"Tell me I didn't waste your time." Julie sighed, the crossbow dangling from her hand.

Chief Matheny looked around the room. Stepping into it was beyond possibility without a wrecking bar and explosives. Someone, a very young and dangerous someone, had carefully planned this room to hold everything it contained and still allow a small body to worm its way in and breathe.

"Swing a cat, hell," Chief Matheny whispered. "There's not enough room in here to think about swinging something." His eyes danced around the room.

"Some of this stuff looked… dangerous. I called you right away."

"How was this allowed?" Chief Matheny asked quietly. "How did he get those manuals on electrical contracting and how… how does an eleven year old boy read them then… are those the electrical blueprints he's got there? Damn. And how was it that he didn't electrocute himself when he did that?" Chief Matheny looked at the wall.

"Chief?" a firefighter asked from just over his shoulder.

"… This is what we are going to do. First, I want the power shut off to this entire building while I try to figure out what that boy was trying to do to that junction box and outlet. Then, I want everything in this room dismantled and removed from this room. This is a hotel, not a research lab. People live here and they could have died here, Julie. That's a container of hydrochloric acid. Either someone has a pool somewhere with a missing container of pool acid or young Blaise found a meth-lab. I don't think there are pools big enough.. . if he got his hands on pool acid, what has he got in those bottles. ..?"

"Where do you want us to put everything, Chief?" a firefighter asked.

"In the shed behind the firehouse." Chief Matheny turned and fixed Julie with a stare that made her back up a step. "That boy is going to need to be as close to emergency response as I can get him. Your job, Officer Drahuta, is to protect children from the predations of adults, correct?"