Exceptional

The Camera

        The page had a small number code underneath it. I showed the notebook to everyone else in the room, and let them come to their own conclusions.

        Lawrence, who I thought was asleep until recently, clambered over us to read the small writing at the bottom of the note.

        "Ah," he said quietly. "You don't know what that is?"

        "No." Safirah responded. "But I assume you do, so out with it."

        "It's a number for a security camera. Judging by the number, it's not one that belongs to any camera in one of the classrooms. Maybe it's in that secret-torture-otherworld that you guys are talking about."

        "Dude." I said. "Dude. You lost me. How do you even know all this stuff?"

        "I'm a techspert! That's my exception. Y-You like how I smushed those words together? Tech... expert... I thought it was clever." Lawrence said, shrugging.

        "It's gotta be important, or my brother wouldn't waste his time writing it in here," Kira pointed out. "Do you think you could find the camera, so we could watch it, to see what Truman was talking about?"

        "That's a clever idea, Kira," Marvin said, appearing from over her shoulder.

        "Yeah, I could do it," Lawrence said, yawning. He walked over to the small wooden desk with a laptop on it. "Just give me a computer and a few hours. Oh... and a password. Did your guy mention any password?"

        "No," I said, leafing through the pages until I noticed something. "Wait... the word 'remember' is written over and over again... it could just be weirdness, but it's worth a shot, right?"

        "If it's not right, then this computer can easily be tracked as a potential hacker to the school system. Eh... But what do we have to lose, really?" Lawrence asked, streching before typing it in. "Whoa..." he added a few seconds later. "It actually worked. Nice. You guys might just want to chill out for a while. This is going to take time."

        Surprised but excited, I settled down for a quick nap. Wow. This is just like a dream! We're hacking into a secret computer database to discover mysteries that went on for years under everyone's noses! Of course, if we die here, we die for real. But that just adds to the excitement! Bring it on world! I thought as I fell asleep.

        Safirah smacked me awake. "You sleep like a log," she snapped. "It's ready."

        I jolted out of my corner. "Really? What is it?"

        "It's video footage. From... yesterday, it seems. By the way, happy new year, man. You missed it." Lawrence said, bringing up a grainy, black and white video.

        "Why's it so... ancient-looking?" Terry asked.

        "Harder to track. It looks like Bones's office, but... not. It's, like, brighter, almost." Lawrence observed.

        "It must be his office in B School," I noted. "Look, there he is. Weird... we're watching the Bones of yesterday... and he doesn't even know it! ...Right?!" I asked, nervously glancing at Lawrence, who laughed.

        "Relax. We're untracable, thanks to your friend over there. Looks like he's working hard. You need to thank him sometime."

        I glanced at Arthur. He sat perfectly still, eyes closed. You'd think he was asleep, but his brow was furrowed in deep concentration. Lawrence was right. Arthur does a whole lot for us. He's a great guy.