The Secret Manuscript

  Chapter Seventeen

  The sound filled the empty space and startled Ben. He turned around and saw the side wall of the chimney moving slowly, revealing a secret passageway. For a moment, Ben contemplated going upstairs to wake Kyle, but his curiosity urged him to proceed without his friend.

  Despite his fear of confined spaces, Ben had no choice but to enter. He crouched low to duck his head under. With flashlight in hand, he shone the light in the opening before warily poking his head inside. There was not much to look at, just a long narrow hallway about two feet wide. From Ben’s vantage point, it appeared to go the length of the house and then stop. There was nothing in the hallway and there were no markings on the walls.

  Ben squeezed through the tiny opening and entered the dark chamber. Once inside, he was able to stand up and shine his flashlight all around. He cautiously walked about fifteen feet before reaching the end. Once at the end, he realized the hallway did not just abruptly end, it wrapped around the house at a ninety-degree angle. Suddenly, it all made sense to him. This explained why the walls sounded hollow — because they were.

  He had no idea what would be waiting for him, but figured if someone had gone to all this trouble to hide it, it must be valuable. The greediest part of Ben’s conscience came to life. He envisioned all the treasures that awaited him at the end of the tunnel. The best case scenario would be a room filled with precious gems, gold bars, priceless ancient relics, expensive artwork, and a mountain of cash — hopefully the twenty-two million Gringer had won. The worst case scenario would be to find a dead body. His greed quickly consumed even that version as he imagined the skeleton holding a map which would lead to hidden treasure. Ben picked up his pace until he reached the end. Once there, he was confronted with a solid steel door.

  What the heck? he thought.

  There was no handle on the door, so he tried leaning his body weight into it, but it did not move. He then noticed a numbered panel to the right of the door, undoubtedly requiring some kind of code. Ben had no idea what it would be, but punched in a series of random numbers anyway just to see what would happen. Upon pressing enter, the device beeped and the display read:

  INVALID ENTRY

  Ben lightly pounded on the area surrounding the steel door — it too was solid. The room was clearly encased in concrete, so unless he wanted to chisel his way through, he needed to get the code.

  The task demanded more energy than Ben could devote at the moment, so he decided to go upstairs and get some sleep. On his way down the hallway, he had a sudden moment of clarity. His posture stiffened and his eyes grew wide. Frantically reaching into his back pocket, Ben pulled out two pieces of paper, and shouted, “The notes!”

  Returning to the panel with trembling hands, Ben held out both notes stacked on top of each other. He was so sure the numbers would work. He could have kicked himself for not thinking of them sooner.

  DON’T GIVE UP, YOUR LIFE HAS A PURPOSE — 40 35 55 81 11

  DON’T GIVE UP, YOUR LIFE HAS A PURPOSE — 403-555-8111

  Comparing the two notes, Ben decided the first number he should input was 40, then so on down the sequence until all five double-digit numbers were entered.

  Here we go, moment of truth, Ben thought as he pressed enter.

  The device beeped like it had done before, but this time the display read:

  ACCESS GRANTED

  The door made a series of noises from the internal locking mechanism. When the sound stopped, Ben leaned against the door and pushed his way into the room.