The Key to Adventure

    “Gad Zooks!” Proclaimed Akiva Akkad, nose in his book in the center of the public library. He was promptly shushed by a librarian, but in his excitement he hardly noticed. He pulled the sleeve of his friend Ollie. “Say, did you ever hear about the Sons of Liberty?”

    Ollie only shrugged.

    The two bosom friends couldn't agree on where to spend their day, so they flipped a coin and Ollie's aspirations of seeing a baseball game went up in smoke. Now, like other times they'd whiled away hours in the New York public library, Akiva was ensnared in a book and couldn't resist sharing it.

    He asked the question again.

    Ollie looked lazily up from his magazine “Sure, a long time ago, in school. Why?”

    “I'm reading about their exploits now. I tell you, Ollie, those fellas were really something! Heroic men like Paul Revere fighting their worthy cause, how I envy them!”

    Ollie just yawned “Aki, if you want a fight we could just waltz into the Bronx and pick on a guy with a brick bat.”

    “Aww shucks, Ollie, to you there's no such thing as a hero.”

    “Sure, there is, I just ain't seen one in a long time.”

    “Well they sure don't seem to make 'em like they did back then.”

    “If you say so. Why don't you check out that book if you think it's so great, that way we can read it someplace we won't get shushed.”

    So Akiva Akkad and his buddy Ollie Sabitch checked out their books and went for a walk in the park. It was an idyllic Spring day and neither man had a thing to occupy his time. The two made an odd sight as they didn't seem to suited to one another at all. Ollie slouched and dressed like a Bowery newsboy, despite the fact that he was over 21. He wore a sullen expression and didn't seem too at home in the sunshine. Akiva would have been odd all by himself, but it especially showed when he stood near his friend. They were the same height, a hair over average, but Akiva stood erect and you could tell right off that he wore muscle on his frame. His hair was a fiery red, and yet his skin was tanned and not freckled. Akiva took on the day through golden eyes, always wearing the ghost of a smile. Although Akiva was descended from the sons of the Mohammad and the sons of Moses, his face was smooth, having neither beard no stubble.

    They paused on a bench near the pump-house for the reservoir.

    Akiva had his face buried in his book “Sizzlin' rockets, Ollie, this is one swell book! Why, it talks about the midnight ride and all the heroism of the revolution. Just think what it would have been like to live back in those days.”

    “Sure,” Ollie said, looking through a book about baseball. “I think back then they didn't have hotdogs or trolley cars or aeroplanes or motorcars. Why, I bet a fella couldn't even find a public library or a park bench as easy as we can.”

    “Aww Ollie, you oughta look at the sunny side for once. Why, back then a fella had a real chance to be a hero and to make his mark on the world. Nowadays there's no more cowboys or knights in shining armor.”

    “Didn't you do well enough in the foreign legion? Or what about your great uncle's expedition to New Guinea?”

    “I guess those things are okay, but I still say they had the real adventure back then.”

    “Cheer up, Akiva. If what I read in the papers is true, there are some real adventures still on the way. They say that before too long we'll be riding rocketships to the moon and to the planets. Think about that!”

    Just then a flock or aeroplanes flew over in formation, trailing kites of different colors.

    “There,” said Ollie. “Adventure is on the march...”

    He was cut short when one of the planes suddenly began trailing smoke and curved down towards the park. Akiva and Ollie stood and watched the double wings scraping the tops of trees sideways, dragging to doom until at last it spun down into the reservoir.

    “Forget I said anything.” Ollie said.

    Akiva ran towards the water “He might still be alive!”

    “Good luck.”

    The crumpled plane sat on the surface of the water, just starting to sink. Akiva leapt over the rail and swam with all his might for the doomed aircraft. When he reached it the pilot was just being pulled under, knocked insensible by the impact. With no time to lose, Akiva took out his pocket knife and cut the safety straps off the unconscious pilot. No sooner had they pulled away than did the twisted wreck sink below the surface.

    On shore Akiva worked the air back into the luckless pilot's lungs and pulled off his soaked flight cap and jacket.

    The pilot began to cough and breath feebly, but anyone could see he'd been knocked around too badly by the crash to walk away from it. He couldn't be much older than Akiva or Ollie, but now he teetered on the brink of death.

    “Somebody get a doctor!” Akiva shouted to the gathering crowd.

    “Don't bother,” the pilot said in a weak voice. “I figure I'm about done for.”

    “What happened?” Ollie asked, standing over his friend and the victim. “Defective engine?”

    “Might have been sabotage,” the color seemed to fade from his face. “You see, they're after me...”

    “Who?” Akiva asked. “Not those guys you were flying with?”

    “No, those are right guys. I just didn't tell them about my troubles. I figured they wouldn't understand.”

    Someone from the crowd shouted. “There's a doctor on the way.”

    “I hope he's fast.” Ollie said.

    The pilot grabbed hold of Akiva's shirt and said “Listen to me. I'm not gonna last, so I'm giving you my secret.”

    “You gotta hang on!” Akiva said.

    “Just listen, my name is Simon Henderson. I've been guarding this secret most of my life.” He reached inside his shirt and pulled out a key of strange design and handed it to Akiva. “Go to the Statue of Liberty. There's a vault hidden underneath it and only this key will open it. There's a place buried down below the statue, it was there even before the pilgrims first came. Go there and you'll find something unbelievable...” he coughed and began to tremble. “ ...the killers, call themselves Trandors... they'll do anything to get at it... don't let them...”

    “Simon? Simon hang on!”

    The pilot breathed his last.

    Akiva hardly noticed when the other planes set down nearby and the pilots ran up to them. Before they could come near, Akiva slipped the key into his pocket.

    When the pilots saw the state of their friend they all took off their caps.

    “I'm sorry,” Akiva told them. “They sent for a doctor, but we were too late.”

One of the pilots asked “Did he say anything? Any last words?”

“Just that you were a bunch of right guys.”

    They all nodded solemnly. “So was he.”

    The crowd parted and the doctor emerged. He knelt beside the body and confirmed that Simon Henderson was no more.

    Minutes later, Akiva and Ollie rode on a street car.

    “Some day this turned out to be,” Ollie said. “Really makes you wonder about it all, a fella just dropping dead like that.”

    “I don't think it was as simple as a guy just having an accident,” Akiva said.    

     “Maybe not. Still, I don't think I'll go for a high flying adventure any time too soon. Just imagine that happening in a rocketship: if you wipe out in one of those you might take out whole buildings. Maybe it's better to play it safe.”

    “Maybe.”

     “What do you say we go for a hotdog or something?”

    “I'm not that hungry right now, besides, I have to see about this key.”

    “Do you buy that guy's story about being chased and all?”

    “I don't see why he'd make it up. Let's go out to the statue now and see about it.”

    “You want to go now? Look, let's wait a little while, my dogs are barkin'!”

    “But, Ollie, it's real important...”

    “...sure, it's like some kind of adventure. Why it's for you and not his next of kin, I won't ask. But if you wanna go rooting around a national landmark for secrets in broad daylight, that's maybe something you should think twice about.”

    Akiva sat and thought for a second. “You know, Ollie, you really do have a point.”

    “I guess it happens sometimes. How about we meet up at the ferry around 6?”

    “Alright, but what are you gonna do until then?”

    “Take a nap! All this excitement is exhausting.”

    Shortly before 6pm, Akiva Akkad arrived at the ferry and waited for his friend. He paced idly around and waited, but after several minutes Ollie still hadn't arrived.

    Just as the ferry they'd meant to catch departed, Akiva went to the pay phone and dialed up Ollie's apartment house. Nobody answered.

    “Oh boy,” Akiva said to himself as he went to hail a cab. “I sure hope nothing happened to Ollie!”

    Minutes later he walked up the steps of the apartment and strolled inside. The concierge lay unconscious in the lobby, which was otherwise deserted. Akiva backed out to the street.

    The sun was going down and many lights began to come on. He looked up the front of the building and noticed that Ollie's room was lit up too. Akiva jumped onto the fire escape and climbed as quietly as he could up to the room on the fourth floor. He stopped outside Ollie's open window and listened to voices inside.

    A rough voice said “...you just tell us what we want to know and nothing else.”

    “There's nothing to tell,” Ollie said. “That pilot guy never said a word. He just up and died when my friend got him on shore.”

    “I don't buy it. He didn't have the key on him and neither did that doctor, so where is it?”

    “Keep talkin',” Ollie said. “Maybe it'll make sense this time.”

    Akiva risked a glance through the window. They had Ollie tied up in a chair, two men in suits had guns one him, and a big man sat with his back to the window, asking questions.

    The big man asked “Just what business did your pal have dragging that guy out of the water anyway? What is he, some kind of hero?”

    “Sure, why not? It's better than what you are.”

    “Why you...”

    One of the gunmen said “You want me to teach him a lesson?”

    “That'd be a laugh,” Ollie said. “Not one of you fellas looks like he's had his lessons.”

    “Listen, smart guy,” the big man said. “It's easy to have a big mouth, but until you tell me what I wanna hear, we play things this way.”

    “How many ways do I have to tell you crumbs that Henderson guy never told us a word!”

     The big man laughed “We never told you his name.”

    “Sure,” Ollie said. “One of his friends told me. Why don't you try asking them?”

    “Easy. They thought his name was Simon Tenney, see? Besides, they haven't got the key either.”

    “If you fellas are so smart, why not tell me who has the key?”

    Akiva jumped through the window and knocked the big man on his face, and hurled a lamp from the end table at the first gunman before he could draw on him. The second gunman turned to fire when Ollie tilted his chair over onto him, knocking him to the floor. Akiva collected the guns and kicked the first gunman when he made to get up.

    The big man stood up slowly, a murderous scowl on his bulldog-like face. He brushed himself off “Alright, so you're here too.”

    “I guess you followed my friend home from the park,” Akiva said, holding one of the guns on the ringleader. “You ought to ask people nicely, they might surprise you.”

    “Yes, we followed your friend here, and no, I don't think honey gets the same results as a pistol.”

    “That doesn't surprise me. So, are you one of the Trandors?”

    The big man laughed “And what is a Trandor?”

    “I figure it's either you or who you work for. Whoever downed Henderson's plane and wanted his key is a Trandor, as far as I can tell.”

    “I'm simply a professional, an employee. If you met a Trandor you would not be likely to confuse me with one of them.”

    “Maybe I should call the police and have you explain the difference to them.”

    He pulled a paper from his coat with an official looking seal on it “Then I would explain to the police that I and my associates are on the staff of a foreign dignitary and are protected under diplomatic immunity. In all likelihood, you and your friend here would get into some trouble for holding guns on embassy staff.”

    “Which embassy would that be?”

    “Why not have the police ask me?”

    Akiva reached down and cut Ollie's bonds with a quick swipe of his pocket knife. Ollie stood up and gave a kick to the man who'd gone down under his chair. Akiva handed him the other gun “Cover these two hoodlums.”

    “We didn't come alone.” The big man said.

    Akiva pointed the gun at him “Alright, come with us. Help your friends up, we're all going someplace.”

    “You could try asking nicely.”

    Ollie and Akiva tied the hands of all three men with twine and gagged them with old socks. Luckily there was a broom closet in the hall and all three fit inside. Ollie propped the chair from his apartment against the knob.

    Down on the street Ollie said “What took you so long? I think those fellas were about ready to give me a good old-fashioned beating. How is it they didn't get you?”

    “Maybe because I didn't go home. I hope you had a nice nap.”

    Ollie shrugged. “I can't complain. In fact I think I was having a pretty good dream when I woke up with a gun in my face.”

    “Alright, pipe down. I think those guys have a car waiting and I want to get to it before they get out of that closet.”

In the side alley sat a Locomobile touring car and leaning on it was a driver, smoking a cigar and reading a newspaper. Akiva walked up casually “Say, mister, have you got a match?”

    The driver shook his head “Beat it, I ain't got anything for the likes of you.”

    Akiva pulled out the gun “Sure you have, your car, for example.”

    “You lousy...”

    “Your passengers are in the hall closet on the fourth floor. You better run and get them out, they're probably getting impatient.”

    The driver scowled and ran off around the corner.

    Akiva and Ollie hopped in and they sped away. Ollie looked back and saw that the men from the closet had already made it down to the entrance and were pointing and shouting after the car.

    “You don't suppose that's the last we've seen of them?” Akiva asked Ollie.

    “What do you think?”

    “Yeah, me neither.”

    “This is quite a turn for you, Aki, stealing a car and all.”

    “I'm not keeping it, Ollie. They'll get it back when they get to the ferry.”

    “If they do that means they'll know where we went and where this secret thing would be.”

    “Alright, so we'll drop it a block over.” Akiva smiled. “You know, this is really strange. I hadn't held a gun or run from anybody since New Guinea, it's strange how fast it can all come back.”

    “Yeah, well, you wanted adventure.”

    They left the car running at the edge of Battery Park and walked fast down to Pier A where they were just in time to catch the ferry to Liberty Island. The sun set behind the skyline on the further shore.

    Akiva and Ollie waited eagerly at the front of the vessel, watching the towering copper monument in the glow of the setting sun. If you looked closely, you might have spied the hint of a tear in the corner of Akiva Akkad's eye, but you could hardly blame him since he was looking at one of his most cherished symbols. Lady Liberty was the eternal hope for a better tomorrow.

    “What do you think that secret could be?” Ollie asked.

    “I don't know, but if a man like Simon Henderson gave his life to keep it, it's gotta be pretty important.”

    “Who was that guy, anyhow? You only met him today.”

    “After I left you I went back to the library and read up on him. He was actually quite an accomplished man for being only 26 years old. Simon Henderson was a member of the Discoverer's Club and one of our nation's foremost archeologists. He'd made finds on three continents and he had the ear of some of the pillars of society.”

    “The guy really rubbed elbows with giants, eh?”

    “The biggest. It's rumored that he helped to select the site of the statue, maybe this secret has something to so with it.”

    Once on shore they walked hurriedly around the star-shaped base of the monument, hoping to see some clue as to where this hidden vault might be. Having found nothing, they preceded inside. What few tourists remained at that hour were all competing to climb the stairs and peer out from the head of lady liberty. Akiva and Ollie managed to find an unlocked utility door marked “do not enter”. They entered anyway.

    Down a couple flights of stairs they came to a utility and storage room. It didn't look all that impressive at first glance, just the usual mess of cleaning supplies, electrical circuit boxes, connections for plumbing and a small desk with a chair.

    “Some secret,” Ollie said. “Maybe the key fits in the janitor's locker.”

    “There's just got to be something more. Look everywhere, there might be a hidden passage or something.”

    “Hey, take a look behind the stairs.” Ollie pointed and Akiva saw a triangular opening under the stairs and a ramp leading down. It was dark back there, no electric lights, and somebody had lazily laid some boards across the gap. They grabbed a torch off a shelf and investigated.

    The boards fell out of the way easily and they both entered the small passage and followed the ramp which snaked around a corner and terminated in a conical chamber. The stone of the walls and floor looked ancient. On the floor was a metal disc, covered in hieroglyphs with a raised attachment like a knob to one side. Akiva knelt down and ran his hand over it. There was a slit that looked big enough for a key.

    “Roaring thunder, I think this is it.” Akiva whispered.

    “It's gotta be, there's nothing else here.”

    A noise came from the room above, the echo of feet on the cement stairs.

    “Jeepers!” Ollie exclaimed. “Somebody's coming!”

    Akiva grabbed the strange key from his pocket and pushed it into the lock. When he turned it there was a low clicking sound and the edge of the metal disc, in fact a door, rose up. In the space that opened below, he could only see darkness.

    The echoing sound of footsteps grew louder.

    “Hurry!” Ollie whispered.

    Akiva grabbed the torch and thrust it into the opening. He took Ollie by the arm and pulled him down into the darkness below. The door slammed shut above them.