Chapter 21
The Passwords
Jared paused for a moment in disbelief and then stepped out of the closet onto Rohlwig’s training field on Cira, not into the security operations room of Obalin. Verissa was there, too.
Jared turned and saw Danielle and Paul step out of their closets, which then, along with his, disappeared. Confused, he faced Manasto. “How did... what...?”
“There were gateways connected to those chambers.” Manasto pointed behind Jared, where the closet had been. “Once the doors were closed on Obalin, they could be opened on Cira.”
Danielle asked, “But, how did you put a portal inside Obalin?”
Verissa stepped forward. “We’ve had spies working for us to try to recover the decoder, and they were the ones who created the portals.”
The decoder. Jared snapped out of his astonishment. “We have to go back.” He couldn’t believe he had just said that, but they needed to get the decoder. “He has the decoder.” He pointed behind himself, where the portal that vanished had been. “Dreggan does. I saw it.”
Manasto grabbed Jared by the shoulders. “It’s okay.” (Jared was a little frustrated that Manasto didn’t feel the same urgency.) “It’s all been taken care of. Our spies found the decoder and switched it with a fake one. Dreggan just thinks he has the real one. So, as you can see, there’s no need to worry.
“Right now, we need to get you to Teruvisa. It probably won’t take long for Dreggan to trace the gateway here.” Manasto turned on his heel and waved for everyone to follow him. “This way.”
He led them across the field to the alcove—the one with the portal that brought them to Cira the first time—at the end of the arena.
Manasto and Verissa stopped just shy of the back wall instead of going through it, and Manasto pointed his treyo at the ground in front of him.
A section of the floor dropped down and slid back, revealing a metallic, spiral staircase.
Jared looked into the dark stairwell and then pointed at the wall. “We’re not taking that portal?”
“No. We need to take a secondary portal because the main one is probably being monitored by Dreggan.” Manasto glanced back over his shoulder at Jared and smiled like he had a secret. “Rohlwig made a special way to get to Teruvisa. One I’m sure Dreggan doesn’t know about.”
That sounded like a good idea. Jared muttered to himself, “Alright.”
Jared and the others followed Manasto down into the darkness. Once they were all below ground level, the floor panel slid closed above them, and the walls began glowing yellowish-white, illuminating the metal stairs.
Jared thought, Good. We’ll be able to see where we’re going.
After descending the steep, winding staircase for about a minute, Manasto stopped and held up a hand. “Hold on—or rather, don’t hold on.” He sat down.
“What do you meeeeean?” The stairs rotated down, creating a ramp, and Jared began sliding.
He started gaining speed and was actually enjoying the ride. He smiled to himself. Just another one of Rohlwig’s interesting ways of getting around Cira. He probably calls this the not-just-a-staircase.
Jared held up his hands. “Look, Danielle. No hands.”
Danielle, who was behind him, giggled and then called out, “Wahoo!”
After what seemed like a good two minutes, the slide leveled off, Jared slowed down, and he was let out on a landing in front of a metal door.
When Verissa, who was the last one off the slide, entered the small compartment, which was barely large enough to hold all five of them, an overhead light turned on, and the door slid upward to let them out.
The group walked into a large cavern. Huge stalactites hung from the ceiling, and stalagmites towered from the ground into the air. The light from the compartment behind them danced on the formations momentarily, and then it went pitch black.
Jared didn’t move.
“What’s going on?” Paul’s voice trembled slightly. “I can’t see.”
Jared’s eyes darted around in every direction, but he saw nothing except blackness. “Yeah.” He started to get a little nervous.
Verissa said, “Jahra ental effa.”
The whole cavern lit up as a ball of light shone overhead.
Verissa pointed at a large pillar off to the right. “This way.”
She led them through a labyrinth of cave formations, with the ball of light she made hovering above them the whole time.
After going around a bend, they walked up to the shore of an underground lake. There appeared to be no way around it. There were sheer walls to either side.
“Into the water, please.” Manasto, who was standing next to Jared, pointed to the water in front of Jared. “Dive down, keep your eyes closed, and keep swimming until you touch the bottom. Then, you can open your eyes, and you’ll be in Teruvisa. And, once you’re there, you’ll be instructed to say your password.” He urged Jared forward. “Go ahead.”
“Just dive down and touch the bottom?” What’s so hard about that? Jared shot an inquiring look at Manasto. “How deep is it?”
“Not very.” Manasto’s expression was unreadable. “But, it’s cold, and, once you get in, there’s no getting out, except through the portal at the bottom. And, I can’t viquen you.”
“Okay.” Jared shrugged.
Manasto patted Jared on the back. “We’ll be right behind you.”
Without another question, Jared took a deep breath and dove into the murky water. The water was frigid. It made his head ache and his joints stiffen, but he kept swimming, propelling himself farther and farther down.
After a few strokes, he was surprised that, even though he hadn’t been viquened before he jumped into the water, the robe wasn’t cumbersome or heavy. It must be water resistant. But, it still would’ve been so much easier to swim if he could’ve been viquened like during the ketauro match.
Jared pushed that thought aside and focused on swimming. Soon, he wondered if he would be able to hold his breath long enough. How deep is this lake? Manasto’s answer from before rang in his head. “Not very.” It doesn’t seem like it.
Luckily, it wasn’t more than a few strokes later that he felt soft, muddy sand. When he opened his eyes, he saw only blackness briefly, and then the mud sucked him underground. In the snap of a finger, he was completely engulfed.
The next instant, the lake bottom squeezed him out onto solid ground. He was kneeling in a lighted room with his arms above him.
He dropped onto all fours, took a deep breath, coughed, and then took a few more breaths. I made it. But, where are the others? He started to get worried and wondered if they had turned back.
He stood up and looked around. The room was completely mirrored—the walls, floor, and ceiling. And, he didn’t see any way out. I guess I’ll just have to wait.
After a few seconds, he started pacing back and forth. What’s taking so long? He hoped that there hadn’t been a problem, but something didn’t feel right.
Jared looked at himself in a mirror and then, for the first time, noticed that he wasn’t wet. Strange. Somehow, that squeeze through the lake bottom must’ve wrung me dry.
When he looked down and patted his robe in amazement, someone said, “You could be great you know.”
Jared spun around. Who said that?
The voice—his voice—spoke again. “I’ve seen what you can do. Don’t try to deny it. I know how you think.”
Then, Jared caught sight of himself in one of the mirrors. His reflection was talking to him!
He walked closer. The reflection did the same.
When they were nearly nose to nose at the mirrored wall, Jared moved quickly to the side, but his reflection didn’t follow.
“Why’d you do that?” it asked. “There’s no need to be jumping around.”
Jared asked, “Wh—Who are you?”
“Well, that’s a stupid question. Who do you think I am? I’m you, of course.”
“How can you
be me? I’m me.”
“Hmm...” The reflection screwed itself up after thinking about that for a moment. “You’ve got me there. But, I am you, or at least an excellent copy of you.”
Jared found it hard to believe that his reflection was a copy of him that could think for itself. “Well then, if you’re really me, you’ll be able to tell me what the image was that I saw before all this started.”
“What’s with the test? You don’t trust me?”
That’s what Jared was trying to figure out—if he should trust his reflection. He didn’t really have a reason not to, except for the strange feeling he had. “Well?”
“Oh, alright. But, you could’ve come up with a harder question. It’s not exactly secret that you saw a hand symbol.” The reflection raised its eyebrows. “Now that that’s settled, we’re ready—”
“We?”
“Yep. All of Teruvisa.”
“Ready for what?”
“For you. Danielle and Paul have already given us the passwords they got after the ketauro match, so you can go ahead and tell me yours.”
“How do you know they’ve already given theirs? They’re not even here.”
“Well, actually they are here—on Teruvisa, that is. And, I know they’ve already given their passwords because I’m part of the program designed to record your security code. I’m not an isolated application. I’m a computer generated representation of you, running from the Teruvisan mainframe.”
“Oh, I see.” Jared relaxed his suspicions. What the reflection said made sense.
“So, whenever you’re ready, I’m ready.” The reflection raised its eyebrows and crossed its arms, apparently waiting for Jared’s response.
“So, I’m in Teruvisa...” For some unknown reason, he was still hesitant to give his password.
“Okay. Here it is.” The reflection sounded impatient. “The decoder is hooked up and powered on; we’re waiting to get all the passwords recorded, and yours is the only one left; so, if you would, please, give me your password.
“We’re kind of in a hurry. Dreggan knows you’re here and could attack at any moment. Teruvisa’s future is waiting on you.” Almost scowling, the reflection pointed a finger at Jared.
Jared thought that if the reflection was a decent copy of him, it should understand why he was being so inquisitive. Of course, maybe it did understand; maybe he would’ve reacted the same way to the stress of trying to convince someone to hurry at such a critical time.
Jared nodded to himself, Well, here it goes, swallowed, and then said, “Prebano.”
Immediately after he spoke his password, the mirrors fogged up, his reflection disappeared, and the room went totally dark.