The Palais de Versailles is their first stop the next morning. As the day passes, Kiara nervousness increases. Her mind stays fixed on the parts of the riddle she still hasn't solved.
What if I'm not able to figure it out? What if I have it all wrong? What if... NO STOP. You know how to do this. Just relax.
She gives herself a pep talk taking deep breaths until her nerves calm down and the panic subsides.
"Are you alright?" Jessy asks her as the bus stops, and everyone starts to exit. "You looked worried for a second."
"Yeah, I'm fine."
When Kiara says nothing more, Jessy shrugs and moves on. Kiara must work on her poker face around her friends, especially when thinking about the mission.
Once outside, the four chaperons divide the students by schools and Ms. Lane begins their tour. She goes on and on about each room's history, trying to hold her student's attention for more than five minutes with curious facts and stories.
Kiara soaks all this information, comparing it to the riddle and trying to fill in the gaps. As soon as lunchbreak arrives, she follows her group to the restaurant in the gardens just ten minutes from the palaces back entrance.
The restaurant is a wide area with the tables out in the open. A fence covered in vines separates the area from the rest of the garden and park. A set tables are placed one alongside the other on one side and five staff members are behind them serving food to the students.
Kiara gets in line with her friends and after she grabs her plate, she picks up a table near the entrance. Conscious of the time, she plots a course to make her escape with the least amount of chance of being noticed.
It all begins with her eating and talking as if she has no care in the world. Twenty minutes before the deadline, she excuses herself to go to the bathroom. As predicted, neither one of her friends need to go, because they went before getting lunch.
Kiara exits the restaurant area and forces herself to walk in a normal pace, fighting the urge to move faster. She retraces her steps to Versailles and then to the Hall of Mirrors. Now that she sees it in person, she finally understands the last part of the riddle. Though that doesn't prevent doubts to rise in her mind.
Stopping at the beginning of the hall, she takes a deep breath to steady herself and observes the room. The hall expands in front of her, on one side many sets of windows stand from roof to floor showing the gardens, and on the other side in the same places of the windows stand sets of mirrors that reflect not only what the windows show but the people walking by the hall.
One... two... three...
Kiara silently counts the sets of mirrors as she walks in front of them until she reaches number five. With a few minutes left before the meeting, she looks around to see if anyone is watching.
The Hall of Mirrors is not as packed with tourists as earlier, but there still are some walking around. As fast as she can, she touches the lamp between mirrors. The lamp has in its base a naked baby and just as the riddle says, she touches its lips.
An almost imperceptible sound comes from behind the mirrors, but nothing happens. They don't move as she expected. Kiara frowns not understanding what she did wrong.
Maybe if I push it, the passage will open.
She raises her hand, but instead of feeling the mirror, her hand passes through. Eyes wide, she checks her surroundings once more before stepping completely through. It feels like going through a wall of water but without getting wet.
On the other side, there is a short hallway made in the same style as the rest of the palace, but the illumination comes from modern light panels. The sound of tourists fades in the background, until suddenly it stops.
Kiara turns around. The mirrors are one-way glasses. She can see the Hall of Mirrors, but no one can see her in the secret passage. She tests its surface again, but this time cool glass meets her hand. She looks at the frames, but there is nothing out of the ordinary. The lamp changes the mirrors density temporarily. She makes a mental note to figure out how ISS did it.
Her focus back on her task, she walks deeper into the secret hallway. She makes a right turn and follows the passage until she reaches an intersection where it splits in a two in a ninety-degree angle. She has a vague idea of where she is compared to the open to public section, but this intersection in right after a wall without door. Before she can decide which way to go, she sees Will coming from the left hall.
"You made it." Will says when he reaches her position. He sounds pleased.
"So, it seems." Kiara says with a smile. "What do we do now?"
"We wait here and see what happens," he says. "Since you came from one hall and I from the other, logic dictates that Agent McGreevy will come from the remaining one."
Then, Sasha appears from the right hallway. When she catches up with them, a door in the wall opens into a completely dark room.
A secret door inside a secret passage... cool!
Kiara's first instinct is to step right in and investigate. However, the presence of her team members prevents her from acting. Not knowing if there is a protocol when entering mysterious looking rooms or if they should come up with a plan, Kiara glances at Will and Sasha to see their reactions.
Sasha raises an eyebrow bored, not surprised nor exited; at least, not outwardly. She completely ignores Kiara and shares a look with Will. Will, on the other hand, has a serious look on his face and unhesitantly steps inside.
YOU ARE READING
Teen Spy: The Observer
General FictionA few months ago, Kiara Starling started feeling that someone was following her, watching her. Despite it being downplayed by her family and friends, her intuition is proven right when, on her seventeenth birthday, she is kidnapped, and it leads to...
