Chapter 10 (K)

When I get there, Gerad is already waiting for me.

“That was 4 minutes and 32 seconds,” he says cheerfully.

I give him an exasperated look. “Do you always keep track of time like that? If you put as much effort as you do doing worthless things towards your homework, you might not have that rep of being a slacker,” I exhale. He just gives me a crooked smile and shrugs.

“It’s just the way I am.” He starts walking towards the elevators and I hurry to catch up with his long strides. The elevator door mysteriously opens when we approach, although there’s no one around and just a second ago the elevator was at the ninth floor.

I look over at Gerad, and he holds up what looks like a mad scientist’s remote control gone bad. There were wires and springs poking out, random buttons on every side of the polygonal prism. I raise an eyebrow.

“I do hope you haven’t been spending your time building something like that,” I remark. The remote is so weird that I can’t pull my eyes away from it.

“No, no, I found it in the building. It was just lying there, all alone with no one nearby. I just had to pick it up. And when I pressed this button,” he motions to a yellow triangular button, “I figured out how to call the elevator to whatever floor I’m on. No one’s ever tried looking for it, so finder’s keeper.”

I walk into the elevator. The walls are entirely mirrored, and I see my image repeated into infinity. It’s a bit dizzying to look at. My reflection is joined by Gerad’s reflection, and the elevator doors shut behind him. He presses the 44^th floor button, and we ascend in silence.

“So what was such an emergency that you had to come over and show me?” he asks.

“Do you want the long version or the short version?” I ask, hoping that I don’t have to go through an entire re-telling of today’s events.

“Long version, of course! I love long versions of stories!”

I knew it. No matter what I say, or how much I hint, he’ll always want the longer version. I was just hoping that today would be my lucky day, but obviously not. I decide to tell him a shorter version anyways. I might get away with it today.

“Maury Spiel is related to the epidemic case, and so I visited his house earlier today—“

“I thought you were sick,” he interrupted. Oops, I forgot about that.

“That was before I was sick. But anyways, I found a USB key that belonged to him, one that he used often. I went back home, plugged it into my tablet and downloaded all the files. But the last file, a software, was different from the rest of what was on the key. When it was finished downloading, a window popped up, and there was a message for you.”

Gerad looked confused. “I remember Maury wanted to give me a USB key cause there was a game I wanted to borrow,” he ponders, “but he left before he gave it to me. And even though he’s really skilled, I don’t think he was skilled enough to create a brand new software and place it on a USB key of that size.”

I take out the USB key and look at it. It only has a 6 MB capacity, much too small to store an entire software.

“You’re right about that,” I tell Gerad, impressed. “I didn’t expect you to know that.”

He gives me a mysterious smile. “I sometimes pay attention in computer sciences class you know.”

“But to get back on topic, is there anyone you know that would have that much skill to create the software? Someone even more skilled than Maury?” I glance at the elevator display. We’re almost at the 44^th floor.

He furrows his brow, deep in thought. “I can’t really think of anyone. Maybe if you show me the message it’ll spark something.”

“Well, the thing is, my tablet is dead…it was down to its last drop of power when I was downloading this. I think I might’ve damaged the software since I ejected the key unsafely…”

The elevator door opens. “No problem,” says Gerad stepping out. “I think I have the right charger somewhere. My mom has the same model.” He turns right and heads down the hallway.

“Awesome. I really do hope this’ll solve something,” I say, and I really do mean it.

So what is Gerad's name doing on the key? Who is the creator of the sinister message? Find out in Chapter 11, coming as soon as I finish typing it out! (Which might just be later today if I'm not interrupted.)