Chapter Twenty-Eight #2
“Yes. But don’t get your hopes up that you’ll find it here. We have been quietly searching for seventeen years with no results. The Mechanism is large and not easily transported, especially not on this narrow part of Earth where Alphas are allowed.”
“But I was able to land here without you knowing,” Madelaine said.
“Yes. And trust me, you and I will have a serious discussion about that once we save the known galaxies,” Diesel said. “How did you do it?”
“Granite knolls that thwart your sensors.”
“I thought we found all those,” Diesel said, staring at Jack. “I guess you missed one.”
Jack said, “Clearly, the program I’ve been using is incomplete. I will be updating it.”
Madelaine said, “Oh, there are more places than the one I used to sneak onto Earth.”
“Cam will not be pleased to hear that,” Diesel said, glancing at his brother. “And neither am I, by the way.”
“Madelaine,” the Secret Keeper said. “Do you have any insight as to where the mechanism might be? I realize I’m grasping at straws here, but it’s all we have left.”
Diesel said, “The Paladin Cabal might disagree. They’ve supposedly been in session, sequestered in their formal discussion chambers for round the clock meetings since well before Tando Elroy was murdered.”
“And they have nothing to show for it,” the Secret Keeper said. “I say we need a fresh perspective.”
Madelaine glanced at her backpack where it sat on the table beside the cardboard box.
Madelaine let her mind wander to all the people she’d talked to throughout this journey with Jack. She thought about all that had been said to her. She got up, opened her backpack and dumped the contents on the coffee table next to the sofa.
Jack set the cardboard box down next to the pile on the coffee table.
“What are you doing?” Diesel asked.
“I don’t really know. But we don’t have anything to lose, so I’m going to inspect each item we collected with the hope of finding a clue that will help us.”
“All right, if I can help, please let me know.”
“Same here,” the Secret Keeper said.
“Thank you.”
Jack sat on the sofa next to her. Diesel remained where he was, leaning a hip against his desk, arms crossed, expression pensive.
“We got the blue stone first,” Madelaine said. She picked it up and it glowed from within as several symbols appeared and disappeared on the surface, putting an odd smile on her face. It always made her giggly. Must be a powerful stone. Jack took it from her to break the spell.
“Thank you,” she said. “That’s a crazy stone.”
Next up was the petrified wood. The wood grain on each ragged end, which looked as if it had been twisted from a branch before hardening to stone, displayed a design. Jack pointed to it and Madelaine smiled. “Yes. I see it.”
Next was the circuit they’d gotten from Keirios. Embedded within the clear substance of all the circuits was that same design. How had they not seen it before?
The housing they’d retrieved from the prison planet was a beautifully carved piece with several indentations that perfectly fit the pieces they’d collected, including the silver bauxite nugget from Diesel.
Madelaine nestled the larger items into their specific slots, saving the bauxite nugget for last. As soon as she inserted the nugget into the small slot made for it, the whole piece seemed to come to life.
“Whoa.” Diesel’s relaxed posture disappeared. He stood from his desk. “That isn’t going to blow up down here, is it?”
“I do not know. But I don’t think so. This is the device and we need to find the Mechanism to place it in.” Then she had to do a special twist routine with the bauxite nugget, according to Winslow, once the device was placed in the Mechanism.
On one side of the housing, a new symbol lit up. It was a larger version of all the symbols represented on the other pieces.
“Is there a picture of the mechanism anywhere?” Madelaine asked. “How big did you say it is?”
“It’s slightly larger than an old phone booth.
Maybe eight feet tall and rectangular in shape, maybe three feet by three feet,” the Secret Keeper said.
“I don’t have a photograph, unfortunately, but I do have a detailed drawing.
” He went off camera for a minute and came back with three pencil drawings of what the Mechanism looked like.
The first rendering showed just the Mechanism. To Madelaine, it looked like a giant old-fashioned computer from the 1970s, but made out of crystal and metal and wood. It had an empty hollow or socket in the center at about chest level.
The second rendering showed the Device placed inside the socket and a countdown clock with a two-minute timer. Beneath the socket was a large oval with the same symbol they’d seen on all of the collected items that comprised the Device. The outline of a hand was drawn on the larger oval.
The third rendering showed a door closing over the socket and the clock reading zero, time was up, and the Mechanism launched the device to deploy the Solution to save the galaxies.
If only they could find it.
“Now that I see a larger version, that symbol looks really familiar, doesn’t it?” Jack said absently. “I feel like I’ve seen it before, but I can’t for the life of me remember where.”
Madelaine nodded. “I agree. The larger version does look familiar. And we need to figure it out.”
“Was it from our exploring days in high school maybe?” Jack asked. “Drawn on the water tower?”
Diesel made a face like he didn’t approve of them climbing up the water tower for any reason at any time.
“Maybe. Let me close my eyes and ponder for a minute.” Madelaine let her eyes drift shut. She tried to relax. She tried to catch that elusive memory that would tell them where they’d seen the symbol.
She held Jack’s hand and let her mind run through all the interesting places and things they’d seen and done.
Without permission, her mind wandered into the past with Jack before she’d had to go to Alpha-Prime and change her life.
They’d had lots of adventures, her and Jack.
Not only had they climbed the water tower, they’d carved their initials right next to Maxwell the Martian’s fingers hanging on to the edge.
When she’d seen it on her return a few weeks back, faded pink paint had blotched the spot, covering their initials.
They’d gone to the watering hole in the forest to swim and be alone. They’d explored all around Alienn, even an abandoned mine once, ignoring the chipped paint rendering of a skull and crossbones above a message spouting Danger: Do Not Enter.
They were young and fearless, which in a small way had helped her get through Paladin training camp.
As she reminisced about the past and her fearlessness with Jack in an abandoned mine, where they had not found anything dangerous at all, but instead a great place to hide out and be together, a voice in her head overlayed that memory.
“When you get to the point where it feels like all is lost, Madelaine, don’t forget to trust your instincts.” Kessik’s intense gaze had then shifted to Jack. “The two of you together can resolve the problems you will face.”
Madelaine went back to her memory of the mine. The night of their senior high school prom, they’d gone exploring instead of dancing. That was it. That’s where she’d seen the symbols.
Madelaine’s eyes popped open. Even though she wished she were alone with Jack, she told them all she knew and they concocted a plan.
They were going to win.
Madelaine and Jack agreed that they should go to the mine and check it out alone, just the two of them. Like they’d been on this entire journey together.
“Don’t you want backup?” Diesel asked.
“No. I believe it should only be me and Jack. I’m not certain who is watching us and I don’t want anyone to know what we’re doing. Besides, even though the symbols might be on the walls where we’re going, it doesn’t mean the Mechanism is there.”
“At least take a walkie-talkie with you in case you can’t use your cell phones.”
“My communication device will work in there,” the Secret Keeper said.
“Where can I get one of these special communication devices?” Diesel asked the Secret Keeper.
“Sorry. You would have to morph into the Paladin Courier and even then I couldn’t guarantee anything.”