The Factory's Secret

Almost a week later, Caro was done for real. They would take a fly with the submarine in the digital sea, that afternoon. On Aria, everything had been calm since a pretty long time, so they stood back a little. Today was supposed to be the day when the gang would check if someone was still occupying the other supercomputer's room. They decided not to go over there but to check the cameras instead. They sat down on Caro's bed to check with her on her phone.

"Ready, this is the moment of truth. If nobody is in there, we're safe and we will never fo there again." Caro started.

She opened her observer and the first camera showed an empty part of the laboratory.

"Good start, change to the second one." Jo proposed.

Caro clicked on an arrow letting show the supercomputer's room. It was the second one of three cameras.

"Nice no one there either." Madd said.

"Time to verify the last one." Caro said cl.i.c.k.i.n.g the arrow again.

This time, the camera showed the sabotaged scanner room. But not only that. There was a pack of tools on the ground.

"Hey! That wasn't there when I came in and destroyed! Plus, I broke that and now it's fixed. The laboratory is occupied!" Luna said, taking her head with her hands like if they were all going to die.

"Caro change to the room in which we enter. I want to see if my program is still running." Lena asked before letting Caro click back on the arrow.

Lena examined the screen for a second and asked for Caro to zoom a little.

"That window there, it's my program anti - X.A.R.A. It's still on. We have time to intervene." But as Lena got to the dorm's door. Caro kept her.

"It's worth nothing to intervene if the laboratory is still occupied. I'll make research to know how to get the submarine to get in the virtual worlds created or possessed by X.A.R.A. If we intervene, the advancements we make will keep on being deleted by the owner of the room. We just risk to be discovered. It's better not to do anything." Caro convinced her.

"What are you suggesting then?" Mile asked.

"That I don't know. But it's time to go eat and I'm a little hungry. Let's go." Lena opened the door and all followed her to go to the cafeteria.

***

Mike went to go put his plate back and Madd came with him. When they were far away not to hear, a conversation started.

"Aren't they a cute couple?" Luna looked at them with wonder.

"Totally. I've been imagining them together since Madd talked to me about him first." Jo said.

"I hope for them it lasts long." Caro said, starting to smile as she also stood up to take her garbage to the can near the doors.

"Me too. I've never seen Madd so happy then when she spends time with Mike." Lena says before everyone stands up to go out to wait for the couple.

They arrived soon after. "Ready to take a first trip with our real beautiful submarine?" Jo asked.

Without answering they all smiled and headed to the park's passage in the sewer. They skateboarded in direction of the factory. They ran the bridge until the elevators. Luna showed them a system she put in place.

"It consists on hiding the elevator's passage to the laboratory behind the buttons of principal floors. As you know, the supercomputer is five floors under the ground, the scanner is the fourth and my desk is the first floor. We think it's because when our parents built this underground complex, they wanted possible visitors to think it was just a command post with controls of the machines. Then, what you might not know, they tried to fool them if they were intelligent enough to discover the power of the machine. They spent money from their own pockets to build two parking levels. You might say it's stupid to have built two and not just one, but that's when I come in. For the last two floors you'll need a code and get the buttons off the wall of the elevator. For this, you'll need this screwdriver to get the panel off. There is the grid. The code is 2*9*10*10*5*1*11*11. Any questions?" Luna explained.

"Yes. How can we keep that code in mind??" Mike said, clearly annoyed.

"It's all our birthday months in alphabetic order from Caro to Xuli." Luna explained.

"I don't mean to be critical, but isn't all this a little too much?" Madd asked.

"Madd, our secret could put humanity in a position to get all exterminated. Nothing's enough, if you ask me." Caro insisted.

"You're probably right. I don't have to say anything because none of us would be able to do something like this." Jo smiled.

They got down all the floors, letting Caro get off on her giant computer's floor. They got down two floors and let Luna apply the system. She typed the code and let the doors open. Luna and Lena went first with Madd and Mike. Jo waited for Caro to start an automatic virtualization procedure and they both went in the scanners. They got virtualized with their friends. Xuli and Xina were already waiting for them.