Secret Headquarters Read online

  Ten Years Ago…

  It was a picture-perfect summer night on the coast of Maine. Silver stars twinkled in the cloudless, blue-black sky. The waves of the Atlantic Ocean slowly lapped onto a sandy beach surrounded by a thick forest of trees.

  In a forest clearing, a young family had set up camp around their old-school green van. The mom, Lily, tended a crackling campfire. The dad, Jack, tossed a foam baseball to their four-year-old son, Charlie. The boy had chubby cheeks and the same sandy-blond hair as both of his parents.

  Charlie caught the ball and tossed it to Jack. He caught it and then shook his hand, pretending that Charlie had thrown the ball so hard it had hurt. The little boy burst into giggles.

  “Wish I could make him laugh like that,” Lily said.

  “What can I say? He’s Daddy’s boy,” Jack replied, throwing the ball back to Charlie. “The key to his heart is fake pain. Try it.”

  “Mommy, catch!” Charlie cried.

  Lily caught the ball and shook her hand. “Ow!”

  Her son just blinked. Jack shrugged, and Lily grinned at him.

  Then a noise interrupted the heartwarming moment. A high-pitched whine. Jack and Lily looked up to see strange lights moving across the sky. Then… BOOM!

  An explosion lit up the sky on the other side of the trees, in the distance.

  Charlie put his hands over his ears, and Jack sprang into action, grabbing his leather jacket off his camp chair.

  “Looks like a plane went down. Stay with Charlie. Call 911,” Jack told Lily. Then he sprinted toward the van.

  “Jack, stop! What are you doing?” Lily called out.

  Jack turned to her. “The nearest town is an hour away. If I don’t try to help, who will?”

  Lily bit her lip. She nodded. Then Jack drove off as fire and smoke rose from the edge of the forest.

  He raced toward the crash site on the bumpy dirt roads. He turned on the radio in case there might be any news, but all he got was static. On the seat next to him, the screen of his phone blinked on and off.

  Weird, Jack thought, taking a sharp turn. Then the sight of a parachute dangling from a tree branch made his eyes widen—and distracted him from the man standing in the middle of the road. Jack swerved, narrowly missing the man, and slammed on the brakes.

  Jake jumped out of the car. Straps dangled from the man’s flight suit—he’d obviously cut himself loose from his parachute. Blood trickled down his forehead, and he looked dazed.

  “Hey, are you okay? What’s your name, buddy?” Jack asked.

  “Irons… Captain Sean Irons… US Air Force…” He got the words out slowly.

  “Was there anyone else on board?” Jack asked.

  Irons frowned, confused. “No… there… there was a collision. I have to get to the crash site. You have to take me—”

  “Slow down,” Jack said. “You need medical attention.”

  “There’s no time!” Irons insisted. “Please. We need to move now!”

  Jack didn’t argue. He and Irons climbed into the van, and Jack drove toward the crash. He parked on top of a hill, and together they walked down to the crash site.

  Small fires had sparked up across the site. Flames leapt from a jet engine with still-spinning propellers.

  “What did you hit?” Jack asked.

  Irons didn’t answer. He trudged forward, and the land dipped again. Jack followed him—and they both stopped at the same time.

  A horseshoe-shaped craft, the size of a barn, had crashed into the sandy ground. An unnatural, pulsing glow came from what looked like a globe-shaped command capsule at its center. Jack’s mouth dropped open.

  “UAP—unidentified aerial phenomenon,” Irons said.

  “UFO wasn’t working for you guys?” Jack asked.

  Irons moved closer, toward the strange glow. Jack cautiously followed him.

  “We’ve had near misses for years,” Irons explained. “But to finally see this technology up close—this could change everything. The whole world needs to see this.”

  Irons stared at the craft as though he were in a trance. Jack noticed something—the pieces of the fuselage had started to move and shift. Another high-pitched sound filled the air.

  “Uh, Irons, something’s happening,” Jack said.

  The command capsule opened up and an orb rose out of it, floating in the air. The orb was the size of a softball, but with a tough surface, and it pulsed.

  Like a beating heart of pure energy, Jack thought, staring at it.

  The orb slowly floated toward Jack. He watched, transfixed, as it settled in front of his face. But another part of his brain heard the sound getting louder and louder and saw the particles of the alien craft breaking up and swirling around.

  The sound reached a terrifying crescendo.

  “Watch out!” Jack screamed.

  Then a second explosion rocked the forest as the UFO fractured into billions of particles… and the lives in Jack’s picture-perfect family shattered along with it.

  ONE

  Charlie sat in his science classroom at Northlake Junior High, doodling in his notebook. One of his classmates was giving a report about geothermal energy at the front of the classroom.

  “… and it’s a totally renewable resource, which is really cool…”

  Charlie had tuned out the speaker and gotten lost in his doodle. He sketched a figure in a black, one-piece superhero suit with a mask covering his whole face. In the seat next to him, his best friend, Berger, tried to distract Charlie with a magic trick.

  Berger wiggled his eyebrows at Charlie and held up his asthma inhaler. Then, with a flick of his wrist, the inhaler disappeared.

  “Mr. Kincaid?”

  At the sound of the teacher calling his name, Charlie dropped his pen and looked up. Everyone in the class was staring at him and Berger.

  “You’re up,” Ms. Squint told him.

  Charlie grabbed his index cards and made his way to the front of the classroom. He wasn’t sure if Squint was going to buy the idea for his report, but he figured if he had to talk about sources of energy for ten minutes, it might as well be something he knew about.

  He stifled a nervous burp and started reading from the first card.

  “While physics can explain a lot of the forces that surround us, like gravity or magnetism, there are some things that physics can’t explain,” he began.

  Knock, knock!

  Everyone turned to look at the classroom door, where a dark-haired girl now stood. She wore scuffed black boots and skinny jeans, and her worn-out denim jacket was covered with patches from cities around the world.

  Charlie froze. She’s back!

  Ms. Squint looked up from her desk. “I take it you’re Maya Monroe. Class, this is our new transfer student from Turkey. So please don’t mock any strange customs she—”

  “She used to go here,” Charlie interrupted. Maya’s mom was an army officer, and Maya had lived in lots of different places—including Northlake, back when they were both ten.

  Maya locked eyes with Charlie, and he looked away.

  “I heard she was kicked out of the country,” a girl whispered.

  “Take a seat, Ms. Monroe,” Ms. Squint said. “Charlie, you can continue. But please tie your presentation back to our unit on energy sources.”

  Charlie nodded and nervously shuffled his cards.

  What is she doing back here? Focus, Charlie, focus, he told himself.

  “Well, my presentation today isn’t about any of these energy sources. It’s about the world’s greatest hero, the Guard.”

  In the third row, Robbie Fernandez grunted. “Fake news! The Guard’s not real.”

  “So how do you explain those navy videos?” Charlie shot back. “The Guard ha
s been seen by thousands of eyewitnesses all over the world!”

  Ms. Squint frowned. “Charlie, I don’t see how this is relevant.”

  Charlie pushed back. “Look, everyone’s talking about how the Guard stopped the nuclear meltdown in India, how he saved those kids in Taiwan, how he stopped that jet from crashing in Brazil. But nobody’s talking about how he did it. How’d he get from Jakarta to Dallas in ten minutes? How does he change direction without inertia? He’s got some kind of new energy source, and it’s not any of these.”

  Kids in the class started talking excitedly.

  “It’s obviously a military robot,” one girl said.

  “Hey, the Guard is a human superhero,” Berger protested.

  Maya shrugged. “Could be a C.U.P.”

  “See you pee?” one kid joked.

  “Cover unacknowledged project,” Maya explained. The students stared at her blankly. “You know—black budget items?”

  Same old Maya, Charlie thought. Still totally obsessed with the military.

  Everyone started talking at once again, arguing about the Guard. The mysterious superhero had appeared on the scene when they were all little kids. They’d grown up hearing about his daring and miraculous rescues around the world. Not everyone kept track of the Guard’s every move, like Charlie did, but they all had an opinion.

  Frustrated, nervous, and frazzled by Maya’s sudden reappearance, Charlie lost it.

  “WILL EVERYBODY PLEASE SHUT UP!” he yelled.

  Tweeeeeeeeet! Ms. Squint blew the whistle around her neck.

  “Charlie Kincaid! Nobody tells this class what to do except for me!” she scolded.

  The bell rang, but Ms. Squint wasn’t done. “You know what? Test tomorrow!” she called after the kids as they scrambled to leave. “Since Charlie has decided to ignore the assignment and waste our class today. That includes you, too, Ms. Monroe.”

  Maya glared at Charlie and left the room. Charlie sighed.

  Well, that could have gone better.

  TWO

  After school, Charlie and Berger changed into their baseball uniforms in the boys’ locker room. They walked through the gym on the way to the field, passing kids hanging up paper stars and planets. A sign on the wall announced: MOON DANCE THIS FRIDAY NIGHT.

  For the last five minutes, Berger had been trying to talk Charlie into ditching his obsession with the Guard.

  “Listen, I’m a fan of the Guard, too,” he was saying. “But you gotta tie that down.”

  Charlie hadn’t been listening. “I can’t believe she’s back,” he muttered. “Why’s she back? Nobody told me.”

  Berger nodded. “Ah, no wonder you lost your cool—your old flame is back. You know the dance is tomorrow—she probably doesn’t have a date yet. And you definitely don’t.”

  Charlie shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Why, do you think she’s still mad at you?” Berger asked. “That was fifth grade, my guy. I bet she doesn’t remember what—achoo! Sorry, allergies acting up.”

  Berger squirted some allergy stuff into his nose and they walked out onto the field. The opposing team had arrived already and were warming up on the other side of the field. They looked like they came from a land of giants.

  “Whooooooo!”

  Berger looked out at the stands and sighed. His mom and dad were cheering loudly, wearing jerseys that read BERGER BROS.

  “I see my fans have made it to the ballpark,” Berger quipped.

  Charlie scanned the stands and found his mom—alone, as usual. He wasn’t surprised. His dad had moved out of the house years ago and had an excuse every time he and Charlie were supposed to get together, or whenever Charlie had a school event or baseball game.

  “You’re lucky your dad shows up,” he told Berger. “Mine’s at a never-ending IT conference.”

  Berger elbowed Charlie. “Hey—Lizzie with Maya. Nine o’clock.”

  Charlie, Berger, and Lizzie had all been friends since first grade, bonding over a love of cartoon robots and aliens. They were all nerd-smart, but Lizzie had become socially smart too, and had even figured out how to be popular. Charlie knew that Berger had always adored her, and now that they were all teens, he’d developed a serious crush.

  Lizzie put her arm around Maya. They smiled into Lizzie’s phone as she recorded a video.

  “Hi! My elementary school BFF just showed back up here after, like, years of seeing the world,” Lizzie informed her audience. “So jealous. Did you go to Paris?”

  “I did. It gave me the crepes,” Maya joked.

  Lizzie grinned. “That’s hilarious. I don’t remember you being so hilarious, Maya. Tell me, what are your interests these days?”

  Maya looked thoughtful. “Um… lock picking… covert ops… Norwegian death metal… video games… you know, the usual kid stuff.”

  Lizzie raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow. “Okaaaaaaay…”

  Back in the dugout, Berger kept his eyes on Lizzie.

  “You ask Lizzie to the dance yet?” Charlie asked him.

  “Not yet,” Berger replied. “Women like it when you leave things till the last minute.”

  “Hi, kids!”

  The boys turned to see Berger’s older brother, Big Mack, looking down at them from the top of the dugout. Both brothers had dark eyes and neat Afros, but sixteen-year-old Big Mack wore round flip-up glasses, had a better sense of style, and was taller and leaner than Berger.

  Big Mack might have looked cooler, but he had a nerd streak too.

  “Berger, Mom told me to bring you your biggest fan,” Big Mack said, handing a battery-powered fan to his brother. Berger immediately switched it on and started cooling himself off.

  Charlie squinted up. “You ever think about how you call him Berger, but that’s your last name, too?”

  “That’s why I go by Big Mack. ’Cause I’m the tastiest Berger,” Big Mack replied. “So what were you children scheming about?”

  “Hypothetically thinking about the best way to ask someone out,” Berger answered.

  Big Mack raised an eyebrow. “Ooh, you got someone in mind, little bro?”

  Berger shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

  “You really want to know the secret to landing a mature woman? Know your podcasts, put cologne on your pressure points, and get yourself one of these.” Big Mack pulled a driver’s license from his pocket, and Charlie took it.

  “I can’t believe your first name’s Eugene,” he said with a grin.

  Big Mack grabbed it from him. “First and final warning. Call me that again and you’ll be sorry you were ever born.”

  “But then you’d be depriving your little brother of his best friend,” Charlie pointed out.

  Big Mack rolled his eyes. “You two spend too much time together.”

  “Or do we?” Berger asked, and Big Mack shook his head and walked to the stands.

  Then the game began, and Charlie settled in on the bench. He knew he’d be spending most of his time there—Coach Skipper almost never put Charlie in—but he didn’t mind so much. Berger got a lot of play as catcher, and Charlie liked being on the team with his best friend.

  After eight innings, the game was tied at the top of the ninth, and the opposing team had loaded the bases. Then they sent out a new player, and the stands got quiet.

  The new kid was taller than his coach, and twice as wide. He got into batting stance, and Charlie saw that like himself, the monster batter was left-handed.

  “This guy looks like he’s in grad school,” Charlie muttered. The other players in the dugout started talking at once.

  “That’s Forrest Deal. They call him ‘the Sequoia.’ ”

  “He’s been held back six years!”

  “He’s already been scouted by the majors.”

  “CHARLIE KINCAID!”

  Charlie jumped at the sound of Coach Skipper’s voice. Coach had never called on him before.

  “Sorry, Coach. You accidentally said my firs
t and last name?” Charlie asked.

  Coach Skipper pointed at him. “You’re in. We need a lefty.”

  Panic started to rise in Charlie’s throat. “But isn’t there… someone else?”

  “C’mon, kid! I’ve seen your bullpen sessions. They’re decent!” Coach Skipper said. “Hit ’im with some of that off-speed crafty stuff. Let’s go. It’s your chance to play the hero.”

  Charlie jumped up and made his way to the pitcher’s mound. He wiped his sweaty left palm on his thigh. His heart pounded.

  The Sequoia looked Charlie up and down. “Didn’t realize this was the peewee league,” he taunted.

  Charlie looked at Berger in the catcher’s position. His friend put down three fingers.

  Slider, Charlie thought. I can do that.

  He glanced into the stands, where Maya was staring intently at him and Lizzie was recording him with her phone.

  No pressure!

  He wound up… pitched the ball…

  CRACK!

  The Sequoia sent a line drive zooming toward Charlie’s stomach. Oof! He keeled over, clutching his middle, as the ball rolled away—and the Sequoia and the other runners zipped around the diamond.

  Coach Skipper and Berger ran to the mound. Charlie groaned as he rolled over and saw Maya and Lizzie still watching from the stands.

  He’d had the wind knocked out of him, but the thing that hurt most was his pride.

  I’ve humiliated myself in front of Maya! he thought. What else could go wrong today?

  THREE

  In the backseat of Big Mack’s SUV, Charlie stared at his phone, replaying over and over the video Lizzie had posted.

  Crack! Oof! Crack! Oof! Crack! Oof!

  Charlie winced every time, but he couldn’t stop watching. He only looked up when Big Mack stopped in front of his house. He hopped out of the vehicle and waved to the brothers as they drove away.

  Inside, his mom was squirting blue icing onto some cupcakes while she studied blueprints for her job on the table in front of her. The TV on the kitchen was blasting a breaking news story.

  “No one has claimed responsibility for tonight’s daring rescue of fifteen kidnapped schoolgirls,” the newscaster was saying. “But eyewitnesses report another sighting of the hero dubbed ‘the Guard.’ ”