Adventure

The Illuminati or ‘The Eye’, a secret society wished to control time, thus controlling the whole world.
“Today, the 19th of July, first day of the planetary alignment and we are still not nearer to discovering the location of the key. This is not acceptable. Mr. Barling, your explanation please?” said Lord Zues.
“I have no explanation from clues based on ancient cosmological models predating Alexander The Great. I’m supremely confident that we will have our answer in time,” answered Mr. Barling.
“That’s good news. We have only a single opportunity to retrieve the four parts of the squares. We don’t want to wait another 5000 years,” said Lord Zues.

Elizabeth, the daughter of Lord Fitzwilliam Darcy, was sitting in an armchair in her room in New York.
Tears welled when she looked at her father’s photo.
“I miss you, daddy. How I wish I can turn back time,” whispered Elizabeth.
Elizabeth live in a big mansion with her friend, Jeffrey, a genius in computers and technologies. Jeffrey was hurt when Elizabeth shot down his mechanical robot. Elizabeth always enjoyed his reactions after every ‘adventure practice’. But this morning, she was sad as today, the 19th was the day that her father had disappeared. That night, Elizabeth was in the planetarium, looking at the planets.
“Tonight, Pluto and Neptune will align with Uranus. It’s the first stage of the alignment of all nine planets culminating a full solar eclipse,” said Elizabeth to Jeffrey.
That night, she dreamt about her father. Her father told her that the exact alignment of the planet was necessary to activate the square occurred once in every 5000 years.

Elizabeth woke up and heard the ticking of a clock. Elizabeth followed the ticking of the clock and it led her to the kitchen floor. She smashed the floor open and found a flight of stairs leading to a room. Inside the room, there was a box. Elizabeth opened the box and found an old clock. Elizabeth tapped loudly at Jeffrey’s door.
“Jeffrey, wake up!” shouted Elizabeth.
“Okay, I’m coming,” said Jeffrey.
“Oh, It’s just a clock,” yawned Jeffrey.
“I found it last night, hidden in a secret room,” said Elizabeth.
“Oooooh…… gotta grab some coffee before I start work,” said Jeffrey sleepily.
Later, they discovered an unique object hidden within the clock. It glowed, like ‘The Eye’, and it was getting brighter every hour. This clock was also running backwards like it was counting down to something and it was like a key.
“What is that?” asked Jeffrey curiously.
“The Eye! My father once told me the magical square stamped with The Eye which gave it possessor extraordinary powers to control time. He called it the Square of Light,” answered Elizabeth.
Elizabeth went to see her father’s friend about the clock. Sadly, her father’s friend could not help her but introduced a man who might able to help her.

Elizabeth arrived at the mansion of Mr. Barling. Mr. Barling was interested in the clock. He looked at the pictures of the clock and was reluctant to hand back the pictures when Elizabeth took leave. That night, Mr. Barling’s men stole the clock. In the morning, a letter was addressed to Elizabeth. It was from her father, written before he died.
“To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower; hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.”
Elizabeth found a book which had the marking of ‘The Eye’. She tore it open and found a letter in it.
It said: “My daughter, I knew you will figure this out. If I am not with you, I must tell you I missed and loved you always. It also means I have failed. I assume you already found the clock concealed. The clock is the key. It will unlock the place of the four pieces of sacred iron. The square was forged from metal found in the crater of a metour of the previous alignment of the nine planets. People of the ancient countries built a great city in this crater where they worshipped the square for its ability to control time. An abuse of this power led to the destruction of the city. To be sure no man would ever wield this power, the kings of the ancient countries split the square into four pieces and hid them in different parts of the world. One square is hidden in the ruins of an Inca City called Machu Picchu in Peru. Another square is hidden in the Great Wall of China. The third square is inside my secret code safe. You must hurry. You have very little time as the planets move into the alignment, the world will be in great danger of Illuminati. Ancient prophecy predicts the uniting of the four squares would unleash an awesome and terrible power. This you must prevent at all costs.”

Elizabeth found herself in Machu Picchu. The first square was hidden in the ancient temple of the city. The temple was in the forest of Peru. When Elizabeth reached the forest, she found Mr. Barling lazing around in a couch. But she was surprised to find Julian West instructing workers. She lost contact with Julian years ago. She headed for another way to the temple. When she entered the ruined temple, she heard the laughing sound of a girl. She led Elizabeth somewhere. Then, she stopped and pointed her eye and then at a direction, and beckoned Elizabeth to go there. Elizabeth went to the place where the girl was pointing. Suddenly, she found herself being dragged underground. She grabbed a rope to stop herself from sliding down. At this moment, Mr. Barling and his men were in the temple. Elizabeth kept herself hidden and tried to find the first piece. Julian read the symbols and did some quick thinking. He called his men to place the swords in respective places. Elizabeth found the lock and called Mr. Barling to give her the clock. The clock fitted into the lock perfectly. Elizabeth got her first piece before Mr. Barling can lay his hands on it. After getting the first piece, Elizabeth disappeared to the secret passage. Julian and Mr. Barling lost her.

Elizabeth found herself in China and searched for the second piece of the square. Mr. Barling and his men were always after her. Elizabeth followed Mr. Barling’s men underground to search for the second piece. Elizabeth retrieved the second piece easily. However, the artifacts suddenly came alive. Elizabeth and Mr. Barling men had to fight to save their lives. Once again, Elizabeth managed to escape. Julian tried to stop her at the top of the Great Wall.
“Give it up, Eliza,” said Julian with a gun pointed at Elizabeth.
“Are you going to shoot me, Julian?” asked Elizabeth.
Julian hesitated. Elizabeth quickly used her parachute and jumped out of the building.

Elizabeth went home to get the third piece which her father had hidden in his secret code safe. She searched for her father’s journals which were full of codes. To open the safe, she needed to type in 15 digits. If the code was wrong, the safe cannot be opened forever. Her father had scrambled the real codes with the fake codes. She typed in the codes carefully, 15-21-32-88-1-1-0-5-6-9-13-3-2-8-7. At that moment, beneath her, a robotic claw sprang to life. Sliding on a double-axis transport system attached to the ceiling, the claw headed off in search of the proper coordinates. The conveyor belt move and entered the room on her right through a narrow slit beneath a retractable door. The metal door slid up, and a box appeared, emerging from the depths on the inclined conveyor belt. Inside the box, was the third piece.

The telephone rang soon after Elizabeth got the third piece. Elizabeth picked up the receiver.
“Hello?” said Elizabeth.
“My dear, how are you?” asked Mr. Barling.
“Alive!”
“Listen, Eliza, you have three pieces of my squares.”
“And you have my father’s clock.”
“At this point, we are quite useless without each other pieces. We should have a business meeting. Meet me at La Dorosa, Paris,” said Mr. Barling and he hung up.

The doors of La Dorosa opened and in came Mr. Barling.
“You are with the Illuminati,” asked Elizabeth.
“Yes, and so was your father,” answered Mr. Barling.
“My father was not with the Illuminati.”
“Your father was, and he kept the secret from you. Don’t you wished to have a second life with your father? Will you reconsider?” asked Mr. Barling.
Elizabeth cried and walked out of the building.

Julian was enjoying his bath. Suddenly, the door of his room opened. He quickly finished his bath and held a revolver on his hand and looked around. Elizabeth stood behind him.
“Hello, traitor,” said Elizabeth.
“Eliza! I suppose you think I am a money minded person. Well, the money is a bit true,” said Julian.
“Is it, Julian? If you cross me, we might not be able to remain friends,” said Elizabeth and walked out of the room.
Julian looked at the beautiful angel once more before she disappeared around the corner.

Elizabeth decided to follow Mr. Barling to find the last piece of the square. Thus, reuniting all the four squares. Mr. Barling was pleased to see Elizabeth and Jeffrey. Julian was there, looking between Elizabeth and Jeffrey. Lord Zues was coming with them to witness the scene. They boarded a plane to Alaska. Elizabeth and Jeffrey talked a lot during the journey until it made Julian jealous. After reaching Alaska, they needed to travel to a cave in the ice bergs using snow dogs. The last piece was hidden in these thick ice bergs and was difficult to find it. They found it at last. When Lord Zues combined the squares, Mr. Barling shot him. Mr. Barling assembled the squares but realized that it did not work. He shot Elizabeth’s right hand and commanded Julian to arrange the squares.
“I will save you,” said Julian to Elizabeth.
Julian found a way to set the squares. When the squares came together, Elizabeth grabbed the square. Elizabeth went back to the past and saw her father.
“Daddy, is it real?” asked Elizabeth.
“It is a crossing of my past and your present,” answered her father.
“Can we keep this moment forever?”
“No, we cannot change time.”
“But time was stolen from us and I missed you.”
“I missed and loved you always. You have to destroy the square,” said her father.
With tears rolling down her cheeks, Elizabeth returned to the present. She destroyed the square and shot Mr. Barling. The place began to fall. Julian and Elizabeth get out of the place with the help of the snow dogs. They were safe. Elizabeth was taken to the hospital to take out the bullet. When Elizabeth was in the hospital, Julian visited her day and night.

One day, Elizabeth was in the garden to breathe in some fresh air when Julian dropped to his knees and proposed. Elizabeth accepted his proposal. It seemed at that moment that time had come together for Elizabeth and Julian.
(1800 words)