After a good hour's walk, they finally arrived back in the base. Try not to be conspicuous, he said to Kalisa, who was still spotting her most-killed-animal dress award outfit. They went from wall to wall and then they snug into Joakim and Tessa's residence. Here they warmed up and had a bite to eat. Within half an hour, they were back outside on their way to the mystery research containers. Joakim had given Kalisa one of Tessa's thermo-outfits so they could walk around the base without being the talk of the day.
Near their destination, Joakim realized they did not really have a plan.
"How are we going to get in?" Joakim asked.
"Wow, Joakim, I really like how you see me as your personal door opener. We'll see it when we get there."
They got there. And they found the lock to be a combination of a keypad with a key.
"And we have neither key nor code," Joakim said.
"You should really focus on what you have, and not what you don't have, Joakim."
"Not much of a guru if you focus on what you don't have," Joakim added. He checked his pockets and the rest of the outside of the lab. "If I have to sum up what I have, it is you. I have you."
"Luckily, that's often all you need." They stood there for a while in front of the door. A gust of wind passed them by. But other than that, the streets were empty of people and vehicles.
"We need to get in unseen before anyone sees us," Joakim said.
"Are you feeling alright?" Kalisa asked with raised eyebrows.
"Little nervous."
"Doesn't show."
Kalisa walked up to the door and knocked on it three times.
"What are you doing?" Joakim called out and hid around the corner of the lab.
"If we try to break in and there is someone inside, we get caught anyway, so why not see if anyone opens?"
Nobody opened. So Kalisa knocked again, but this time ten times. "If nobody opens the door, and nobody is there, then we lose nothing. If someone is there, then we have given ourselves away now, so we might as well continue to knock on the door."
Nobody opened. So Kalisa knocked again, but this time she turned it into a song. When nobody opened still she turned around, took a few steps and pondered about her next move. Joakim came out of his hiding place. "So new plan then?"
Kalisa nodded yes. Then she turned around and knocked on the door in a seemingly random pattern.
"Wow, so that is still your strategy?" Joakim asked as he returned to his hiding place.
"It wouldn't hurt you to help, Joakim. You can knock from your safe place," Kalisa said around the corner between a salvo of knocks. Joakim knocked on the door in the rhythm of a classical piece he could not remember the name of.
"Now stop," Kalisa said. "And come over here."
"Are we now, finally, changing plans?"
"The change in plans, being the plan stays the same, is the plan," Kalisa said.
"Are you alright?" Joakim asked. "Little nervous?"
"I'm excited," Kalisa said. "Now stand next to the door and pay attention. There is nothing more annoying than something annoying that returns after you think it went away."
"What are you talking about?"
"Just knock!"
After another minute of knocking, the door swung open violently. A waft of intense warmth swung out of the opening.
YOU ARE READING
Mountain Qualia
General FictionTipi is a grand master guru who has recently lost his gift of enlightenment by stumping his big toe and now has to cope with not living in the present anymore. **** When his followers set him back on a path of reclaiming his position on his mountai...
