Book Two of the Travelers Read Free

Hall.”
    Nothing happened.
    She repeated herself.
    â€œI’m sorry, I don’t recognize your instructions,” the voice of the projector said. The projector had an irritatingly condescending voice.
    There were a few snickers. She noticed Nak Adyms onthe back row, covering his mouth. She flushed. Something was wrong with the projector apparently.
    â€œRe-initialize holo projector,” she said.
    â€œPlease enter your password.”
    She walked to the projector’s keypad and typed in her password.
    â€œPassword not recognized,” the projector said.
    There was laughter throughout the room. Aja was angry now. This was twice in one day that something weird had happened with her password. What was going on?
    â€œWell, forget about it,” Aja said angrily. “We’ll meet in the basement of Zetlin Hall and I’ll decide the teams.”
    â€œPassword not recognized,” said a seventh-level kid in the front row, doing a humorous imitation of the projector’s irritating voice.
    More laughter.
    â€œHa-ha,” Aja snapped.
    But that only made things worse. The laughter spread.
    Â 
    They spent most of the afternoon searching Zetlin Hall, the playground, and the surrounding parkland.
    They never found Omni Cader. And every time something went wrong, every time some kid got bored or didn’t want to do exactly what Aja said, she’d hear it: somebody whispering, “Password not recognized.” And then they’d all laugh and laugh and laugh.
    T HREE
    T he search consumed most of Aja’s afternoon—time she had intended to devote to her senior project. She had been working on a program to reorganize Lifelight’s security protocols. Every one of the teachers had told her that if she could pull it off, it would be the most impressive senior project in the entire history of the academy.
    It was an audacious project. Because to do it, she would need access to Lifelight’s core—the central brain of the Lifelight system. Normally no student at the academy would ever have access to Lifelight’s core. The core control room was considered to be a nearly sacred place. At the academy, the Alpha Core was spoken of in whispers. It was where only the best phaders worked—the smartest, the most experienced, the best of the best. It was certainly not the kind of place you let little peons from the academy mess around.
    But everybody knew Aja was special. So when she proposed her project and showed just how carefully she’d thought it through, she’d been granted access.
    She still had a lot of work in front of her before the project was complete. But first, she had to sort out this stupid password situation.
    Aja walked into Lifelight, under the vault of the great pyramid of glass, then down a corridor approaching the large door of the core control room. She paused in the hallway for a moment. She could remember the first time she had come here. It was on a tour of the building with her first-level class. She’d immediately thought, Someday I’m going to work here!
    It still gave her a thrill to be here.
    Several of the senior phaders stood in the corner, laughing about something. Another was sleeping at his terminal, a thin stream of drool slowly descending into his lap. Several sat at their terminals, motionless, bored looking. Another was eating gloid. A big fat pink blob of gloid fell off his spoon onto the terminal controller. The guy didn’t seem to notice. Or care.
    Back when she first came, she’d been intimidated by them, imagining them to be brilliant, all powerful, all knowing. But these guys? She had to admit they didn’t look that intimidating. Actually, they mostly looked bored.
    She smiled. Well, maybe some of the phaders were bored here. But not her!
    She moved forward, inserted her card key into the slot near the door handle and stepped toward the door.
    Which she bumped into, bashing her nose.
    â€œOw!”