Choices
I didn't put up a chapter yesterday did I? To be honest, I cannot remember! So if I didn't I'm sorry. I have a lot on my plate at the moment
I don't own Young Dracula.
Chapter 35: Options
Staying in the Slayer's Guild wasn't what Robin would call comfortable, though Robin had to admit it Jonno was softening to him and made things easier, it even made him feel human again.
None of the Slayers knew that he was here; if they did they would come at him like vultures to a dead body. Robin shuddered at the metaphor, he was dead, how ironic... the slayers were vultures in a way because they couldn't resist attacking the dead.
He looked out of the window thinking of his and Jonno's plan. They had decided the best way to help Vlad was to make the guild unknowingly attack the opposing side, and to do that they needed to do some serious hacking.
In order for the guild to choose their targets they stored everything they knew about every vampire they knew of in a main computer database, this determined which vampires which vampires needed to be eliminated. Naturally Vlad and the Grand high Vampire were top of the list, and there was no way that status could be changed, but for the others it may be possible to move them so certain ones were higher on the list than others.
They had managed to tip the Lecushka's down the list so Jonno and his parents were no longer planning to murder Yassik and his father, at least not yet; there were apparently more important people that needed slaying, such as the Westenra's who had suddenly got high up on the hit list mysteriously.
Robin shook his head, it had been Vlad's suggestion that they would be put higher up on the list; two years ago Vlad wouldn't dare suggest anything like that, he was too forgiving, but now he seemed to hold a grudge against his entire family other than Ingrid. He treat them like they were traitors, and didn't trust them, it was almost as if he blamed them for his father's death.
"Oi," Jonno peered into his room seeing Robin looking out of it where Jonno looked like he was focussed. "You ready to do some serious hacking?"
Robin turned to his – now – friend and nodded reluctantly. "I don't see why not," he sighed.
"You seem..." Jonno looked for the right word. "Reluctant."
"I guess so," he muttered. "I think it's more fear than anything."
Jonno nodded in agreement. "At this time everyone has reason to feel terrified; if the wrong thing happens then it'll be Armageddon two years too early." Jonno joked, thinking of the theories that the world was going to end in 2012.
Robin couldn't help but laugh briefly, Jonno was so much like him in some ways, he used jokes to hide how he really felt – to hide his fear and oddness.
"Right," Robin decided. "Then let's try and stop this premature Armageddon!"
"This... is... creepy!" Robin complained as they were silently heading for the computer database room.
Jonno gave him a disgusted look. "You live in a spooky vampire castle with the most powerful and evil vampire and vampiress in the world and you say this place is CREEPY?!"
"Keep your voice down," Robin hissed visiously and Jonno rolled his eyes at him. "I am used to being around vampires," he muttered. "I spent almost two years near Count Dracula, it doesn't bother me, sure I was afraid of being bitten but I knew Vlad would never let that happen."
"You two are really close aren't you?" Jonno noticed.
Robin shrugged. "We only had each other, especially after Chloe went off and decided hanging around with Vlad was 'too dangerous'," Robin mimicked his sister's high pitched voice and scowled. "I never had anyone other than Chloe before I met Vlad. He was my first real friend..."
"Even though he abandoned you?" Jonno asked, still finding it hard to believe that a vampire could be good.
"He left for all our sakes," Robin muttered. "He was planning it for ages... to make sure he never became evil, and then he couldn't hurt anyone. Of course, I was the only one who knew about it, but if you really get to know Vlad you can see he is that same person, its just that has a bad temper that's all, he's got it from his father." Robin stopped talking, not wanting to talk anymore, thinking about the Count hurt a little for him.
Jonathan didn't speak anymore either, he had figured out pretty fast that Count Dracula's death had become a bad topic to bring up at all, he could see the pain in Robin's eyes and it made him wonder how Ingrid and Vlad felt. Jonno shuddered knowing it must be terrible because he knew well he didn't want to lose his father.
"Here we are," he said pointing at the steel volt like door in front of them making them both stop walking. "There's a code for the door."
"Isn't it voice activated like your old HQ?" Robin asked, Jonno had told him about the old HQ they had once had.
"No," Jonno admitted. "There are ways around the voice activation; there are code words you can use to get in, for emergency purposes. But this place it's different, you aren't meant to go in at all... that is unless you have key information to add to the database."
"Great!" Robin exclaimed sarcastically. "So how do we get in there?"
"Can't you just flit in there?" Jonno asked.
Robin tapped the steel looking door and hissed pulling his smoking hand away. "The door is made from argentallium and lead. So no I cannot get through."
Jonno sighed. "Well I don't know the code either, I may be a fully trained salyer but only members of the council know the code. You're meant to go to them if you need to update information."
"Great!" Robin complained. "Surely, there has to be a way in?"
Jonno leaned on the door and frowned. "It might be possible..."
"Brilliant," Robin beamed.
"Don't get your hopes up," the young slayer told him. "We'll have to override the system, and then the door will automatically open; it's a security precaution to make sure no one gets stuck in a room and can escape in case of an attack."
"Okay..." Robin frowned. "Why have I got the feeling I won't like what you have planned?"
Jonno gave him a brief grin. "You're right."
"I don't get why the system didn't detect me earlier," Robin frowned looking around the room Jonno had led him to. "If this system has a heat sensor then how come it hasn't detected me before?"
Jonno peered around the computer filled room, looking for any slayers in the room. "Vampires accuse us of being overconfident... they are right in a way. This system," Jonno gestured around at the computers. "Is offline unless we are under attack which hasn't happened so far."
Robin snorted and tapped one of keys one of the many keyboards. "Why am I not surprised?"
"You're a vampire," he admitted. "Nothing surprises them about us." Jonno shrugged and started turning on the computers and their respective screens. "They take about two minutes to load up and start scanning straight away; it'll sense you right away. I should warn you Robin, as soon as it detected you it'll set off an alarm. You'll have to get out and come back when they turn it off... if they turn it off."
"They may not turn it off?"
Jonno shrugged as he passed him, leading him back to the bolted door. "Like I said we've never used it; once it senses something they may not want to turn it off, just in case."
"Won't they be suspicious of it being on in the first place?"
"Maybe," he admitted. "If we are quick enough by the time they get to the room you might be gone... and then they might think the system is playing up, it's happened before."
"Will that affect the database?" Robin asked now anxious and Jonno shook his head.
"The system isn't the database. The database just holds information, the system is what does things, and they are two different things. Besides even if they wipe the system clean, the backup database will kick in; we will be changing both the current and back up databases."
"What is taking it so long?" Jonno muttered now leaning on the doorframe of the volt door.
"I thought slayers were meant to be patient?" Robin teased crossing his arms.
"Haha," he looked at Robin a sarcastic look on his face. "That's not funny Branagh; if you want our 'help' we need out little scheme to go according to plan."
"Relax," Robin rolled his eyes and grinned at Jonno.
A sudden blaring noise made them both jump and Robin covered his ears wincing in pain.
"What the... is that?" Robin yelled as the volt door slowly opened.
Jonno laughed slipping through the gap into get into the database room. "The alarm."
Robin scowled and flitted through the gap to get into the room. "Whoa!" He exclaimed. "This looks like something from TV."
It was true, the room was fill with two metre high towering blocks of metal with blinking red and blue lights flickering out of them and wires out of the back. They were black and contrasted with the white walls – quite the surprise given most the building Robin has seen had grey metallic walls.
Jonno shrugged heading for a large projected screen – it was projecting lists upon lists of names in a table with a number next to each one - it was like one of the interactive screens teachers had used at school, it even had two pens – one on each side of the board.
"This isn't exactly what I expected," Jonno frowned. "I thought it would be a computer, not well... this." He gestured franticly to the board looking panic stricken.
Robin walked up behind Jonno and put a hand on his shoulder. "Do you have any idea how this works?"
He shook his head. "No idea."
"Processing," they both jumped hearing the mechanical voice.
"What the...?" Robin frowned and Jonno grinned.
"This is so cool!" he interrupted Robin. "It's a voice controlled system!"
"And?"
"it means we just tell it what to do... well I do, I don't know how it will react to you speaking to it..." Jonno turned and frowned at him making Robin drop his hand.
"Shall we get on with this?"
"Right, final one," Jonno stated facing the screen and speaking to the computer. "I need you to erase all evidence of the Verfore clan. I mean all of, but I need you to store all the information you are about to purge in an external hard drive. There is one plugged in on level 12 room 234, store it in there."
The boys waited patiently.
"Process complete." The computer chimed and spoke again. "Slayers are heading this way."
Jonno quickly turned around – he had told the computer to warn him if people were coming - to face Robin.
"Go to my room and grab that hard drive and then get out of here!"
"What about you?" Robin asked out of concern for his friend.
"Don't worry about me!" Jonno snapped. "I'm not important compared to the lives this might save! Just GO!"
Robin immediately hugged Jonno who carefully hugged him back.
"Thank you," Robin told him earnestly and sped out of the room.
Jonno sighed trying not to cry, he may have just either made the best decision in his life by helping Robin or the worst mistake in his life.
Wow! That was longer than I thought it would be!
Thank you for reading and remember to review!
C
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