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Chapter 10: The Time Machine – Exposed

Meanwhile, the team had all met back at Camp Hero. Blake was with Lt. McQuade, and neither of them looked happy.

"What were you thinking?" McQuade said angrily. "Blake Ferguson said that your story on National Television was filled with many lies. He wants to sue you for libel."

"Who's Sue, and what does libel mean?" Hector asked.

"Not now, Hector!" Alex said sternly.

"And, I have no clue where Lenni is, but she needs to re-appear on National TV with you for a retraction!" McQuade continued.

"McQuade, as unbelievable as the story is, it's true. Look, I have no evidence to back it up, but I wouldn't lie to you again after what happened years ago with Mr. Brinker," Jamal argued.

"Well, if you have no evidence, how come you were able to pinpoint the coordinates to Anubis House 16 years from now without going back here?"

Jamal and the team were in a pickle. He had no choice but to lie to protect the secret of Ghostwriter, but at the same point, there was no lie good enough as to how they knew. And besides, he didn't want to lie to him after what he had just said.

"Lt. McQuade," Blake said, "I have no clue where they get this notion of Lenni being at a British boarding school. And why specifically the one on the Frobisher-Smythe's estate? Something sounds fishy."

Jamal said, "Just a second, I'm sure I have a way to clear all this up, but I need to talk to my friends about it first."

"Great!" Blake exclaimed in frustration. "Meanwhile, while you chit-chat, I'll be cleaning up behind this door. And, as if you didn't see it already, it says, 'Private Parties Only. DO. NOT. ENTER.'" With this, he angrily entered his code and opened the door ever-so-slightly to enter the room.

Meanwhile, Jamal said to the team, "Look, I know we all agreed to never tell anyone about Ghostwriter, but, at this point, I don't know how else to clear this up."

"So," Tina reasoned, "you think the best move is to tell Blake and McQuade about Ghostwriter?"

"Well, what lie do you propose to tell him?"

Tina thought about it for a long while, and then said, "I don't know."

"Look," Alex said. "I've kept him a secret for a long while, and now I have to tell the world? As soon as we tell Lt. McQuade about Ghostwriter, in order to satisfy Blake, we are going to have to include Ghostwriter's secrets in our follow-up. And this would also be letting Calvin win!"

"Is everything alright?" Lt. McQuade asked the team.

"Yes," Jamal said, "but…"

Suddenly the private door swung open. Blake was clearly distraught. "Lt. McQuade, I want to drop all charges, lawsuits, and the like," he said.

McQuade asked inquisitively, "And why is that?"

"Because I wasn't the one who was entirely honest with you, but in order for me to tell you the truth, all of you have to promise never to tell anyone about this."

The team and Lt. McQuade all looked at each other, and then Jamal said, "We promise."

"Okay, this is going to sound crazy, but…" Blake said, and then proceeded to look around the room, making sure no one else was listening in. He continued, "There really is a time tunnel generating device in here. It's called a Space Time Continuum Tunneling Machine, or STCT machine for short."

"Really?" McQuade said in unbelief.

"Yes. I know I'm a hypocrite to call these kids liars when I was the one lying, but we really can't let the public know about this. It's for security reasons. We don't want anyone to try to change the course of history. And for one, I'm glad it was changed to set foot in the future. This way, we can't deliberately change history because it never happened yet."

"And you expect me to believe this?" McQuade questioned.

"Well, I wouldn't have said anything had I not found…" Blake said before rummaging through the private room, and pulling out a strange-looking item. "…this!"

He held up an Egyptian-looking artifact. It was the thing the board had flung back into the time tunnel earlier.

"Well, it looks like this is from ancient Egypt, but if the settings were changed to the future, than why is that here?" McQuade asked.

"It appears it was a genuine mistake," Blake said. "You said that Lenni was on the Anubis Estate in 2010?"

"Yes," Jamal replied, "but what does that have to do with…"

"You see, someone who worked with us on the Mantauk Project was a fan of the Beatles, who were from Liverpool! He had suggested that we used the Liverpool's global coordinates for the Earth's intergalactic coordinates."

Gaby asked, "Is that what iLat and iLong are, intergalactic coordinates?"

"Yes! We had previously tried to use it for interstellar travel, but it failed miserably! Luckily, we only used robots for the tests!"

"I still don't understand what this has to do with your Egyptian object!" Lt. McQuade interrupted.

"Well, the rest clicks together with their report: The Anubis Estate was in Liverpool. I bet that is why Lenni is there! Furthermore, The Frobisher-Smythes, who had originally owned the estate, were on an expedition for Tutankhamen's tomb."

"But I thought all people who were accused of smuggling items back to their home country were found not guilty!" Alex said.

"But ONLY by majority verdict. However, an opinion of dissent had shown they thought that they had hidden the items. I think that this is one of the items."

"And now, THIS sounds fishy!" Lt. McQuade exclaimed as he took the artifact.

"Why do you want to take that?" Blake questioned.

"To take in for evidence," McQuade answered. "And before you ask, it's for your insane case, not the Frobisher-Smythe's."

"Come on, Lt. McQuade," Alex said. "You've got to believe us."

"Well," Gaby said, "The only way to prove it is to go to the future and see it for yourself."

"Gaby!" Alex exclaimed.

"You know," McQuade explained, "She's right. We need to go to the future and prove this crazy story right after all."

"Correction: YOU need to do it. We'll be backup on deck from the other side," Blake Ferguson decided.

"I'd never thought I'd say that during my career as a police officer," Lt. McQuade said in shock, "but, fire up the time machine."

"One Space-time tunnel coming right up!" Blake said.