T.N - Chapter 38

The metal object at the end of the tunnel turned out to be a set of doors. By this time, my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and I could look at its entirety without a problem. There was a small glowing box besides the door, the pulsating light I had seen near the entrance of the passage. On closer inspection, I realized that it was a small fingerprint scanner, and I assumed that was the only way in. Hoping that Grandfather didn’t assume I’d go looking for his fingerprints to copy and use, I place my index finger upon the scanner. To my relief, the scanner beeped its approval and the door slid open to reveal a very small room. The room was maybe about the size of an elevator car.

I stepped in, and found a table, upon which sat a book. I picked it up, and saw it was a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, Kidnapped, the book that was linked to this room. After studying the book for any clues, I heard a click, as if some sort of a mechanism was released. I looked around to see where it came from. Of course, at that moment, the room decided to reveal itself as a hidden elevator. The doors slammed shut, and suddenly I was hurtling towards the ground inside of the ‘secret room.’ I lost balance and fell to the ground, and I had to admit, I did scream out of surprise and terror. The elevator fell for a long time, much longer than it would’ve taken to reach the ground floor. I concluded that this next step was far underground, probably even past the aqueduct. When it finally stopped, I managed to stand up again. The doors slid open again.

It opened onto another hallway, as fluorescent lights lining the wall lighted this one. I decided to keep the book, just in case. This door opened of its own accordance when I approached it. I stepped inside, and the door shut behind me.

I was in a white, perfectly circular room with no apparent clues as to what I was supposed to do next. I tested the door that I came through, and it was locked. “Damn it,” I muttered under my breath. This can’t be the end! I opened the book to see if I could pry anything out of it. I flipped through a few pages, at the beginning, and a few at the end. And then I moved more towards the middle. I have a bad habit when reading books, to open the book wider than is necessary. Grandfather always scolded me, saying I was ruining the book’s spine. Well, as I did that, some handwriting showed up very close to the spine on page 21. I turned it so that the writing was facing the right way up. In Grandfather’s cramped writing, I found the English spellings of each Greek letter. I read all the way down the list, from Alpha to…Psi?

“Wait a second, where’s Omega?” I asked out loud to no one. I re-read the list, and sure enough, there was no Omega mentioned. I thought back to the Omega carved on the back of the shelf. What did the letter Omega have anything to do with this?

I read a few more pages to see if there was anything more to discover. Then, I heard another mechanical click, a quiet one coming from somewhere in the room. There was a loud grating noise, and the room slowly started to turn. The doorframe remained, but the door was being left behind. I walked to the doorway, having an idea as to what was happening.

To my expectations, another door started to appear in the doorframe, and the room slowly grinded to a halt. This door looked identical to the one I had come in from, but there was a keypad embedded on the door. I tried to open the door, but it was locked. There was only one possible password I could think of. I typed in “Omega,” and the door slid open.

I walked in, and found a computer in the middle of a spacious room that was lined by bookshelves. It sat on a table, and a chair was placed slightly off center to it. On the computer screen, there was a flashing dot amidst a digital map. I sat down at the chair and zoomed in the dot. Some symbols showed up along with numbers: 4° 23’ N, 173° 8’ W or 4.390229° N, 173.144531° W.

I smiled as it dawned on me what this meant. “Oh Grandfather,” I sighed, “how on Earth did you manage to keep a homing device with you?”