Chapter 14 #5
After scampering through Pesh’s files, I look toward the door.
I feel like it’s going to beep or something.
I can see golden lights all over his office, even in the dark.
I wonder if they are cameras. I crawl on the floor and slowly make my way to the exit door.
The door scans me suddenly. Crap. Crap. Crap!
I stay still, and strangely, the door opens.
I rush out immediately, hiding in a corner just as Patron Colo walks by me in the hallway. Hopefully, he didn’t see me.
This is way past my bedtime, but I make my way to the locker room to see if the book is still there or if Pesh has taken it back.
I notice that Patron Suzandrick is about to leave the locker room.
She seems to be typing in a password or some sort of code near the exit door.
I think she might be locking the room for the night.
Oh no. I immediately rush to go through the entrance door before I’m spotted.
I wait till she leaves, then tiptoe toward my locker and open it silently.
Nothing.
The book is gone.
I bang my head against the locker, closing my eyes to control my emotions.
I exhale, looking to the corner. I notice blinking on the floor.
Slowly, I walk toward it. I stretch out my hands to touch the lights.
Suddenly, the tome book morphs out, and my fingerprint appears and disappears simultaneously from the cover.
Okay, that’s weird. Maybe he removed it from my locker to protect me.
I doubt that. He is trying to “eliminate” me.
He probably just left it here to incriminate me even more.
Whatever the reasoning, I need this book, so I grab it and try to fit it into my backpack, knowing full well it won’t fit. Urgh. What to do...?
I look to the corner and notice the massive snack box. I could try smuggling the book to my dorm inside the snackbox, but I’m bound to get caught.
I type on my locker’s touch screen and direct for the book to be internally mailed to my bedside table in my dorm. I cover the book with my jacket and put a bunch of snacks on top of my jacket, so it looks like a stack of snacks.
I rush back to my dorm to see if it worked or if the instant mail was blocked. I sift through the sleeping students and open my drawer to see it is there. Phew!
Thankfully, Beatrice is not around, but I’m sure she probably noticed my absence.
And from the sound of it, they were monitoring my thoughts from my bed.
So, I decide to sleep on the floor instead.
I have already encountered enough trouble for a day.
Even worse, I now know that Zia has apparently betrayed me.
I can’t afford to be confused, but my emotions are breaking.
I don’t know how to feel. To feel happy that I talked to Pesh a little longer, or sad that he held me in no respect and was plotting my “elimination” (whatever that meant)?
To feel good that I am about to be eliminated like I planned, or to feel horrible about where I am being eliminated to?
To feel terrible that I am falling for someone who is a close friend of Patron De Londe, a guy who I had a terrible feeling about, or to feel happy that I escaped without getting caught?
I don’t know who to trust or what to think, so my emotions simply tell me they love me and let go of drops of water to hug my cheeks.
I wipe them off and decide there is no need to worry or cry because Levon would not approve of that.
I need to focus and finish reading the secret book.
This is no time to be getting discouraged.
I slip under my bed on the floor and begin to read The Tragedy of The Commons book since I just found out that I have been sleeping in a mind reading mattress.
I do not care about obeying the no reading at night rule anymore (considering I already am a target).
My primary goal is to find a way to escape The Commons as soon as possible, without getting caught.
I am reading this book at a very quick pace, looking only for trigger words. But I am yet to still find anything on The Seventh Zone… until page 1774 out of 2000.
I turn and begin to read:
The Seventh Zone is the wing that holds all the classified information in The Commons. It contains nuclear weapons to defend ourselves in a time of war. It contains the abroad businesses of Commoners who run The Commons.
And that was it.
I read the entire thing again looking for trigger words, but this is the only thing I find, along with a quote from the founder and a map to The Seventh Zone.
“If you want to hide something where people can’t find it, hide it in plain sight, where people will never look for it—Satri De Veechi.”
That’s enough for me. The map shows that The Seventh Zone is close to The Commons, with backways to get to it involving pressing certain hidden buttons on walls and floors.
I draw out my way of escape from The Commons, bracing myself for the day ahead.
I plan my time of escape for 7 a.m.
According to the secret book, that is the only time in the day where everyone in The Commons will be in class or in their office.
It is perfect timing for me. I don’t know what the future holds, but all I know is this—Today, we fought. Tomorrow, we run.