The Box Read Online Free PDF Page A

once just to check out the facilities, in case his own computer ever failed to meet his needs, and he was not even able to get in the door.
    Brandy leaned back in the chair and looked sternly at Albert. “So what does it all mean then?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Someone went to all the trouble of getting us together to open this fucking thing, so what are we supposed to get from it?”
    Albert met her eyes for a moment and then dropped the button back into the box. He’d heard plenty of swearing in his life, as much from women as from men. Hell, his sister swore like a sailor when they were growing up. And he’d already heard Brandy swear plenty of times in the short time he’d been acquainted with her—she always seemed to be coming up with some delightfully creative expletive during their lab experiments—but it still surprised him somehow every time he heard something vulgar pass from her lips. She projected such a girlishly polite image that it was hard to imagine her as anything but young and innocent, virgin even. Of course, that wasn’t to say that it was unattractive by any means. On the contrary, he actually found it to be something of a turn-on.
    “I really don’t know,” he said after a moment. “You’d think there’d be something more.”
    Someone walked into the room and looked around, as though looking for someone. Albert glanced at her and recognized her as Gail from across the hall. He wondered vaguely if her presence here might indicate that Derek was no longer in her room. If so, he hoped he wasn’t hanging out when he returned to his room. After a quick look around, Gail turned and left the lounge. Whoever she was looking for obviously wasn’t here.
    “This is ridiculous.” Brandy closed the box, lifted it off her knees and dropped it into his lap. “I don’t get it. I don’t really care to get it.” She grabbed her purse and stood up.
    “What are you doing?”
    “I’m leaving. You can keep all that. The key too. I’m not interested.”
    Albert stared at her, surprised. “You’re not even curious?”
    She half turned as she slipped the thin strap of her purse over her shoulder. For a moment she paused, as though struggling with herself. “Yes,” she said at last, her eyes fixed on the door. “If you come up with anything, let me know tomorrow in lecture.”
    “Okay.” He could not believe she was just walking away from this. How could she? It was such a delicious mystery. Sure, the lack of answers inside the box was discouraging, even aggravating, but it was also all the more intriguing. These new questions were even more alluring than the first. How could anyone just walk away from such an enigma? Perhaps she was only being the more mature one, even the smarter one, but to just drop it and walk away? The very ability to do such a thing seemed so alien to him.
    “I just don’t like it,” she explained before she walked away, as though she could feel the weight of his eyes and read the questions inside his head. “It’s just… I don’t know. It’s just too much. I don’t want to be a part of something I don’t know anything about.”
    Albert nodded. He understood. It was probably the right thing to do. Nonetheless, he was disappointed.
    “Bye.” Brandy walked out of the room as a very pretty redhead entered and dropped into one of the soft chairs with a textbook.
    Albert watched her go without getting up. It felt surprisingly sad knowing that this mystery was once again his alone.

Chapter 3
    After leaving the second floor lounge, Albert slowly made his way back toward his room, his mind flooded with questions both old and new. He intended to go straight to his bed and lie down for a while, perhaps even retire for the night if his mind would take so long a break, but when he saw the door to his room standing wide open, he walked on by without pausing. He was in no mood for Derek this evening. He was particularly in no mood for Derek’s horrible taste in