“Okay, guys, it’s safe!” I call up.
I don’t dare turn my back, because I know how that ends. So I just back up a little as I wait for them to join me.
But they don’t.
And when I finally have enough courage to look behind me, I see the terror on each of those three faces.
Crap.
Why the hell did I have to choose this moment to be so damn stupid?
“Really?” I purse my lips. “Just me then?”
“You’re doing so well, buddy!” Cass calls out. “Just keep going.”
I shake my head, throw them the finger, and go back to staring at the room. “What am I looking for?”
They don’t answer, because I guess it’s obvious.
A fucking clue, idiot.
But like…what?
Hair? DNA? Fingerprints?
Or stuff like whether the bed was chosen at random or for specific child molestation purposes?
The camera catches my eye again, and I realize why.
I know there won’t be a tape or anything inside. I mean…duh.
But as soon as I make a beeline for it, Zach calls out, “Leave it alone, Apollo, the rest of the room is more—”
I throw him another zap. “You wanna micromanage me, then come down here and do it yourself,” I yell up.
“There won’t be a tape in there,” Rube says.
“I know,” I say, drawing out the last word. “But this is…”
I trail off, rolling my eyes. Every time I talk tech, my brothers’ eyes start glazing over. Only Cass humors me every now and then, but I doubt even he would understand.
This camera is old. Like the eighties old. But it’s in amazing condition, especially considering the fact that it’s been in this damp basement for God knows how long.
I want to take it off its stand, but I’m sure there are all sorts of fingerprints on it. Luckily I’m wearing long sleeves today—I pull them over my hands and use them to pop open the cassette compartment.
“It’s empty,” I call out.
“Told you,” Cass says.
But then I turn the camcorder around, and frown. Under the fat sans-serif type of the brand name, there’s a slanted word in script. It has the eighties jagged feel to it, like ACDC’s logo.
LIMITED EDITION
Right. Got it.
My brothers step aside so I can come out of the basement. Cass puts out a hand to stop me. “Where you off to in such a hurry?”
“Library. Or internet cafe, whichever comes first,” I tell him. Then I hold up the camera for them to see. “Unlike the van, this thing is one in a million.”
“How’s that going to help us?” Rube asks as I start walking away.
“Don’t know yet,” I call back. “But I’ll let you know soon as I figure it out.”
Cass drives me to the local library while Rube and Zach stay behind in Trinity’s old house. I’m not sure that’s the best idea, seeing as how Zach flipped out earlier, but I guess if they do rip the whole place apart it might end up being all cathartic and shit.
I don’t really care.
I’m too focused on how this camera is going to help us find Trinity.
It doesn’t look like the kind of tech that’s been in use since the eighties. It looks like a camera you buy on eBay at a ridiculous price because it’s vintage, barely ever been used, and has some of its original packaging.
I’m hoping it’s unique enough to have left a trace I can find quickly and easily.
And if it’s not? Well at least I’m keeping myself sane and not constantly adding to my rather inventive list of things someone evil could be doing to a pretty girl like Trinity.
Cass watches me over my shoulder, but unlike Rube or Zach, he doesn’t ask me what I’m doing every two seconds.
I’m grateful for that. I never mind explaining shit, but right now it would just slow me down.
Instead, he lets me get into the zone, and once I’m in…
“You should blink,” comes his voice.
I sit back, shake my head, focus on him.
“What?”
He points at his eyes. “You have to blink every now and then. Keeps them moist.” He stretches out his arms, jaw cracking with a yawn. “Let’s get a coffee and a smoke.”
“Dude, I was right…” I shove my palms over my eyes and massage my eyelids. “I was in the fucking zone.”
“Yeah, well, you’re going to develop a hunch if you keep sitting like that. And I can’t be seen hanging around with hunchbacks.” He slaps my thigh. “Come on. Up and at ’em.”
God.
I look back at the computer. I can’t even remember what thread of a thought I was following before he so rudely interrupted me.
We’ve been here twenty minutes, and the only thing I’ve discovered so far is that this camcorder isn’t as unique as I thought it was. They’re all over eBay.
I follow Cass to a food truck, but I wave away his offer of a burrito with my coffee.
I need blood in my brain, not my stomach.
Cass is halfway done with his burrito and I’m halfway done with my cigarette when a cloud passes over the sun. I squint up, staring at the gray-tinged cloud and its now radiant halo of golden light.
“How did Rube figure out the code for the basement?” I ask Cass.
He shrugs. “Don’t know. Said something about a bible verse.”
“I know, I was there.” I roll my eyes. “What does it say?”
“Fuck knows.”
I pull out my phone. “Do you remember what it was?”
Cass stares into the distance, chewing ponderously. “Luke…something.”
I give him a deadpan stare. “Really? Could you try harder?”
“Why?” Cass crumples up the burrito’s packaging and overarm tosses it into a nearby trash can. “It worked.”
“It’s significant.”
“Everything in that book’s significant to bible belters,” Cass says. “Literal needle in a haystack.”
“That’s not—” I cut off with a sigh. “Screw it.”
I start searching.
inspiring bible verse luke…
Google autocompletes on that, so I give the first search term a try.
I tap on the first result, and it takes me to a bible website. I read the first verse of Luke chapter eleven.
It’s a prayer. A common one because even I’ve heard it before.
I guess Luke’s the forty-second book in the bible. Forty-two-eleven.
It was the combination to the safe, which is now missing, and the basement. What’s the chance it’s also the password used to encrypt the file on Gabriel’s computer?
But it’s not a pin number like the basement door…
“Library. Now.” I call over my shoulder, already headed in that direction.
“I haven’t had a smoke yet!”
“Save it!”
I have a feeling he’s going to need one when we’re done, anyway.
We race back to the library. I remote access my PC back in California and quickly add the entire prayer to my cracking program.
It takes milliseconds to parse.
The file pops open on the library’s computer.
I’m wrong, though.