The face of Thomas Grayfield smiled down at the two stunned boys. Legolas wanted to say something to his father, but found nothing to say.
"If you're seeing this video message, then you've successfully been able to get into the Oracle's Chamber," Thomas Grayfield said. "But, unfortunately, this is only a recording."
The expression on his face suddenly softened and a warm smile crept across his lips.
"I'm proud of you, Leo. Somehow, I knew that you'd make it this far. I'm willing to bet that Aaron's with you, isn't he? If you're watching this, then be sure that we're really proud of you boys."
Legolas and Aragorn exchanged surprised glances and wondered at the same time how he knew.
"In case you're wondering, this message was set to show if the Chamber's security doors were opened without too much trouble. Since, to my knowledge, only me, Adam and you boys can safely access the Oracle's Chamber. If anybody else is with you, I don't know.
"But, it doesn't matter. As long as you're not being held against your will, it doesn't. The information that we have should be shared by all those who embody the attribute of Light and those who oppose the Darkness.
"All over the world, demons and monsters roam. As I make this recording, there are none but Adam and Edwin have seen it. Even I feel that something horrible will happen. Obviously, it has since there is no other reason for you to be here, watching this video. So, as you stand there listening to me, the Dark forces grow further into the world.
"Now, I seem to remember a message I received from Dr. Lewis. She told us that you guys went to the museum, without telling us," he added, "and saw her exhibit." He sighed and seemed to look at them fondly for a while in reflection.
Legolas and Aragorn knew in their hearts what he was going to say but still waited anxiously to hear him say it.
"I suppose I can still call you my son but now I must call you Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood. And I would gladly kneel before the King if I were there and if I hadn't other issues to address.
"About a kilometer beneath this building lies the Light of Earendil, which Gandalf had buried there long ago and purposely made himself forget about it. Since then, an impermeable stone door has been installed by... somebody. I tried to open it when we first discovered it, Adam tried to open it and we both failed. Spectacularly, too.
"There was writing on the stone, but neither of us could read it. It looked amazingly familiar, like we had seen it hundreds of times before but we just couldn't read it. To mask the true door, we made some fake doors around the real one but dyed the real inscriptions with a chemical that reacts to ultraviolet light. You can find a couple UV flashlights in here under the desks.
"Finally, I'd just like to tell you boys that you can use the company's security system to your heart's content. It includes a full range of pressure sensitive areas that includes the walls as well as the floor and it can be set to as low as 0.25 seconds and as light as 2.3 pounds. All the security cameras have a small gun equipped with technology that releases a short pulse of high energy. Of course, if I try to tell you all the features, it'd take forever. I'll let you play with the system yourself.
"We really wish that we could be there to help you," he said warmly, "but we're sure that you guys will succeed. Good luck with your mission and... I hold we'll see each other again in this world."
Thranduil gave them one last encouraging smile and the giant screen flickered off. The modules behind them beeped and automatically granted them access to the system.
"Hannon le, Ada," Legolas said softly. He said a silent prayer of gratefulness in his heart. After a moment, he glanced at the online modules with a sense of anticipation in his eyes and grinned.
"You ready to go?" Aragorn said with a smirk.
"Hell, yeah!"
Both boys settled into the gliding seats, which were attached to the modules with Legolas practically jumping into the seat. In a matter of minutes, the modules showed the images the cameras in the building were sending.
"Find anything interesting?" Legolas asked as he continued scanning the security cameras.
"Yup. I found a party of Orcs that looks like they're locking for a place to raid. I'm seeing this on camera A-11."
Legolas pulled up the camera feed. "Ooh, they don't look all that happy, do they? Do you think they can get any unhappier?"
"With me controlling the camera, yes," he replied in a semi-serious, semi-amused tone. He laughed and flipped his hair out of his face. "Let's have some fun, shall we?"
He carefully aimed the cameras towards the group of Orcs that had come in to investigate the fresh scent of Orc blood. Through the camera, he saw that they were already suspicious and frightened about what could have caused it. He could tell that they were talking about what sort of creature could get past their defenses.
"You can hear what they're saying if you enable the mini-mics," Legolas called over his shoulder. He was going through the other systems while Aragorn monitored the cameras. "Go back to the main camera matrix to see if it's there."
Aragorn managed to find it and turned it on.
"Do you think it could've been another squadron who did this?" one nervously growled to the others. It was quite a bit smaller than the rest.
"Possibly, but I doubt it." said another one. He had a long scar down the side of his face. "They don't look like they struggled. It was a swift, unexpected attack." He looked at the dead orcs' wounds. "By a smooth, sharp blade. This is no attack by Orc."
The whole Orc group snarled and snapped their teeth nervously and looked around the room, as if they were expecting something to fly through the walls and attack them.
"It was a demon!" the little one cried out. "A demon that kills everything in its path with a single stroke! We shouldn't be here if something like that's in here!"
"Coward!" roared the Orcs.
The largest Orc put its blade up to the little one's throat. "We will not back down from our mission because of a fool's thought of a demon," he said derisively. "The Master sent us here to retrieve a weapon underground and we will get it for him. Demon or no demon."
He pressed his sword deeper into its throat when he made his point clear and released it with a growl.
"Let's move out!"
Aragorn watched as they moved out of range of the camera. He followed their movements through the floor and watched them try to find their way around. He soon realized that he couldn't watch all of them by the cameras but had a childish, ingenious idea.
"Computer, this system has bio-electric detection throughout the whole building, right?" Aragorn asked.
"Affirmative," answered the smooth voice. "Would you like to enable it?"
"Yes, I would like that," he said smoothly. He glided across the module, enabling security features, programming others, and tweaking still others. He finished his little computer-programming project by initializing a voice identification password. "Set timer for five minutes. Voice authorization code for disabling: Aragorn alpha one zero."
The computer beeped as it stopped recording his voice. "Voice authorization code stored. Secondary code required."
"Secondary authorization code for disabling," Legolas said clearly, "Legolas omega zero one."
The computer beeped in confirmation and the main screen above Aragorn's console blanked and had nothing but giant numbers that flashed five minutes. Aragorn himself packed up all of his equipment and rummaged under the desk for the UV flashlight.
"What're you going to do?" Legolas asked, concerned.
"Just -- ah!" Aragorn yanked out a large flashlight and flashed it on and off to test it. A vivid purple light flashed on and off. "Just watch my back, won't you?"
Legolas nodded vaguely, but still wore a worried look on his face. "But what are you going to do?"
Aragorn didn't answer him but just gave him a grim smile. He fastened the flashlight securely to his belt and cocked his gun. He stepped in range of the automatic door and paused with a small second thought.
He shook his head a little. "Computer, start the five minute countdown now."
The five minutes stopped flashing and started the countdown. Legolas realized in horror what Aragorn was attempting to do and whirled around to call out to him, but the doors had already slid shut. The Elf tried opening it, but the doors refused to open.
"Fuck, Aragorn!" He yelled out furiously. "What the hell are you trying to pull? You're going to get yourself killed!"
"Shit, Legolas, not that loud!" Aragorn's voice said irritably in his ear. "I can hear you fine without you yelling into the earpiece."
The earpieces! Legolas had completely forgotten about them. They were so lightweight that they were virtually weightless. He suspected that their fathers had somehow manufactured mithril and constructed many of the hidden equipment with it, including the earpieces.
"Sorry," he said, softer this time, "but you're a fucking idiot to be trying to pull off this stunt by yourself." He returned to his desk and pulled out a couple gloves with faintly glowing fingertips. "Let me guess: you locked the door for five minutes."
"Yup. Can't risk you coming around and screwing up my plan."
"Thanks," he replied dryly. He stood in the middle of the room and used the gloves to move the giant timer to the lower right corner of the main screen. "Wherever you are, you better hurry up; you've got two minutes left."
"Watch my back," he repeated. Legolas heard echoing footsteps running down stairs. "Southwest stairwell. I just passed the twentieth floor," he panted.
"Right." With a few waves of his hands, he moved the mobile screens to join the main one. He made a grabbing motion to the information he had on his screens and moved them to the main screen. He then spread the camera feeds throughout the added screens.
"You've got nothing ahead of you until the third floor," he reported. The timer in the corner went off and flashed four zeros in red. "And your timer just reached zero," he added.
"Perfect," came Aragorn's voice. "Remember..."
"I'm watching your back, damn it!" He was literally watching his friend fly down the stairwell through the cameras.
Before, Aragorn had kept close to the inner railing to reduce his path down the stairs. But now, he was carefully running in the middle of the stairwell. He slowed down and carefully turned the corners so he wouldn't touch anything. As he ran down and approached the single digit floors, he could faintly hear the cameras whirr as they swiveled to focus on him. This was very good news for him. His plan was working.
"By the way, Legolas," he said as he slowed to a walk and looked at a camera above him, "don't touch the walls or railings if you're leaving the Chamber."
"Is this for my own good?" Legolas gushed into his earpiece. "How sweet of you, Aragorn."
Aragorn said nothing but prominently made a rude gesture towards the nearest camera as he walked down. This earned both of them a few chuckles.
The young Man soon heard footsteps coming from the nearest entrance on the fourth floor. He quickly made his way past the door and further down the stairs, deliberately making as much noise as he could. As expected, the door slammed open and a trio of Orcs stormed into the stairwell, looking for the source of the racket.
"Hi," greeted Aragorn from a flight of stairs lower. He put on a jovial smile. "How are you today?"
Up in the Oracle's Chamber, Legolas didn't know whether he should laugh or yell at him. He satisfied himself by giving him an amused scoff and said, "You're awfully confident in yourself, aren't you?"
"You know it," he muttered. He was already running down the remaining stairs with the trio of Orcs close behind him.
Aragorn suddenly realized that he had made a fatal mistake when he approached the closed metal door that led to the main level. He was just starting to panic when the doors flung open and he ran through them.
"You said to watch your back," said Legolas through the earpiece.
"Thanks!" He saw a faint series of glowing panels just beyond him on the wall by the elevators. He sprinted to gain more distance ahead of the Orcs but he tripped over a spare bit of carpet beneath his feet and he fell with a thud.
"Well, well, well," an Orc said hungrily, "our rabbit tripped over his own big feet." He waved his dirty sword and watched with glee as Aragorn tried to scramble away from them on the floor.
"What do you think we should do with him?" another Orc asked the others. "Should we cut him up after whipping him for a few days?"
"No," growled the last Orc, all three slowly advancing towards the scrambling Aragorn, "the whipping tears the meat and it doesn't taste as good."
"Yeah, we should boil him in oil!"
While they were trying to scare him, Aragorn had been slowly moving down the hall purposely and with a fake look of fear on his face. He hoped that the Orcs bought the act and they did. All of a sudden, he just stopped moving at the end of the elevator hall, put on a horrified expression and just waited for the Orcs to approach him. Luckily, he didn't have to wait very long.
"Yeah," one Orc agreed, "but we should skin bits of him before we put him in!"
The other Orcs roared with laughter and cheer and raised their swords, inches from Aragorn.
Immediately, he flipped himself onto his feet, away from the Orcs and pressed his hand onto he wall. With a grin he said, "I think you should try something fried."
The panels suddenly flashed and strong currents of electricity crackled between them, instantly frying the three Orcs into charred bodies. Before everything melded together, Aragorn noticed a small, portable communicator, not unlike the ones that police officers used.
He had just taken a step when a camera had just missed him, leaving a faint charred mark on the wall. Very carefully and hurriedly, he avoided the guns and jumped behind the security desk.
The camera-guns kept firing towards his direction and he was preparing to run out to try to dodge the bullets when a hidden gun equipped with a bioelectric identifier appeared behind the desk and took aim. In his shock, his nerves froze and he didn't move.
He waited, with his heart beating rapidly, for the gun to fire, but it didn't. Suddenly, he became aware that all the other guns had ceased fire.
"Friendly bio-electric signature recognized," the computer voice said calmly. The gun barrel that Aragorn was looking down with wide eyes and panicky breaths shrank back into the shadows of the desk and once again hid behind a hidden panel.
"You said to watch your back, didn't you?" Legolas explained again through the earpiece.
"You'll be disappointed to know that I have no idea how to do whatever it is you just did, then." He waited for Legolas behind the security desk.
"Actually, I'm not," he said dryly. "Nor am I surprised."
Needless to say, Legolas received a hard smack over the head when he met up with Aragorn.
Together, they made their way underground, through the sublevel parking levels with their UV flashlights. They found a secret passageway by solving a riddle inscribed into the stone and seen only in UV light. Before they went through the hidden doorway, they could hear the laser fire from upper levels and the pained yells and snarls of Orcs.
Legolas looked at Aragorn, who returned the look of nervous determination. They stared into the dark void and the ominous feeling they felt reminded them strongly of the Paths of the Dead. Legolas could faintly hear whispers coming from the darkness and could definitely feel the familiarity of Middle-Earth.
"I do not fear death!" Aragorn braced himself and went through the secret door.
After the slightest moment's hesitation, Legolas followed his friend through and the door slid shut behind them, once again becoming seamless beside the gray concrete wall of the parking lot.
--- ---
Sheep: I'm sorry for the cliffhangers from the previous two chapters! I know, I know, they're annoying but they keep readers interested.
I know as a reader, they're horrible. But, as an author, I feel like I need to have a couple cliffhangers. Just for the sake of being an author.