Code Lyoko: Reincarnated, twenty years later

Chapter 11- Lead

We had decided that Aelita, Mia, Ulrich and Kyoko would go to the cortex and try to teleport themselves to the real world from there.
Odd, Rick and Alex went to the cellar of the Hermitage to find he hidden room.
And I... got stuck finding Major Steinback. I was grouped with Daze and Yumi. I'm not going to argue. We drew lots and I got this mission. I sighed as we headed back to the Academy. Why is it always me who goes on boring missions?

We knocked on the principal's door and peeked through. "Sissi?" I asked.

"Hey Ruby," she said jumping up. "Something wrong?"

"No. I, uh... need a favour. Could I pull out an old employee's file?"

"Depends," she replied. "Who's?"

"Mrs Hertz."

"Mrs Hertz?" I heard Yumi question. Sissi heard it too, because she opened the door. "Hey Sissi."

"Yumi!" she embraced the woman. "How long has it been? Why didn't you tell me you were back?"

"We just arrived," she lied, breathing slowly. "The groups back together."

"That's wonderful!" Sissi replied. "Have you seen William yet?"

"Not yet."

"How come you don't hug and squeal when I come around?" I asked jokingly. We laughed, like we were teenagers again, without a care in the world.

She pulled out Mrs Hertz's file and handed it to me. I stepped out as Yumi said her goodbyes. I looked through the file, "who's Mrs Hertz?" Daze asked.

"She was our science teacher back when we came here," I replied. Yumi stepped out. "She's Major Steinback. She helped Franz Hopper escape from Project Carthage, and she was his assistant back when he taught here."

"So she knows about Lyoko?" Yumi asked. "And Aelita?"

"The novels said that she did. But she retired. And this is our first lead." According to the file, Mrs Hertz had left Kadic a few years after we graduated. "I think we should check out her new address." None of us had a car so we ended up walking, taking shortcuts from our childhood.

We knocked on the door of a small house. No reply. "Are you looking for the owner?" a person asked. "I'm afraid the old lady that lives here has moved. I'm not sure where, though. It's currently empty."

"Oh. It's alright. Do you know where we can find the landlord?"

"I'm afraid not," she replied. I observed this woman. She had long brown hair and wore a plain shirt, jeans and black trainers. The thing that worried me the most was her eyes, it felt like she could kill us with her stare so I looked away.

"Well, thanks for the information," I smiled. I began walking away.

"There goes our lead," Yumi sighed. "What now?"

"Let's go back to the Hermitage, we might be able to help them with the cellar."

We headed to the cellar, none of the Belpois family were there: only Odd, Rick and Alex. "Any progress?" Yumi asked.

"Nothing," Alex muttered. "This is pointless. We'll never find it."

We're missing something. But what? If only I had searched for it back when I was a teen. I could look through books and other stuff- Books! Like notebooks! Franz Hopper's notes! I pulled out my phone. "Jeremie! Did Franz Hopper have any notebooks! He did? Where are they? Alright. Thanks!" I ran back up to the office, the others followed me soon after. "We're looking for an old notebook. A blank one!"

"Blank?" Odd questioned. "Did Franz Hopper use invisible ink or something?"

"Precisely!"

We each searched different parts of the room. "I found something!" Rick said. We huddled around the boy as he showed us a completely blank notebook. "What kind of invisible ink did he use?"

"Franz Hopper was a science teacher so I wouldn't be surprised if he used potassium ferrocyanide as invisible ink. If that's the case, all we need to reveal the secret text is some iron nitrate!" Yumi replied.

"And where can we find that?" Rick asked. "The school?"

We all headed to the science building, which was in desperate need of an elevator. Then we headed to the storage cupboard and asked for iron nitrate. They gave it to me because I was a teacher, and a close friend of both the principal and vice-principal.

We headed to my classroom to use the iron nitrate. Some words began appearing on the page. The writing spread across four pages. The last page was ended with the words: I love you, Daddy.

We all rushed back to the cellar, which seemed to be difficult as most of us had sore legs from climbing the science building. Once we were there, I stood, back against the wall and read the directions.

"Look for the third hook on the end, on the left hand wall," I read aloud. Rick paced quickly to it. "Pull it towards you." He climbed a shelving unit and pulled the hook. A loud clang was heard. Then the hook dropped a few centimetres from its original position.

"Uh... Did I break it?" he asked.

"No. No. Um... Now on the right wall, count down from the fourth shelf and raise it." He did as he was told. "Then close the door, reopen and shut it again."

The steps seemed pointless but he did it without questioning it. "Pull the hook," Yumi read from behind my shoulder.

This time there was a click and mechanical creaking. We all inched closer to the door. At the far end of the cellar, a door opened, a narrow one, that one had to go on their hands and knees to get through. Once we're were through, some lights flicked on, to reveal a room which hadn't been visited in over thirty years.

The room was simple. A white room with a single sofa, parallel to TV set and a dark leather cabinet, where a cassette player sat. "What's that?" Alex asked, inspecting the player.

"A cassette player," Yumi responded. "That's pretty old, even for us."

"Speak for yourself," Odd said. "I'm in my prime years."

"Whatever you say, scrawny," I muttered.

"I'm not scrawny! I'm svelte!" No one felt like laughing. We all took a while to regain our senses. "We need to get Aelita."

We all went through the narrow path, closing it, just in case someone else got to it. Then, I handed the notebook to Alex. "If anything happens, take care of this."

My gut churned. I had a bad feeling, and my gut was right half of the time. We headed out of the trapdoor and covered it with a rug. Then we headed down the corridor. And here we are. I also handed this journal to Alex. This bad feeling is bad. Too bad. I hope it's just a XANA attack.