"You will read it right here, where I can see you!" commanded Mark.

Whoa. If Mitch.e.l.l wasn't sure about how important those pages were to Mark, he sure was now. Mark was not going to allow Andy Mitch.e.l.l to control this situation any more than he had to. He already had too much control as it was. If Mitch.e.l.l didn't do exactly as he said, Mark was ready to grab the pages away and take his chances with the police.

Mitch.e.l.l chose to back off and gave another signature snort.

"All right, be cool," he said with a shrug. "I'll read *em wherever you want."

Mitch.e.l.l then walked to the far wall, turned his back to it, and slid down to the floor. With one last snort, he began to read the journal.

Mark didn't move. He stood by the sinks, staring at Mitch.e.l.l. This was killing him. With each pa.s.sing second he felt as if he were betraying Bobby a little bit more.

Mitch.e.l.l took forever to read the journal. He wasn't exactly a rocket scientist and he constantly had to ask Mark the meanings of words. Mark would roll his eyes and explain to him what words like "submerge" and "erosion" meant. Worse, when Mitch.e.l.l got to words that were specific to Cloral like vators or pecks, his total cluelessness made Mark want to scream. Mark felt bad for any teacher who was saddled with the likes of Andy Mitch.e.l.l. He wondered who had the patience to teach him how to tie his shoelaces.

Finally, mercifully, Mitch.e.l.l finished the journal and looked up to Mark. This was the critical moment. Mitch.e.l.l's first reaction was going to tell Mark how much trouble he was going to cause from here on in. Mitch.e.l.l stared at Mark for a moment, as if trying to pull his thoughts together. Mark figured that pulling those slim thoughts together couldn't take more than a nanosecond. It didn't. Mitch.e.l.l snorted and laughed again.

"Who are you kidding?" he said with a sneer. "You made this up!"

Mark didn't react. He just stared at Mitch.e.l.l. The truth was, he didn't care if Mitch.e.l.l believed the journals were real or not. But Mark realized instantly that not reacting was the exact wrong move. He saw it in Mitch.e.l.l's eyes. Mark realized that if he had argued with Mitch.e.l.l and said something like "I didn't make it up! It's all true! I swear!" then Mitch.e.l.l would have figured he was just some loser geek with a wild imagination and that would have been the end of it. But he didn't. By not arguing, he had done the exact opposite. His silence convinced Mitch.e.l.l that everything in the journalwastrue. Mark wished he had a second chance to react, but it was too late.

Mitch.e.l.l began to stand up. Before he got his balance, Mark swiped the journal pages out of his hand.

"Easy!" complained Mitch.e.l.l.

"Are we done now?" asked Mark as he rolled up the journal.

"Done?" laughed Mitch.e.l.l. "We're just starting! I want to read the other journals. The ones from that Denduroni place."

"Denduron. I can't let you - "

"And I want to read the journal that showed up here yesterday. I'm not stupid, Dimond. I saw it. It was brown, not green like this one. You already got another delivery from Pendragon and I want to see it."

"N-No way! I agreed to let you read the rest of - "

Mitch.e.l.l lunged at Mark, grabbed him by the shirt, spun him around, and slammed him against the hard tile wall of the bathroom. He knocked the air out of his lungs and Mark nearly pa.s.sed out. Mitch.e.l.l wouldn't let him go though. He stuck his nose right in Mark's face and hissed, "Stop tellin' me what to do, you little freak. You wanna mess with me? I'll hit you so hard you'll be eatin' and fartin' out of the same hole."

Mark didn't believe that was possible, but he didn't want to risk it.

"Now listen to me. Do not tell Courtney Chetwynde I know about this. If you do, I'll go right to the police and fry both of your b.u.t.ts. Understand?"

"But - "

Mitch.e.l.l slammed Mark against the wall again. This time Mark hit his head on the tiles., "Understand?"

"Yeah, I understand."

"And I want to see the rest of them journals. We are sitting on a very big thing here. Someday we are gonna be famous, thanks to that weez Pendragon."

Mark was horrified. Mitch.e.l.l, the village idiot, was already planning on how to release the journals to the world. This could not get worse.

"I want to see another one of them journals," he commanded, then threw Mark out of the way, and strode toward the bathroom door.

With one final snort, he then kicked the door open and left.

Mark sunk down to the floor, hurting in more ways than one. He had messed up worse than he could imagine. Mitch.e.l.l now had complete control over him. Worse, if he told Courtney about it then Mitch.e.l.l would make sure that the police knew everything. There was no one he could go to for help. He wanted to handle this on his own, but he was doing a truly bad job. He had let Bobby down, he had let Courtney down, and he had let himself down.

And then, just to add to his confusion, the ring on his finger started to twitch. In the past this had always been a moment of excitement because it meant he was going to hear from his best friend again. But now the idea of another journal arriving meant that it was going to be one more journal he would have to share with Andy Mitch.e.l.l. One more journal that he would have to explain to the dimwit. One more journal that marked his total failure as a friend.

Mark took off the ring and put it on the floor. He then rolled over and turned his back to it. He knew what was going to happen. He didn't have to see. He closed his eyes and softly whispered, "I'm sorry, Bobby. I'm going to fix everything, I swear."

When he turned back around, the ring was lying right here he had left it. Next to it was another journal.

ZADAA.

Ihave seen things that I never thought possible and most of it isn't good.

Since I wrote you last, things here have been pushed to the hairy edge of catastrophe and I feel as if it's up to me to bring it back. The worst part is I don't know how. Not a clue. I'm frustrated, freaked out, and most of alla scared. Definitely scared. Not only for me, but for the whole territory of Cloral. Whoever had the bright idea of making me a Traveler should be re-thinking that decision right about now. Did I mention how scared I was?

I'm writing this journal from a place that is both wondrous and frightening. As I think back on the events that led me here, I can't help but wonder where it's going to end. Every time I think I've got a handle on things, something new happens that turns me upside down. I thought I couldn't be surprised anymore, but I am. I guess that's why they call it surprise.

Once again we are on the verge of a battle. I don't want to sound overly dramatic or anything, but if things go south, this may be the last journal I write. I'm not trying to freak you out but, well, okay maybe I'm trying to freak you out a little. Why not? The whole point of writing this is for you to know what I'm going through, right?

I'm getting way ahead of myself. There's a lot to write about and I don't have a ton of time. I finished the last journal where Spader and I had hit the flume for Zadaa. There wasn't anything unusual about the trip, except for the fact I wasn't alone this time. Spader and I flew side by side. This was Spader's first flume ride and I wasn't sure how he would react. He was pretty tense at first, as you can imagine, but once I a.s.sured him everything was fine and that he could enjoy the ride, he simply looked forward and folded his arms. We flew along like that for a few minutes and I could tell he was starting to relax. He had been through a lot hairier situations than this under the sea. Maybe not as bizarre as this, but definitely not as hairy.

"What is this, Pendragon?" he finally asked. I could tell he was working really hard to stay calm.

"It's called a flume," I answered. "It's taking us to meet a friend of mine."

"And where is that?" he asked. "Your home habitat?"

"No, it's a place called Zadaa. She'll help me explain to you what's going on."

He nodded as if to say, "Okay. I'll wait until we get there to ask the eight hundred million other questions I have." He did ask one more question though.

"Pendragon, are we safe?"

Wow. How could I answer that one? I felt totally unsafe every second of every day. But I couldn't tell him that. I decided to play dumb to the more cosmic issue and only deal with the here and now.

"Yeah," I answered. "The flume is safe. I promise."

Moments later we arrived. The flume deposited us into an underground cavern. Big surprise, right? Spader looked back into the flume that had now gone dark, his eyes wide with wonder.

"Don't worry," I said. "It works both ways. We can take it right back to Cloral."

"You mean we're not on Cloral anymore?" he asked in shock.

Oh man, this guy had a lot to learn and I didn't know where to start explaining.

"Let's find my friend," I said. "Then we'll try to answer your questions."

Trywas the right word. There was only so much I was going to be able to explain to Spader. Once he started asking the big questions as to what all of this meant, I'd be just as lost as he was. I needed to find Loor as soon as possible.

I looked around the cavern and saw a pile of clothes. A quick exam showed me they were lightweight white robes, like those long togas they wore in movies about ancient Rome.

"We gotta wear these," I said. "It's what people wear around here."

Spader didn't question. We took off most of our Cloral clothes, but left on our shorts. Technically that was against the rules, but I wasn't going commando here. No way. There were also leather sandals and we each put on a pair. As we dressed, I hoped that Spader wouldn't ask me how these clothes got here because I wouldn't have a good answer. I supposed they came from the mysterious acolytes that Uncle Press had told me about, but that's all I could say. Luckily Spader didn't ask.

As I placed our Cloral clothes on the ground, I saw something that made me smile. There was another pile of clothing there. It was a pair of denim overalls and a pink shirt and a pair of Dr. Marten's boots - the clothes Loor wore when she came to Second Earth. Seeing these gave me confidence. Loor was definitely here. Of course the trick now was to find her. Up until now Uncle Press had been my tour guide. Now I was on my own. Gulp. I glanced around the cavern but saw no way out. We were surrounded by walls made of brown, sandy stone. A complete 360 showed no entrance, no door, no pa.s.sageway, no nothing. But that was impossible. There had to be a way out. Then, just before I began to hyperventilate in panic, I saw it. There were footholds and handholds chiseled into the rock that led up toward the ceiling. I walked to the wall and looked up to see. Sure enough, the cutouts led up into a dark crevice. This was the way out.

I wanted to shout "Woo hoo!" but decided I should be cool. Like it or not, I was in charge and I wanted to show Spader I had total confidence, even though I didn't. So without a word, I began to climb. The cutouts led up into the dark crevice. In seconds, I was totally surrounded by rock. I knew this had to be the way out, so I didn't panic. After climbing for another few seconds, I hit a dead end - with my head. Ouch. That hurt. My first thought was that we were trapped, but then I realized my head didn't hurt as much as it should if I had just bashed it into hard rock. I carefully reached up and found that I was right. The ceiling wasn't rock, it was wood. A quick push up revealed that it was a trapdoor. We were out!

I scrambled up and out, followed right behind by Spader. Once he was out, I threw the trapdoor shut and saw that carved on the top of it was the star that showed this was a gate.

So far, so familiar.

We found ourselves in what looked to be a storage room. The walls were made of the same sandy stone as below, but there were large wooden storage bins that were filled with what looked like metal machine parts. The floor was covered with sand, which made me realize the trapdoor was normally buried. So I quickly covered it over with a few inches of sand.

Spader watched me but didn't say anything. I'm sure he was trying to process all this new information. His questions would come later.

"Okay," I said. "Let's find Loor."

A wooden door led out of this storage room and as soon as I reached to open it, it hit me that I had no clue what to expect on Zadaa. All I knew was that Loor was a warrior. Obviously that meant that Zadaa wasn't exactly a futuristic society. I could only hope that it wasn't like the Wild West and that we wouldn't have to fight for our lives every step of the way. That would suck.

As soon as we opened the door we heard a loud, steady sound. It was a constant, unwavering roar.

"It's water," Spader said.

That's exactly what it sounded like. Rushing water. But the sound was huge, so if it were rushing water, then there was a lot of it. We left the storage room and made our way through a labyrinth of tunnels cut into the rock. It reminded me of the mines of Denduron, but these pa.s.sageways were more like corridors than wide mine shafts. Every few feet was another wooden door. We didn't bother to look inside any of them. This wasn't about exploration, this was about getting out and finding Loor.

The farther along the rocky corridor we walked, the louder the roaring water became. Finally we reached the mouth of the tunnel and stepped out into an awesome scene. We found ourselves on the bank of an underground river. It was about twenty yards across and moving fast. The cavern we were in was huge, with a high ceiling. To our left, about fifty yards downstream, the river split into three smaller rivers. Each new river disappeared into its own separate tunnel.

Upriver to our right was a waterfall. The water shot into the fast-moving river from a tunnel in the rock face about four stories above us. Mental note to self: Do not fall into this river. Swimming would be impossible because the water was moving so fast. There was no telling where the split rivers led.

"What are you doing here?" came a stern voice.

We both spun around to see a man wearing a similar white robe to the ones we wore. He was a small guy who wore a round gray hat that looked like a baseball cap without the brim. It looked hard, like it was for protection. In his arms were a bunch of rolled-up papers that could have been plans. He had come from the same tunnel we had, which meant he must have been behind one of the doors we pa.s.sed. He was light skinned, which surprised me because both Loor and her mother, Osa, were very dark.

"I've never seen you two here," he said suspiciously. "What do you want?"

He seemed to be in a hurry and was all sorts of agitated as if our surprise appearance had thrown off his schedule. This was going to be tricky. I had no idea what kind of explanation to give the guy except to tell him the truth - sort of.

"We, uh, we're looking for a friend," I said. "Her name is Loor."

The guy's eyes widened further. Uh-oh. I must have said the wrong thing.

"Loor?" he said in surprise. "That is a Batu name. Why would you be looking for a Batu down here?"

Good question. Too bad I didn't have a good answer. Forget the truth. It was time to start lying.

"She, uh, she told me she might be coming down here," I said.

"Ridiculous!" the guy snapped. "No Batu would miss that barbaric tournament of theirs. If she told you she was coming here, she was lying. But they are all liars, no?"

With that the man hurried off, clutching his rolls of paper. Spader touched me on the shoulder and I saw that he had a look of total confusion on his face. Welcome to the club.

"What did he say?" he asked.

"You heard him," I answered. "Loor isn't down here."

"But how did you understand him? He was talking all gibberish."

At first I didn't know what Spader meant, but then it hit me: He was new to the Traveler game. He hadn't gotten to the point where he could understand all languages, yet.

"Long story," I said, and ran after the man with the scrolls. Spader followed dutifully. I caught up to the guy and walked alongside him.

"I'm embarra.s.sed to say this, but my friend and I are lost. You know, all these tunnels and whatnot. Could you show us the way to the surface?"

The man stared at me suspiciously. This was a critical moment. If he started questioning me on who we were, we'd be sunk.

"You work in the manufacturing sector, don't you?" he asked.

"Uhhh, yes! Manufacturing. That's where we work."

"Let me give you a piece of advice," he said. "Do not make friends with a Batu. They cannot be trusted."

"Yes, good advice," I shot back. I figured I'd better agree with whatever this guy said if we wanted to get his help. "When I see Loor I'm going to justa call off our friendship.

No more lies! But I have to find her first, so how do we get out of here?"

"Follow me," he said, and walked off quickly.

Yes! We were on our way out. He led us along the river-bank and right up to the waterfall. As we got closer I saw that it was possible to walk behind the falling water. We climbed a few stone steps and pa.s.sed right behind the wall of water. Very cool. We then saw that cut into the stone wall behind the falling water, was a tunnel. The man led us inside and after a few steps we came upon a room that had the coolest, strangest gizmo I think I had ever seen.

The best thing I can liken it to is one of those big pipe organs you see in church, but it was ten times the size. One whole wall was covered with pipes of every different size, ranging from about an inch in diameter to as wide as about ten inches. They ran from the ground, all the way up to the stone ceiling.

The guy put his rolls of paper down and stepped up onto a stone platform that faced a vast array of levers, switches, valves, and k.n.o.bs. There must have been a couple hundred of these controls. I had no clue how he could tell one from another because none seemed to be marked. He walked back and forth on the platform, expertly flipping switches, tightening valves and loosening others. At one point he picked up one of the scrolls, unrolled it to check something, then tossed it down again and went right for a few more valves and opened them up. Whatever he was doing, it seemed very important. At least to him anyway.

Spader gave me a questioning look. I could only shrug. I had no idea what the guy was doing. I didn't want to ask him either or it would give away the fact that we didn't belong here.

"Uhhh," I interrupted. "Excuse me but, you were going to show us the way out?"

The guy kept working on his levers, but looked back over his shoulder at us. I could tell we were bothering him, but too bad.

"That way," he said, nodding toward an opening cut into the rock on the far side of the room. "Keep making rights, and remember what I said. Do not trust the Batu. Stay with the Rokador."

Ohhh-kay, whateverthatmeant. I didn't ask. "Thank you!" I said, and motioned for Spader to follow me. The man went right back to his work and we got the heck out of there.

We walked quickly through the doorway and, as instructed, kept making rights until we found a spiraling ramp that led up. We climbed and every so often we'd reach a new level and saw corridors that led off to places unknown. But, we didn't need to explore any more of this underground world. We needed to climb out.