Tania had asked about their normal time still being stopped as they were to head back to their City and home around 3.30 p.m. today. She had also enquired whether they would have enough time to go to Town L to do justice to the Time Machines experiment and if there were any prisoners there.

Zoya had contended that if the town had been abandoned, there would probably be no prisoners in the jail there. However, Mono was of the opinion that they would not go on a.s.sumptions and they needed to check, just in case. But they would not be staying in Town L as no one lived there. Hence, they had to head back as soon as their work was done.

Since lunchtime was delayed today, their packed lunch was in the cars and they could eat while they were on the move to Town L. Water bottles, napkins and gla.s.ses were also kept in the cars.

As they were preceded they were protected by the Orbs and now there were 175 of them. That is actually a lot of Orbs humming away as they glided through the air. When they hovered around everyone's heads they resembled a pearl necklace with huge light-emitting beads. It was a beautiful sight to behold.

After a 10 minutes' walk from the Time Machine Experiment cave, they reached the exit of the tunnel which housed the launching Pads of the cars they needed to take to the next Town L. It was now almost 4.00 p.m. They had another 20 minutes to travel to reach their last Town L.

Upon reaching the exit/arrival area of the cars, everyone made a beeline to the washrooms there. Thereafter, they a.s.sembled to go to the departure area for the cars leaving for Town L.

The 3 attendants they had seen earlier when they had arrived here, could be still seen as frozen statues and in various poses or stages of doing work at their respective areas.

The launching pad had an arrival area where the cars were coming from Town J and Town L and on the other side, they had the departure area for cars leaving for Town J and Town L. They were going to use the launch pad to take them to the next Town L. It was already 4.00 p.m. and they had another 20 minutes to travel to reach the mysterious Town L.

Mono had calculated that they would reach in 20 minutes another 10 minutes to get to the cave where the semi-destroyed Time Machine of Town L was and finis.h.i.+ng it off releasing the Orbs and then going to the jails and releasing prisoners, if any, and jailing anyone else in the Administrator's office, etc. and return would take them about 4 hours. So by 8.00 p.m. they would have returned to the arrival area for Town K. If any delay it would be 9 p.m. then they would stay overnight at Town J's residential hostel for the scientists of Town J.

Mono had earlier explained to them that the direct link to Town M was only with Town I. The other towns were inter-connected via a hopping system of connectivity. They could not go directly to Town M, they all had to travel to Town I first even if they belonged to Town L. Town L no longer exists as a Town. It was abandoned and the reason for so doing was not known to the society. It had remained a mystery and no one lives there. But now they all knew the mystery of Town L.

Even they could not go to Town M after completing their task but had to travel from Town L to Town K then from Town K to Town J and then from Town J to Town I and then from Town I to Town M.

"You see the arrival area for Town J and Town L on our left and on the right; we can see the launching pad for Town K and or Town J. We will go to the other side and take the Cars for Town K," said Mono.

"We cannot go to Town M directly from any Town except Town I, the reason being that the direct tunnels to Town M had caved in and this was the case for all the Towns connectivity to Town M. It seems that this had been done deliberately and the tunnels were destroyed 50 years ago."

"Like last time we will be using four electric cars moving in our travel tunnels and these cars work on electric energy harnessed from the small waterfalls at all the towns. We will reach Town L in less than 20 minutes as our cars go very fast. Town L is about 80 km away and is parallel to Town I and J and is on the same side as Town M." Mono told all.

The Orbs kept them covered in spite of all persons having turned to statues and the CCTV cameras being stopped, they were not taking any chances. Even if one person escaped becoming a statue then there could be a witness who could see them pa.s.sing through these tunnels.

The cars were well made without steering wheels. They could see the speedometer in front adjacent to the panel which had a lot of b.u.t.tons. They were asked, through a loudspeaker system in each car, not to press any b.u.t.tons as all the cars were controlled by the lead car. Such action, if attempted by anyone, even by mistake, would affect diversion of that car elsewhere.

They all sat in 4 cars. Mono sat in the first car along with Luke, Sunny, and Danny. Sherpa sat in the second car along with Ben and Chris. Zia sat in the third car with Zoya, Nanu, and Shana. Zen sat in the fourth car along with Tina and Cathy.

The Orbs did not need cars. They just hovered above the cars in a ring-like manner. The group noticed that there was no steering wheel in any of the cars. The cars did not have wheels but glided on a thick steel rod like aperture. Mono pressed a few b.u.t.tons in the lead car and all the cars started moving together with one another through the long tunnel.

The group members understood the announcement. They all knew how drastic the results would be if they did not follow instructions.

They all ate their late Lunch while traveling through the long winding tunnel. The tunnel was a meandering one and seemed to go on and on. The sides of the tunnel had lights at regular intervals to ensure that the tunnel would not be in dark but there was nothing to see outside the cars.