Chrono Voyage

Chapter 13: Secret Room

     “Bloody hell,” Elizabeth sat down and starred at the photo she couldn’t believe what she was seeing, all this time she’s been duped by a professor, not just any professor but she has met this one, and it wasn’t just one but it was two of them she met the two of them. On the right side of the picture was the girl who was Asian and went by the name of Ivy Nguyen and on the left, it was Hendrix Hamilton the ginger dude with the lisp. “You know…” she looked at Benjamin as she spoke quietly. “The first time I met the two of them they were the most innocent looking people on the planet, and now this…” Benjamin did not say a word and sat next to her on the sofa.

     “I know I’ve met him, back in New York in the clothing store,” he looked in the distance.

     “You’ve met him? When” Elizabeth found it strange since Hendrix has been living in London.

     “He approached me, he looked at me and made conversation with me. It was then that everything went wrong with time, he stood next to me and made all these problems.”

     “Did he say what was he doing there?” Elizabeth looked at Benjamin.

     “He said he was visiting an old friend.”

     “No, he wasn’t,” Elizabeth jumped.

     “What?”

     “He was there, he was after me, the old friend it’s me, when I was at the college he protected me so I wouldn’t get caught…” Elizabeth just had a thought. “He wanted me to take the device even though he knew I stole it. He must have done something to it that broke the machine.”

     “Then what happened?” asked Benjamin.

     “It was the ball queen Victoria had organized it’s when the machine broke down and we met. I think he must have planned everything, the machine breaking down and him going on a mission to change the timeline...” Elizabeth stood up and rubbed her eyes, she couldn’t wrap her head around all of this, if the Prophet or Hendrix had all of this planned if he is always two steps ahead of them if he knows all the actions they are going to take, then how could the both of them outsmart him? How could they stop him? And have they been playing his game all along, well no more. Elizabeth had a thought, she was going to steal the plans but it wasn’t going to happen now, she had to keep them busy for a while so she can extract the plans and read them through. “I know what to do,” she looked at Benjamin.

     “What?” he still sat on the couch.

     “Come on,” she opened the window and stood on the fire escape stairs, they couldn’t be seen coming out from the front entrance.

     “Busy day mate?” Hendrix walked toward the guard showing his student card.

     “A tad bit weird,” said the guard.

     “How so?”

     “A couple that I have never seen before came here, showed their cards everything checked out they were legit,” Ivy and Hendrix looked at each other.

     “By any chance…” she grabbed inside her pocket and pulled out printed pictures of Elizabeth and Benjamin. “They looked like this,” the guard took a closer look at the paper, he wasn’t really sure.

     “If it’s important I can rewind the security footage and you can see for yourselves,” he looked at them.

     “Sure,” nodded Hendrix he and Ivy were really concerned now, there was a chance their identities have been revealed and that hideout isn’t a secret anymore. The guard led them inside his office and sat down on the chair in front of the computer opening a folder that had the recordings for that day.

     “Let me just remember the time,” the guard thought for a moment, and then checked the date on the computer, he pressed the back button and the recording rewinded back to the time when Benjamin and Elizabeth had arrived at the campus grounds. The guard stopped and pointed with the finger on the screen, but all they could see were faces, whose faces they had no idea.

     “Can’t you clear the image somehow?” asked Ivy.

     “Oh… right,” the guard remembered and pressed a button on the keyboard, he simply just zoomed on their faces as the image became sharper and they could clearly see the duo, it was indeed Benjamin and Elizabeth. Ivy and Hendrix looked at each other, they knew they were discovered now and they had to move, they would have to find another hideout. The guard unpassed the recording as it showed Elizabeth running out of the screen leaving Benjamin alone when he talked to the guard.

     “Now that I think about it, he was kind of strange, at the time I thought he was just the way it is, you know how professors are,” said the guard.

     “And what are they like?” Hendrix looked at him angrily.

     “Oh… sorry I didn’t mean about the two of you of course,” the guard forgot for a moment that they were professors as well.

     “She went to the machine! And then came back with the grounds pass,” said Ivy looking at the screen as Elizabeth returned and showed the pass to the guard.

     “What machine?” asked the guard.

     Ivy looked at him, forgetting that people were not accustomed to be hearing about a time machine. “Oh… It's nothing to forget about it, just a machine that we have at the laboratory.”

     “Yeah, that’s right… Jus a normal machine at the laboratory” confirmed Hendrix. Both of them walked out of the security room and walked towards the entrance of the camp. There was no point denying it, it was clear as day Elizabeth discovered them, she discovered their identities.

     “Maybe she didn’t discover the hidden room behind the stove,” said Hendrix.

     “It’s a bloody stove! Hendrix! Everybody would notice it!” Ivy was pissed off.  

     “Alright you don’t have to lose your marbles over it, besides our plan with the time agent is still in motion and very much a secret, plus we always planned on switching hideouts now is the time.”

     “Yeah… Sorry about that, you are right, I just don’t understand how she found out, everything was perfect.”

     “It doesn’t matter now, what's done is done,” he comforted. They entered the room and went through the stove, the suspicions confirmed as everything was upside down in the secret room, photos and documents flipped and thrown on the floor as Elizabeth just quickly went through their stuff.

     “At least she could have been tidier,” Ivy threw a paper that she picked up.

     “I just had a thought,” Hendrix looked out of the window. “If she got in today, can’t we go back in time and clean everything yesterday?” he turned around.

     “It doesn’t matter since she knows everything,” said Ivy. “Besides…” she turned toward the computer as it was turned on, Ivy always turns it off when she leaves home. “She copied every file of our plan, she has everything and knows everything, we must move on faster with our plan,” she looked directly into Hendrix. “We must get to Hex!”