Life Designed (Life Plan Series Book 1), Eliza Taye [great novels .TXT] 📗

this library until I get into this room. Now either you can help me break into the room or you can leave. But if you leave, I’m not going with you.”

Opal stared into Garrett’s resolute umber eyes and realized he wasn’t bluffing. She’d either have to leave without him or assist in his breaking and entering.

Grumbling in frustration, Opal pushed Garrett aside. “How many times have you tried the code?”

“Twice already. I have a feeling one more time is all I’m going to get.”

Opal examined the keypad. “Do you know any part of the code?”

“Yes, the last four numbers are 4256. It’s a five-digit code.”

“Should I even ask how you know the last four digits?” Opal peered at Garrett with slit eyes.

“Don’t worry about it. Just know that I’ve already tried 84256 and 14256,” urged Garrett.

Opal tapped her forefinger against her bottom lip. “Systems like these usually won’t allow you to use a zero for the first number, same with one to keep people from using dates. You’ve already tried one and eight, so that leaves three, seven, and nine.”

Opal hovered her finger over the keypad, shifting it from above the three to seven to nine, unsure of which one to choose. Like Garrett, she had a feeling the third attempt would be their last chance. If the code was wrong this time, they’d be sure to have security breathing down their neck. Part of her chided herself for helping Garrett break into the room, but she had to admit she was a tad bit curious about the mysteries held within the Secret Collections Room, too.

“Opal,” cautioned Garrett.

With a surety she didn’t quite feel, Opal pressed number 7 on the keypad. She held her breath watching for the red light to appear and sirens to blare.

But they didn’t. The keypad turned green and the door clicked.

“Oh, my gosh, Opal, you did it!” Garrett pushed down on the handle, throwing the door open. “Which number was it?”

“Number 7,” answered Opal, following him into the room.

Once inside, Garrett softly closed the door as Opal switched on the lights.

“Opal,” Garrett hissed, but then he realized there was no need for stealth. The entire room was closed off, with no windows to be seen.

“Relax, Garrett. There’s no one in here. Remember you must have special permission to be in this room and the librarians only work from 6am to 9pm. No one is here at this hour.” Opal stepped further into the room, sweeping her gaze around to admire the shelves upon shelves of books.

The room was larger than either of them had anticipated. Eighteen double-wide shelves rose into the high-ceiling room. Down the middle of the room were wooden tables lined in a straight row with four chairs on either side of them. Each table was oversized as if to give the researchers plenty of space to spread out multiple books around them. A red carpet runner ran down both aisles in front of the bookshelves. A scent of old books wafted into each of their noses as they pressed further into the room.

“This place almost seems to go on forever,” appraised Opal, spinning in a slow circle between two tables.

“Yeah, it does,” agreed Garrett.

Snapping out of her awe-struck state, Opal demanded, “Okay, Garrett, what are we looking for?”

“We’re searching for anything that mentions The Council, the Life Plan system, or Submission Day.” Garrett peered among the various shelves. “How do you think everything’s organized?”

Opal leaned forward, gently touching one of the books to read the spines. “I’m not sure.”

Garrett did the same, trying to find a pattern among the names and titles.

“It appears to be alphabetical order by genre and then author last name.”

“Okay, so which genre would something like information on The Council be under?” Garrett started skipping between rows, hoping to find what he sought.

“Definitely under non-fiction…maybe government?” Opal more methodically scanned the shelves, looking for authors after the letter Z to denote when a new genre would begin. Unlike the rest of the library, these shelves weren’t as well-demarcated.

Garrett followed her advice and began searching for the government section.

“Found it,” announced Opal.

Garrett hurried over to the row of shelves before Opal and started scanning the titles for any mentioning of The Council. At first, he couldn’t find anything, then he found an entire section on them. “Ha! Look, there’s an assortment of material right here.”

Garrett pulled as many of them from the shelf as he could carry, then laid them on the table in front of the shelf. Opal did the same. Once they’d finished laying out the books, sixteen tomes were splayed before them.

“Where do we start?” wondered Opal, looking from one book to another.

Garrett plopped down into the nearest chair and pulled a book in front of him, opening it to the first page. “Just pick one. Check the index or table of contents to see what’s inside.”

Opal slowly eased into the chair, staring at Garrett in suspicion again. “Why do I have a feeling you’ve done something like this before?”

Without pausing his reading, Garrett responded, “Opal, just search the books, please.”

Sighing, she did as she was told, looking through the table of contents and index. “Is there anything specific I should be searching for?”

“Look for how The Council works and who’s on it. Anything that would contain something they don’t want the public to know.” Garrett flipped the page he was reading and continued reading as he spoke.

“Okay,” muttered Opal, thoroughly reading through the table of contents on a book titled The Council of Taeopia.

Garrett sped through the books, scanning for anything that would explain in more detail about The Council and their identity, but everything remained vague. It was like someone had purposely danced around giving any real information on The Council when they wrote the