by V. M. Franck
Morning was marked by the gradual raising of the lights in my room. The clock on the wall read 7:00 a.m. I yawned, stretched and looked to the window. There was none. Once dressed, I stepped out into the tunnel. It was vacant. I'd have to see if I was a smart lab rat.
I wandered down a tunnel until I found a fork, took one to the right, in a few more feet a turn to the left, then the right and, sure enough there was the kitchen. Zak and Jessie were already seated at a table, sipping coffee. Felipe was scrambling eggs on a griddle.
"Awe, little lady," Zak said. "We've been waiting for you. This is the big day."
"For what?" I served myself coffee and sat down next to Jessie.
"The beginning. We couldn't start without you," Zak said. "The time had to be right, world events lined up properly and all. Well, properly is the wrong term. But certain things had to transpire first. The world is waiting, though they don't know it."
"Your point?" I asked.
I wanted to go home. I could, of course, but something told me it would be the wrong choice. I was myself and not myself, a mystery to my inner karmic god or some such ridiculous thing.
"You look befuddled," Zak said. "You don't need to be. You'll know this is legit soon enough."
"I hope so," I said. "Look, I don't mean to be rude, but my dad always told me when people skipped around the point, they're hiding something."
"Smart man," Zak said. He eased back in his chair like a comfortable Panda and enjoyed his beverage.
Felipe served breakfast and sat down with us to eat.
"It's like this," Jessie said, between munches of toast, "with each step we have to confirm and double confirm our assessments. It's easy for emotions get in the way."
"And?" I said.
"Now we know," Felipe said.
"Because I'm here? One person can't make that big a difference."
Zak grinned. Jessie looked like he wanted to say volumes. It was Felipe who spoke.
"I once knew a woman who would let no one, nothing stop her. She defied tradition. She did what very few women of her day did. She paid the ultimate sacrifice. Now, she sits here with us and claims to know nothing about it. What do you think, guys? Should we prove it to her?"
"Absolutely," Zak said.
"You ready?" Jessie said, dabbing crumbs from his face.
"Let me finish my breakfast," I said. "The world can wait for that, can't it?"
"Probably not, " Zak said. "Most of the burgeoning population goes hungry on a regular basis."
"So you're telling me this is a change-the-world kind of proposition?" I said, scalding the roof of my mouth with my coffee.
"That depends," Zak said.
"It's a yes and no proposition," Jessie said. His eyes twinkled the way big brothers' do when they've played a trick on you, and you don't yet know it.
"Oh, for Pete sake," I said.
"Pete did have something to do with this," Felipe said. "It would have helped if he'd decided to stick around, but he didn't. So we have to do this without him."
Zak pushed back his chair. "Come on, let's get going. I've been waiting a long time. Even the most patient fellow gets tired of it after while."
"I'm assuming this is about what's in the vault," I said.
"Smart girl," Zak said.
The three of us followed him into the hall. We found Simeon and Maya in the library. It looked like a room in an old manor, with soft cushioned seats and rows upon rows of bookshelves all the way up to a ten foot ceiling. Several massive tables occupied the center. On one wall a fireplace stood empty.
I absently wondered where they vented it. I had wondered the same thing about the shower.
Simeon shuffled to the edge of the fireplace and slid a key into a hidden lock. The face of the fireplace swung away, revealing a locked vault. He punched numbers onto a keyboard. The door opened. The room was twelve by twelve with an eight foot ceiling.
"Are you claustrophobic?" Jessie asked.
"Why?" I asked, suddenly uneasy.
"We only have a few minutes before the door closes again," Simeon said. "We'd be stuck in here for two hours before we could open it from the inside. We either have to stay in here or take the stuff out, now. We have a secondary safe we can use if we need a temporary place to keep it."
I squirmed. "Gees, the idea of being closed in never bothered me before. "
Zak placed a wooden box on a cart and wheeled it into the library. He set it on a table and pried it open. Inside were square packing boxes. He pulled one out, pealed away the packing material and unveiled an ancient looking plate.
"It's true." A shiver ran the length of me. "It's all true."
Chapter 12