“Are you sure this is safe?” Albert asked.

Billy shrugged. “Like you said, nothing is safe. But Poe did say it was lunchtime for most of the higher up security guards. Agents don’t think we’re too suspicious.”

Albert tried to smile, but he couldn’t. His stomach was all in knots. Better his stomach in knots than his chip activated, though.

“Alright,” Billy whispered. “Let’s go.”

They casually walked through the hallway until they turned a corner and found three computers up against the wall. Billy climbed on the chair and began typing quickly.

“Poe got into the security office and managed to change one of the tamer but still bad security stories so anyone can see it. I’ll print it off here then I need you to slip it to-”

“What are you two doing here?” asked an unfamiliar voice.

Albert and Billy flipped around. It was just an agent, but Albert’s heart still raced at a dangerous level.

“Using the computers. Aren’t these for public use?” Billy asked.

“Not anymore. They are for S.E.A. business only,” the agent said.

“Oh, well we’re in the internship. So, technically, it’s still S.E.A. business,” Albert said.

The agent’s frown deepened. “It didn’t sound like that’s what you were talking about.”

Albert cursed himself for not keeping watch. This was precisely the kind of mistake the S.E.A. were waiting for. He tried not to let the panic set in.

“Hello, Mr. Razmadze?” said a far too familiar voice.

Billy and Albert turned, wide eyed, as Agatha stepped out of the shadows. She gave the agent a smile. “Please let me explain. These are my friends, Billy and Albert. I enlisted them for a little help with one of my stories.”

The agent, Mr. Razmadze, frowned. “Something with one of your stories?”

Albert hadn’t seen Agatha since they left the cafeteria. She was definitely lying. He just had to keep quiet as Agatha started talking. “Yes. Sort of. See, I’m writing this mystery novel, and my main detective has to follow someone. Now, I haven’t exactly done this before, so I enlisted these two boys’ help in order for me to truly understand what it’s like. I told them to try not to be too suspicious, but suspicious enough that I could understand what the detective might overhear. Though, to be frank, they were quite bad at it since they got your suspicion too,” Agatha said, staring down Albert and Billy with a fake smile. Albert felt the chastisement as Billy cleared his throat.

“What can I say? Give me the limelight, and I will dramatize it!” Billy said.

Agatha smiled as she rolled her eyes as Mr. Razmadze laughed. “Such a strange little game.”

“But so helpful! There’s only so much I can think up on my own. It’s nice I now have some solid ideas of what my detective might have heard.”

Mr. Razmadze nodded. “Yeah, that’s actually really smart. Some grounded ideas to make your story more believable.”

“Yes yes!” Agatha said, turning to Albert and Billy. “Tell me, did you have any idea at all? Any idea that I practically followed you two out of the cafeteria?”

Billy gave an awkward laugh. “Is that when you started? Wow, you’re really good at this.”

Agatha shrugged as she brushed her hair off her shoulder. “Because I was the least suspicious of the bunch, right? It’s always the least suspicious people who would be the best detectives.”

“Well, you three be on your way. How is Mr. Bonaparte, Agatha?”

“Good, good. Keeping me busy with my internship.”

“Excellent. Keep me updated on how your book turns out,” Mr. Razmadze said to Agatha.

“I will. Thank you!” Agatha said, waving, as she fell in step with Billy and Albert. They moved away from Mr. Razmadze. It was silent among the three of them as they continued to walk. Albert tried to keep his nerves at bay. They had escaped the agent, but he was still unsure about Agatha.

“I think you two owe me an explanation,” Agatha said quietly. “What were you wanting to show me?”

“Just a project we’ve been working on,” Billy said casually, glancing around the room before dropping his voice to barely a whisper. “Nowhere is safe to talk here.”

“Where do you guys talk?” Agatha dropped her voice to a whisper too.

“Metro. We’re less likely to trigger the chip,” Albert said, barely moving his lips.

Agatha nodded. “That’s fair. I’ll meet you there after the internship.”

“Can we trust you, Agatha?” Billy asked.

“Don’t think you have much of a choice,” she said before she turned down a hall and made her way to her Junior Official.

***

“I have standards,” John mumbled. “They’ve got to know this. I cannot attend a meeting at 4:45 in the afternoon on a Friday. That’s too close to quitting time.”

“It’s got to be a short meeting. I’m sure of it.” Ron stuffed his hands in his pockets. Sure, it might be a short meeting, but just in case, he already sent Albert home.

“I’m not going to hold my breath.”

They weren’t meeting in the conference room this time. They were meeting in the small auditorium.

“First five rows, please!” President Arnold said from the top of the stage.

Ron took a moment to understand what he was seeing. There was some sort of contraption on the stage. It was covered in a blanket. There was an older gentleman on the stage, about the same age as President Arnold. He didn’t look too good. There was a fairly large bruise covering most of his face. He had three guards around him, and Ron had to wonder how dangerous a handcuffed old man was. He seemed to be glaring at President Arnold every chance he got. There was an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. This must be a mad scientist. He’d never seen one so close before.

“Anymore of these meetings, and I’m going to start hating them just as much as you,” Ron said as he sat down next to John.

“Do you know who that is?” John asked, pointing toward the old man.

“No idea. But I don’t like this. There’s something wrong,” Ron said.

“Everyone, thank you for coming on such short notice. We have incredible news, and I simply could not wait until Monday to share it with you!”

Ron kept glancing between the hidden machine, the old man, and President Arnold. He wasn’t sure what to think, but the unease never left. Mr. Germain and Mr. McCarthy were sitting stiffly on the front row.

President Arnold beamed at the group. “Friends! It is time! It is time for the next step in Musical Land history! This is going to take us to the utopia we’ve always dreamed of!” President Arnold grabbed the sheet and threw it off the machine. Ron wasn’t sure what he was looking at. It was some mini tower with a bulb on the top. President Arnold smiled broadly. “Too long have we let evil scientists live in this city! Now it’s time to do away with them once and for all. We will weed them out, one by one! In our society, we need more than just one song every couple days. If we really want to purify our city of the evils of these mad scientists, we must know what’s going on every moment of every day! So we will sing! Forever! If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear! Welcome! Welcome to Opera Land!”

The Officials stood up and applauded. Ron’s eyes widened. The unease blossomed into mistrust. He couldn’t shake it. He didn’t know what else to think of it, except for this was way too much power for President Arnold to have. To be able to listen to every word, every conversation, every thought? Ron sat in his chair, staring at the device on the stage. Everyone around him seemed to be cheering and hollering, and he just felt numb.

“You okay?” John asked. John was clapping, but unenthusiastically.

“This is wrong,” Ron said quietly, feeling the truth of it hit him as soon as the words left his mouth.

John gave a little shrug. “Mad scientists are dangerous.”

“So who’s going to define what a mad scientist is?” Ron asked, his eyes traveling to President Arnold who was drinking in the praise. “And what’s going to stop them from simply getting rid of everyone who thinks differently?”

President Arnold was pretending to control the audience, but didn’t try too hard. “Thank you. Thank you, my friends. You’re too kind! Too kind!”

The small crowd eventually settled back into their seats and President Arnold turned to the device. He was clearly trying to find the on switch, but he wasn’t finding it. The old man surrounded by guards smirked. “Need help, Ben?”

President Arnold glared at the old man. “Turn it on, Nik.”

Nik shrugged as the guards undid his handcuffs. He inspected the device, a frown growing on his face. “What did you do?”

“What do you mean? I didn’t do anything! You saw me!” Ben said.

“No, when you brought it here, something happened. See this dent? Don’t you realize what this means? You idiot!” Nik yelled. “You and your goons hurt it!”

“Oh shut up. It’s not that big of a deal,” President Arnold said.

“Not that big of a deal?” Nik repeated. “Do you know how much pressure there is in that thing? The coils are very delicate! One mishap and you’ve turned this machine from a tool of music to a tool of death!” Nik was screaming at this point.

President Arnold looked flustered. Ron was struck with the idea that no one had screamed at him like that before. Ron saw something and glanced at the mini tower. The bulb on top was beginning to glow. What did that mean?

“You are ridiculous. You had plenty of time to work on it. You could have fixed it,” President Arnold said.

“Four days? Plenty of time? Really, Ben?” Nik asked.

“What’s it doing?” one of the officials asked.

President Arnold and Nik stopped fighting and looked at the little tower. President Arnold glanced at Nik, his eyes growing wide. Nik stumbled a bit as he backed away. “Not good,” he repeated over and over.

“What? What is it?” President Arnold asked.

“It’s what I thought. You bumped it too many times getting it here,” Nik said.

“Is it...?” President Arnold started to ask as he backed away.

“Run!” Nik said as he pushed President Arnold out of the way. The tower crackled to life right as a burst of lighting exploded out of the machine and hit Nik. Nik dropped to the ground instantly, and the entire room burst into movement and screaming. John and Ron both dropped to the ground, cowering as lightning continued to burst out of the little machine overhead. Ron’s chip instantly activated as the Officials and Junior Officials began to sing.

“This is it! This is my time!

“I didn’t know I’d go like this!” Someone started to sing.

“We’re all going to die!” The chip did recognize that as lyrics, but whoever was singing it was shouting it loudly instead. “We’re all going to die! We’re all going to die! We’re all going to die!”

Ron was too terrified of certain death to try and sing when his chip told him it was his turn. He’d rather not sing in his final moments. Ron waited, certain white hot electricity would travel through his body at any moment as the lyrics moved on to someone else.

John grabbed his shoulder. “Ron? Are you okay?”

“Fine. I’m fine.” He had been holding still, probably looking dead.

“The electricity will kill us all!

“This is our last curtain call!” someone sang in the background.

“I’m going to see if I can turn that thing off,” John said.

“Are you insane? It will kill you before you get to it,” Ron said.

“Someone’s got to do it. Maybe I can shoot it from here,” John said.

“No! We don’t know what that thing might do if you shoot it!”

“Just stay here, okay? I’ve got to keep the others safe,” John said.

Ron was certain that would be his friend’s final words. John tried to make himself as small as possible as he climbed over the chairs and crawled toward the aisle. Ron tried to control his breathing as he continued to hear the screams, sobs, and singing.

Ron took this moment to not feel nearly as bad. He was actually glad the machine didn’t work. He was glad it was going to blow up. And if everyone in this room did too, so be it. He didn’t believe President Arnold should have this kind of power. He didn’t think he’d ever be okay with what the underground did, but for the first time in his life, he began to understand why people like Albert wanted to be a part of it.

“Hey!” John’s loud voice carried through the auditorium, cutting through the singing and the crying. Ron turned to look at John who was standing up straight, electricity dancing across his body as he held up his arms. The song shifted to him. “They are completely, absolutely harmless.”

The song came to an abrupt end. Silence filled the auditorium as everyone stared at John, the lightning continuing to dance across his body with a crackle. John had a slight smile on his face as he lifted his hand to see the lighting bounce off him. “Cool trick.”

President Arnold jumped to his feet. “Get that ridiculous machine off! Where is Nik!”

One of the guards crawled over to the machine and turned it off. Officials and Junior Officials were grabbing the back of chairs and pulling themselves up.

“You! Go check the security tapes!” President Arnold yelled at John. “The rest of you! Search this building. Search the entire thing! Find Nik! Find him! Ambrose! Send out the announcement! We’re going to find the underground tonight!”

“But Nik warned that-”

“Do it!” The electricity in President Arnold’s voice was far more dangerous than the fake ones coming out of the mini tower, and everyone leapt out of their seats to obey. Ron left the auditorium with relief. He had no desire to find Nik. It was a strange realization that he wanted to do the exact opposite. He wanted to make sure Nik got out. He didn’t want President Arnold to create Opera Land.

Ron had barely glanced in one room when he heard laughter. He recognized it as John’s. He poked his head into the security room, and John was simply beside himself.

“John?” Ron asked.

John ushered him in, hardly able to talk. He was wheezing so bad. He played the tapes as Ron sat down in an empty chair. Ron watched the security film from the auditorium. He watched the moment the electricity hit Nik and he went down. The chaos in the room happened for about three seconds before Nik stood up and brushed himself off. Calm as ever, he strolled through the electricity and out of the auditorium. John switched the view to the hallway. Nik ambled down the hall and pressed a button for the elevators, waiting as one came up. As soon as he entered, the key card beeped, demanding a card. Nik tapped it with a slight frown as he left the elevator and re-entered the auditorium. It was still chaos. The juxtaposition as Nik sauntered over to a cowering official and swiped the key card was what made Ron start to smile. Nik returned to the hallway and entered the elevator. He swiped the card and hit the lobby button. Nik began whistling as the elevator rode down, and Ron couldn’t help but chuckle.

“This guy is clever,” Ron said as John started to laugh again.

Nik walked out of the elevator and into the lobby. He headed straight for the front door when there was a woman who was trying to get in. Nik pulled the door open and went to the side, ushing her inside.

“Thank you, sir,” the woman said.

Nik gave a small nod. As the woman left, Nik turned straight to the security cameras in the lobby. He placed two fingers to his forehead before giving the camera a tiny salute, and left out the front door.

Ron gave a snort. “How long ago was this?”

John wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes. “About four minutes ago. I should probably report it.” John pulled out his walkie-talkie and Ron instinctively placed a hand on the device. John gave him a puzzled look.

“Do you want Opera Land to happen?”

“No,” John said. “No I do not.”

There was a silence between them until Ron gave a small smile. “How about we watch it again?”

John gave another laugh as he rewound the tape and started it again. “After all, President Arnold is super angry. We’ve got to be absolutely certain it was the front doors this guy walked out of.”