The Carter Project

Chapter 6

Chapter 6Carter stood on the rooftop of the library. He paused with a shudder of discomfort as the visions replayed in his head. He looked up to see blue sky, puffy clouds, and the bright afternoon sun. There was no triangle above him, nor a paralyzing beam. He exhaled and grounded himself back in reality.

He scanned the rooftop. It was dotted with air conditioning machines and ventilation shafts. The surrounding perimeter had a four-foot high solid wall. The most prominent feature of the roof was a huge, old satellite dish, which looked like a mesh bowl with a large rod extending from its center.

Mango and Foxtrot tinkered with equipment under the dish. They pulled tools and wires from their backpacks. A nearby control box was open and they adjusted or replaced its parts. Mango jumped up into the mesh dish and reached for the long rod that protruded from the center. He made more adjustments to additional pieces of equipment that had been integrated into this obsolete mechanical dinosaur. The two worked together with synchronization and speed. This was clearly not the first time they had been up here.

Carter walked closer and stopped a few yards away.

“Is this for a school project,” he jested, “or are we getting 500 channels on every TV now?”

They jumped as if they had been caught stealing from the cookie jar.

“H-hey kid,” said Mango as he feigned an authoritative voice. “What are you doing up here, it’s not safe!”

“Kid?” said Carter. “We’re probably the same age. What are you doing up here?”

“We’re from the… satellite repair and fixing commission… board. Of operators.” He put his hands on his hips and tried to look official, but he looked more like a child doing a superhero pose. Foxtrot stood still and silent.

“Cool,” said Carter. “Is that who trained you to do combat rolls and hum your own spy music?”

Foxtrot put her palm to her face in embarrassment. Mango dropped the act and gathered their equipment.

“Look, man, we’re just doing some quick repairs up here for an experiment. It’s a lab thing… for extra credit. Yeah. So, no big deal. You might as well forget you saw us. Cool? We’ll just mosey along and bid each other adieu.”

They quickly headed to the stairwell door. Carter asked more questions as he followed them down but they weren’t responding. They all entered the third level of the library. As soon as that door latched behind them, they stopped in place. Mango looked up and noticed the lights.

“Power’s back on early. We’ll have to scrub the camera feeds anyway. Looks like we’re skipping class again.”

Foxtrot nodded, then frantically pointed in the direction of the main stairway. They heard voices and footsteps approaching.

“Look busy!” commanded Mango. Foxtrot scrambled into an aisle and grabbed a random book that she promptly pretended to skim through. Mango dashed over to the table next to Carter’s stuff. He pulled some notebooks out of his backpack and startled scribbling.

Carter walked toward his table and leaned against it. As he faced the main stairs, he saw Mister Seifer and a maintenance worker arrive. They were talking about the power outage. The worker split off toward the rooftop access door. Mister Seifer saw Carter and walked over to him. Carter tried not to look too obvious as he covered up his sketches.

“Hello, Carter. Another one of those rolling blackouts, it seems.”

“Yeah, just for a bit. Didn’t make much difference with the windows up here.”

“That’s good. We’re just checking on some security things.”

Carter looked up to the ceiling. For the first time, he noticed some small, black domes spread around.

“Never actually noticed the cameras before. Are they necessary?”

“Can’t be too careful these days. Gotta keep eyes on everything.”

The maintenance worker returned and confirmed that the electronic door lock for the roof was secure. Mister Seifer said goodbye to Carter, then he and the maintenance worker headed toward the main stairs. Foxtrot peeked out from her aisle to watch them leave. Mango looked over his shoulder to do the same.

“Coast is clear,” assured Carter. Mango exhaled and gathered his things.

“Nice meeting you,” he said. “You’ll be an honorary footnote in my mission briefing.” He slung his backpack on his shoulder, but stopped when his eye caught some of Carter’s drawings still visible on the table. Foxtrot joined him and sharply inhaled when she saw the sketches.

“What are these?” asked Mango.

“Oh, they’re just… drawings of stuff. Nothing important.”

“Try again. What are these?”

“I, uh…” Carter stammered. “They’re just… dreams I have. It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”

Mango and Foxtrot looked at each other. He grinned at Carter.

“Have you seen the signal?”