CyberTeen handed Jack a small bag of tiny tick-looking things.
"Those looks like ticks. Want me to squish them?"
"No. While these sorta look like ticks, they're... well let's call them Cyberticks. They'll burrow into any computer systems they get near and drain power until they cause a circuit to break. Khaki and I need you to drop that into the computers in the room that they're holding Ethan in. That's where the main security control will likely be, and that'll make our entrance a little easier. And also it'll make finding where Ethan is easier to track, because these cyberticks come with trackers."
Jack obediently nodded his head and took the bag, stuffing them into his satchel. All he knew was to drop the bag onto the computers in the room where Ethan was. Everything else went over the outdoorsy boy's head.
Anansewa directed Jack to the side of the above ground building where the return air duct to the underground ventilation system started.
"Now, Stealthy Scout, you're going to want to avoid any fans, heating coils, and cooling coils you come across in there. If you can't go any farther because your way is blocked, there should be a control panel nearby that you can flip the off switch in order to make it safer to slip past those elements--it'll be a tight fit, but if you squeeze, you should be able to get by."
"Okay," said Jack, though he only half understood what she meant. The biggest thing he took out of that being: if he ran into anything to find the OFF switch.
"Good luck, Stealthy Scout, I'm rooting for you," encouraged Anansewa with a look, a sarm smile, and a tender grip of Jack's shoulders. Jack appreciated the encouragement, but truthfully all he could think about afterwards as he pulled out his Scout Pocketknife that he'd found buried in one of the pockets of his shorts and flipped open one of the screwdriver bits to unscrew the return air duct cover, was the task in front of him... and Ethan. It took a little elbow grease, but soon the eight screws holding up the duct cover were off and Jack was crawling into the air ducts.
Ethan's first attempt at getting in caused the aluminum beneath him to bend and make that sound that bending aluminum sheets make that sounds like thunder on stage. Jack quickly learned if he wanted to avoid that sound he'd have to spread his weight out equally and more towards the edges of the duct. It was dark and hard to see in the ducts, Jack pulled out a headlight from his satchel and attached it to his head and turned it on to its lowest setting, tilting the light to just shine on what was directly in front of him. This allowed him to see when he came to his first slide down the duct tunnel and into the underground and kept him from just falling without warning. Instead, Jack pressed his hands, forearms, and his lower legs covered in knee high socks down to his boots against the sides of the downward duct and slowly and stealthily to lower himself down the drop until he came to the bottom and he had to spread out again to crawl forwards. He eventually came to a corner with a large fan in front of him, a large fan to his right, and duct way continuing down his left. So naturally he turned left.
Jack crawled until he noticed that through some grates in the duct way there were some lights illuminating the rooms below and the pathway ahead. Jack turned off his headlight and looked through the grates to see various scientists working madly with chemicals and electronics. One of the ones working with chemicals flipped a switch and caused a very loud machine to suck up a nasty looking cloud of smoke that came from one of the chemical bottles up into the air duct ahead of Jack, which then started aiming toward him. Jack looked for some way to escape the oncoming chemical cloud, but there was only a tiny outlet to the right of the main passage for him to fit into as the chemical cloud quickly approached. Jack, praying the loud whirring of the machines in the room down below were loud enough to hide any noise he was making, squeezed himself into the outlet, grabbed the green beanie off his head and covered his nose and mouth and held his breath. His eyes watered and grew red and itchy as the chemical cloud passed him by as it was sucked towards the way he'd come by the fans.
Jack counted to ten after the last of the cloud had passed, and then tried breathing the air through his beanie, and when he didn't feel anything bad doing that besides the air reflecting back the moist heat of his own mouth, he slowly pealed back his beanie to breathe normally.
That had been close. Jack had almost not fit into the outlet. It was a good thing that the older kids hadn't come down with him. Jack continued on, his eyes peeled as the ducts went from room to room down below until he came to a room that had a glass room within a room--a glass room that Jack could see Ethan inside of, laying on a cot, under a stiff looking blanket.
He'd found Ethan! He'd found him!
But how was he going to get to him? The grates were the only way the air came into the duct way, and they weren't exactly big enough for Jack to slip through undetected. In some ways, Jack was stuck... he could see Ethan and everything that was going on down below, but he couldn't get out and escape.
Wait, no, there was something he had to do first before trying to leave the duct way to rescue Ethan--but he only vaguely remembered something. What was it again? Jack looked back to Ethan, who seemed to be curled up holding his knees and Jack furiously looked through his satchel--determined to get to Ethan first and then try to remember whatever he had to do second.
His throwing knives would be quickly dulled by even attempting to cut through the aluminum, his climbing spikes and grappling hook were sure to puncture, but doing so would be loud and draw attention, and take forever for Jack to puncture enough holes to make a part of the aluminum weak enough for him to kick his way out of the duct way. His Scout pocket knife would be too dull, but the can opener attachment in it... that could puncture holes into the aluminum siding, and do it rather quietly... if not take for forever, which increased the chances of being caught as he can opened his way out of the air ducts.
Jack thought back to what Ken had said before he'd hopped onto his moped.
"Jack, I need you to remember the "Keep a LID on it" rule to being a sidekick... it's the three main roles of a kid sidekick, LID: Lookout, Intelligence, and Distraction."
That's right... he needed to make a distraction so Khaki Karateka and Cyberteen could get into the laboratory--that's right, the cyberticks! Jack fished out the small bag of tiny robotic ticks and dumped it through the grate and into the room below. The sound of tiny metal objects filtering through the grate and down into the lab below, bouncing off of the floor, a desk, and a computer below drew attention from the rest of the room.
"Something just fell out of the air ducts, Ma'am!" said one of the lower scientists.
"I'm not deaf! And it seems we're not alone," answered the voice of the floating woman who had kidnapped Ethan. Jack only saw something glowing purple for a split second before he quickly scampered to the side away from the grate just as a purple laser beam tore through the grate and ducts, blasting open a large hole that went into the cinder block wall that had been behind the duct way. He felt his heart pump furiously as he realized he'd almost been blasted to pieces.
Suddenly, without one of the support beams that had been underneath that grate, Jack felt his portion of the duct screech, give way, and dump him down on his butt into the room below. This however was not how Jack remained for long as he felt invisible arms scoop him up and levitate him in the air.
"Well, well, if it isn't our little greenie Boy Scout here to save the day. I'm surprised that you came and your friends didn't."
It must have been then that the cyberticks had finally done their job as the lab was quickly turned dark.
"Looks like you spoke too soon," muttered Jack with a smirk.
A backup generator must have kicked in a moment later as the lab was bathed in a red emergency light, accompanied by flashing lights and bells and whistles going off so that Jack had a hard time seeing or hearing anything beyond what really mattered--his eyes meeting Ethan--who was now off his cot and pounding against the class cage he was kept in.