The Prince's Trap

by Griffith, P. D.

  The sight of him turned Landon’s mind toward the greater mission to get Celia in the Olympic Tower, and he realized an opportunity. Studying Celia, whose resolve to beat Landon remained clear in her ferocious expression, Landon realized the answer to many of his problems was staring him in the face. What am I doing? he asked himself. This is exactly what we wanted to happen. This was her plan from the beginning! He was aware that she was starting to lose strength. She hadn’t fully recovered from her time in the medical wing, but even so, she was never going to give up. Celia was unrelentingly determined, and now Landon felt certain that even if she tired against another opponent, her fury and aggression would carry her the entire way.

  Realizing that this was what he needed to do, Landon took a step back, letting his foot land on the white painted border of the playing field. The bell rang to signal the end of the match.

  Landon Wicker had lost to Celia Jackson.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  HIDDEN ARTICLES

  The crowd roared with cheers and applause at Celia’s victory with others intermittently booing at Landon’s unanticipated defeat. He hadn’t made any new friends that day.

  The last vestiges of dust settled to the ground as Celia, rooted to the ground, panted from overexertion. She glared at Landon under her furrowed brow with an expression of distrust. Landon wondered if she realized he’d let her win.

  Dr. Brighton walked up and patted Landon on the shoulder, wordlessly telling him he’d performed admirably. He then instructed Celia to make her way to the tent and told Landon that he could return to the Gymnasium to clean up and then join the students in the stands to watch the rest of the tournament. As he walked off the field, Landon looked back to the faculty bleachers and caught the gaze of Washington Sykes, who looked unconvinced of the authenticity of Landon’s defeat. Turning back, Landon suppressed a smile, satisfied with himself and the cleverness of his plan.

  He now felt sure he’d done the right thing. He had no doubt that Celia could win it all. He felt confident that her unwavering determination to win would continue through each round, and if she fought with the same vigor as she had against Landon, no one could contend with her. Even Brock couldn’t stop someone who had both her skills and so much driving will to be victorious. If their assumption was correct, Celia’s victory would mean her inevitable invitation to join the Pantheon. Landon hoped that outcome would extinguish any residual animosity she felt toward him, allowing them to return to the real mission of discovering the truth of the Gymnasium and the Pallas Corporation.

  • • • • •

  “What man has joined, nature is powerless to put asunder.”

  Landon mouthed the words over and over again. If I were Katie, giving me a message, what would I be thinking? Landon strolled up and down the aisles of the Library noting each section of the massive collection—Non-fiction, Women’s Studies, Geography, History, Biographies, Sciences, Self-help, Reference, Mythology, Folklore, Fiction. Landon stopped under the Fiction sign. Well, she knows this is what I typically read. Feeling lucky, Landon entered the section.

  While he was showering off the dirt and grime Celia had tossed all over him during their match, Landon realized that he had full reign of the Gymnasium while everyone else watched the remainder of the matches. He didn’t think he would ever have a better opportunity to discover what Katie Leigh had left him.

  Thinking back five weeks ago when Celia still lay in a coma and he had nowhere to turn, he considered it a stroke of genius that he had thought to seek Katie Leigh’s help. Although young, she had a knack for the spy world. Her mind was simply wired for shadow games and cryptic messages. She yearned for knowledge and sought it out—even to her detriment. Landon thought that with a little physical training, she’d become a force to be reckoned with in the Pantheon or any intelligence agency. Her access to the A.R.G.O.S. system was priceless in itself. It had uncovered far more information about what transpired in the Gymnasium than he or Celia had managed to scrounge up. Even if Celia wasn’t going to talk to him, Landon knew that he and Katie Leigh would peel away the layers of lies and deceit until the truth was all that remained.

  However, Landon was afraid he might have created a monster. In order to maintain their cover, she now went to the far extreme. Secret notes leading to obscure books that he hoped would contain the sensitive research he’d asked her to compile. It was beyond anything he would have expected. Why couldn’t she just pass me the information? As he walked down the hallway, he shook his head slightly and smiled thinking about it. Once I find this, I’m going to have to have a talk with her about future procedure. This is ridiculous.

  Turning down the first aisle, Landon started to run his finger along the spines of the books, hoping that at some point one of the titles would sync up with the quote and reveal the secret Katie Leigh was trying to tell. But this wasn’t Landon’s forte. When he read, he lost himself in the story, and although affected by the words, he remembered few quotations. If asked about the plot, the characters or themes, he could talk for days. But if asked who said what without some sort of primer, he would be at a loss. There were a few lines he’d put to memory, but not intentionally. They were from books he’d read over and over again, and they had made him pause.

  After scanning ten shelves, Landon’s patience was wearing thin. I could really use the Internet at times like this.

  There were just too many books for him to ever find the one that contained the quote. It was like finding a scrap of paper in a shredder. Still trying to think like Katie Leigh, he began searching for every book he’d read in the past year. Perhaps she thought that if she picked a quote from a book she knew he’d read, he’d easily be able to identify it.

  He scoured the shelves, found each of the novels, and carried them to his usual alcove to leaf through. Before settling himself into the oversized armchair, he set the books on the side table. Treasure Island, Alice in Wonderland, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jungle Book, The Time Machine, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, and The Invisible Man—it was the perfect set of classic literature and each one held its own special meaning for Landon.

  Landon grabbed The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde first. It was the shortest and presumably the easiest in which to find a quote. But in scanning the text, he quickly realized that even in a short book, finding a single line was going to be difficult. After scanning the book twice, he was certain the quote wasn’t in its pages.

  Landon spent two hours perusing the pages of each book in the stack, but with every line of every page, his resolve weakened and his patience grew thin, inevitably giving way to frustration. By the time he reached the middle of The Time Machine he was fed up with the entire search. In a moment of anger, he tossed the book across the room. It collided with the edge of the bookshelf with a loud clap and then fell open on the floor.

  Instantly feeling guilty, Landon rose from his chair and went to pick up it up. “Books are to be respected. They are our legacy,” his mother always said. Landon picked it up by the front cover, the novel splayed open as it rose off the ground, but as he lifted it up, something fell out. It was a small scrap of paper that must have been stuck between two pages of the book. Feeling a sudden twinge of excitement, he picked up the scrap.

  Turning it around in his hands, Landon read a few lines of handwritten text on the paper. He instantly could tell it wasn’t Katie Leigh’s handwriting, and the words appeared to be just a short list of assignments, probably some former student’s “To Do” list, used as a bookmark. Saddened that his search was not yet over, he gingerly closed The Time Machine and gently slid his hand along the rough cover.

  Suddenly, the giggles and chatter of a few girls broke the silence. Landon’s opportunity was over. The Qualifiers had ended for the day, and people were wandering the halls once again. La
ndon decided he too was done for the day. Grabbing the books from the table, he began to file them away on the shelves. But as he slid The Time Machine into its appropriate slot, something triggered in his head. Is that all I’m looking for? Would Katie Leigh just leave me a scrap of paper in one of the books?

  “It has to be in one of them,” he told himself. “Which one, though?”

  Landon started at the top and pulled each book off the shelf, one after the other, without registering the titles or covers. He flipped through the pages of each book he grabbed to investigate, looking for some loose sheets that didn’t belong, waiting for the progression of pages to stop on Katie Leigh’s hidden message.

  Running through the entire first shelf, he still found nothing. But Landon was determined to find what Katie Leigh had left for him. Even if people saw him rushing erratically from book to book, he didn’t care. It had taken too long for him to decipher her message. It had to end today. Haphazardly pulling and refiling books, Landon flipped through dozens in rapid succession.

  After searching what must have been more than two hundred books, Landon was finally at the bottom of the first bookcase. He grabbed the next book, which was tucked away in the corner of the shelf. He flicked it open and grasped of the meat of pages with his hand and started thumbing the corners, flying through the sheets. The pages sped past until suddenly their progress was hindered; a small group of papers was folded and wedged inside. On the back of the packet, Landon recognized Katie Leigh’s sloppy handwriting.

  Landon paused and looked around, making sure he wasn’t being watched. When he was certain he was alone, he sighed with relief at finally finding whatever this was. He removed the pages from the book, folded them twice more, and shoved them into his jeans pocket, intent on reading them somewhere more private.

  Landon glanced back down at the book and noticed a line highlighted in pencil on the left page. It was the quote, “What man has joined, nature is powerless to put asunder.” Katie Leigh never disappoints, he thought. He closed the book and filed it back into its spot on the shelf.

  As he pulled his hand away, Landon finally discovered which book Katie Leigh believed he could easily find with her arbitrary quotation: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Landon smiled. He remembered reading it in his freshman English class. It was about a future society where people were created in bottles, raised in Hatcheries, and assigned to a specific caste of society. It was a clever book, Landon remembered thinking, and in retrospect, one he could easily believe Katie Leigh would assume he was a fan of, as he had once asked if she knew if Dr. Brighton was named after the author. Aldous wasn’t the most popular name in the world.

  Relieved and invigorated, Landon left the Library, headed for somewhere private to review what Katie Leigh found, but he soon realized that would be next to impossible as students, energized by the Qualifiers, were everywhere. He’d have to wait until dinner, when most everyone would be in the cafeteria eating and not wandering the halls.

  • • • • •

  While he loaded his plate with food, Landon noticed a large number of scowls once people recognized him. He couldn’t have been the only unexpected loss of the day, but when one’s gambling leads to misfortune, the blame must be on the contender who failed them and not in the folly of betting in the first place.

  “There you are!” Riley’s tray slapped against the table as he slid onto the bench across from Landon “You missed the rest of the matches.”

  “I know,” Landon said. “I was in the shower.”

  “Long shower,” Riley replied as he shot Landon an accusatory glance.

  “Hey, I wasn’t leaving that stall until the water stopped looking brown when I rinsed off,” Landon said defensively. “I swear, she got dirt in places dirt should never be allowed.”

  “Right.” Riley sounded unconvinced.

  “Know what, why don’t I start shoving sticks and leaves in that mop on your head you call hair, and you tell me how long it takes to get them all out.”

  “Okay, okay,” Riley conceded. “That was one heck of a fight you and Celia had, though. That thing she did with the dirt will go down in the record books as one of the coolest moves in Qualifiers history. In fact, I already heard some pretty interesting nicknames for her floating around. Dirt Devil . . . Dust Bunny . . . Sandstorm Celia.”

  “Sandstorm Celia, huh?” Landon chuckled as he imagined Celia’s expression after hearing any one of those ridiculous nicknames.

  “Yeah, like I said, people will be talking about that for ages.”

  Riley and Landon sat in near-silence as they devoured their food. Once they were both about finished, with dinner in their bellies, the info Katie Leigh had left for Landon tugged at his mind.

  As he lifted his final forkful of perfectly spun spaghetti to his mouth, Landon asked, “So where’s Katie?”

  “She said she had some stuff to do,” Riley answered as he tossed a last hunk of garlic bread into his mouth. “But doing what? I have no idea. It’s the Qualifiers. We don’t have any schoolwork due,” he continued with his full mouth.

  Landon winced with pain as he accidentally bit his tongue. He still couldn’t tell Riley, but he imagined Katie Leigh’s absence had something to do with their secret initiative. He swallowed his last bite of spaghetti, hoping that Katie Leigh was uncovering more useful information and he’d hear about it soon . . . with less cloak and dagger.

  “Riley,” Landon interrupted him mid-sentence. “I’ve got to go check on some things.” He felt that if Katie Leigh was working on their project, he should be, too.

  “Seriously?” Riley exclaimed in disbelief. “What could you possibly have to do?”

  Landon conjured an expression that told Riley, “I would tell you if I could,” hoping that would make Riley believe it was something Pantheon-related. It was the one excuse Riley would accept without question.

  “Oh,” he replied, catching on. “Got it.” Riley tapped the side of his nose a few times with his index finger. “I’ll see you later, then.”

  Landon nodded in reply and then headed off in the direction of the Olympic Tower to substantiate his lie, but once he was out of Riley’s sight, he diverted his course and headed to the lake. At this hour, it was the most private area he could think of.

  In the late hours of the evening, the sky was overcast. Streaks of cloud cast an array of oranges, pinks and purples overhead as they hid the setting sun. A series of breezes brushed over the crystalline surface of the lake, cooling the air considerably from the blistering heat of the Qualifiers and causing goose pimples to form on Landon’s bare arms and a shiver to course through him until his scalp tingled. Checking again to make sure he wasn’t being watched, Landon pulled the wad of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. The top sheet was a printout of a newspaper article:

  Technology Titans Put Rivalry Aside for Global Benefit

  WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2002 – Amid growing political pressures for a global research and development initiative, Drake Harper of Pallas Corporation, Sven Lundgren of Ymir Technologies, and Yomi Amaya from Susano-o Industries met today to discuss possible plans for collaborative research efforts that have the potential to launch the human race to the next stage of technological advancement.

  After Drake Harper divorced his wife and business partner, Ainsley Ross-Harper, and broke up the Olympia Corporation in 1996, he founded the Pallas Corporation. Harper’s company has since emerged as one of the juggernauts of the technology industry, releasing numerous advancements in robotics and engineering. Their meteoric rise to global prominence, however, drew the attention of the 48-year-old Japanese tech firm Susano-o Industries and the 60-year-old German weapons developer Ymir Technologies, when long-standing contracts with the United States and other countries were transferred to the start-up, resulting in a heated rivalry that is only worsening as Pallas Corp.
matures.

  Now known for their bitter rivalry, where each launch of new materials results in lawsuits and rumors of patent infringement, intellectual property theft, and criminal tampering, this potential merging of the minds could be a significant first step to building a synergistic relationship between not only warring companies, but nations, which could benefit the world.

  Their discussions are being held at Sen. Willards’ estate outside Washington, D.C., with access granted solely to Yomi Amaya, Sven Lundgren and Drake Harper and their most trusted advisors. We won’t know what they discussed in this meeting, but we can be assured the world is watching this historic moment, hoping these powerhouses of technology and industry can find common purpose and put aside years of opposition for the good of mankind.

  Landon flipped the article over and found some additional information Katie Leigh had uncovered scrawled in the white space.

  I did some digging and found that after this first meeting in 2002, these CEOs have all been meeting secretly at least once annually, around the same time each year. There are closed-book flight manifests, which the public has no record or knowledge of, that I found in a secure folder in the system. They detail all the trips to a private airport outside Washington, D.C. as well as numerous other meetings over the last ten years at a place outside Tokyo and in Munich. All the flight dates for all three companies’ jets coincide to the point where the three CEOs were definitely at the same place at the same time. I am now 95% certain that the result of this first collaborative meeting on August 15, 2002 was the creation of the Triumvirate of Titans.