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“Wow, I really thought that was it,” Chloe said, looking around for any other item that might have a face as Jubal rehung the clock on the wall.
“Wait,” Jubal said. “That music had an odd time signature. I wonder…”
She watched as he moved the hands to seven and eight.
The tiny doors on the clock flew open, and a wooden cat slid out.
In its mouth were two keys.
“Two keys?” Chloe mused.
“What happens if we try the wrong one?” Jubal asked.
“I have no idea,” Chloe said. “Let’s grab them both. Maybe it will be obvious which one opens the door.”
Jubal carefully slid the keys out of the cat’s mouth.
It clamped its wooden jaw shut, then slid back into the clock, the tiny wooden doors slamming behind it.
As soon as that happened, a spotlight appeared on the back wall of the room, revealing a door Chloe hadn’t noticed before.
Two keys. One door.
The big cat made chuffing sound in its sleep, as if it didn’t like their chances.
7
JUBAL
Jubal kept himself between Chloe and the sleeping metal monster as they moved to the door in the spotlight.
As they got closer, he could see there was a slot for a key and nothing more.
“Let’s look at the keys,” Chloe whispered.
They were inches from the animal now. He had no idea how she could be so brave.
They were in the Center, so he assumed the AI would protect them from serious harm. But what did an AI really know about how vulnerable a biological being could be? One stray swipe from those claws would be more than enough to end the tiny Terran.
Jubal stood beside the girl and held the keys out on his open palm.
They were extremely similar. One had a tiny carving of a cat on it. The other had a tiny carving of something less recognizable.
“What’s that one?” Chloe asked, pointing to the non-cat key.
“I have no idea,” he said.
“Hm,” she said, turning the keys over on his palm.
But they were the same on the other side.
“We’re trying to escape the cat room,” he rationalized. “Should we try using the cat key?”
“That makes sense,” she agreed.
“Here goes nothing,” he said, taking a deep breath and sliding the key into the slot.
For an instant, there was total silence.
