The Secret Box Read Online Free PDF Page A

anything like last summer, he’d spend most of it perched in front of his computer, his skin growing paler by the day. I opened the door and we stepped into his cave. Jax held the box in her arms, concealing it with her coat.
    The curtains were drawn so the screen provided the only light, casting its glow on Tyler’s hunched shoulders. The voices streaming from the speakers belonged to his gaming friends, who were also locked away in their rooms. “Shove off,” Tyler grumbled.
    Jax scrunched her nose. It always smelled bad in there, like sweat and something rotten. Bags of chips littered the carpet, along with soda and energy-drink cans. For someone so smart, Tyler sure was a slob. The only things he cleaned were the trophies.
    â€œUh . . .” I hesitated, because I hated what I was about to say. “We need your help.”
    â€œI’m busy. Invasion in progress.” His fingers flew across his gaming mouse and keyboard, his legs twitching as if he were running a marathon. “Gotcha!” A Cyclops’s head smashed into a pillar.
    â€œWay to go!” a nasal voice said from somewhere in cyberspace.
    â€œCheck your health bar. Did you take damage?”
    â€œNegative. Choosing new weapon. Power axe enabled.”
    Another Cyclops lumbered down a dark tunnel. Tyler took aim with a glowing sword and WHAM! the head flew across the screen. Tyler snickered, then chugged some soda.
    The game was called Cyclopsville and Tyler and his buddies had been developing it all year. It had started as a school project but had become an obsession. Tyler created the story and wrote the dialogue. He loved mythology, so he crammed it with all sorts of Greek and Roman monsters. His friend Walker designed the graphics. The other two friends were developing the game engine.
    WHAM! Another Cyclops’s head was severed. “There’s not enough blood,” Tyler said into his mic. “The blood should coat the ground and walls, maybe some guts could hang from the ceiling. Can you do that?”
    â€œSure,” Walker’s voice replied.
    Jax and I had agreed on the bike ride over that we wouldn’t tell Tyler the truth about where we got the metal box. Neither of us trusted him. And I had nothing to use for blackmail so if he wanted to turn me in, I wouldn’t be able to stop him.
    â€œTyler,” Jax said. “We’re serious. We need your help.”
    â€œI have zero interest in your petty problems.”
    I sighed. It was useless. Tyler was lost in his world. He could play all day and all night if my parents let him, and often they did. Only a natural disaster could have forced him from his game. Or a boost to his ego . . .
    No way. I was not going to flatter my brother. But Jax, as if reading my mind, was ready and willing.
    â€œPlease help us,” she pleaded. Then she looked at me and rolled her eyes. “Because . . . because we’re not smart enough to help ourselves. You’re so much smarter than us.”
    Tyler’s fingers froze. He sat up straight. “Hey, guys,” he told his friends. “I need to pause the game for a minute. Prioritization code, Family Interference.” He muted the microphone, then spun around in his chair and pushed his dark hair off his forehead. His T-shirt had sweat stains under the pits and the pi symbol on the front. He stared at us with a dazed expression as his focus turned from the mythic landscape of Cyclopsville to his dark, humid room. “It’s about time you two acknowledged your intellectual inferiority.”
    Now it was my turn to roll my eyes.
    After setting her coat aside, Jax held out the box. Its metallic surface reflected Tyler’s computer screen. “What’s that?” he asked.
    â€œI got it at a garage sale,” she explained. “It won’t open. But if you push this button, the screen lights up with a message. It’s a