The Navel of the World

by P. J. Hoover

  But Benjamin never got a chance to respond. Walker turned to Morpheus. “Next week, same place?”

  “Same time.” Morpheus stepped out of the way before Walker could slap him on the back again.

  Walker looked back at the students, smiled with about half his teeth, and then teleported away.

  Gary threw up his arms. “What are you doing with him, Morpheus? Last year you admitted you didn’t trust him. And now here you are, letting the enemy into your home!”

  Morpheus patted his palms downward. “Calm down, Gary. I didn’t trust Walker at first either. But my brother put in a good word for him; they’ve known each other for years.”

  It seemed not even sibling referrals were going to win Gary over. “But he read your mind—cheated—last year to win.”

  “All we do is play chess together.” Obviously dropping the subject, Morpheus smiled at the students. “Now, what can I get for you today?”

  Iva spoke up. “I’m looking for something made of Peridot. Maybe a ring or something.”

  “The stone of lost items,” Morpheus said.

  Iva nodded.

  Morpheus put his finger to his mouth. “You know, I may have something in the basement. We can all go down and look.”

  They headed down the narrow steps in the back of the store. Shelves were filled with all sorts of…things, for lack of a better word. Iva picked up a jar, and whatever was in it moved. She jumped and dropped the jar, screaming as she did so. Just before smashing into the ground, it stopped. Andy levitated it back up and into his hands.

  “Thanks,” she managed to get out, still backing away from the jar.

  “What is this anyway?” Andy brought it closer to inspect the slimy, purple creature.

  Morpheus just about ran over and grabbed the jar from Andy’s hands. “Someone gave it to me, I swear.”

  “You’re smart not to admit to buying that on the black market.” Jack teleported into the basement.

  Morpheus nearly dropped the jar himself.

  “Why?” Andy asked.

  “Because it’s a highly illegal genetically engineered species available only in Atlantis.” Jack crossed his arms. “That’s why.”

  “And rare,” Morpheus said. “Extremely rare.” He cradled the jar and placed it toward the back of the top-most shelf.

  But Gary stared at the jar. “Wasn’t that particular genus eliminated?”

  “Why don’t we look for our Peridot?” Morpheus suggested, clearing his throat. Apparently it was time for another subject change.

  “Hey, how about this?” Heidi said, walking over to a nearby shelf and picking up a green carved rose.

  Morpheus squinted his eyes at it. “It is Peridot. But it’s not a very strong telemagnifier.”

  Iva took the stone from Heidi and closed her fist around it. “You’re right. This won’t do at all. We need something way stronger.”

  “I keep the stronger telemagnifiers locked up over here.” Morpheus walked over to a trunk draped in a thick black cloth. Lifting back the cloth, he unlocked the trunk with both a palm scan and an eye scan. “Some of these aren’t really legal, so maybe we can just keep this between ourselves.” He let out a nervous laugh.

  Andy grinned like he’d just found a way to spy on Helios and Selene Deimos. “Oh, yeah, no problem. Your secret is our secret.”

  “The one I’m thinking of in particular is—” Morpheus began.

  “—this one,” Iva finished, reaching over to pick up the delicate golden ring with the small green stone. “It’s perfect.”

  Morpheus smiled and nodded.

  “So do you have anything in there that’ll get us access to Geros?” Benjamin asked. He’d been thinking about the whole off-limits part of their problem, and given this box of contraband Morpheus had in his basement, he might have some way for them to get into the old capital city.

  “Geros?” Morpheus said, and for a second, Benjamin thought it might pan out. But then Morpheus shook his head. “No way. Only the rulers give access to Geros. At least these days. Back before they tore the ruins down, you might have been able to buy an access card, but now…” He shook his head. “No way.”

  “I told you that,” Jack said.

  “I know, I know,” Benjamin said.

  “Why?” Morpheus asked. “What’s in Geros? From what I’ve heard, it’s a whole lot of nothing.”

  Jack nodded. “Exactly. Nothing.”

  When they got back to the office after lunch, Nathan Nyx accosted them. “I need to talk to Benjamin alone if you don’t mind,” Nathan said to Andy.

  “No problem.” Andy pretty much ran out of the records room and vanished. Benjamin figured it would be time to go home before Andy turned up again.

  “What’s so important?” Benjamin said after the door had shut. Ryan hadn’t turned up yet which left him alone in the awful room of records with Nathan.

  “Your father had an important question for you,” Nathan said.

  “Couldn’t he have just asked me on the way back from Mu?” Seriously. Benjamin had just seen his dad less than fifteen minutes ago.

  “He’s in a meeting,” Nathan said. “So he sent me.”

  Benjamin crossed his arms. “Fine. What?”

  “He was wondering if you took any records,” Nathan said.

  Benjamin’s mind flew to the record. Sure, Nathan had gone over the secrecy thing every single morning. All information they looked at was classified. Nothing should leave the building. And technically, nothing had left the building. The record had been recycled. They’d only taken a copy.

  “No,” Benjamin said.

  Nathan frowned. “You’re sure?”

  “Nothing. Why?”

  Nathan twisted his mouth up. “There are some records which are unaccounted for.”

  Benjamin shrugged. “Maybe they got recycled?” Heck, he’d recycled hundreds of them just this morning.

  But Nathan shook his head. “No. We checked the recycling reports.”

  “Maybe Ryan took them?” Benjamin said. If anyone needed to get blamed for anything, it was Ryan. He’d been the one who’d stolen the record from Benjamin in the first place.

  Nathan paused and thought about that. “Very possible. It may have been him.” And he turned to leave.

  “Wait,” Benjamin said. If this really was some super secret organization, maybe Nathan would be able to help out. “Can you get special access badges for anything?”

  Nathan stood up a little straighter. “Probably. What?”

  “Geros,” Benjamin said.

  Nathan laughed. “The old ruins? There’s nothing there anymore.”

  Benjamin tried to laugh along with Nathan. “I know. But we still want to check it out.”

  Nathan Nyx put his finger to his mouth. “Let me see what I can do. I’ll be in touch.” And then he walked out the door to find Ryan.

  Well that solved that. If Nathan could get them the access badge to Geros, Benjamin wouldn’t have to bother Helios Deimos with anything. Sometimes it was amazing how solutions presented themselves. And then he turned to the records, sank to the floor, and decided to take an after-lunch nap.

  Benjamin had to give Nathan credit. The next morning as soon as they’d heaped sugar in their coffee, Nathan teleported into the records room. Ryan hadn’t shown up yet which left Benjamin and Andy ready to start filing records for the day.

  “What’s up, Nathan?” Benjamin sat down.

  Nathan smiled. “I got something for you.”

  Benjamin remembered the access badge. “You got what I asked for?” he asked telepathically.

  Nathan winked and held up a card. “Consider it an early birthday present.”

  Benjamin smiled. Finally Nathan had done more than just order them around. “Thanks.”

  Nathan nodded. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather you didn’t mention this to your dad.”

  “So you didn’t get it from him?” Benjamin asked.

  Nathan shook his head. “No wa
y. But your father did enable a special credit line on the card.” He held it up. “The access codes to Geros are masked inside it.”

  “Oh, that’s cool.” At this rate, Benjamin thought he might get to a point where he could actually tolerate Nathan.

  “How high is the limit?” Andy asked. Apparently, Benjamin’s mind block had let Andy in. Not that Benjamin had tried hard to keep him out.

  Nathan actually laughed. “Let’s just say it won’t run out.”

  With access to the off-limits capital city of Geros within his reach, Benjamin had a hard time thinking about anything else. And so, as soon as lunchtime hit, Benjamin and Andy took the elevator downstairs to meet Iva, Heidi, and Gary. They’d come to Wondersky City today, though strictly for fun, not to work.

  “We’re going on a little field trip.” Benjamin held out the card.

  Iva eyed it. “What’s that?”

  “What do you think?” Benjamin said. “Geros is waiting.”

  Heidi’s eyes doubled in size. “You actually got access?”

  Benjamin grinned. “Let’s just say Nathan Nyx isn’t totally worthless after all.”

  “We’re going now?” Gary asked.

  “Sure,” Benjamin said.

  So that was that. They all piled onto a public teleporter pad, Benjamin flashed the card in front of the scanner, and they vanished. And when the world rematerialized around them, it looked like the apocalypse had come.

  CHAPTER 5

  Geros ­— Today

  Benjamin looked out at the desolation. “So where’s the Ruling Hall?”

  Jack appeared and floated onto Benjamin’s shoulder. “You mean, where was the Ruling Hall?”

  “Right,” Benjamin said. “Whatever.”

  “Beats me,” Jack said. “I wasn’t alive when it was destroyed.”

  Benjamin looked out over the city. Actually wasteland was more accurate; it was more like a desert made of dirt instead of sand. Piles of rubble lay around every so often, but they looked like scrap—everything nobody had figured out a use for yet.

  “It was over that way.” Gary pointed to the left.

  Benjamin turned to him. “Please tell me you researched this, Gary.”

  Gary nodded, and a smile flew onto his face. “Of course. Last night I read everything I could on Geros.” He pointed over to the right. “Did you know over there they used to have one of the biggest laboratories in the world?”

  “No,” Andy said. “And I didn’t really want to.”

  They set out walking, Gary taking the lead. Except the problem with Gary leading was that every hundred steps or so he’d stop and point out some random pile of rocks and explain about some factory which used to be there. Really, with everything just looking like dirt anyway, did it really matter where the food generation plant or the toilet factory had been? Nothing mattered besides the Ruling Hall where some secret object had been hidden for Benjamin.

  But when they got within range of the old Ruling Hall, Benjamin got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach—identical to the pit he saw in front of him. And each step he took confirmed what he’d hoped he wasn’t seeing. There was a hole in the ground. A hole at least sixteen stories deep and probably more.

  “Someone dug it up.” Heidi walked to the edge of the pit.

  Benjamin swallowed, unsure what to say. So he just nodded.

  “Look at how the soil looks different here,” Gary pointed, “as compared to here.” And he pointed again. “This was done recently.”

  “How recently?” Benjamin tried to figure out what Gary was pointing at but couldn’t see any difference in the dirt spots.

  Gary tilted his head. “I’m no expert, but I’d have to say probably yesterday.”

  “Yesterday!” Iva said.

  Benjamin looked at her. “Can you sense anything? Can you tell who was here?”

  She stood still and closed her eyes. But when she started biting her lip, Benjamin knew the answer even before she opened her eyes.

  “You can’t,” he said.

  Iva shook her head. “No. There’s nothing here. It’s like all imprints of the past have been removed.”

  “Fine,” Heidi said. “So we just march up to Ryan and ask him who he told and what they found.”

  “Ryan might not have had anything to do with this,” Gary said.

  “Ryan found the record yesterday.” Andy waved down at the pit. “Let’s take a look and see what’s left.”

  Benjamin read Andy’s thoughts a millisecond before he fell over the side of the pit. And then he started falling.

  “You pushed me!” Benjamin yelled after he managed to get the levitation under control a couple of stories down.

  Andy grinned. “Can’t you handle it?”

  “Of course,” Benjamin said. “But next time tell me.”

  “I did,” Andy said.

  Benjamin felt the ground under his feet, so he let up on the telekinesis. “Whatever.”

  “Aren’t we down here to look around?” Jack teleported onto Benjamin’s arm.

  “Not like we’re going to find anything,” Benjamin said. “Look at this place. There’s nothing here.”

  Jack floated over to the ground. “I don’t know about that. Here are some footprints. Fresh ones.”

  Benjamin walked over. Jack was right. There didn’t seem to be anything else down in this dirt pit, but there were footprints. But only one set by the look of things.

  “Can you tell whose they are?” he asked Andy. After all, wanting to be a spy should be useful for something.

  Andy knelt down and leaned in close. “No, but they don’t move around a lot.” He pointed off to the right. “They came from over there, walked right over here, and then disappeared.”

  “Like someone teleported away,” Jack said.

  “Ryan can’t teleport,” Benjamin said.

  “You don’t know that,” Jack said.

  “Can he?” Benjamin said.

  Jack shrugged. “No. But he’s pretty close. Like you.”

  “I already did,” Benjamin said, “to Shambhala last year.”

  “That was a fluke,” Andy said, but Benjamin felt the twinge of jealousy.

  “Fluke or not,” Benjamin said. “I did it.”

  “Whatever.” Andy stood up. “All we know is someone who can teleport came down here, and then teleported away.”

  “Yesterday,” Jack added.

  Andy nodded. “Right. Yesterday.”

  They levitated back to the top of the pit, and Andy told Iva, Heidi, and Gary what they’d found.

  “Why would Ryan want some secret object of Benjamin’s?” Gary said.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Andy said. “I’ll take it as an excuse to pummel him.”

  Iva pursed her lips together. “It does matter. And no pummeling. The best thing to do is go back, act like nothing happened, and figure out what to do next.”

  Benjamin looked down the pit. “Which is what?”

  Iva shook her head. “I don’t know. But it better be something. I doubt your brothers will wait around forever.”

  Benjamin sighed. “Especially if someone else is looking for them, too.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Benjamin Gets an Implant

  But two more months passed back in Virginia filled with mundane, human stuff, and Benjamin didn’t find a single clue. Finally it was time to head off to summer school. Benjamin walked into the family room to find his baby sister sitting over his backpack, furiously trying to unzip the front pocket.

  “No, Becca. Don’t do that.” Though why he bothered saying anything he wasn’t sure. It’s not like she ever listened.

  She ignored him the way only a two-year-old can and doubled her efforts to get the bag unzipped. The twins stood watching with their hands over their mouths.

  Benjamin walked over to her and reached down. “Do you think she wants me to take her along?”

  “Maybe,” Douglas said, and then unable to control himself any longer, he burst
out laughing. Derrick joined in, and the two of them fell to the ground.

  “What’s so funny? Did you shove a smelly diaper in my bag?”

  Douglas perked up. “No, Benji, but that’s a good idea. Stay here for a second.”

  “Nobody’s getting any smelly diapers.” Benjamin’s mom walked in from the kitchen. “Benjamin needs to get going.”

  “What is Becca doing to your bag?” His dad came in just behind his mom.

  Realization hit Benjamin, his mom, and his dad all at the same time. The twins’ minds showed it clearly. There in the front pocket of Benjamin’s bag was Becca’s favorite red phone rattle, hidden beneath everything else.

  It’s not like this was the first time the rattle had gotten hidden. The twins hid it in the coffee maker, the oven, and even in the toilet, though no one mentioned that around company.

  His mom whipped around and faced the twins. “Whose idea was this?”

  Derrick and Douglas cowered under her gaze, even as they tried to stifle their laughs.

  Benjamin unzipped the pocket and handed Becca her rattle. “Found it!” she said and grabbed it from his hand.

  Benjamin knew summer school was only minutes away when his dad finally managed to corral Derrick, Douglas, and Becca and get them out of the house. “So what would have happened if I left with the rattle in my bag?” he asked.

  His mom put her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes. “If Becca’s skills are developing as quickly as the twins’, there’s no telling.”

  “Would she have found a way to Lemuria to get it?”

  His mom nodded her head and reopened her eyes. “I’m willing to bet she would have at least found the teleporter.”

  The ugly velvet tiger picture that hid the teleporter transformed just like it had last summer. If it hadn’t been such great camouflage, there wouldn’t have been any other reason to keep something so random around the house. Velvet pictures had gone out of style probably a century ago—if they ever really were in style to begin with. With a touch on the velvet, a holographic keypad appeared. Benjamin’s mom entered a thirty-two number code—Benjamin noticed the code was different than last summer—and the teleporter came to life.