by Jamie Davis
“The passcode is alpha seven nine two charlie one.”
“That’s it?” Kurt asked.
“That should get you into my comp, but I’m pretty sure the uploaded data is encrypted so I’m not sure if it’s going to be any use to you.”
“It will have to do,” Kurt said. “Thank you. We can let you go back and rest now.”
“Perhaps that is for the best. I think your friend wants control of her body back.”
“Farewell, friend. We’ll carry on the mission for you.”
Marci closed her eyes and her head nodded down until her chin rested on her chest. The glow around her hands faded and disappeared. A few seconds later, Marci gasped and sat up with a start, looking around the room wide-eyed. She turned to Kurt. “Did it work?”
“Like a charm. Good work. I’ve got the passcode and some more info on the team’s mission.”
While Kurt relayed to Marci what the security team leader’s spirit had told him, he keyed in the code to the wrist computer and managed to power it up long enough to access the system menu. Sure enough, there were several files marked “lab.” They were encrypted as the spirit said.
Kurt downloaded them to his own system and sent copies to Marci's as well. He wanted to be sure in case they were unable to activate the wrist comp again in the future.
Marci opened up the system on her own wrist comp and checked the menu for the new files. “Wow, these are heavily encrypted. I don’t think I can crack it. The system is not properly warded against magic, but the computer encryption is pretty strong. You might have better luck. This is more up your alley.”
“I’ll do what I can. I might be able to use both a computer-based and magical algorithm. That might enable me to access the files and open them.”
The two of them settled into their hacking while the zombies continued milling around outside the bank. Kurt’s mind drifted back to the problem of how to get out of the building as he continued to tinker with getting into the files.
The fact that there was a secret lab that he hadn’t been told about led him to wonder if Aranis had wanted their primary mission for the CDC to succeed at all. It would be a question among the many Kurt had for Brent when they caught up with him.
Chapter 16
Marci gave up trying to hack into the files within a few hours. She got up from her chair with a disgusted snort and walked across the room to check on the zombie horde outside.
“Fed up with giving it a shot?” Kurt asked.
“It’s beyond what I can do. I’m a theoretical physicist and the daughter of a shaman. There’s a lot I can do. Computer stuff isn’t one of them.”
“That’s all right.“ Kurt held up one of the comps. “I tried something that seems to have gotten a little bit of a foothold in the code. I’m going to try a few other things, but I think I can make it work. The problem is it’s gonna take a while. And that’s time we don’t have. Why don’t you focus on figuring out how the heck we are going to get out of here. I’ll try to wrap this up while you’re at it.”
“Sounds like a plan. Let me recheck the building. We haven’t really given it a full once-over since that initial check when we arrived. I’ll be back in a little bit.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Marci left and Kurt dug into working on the files again. He’d been able to open a directory in the system which he hadn’t been able to do before. It showed the location of the files but not the files themselves. It wasn’t much but it was better than nothing.
Kurt decided to try something a little different. Sometimes a magical enhancement to a hacking algorithm could work in this situation. Whoever had created the encryption on these files hadn’t thought to encrypt it against simultaneous magical intrusion. Kurt closed his eyes and focused on the file directory.
He tried to backtrack to when the files were first put into the system and encoded. If he could magically isolate the time and place where it happened, he might be able to use a clairvoyance spell to watch them enter the code key that would unlock the system.
Kurt took a deep breath and started to work. Clairvoyance wasn’t his specialty and whenever he tried this type of thing, it usually gave him a monster migraine. He didn’t want to give up, though. That baby was still out there and she was going to need their help if his suspicions about Brent were correct.
A half-hour later Marci came back. Kurt was deep in concentration, his eyes glowing blue showing he was in the middle of a spell. He let the magic go after a few seconds and looked up. “Find anything?”
“Yeah, I think so. I found a roof access point. If we can get up on the roof of the bank, we might be able to use that as an avenue for escape. Zombies aren’t too bright. If we can keep them distracted and focused on us down here, we might be able to get away overhead without any of them noticing us.”
Kurt smiled. “It sounds risky, but heck, what else do we have to do. Figure it out. I’ll keep working on this.”
Marci nodded and disappeared out the door again.
Kurt turned back to his work. Knowing there might be a way out energized him and he channeled that fresh energy into refocusing his magic. He’d been close to dialing back the system memory to the point where the files were initially entered. All he had to do was isolate the specific time, date, and place.
It took him a little longer than he expected, but he managed to nail it down. The files were encoded just over two and a half months ago, somewhere in Philadelphia.
Kurt had what he needed. He drew in as much magical energy as he could and started channeling it into the wrist comp. His goal was to trace back the files and see who entered them. At first, all he could see was some amorphous shapes moving around in a hazy white background. Then things began to take on more definition.
He tried to refocus the spell. As he poured more power into the spell, Kurt started to get the hint of a headache directly behind his eyes.
Then the image snapped into focus. He found himself staring at a holovid screen with a system menu opened on it. A finger reached out and tapped on one of the files.
Kurt realized he viewed the events through the eyes of the person who originally encoded the files. He stared and paid particular attention to what happened next.
The individual opened an option to encode the file. The finger tapped yes and then touched the entry box, bringing up a virtual keyboard.
Kurt leaned forward and paid special attention to the fingers on the keys. Looking at the text entry box wouldn’t do any good. It was a password and would only show an asterisk instead of the actual characters.
He watched and then shook his head in amazement. “What an idiot.”
“Who’s an idiot, K.C.?” Marci asked.
“The guy who encoded these files. I should’ve tried a few things before I went to all the trouble of giving myself a migraine.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean the file password is the company name, aranis, all lowercase. I’m surprised the system let him enter something so basic.”
“Not everybody is as smart as we are,” Marci laughed. “We should be thankful that people are idiots like you said.”
“Yeah, like I said. Let me try this and see if it works.”
Kurt tapped the wrist computer, bringing up a system menu. He accessed one of the files and the password entry box came up immediately. He entered the word “aranis” and the file popped open in the virtual screen above the device. Immediately the data began displaying from the folder.
Kurt scanned them. One caught his attention right away. It was marked with the file name “secret_lab.” Kurt opened the file and started reading. He hadn’t gone very far when a low snarl came from his throat.
Marci came over and leaned over his shoulder to read with him.
“Those bastards,” Marci exclaimed a few seconds later. “How could they do such a thing?”
“Money, Marci. It’s sad to say, but it’s that simple. They wanted the money that woul
d come from the resources here.”
“This file, is it real?” Marci asked.
“It appears to be. It shows the date Aranis brought the sample virus to this world hidden inside seed corn so that when the farmers planted the crops, it would come out and be expressed in the crop the following season. That way it wouldn’t connect back to them directly. Then they came in and built a hidden lab. They already had an antidote, a vaccine of some sort that they planned on using on a select few settlers who would be important to their future operations here.”
“But why?” Marci shook her head. “They don’t need it. The charter says they already own everything here. All they had to do was take over when they wanted to start mining, or drilling, or whatever.”
“Wait up, I saw something farther up the file list. Kurt scrolled up towards the top and found what he was looking for. He tapped another file and opened it. It was the charter for the use of this world.
However, the charter he pulled up was different from the one he’d seen back on Earth Prime that named Aranis as the sole owner of the property here. This one showed the original group of homesteaders as the landholders with Aranis as a financing corporation to get them started. Only in the event of some catastrophe that destroyed more than eighty percent of the original population would the loans default to the corporation. Then they would be allowed to take full ownership.
Kurt turned to Marci his eyes wide. Even he was shocked by this level of depravity. “That’s why they made the virus. They had to kill more than eighty percent of the settlers who originally came here to legally justify taking over the place. But they had to cover their bases when Dr. Nboto and the CDC team made it back alive and she survived the virus. Then they had to make sure they still won out even if an antidote was eventually discovered. My guess is they bribed someone back in the gate registry office at the Federal government to replace the charter with their falsified one. Then everything would look like they’d owned it all along and no one would even think to check as to why the virus happened in the first place.”
“We have to do something about this, K.C. We can’t let them get away with this.”
“Oh, we’re not gonna let them get away with it. That’s why baby Allie is so important. She is going to be the way we save the remaining settlers in that compound in the mountains. First, though, we need to neutralize this secret lab the company has built here. It’s likely they have a plan to finish off the rest of the settlers who survived. If they do that, the original charter will kick in anyway and they won’t have to do anything else.”
“But they’re guilty.”
“It doesn’t matter, Marci. The people who are involved with the creation of the virus and it’s deployment will likely go to jail but the company will disavow any knowledge and still hold the charter. The company shareholders will still reap the benefits of the original charter, which was lawfully signed. Only those members of the corporate infrastructure involved with this crime will go to jail.”
“To do that, we have to get out of here. I think I’ve figured something out, but I know you’re going to think it’s a little on the crazy side.”
“I’m never happy when you think something is crazy. Your level of risk aversion is pretty high.”
“Yeah, well, this one is going to be an all or nothing play. We need to get the zombies’ attention and to do that we’re going to have to let them in.”
“What?” Kurt exclaimed. “If we let them in, we’re done for. We don’t have the firepower to handle that number of zombies.”
“We don’t have to. If we let them in, though, they won’t be looking up and we can escape across the rooftops.”
“So that’ll work.?”
“I’m pretty sure,” Marci said.
Kurt didn’t like the sound of that.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Well, the distance between the bank and the next closest building is just around seven meters by my calculations. We don’t have much of a running start so I don’t think we’re going to be able to jump it even if we were in Olympic class condition.”
“So what did you have in mind?”
“I am going to try to use some of my gate magic to create a bridge built out of air between the bank and the next closest building.”
“A bridge? Made out of air?” Kurt asked. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“It should be possible, in theory at least. Air is molecules and atoms, just like everything else. There’s more space between it, but it has the same structure as any other grouping of atoms. All we should have to do is firm the bonds between those molecules and it will create a stable platform on which we should be able to walk.”
“Should be able to walk? It doesn’t sound like you’ve ever done this before.”
“I haven’t,” Marci said, shaking her head. “But I read about it in a journal once. It was by a mechanical engineer and mage from Finland who proposed using it as a way to escape high-rise buildings during emergencies. He surmised that people could leap from the building and use this type of magic to slide down a chute made of air.”
“And what were the findings in the journal? Were the journal’s editors supportive or unsupportive of the article?”
Marci gave Kurt a half smile.
“I don’t like the looks of that.”
“There’s no reason it shouldn’t work. You’re just using magic to stabilize something that’s already there. I just have to figure out how much power it’s going to take. We don’t have to make it permanent. We just have to make it last long enough for us to cross a seven-meter gap.”
“All right, I’m going to leave it up to you. This is more up your alley than mine. You’re the theoretical physicist. Figure it out. We’ve got to get out of here tonight so we’ll make an attempt when it gets dark. That’ll give us a chance to get past any outlying zombies that might be roaming around the town.”
“Not a problem. I’ve got a few ideas in mind. First of all, though, we need to move our packs and other gear up to the roof. There’s a ladder up in the janitor’s closet at the back of the building.”
Kurt smiled at her enthusiasm. One thing about Marci, things were never dull when she was around.
Chapter 17
Once they got everything moved up to the roof, they started to organize the rest of their plan. For them to get the zombies’ attention, they were going to have to lure the bulk of them into the building with them. That meant staging a pretty desperate fighting retreat from the front of the building all the way back to the janitor’s closet.
Then, once the zombies were in the building with them, they were going to have to break away and make it to the roof before any infected could catch up with them. Marci had figured a way to secure the roof hatch long enough to keep the zombies from coming up after them while they crossed between buildings.
The really hairy part of the plan came when the last person tried to get up the ladder without getting caught by any infected. Kurt had a few thoughts on how to keep them at bay long enough for the last one to climb to the roof, but it wasn’t a sure bet.
That caused a little bit of an argument between them when it came time to decide who would be the last one up. Kurt decided it was him and Marci disagreed.
“K.C. you need to be there to show the files when all is said and done.”
“That’s not going to happen. We either both get out of here or neither of us gets out of here. Besides, we can’t leave without the air bridge. I need you to create it. If you don’t make it, neither of us makes it.”
They went back-and-forth several more times. Finally, Kurt shut it off by telling Marci, “I am the one in charge. This is my mission and you work with me on this. We have to have someone in charge and it’s me.”
“Pulling rank is a pretty low blow, K.C.”
“I’ll just have to be the bad guy on this one. Look, I’m going to need you up there covering me while I come up the ladder. If my plan works out,
most of them will be held back from the closet entrance, but a few of them are likely to get through and try to grab me on my way up. I’m gonna need you up there keeping them off my back until I get to the roof.”
Marci nodded. “I can do that. But I get to be the one who opens the front doors.”
“Marci, this isn’t a contest. You don’t have anything to prove to me. We just need to make sure that they get in. I was kind of thinking we’d rig it so they break in themselves. It’s kind of stupid to be standing right there when you open the door.”
“Are you saying my idea is stupid?”
Kurt sighed. “Look, let’s just figure out a way to open the door so neither of us has to be right next to it.”
In the end, they decided on rigging a rope that would pull a locking bar away from one of the doors. That, coupled with the weight of some enraged zombies outside pressing inward, should buckle the door open enough to start letting some of them through. The pressure of the others would eventually push the doors open, allowing the whole horde in.
They took about an hour to get everything set up the way they wanted. They had rigged a barricade of desks and filing cabinets halfway across the bank lobby from which they would fire on the zombies as they came in. They had to make enough of a commotion that the zombies around the sides of the building went to the front and tried to get inside.
There was a secondary position back down the hallway on the way to the closet. The last line of defense was a desk they pulled across the closet door. They would leap over that and then climb up to the roof. Hopefully, it would slow down any of the zombies coming across behind them long enough for Kurt to make it up the ladder.
They crouched behind the first barricade in the lobby. Marci had a length of paracord wrapped around her hand. The other end was attached to the bar of steel they had wedged against the door to support it against the weight of the zombies pressing in from outside. Once she yanked on that cord, it would pull the steel bar away and they should be able to let physics take care of the rest.