Chapter Six - Blue Eyes: The Musical
Alexa spent the next couple of days miserable, never thinking she would miss following Kaiba around like a lost puppy. Fortunately, her fowl mood allowed her to find comfort in her work, drowning in the little information she had managed to accumulate surrounding the thief and his associated organisation. Everyday, she sat in the park across from the Kaiba Corp building, watching and waiting. Four days in, a familiar man approached her and joined her on the bench. Alexa noted the suits glancing in their direction.
"Lovely day," said the thief, cheerily.
He was a short, large-bellied man, with a circular face, never void of a sheen of sweat. Alexa had to fight the urge to scowl. She had been staring at this man's face for many nights and to be able to resist the urge to punch him was overwhelming. Instead, she kept her face blank.
"Just peachy," she muttered.
"Quite a persistent little thing aren't you. Showing up multiple times on our systems," he raised an eyebrow in her direction.
"You should be giving me your thanks. You would have a lot more people on your tail if I hadn't tracked you down on the cameras and erased your presence," she scoffed.
"Believe me, if we didn't want to be tracked you never would have found us. You've been more of a nuisance than a help to us," he frowned.
"Why don't you just come out and admit you need my help," she sighed.
"What makes you think we need your help?" He asked, eyebrows raised.
"Looks like I've been wasting my time waiting around for you then," she said, rising from the bench.
"Alright, we need your help," he sighed. "Encryption was a lot more complex than we thought. We need someone with high level access to unlock certain parameters."
Alexa nodded, glad her suspicions were confirmed with the suggestion that whatever Kaiba had lost might be some sort of laptop or hard drive containing classified information.
"But, I don't work for Kaiba Corp anymore. I doubt I had high level access in the first place," she pointed out.
"You didn't, but it would be a whole lot easier reinstating your employment and raising your access level than it would for us to start from scratch," he explained. "Now, what do you want from us?"
"I want a promise that, whatever this thing is, it will destroy him, and that he knows I was the one to do it," she said, darkly.
"Believe me, once we crack this thing, the name of Kaiba will be obliterated from the world."
XxX
Alexa was surprised when she found out that bad guy HQ was located in a flashy hotel. Arriving at the penthouse suite, she was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people on site. Most were running security, hanging around the edges of the room, but the main action was being carried out in the one corner. In it contained an array of computers and complex technology being manned by five people, one of which was Carter, who was circulating the screens, all the while typing on his own laptop that he carried about.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Kaiba's number one cheerleader," he taunted her, barely glancing from his screen.
"Must be pretty embarrassing to get beaten up by a cheerleader. Don't you think, Carter?" She shot back, her mood dampening as she took in the level of opposition.
Glancing around she realised he wasn't the only one to flinch at her comment. Looks like the five members of the tech squad had all been sent as the sacrificial lambs that was Kaiba's distraction. Poor things, no wonder they had all gone down like a sack of potatoes, she thought with a shake of her head. There were even a few chuckles from around the room from the security detail, who were giving her lengthy looks.
"So, are you going to give me a run down on what's happening, or are you going to stand there sneering at me?" She asked Carter.
"That won't be necessary," the thief, Mr Sachi, remarked. Alexa gave him a lengthy look. "Our deal stated you would help us in the promise that Kaiba was ruined. You didn't request any details as to how we would do it."
"You can't just expect me to sit here without a clue as to what I'm getting myself into," she retaliated, annoyed.
"Once we have reprogrammed the data disk to accept you as a high level member of Kaiba Corp, all you have to do is provide a thumb print and retinal scan. We can do the rest after that," he explained.
Alexa accepted the minimal information with a nod of her head and decided to take a seat in full view of the tech team. Knowing what she was looking for was at least a relief. Eyeing the set up, she suspected the disc would be in the main computer, evident by its multiple screens and connections linking it to the others. How she could be sure that they hadn't replicated the disc's contents before starting was another matter.
"All this fuss over a disc. Makes you wonder what the hell Kaiba is hiding, doesn't it?" She wondered aloud, heading over to the corner and seating herself on a table, arms extended back to support herself.
"Odds are five to one on Kaiba's nudes," said one guy, happily accepting her presence.
His comment caused her to snort, shaking the image from her mind. The last thing she needed was that popping into her head right now.
"What odds can I get on the exclusive performance of 'Blue Eyes: The Musical' starring Seto Kaiba," she teased him with a grin. "Seriously though it's a floppy disc, how hard can it be?"
"Well, considering the the complex encryption of multiple layers, sporadic evolution of passwords, and personalised unlocking mechanisms, I'd say pretty hard," he exaggerated, trying to impress.
"No kidding. Well, I suppose if you mess up you could just start again. You must have made back ups," she smiled, scooting in closer.
"I wish. Non-replicate floppy. Makes the whole thing a living nightmare. We need to run simulations to make sure we don't ruin the underlying code containing the information," he sighed, running a hand through his hair.
Before she could dig a bit further, Mr Sachi had noticed her hanging around their operation and called her over. With a smile in the guys direction she shrugged as if to say 'suppose I better head over there'. Silently, she thanked him. All she had to do now, was get the disc.
