting. Abe and Marie joined in, making it all the louder.

“We want it now! We want it now!”

***

“Are you in the basement yet?” Charles asked over the walkie-talkie.

“Almost, just give me a second,” Sam said, despite the walkie talkie being in Albert’s hands. He typed a few more things in the laptop, then Albert watched as Sam’s face dropped.

“What? What is that?” Albert asked, gesturing toward Sam’s face.

“This is nothing like the security at the art museum. It’s so much more advanced,” Sam said, quietly tapping on his computer.

Albert felt his stomach tighten. “So what does that mean? Can you still crack it?”

“I think so.” Sam began furiously typing on his laptop.

“Team Repair?” Charles asked again.

Albert felt completely useless. He wanted to offer to help, but it looked like Sam was stressing out as it was. “We’re getting there, Home Base,” Albert reported.

“What does that mean? You’re still in the elevator?” Charles asked.

“I’m running into problems I didn’t expect,” Sam called out. “But I’ll get there!” Sam typed a few more things into the laptop and the light turned green. “Ha! Got it.”

Sam reached over and hit the lowest button on the number pad and the elevator began moving.

“We’re moving,” Albert said into the walkie talkie.

It didn’t take Albert that long to sense something was wrong. Reading Sam’s face, he knew Sam felt it too.

“No, no, no!” Sam said.

He began hitting the stop button, but the elevator kept moving. Judging by the motion in his gut, Albert figured they were moving up, not down.

“Murphy’s law,” Sam swore, hitting the number pad with his fist. “Come on! Why aren’t you stopping?”

The elevator continued to move up, and Albert felt sick to his stomach. He began hitting all the buttons of the floors, hoping it would stop at them, but it wasn’t. It was going straight up. At this rate, the elevator wasn’t going to stop until it got to the top of the skyscraper where President Arnold’s office was.

Sam dove toward his laptop and started typing furiously. Albert felt more hopeless than ever. He raised the walkie talkie to his mouth.

“We might have a situation, Home Base,” Albert said.

***

More officials spilled out of the S.E.A. as the hobos continued their chant. Marie could pick out the Germain’s almost immediately. She tried to keep toward the center, and she was grateful for her short height to keep her hidden in the group. The other officials set up a podium of sorts and Mr. Germain stood up. Harriet was next to Marie in an instant.

“We should get you out of here. There are enough hobos here to distract them. We can’t risk it,” Harriet whispered.

Marie nodded and began following Harriet quietly through the group.

“Alright, alright. I’m here to answer your questions,” Mr. Germain said. “We apologize for this horrible rumor that got your hopes up for no reason. But you won’t leave empty handed. We have good news that we are now at the experimentation stage. We will be needing blood samples from volunteers. The more volunteers the better.”

There was a pause as this information hit some of the hobos. Some looked like they were about ready to volunteer. Marie tried not to panic.

“Not good enough!” Billy yelled.

Mr. Germain looked up as though trying to find the individual who spoke. Marie felt herself shrink back into the group. A coldness entered his eyes.

“We do everything for you. We house you, we feed you, you help us with our farms and other odd jobs. If you want to keep the relationship as it is, you will return home immediately.”

Marie felt a chill enter her body. Mr. Germain was threatening an already beaten down group. The hobo’s paused, then they started to dissipate. Marie felt a panic bubbling up. She stopped trying to sneak away, and Harriet tried to pull on her arm.

“Come on,” she hissed.

They needed a full blown riot, full of screaming and yelling. But she couldn’t ask the hobos to put their entire livelihood on the line. If Mr. Germain was serious with his threat, what would happen to the hobos?

Marie saw the clod of dirt and wood chips soar through the air at the same rate her heart sank. She wasn’t sure if it was Billy or Edgar, or if it was one of the hobos themselves. The dirt hit Mr. Germain right between the shoulder blades. There were gasps from hobos and officials alike. Mr. Germain spun as he searched the dwindling group, and Harriet pushed Marie behind a group of stunned hobos.

“Stick them all in holding cells,” Mr. Germain said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

The panic flared through the group in an instant. The hobos started running away from the officials as they began shoving hobos together. Guards and agents flew out of the S.E.A. skyscraper and began herding the hobos into the interrogation building. Marie tried to escape, but was soon caught in a rush of hobos heading into the building. Marie didn’t know there were any holding cells in this place. Hopefully the others were getting her dad out of the basement by now. Panic threatened to consume her. She wasn’t supposed to get captured. She needed to get out of here. They might start to interrogate the hobos, and she didn’t know how well she could hide face to face with an agent.

They turned down a different hallway and Marie saw a row of six cells on either side. There was chaos as they were all pushed into the cells. Out of nowhere, Abe appeared next to her and reached out, grabbing Marie’s hand as they were pulled with another group into a cell.

Marie closed her eyes, feeling guilty. They weren’t supposed to get pulled into holding cells. There was supposed to be a scuffle that brought out the guards and the agents away from the S.E.A. building. The hobos weren’t supposed to have their way of life threatened.

***

Sam was furiously typing on his laptop as the elevator continued to move up. Albert tapped the walkie talkie against his chin as he paced the short space of the elevators.

“You’re making it go up, can’t you just reverse it and make it go down?” Albert asked.

“Don’t you think I’ve tried that?” Sam asked, his voice heated. “They’ve got technology here I’ve never seen before. I’m trying to learn what it does before I have to crack it. I’ve gotten through a few systems, but if you think you can do better, than-”

The elevator slowed down before it stopped completely. Albert looked at Sam hopefully, but Sam looked at the doors with complete dread. The doors opened and Albert looked up.

President Arnold was standing there with a bodyguard, holding a briefcase. He saw Albert and Sam and a frown crossed his features.

“How did you get access to this floor?” President Arnold asked, his voice dangerous.

Sam and Albert continued to stare at President Arnold. Something stirred inside Albert. He needed to shake off the fear and start acting. His life depended on it.

“Sorry, President Arnold. We were called in to fix the elevator, and something must have shorted out and it shot us up here,” Albert said.

President Arnold frowned, and Albert could sense the paranoia in his eyes. “I had no idea it could do this.”

“Complete accident, President Arnold. I assure you,” Sam said as he hit the delete button over and over on his laptop. “And may I say, sir, that even though we shouldn’t be up here, it is an honor to meet you.”

President Arnold’s features seemed to soften at that. “Well, thanks to both of you for the job you are doing. You know this city wouldn’t run without repairmen like you.”

“Thank you, sir,” Albert said, fighting the urge to make a ridiculous bow. “Again, it is such an honor.”

Sam typed a few things into his laptop and hit enter. The red light on the elevator turned green. “I think that fixed it. The elevator should be working just fine.”

“Well, excellent. You boys wouldn’t mind if I rode down with you, right? The other elevator always takes so long to get here, and I might as well go now.”

President Arnold didn’t wait for them to answer as he strolled inside the elevator. His bodyguard said nothing as he got on, staring Albert and Sam down as though he could beat them both to a pulp by just looking at them. Albert and Sam exchanged glances.

“Of course not, sir! Our pleasure!” Albert said.

“Besides, we need someone with a key card to get down. We are not in possession of one,” Sam said.

“Well, looks like I’m here to save the day.” President Arnold pulled out his key card and swiped it before hitting the lobby button. Sam busied himself with putting his things in the bag while Albert was scrambling for something to say. There was no way they would be riding the elevator in silence. He was already starting to sweat, and he didn’t want that bodyguard to look too closely at what was in the bag. If President Arnold’s paranoia was true, this could turn very bad very quickly.

Albert found himself once again trying to hide his face. He knew Billy did a little bit to disguise him, and the crazy wig would most likely divert attention, but he couldn’t risk it.

“So tell me, sir. What’s it like being President of Musical Land?” Albert asked as Sam zipped up his bag.

“Oh, splendid. It is the most incredible city. Nothing in the past could even come close to the majesty of this city.”

Albert’s walkie talkie crackled to life. “Team Repair, is everything okay? The div-” Albert twisted the knob to shut it off, feeling his already warm face grow hot. President Arnold looked at Albert, confused.

“What was that?” he asked.

“It’s the other repairman back at the shop. They give us walkie talkies to make sure we don’t get stuck doing a job, especially in an elevator,” Albert said.

President Arnold nodded. “That’s smart. Well, don’t let me get in the way. Go ahead and report back.”

Albert hesitated before bringing the walkie talkie closer. He tried not to look too conspicuous as he quickly turned it on and pressed the button in case Charles was still talking.

“Hey, guys. We got the elevator fixed, and you’ll never in a million years guess who got on with us! It’s President Arnold! We’re riding down to the lobby with him, and we’ll be back at the shop in about twenty minutes.”

Albert waited. He had no idea how the others were reacting, but he knew it couldn’t be good.

“Wow!” Charles was masking his voice, trying to make it higher pitched. That or he was frightened at what Albert said. “President Arnold himself! You two are some lucky fellas. Hey, get his autograph or something.”

President Arnold gave a modest laugh.

“Macbeth, we don’t have any paper,” Albert said.

“Oh, I have some,” President Arnold said as he slipped a hand into his briefcase.

“Hey, we want to chat with President Arnold, because we will definitely never have this opportunity again, so I’m going to turn off this walkie talkie. See you in twenty minutes!”

“See you!” Charles said.

Albert turned off the walkie talkie and placed it in his pocket. President Arnold finished signing his name on two separate sheets of paper and handed them to Albert and Sam.

“Thank you, sir!” Sam said. “Now I have proof! No one is ever going to believe this happened to us!”

“Oh, you are most welcome,” President Arnold said.

Albert scratched his head to give him an opportunity to see the floor numbers. They were halfway down the skyscraper.