Onderwêreld deur Fanie Viljoen | Teleurstellings en ontdekkings | English Summary | Onderwereld

 

Onderwêreld deur Fanie Viljoen

Teleurstellings en ontdekkings

Greg stares at the dark webpage, wracking his brain for a possible password to no avail. The fatigue has caught up with him, so he decides to rest for the night and continue the next day. On Sunday morning, Plank and TJ burst into Greg’s room, eagerly wanting to show him the newspaper. Greg grabs the newspaper, looking for anything about Eckhardt, but he is disappointed. Plank and TJ had wanted to talk about the emergence of a case of the avian flu epidemic that had spread throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. South Africa had its first confirmed case and Plank was excited about the prospect of it leading to school closures; however, TJ had to remind him that such things only occur in the event of a pandemic. Disappointed that there was not a single hint of Eckhardt in the entire issue of the Turret Times, Greg voices his concern to TJ. “What did you expect? If Dr. Pienaar caught wind of any story leaking to the media, he would put a stop to it, he has friends in high places,” says TJ. Greg immediately realizes the futility of his plan to leak the news because one of those contacts that Dr. Pienaar has “in high places” is none other than Greg’s father, CEO of Turret Media.

Greg soon realizes that everyone around him is getting ready to go to church. He runs into Kwanele, whom he requests a favour. “Please take my church service shift. I have something to do,” says Greg. Kwanele obliges, allowing Greg to stay behind while the other students fill the bus to church. Soon after the students have left, a police car arrives at Da Vinci house. Two people step out, a black policewoman and a white policeman. They are met by Dr. Pienaar, who promptly shows them into the boarding house. Moments later, the elevator doors swing open on the matric floor, and Dr. Pienaar leads the police officers to Eckhardt’s room. Greg immediately understands that these are the detectives who were assigned to the case of Eckhardt’s disappearance. Dr. Pienaar leaves the detectives and goes back to his office. Greg watches and listens to the detectives as they begin clearing out the various effects of Eckhardt’s room. He overhears the detectives’ names: Inspector Cele and Sergeant Botha.

The first to come out of Eckhardt’s room is Sergeant Botha, who seems to be struggling to carry the stuff out of Eckhardt’s room. Greg makes his presence known and offers to help. The Sergeant wonders why Greg is not at church with the other students but still takes him up on his offer to help him carry Eckhardt’s things. In the elevator, Botha asks Greg if he is a matric student. Greg says yes, further making it known that he is Lawson College’s head student. While in the elevator, Greg looks at some of Eckhardt’s possessions, before training his eye on Eckhardt’s closed laptop. In his memory, Eckhardt’s laptop had a The Matrix sticker in one of the top corners. The laptop being carried out by Botha is blank.

Later in the morning, after the detectives have left, Greg boots up his laptop with a cup of strong coffee next to him. The other students have returned, and Plank and TJ made a round to tell Greg about things that happened on the bus. He was not listening to their stories attentively and quickly lied about having a headache to excuse himself. Now back in his room, Greg attempts to gain entry to Eckhardt’s website once again. Greg remembers his words, “sometimes, there isn’t a password. Sometimes the door is unlocked and all you have to do is lean against it to gain entry to the castle.” He pulls up the site source code and finds text that is written in black to camouflage the clue. After highlighting the entire site, Greg finds the email address to which the password is sent when Eckhardt forgets. He uses the source code to change the target email address to his own; however, this process is difficult and requires knowledge in JavaScript, something which Greg finds rather difficult. After failing a few times, Greg fixes his script and on his last attempt, he receives no error message.

Greg’s phone rings and it sends a chill down his spine. It is his father. He usually expects small talk; however, this time, his father has no patience for it. He comes barrelling down on Greg for refusing to play rugby the previous day. He tells Greg that he undermined Dr. Pienaar’s authority as principal and that if someone were to do that to him in the workplace, he would fire them. Greg’s father continues a verbal onslaught, calling Greg an ungrateful snothead and saying that he is disappointed. Greg retorts, saying that it would not be the first time that his father is disappointed in him, an obvious nod to John and his suicide. Greg’s father tells him that he should march to Dr. Pienaar’s office and apologise for his behaviour. The argument ends with no parting words after Greg’s father mentions that he has great expectations for his matric year. Someone knocks on Greg’s door and he angry slams it shut, shouting “leave me alone!” Feeling helpless, Greg ignores subsequent knocks on his door and skips all meals, wondering if this is how his brother felt. Late in the evening, Greg feels the motivation to continue with Eckhardt’s website, finding the password thereof sitting in his inbox. He inputs the password and finally gains entry.

SummariesKeroshan PillayComment