The Secret
PART V:
The four sliders were being given the grand tour of the place. They were amazed at the tight security everywhere. They had been given back their timer; their story confirmed when the timer that the Arturo of this world had invented was found to be still safely locked up in the storage unit. Ian and Rajesh led the group down to a room, pristine, immaculate and painted white. They were going to visit the actual lab where the Arturo of this world had performed his experiments and after that Quinn would try to help them fix the machine. They wanted to search for his uncle, hoping that he was till alive and on the last world the machine had transported him to, before it broke down. Ian pressed a small button in one corner of the room twice and a few 'Bullets' appeared within an instant. He quickly explained that it was an underground method of travel, the fastest on land, which they had invented. Everyone was strapped in and ready to go when a small figure came running into the room, shouting, "Wait, Wait!" Rajesh exclaimed in impatience, "Higgins, the next time you are late, you're going to be fired, get that!" He quickly introduced the sliders to Higgins and with a little bit of shuffling, was able to fit him in too. Ian said with a smile, "We actually have 'Bullets' meant only for one person, usually these," he indicated the ones they were seated in "are for transporting large groups of people or machinery!" Within minutes they were at their destination. It seemed that they had spent more time in settling into the 'Bullets' than travelling in them.
The Professor chuckled when they stepped out of the white corridor into room which looked like a library. "Ah! The secret room, or in this case, secret corridor behind the book case. Rather out-of-date don't you think?" "Actually no," replied Ian. "This was my uncle's favourite room, and he once told me, if you want to hide something, hide it somewhere so obvious that no one would think to search there. I don't think anyone except huge fans of old mystery books would think to search here!" He then led them out to the basement where his uncle's lab was. As they went behind him, they noticed in surprise a few framed certificates, the most eye-catching was one which said,
THE GOVERNMENT THANKS PROF. MAXIMILLIAN ARTURO FOR THE INVENTION OF COLD FUSION.
Another thanked him for discovering The Worldwide Web. Yet another commended him on his theory of Antimatter. It seemed that quite a lot of things had been discovered by the late Maximillian Arturo. Ian had not been kidding when he said his uncle had been a genius. Quinn looked at his professor and smiled.
Wade was trailing behind the others. She didn't like the fellow named Higgins. But she didn't want to say anything. If she voiced her doubts to any of the other three members of her group, they would probably laugh and shrug it off like they did whenever she had a bad feeling about any world. But this time she really felt uneasy about the man. He and Remmy were walking just ahead of her, conversing on the music of this world, though he didn't seem to be very knowledgeable. They reached the laboratory. Within minutes, Quinn, the Professor, Ian and Rajesh were deep in discussion over something in a book in the lab. It was ironical; she thought with a little smile, that even the Professor's lab, on this world, was in his basement. Immersed in her thoughts, she didn't notice the glare Higgins shot her.
His fury mounted with every passing minute. Higgins ground his teeth in frustration, and attempted to make it into a rather dreadful looking smile when he noticed Rembrandt looking at him curiously. Here he was, the man who had actually perfected that machine, forced to make small talk with an ignorant black fellow while that old clod Max got all the credit. He didn't want to make small talk with this man; but for his plan to work, he needed to keep up pretences, that included behaving like an assistant would. And behave nicely to their 'guests'. The other two were inspecting the machine in the centre of the room. Obviously they were the brains in this group. He had been in a fix when he had heard what was going on, who these people were. But after a hurried call, he knew what he had to do. No one could ever find out the truth. And with these sliders here, he could not take a chance that they would fix the machine. He was a little edgy, which he couldn't afford to be if his plan was to go smoothly. It had always made him uneasy to come here, where he had killed Max, but to come here with a man looking just like him was too much.
Quinn and the Professor were reading through some of Max's notes when Quinn suddenly noticed something. "Hey! I think some pages are missing here." That sentence drew everyone's attention. Ian and Rajesh gathered around Quinn as he pointed out what he found. "I always wondered… it seemed so weird, that he seemed to be so close to the answer and then all his experimental results not matching with expected ones, somebody has tampered with the notes!" Ian exclaimed, "This may be the break I've been looking for! If this is why the machine didn't work, with your help I can fix it, and maybe find my uncle! Higgins can help us too, he's worked before with uncle Max." He whirled around to talk to Higgins. But Higgins wasn't there. "Where is Higgins?" asked Rajesh in surprise to Wade. "Wasn't he just in front you?" "Oh, he just went out for a breath of fresh air."
