83 The Crossroad Frontier (1/2)

I breathed in, and the conversation stopped there. Without doing anything, I stood there in silence for five minutes. Of course I couldn't see Cansu, but somehow... I knew she was thinking about what we've talked. I was spacing out, staring into the gloomy corridors ahead of me. At least Cansu was right about one thing; the facility was way too big to explore just by walking around.

I heard some static from the nearby speaker. She must've been reading my thoughts.

”Go ahead, teacher.” she said. ”Don't think of it. Don't let the vastness of this facility discourage you. Even if it's not my preferred way of doing things, we still have to do something. We can't sit here forever.”

I didn't reply to her and slowly began walking. I knew what I needed to do, but there was an unexplainable uneasiness and hesitation in my actions.

”Come on. I am not going to argue anymore. Do it your way.” she said. I couldn't understand if she was really trying to encourage me or was simply being passive aggressive.

”Walk.” I said myself. ”She's waiting. She needs your help.”

”She needs your help.” Cansu repeated after me. With this encouragement, my walking turned into running, and I picked a random direction to explore.

”It would be a lot easier if I had not lost that book...” I said.

”I will regret saying this to you...” she began talking. ”...but perhaps if you asked the scientists for the book in return, you could probably-” I interrupted Cansu.

”Whatever, forget I've ever said that.” I said. She didn't say anything in return, and I kept running.

I came to an intersection and turned left. Ahead of me, at the end of the corridor, there was a steel door illuminated by a single flickering lamp on the ceiling. I approached the door and pushed it; it didn't open. The door was locked. On further examination, I noticed a keypad on the wall, just next to the door. I've seen something like this before...

”Oh my...” I said. ”Maybe you are right. Maybe I need to find that book.”

”One-five-nine-nine-two-three-five.” Cansu rapidly said.

”What!?” I was surprised.

”Try it.” she said.

”Say it again, but slowly.” I said.

”One-five-nine-nine-two-three-five.”

I entered the numbers using the keypad, but the password was wrong. The keypad made a buzzing noise, and the door remained locked.

”This isn't right... Did you really memorize them, or are you just randomly spitting out random passwords from your mind?” I asked Cansu.

”I memorized some of the passwords while we were looking at the book, I thought it might come in handy... But I can't remember which password belongs to which system...” she said.

”Can't you use your powers to open it or something?” I asked.

”Hold on, close yourself up to the keypad and let me try it.” she said.

I pushed my chest against the keypad to provide Cansu with easy access to tamper with the system. It was a really absurd scene. There was no one else around, but I could still feel my face going red.

”There we go...” Cansu said. ”Now... Oh no, it requires not just numbers... Hmm...” she was muttering to herself. ”Huh, I remember another one! R... T... E... dash... P... T...”

*buzz*

”Argh!” she was frusturated. ”I'm out of passwords... Let me try to hack it or something instead...”

”Take your time.” I said, and sighed.