Chapter 23
Becoming Bait
Frantic, I turn to Swin. “But didn’t you say the sensor is connected to his brain? Doesn’t it need his identification or something to self-destruct?”
“It needs Patron De Londe to self-identify every one hour until it destroys itself completely. So, it needs to scan his iris and his cognitive areas, aka his head, to make sure that it is really him destroying it,” Swin clarifies.
“But how long is left for you to hack The Begon, Swin?” Pesh asks.
“17 hours at least,” he responds.
“At least?” Levon shouts, panic stricken.
“17 hours. Yeah. I have to actually get it done in 16 hours and 45 seconds, so we have time to get out of this building before it blows up!”
“Wait, wait, wait. I thought only The Begon will blow up?” I ask, distressed.
“No! It will blow itself up, including everything in its five-mile radius. So this entire submarine will be blown up the moment it is hacked,” Swin responds.
“Unless we can throw it into the water once we hack it,” I say, thinking out loud.
“Yeah, which would mean I need to complete it in about 16 hours and 10 seconds or less. But that doesn’t change the fact that it will self-destruct in less time than that!” he rants to himself.
“It will self-destruct in 15 hours,” Levon reiterates.
“Right. 15 hours, Levon Lerogaski,” Swin confirms with a hint of attitude.
Levon wrinkles her forehead and turns away from him, irritated.
He sighs, rubbing his hands on his eyes. “I’m sorry, I just—”
“Just don’t.” She raises her hands up.
Silence.
Pesh paces. He looks up with a darting stare. “Then the only thing to do is this. I have to go to him and buy us time.”
“How are you gonna do that?” I turn to him.
“I’ll pretend that we already hacked it with technology he doesn’t know about and present him a fake Begon. That way, he will be distracted and won’t be able to give his thumb print or have his iris scanned for the last two hours while you guys hack it and get out of here,” Pesh articulates.
“What can you possibly talk to him about for over two hours?” Levon asks, turning to Pesh.
He pauses for a moment.
“My mother.”
His eyes meet mine in a serene moment.
“Well then, I’m coming with you,” I say to Pesh.
He turns to me and smiles with a glow in his eyes.
“Well, we need a way for all of us to communicate. Do you got anything, Pesh?” Swin interjects while typing continuously.
Pesh opens the drawer next to Swin’s computer. He brings out a gold briefcase and opens it. Inside are tiny ear buds, the size of a grain of rice.
“What are these?” Levon asks.
“These are invisible wireless earbuds that attach to skin. You put them on, and you can hear everything the other person is saying. It’s a set, so all four of us can hear each other at any given time. We put this on tomorrow before we leave,” Pesh articulates.
“Not bad!” Swin looks at them, intrigued.
“Okay cool, so I can go to The Lawtem with Swin and give it to Justice Emmanuel once Swin is done. I’ve read extensively about The Lawtem, you know, politics and stuff!” Levon says.
“Okay, Swin, you hack The Begon; Levon takes it in with you after, and Pesh and I go to Londe to buy us time,” I reiterate.
“But are we all walking there or what? Because last time I checked, we’re under the ocean.”
“Yes, we’re walking there,” Pesh responds. “But I do have one Motoron in the underground path on the shore, where we’re going to make our final stop.”
“Is a Motoron like an ultra advanced motorcycle or bike, or what?”
“Uh-huh, something like that,” Pesh mutters.
“So cool!” Swin smiles. “Can’t wait to see that!”
“What?” Levon is confused. “So we’re swimming out of the ship, and then you have an underground path for us to walk through?”
“Yes,” Pesh responds. “It’s straightforward. The ship will collide against the underground connection. It’s a brown door. You jump in. It’s much less dramatic than before, it’s just an underground path I built.”
“How many things have you built?” Swin asks.
“Just two. Anyways, like I said, there’s a Motoron there.
The Motoron fits up to four people, but I figure Levon and Swin can take it tomorrow for the journey to The Lawtem.
Once the ship stops, we will swim out with what we need.
And head to the underground shortcut. Shantavia and I can walk through.
It’s a two-hour walk for us to get to my house.
For you guys, an hour walk to get to the mainland, which is near The Lawtem.
But with the Motoron, you’ll get to the mainland in five minutes, and then you can walk a few miles north to turn in The Begon.
Levon, you know where it is, right?” Pesh asks.
“Yeah, I know its location perfectly. That all works! I call dibs on driving!”
“Sounds good.” Pesh turns toward the computers. “But everyone here has to evacuate tomorrow morning before sunrise, just in case it doesn’t work out, so they can be safe before The Begon blows up in this hideaway.”
“Where are the rest of the students here gonna go?” Levon asks.
“To Doctor Val’s house.” Before we know it, Pesh dials Doctor Val on his system and begins speaking with her, “Hi, Doctor Val.”
She appears in a video hologram.
“We need your place to hide students who Londe will kill because they escaped from The Seventh Zone. I know you don’t know that these students are kill—”
She interrupts, “Of course, I know. But I pretend not to for my safety. Yes, the students can come to my house. I just sent you the map from the location you sent to me. I’ll also let Justice Emmanuel know that Levon will be coming. Good luck!”
“Thank you,” Pesh says.
Swin comes out of hiding.
“Remind me again why you have to hide from her?” Levon asks.
“It’s a long story,” Swin says.
Levon looks away. “Yeah, we don’t have time for long stories. Let’s hack this thing first!”
“Okay, do you need help from the team?” Pesh asks Swin.
“Already asked and received!” Swin winks. “Everyone is saving everything I hack on a chip!”
“Alright. Well, if Pesh is gonna go buy time, we need to create an identical Begon to give to Patron De Londe. Is that possible?” Levon inquires.
“We already created one a while back just in case we needed to deceive anyone,” Pesh responds. “But we need to put some of our findings in it and fill the rest with other things, so if Londe checks, he thinks it’s the real thing.”
“I can do that!” I respond.
“Me too! You’ll need more than one person to help,” Levon says.
“That’s a good idea. And I’m gonna send Doctor Val some backup files just for safe measures,” Pesh says.
“What backup files?” I ask.
“The students have also done several videos on their experiences in The Seventh Zone. They’ve been recording information since they started helping me here.
So while those things alone can’t incriminate Londe instantly because it’s just word of mouth and we would have to go to court for a long time to prove it, it will be the only thing to result to if we cannot hack The Begon. ”
“So The Begon is instant justice. But the backup files might take a long time to prove in The Lawtem,” I deduce.
“Yeah, pretty much,” Pesh confirms.
Levon and I begin loading the fake Begon with information. Pesh loads the backup testimonial files and sends them to Doctor Val, while Swin and the team of students hack the real Begon relentlessly.
Four hours later, most people are asleep in the group, apart from Levon, Pesh, and me, as well as three boys who are still helping Swin hack the code and two girls who are helping me.
Levon stands up from the computer next to mine, and she begins to unplug it.
We have to unplug all the computers, except for Swin’s, and carry them to the corner of the room at the end of the night.
She starts carrying it and instantly, Swin stands up to help her.
Swin touches her shoulders, then takes the computer, touching her hands in the process.
She draws back instantly. “Don’t ever touch me.”
“It was just a friendly hold—”
“Physical touch is not really my love language, so don’t.”
“Sorry! I was just trying to help—”
“I don’t need your help.”
“My bad!” He walks away, back to hacking, a sigh escaping his lips.
As Pesh walks by, Swin looks up at him like one does to a hero, then snaps out of it.
“I’m gonna go to bed, babe!” Levon comes from my back and kisses me on the forehead.
I smile and hug her tightly. She walks toward the bedroom, past Swin’s computer.
Swin’s face lights up as she walks by, but she cuts the eye contact instantly and indignantly. “Goodnight, Levon!” Swin says.
She does not respond to him. He looks away with an honest heart, only wanting to get through to her. To make sure she’s okay. To see what her heart beats for.
He seems like he wants to go after her, as though he plans to get through to her—to dig past the dirt, and find the gold—and for a second, his reflection flashes on the computer screen to allure this transparency, but his eyes strike the golden clock in front of him and he sighs, turning back to the keyboard, focusing on hacking the code instead.
“I’ve got time,” I hear him whisper to himself.
One by one, each gentle soul fades into the night, completing their tasks for the night. But Swin and I continue working. Our eyes meet at times with a gentle smile, as though our work is lighting up a flame for our dark world.
Swin keeps looking toward Pesh, opening his lips and closing them, while watching some files load simultaneously. Eventually he speaks, “Would I be correct in saying that a certain Patron’s allegiance to The Commons is coming to an end?”
Pesh’s face is serious, but he says nothing. Swin turns away and continues working, but he can’t help himself.
He continues to speak, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but going against The Commons is like going against a god. People like us already have nothing, because they took it all from us. But for you, you stand to lose everything.”
“You should focus on your work, Swin,” Pesh responds, serious.