Why hello again! This week has seemed to go by so fast because I was on spring break. And tomorrow I have to go back to school... 

But, I'm not going to dwell on that for now. On another topic, Genesis is only 250 reads away from reaching 1000 reads! I would really love it if we could get to 1K reads in time for my birthday in April :). You guys have been such a great audience so far and I'm so happy that people are actually reading my story!

Also, just as a heads up, my mind is forming the beginnings of a sequel to this book. So, if you like Genesis then the story will most likely be continued after this book ends! 

Okay, that was a lot that I wanted to say, but now I'm done talking and you can read the actual chapter! Enjoy!

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After my debriefing with Ximon ends, I finish out my workday and go home without any problems. I message my team, asking them to meet up at Harvel's apartment tonight. I know I already talked with Ximon today, but I figure that I should inform my friends about what's happening and introduce them to Ximon. By the time the dome closes, we are all assembled in Harvel's living room again. Camryn and I sit next to each other on Harvel's brand new loveseat, the rest of my friends are squeezed onto the couch, and Ximon sits by himself in a nearby chair. He looks slightly uncomfortable and fidgets with with the edge of his shirt while he waits for me to speak. 

"Hey guys," I say. "So, uh, welcome to Harvel's place again. This is Ximon; he's the guy who is mentoring me at the exploration department. He also works at the facility that I'm in. I asked him to join our team because he knows how the disable the security inside the facility." 

"Cool, it's less work for me," says Harvel. "I just need to hack into the gate databases then?" 

"Yeah," I say. "And everyone else kind of knows what they're doing right?" The group on the couch nods in unison. Suddenly, Drayk jumps up. 

"Oh my gosh, bro, I almost forgot! I have to tell you guys something!" he says. I raise an eyebrow but motion for him to go on. 

"Okay, so I was talking with Treye the other day at work and he was rambling on and on about this other guy that he met. He said that he was out on the strip and he stepped off for a second (or he fell and he just won't admit it) and there was this rich-looking dude standing there that started talking to him. The dude was asking him about the weather and stuff but then he started tellin' him that he worked for a tech company and he made buzzbike helmets and stuff like that. And so Treye asked if he made comms systems like walkie-talkies and the dude actually pulled a box of earpieces out of his back pocket! Treye said he bought them on the spot. Then he gave the whole earpiece set to me after work yesterday. He said that they'd be helpful," Drayk says excitedly as he reaches into his jacket and pulls out a sleek black box which he sets on his lap. 

"Hold up, hold up," I say, "You told Treye about mom?!" Drayk raises his hands sheepishly. 

"Hey, man, Treye is a friend. Besides I told him if he tells anyone I'll throw his Xbox 3Z out his window," Drayk says, grinning. Natlee swats at his shoulder, feigning shock. Drayk chuckles and kisses Natlee on the forehead. The rest of us roll our eyes but we can't help laughing along with Drayk. 

"Okay, fine, whatever," I say. I get up out of the loveseat and pluck the box off of Drayk. I open it up and, lo and behold, there are eight earpieces nestled into their protective foam. I take one out and examine it. The earpiece is very small and easily concealed. It has two buttons on the side that I'm guessing faces outward while it is in one's ear. One button is a little larger than the other and it has a silver power symbol etched into the black. The smaller button is farther forward than the other and it has what looks like a megaphone on it. I press the power button and slip the earpiece into my ear. It is surprisingly light and comfortable. I rotate my head around and it doesn't fall out. Harvel reaches over to the box and pulls out a second earpiece. He clicks it on and then inserts it in his own ear. All at once, I am overwhelmed by an avalanche of sound. Harvel's voice rings in my ear and he isn't even saying anything. My hand flies up to my ear and I rip the earpiece out of it. Across the room Harvel has done the same thing. 

"What was that?" I ask him, breathing hard. 

"I don't know," Harvel says. "It was like you were shouting in my ear! You kept saying 'This is so cool' over and over again, but your lips weren't moving!" 

For a minute, I am puzzled. Then, realization creeps over me. 

"Harvel," I say slowly, "What was I saying exactly?"

"'This is so cool' and once you said 'I hope these things work'," Harvel says, the puzzlement showing clearly on his face. I hold the earpiece up so everyone can see it. 

"That's what I was thinking," I say. Silence falls over the whole room. 

"So the earpiece transmits thoughts," Ximon says as he gets up from his chair. He, too, takes an earpiece from the box. He turns it over in his fingers and looks at it, fascinated. 

"Kaze, put your earpiece back in," he commands. I make sure the earpiece is on and I press the earpiece back into my ear. 

"Harvey, or whatever your name is, put your earpiece in as well. But, before you do, both of you need to clear your minds a bit. Think about a blank wall or something boring," Ximon says. Harvel cautiously puts his earpiece in. I brace for sound, but none comes. I let out a little exhale of relief and I see Harvel do the same. 

"Now," Ximon directs, "Both of you think about something. Make your thoughts concise. Make them into a sort of message." I close my eyes to concentrate and I send my message to Harvel. I also brace myself for Harvel's message, hoping it won't blast my brains out again. After a short second, I hear Harvel's voice speak quietly in my ear. 

"Tell Ximon that my name is Harvel," he says. I open my eyes and break into a big smile while suppressing a laugh. 

"It worked," I say, grinning at our group. "Here Camryn. Put one in!" I grab another earpiece and hand it to her. 

"Work on keeping your minds relaxed because you can't be killing each other's ears while you're out in the facility," says Ximon. 

We practice using the earpieces for the next half hour until our whole group is able to send messages efficiently. We also figure out how to communicate to just certain people and not to the whole group. While I am collecting the earpieces to put them back into the black box, I notice a colored band around the end of each of them. 

"Did you guys notice these?" I ask my friends, gesturing to the color. All but one of them shake their heads. 

"Yeah, I saw that," says Aekira. "I thought it was for like a color-coding system or something." 

"That's actually a good idea," I say. "Everyone come over here and pick a color. Then the earpiece with that color will be the one you use every time. Also, since the stuff we're doing is kind of illegal, we can call each other by the colors. I'm going to be blue so while we're using the earpieces you can call me blue or blue leader if you're feeling nice." 

After all is said and done with the color picking, we go around and memorize everyone's color. I am blue. Drayk is red. Harvel is orange. Ximon is gray. Natlee is purple. Camryn is yellow. Aekira is green. On top of memorizing everything, I jot down a quick list of what we talked about so we'll have a record to look back to. 

"Okay everyone," I say after the earpieces are put away and hidden. "We've got pretty much everything in place, don't we? We've taken care of the dome gates and the facility security, I've pretty well finished rigging the camera system on my drone, and Natlee's ready to throw a party once we get a date set. The only thing we need is a surefire way into the facility itself. It closes down before the dome shuts and there are multiple sweeps to make sure everyone's out." Out of the corner of my eye I see Ximon hold his hand up to silence me. 

"Don't worry, Kaze," he says, smiling mischievously. "Leave that part to me."