About The Scarlett Kite

Scarlett's Story

Hi! I'm Scarlett Kiteway, I'm 20 years old, a journalism student in Perplex City and this is my blog all about the excitement over the search for the Cube. I'll be keeping track of what the media over there is saying about it, and maybe a little bit about my life as well!

 

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Friday, November 11, 2005

Decisions

Category: story, 02:00 PM

Well. Brede is better. Much better. So much better that he can walk around a little, that his parents are going to be able to take him home to Perplex City soon. And me? I should be going back with them. I really should. It's perfectly clear. And yet.

I've spent my week talking to Major Castille, hearing more of his life story and talking about what we plan to do next. Although he says his daughter is the real genius, he's quite the computing whizz himself; he's put together a little plan for what to tell my family and friends if I decide to stay here when the others go home. There's a bird and animal sanctuary up here in Tanraga - Major Castille can make it look like I'm doing an internship there, rig up their systems to list me on the staff, send mail from them confirming that I'm working there. It's very clever. So, if I do decide to go, my family won't be worried about me. That's pretty important to me.

He's rigged something else up, too. Something much more clever and a bit scary. It has to do with what he wants me to do: to go to Viendenbourg to find Allain.

steel balls

Apparently Henry and Allain had suspected for a while - based on coded information that Allain's mother Claire had sent them - that Viendenbourg would be protected by a sort of "confusion-field". It's done in some complicated way with a remote form of "galvanic vestibular stimulation," he says. Anyway, it's something that is broadcast in a wide ring around Viendenbourg and which makes you feel confused and even fall over or wander off course if you get too close. The field starts off very mild and becomes more intense the closer you get to the centre. Henry thinks that this is what happened to our party, and that Brede just got really unlucky in falling down a cliff. He thinks that we got too close to the centre, much closer than any ordinary hiking party would have done, because Allain was with us. Because of what Allain had.

Knowing to expect the "galvanic vestibular stimulation," and armed with some information from Claire, Henry and Allain had rigged up a device in his key that would cancel out most of the effects. This, Henry thinks, is why we got closer than we should have done - because Allain remained unaffected for much longer and was able to guide us even when we got more and more confused. And then... well, Henry doesn't know what happened next. I showed him Allain's ripped-apart key and it made him even more worried. He thinks that maybe it burned out at the last minute. Anyway, he's taken a look at the kinds of stresses it's exhibited, and has put something similar together in my key. It's sturdier; he thinks it'll be better at withstanding the strain. So, if I go to Viendenbourg, I should be protected.

If I go. That's the big question. I've probably got a week or so to think about it, and then I'll have to make a decision. My friends will be going home. Should I go too?