KOTLC Book 9 (After Unlocked)

Five - Sophie

Sophie's home crystal led her right outside the shimmering gold and glass walls of Havenfield. She decided to wait for Dex, since he would probably be getting there in the next thirty seconds. When he didn't, though, she tugged out an eyelash and went inside, not in the mood to be patient.

She greeted Grady and Edaline on the way upstairs. The two were sitting at the table talking. 

"Dex is coming over," she told them. "We'll be up in my room."

Edaline smiled. "Have fun!" 

Now that Sophie thought about it, her adoptive mother was probably overjoyed that she was coming out of her shell to socialize. Sophie had been a bit distant with her friends lately.

She even walked up the stairs slowly, but Dex still hadn't arrived. Sophie told herself to stop overthinking it.

She went to quickly pick up her room so it wasn't so messy, but her eyes caught on the photo-realistic paintings Keefe had made her. 

Even though they were beautiful, it hurt to look at them.

That was when Dex walked through the door. He was carrying a large-ish gadget in his arms, and wore a bright smile that showed his dimples. "I had to go pick this up from Rimeshire," he explained. Sophie nodded, regaining her earlier excitement. 

Dex set the gadget on the bed and they both sat down. "So, our top-secret plan," he began eagerly. He pressed a button, and the many tiny faces of the device lit up. "I don't know how I came up with this without being enhanced, but here, I call this the Super Spotter."

At that, Sophie gave her best friend an odd look. "The Super Spotter?" 

"I came up with the name on the way here," Dex shrugged. "It was between that and the Forbidden Finder, but I thought that would be too obvious."

Sophie laughed. "Just tell me how it works."

Dex grinned and started speaking his weird Technopath language while pointing to different parts of the gadget. Sophie technically knew what he was saying thanks to her ability, but she couldn't understand how it related to the device. She rolled her eyes, amused, and told Dex, "In the Enlightened Language, please," 

He went on to explain that the small screens could display security feeds from all around the world, and characteristics were inputted into the front face. The gadget would eventually load up a file of where the person had been and/or where they were now. Basically, it was a stalking device.

"So yeah, that's it," Dex finished. "And I figured since it's kinda like a Spyball, and someone could use it to do some pretty questionable stuff, there should be some secret unlocking method,"

Sophie remembered sitting on her bed a few days back, just like she was now, thinking she finally had a good idea―but the Spyball had just displayed NOT FOUND  when she spoke Keefe's name into it. She had felt moderately discouraged after that.

"Good idea. What's the method?" Sophie asked Dex, pulling herself back to the present.

"You put your finger to this sensor"―he pointed to a small, textured surface tucked under the front face of the device―"and say, 'Iggy'," 

Before Sophie could ask why her pet imp's name was the password to Dex's newest gadget, he added, "Because it's a random word that nobody would guess to use, and Iggy's fur looks great, thanks to who we're trying to find."

Sophie couldn't argue with that logic.

Keefe would lose it if he found out that Dex had technically just complimented his elixir-mixing skills, Sophie thought with a slight smile.