The Owl Keeper by Christine Brodien-Jones Page B

him.
    "Swipe it," she ordered, hopping from one foot to the other. "Hurry!"
    Hand trembling, he ran the card through the machine. A green light blinked on and off, and the door swung open. Max peered into a cavernous hallway.
    Rose pushed him aside, nearly knocking him over, and stormed into the building. Nerves wired, muscles taut, Max took a deep breath and stepped inside.
    The air smelled bitter and he recognized the familiar scent of chocolate. A marbled hallway came rushing at him. Chandeliers glittered dimly overhead. The walls were papered in manic, swirling yellow suns that indicated this was a government-run business. A murky red carpet ran the length of the floor.
    "Max! Come on!" Rose called.
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    He caught sight of her running toward a curved staircase. What was she so charged up about? he wondered, loping behind her, taking two steps at a time. The point of this reckless adventure was that he'd show Rose just how brave he was. Or did she have other reasons for coming here--reasons she wasn't telling him?
    He stopped on the landing to catch his breath. Through a window of rippled glass he saw rain sweeping past The Ruins. Were those flare lamps inside, wavering off and on, or reflections of the lights at Cavernstone Hall? It was impossible to tell.
    Hands on hips, Rose waited at the top of the stairs, tapping her foot impatiently. "The idea, Max," she said, "is to keep moving." She pointed to a red door embossed with the official logo, a yellow sun. "Let's go in here first."
    Max stared at the skull and crossbones painted beneath the sun and felt his guts shrivel. A sign above the door warned no entry and depicted a snarling black wolf.
    Max was stunned. What if Rose was telling the truth and the government really used plague wolves to attack intruders?
    "Skull and bones means only one thing," said Rose, oblivious to the wolf warning. "Poison. That card of yours opens all the doors here, right? Hand it over, Max."
    "Are you crazy?" said Max, recoiling in fear. "Look at the picture on the door! What if there are wolves in there?"
    "We see a wolf, we run." She snatched the card from his hand and swiped it with a flick of the wrist. "Fast." The door jolted open.
    With mounting horror Max watched Rose enter a vast room
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    with high ceilings and panels of dark wood, its painted floorboards littered with junk. He sidled in after her, bracing himself for a wolf attack.
    Computers hummed, machines pulsated, dust seethed. Overhead, Max could hear rain drumming against the skylights. There was a strange energy here that he found unsettling. The room seemed at odds with the rest of the building, which was elegant and old-fashioned. These surroundings were more industrious, more serious than a quality chocolate factory.
    To Max's relief there were no signs of wolves on the premises. Still, he wasn't taking any chances. He inched forward, looking this way and that, poised to run. But nothing jumped out.
    He was certain his parents didn't work in this room. They held top-level positions, not drone jobs. The workers here spent their time flicking switches on machines and staring at numbers on computer screens.
    All at once Rose went into high gear, moving through the room like a whirlwind, overturning waste bins, throwing open cupboards, rummaging through drawers, dumping file folders on the floor.
    "What are you doing?" cried Max, startled by her frantic behavior. "Are you looking for something?"
    Her muffled voice drifted out from under a desk. "I'll let you know when I find it."
    Trying to keep calm, Max inspected the various charts and diagrams that were pinned to the walls with thumbtacks. They were written in codes and symbols that made no sense to him. Were they recipes? Train schedules? He didn't have a clue. Yet by the
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    look of things, nothing in this room was remotely connected to the shipping or production of chocolate.
    He edged slowly toward the other end of the room, surprised to see it had been converted into