Gideon followed the Pines down into the bunker. He had to admit it was pretty impressive. Maybe even more impressive than the one his family owned.

They reached the bottom of the stairs, and he got his first good look inside. He grimaced. Definitely not as clean.

He followed the Pines and the small fiend Candy at a safe distance. Every time they looked back, his heart jumped in fear they would see him. But they never did.

Before Pacifica had told him about what she'd found, he'd never imagined using his amulet for invisibility. He did most of his work away from prying eyes anyway. But after using yesterday to practice, he felt confident he could hold the invisibility for a sustained amount of time. This was going to be extremely useful.

Stanford led his little group swiftly across the small room, leaving Gideon little time to look around. He was impressed by the amount of supplies down here, as well as the half-open weapons cabinet. Stanford certainly was prepared. They'd be fine down here once he trapped them.

"Through here," Stanford said, pulling aside a poster to reveal a circular crawl space.

The passage was long and cramped. Even though he couldn't see them, Gideon just knew his pants were getting filthy.

All five of them went through, Ford first and Gideon invisibly at the rear. The passage opened into a square room with the walls and ceiling divided into smaller squares, each with a strange symbol in its center.

"Woah," Mabel says. "It looks so cool." She reached out to touch a symbol on the wall.

"Don't touch that!" Ford shouted.

Mabel pulled her hand back in shock.

"Sorry," Ford said. "This is the security room. I'm trying to remember how to get past. . . but until I do, don't touch anything, okay? Don't move."

Everybody froze.

Ford reached into his pack and pulled out the Journal, nearly hitting Gideon with it. Gideon stared at it hungrily. Not yet. He needed to find the first Journal, and then he could take this one.

Ford flipped through the Journal. "This is the page where I supposedly put the code," he said, "but it's just a diagram of the symbols. Which ones are the key?" He took a cautious step forward.

Towards Gideon.

Gideon stepped back hurriedly to get out of the way. The floor under his foot gave way, and he stumbled. A glance to the ground showed he had stepped on some sort of pressure plate.

The circular door closed and sealed shut. The symbols on the walls and floor and ceiling lit up in red. A buzzer sounded.

And the walls began to close in.

"Something set it off!" Ford cried, looking around in panic. The squares on the walls and floor and ceiling shot out towards them, one by one.

"Grunkle Ford, what's happening?" Dipper backed up, almost running into Gideon. Gideon twisted out of the way. This trap would surely reveal his presence — if it didn't kill them all in the process.

His hand went to his amulet to push the blocks back, but stopped himself just in time. He'd wait and see if the Pines could get themselves out of this. He'd only reveal himself if he had to.

"Everybody stay calm," Ford was saying. "The code. . . it's on this page somewhere. . ."

"Grunkle Ford," Mabel shouted, "you have to remember!"

Ford closed his eyes. "Code. . . hidden. . ."

"Grunkle Ford! It's closing in!"

"Shine it on the page. . ."

"Grunkle Ford!"

Stanford's eyes shot open. "Black light!"

"Wh-what?" Mabel asked. She held tightly onto Dipper's hand.

"Dipper! Do you still have that black light you found?"

"Yeah—"

"Get it out! Hurry!"

Dipper rummaged in his pack until he pulled out a pen-like object. Stanford snatched it from his hand and held it over the Journal. Gideon moved to look down at the pages.

White markings leapt from the page.

Gideon stared in disbelief. Black light? Stanford had hidden more information in his Journals. . . in invisible ink!

"Everyone! Find these four symbols and press them down!" Stanford turned the Journal around to show everyone.

The group scattered among the small room, dodging around pillars that rose from the floor. Gideon went to look too, just in case.

"One!" Candy shouted from across the room.

Dipper jumped in front of Gideon and slapped a tile with his palm. "Two!"

A few feet away, Mabel climbed up the blocks that slid out from the walls. Gideon sucked in a breath as she wobbled, but she managed to touch a tile just before it was covered by a block. "Three!" she said, then scrambled down from her precarious perch.

"Where's the fourth one?" Dipper asked, darting around the room to look.

"I can't find it." Ford's voice shook slightly.

Gideon climbed up onto a block to get out of the way of them all. Then he saw it.

He watched, waiting for one of the Pines to see it. But it was a ways off the floor, and no one did. Gideon reached for it, but hesitated.

He had already set off the security system. If he pressed the last tile, would they start to suspect he was here?

"Where is it?" Mabel's strangled cry ripped through his ears. "Grunkle Ford, I — I can't find it!"

Gideon jumped up and slammed his hand onto the tile.

There was a short, deafening squeal of machinery as a door behind him opened. Gideon dived for it, hitting the floor beyond in a roll and moving out of the way before the Pines could run into him.

"There!" Dipper cried. "Run for it!"

It was a painfully long second, waiting for them to make it out. Candy was the first, then Dipper, then Mabel — Gideon let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding — and finally Ford. The last of the blocks slammed together, and the security room went still.

They all stood, breathing heavily, for a moment. Gideon joined them, figuring they wouldn't hear him over their own breaths.

"G-Grunkle Ford," Mabel panted, "you used invisible ink in the Journal?" She looked as shocked — and excited — as Gideon felt.

"I did," Stanford replied. "I. . . I can't believe I didn't remember. There's so much more. . . all the extremely sensitive information. . ."

"It's in invisible ink," Mabel finished. Gideon mouthed the words with her.

"So that's why you even had a black light pen in the first place!" Dipper said.

"Grunkle Ford, this is great! What if there's information in the third Journal about the other Journals? But in invisible ink!"

Stanford's eyes widened. "Of course! Great thinking, Mabel!"

"What is this place?" Candy asked, running her finger along a metal surface. The narrow room was lined with bulky machinery and shelves laden with dusty objects.

"It's. . ." Ford looked around. "It's an observation room. F and I used to monitor our specimens from here."

"Specimens?" Mabel repeated. "You mean you kept live creatures down here?"

"Yes, to study. I don't think the Journal is in here, but we'd better look. Kids, spread out. Look everywhere, but don't press any buttons or anything without asking me first. I'm going to look through the Journal again with this black light."

Gideon would rather have that job. But if he was going to succeed, he had to find the Journal first. There'd be plenty of time to look over all three Journals in black light — once he had them.

Gideon, Mabel, Dipper, and Candy all spread out to follow Ford's instructions. The room was small and cramped, making it difficult for Gideon to find a place to look. He couldn't exactly move things around, especially after his hand in the security room fiasco. So he stayed in the corner of the room, intently looking at the space around him.

Mabel wandered over to him.

He held his breath and carefully sidestepped out of the way as she reached for a shelf behind him. He could reach out and touch her, she was so close. Gideon found himself staring at her, instead of looking for the Journal, but he couldn't take his eyes off her.

Her expression was one of intense concentration, but, though her face was partly covered by her hair, he could see wisps of anger in her eyes. One hand clutched her grappling hook while the other rummaged around the shelf. He'd been impressed with her aim when she shot the tree branch; the only reason she missed the first time was because she stumbled. He looked closer at her hand, short fingers wrapped tightly around the grappling hook. Was she still angry because of what Candy had said?

"Mabel."

Mabel spun around, a startled look in her eyes. Gideon sometimes did that when people interrupted him in deep thinking, though he hoped his eyes didn't betray it the same way Mabel's did. Still, the shock made her face look open, and he liked the way her mouth fell open in a little O.

"I'm sorry," Candy said, "about what I said earlier."

Mabel stared at the girl for a moment. "Oh. Um, thanks."

"I didn't know it would upset you. Or. . . or Dipper."

"Dipper? Well, yeah, he's pretty protective of me, I guess. But why. . . ?"

A strange look dawned on Mabel's face.

"Never mind," Candy said hurriedly. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"Candy, do you. . . ?"

Candy flushed bright red. There was a silence.

"Okay, yeah, I have a huge crush on your brother," Candy said, her words low and fast.

"Oh."

Gideon wanted to get away, to stop listening. This was a. . . a girl talk. It felt wrong to hear it, somehow. But Mabel looked almost as lost as he was, and he couldn't tear himself away.

"What do I do?" Candy asked suddenly, glancing over her shoulder at Dipper on the other side of the room. "Sometimes I think he's flirting with me, other times I think he's just being himself. But he's so cute, and I just want. . . and what about that Amanda girl?"

Mabel had the deer-in-the-headlights look again. "I, um. Dipper flirts with a lot of girls, o-or at least he tries to impress them. But he's your friend, so he's being nice because he likes you. A-as a friend. And Amanda, um, she was just visiting. She's back home, but they still email."

"Were they together?" Candy whispered.

"Ah, um, sort of?" Mabel replied.

She's cute when she's flustered, said Gideon's brain.

Gideon started at the thought. Where had that come from?

"What does that mean?" Candy demanded.

Mabel winced. "L-look, I don't exactly know where Dipper's love life is right now. I say you should tell him about your crush and ask him yourself."

Candy's face got even redder, if that was possible. "Tell him?"

"Yeah, he's cool about that kind of stuff. Listen, I'm, uh, gonna keep looking for the Journal."

"Right," Candy said. "Okay. Um, thanks, Mabel."

"No problem," Mabel replied. Candy moved away, and Mabel visibly relaxed. Huh, Gideon did that too, when he thought he was alone.

Mabel does think she's alone, he reminded himself. You're invisible, Gideon.

Of course he was. And he should go look for the Journal somewhere else, since Mabel obviously wasn't finding it here.

He stayed and watched Mabel's face instead.

The anger had gone from her eyes, and her fingers loosened around her grappling hook. She pushed her hair back behind her ear and adjusted her headband, which gleamed dully in the artificial light. Her eyes were soft, and he noticed streaks of golden hazel hidden among the brown of her irises.

He'd never been close enough to her to see the details of her eyes.

He tried not to get too close, in case she felt his breath on her skin. But to see her face like this. . . open and honest and not glaring at him. . . it was nicer than he would've expected.

But he also knew that if he saw her, that would end. Her face would close, her anger would shield her bright eyes, and her entire body would radiate hatred towards him. Like it had last week.

So he counted himself lucky that he could see her like this, invisible, seeing her as she really was.

"Grunkle Ford, look at this!"

Gideon swung his gaze to the other end of the room, where Dipper was struggling to pull something off a high shelf. Candy hurried over to help, and together they extracted a large metal box. Gideon took soft, slow steps across the room to get a better look.

Dipper coughed from the dust as he held up the box. "It has a handle, like a briefcase or something. But it's really heavy."

Stanford closed the Journal and set it on a nearby machine. Gideon stared hungrily at it. Dimly lit buttons along the surface of the machine cast it in a halo of light.

Not yet, Northwest. Not yet.

"That's not a briefcase," Ford said. He took the metal box from Dipper and pried it open. The front half swung down, revealing a keyboard on one half and a screen on the other.

"It's a laptop!" Mabel said. Gideon froze. He hadn't noticed her coming up beside him.

"A really old-timey laptop," Dipper added.

Candy peered at a strip of metal above the screen. "'Property of F,'" she read.

"This was. . . this was his laptop," Stanford said. "My assistant's. We used it to program everything." His eyes lit up. "If I could fix this up, we might be able to use it instead of the Journals!"

"Wait, really?" Mabel asked. "It has the instructions for—" she glanced at Candy, "—the invention?"

"I believe it does." Stanford smiled. "I've never been much of a mechanic. That was F's job. But I should be able to get it working again. Even if we don't find the Journals down here, this is a great lead! Good job, Dipper."

Dipper grinned. "Thanks!"

Gideon frowned. What invention? What did the Pines need the Journals for? Should he steal this laptop as well, just in case?

He glanced at Mabel. He had to get the Journals, and this laptop now, and then trap the Pines down here.

No more distractions.