David Robbins - Dakota Run

Blade began laughing.

“What’d you do that for?” she demanded, annoyed. “I could have been hurt!”

“It would serve you right,” Blade countered, chuckling.

“What do you mean?” Star asked.

“It would serve you right for swiping Plato’s keys and sneaking into the SEAL without permission,” Blade explained to her.

Star’s mouth fell open. “How did you know?”

“It didn’t take a genius to figure it out,” Blade retorted. “The question is why.”

“Why am I here?”

“You got it,” he confirmed.

Star jerked her left thumb toward the dashboard. “I’m looking for clues.”

“Clues?”

“Clues,” she nodded. “Something that might tell us about the toggle switches.”

The toggle switches! Blade’s brow knit as he stared at the four switches in the center of the dash. Each was labeled with a single letter below it: M, S, F, and R. Mystery surrounded the toggle switches because their function was unknown.

Kurt Carpenter had buried the SEAL in a specially fabricated underground chamber with explicit orders that the transport was to remain untouched until a critical situation developed and the Family Leader decided the vehicle was needed. After a century, Plato had been the Leader who had finally opted to uncover the chamber and retrieve the SEAL. Inside the chamber the Family had also found detailed instructions, an Operations Manual, explaining every aspect of the vehicle with one glaring exception: the toggle switches. Plato had given specific directions to Alpha Triad, advising them to avoid even touching the switches until their purpose was discovered.

Only one person had violated Plato’s edict.

Star.

While in Montana, during a battle with Government troops, she had inadvertently bumped one of the switches, the one marked with an R.

Although the soldiers had seen what transpired next, unfortunately none of them had survived to tell anyone else. Blade and Star had been inside the vehicle at the time, and they vividly remembered the SEAL lurching, followed by a tremendous explosion. The Citadel troops had been destroyed in the blast.

But why?

What had caused it?

“Why are you so interested in the toggle switches?” Blade asked her.

“Curiosity,” Star responded.

“What makes you think you’ll find something in here?”

Star straightened and reclined against the console. “It’s the logical place to look.”

“How do you figure?” Blade inquired.

“Your Founder planned everything so well,” Star said. “He laid out the Home and stocked all the provisions. He had this vehicle built for your future use. Carpenter left nothing to chance. There must be instructions about these toggle switches somewhere.”

Blade resisted the temptation to dispute Star’s logic. For a twelve year old, she was extremely bright, even by Family standards. The girl was a voracious reader; since arriving in the Home she had spent every spare minute in the Family library.

“Don’t you agree?” she asked him.

“What you say makes sense,” Blade concurred, “but there may be an explanation for the missing directions.”

“What?”

“As you probably know,” Blade began, “Carpenter was afraid someone might be tempted to steal the SEAL if he left it above ground. That’s part of the reason he hid it in the underground chamber. The Family Leaders have passed on the news of its existence by word of mouth from one Leader to another. Isn’t it possible one of the Leaders neglected or was unable to pass on the information about the toggle switches?”

“Hmmmmm.” Star tapped on the console, eyeing the switches, her fertile mind weighing the probabilities.

Blade had to admire the young firebrand. He wondered which vocation she would choose for her career. Her natural vitality tended to exclude any of the less exciting options like Weaver or Librarian. He could easily envision her as a Warrior, or possibly she would devote her life to one of the sciences.

“I don’t think so,” she finally stated.

“To tell you the truth,” he admitted, “I don’t think so either. Carpenter obviously spent a considerable amount of money converting the SEAL, modifying it, and incorporating armament into the body. If he went to all that trouble to install the equipment, he’d want to be certain the Family knew it was there.”

“And there’s no mention of it in the Operations Manual?” Star probed.

Blade spotted the Manual on the back seat. He picked it up and tossed it to Star. “See for yourself. I’ve read the whole book three times and there’s no mention of the toggle switches.”

Star opened the Manual to the first page, the Table of Contents.

Twenty-five chapters were listed, covering the solar panels, the engine, the batteries, the transmission, and everything else in the transport down to the windshield wipers. “I don’t understand very much of this,” Star acknowledged.

“Neither did we until Plato explained it,” Blade informed her.

“Why’d you do this?” she asked, running her right index finger across the page.

“Do what?”

“Mark the page up this way.” She glanced up, puzzled.

Blade, equally perplexed, extended his left hand. “What are you talking about?”

“Here,” she said, offering the Manual. “See for yourself.”

Blade took the Manual and examined the page. “What? It’s just a list of the contents.” He couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

“Look real close,” Star prompted him.

“I’m looking,” Blade said, confused.

“Do you see it?”

“See what?” Blade snapped impatiently.

“Whoever heard of dotting an H?” Star inquired, mystified.

Dotting an H? What did she…

He suddenly saw what she meant.

“Damn!” he inadvertently exclaimed. Right in front of their faces the whole time! The first H on the page had a tiny black dot above it, so small it would be overlooked as a speck on the paper. In the next line an E was below one of the dots. Further along two different L’s were dotted, as was an O in the following line. The dots were even smaller than the ones used to dot the L’s and wouldn’t attract attention unless you were looking for something unusual. Let’s see. He mentally ticked off the first five dotted letters. HELLO.

“Hello,” he said aloud.

“Hello to you.” Star grinned. “Do you think we’re on to something?”

“I think if you were ten years older Jenny would have some serious competition,” he told her.

Star giggled. “Don’t tell Jenny. She might get jealous!”

Blade closed the Manuel and gave the book to her. “Take this to Plato right this instant.”

Star started to clamber over the console toward him. “What if he’s still asleep? He isn’t feeling too good lately, what with having the senility and all.”

Blade assisted her in exiting the transport. “Wake him up. Insist. Tell him it’s important and show him the Operations Manual. He has plenty of paper and pencils in his cabin. He’ll be able to decipher the message in no time.”

Star stood next to him, staring at the book. “You think it will tell us about the toggle switches?”

“I’d bet on it,” Blade nodded.

“But why did the Founder leave a secret note? Why do it this way?” she queried.

“My guess would be he wanted it kept a secret,” Blade reasoned.

“Maybe one of the early Leaders knew about it but passed on before revealing what he knew. Who can say?” He spun her around and patted her on the back. “Get going!”

Star began running.

“Wait!” Blade abruptly called.

She stopped and faced him. “What’s wrong?”

Blade picked up the keys from the dash and locked the door. “We wouldn’t want anyone to sneak into the SEAL, would we?” He flipped the keys to her and watched as she raced toward the cabins.