“Brilliant is an understatement,” Regan said, leaning forward to inspect one of the projectors. She put her hand in front of the lens and suddenly the rock projection had a large hole.

“Stop that,” said a security officer, snatching her hand so that the projection returned to normal.

“Sorry,” Regan muttered.

“This facility is testing out some new innovations in security,” Callaway explained as he walked over to the steel door and pressed his hand against a large black panel to the right of it. “The Academy has its wall and security detail, but it is still too conspicuous. Despite the no-fly zone and the water patrol to make sure no unsuspecting boater stumbles upon it, some still have. This way, a boater could go right past the island and have no idea we were even here.” The panel lit up green around his palm and the door slid open, revealing a large, well-lit walkway.

“The L and C program is located inside the mountain,” Regan said. “That’s amazing.”

“It took about ten years to build,” Callaway said, leading the way down the hallway. “Luckily this particular mountain had a fairly extensive cave system already in place, so we just expanded on it. The Lewis and Clark program is small; you two will make the fourth partner group admitted into the program. Sam and Serina, our original partner pair, will pop in every now and then to assist with your training as well. We hope to grow the program a bit more each year, but finding compatible partners is proving to be harder than we expected.”

It was then that I noticed our security transfer hadn’t followed us. Callaway noticed my look and waved a hand flippantly. “Don’t worry about security, Elliot. They’ve headed back to the Academy. We don’t need them once we are inside the mountain.”

We rounded a corner, and the corridor opened up into a gigantic circular room the size of the auditorium at the Academy. Glancing up, I saw that the domed ceiling was chiseled right out of the rock of the mountain.