Chapter 17

17 FRANK AND WATSON ROLL, QUICKLY AND inconspicuously, on their regular bikes, through downtown Midville, across South Midville, and out to the lake. They skid to a stop in a deserted lot right next to exactly what Watson described—a big black cube. And just as Frank predicted, the building is topped with two lake water–fed cooling towers.

"Ditch the bikes here," says Frank. They hide both bikes behind a mound of brick and lumber and dirt rubble and approach the Big Black Cube.

There is nothing around the Cube. No fences keeping anyone out. No kennels hiding guard dogs. No towers with floodlights and security guards. Nothing but a bare lot. But it is a fortress because there are no visible doors, vents, or openings of any other kind in the smooth, gunmetal-black surface. The only break in the exterior is a band of windows too high to reach or to see in through. "So how do we sneak in?" whispers Watson. "Did you secretly copy Edison's fingerprints off a glass you made him pick up back in the shop, and we're going to fool a thumb scanner?" "Nope."

"You reconstructed his eyeball from a 3-D camera, and we're going to fake out a retina scanner?" "Nope." "Tiny portable missile launcher? Giant trained tunneling moles?"

"Nope and nope." Frank scans the ground in front of him carefully. "We need the densest rock we can find. A nice metamorphic or basic igneous would be fine..." Watson picks up a baseball-size piece of speckled black, gray, and reddish rock and shows it to Frank. Frank hefts it in one hand. "Granite. Perfect." "So now we grind the granite into dust," guesses Watson, still whispering, "combine it with another powder you have in your lab coat to make instant dynamite, and light it to explode a hole in the side of the Cube?" "Simpler than that," says Frank. He winds up, pitches the granite chunk at one high window, and smashes the glass with a resounding crash! Sirens whoop. Lights flash.

Video cameras pop up out of the ground, recording two nearly invisible door panels sliding open and a small army of gray- uniformed security guards running out, grabbing Einstein and Watson, and hustling them inside the Cube.