63. Elhyor
63
Elhyor
I hate waiting.
I know it’s for the best because there is no way I would blow our cover just for the sake of my patience, but that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t like this.
We’ve been waiting in one of the vegetable delivery trucks for almost an hour now, and apart from a few words from Brice in the earpiece of my holo, it mostly has been silent.
I should be thankful. We’re in a truck, right next to Versailles’ palace. We could be waiting at Notre Dame, and I would hate that more.
But we’re lucky—or Micha?l is a fancy idiot—because the palace gets fresh meat and vegetables delivered twice a day, which means it was easy to find a way in.
Brice left with a team of ten of my most trusted men exactly forty-seven minutes ago, and I’ve been watching the time since.
They’re supposed to get in, find the servers, and disable them. If they can’t do that, they need to cut the power for the whole palace and everything around it.
The problem with the latter solution is that there might be a safety generator. And if we’re not lucky, the app controlling Léandre’s chip might be sustained even without general power.
“We’re inside the power facility. Four guards are down, ” Brice says on the com.
Angélique, right next to me, gives me a tight smile and continues looking at the monitor, where eleven blue spots are shining like a big blueberry on the map.
Thanks to Luc, and the maps that were on the key Angélique brought with her, we can see in real time where Brice and his team are.
We cannot see where Micha?l’s guards are, though.
“Good,” I answer Brice as calmly as I can. “Did you hide the bodies?”
Brice huffs through the com.
“You forget it’s not my first rodeo,” he answers, and I can hear the smile in his words.
No, I’m not forgetting, but I’m not usually the one waiting for anything. The beast inside of me likes action, and to be honest, I do, too.
But that’s not what makes me stressed. No, what makes me stressed is the idea that I could disappoint Angélique. I’m not a fool, and I can see how she keeps her eyes glued to the screen and how her hands have gone white from the sheer force with which she’s been clutching the side of her seat since we got into the truck.
I think she hates waiting even more than I do.
But she also has more on the line.
Léandre might be a nice boy, but that’s all he is to me, and I can only imagine what I would feel if it were Brice with the explosive brain chip.
I’m not sure I would manage to stay as calm as she is right now.
“What the fuck is that?” Brice whisper-shouts in my ear device.
“What’s wrong?” I answer him.
“We’re in the power room. It’s where the generators and the servers should be according to the key. But I don’t know why they call it a power room. There is nothing inside of this room except for some sort of screen and what looks like a plastic keyboard.”
“Some sort of screen?” Luc asks from Angélique’s other side.
He’s young, and he’s not ready for any physical mission, but with his knowledge, there was no way I would have disagreed when he asked to join us on the second team.
“It looks like it’s plastic on one side and maybe glass on the other side,” Brice explains “The keyboard is black and has keys like squares popping out of it.”
Luc mumbles something for himself and smiles.
“Is there a cord?”
A cord? Why the fuck would there be a cord?
“Yeah,” Brice answers, and I can hear that he’s not happy with this new development. “There are two of them. One is linked to the screen and the other to the keyboard. What does this mean?”
“It’s a computer,” Luc says with awe in his voice. “From what you’re saying, it’s probably a few centuries old. Humans stopped producing them roughly four hundred years ago.”
“The history lesson is nice and all, but what do I do with it? How does it work?” Brice asks.
“There should be a button to turn it on. It looks like a circle with a line cutting the circle on its upper part.”
“What? The thing won’t recognize I’m in the room?”
Brice seems appalled by the fact, which only amuses Luc, who decides to sass him in response.
“Those things hate people. It’s not about you,” he says with a chuckle.
We hear someone chuckle, too, on the other side of the communication, and then Brice grumbles.
“Found it, pressed on it, and now the screen is lit up, but nothing is showing except a loading circle. How long is this going to take? We don’t have all day.”
“That’s where my knowledge stops,” Luc says, and I can see the tips of his ears turning bright red. If the mission wasn’t so important, I probably would tease him, but I refrain from doing so.
“Brice, can you see a door or something like it that would lead you to the power room?” I ask him instead.
“The team has scanned the whole room, but there is nothing like a door. Wait,” Brice answers, and then it’s followed by silence.
“The computer screen is finally loaded. It’s asking for a password. Angélique, any idea on Daddy Dearest’s password?”