“Hey, she’s supposed to be the best. She has her doctorate and has been all over the world. I’ll text you about the fall trip I want us to go on.”
“All right, later.”
Tyler slipped out of the row and exited before the lights dimmed down for today’s art slide show. Leo noticed the bright glow of his tablet. He quickly went to turn it off and saw a new message.
The Simple Symbology. Good work Leo. That was quick. Lesson 2 awaits. He turned off the device and slid it in his backpack.
The professor began an overview of the semester to come. She showed slides of the influential and critical artists of the periods she would be teaching. Two of his favorites were Botticelli and Rogier Van der Weyden. The hair on the Botticelli females was beautiful and reminded him of Sarafina’s flowing mane.
The professor joked that she too wished her locks were as vivacious and wavy as his beauties. Leo loved the emotion portrayed by Weyden in his Pieta’s and the color shown in his other pieces.
Class was wrapping up to a close and he started putting his things into his backpack. The sight of the tablet triggered a puzzling thought.
When did I type my answer on the tablet? Did Tyler do it? No, it couldn’t have been Tyler. It wouldn’t let him touch the screen. I must have typed it … either that or read my mind.
Chapter 13
Mr. Sullivan looked over the scans from Fox One. The Phantom had a hit during his security check and he wanted to confirm his suspicions. Physical dimensions 9” by 7”, LED, running a custom operating system, and sensory recognition. Yes, she gave Leo one of our pieces of hardware. I hope she knows what she’s doing.
Mr. Sullivan knew it did not matter because he had all the data and resources. He checked the software scan portion of Fox One’s unit. It showed the readout of the Corvette, Leo’s iPhone, his calculator, his GPS unit, satellite radio, and finally he came across the encrypted company software.
What the hell is she thinking giving him this? She must think he’s capable already. Mr. Sullivan’s back door code, that he had slipped in, allowed him to see everything without her knowledge. Why would she hide this from me? Sometimes he wondered if she knew who he was at all.
The Sullivan place was Mrs. Sullivan’s idea. She ran the affairs there against his wishes, but he knew he owned control and Fox One was just one small part. The library was his design and had more significance than just beautiful rare volumes.
He pulled up the access logs of the tablet and saw multiple authorization violations. Well at least she included the biometric detection. Not only were Leonard’s palm and fingers needed to confirm identity, but the tablet also read his bio readings and confirmed another point of identification. This was not only at the time of login but through this “hot” window.
None of that really mattered to Mr. Sullivan. All that mattered is that Leo’s lessons were successful, with the utmost emphasis on urgency. He called Fox One for an update.
“Sir, what do you need?” the Phantom asked.
“I need assurances Mrs. Sullivan is protecting the library and keeping a low profile.”
“The area is void, sir. No one coming in or out, no red flags, no breeches, just dark and wet.”
“Keep me posted, Fox One. I want to know of any changes and definitely if you see Leonard approach the mansion there.”
“And what about our hardware, sir. It’s out there with a civilian.” A pause in communication had the Phantom nervous, he decided to fill the void. “I know you instructed against any action and said it is to our advantage, but I must advise against keeping our hardware in the open.”
“I understand your concerns, security is your job, and I have those concerns as well. I am leaving it in play. We have an urgent need for information and that need outweighs the risks.”
“Okay, Mr. Sullivan, will do. This storm is making it nearly impossible to get down the road anyhow. It looked like Christmas here last night with all the hail. Is there any damage over there to the property?”
“Ummm…no all is well 75.6℉, 60.1% humidity,” Mr. Sullivan said, followed by an awkward silence.
“Uh, right, Mr. Sullivan. I’ll keep you posted. Good day, sir.”
Chapter 14
After his art class, Leo had some time until his next session started. Hungry and craving a good breakfast, he headed for his favorite restaurant in the middle of campus. He sat down at one of the picnic tables scattered under the oak and maple trees and poured a glass of water from the pitcher on the table.
A pleasant breeze rustled the leaves and the sky was sunny with clouds passing overhead. He wanted to check out his Geology book before his next class and confirm that, indeed, it contained the whole text.
The waiter came, and Leo ordered granola nut pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs and a large glass of orange juice. He enjoyed the scene, birds chirping in the morning sun, his face warmed by the sunlight.
The waiter brought his OJ and he took a sip before he decided to look at his first Geology chapter. He unzipped his blue backpack and took out the tablet, as usual warm to the touch, but its power level had not changed. He assumed it ran a background app of some kind.
The tablet read, Lesson 2 with a blinking question mark. Leo moved his finger along the edge of the screen to reveal a menu and touched the home icon. The home screen only had one icon, a multifaceted round cut blue gem, a beautiful Sapphire.
He touched it and a book cover appeared. The cover had the words spelled in gems of every shade, and an intricate border of lines covered the edges of the page becoming a simple grid like pattern as it approached the lettering.
He swiped his finger across to open the cover and scrolled to the Table of Contents. He immediately knew this was not the average textbook. It was more of a work of art, each page full of intricate detail. The bordering along the text featured unique, scripted chapters and titles in beautiful calligraphy with illuminated capitals. It reminded him of the Gutenberg Bible.
He browsed Chapter 1. Each rock, gem and mineral were arranged clearly on what looked like a one-page sample of the material. If these were real samples, this thing had to cost a fortune. No wonder they didn’t let me take the real deal.
His touched his finger on Dolomite by accident, and a 3D model popped up, spinning on top of the page. He wondered if all the maps would be 3D and interactive as well. A globe also indicated areas with a high density of material. Glad he had gone through all that hassle for this book now, he read over the first chapter, paying attention to the pages and their layout.
His breakfast arrived, and he had another sip of his OJ before putting a healthy helping of maple syrup on his pancakes and enjoying a dripping forkful. He laid the tablet flat and glanced at it in between bites.
An alert sound chimed on the tablet and Leo saw a pop up that stated, Lesson 2. Leo was a little irritated. He ignored the prompt and worked on the rest of his food. This book still amazed him and now that he had read the first chapter, he wanted to play with its features and closely admire the detail of the pages.
One thing he noticed is each mineral, gem or rock had a series of numbers next to them. Each illuminated capital seemed to hide something within the artwork surrounding them, a crisscross of lines that snaked their way across the pages and were lost in the design.
After he finished eating, he turned his attention back to the tablet and tried to trace the lines around Dolomite. To his surprise, the D highlighted.
Slowly the capitol dissolved, and an equation appeared with missing parts. Is this some sort of chemistry breakdown, he wondered as he tapped the square with the equation?
A clearance security window popped up. Well that’s a dead end. This is probably just customizable; it is just code to edit its appearance or something. A curious thought passed through his mind though. This is a scanned book. This was not virtual; this is a copy according to Mrs. Sullivan, so why and how would all these features exist in a book scan?
His thoughts carried
him away from his surroundings for a minute until Annabelle jarred his mind.
“Hello you. Haven’t seen you in a while.”
The tablet immediately went black. He looked over and saw her smiling from the other side of the table, wearing capris, her dark brown hair pulled back in her typical pigtail style.
“You should have told me you were coming here, I would have joined you,” She said.
“I’m still getting used to my schedule. I was just gonna text you.”
“Oh yeah? What about?”
“The fall trip, we’re going for a horseback ride.”
“Oooh, that sounds so cool.” She pointed to his device. “What’ve you got there, a tablet huh?”
“Yeah, it’s for my Geology class. You gotta see this book.”
He tapped the screen and it came on to the home screen. He touched the gem icon and the book pulled up its gorgeous pages. He tapped one of the gems, huh, nothing happened. He tapped the illuminated capitol, nothing again.
She laughed. “What the heck, this thing is being shy on you.”
He looked at the clock on the tablet and realized he only had 10 minutes to get to class.
“Hey, I hate to leave you hanging but I have botany class, I gotta run.”
“Oh sure,” she said sarcastically. “We should catch up and hang out some time, hopefully before our fall trip.”
“Oh, you know it. I’ve been thinking about doing a hike soon anyway, maybe to Honeybee Falls.”
“That sounds awesome I’ve never been there.”
Leo rushed and packed up his stuff. He finished off the last of his juice and wiped his lips with a napkin.
“Good to see you Annabelle, talk to you later.”
He continued his walk down the path, popping a mint in his mouth, thinking of his next class, but also of the tablet. The book seemed so amazing, and very secretive. And it seemed it did not want to reveal certain features to just anyone. Only to him.
Chapter 15
After leaving Annabelle, Leo made his way to his Botany class. He arrived early as usual; it was one of a few classes he had scheduled for today. He knew the next couple of days would be busy, they would go by quickly, but he needed to get in some studying. He may be up late the next few nights.
Leo finished his day of classes and went to the nursery in town to get a mini palm tree; it was the inspiration for his next piece of software. He parked outside the nursery exited his car and grabbed a cart, then entered.
Leo located the tropical section toward the back where he found all types of palms. He selected a small traditional Canary Island palm that was about a foot tall.
He carted his item to the front and paid for it, then drove back home in the early afternoon sun. He parked in his green hedge lined spot, unloaded his plant, and set it on the porch. He cleaned up, got an apple and a glass of water, and sat on the porch enjoying the food.
Leo took out his books and the tablet. He wanted to take another look at the tablet before working on his other assignments. He authenticated it with his palm and a pop-up appeared again: Lesson 2, 24 hours remaining! He was feeling good and wanted to proceed to see what Lesson 2 was all about.
He also wondered how many lessons there were and what happened when he completed them.
The screen displayed the title of the next lesson, Hiding in the Numbers: The Digital Alphabet. 7,4,3,9,22,8,11 | 11,4,9.
He thought about the problem for a moment. This shouldn’t be too hard; it’s basically the same cipher-type as Lesson 1 but with numbers.
The second set of numbers appeared to be an abbreviation, so it was a little more difficult. He thought he had it cracked but had mixed up several numbers. He scribbled them out and started over. He worked quickly and came up with “Numbers Sub.” He decided to test it out with the tablet and spoke at it, “Numbers Sub.”
Text popped up in answer: Excellent Leo!! Lesson 3 awaits.
This was almost like a game. He wanted to conquer the next puzzle, so he touched on Lesson 3. The lessons here on out are complicated and untraditional, Form meets function.
This looked like Greek to him. He wasn’t sure how to start this puzzle. He did notice it appeared to be a grid using X, Y coordinates, but they did not really seem to make any pattern or form.
Leo laid out the coordinates on a blank sheet of paper, nothing was coming to mind until he decided to trace a line from one coordinate to the next and his sketch started to reveal a shape.
His drawing looked like an A to him, so he continued this on the other coordinates.
“A, B, C huh, that was easy enough.”
Excellent Leo, you have a gift, read the tablet.
Leo was addicted now, like the games everybody downloads and plays, except this was up his alley, more cerebral then gems, candy, or farms.
Before Leo knew it, it was dusk. He looked up from the tablet, his eyes adjusting from the harsh light and close focal length. He blinked several times and looked at the peaceful scene before him, a cricket’s song chirping beyond the porch.
The tablet read, Test 1 awaits. You are impressive Krueger.
He touched the screen to see what Test 1 was all about, but nothing happened. Impatiently he tapped it several times to see if the tablet was stuck or frozen. The breeze had suddenly stopped.
All became eerily quiet, not even a cricket chirped, nor did any leaves rustle in the trees. The silence in the maze and around his cottage piqued his senses; he had a strange feeling.
The tablet blinked off and a blue glow shone around the edges of the screen, pulsating slowly. He thought he felt the table shake and the hairs on his arms stood up.
He put his hands flat on the table to steady it and his nerves. Leo realized it was not the table; he picked up the tablet and felt its vibrations, pulsing slowly with each flash.
A hum was also in the distance, in the direction of the mansion, followed by lights popping on first far away, then radiating toward him, the maze area now lit up as well.
Leo scanned the maze tops when he realized the tablet began progressively flashing and vibrating faster, and a hum filled the silent air from afar.
The tablet became perceptibly hotter on his open palm. As slowly as the pulsing had begun the tablet quickly hummed down to a low throb, and then finally winked off, like a revved engine winding down from a red line.
Leo sniffed the air and could have sworn he felt a charge of energy. The tablet blinked back on, Test One showed briefly, and then pixelated away until the screen was black again. After a moment, the screen came to life again and announced, Chapter 2, where he had left off.
Leo sat perplexed, trying to take in what he just experienced. He thought of everything that had happened since getting the tablet and the ordeal of picking it up.
Deep in thought, Leo ran his fingers through his goatee. He could not help but regard it all with a sense that things were more than they seemed. Did the tablet have special powers? Am I losing it?
He had to dismiss the idea from his mind. How stupid. The dream he had the other night was just making him paranoid. These tablets aren’t cheap. It’s just a security upload perhaps. The blank state of the familiar squirrel, frozen mid-step, peeking over the top stair, broke his thoughts. Its nose sniffed vigorously, the only moving part of his body.
“You’re as weird as Willy is,” Leo said to the squirrel.
The squirrel took two steps toward Leo putting him on all fours on the deck. It raised one paw as if to step again, raced down the deck, up a pole, and then disappeared into the foliage. Must be dinnertime. Speaking of dinner, it’s time for me to get eating myself.
Leo went inside leaving the tablet on the outdoor table in the fresh August air. With Leo gone, the squirrel returned. It hopped back down off the branch, descended the pole, and followed the porch’s handrail before hopping onto the table.
The tablet’s glow lit the squirrels face a bright shade of blue as it sat calmly staring at Chapter 2 on the screen, studyin
g it.
After scanning the screen, the rodent turned its head and located Leo inside. The squirrel sat perfectly still, observing Leo’s movements, before finally leaving the porch.
Chapter 16
Leo banged pots and pans around looking for the right cooking gear, as Willy looked on. He hated cooking for just one person, although he did like to experiment. He wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather and was going to cook part of his meal outdoors on the grill. Willy darted out onto the deck as Leo headed out to put chicken and asparagus on the grill.
“Hey fur ball where do you think you’re going?”
Willy tried to run down the porch, but Leo reached out and grabbed him before he got away. Willy let out a long-irritated meow while looking at the maze. Leo followed his gaze and squinted in the low dusk light, unable to see anything out of the ordinary.
He cradled the cat and continued to look toward the maze while he walked inside and put Willy down on the couch. Back at the grill, Leo looked at the tablet sitting on the table. A streak of inspiration struck him, and after dinner, he would put it to paper.
Maybe his scholarship sponsor was rubbing off on him, this had ‘green’ written all over it. He stared at the fronds as computer coding flew around in his head. His iPhone vibrated, and he pulled it out to read a text from Sarafina.
Leo what you up to? I enjoyed the other night.
Nothing much just, BBQing some chicken. Did Willy drive you nuts last night?
Oh! That sounds yum, and no, he gave me some warmth.
Sorry we didn’t get more time together this has been a crazy week.
No prob. I just hope you’re OK after that crazy dream you had, you never did tell me about it.
It’s a long story for texting. Hey, I don’t want to burn this chicken; can I text you later?
Dawn of Tomorrow Page 6