Free Omega City by Diana Peterfreund Page B

whoever buried the Underberg battery had something they wanted the government to use instead,” I said.
    â€œIt still doesn’t make sense,” Howard said. “And it isn’t about space, either.”
    I bit my tongue. Why did everything have to be about space with him? I know he’d helped us, and that he was the reason we even had a ride today, but, honestly, a little bit of Howard went a long way.
    â€œI mean, that puzzle you found was clearly astronomical, but Underberg wasn’t an astronomer. He did do some rocket science, but he mainly worked on life support for the astronauts. Not just suits, but everything that had to do with living in space, eating, breathing—”
    â€œPooping,” Nate volunteered. Savannah sat back in her seat, wrinkling her nose. I snickered. Oh no, her idol said the P-word.
    â€œAnd the military,” Eric added. The submarine research had always been my brother’s favorite part. “He built things for guys living in subs at the bottom of the Pacific for months and months.”
    â€œAll kinds of survival stuff. Astronauts, submarine stuff, nuclear war preparations . . .”
    â€œSo why did he stop?” Nate asked. “Did they find out he was a Russian spy or something?”
    â€œNo!” I practically shouted. “Underberg hated the Russians. He thought they were going to destroy the world with nuclear bombs. You know, if the USA didn’t do it first.”
    â€œSounds like a good cover story to me.” Nate pulled off the road and into a service station. “I need to fill up. You each owe me two bucks for gas, by the way.”
    I got out of the truck on the driver’s side to give Nate six dollars. Since this whole trip had been my idea, the least I could do was pay Savannah’s and my brother’s way.
    â€œYou’re the ringleader of this operation, huh?” he asked as I handed over the money. “Why don’t you tell me what this is really all about?”
    â€œWhat did Howard say?”
    â€œNice try. He said you were trying to find a scale model of the solar system built by a crazy Cold War scientist.” Nate rolled his shoulders. “Howard doesn’t lie—not to me. But though my brother might do that kind of thing for fun on Saturdays, I don’t know what the rest of you are doing out here. It’s not a school project. That much I know for sure.”
    I looked away. Off in the distance, a dark SUV was coming down the road, kicking up dust across the asphalt.
    â€œHey.” Nate waved a hand in front of me. “My brother—he doesn’t have the easiest time of it at school. And if you three are messing with him—”
    He might have said something else. I’m not sure. Because that SUV pulled in to the parking lot, and sitting in the front seat was none other than Fiona Smythe.
    I SCRAMBLED BACK into the cab of the truck before she could see me. “Eric! Head down!”
    Eric, with all the training of a sailor who knows to duck when a boom comes flying at him, flattened against the seat.
    â€œIt’s Fiona,” I whispered. “She just pulled up.”
    Savannah leaned over me to see out the window. “Oh, she’s even prettier than you said. Except I don’t know about her fashion sense. What’s up with the black jumpsuit? And who are the two guys in the car with her?”
    Nate stuck his head back inside. “So, you were telling me how this is totally a school project and you aren’t about to get my brother into trouble . . . ?”
    â€œFine.” I slid even farther down in the seat. “The woman in that SUV is my dad’s girlfriend, and we’re pretty sure she’s been stealing stuff from him, and that crazy Cold War scientist we were talking about? She’s on a hunt to find the lost prototype of his hundred-year battery and we want to get there first.”
    Nate blinked at me. “See? The