CHAPTER 4

Caleb shunned Ariadne all weekend, afraid of her father. He didn't know what to do next. It was obvious that Carmichael distrusted him. How didn't he prevent that? Until last week, he couldn't be in the same room as Ariadne without wanting to scream and distance himself from her as much as possible.

In order to prevent himself from getting more attention, Caleb decided that he would be on his own for the rest of his mission. He also realized that the more time he lost, the harder his mission would be to accomplish, so he had to hurry to decipher the message and find the answer.

On Monday, he was walking home after school and listening to music through his earphones when someone suddenly stretched his shoulder. He took the device out of his ear and turned toward his pursuer.

"Why haven't you answered my texts and calls?" protested Ariadne, flailing her arms in exasperation.

"Ariadne..." Caleb tried to calm her down as he looked around to check they were alone.

"I called you like a hundred times! I thought you trusted me. What's wrong with you?" she kept saying louder and louder.

"Ariadne, stop screaming, please."

"I'm not going to stop until you give me a proper explanation!"

At this point, Caleb grabbed her arm and pulled her into an empty alley near their position, ignoring her complaints.

"Get off me!" she shouted at the contact.

"Could you please shut up? Otherwise, you'll bring us unnecessary attention."

Ariadne tried to speak again but closed her mouth after Caleb looked at her hard.

"Good. Now I can explain myself. Your father suspects."

"What? How? I didn't say a word to him."

"Because he's not stupid and we've been spending a lot of time together."

"Is that what you two talked about last Friday?"

"In summary, he asked me if I was on his side and told me that he did not want to be my enemy. Oh, and he kind of mentioned Icarus, and cataloged him as a criminal."

"No way."

"Anyway, you have to get out of this," Caleb concluded.

"I'm not doing that," Ariadne replied.

"Are you not listening? Your father will kill me if he finds out the real reason why we meet every day."

"Then we better unravel the message quickly."

"Well, I'm open to suggestions, because go sins is either direct instruction or it has a different meaning in another language. If you…" Caleb froze and slowly analyzed his last words: "That's it."

"I'm lost," his partner said.

Caleb wasted no time and immediately fetched the voyager and the secret code sheet from his backpack.

"Caleb? Ariadne called him.

"It's in a different language. The cipher is not GO SINS, it's an anagram; the letters are in a different order than they should be.

He checked the drawings Ariadne wrote and changed the order in his head a few times until he recognized a word. Then, a winning laugh came out of his mouth, and he raised his arms to celebrate.

"The true word is gnosis, the Greek word for knowledge."

"Incredible," Ariadne muttered in amazement.

"If my calculations are correct, then the solution is…"

Caleb moved the arrow to the third row and chose the second figure. Second, he went down and chose the first. Third, he moved up to the first symbol in the second row. He went up and chose the second character. Then he chose the third figure.

Knowl… four characters left. Caleb's fingers shook with every movement as the excitement filled him from head to toe. He couldn't wait to see what the artifact contained.

His next movements were: first row, third column, second row, fifth column, seventh column, first row, third figures.

After selecting the last symbol, the voyager made mechanical noises just like the last time, and the squares with the letters gradually turned around, leaving a completely black surface.

"You solved it!" Ariadne congratulated him.

"Look," Caleb pointed at one of the poles of the sphere.

A blue light emerged from the point that had served to restart the secret sequence, and a white circle followed by another message appeared before their eyes as a hologram.

THE MOON WILL SHOW YOU THE WAY

"Now we just have to wait until tonight," Ariadne said.

"Apparently, and then this artifact will tell us where Icarus is" Caleb replied.

Their conversation was interrupted when they heard a metallic sound behind them, and the duo turned around and saw a boy running away who Caleb recognized as one of their classmates.

"We're in more trouble now. That's Jason."

"Jason from chemistry?" Ariadne asked in shock.

"Yes, that Jason. We should go to my house like right now."

Ariadne agreed, and they both set off. Although no one spoke as they walked, both were desperately wondering if Jason had seen something that could expose them, hoping that he had not.

The hours flew by, and before they knew it, night fell on the city, and the bright moon took its usual place in the firmament. Until then, Caleb and Ariadne were just waiting without talking to each other. The tension and anxiety were present in the room.

"Look, the moon is up," Ariadne finally remarked, peering through a large window in the bedroom. "Get the voyager and let's finish this."

Caleb carefully held the strange black artifact in his hands, approached the opening, and lifted the orb over to the night sky.

Nothing happened.

"Maybe it takes some time to work," Caleb speculated.

They waited about two minutes until his arms began to shake and he had the urgency to lower them.

"I don't understand," protested Caleb. "We did exactly what was mentioned in the message."

Ariadne did not answer him, she was lost in her thoughts.

"Ariadne?" Caleb called her.

"We didn't."

"Excuse me?"

"The message had the drawing of a full white circle: the moon, but not at any stage. The circle must indicate that the moon, for the voyager to work, should be the moon…"

"A full moon," Caleb concluded.

"Exactly."

Caleb looked up at the sky once again and confirmed that the moon was waxing gibbous.

"When is the next full moon?" he asked Ariadne.

"According to my phone, it's tomorrow night," she said, looking at the phone's screen of the phone.

"Well, that's handy."

"Only twenty-four hours more. We should be good until then."

As if fate wanted to be against her, someone knocked on the front door. Caleb and Ariadne exchanged glances before he gingerly stepped out of the room and went down the stairs to answer, closely followed by Ariadne. They were surprised and confused to find Adam, the assistant to Councilwoman Radcliffe, outside.

"Adam? Is everything alright?" Caleb asked him.

"No, Mr. Smart. You have to get your belongings and get out of town as quickly as possible."

"What? Why?"

"Mayor Carmichael has ordered the police to arrest you immediately for treason. They'll be here anytime now."