Soon I caught up to Noah, who turned and grabbed at me, no doubt looking for the regulator. I didn’t slow down, instead snatching the back of his shirt with one hand and kicking even faster. Noah caught on and continued for the surface. It still seemed a million kilometers away.

  My lungs ached, and I felt as if I was expelling too much air as we ascended. It took everything I had to keep blowing bubbles, even though it felt as if my lungs were nearly empty. Fear welled up inside me. I wasn’t sure we were going to make it.

  After what seemed like a lifetime, my head finally breached the surface. I gasped for air, getting in a quick breath before sinking back below the waves. I kicked harder, doing my best to tread water despite my soaked clothes as I bobbed up again.

  I glanced around, panicking when I saw I was alone. Luckily, Noah popped up about a meter away an instant later. I latched on to one of his flailing arms to keep him above the surface.

  “That… was not… fun,” he said between gasps.

  “Come on,” I said, pulling him toward the island. He began swimming on his own, so I let go and concentrated on our destination. We were only three or four meters from the nearest rocky outcropping. In no time, we were both clinging to the edge of a slippery rock as we caught our breath.

  We gasped in silence for a moment before I found a foothold and climbed up the rock, feeling as if I weighed five hundred kilograms as I hauled myself out of the water. Now that we were safe, I collapsed on the large rock. Noah slumped down beside me.

  Even though I was soaking wet, the warm spring breeze was welcome compared to the frigid temperature at the bottom of the lake. And I don’t know about Noah, but I felt as if I’d just finished an Olympic swim meet. My arms and legs might as well have been spaghetti noodles.

  Noah turned to me, exhausted. “Okay, now what do we do?”

  I answered by looking up at the long climb ahead of us to reach the top of the island. Noah followed my gaze and sighed. “I was afraid of that.” He lay back on the rock and feebly waved. “You go ahead. I’ll wait here until morning.”

  I shuffled to my feet and turned toward the rock face. Stepping onto a narrow ledge, I hoisted myself up, before grabbing on to another ledge and pulling myself higher. After I’d climbed about a meter, I glanced behind me. Noah was following me after all.

  The climb to the top wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be. The jagged rocks weren’t laid out like a natural staircase by any means, but the trip was much easier than standard rock climbing. There were enough protruding ledges that it was no worse than climbing a ladder.

  Once I reached the top, I crawled onto the grass-covered surface. I didn’t care how many ticks or chiggers I picked up. It felt too good to be on solid ground again. I spun around and helped Noah over the edge. My legs still felt rubbery, so I quickly backed away from edge before I got to my feet.

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, switching it on through the dry bag, and brought up my father’s number. I wasn’t looking forward to this call. There was no telling how long I was going to be grounded for taking the sub out at night without telling anyone, but there was no way around it. It was either tell my dad now or spend the night on the island and tell him in the morning.

  I got a brief stay of execution—the call didn’t go through. I glanced at the screen and saw the problem. “I’m not getting a signal. You?”

  The full moon lit Noah’s embarrassed face as he pulled his dripping phone out of his pocket.

  “What happened to your dry bag?” I asked.

  Noah shook his head. “Hello? I didn’t think we were going to abandon ship.” He shoved the waterlogged device back into his pocket. “My dad is going to kill me.”

  “Same here,” I admitted. “But for a broken sub instead of a broken phone.”

  Noah winced. “Oh yeah. We are in so much trouble.”

  I peered out over the water toward our campsite. The shoreline was dark, so the campfires must’ve died down. Only a dim light from the restrooms shone through the trees.

  “So what do we do now?” Noah asked. “Wait until morning?”

  I shrugged. “I guess we stick to the original plan.”

  “There was a plan?”

  “Yeah,” I replied. “Seeing if J. J. Jefferson is looking for the lost money, remember?”

  Noah shook his head. “Man, I don’t even care anymore. But, hey, maybe that boat can take us back so I can put on some dry clothes.”

  We stepped down into a small depression in the ground as we made our way along the edge of the island. The surface wasn’t completely flat, terraces stair-stepping down along the way. When the scuba boat finally came into view, so did the light from a fire. Someone had set up camp a few terraces below us, next to where the boat was anchored. Three small tents encircled the fire while four people sat around it in camp chairs. One of the figures, even sitting, was much larger than the others. It was none other than J. J. Jefferson.

  I ducked down, dragging Noah with me. He seemed annoyed but didn’t say anything to blow our cover.

  “We’ve been testing everything at night so no one will see,” I heard a woman say.

  “And we stayed on the other side of the island after you warned us last night,” a man added.

  “I know,” Jefferson said, rubbing his chin. “And I know it’s a big hairy deal to clear out for a couple of days, but some of the kids are beginning to suspect something’s up.”

  Noah and I glanced at each other, eyes wide. We were beginning to suspect, all right. And now we knew for sure! J. J. Jefferson did have people searching for the lost money!

  “We could just move the boat,” another man suggested. “Hide it on the other side of the island.”

  “We’d still have to keep the buoys up, though,” the woman said. “Otherwise, someone might come to the island and get into everything.”

  I slowly backed away, motioning for Noah to do the same. With a wave of newfound energy, Noah and I jogged back to where we’d originally emerged from our climb.

  “Can you believe it?” I asked when I thought we were far enough away to not be heard.

  Noah raised both hands. “I gotta hand it to you, Tom. You called it.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  Noah shrugged. “Go back and ask for a ride to camp?”

  “What are you talking about? You heard him. Mr. Jefferson’s been trying to keep the search a secret from us.”

  “So?” Noah asked. “It’s not like he’s doing anything illegal.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked. Of course, I wasn’t sure either.

  “What’s he going to do if he finds out we know he has a crew out here?” Noah asked. “It’s J. J. Jefferson. He’s rich and famous. What? He’s going to lock us in the boat until they find the money? Now who’s Scooby-Doo?”

  I opened my mouth to reply, but Noah didn’t let up.

  “There’s no mystery here, man. No one wants to steal our inventions, and so what if they’re looking for lost loot?” He threw his hands up in frustration. “I just want to go back, all right? I’m sick of being cold and wet! I just want to get into some dry clothes and forget this ever happened!”

  Before I could answer, the ground fell away beneath our feet. Eyes wide, we scrambled to grab onto something, anything.

  Instead, we dropped into darkness.

  13 The Remote Remedy

  SPLASH!

  I was submerged in cold water once more. I held my breath until my feet hit something solid, and I pushed off as hard as I could. When I breached the surface, gasping for air, I was in complete darkness, but Noah’s ragged breathing and splashing let me know he was floating nearby. As I treaded water, my hands brushed across something hard. I latched on to the nearby rock with one hand before reaching out for Noah with the other, then pulled him to the edge.

  “Aw, come on! What now?” Noah demanded, his voice echoing around us.

  With my free hand, I dug my phone out of my pocket. Gripping it tightly so I wouldn’t drop it into the water, I carefully brought it up the rock. I turned it on and opened my flashlight app.

  The tiny light revealed our latest predicament. We were inside a small cavern about four meters wide. Water filled most of it, but a thin rock ledge ran along one side. I angled the light toward the top of the cave, looking for the opening where we had fallen through. Either the light from my phone was too weak or the cavern was too high, or both; I couldn’t see anything clearly.

  Noah pulled himself out of the water onto the ledge. I set my phone down as he reached out and hauled me up to join him.

  “Thanks,” I said. “Are you all right?”

  Noah rolled his eyes. “I’m soaking wet again, so no. Not really,” he said before going back to examining our surroundings.

  Now that I was on the ledge, I raised the phone high above my head and was able to just make out a small hole above us. Scanning the surrounding walls, I searched for any way we might climb back out. Unfortunately, the rock was smooth with almost no handholds. I don’t think even a skilled rock climber could’ve scaled it.

  Noah must’ve come to the same conclusion. He cupped his hands around his mouth and looked up at the hole. “Hello?!” he shouted. “Help!”

  I winced as his call reverberated around the cavern. “I don’t think anyone’s going to hear us this deep.”

  Noah inhaled, ready to try again, but then stopped, dropping his arms to his sides. He sighed. “What are we going to do?”

  I aimed my phone toward the other side of the cave. The cavern wasn’t just narrow; it was long. The thin ledge stretched around a curve and out of sight.

  “There might be another way out,” I said as I edged forward. “Come on.”

  Leading the way, I shuffled along the ledge, toward the curve. The ceiling of the cave dipped lower, and I ducked as I inched along the rock.

  My foot hit something and I stopped. When I shined the light down, I saw the weirdest thing: Someone had stacked several sandbags along the ledge as if they were preparing for a flood. I crouched to get a closer look, gasping when I read the faint writing on one of the bags.

  “What is it?” Noah asked.

  “Uh…” was all I could get out.

  On each of the bags the words BOLDERO SECURITY were clearly printed. I swept the light to see farther down the ledge. There must’ve been a dozen of them neatly stacked there.

  “Well?” Noah rested a hand on my shoulder, leaning over to get a better look.

  “I think it’s the money from the truck,” I whispered.

  “The what?!” Noah pressed down on my shoulder as he leaned in more. “Dude!”

  I reached down and tried to pick up the closest bag, but it felt mushy in my hand, as if it would fall apart if I tried to move it, so I immediately let go.

  “Well, let’s see,” Noah said.

  “It feels pretty fragile,” I said. “I think the bag might disintegrate if we try to open one of them.”

  “Oh, okay,” Noah said, disappointed. “But banks replace damaged bills, right? We’re rich, man!”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think we’re allowed to keep it.”

  He nudged my shoulder. “I bet there’s a big reward, though.”

  I glanced back to see my friend with his widest grin yet. I think the find had made him forget we were still trapped in a water-filled cavern. “We have to get out of here first,” I reminded him.

  His smile faded. “Oh yeah.”

  I aimed the light back down the cavern. The ledge shrank to nothing just past the stack of cash as the chamber funneled down to the water level. It looked like another dead end.

  “Here,” I said as I handed Noah the dry bag with my phone. He held the light steady as I knelt and slipped back into the water. To my surprise, my feet hit the bottom right away. The water only came up to my chest.

  “What are you doing?”

  I reached up for the phone. “Looking for a way out. The water got in here somehow, right?” I said as I waded toward the other end of the cave.

  “Aw man. You’re not thinking…”

  That’s all I heard as I took a breath and ducked underwater. Even though my phone lit the way, everything was a blur. Yet I could just make out what looked like a dark tunnel underwater. I felt around as I moved farther toward the opening, but unfortunately the tunnel seemed to shrink as I went. I had no choice but to back out and come up for air.

  “Well?” Noah asked.

  I waded back to the ledge. “I don’t know. I mean, the lake is right there, so it shouldn’t be a big deal to crawl out. But the tunnel keeps getting smaller.”

  “And the other end might be too small to fit through.”

  I nodded. Something else I learned from scuba class was that exploring underwater caves was one of the most dangerous diving activities. If you weren’t careful, you could wedge yourself into a tight space, becoming trapped there until you ran out of air. And seeing as how neither Noah nor I had air tanks, that wouldn’t be very long at all.

  Noah backed against the wall and slid down into a seated position. “So we’re back to being trapped.”

  I checked my phone. It only had 30 percent of battery life left. “And about to be in the dark.” The flashlight app used a lot of power.

  “I say we go back to the hole and yell some more,” Noah suggested. “They’re bound to hear us sometime.”

  I didn’t reply. Instead, I set my phone on the ledge and carefully opened the dry bag. My plan-as-you-go superpower was in full swing, dialed up to eleven, as my dad always said for some reason.

  “What are you doing?” Noah asked.

  I pulled out the tiny antenna and plugged it into the phone, then put the entire setup back in the bag. “Remember the drone?”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “So maybe I can connect to it through the tunnel,” I explained as I waded back toward the narrow end of the cavern.

  I switched off the flashlight app so I could bring up Noah’s remote-control app. I heard a splash behind me just as we were thrust into darkness once more.

  “You could’ve warned someone,” Noah said as he waded closer.

  I felt him looming over my shoulder as I brought up the app. Hitting a button on the screen, I tried to pair up with our nearby drone. The progress wheel spun for a painfully long time as it searched for a connection.

  “This is a long shot, you know,” Noah said.

  I nodded. “If it doesn’t work, we use whatever battery we have left to get back to the hole.”

  I didn’t think anyone would hear us from the nearby campsite, but by morning, my dad would realize we and the sub were missing. I wasn’t looking forward to being the target of a huge underwater search, but hopefully they’d think to check the island. It would take a while, but someone was bound to hear us eventually.

  The progress wheel continued to spin. Nothing.

  I checked the power level. We were already down to 20 percent. Noah’s antenna seemed to suck more juice than the flashlight app.

  The tiny wheel spun and spun and spun.

  “It was a good try,” Noah said wearily.

  I sighed, preparing to close the app. My finger was over the button just as Connected flashed across the screen. I froze.

  “You got it!” Noah said, shaking me so hard I almost dropped the dry bag into the water.

  I was excited for a moment but then realized something wasn’t right. The screen was still black, and only the buttons for controlling the drone were visible. We should’ve been looking at the view from the drone’s underwater camera by now. “I don’t get it. What’s wrong?”

  “How about switching on the lights,” Noah said. I could hear the smugness in his voice.

  I shook my head. “Oh yeah.”

  I tapped the button, and we both jumped as a giant eye stared back at us, filling the entire screen. A moment later, the fish backed up, giving us another curious glance before swimming away.

  We laughed as I maneuvered the drone off the bottom of the lake. Silt blew up from the propellers, briefly obscuring our view as it rose and slowly spun around. We both gasped as our submarine came into view. The Advance lay on its side, pinned to the lake bed by a slab of granite almost as big as the sub itself.

  “Oh man,” Noah said. “You’re right. We were lucky.”

  I thought about checking out the sub from another angle, but the battery charge wouldn’t last much longer. Instead, I piloted the drone over the sub, carefully scanning the side of the island.

  “Want me to drive?” Noah asked.

  “How well did that work out last time?”

  “That’s cold, man.”

  The view of the rock face continued to scroll down the screen. So far, I was seeing mostly solid rock. We passed a couple of dark holes, and I hoped none of them led to the tunnel in front of us. If they did, there was no way we could fit through them.

  “Check it out,” Noah said as a large cave came into view. It was huge, like the-size-of-the-rock-that-hit-us huge. The drone’s tiny light couldn’t penetrate the darkness beyond.

  “Think that’s it?” I asked. “That looks like where your rock came from.”

  “My rock?”

  I held my breath as I drove the drone forward. The hole grew large on the screen as it cruised closer. The sides lit up as the drone motored deeper into the tunnel, though the edges grew narrow the farther it went.

  “You know, if this is the wrong tunnel, we’re definitely going to lose the signal,” Noah said.

  “Yeah, probably.” I piloted the drone farther in. The shaft shrank some more, but there was still plenty of room to maneuver.

  “Dude, look!” Noah said.

  I studied the screen closer. There was something weird up ahead.

  “Not there,” Noah said. He splashed the water in front of us. “There!”

  I glanced up from the screen to see light filling the tunnel in front of us. Back on the screen, I spotted our torsos as the drone moved closer to us. I laughed as I backed up, giving the drone room to join us in the cavern.

 

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