Release Me

Chapter 24

The tree^^

//EDITED// 

I have keys, but no locks. I have space, but no room. You can enter, but you can't go outside. What am I?

"What the fucking hell is that supposed to mean," Leo yells in frustration.

Keys but no locks.

Space but no room.

Enter but can't go out.

"How about jail? You can go in but not get out," Caleb suggests.

"Then the rest wouldn't make sense because jails do have locks," Asher says.

"This is making my head hurt," Leo complains.

I have officially discovered that Leo is the laziest and complainer in the group. I don't see why Asher says I am a five-year-old when clearly Leo is, I mean he's like a spoiled rich kid.

"I don't get it if there's a lock there's got to be a key, right?" Caleb asks confused.

"Maybe we are thinking too hard," I say.

"What do you mean?" Raph asks.

"Like maybe it's a simple answer but we are just thinking it has to be a complex one."

We went for another round of silence as each one of us try to determine the answer.

Come on Thea, think!

"I got it!" Leo screams.

We all turn to look at him and he just grins at us.

"Well, are you going to spit it out or are you gonna stare like a complete freak?" Raph says grumpily.

"It's a keyboard."

All of us stare at him and blinked.

"Gosh, Leo I didn't think you lost that many brain cells," Raph says.

"No, no, he could be right," I say as I process the riddle.

"Did you hit your head too, I mean, how the hell is a keyboard going to help us?"

"Keyboards have keys, but no locks. They have a space bar and an enter button," I say finally figuring it out.

"See!" Leo said pointing at me. "I am right!"

"But how is a keyboard going to help us?" Caleb asks.

"Because keyboards are usually on laptops and she's probably telling us that the next clue is on her laptop," Asher says.

I spring up and run into the room my parents occupied while we were in the cabin. I go into the drawers and pull out an old dusty laptop.

"Damn it," I mumble as I find out there's a lock.

"Don't you know the password?" Asher voice booms.

I jump from his voice and look backwards. The boys are all hovering over me and staring at the laptop screen.

"If I did don't you think I would have typed it already?!" I snap.

He stares daggers at me, but I completely ignore him.

"Here give it to me," Raph takes the laptop from me and hits random keys on the laptop.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"I don't think hitting random keys will help," Leo says.

"I am not hitting random keys, I am trying to hack into the computer."

"Of course you are-"

Leo is cut off when the home screen appeared.

"You were saying..." Raph says, raising an eyebrow.

I take the laptop from him and look at her recent documents. The most recent one is July 2004 which is a year before she died. I click on it and a bunch of articles about Black pops up.

"She's been doing her research all right," Caleb mutters.

I click the next recent documents, but there is nothing. It is just of bunch of articles about Black and other people from the group.

"I don't get it. Is this not the right computer?" Leo asks.

"No, if the clue means keyboard, then this is it, because she has no other laptops I am aware of."

Asher takes the laptop from me and scrolls through the documents and home screen.

"If she did have the clue here, she wouldn't just leave it out in the open. It would have to be hidden," Asher explains.

He goes through more documents and documents under those documents. Damn, my mom seem to have a lot of research done.

"Hey, stop right there," Caleb says, pointing at a screen.

The document is titled Around the World. Asher clicks that, but a block pops up asking for a code.

"I think we found it," I mutter.

"Yeah, but there's another stinking code," Leo yells frustrated.

Asher seems to know what he is typing and right when he enters it the document opens.

"How did you know the passcode?" I ask.

"Common sense," Asher said shrugging.

"What is it?"

"A word."

I roll my eyes. Since the laptop is so old it takes a while to load, but once it did my eyes go wide.

"Is that what I think it is?" I ask confused.

"I think so, I mean it looks like it," Asher states.

I stare at it more trying to process it.

Why the hell would she put it there?

Is she fucking serious?

"I don't get, it is this some kind of trap?" Raph asks.

"There's only one way to find out," Asher says.

"You aren't really considering in doing this are you?" I ask.

"Cahill, I have been working for two years trying to find the plans. Two bloody years and I'm not about to turn around when things get rough," he says coldly. "You aren't either if you know what's best for you."

I gulp.

What have I gotten myself into?  

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