Before following Thea into their family mansion, Henri attempted to offer Malik some sort of compensation. The boy wasn't having it, though. Either he truly had a good heart, or he really didn't like money.

Either way, Henri couldn't seem to understand him. He could tell there were things hiding within the boy's warm eyes and his beautiful, dark skin. It only made him want to dive deeper, like a doomed sailor ensnared by a siren's call. Murky thoughts flooded his cerebellum. Clenching his jaw, he forced them down. Now wasn't the time for that. He needed to find a way into his father's study. He needed to find answers.

Before he left Malik in the driveway, Henri thanked him.

The other boy fiddled with one of his locs. "I guess this is it then," he said, his voice low. If Henri didn't know any better, he would've mistaken his tone as somber. Maybe even a little sad.

Surely, he wasn't, though. Tonight had been a nightmare. Malik probably couldn't wait to get back home to his family.

"This is it," Henri repeated. The wind whistled past him, infiltrating his damp suit, and chilling him to the bone. To keep himself from shivering, he wrapped his arms around himself and rubbed his arms. He glanced over his shoulder at Thea, who'd just unlocked the front doors to their home and stepped inside. He reluctantly turned back to Malik. "You sure there's nothing we can do to pay you back?"

Malik smiled and shook his head. "Nah, man. We're good." He shrugged nonchalantly. "Tonight's not the first time I've been shot at. Besides, I got to meet you...and Thea." He tacked that last part on as if it were an extra piece to a haphazardly made science project. "I'd consider us even."

Henri suddenly wasn't cold anymore.

"Take care, Malik," he said, offering the other boy a smile of his own.

He simply nodded. "You too, Henri Beck."

Face redder than a gleaming ruby, Henri turned and practically ran inside.

#

"Did you get his number?" Thea asked while walking up the curved staircase leading to the second story of the mansion.

Henri's face was still burning from his interaction outside. Gritting his teeth, he ignored his sister and made his way toward the hallway that housed the entrance to the attic.

Upon entering the house, he shedded his suit jacket and dress shirt, leaving him just in a white tank top and his black pants. Thea turned on the heater, and in a matter of seconds, blissful warmth spread throughout their massive home. It curled around his limbs and replaced the frost creeping through him.

As he and Thea walked down the hall, he took a moment to study the walls as if he'd forgotten them. He couldn't have even if he wanted to, but even his potent memories were nothing like the real thing.

Birch wood panels ran up a third of the wall, allowing the stark white wallpaper to eat up the rest. Metal light fixtures covered by rounded ceramic domes protruded from the walls, illuminating the corridors in warm, orange hues. Hand-woven carpets depicting various monumental points in history decorated the mahogany hardwood beneath their feet. Henri and Thea were currently crossing over the pilgrim's arrival on Plymouth Rock via the Mayflower. The carpet in the hall that held Henri's old bedroom portrayed a battle from the Trojan War—Henri's favorite war.

But not because of the fighting or anything. Growing up, he had a massive crush on Paris of Troy. He had a penchant for developing crushes for men from myths and legends. After Paris, his next love was Hyacinthus, the mortal whom Apollo fell in love with.

He used to wish the Greek god of the sun would come to him and profess his love. Alas, it never happened.

"So," Thea said, her voice pulling him out of his thoughts, "how're you getting into Dad's study? Like I said before, he put a lock on the door and only he knows the password."

"I know Dad," he said. "I can figure it out."

"You trying to say I don't know Dad?" She scoffed. "Trust me, Henri, I've tried to figure out the code. Not only is it impossible to figure out, but you only get three attempts before you're locked out for a day."

He stopped in his tracks. "That...complicates things."

"Yeah, no shit." She folded her arms. "I see you're still as cocky as ever."

"Oh, come off it, Thea." Henri kept walking.

"Ew, and you've picked up the Brit's weird slang." She reappeared at his side, practically skipping like a little schoolgirl. "Do you have tea and crumpets now? Do they really eat beans on toast? Are you a soccer, er sorry, football fan now—"

He grabbed her by the shoulders, stopping them both. "Thea, please...stop talking."

"Killjoy. I'm just messing with you."

"Yeah, well, now's not the time for that. Not sure if you forgot, but our parents just got kidnapped because of a map to a library that doesn't exist."

Thea's expression darkened. Straightening her posture, she nodded at him. "Right. Sorry. I was just trying to...I dunno...lighten the mood. I mean, this whole thing is fucked, right?"

Henri nodded back. It was. Which was why he had to get into that study and find the answers they needed.

They arrived at the end of the hallway. A panel in the ceiling hid the contents of their massive attic. Just as Thea said, their father had a digital lock interface built into a device on the wall to Henri's left. Pursing his lips, he walked up to it and cracked his knuckles as if preparing to bust open a safe.

"Let's see..." he mumbled to himself while analyzing the glowing screen. No retinal or handprint scanner. There wasn't a scanner at all. If Simon Beck was so worried about security, surely he would've employed one of those measures instead of a simple password system. Then again, someone could fake his prints—and eyes could be obtained, one way or another. A password, while seemingly less secure, could only be accessed by the person who knew it.

Despite Henri's faux confidence, he did not know it.

"See," Thea said as she stood behind him. "Told you it wouldn't be easy."

He rolled his eyes at her. Turning his attention back to the screen, he let his overactive brain go to work on theorizing possible combinations. He only had three shots at guessing, so each entry needed to be carefully and thoroughly vetted before inputting it into his father's security system.

After a while, he told his sister he'd need a pen and paper.

"What am I, your assistant?" she retorted with a snort.

"Just get the damn pen and paper, would you?"

"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled as she headed toward the staircase.

Within a few moments, Henri found himself in the dimly lit hallway of the western wing of the large colonial mansion he used to call home. The shadows around him seemed to inch closer with every passing second. They whispered in his ears, desperately trying to convince him he'd never guess the password or gain access to his father's study. Gritting his teeth, he tried his best to ignore them and focused his sights on the blue screen before him.

The screen didn't give him much information to go off. A pale blue, nondescript background and a blinking input line stared back at him, practically taunting him with its cryptic illusiveness. Creases appeared across his forehead as he tapped the screen. Touchscreen. Of course it was. Despite the house being centuries old, everything else inside was state-of-the-art. From their French-styled kitchen to the smartphone-controlled lighting system throughout the mansion, everything had to be top-of-the-line for the Becks.

After tapping the screen, a keyboard appeared on the screen. Numbers and letters only. No special characters. That narrowed things down a bit. As he examined the screen, his brain continued scrolling through potential passcodes.

His eyes broke away from the screen to steal a glance down the hall. He squinted at the entrance of the staircase.

Where the hell is Thea with that pen and paper?

He might've had a photographic memory, but that didn't mean retaining dozens of potential passwords wasn't taxing.

Eventually, his sister returned with what he'd asked for—and more. Malik trailed behind her with a navy raincoat in hand and his truck's keys in the other. His head seemed to be attached to a swivel, as he couldn't stop marveling at his surroundings. Henri lifted a brow at Thea.

"His truck won't start," she told him after handing him his pen and paper. He immediately began scribbling password options onto the parchment. "He's going to stay here until it stops raining if that's alright with you."

It was more than alright with him.

Henri kept his head down, though. Now wasn't the time to get distracted.

"Nice place." Malik whistled in awe. "I could get lost for days in here."

"Glad you like it," Thea said. She faced her brother. "Any progress?"

He held up the pad she'd just handed him. The first page was already covered in rows of password guesses, all in his immaculate handwriting. His methodology for guessing veered in several directions. First, he determined possible subjects his father would pull a term from to use as a password. Past expeditions, favorite historical figures, et cetera. Then he narrowed it down even further until he found words that seemed most likely.

"You told me he put the lock on after starting his new project," Henri said while continuing to scribble on the page. "That means it's probably something related to the Library of Alexandria. Possibly Egypt as a whole, but Dad is pretty specific about these kinds of things."

"You figured that all out in ten minutes?" Thea stared incredulously at him. Malik wore a similar expression on his face. The house no longer had his attention.

Henri see-sawed his hand. With his tongue poking out the corner of his mouth, he concentrated on words related to the ancient library that his dad might've used for a password. While he'd narrowed his options significantly, there were still far too many for him to sift through.

"Oh, I forgot to mention," Thea said abruptly. "Dad likes to use numbers for certain letters."

He blinked at her. "How do you know that?"

"The password to Netflix is 'Socrates', but the Os are zeroes, the As are fours, and the Es are fives. There's a question mark at the end too."

His entire face lit up. "Wait a sec, that's actually useful." He doubted their Netflix login information would get them into Simon Beck's study, but the way the man spelled things would. He directed his attention back to his notepad and studied what he'd already jotted down.

"How long is it?" Malik said as he settled in beside Henri. "The password, I mean."

His face reddened at the alternate meaning of that question. Clearing his throat, he shrugged his shoulders. "I can't be too sure yet. It could be one word or a phrase."

"It's one word," Thea told him.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "It doesn't take him long to type it in, so it can't be longer than that." Before Henri could ask how she knew that, she revealed how she tried to catch him logging in to the security system so she could sneak into the study. She might not have learned the code, but the information she'd gathered thus far was proving to be incredibly handy.

"Have you been training to be a spy while I've been gone?" Henri asked.

"It just comes naturally." Thea tossed her hair over her shoulder triumphantly.

Henri glanced at his notepad again. One word. A name most likely. His father loved names. The man let his wife pick Henri's first name, but the rights to the boy's middle name belonged to him. His father eventually settled on two names—Malcolm after the legendary civil rights leader and Odysseus after the famous Greek hero. He even picked a unique middle name for Thea after adopting her, as she hadn't been born with one. She was named after Ariadne, the Greek princess who gifted Theseus the golden thread that led him through the Labrinth.

Simon Beck loved his names.

Henri zeroed in one of the terms he'd written down—Alexandria. Both a name and a place. It fit all the criteria he'd laid out for himself. It might've been a basic choice, but he had three guesses. He could afford to burn one to further whittle down the daunting mound of options he had. He nervously typed it in, replacing the letters with numbers when appropriate. Exhaling, he pressed enter.

A damning error message coupled with a sharp tone sounded. The screen flashed with a message that stated he had two guesses left.

"Well...that ain't it," Malik said.

"Really?" Henri rolled his eyes. "I hadn't noticed."

He consulted his notepad again. Okay, so not Alexandria. What else would Dad pick? He debated picking the word "library", but if Alexandria hadn't been the right answer, he doubted his father would've picked a word as generic as that. His concentrated gaze shifted to another name.

Ptolemy.

He was iffy on this one, mostly because there wasn't much opportunity to exchange the letters for numbers, but it made sense. Ptolemy II Philadelphus was responsible for much of the construction and early prosperity of the Great Library of Alexandria. Ptolemy I Soter, the father of his namesake, put the original plans of the library in motion. If his father truly had picked a name for the password to his study, then Ptolemy was a safe bet.

"I've got another idea, but I'm not sure" He turned to Thea and Malik for reassurance, but the wary looks on their faces did little to ease his nervousness. "You guys are so helpful."

"You said you could get in," Thea reminded him.

Malik simply shrugged. "I'm just here 'til the rain stops."

Grumbling under his breath, he faced the blue screen and typed in the name Ptolemy. He was met with another error message. Panic stabbed at his organs and his stomach felt like it was being assaulted by a trash compactor. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he consulted his notepad again.

One guess left.

If he got this one wrong, they'd be barred from typing in anything else for twenty-four hours. It might not have been the end of the world, but Thea brought up a good point during their argument over whether they should've returned home or not. Whoever those men were that kidnapped their parents might've been tracking them. If they were, Henri wasn't sure if he'd get another chance at getting into his father's study.

He tangled his fingers in his curls as he ravaged his brain for more possible passwords. At his side, Malik leaned over his shoulder to glance at the notepad. His lips brushed against the boy's ear briefly, his warm breath tickling his skin. A torrent of electricity ripped through his body, causing him to stiffen harder than a statue. He kept his reddening face forward.

"What's that one?" Malik had his finger pointed at one of the names on the page.

Henri squinted at it. "Aristeas?"

"Yeah. Who's that?"

Henri thought for a moment. "The only thing I remember learning about him was in something called the Letter of Aristeas." He recalled something from his Ancient Civilizations history course at Westminster. "A lot of people think it isn't real, but it's said to contain the first recorded mention of the Alexandrian Library. Well, technically it mentions the librarian of Alexandria, but same thing."

Malik nodded, but Henri could see his eyes had glossed over a bit.

"Aristeas..." Thea wagged a finger at no one in particular. "I've heard Dad say that name before. One of the pieces from the new exhibit was about that letter you just mentioned."

"All of this information would've been incredibly helpful before I started putting in these guesses."

"Relax, we don't all have photographic memories like you."

He ignored her and mulled over the prospect of Aristeas being the key to getting into the attic. It was a name. It was relevant to the library. And, most importantly, Simon Beck seemingly had a personal connection to it.

He wasn't filled with confidence about it, but he didn't have any other ideas. Thea and Malik didn't either. That much was apparent.

"Alright, I'm going with Aristeas for the last guess. Everyone cool with that?"

Thea nodded reluctantly. Malik gave him a reassuring pat on the back.

Henri smiled at him before facing the small screen on the wall. With his trembling index finger, he inputted the password, choosing to spell it 4RI5TE45 instead of the traditional spelling. If everything Thea told him was accurate, then this was their best bet at unlocking the entrance to the study.

His finger hovered above the 'enter' button. A sliver of doubt began to gnaw at him. He pulled his hand back.

"You got this," Malik told him.

That was all the encouragement he needed.

"What he said," Thea added, her tone drier than ever.

Here goes nothing. Shaking his head, Henri pressed the button.

No error message this time. A good sign? Or perhaps it was configured to self-destruct after too many wrong guesses. He stepped away from the screen with his hands still trembling. He jammed them into the pockets of his half-dry suit pants and waited. Malik and Thea remained behind him with expectations written across their faces.

The blue screen flashed with a bright green light. A series of mechanical whirring sounded above them, prompting three sets of eyes to gawk at the ceiling. The panel hiding the attic jutted out from its position before sliding out of the way. A ladder dropped down, its legs clattering against the hardwood. Dust and darkness filtered through the opening in the ceiling.

Henri turned to his sister and their new companion. "I did it?" he said, his voice small and timid.

Malik dropped a large hand onto his shoulder. A huge smile swallowed his face. "You did it, dude." Henri resisted the urge to melt under his touch.

Thea breezed past the boys and approached the inclined ladder. "I've gotta hand it to you, Henri. That was impressive."

Henri smirked. He joined his sister in front ofthe ladder. "Why, thank you." He placed one foot on the lowest rung andprepared for the climb into the unknown.