RaquelS03
|• Thank you, for everything •|

Caved in by darkness, Juniper and Justin worked in computer laboratory number twenty two. There were about thirty computer laboratories in Cortex but only a few were accessible to the triplets. They worked in silence, wandering to their own worlds, which always proved to be the same, sometimes they felt like they were telepathic. Their hands moved in swift motions, replicating each other's movements unwittingly. Each held unspoken worries but never told the other yet somehow they always knew.

"What's bothering you, Justin?" Juniper asked whilst she ran the debugging program on sector four of the laboratory, each laboratory had six sectors; they were enormous.

"And what's bothering you?" Juniper looked up at Justin when he spoke, she had tried her best to keep a neutral look on her face, yet he saw through it. She wasn't sure how to say it without sounding ungrateful.

"You first."

"No you."

Justin could sense this argument would run on for as long as they lived, both of them were equally unrelenting. He hesitated, though he knew he should speak up as Juniper never would. When Jade, the third of the triplets was with them, he would always be the first to speak, he was the reason why their arguments weren't prolonged.

"Candace." They chorused their worries simultaneously. Juniper glanced around the room cautiously.

"So you're thinking what I'm thinking." It wasn't a question, it was a statement as Juniper knew very well that her brother was thinking the same. Justin nodded in assurance.

"Was it really an accident?" Juniper knew exactly what Justin's words meant, he was talking about their parents and Jade.

"Did they really die due to the excessive amount of voltage released from the electro cabinet?" Juniper questioned suspiciously.

Justin shook his head, "More importantly, why did Candace help us? Considering the fact that we've never heard of her and our parents worked for her before we were born." He had a quizzical look on his face. "Why did she run the autopsy? Why not the local hospital or anyone else? She's not specialised in this field, yet she did it." He shuffled closer to his sister. "Why?" He whispered under his breath.

Juniper had the same question and a few more. "Why did she take us out of our house? Why can't we live there? What is she hiding?"

Why was she hiding? What could be so important that even two teenagers couldn't find out?

"I say we investigate." Suggested Juniper. "We have a meeting at..." she glanced at her watch, "at ten o'clock with Candace and it's only six fifteen, we have ample time to search our parent's research office."

"Let's go then."

—

Juniper injected the spare house key into the lock, her parents liked old fashioned methods; they believed it was more secure. It wasn't an ordinary key. It was a long tube, which, once it was inserted, it would release a series of spikes which fit into the correct holes, akin to the lock and key system of an enzyme. The combination of the spikes changed from time to time so it was impossible to replicate a key that would work with the door.

They stepped inside the musty house, it had an eerie ambience to it as if the house hadn't seen light in months.

"Should we remove the curtains?" Justin whispered.

Juniper thought for a second, no one had seen them enter, should they just reveal their location? Someone could be watching, for all she knew, they might be under Candace's radar already.

"Let's be quick." Justin said and began to head upstairs to the office. The door was locked and to enter, they needed to know the passcode. Justin stood there breathlessly, "What do we do now?"

"I can give it a shot." Juniper leaned against the door, her ear pressed to it and began turning the knobs.

Justin creased his forehead. "What on earth are you doing?"

"Every lock has a heart—dad told me once, he showed me how to do it, now don't disturb me and make yourself useful by getting me a torch, the power system was shut down after the so-called 'incident'." Justin obeyed and went to the corresponding room which held outdoor supplies.

The door of the office stood ajar by the time Justin came out, he grinned at his sister. "You're a genius, June."

Satisfied, she nodded. "Well, thank you."

They began ransacking every drawer, every box and everywhere they could spot a hiding place. They searched for an hour but without any luck. Frustrated, Justin thumped down on the nearest armchair.

"Wait." Exclaimed Juniper. "The chair, dad loved it! It must hold something special."

Justin jumped off and punched the fabric with a scissor. He pulled out all the foam and to his surprise he saw a dark green folder. "How did you know?" Justin was impressed by Juniper's foresight, until he saw the front of the folder. "These are just numbers. 5, 2, 4, 5, 4, 2, 4, 9, 5, 2, 5, 4, 4, 8." Then he flicked the pages and opened the file. "This is futile, here I only see zeroes and ones."

"Let me see." She examines the pages. "This must be binary." She glanced at Justin. "Why would mum and dad write a whole file in binary?"

"Because no one would understand it?" Justin suggested.

"Maybe." Juniper closed the file and stared intently at the front. "If that's binary, this must be hex!" She smiled exuberantly at Justin who seemed to have not understood a single word. "Dummy, you read it wrong, it's not 5, 2, 4, 5, 4, 2, 4, 9, 5, 2, 5, 4, 4, 8. It's 52, 45, 42, 49, 52, 54, and 48!"

"And what's the difference?" Justin hated all this 'smart talk', he preferred letters over numbers; they were much easier for him to process.

"Well, for starters, 49 is the letter 'I' as I know how to write my name in hex, so 48 must be 'H'. 'H' minus 3 is 'E' and that's 45. So, 42 must be 'B'. 54 must be..." Juniper did some calculations in her head. "Hmm, 'T'! And 52 is...'R'." She exhaled. "That's it! That's the word."

"What's the word? I only heard numbers."

Juniper giggled in excitement. "You silly boy, the word is Rebirth."

"Rebirth? And how is that important?"

"I don't know yet, I'm going to scan this document and use an algorithm I made some time ago to understand what it says, just sit tight for a few minutes and it'll be done."

"Fine." Justin didn't understand any of this, but he knew his sister wouldn't fail him. "I want to read it when you're done with the math."

Juniper nodded and began deciphering the binary. After a few minutes, Juniper handed an election copy of the file to Justin. Finally! English, he thought.

He skimmed through the text, it was English, but filled with terms that were unknown to him. He had read through a few dozen pages and then halted. His head vigorously shook up.

"Lyra is in danger." Justin said with fear.

"What do you mean?" Juniper didn't understand.

Justin licked his parched lips, "I'll explain later."

Suddenly, a series of gentle footsteps stopped them in their tracks. The door unlocked as a lady in all black, as well as a black mask entered. She held out some sort of a weapon, she let go of the switch at the side of her gun-like weapon, which fired some sort of microscopic bullet.

Justin dropped down to the floor and screamed as he clutched his right eye. Juniper bent down and pulled Justin towards her. She was horror-stricken by the pool of blood that soaked Justin's shirt, she had forgotten about the lady.

The lady crouched down and whispered. "Never speak a word." Her words held venom and a sort of cold sensation, her voice was so familiar. She picked up the green file along with the electronic one and headed out without glancing back even once, her words hung in the air.

The masked woman left the house whist Justin's screams filled the night air.

—

This chapter is a bit long, but I hope you enjoyed it! What do you think Justin read? What was going to happen to Lyra? Has it already happened?