Code Matriks
Episode 8: Number Games
By B1ockh3d
Author's note: I probably didn't make this clear, but if you're confused by the timeline, this story takes place a few months after Code Lyoko Evolution. If you haven't seen it yet, this chapter will make zero sense to you.
Cooke shook Markus in his bed, "Dude! DUDE!"
Markus cracked open an eye, "MmmHmmm?"
"It's NINE FOURTY-SEVEN!"
Markus's eyes widened, and jumped out of his top bunk, "WHY didn't you tell me SOONER?!"
"I was in English at eight! I just got here to get my Physics book for our class IN THIRTEEN MINUTES!"
"I know I know!" Markus crudely pulled up his pants from yesterday, and grabbed an energy drink.
"I'll save your seat!" Cooke ran out of the room.
Markus picked up a shirt from the floor and threw it on. He unplugged his laptop and stuffed it in his backpack with his drink, and scooped up an assortment of flash drives. He grabbed his wallet and keys, and ran out the door.
"Ah! Presentation!" Markus remembered, and ran back inside to grab a binder full of loose papers. Then he ran out the door.
He ran from his dorm to the science building through the commons-
And crashed into someone, making both of their sets of loose papers go flying.
"Sorry!" Markus fell to his knees and started to pick up his papers. He then noticed who he ran into.
Shelda.
"Oh..." Crap!
The last person he wanted to run into.
"It's okay." She spoke plainly, and started reaching into her shuffle of papers.
Markus frantically grabbed a few more papers and bolted, "See you in class Shelda!"
Markus slid into his seat next to Cooke, and checked the clock: 9:58 A.M.
"Phew..." Markus leaned back, and then reached into his backpack and grabbed his energy drink and started chugging it.
"Dude, slow down!" Cooke advised, "You may have performed like an F1 this morning, but that doesn't mean you are an F1!"
Markus stopped drinking for a moment, "I'm too tired to figure out what you meant by that."
"Don't treat yourself like an F1 and guzzle gas!"
"I... Still don't know what you mean by that." Markus continued chugging
Cooke rolled his eyes, "Unbelievable."
The clock struck 10, and Shelda entered the room followed by the professor.
"Welcome to class. I hope you all had a good night's rest, because we are going to dive straight into presentations. We have nine to get through, and ninety minutes to get through them in." The professor held up his clipboard, "First up, Joel Zimmer."
"Alright, our fifth and middle presenter, Markus Edwards, you're up next." The teacher leaned back in his chair.
Markus trudged up to the podium and plugged his laptop into the projector. His first slide was a picture of a black hole.
"Hello, my name is Markus Edwards, and I will be talking about black hole theory and its correlation with quantum physics." Markus straightened out his notes, "And yes, this subject is a matter of life, and death of matter itself."
Crickets. Cooke buried his face into his palms.
"...Tough crowd. Would've killed in astrophysics." Markus moved onto his next page of notes, which was a sheet of graph paper, "Oh, oops."
He flipped it over, and saw random numbers and letters within all the little boxes.
This wasn't his.
"Sorry, I got my notes all mixed-" he paused. This paper was peculiarly handwritten, and every line break ended with either an 8, 3, or 1, "-up?"
He shuffled it to the back, and got his next sheet of notes ready. He didn't have time to review it, or even figure out what it was. But whatever it was, it couldn't get in the way of his presentation. "Anyways, black hole theory..."
Cooke and Markus left the classroom, and went straight to the cafeteria.
"Dude, awesome presentation today." Cooke complimented.
"Thanks! When do you have yours?"
"Day after tomorrow."
Cooke and Markus went off campus to a little taco shop, which was the only one they knew of in the state of Washington. They both got some burritos and tacos to cover their lunch and dinner.
Markus sat down, "Alright, so, man, remember the beginning of my presentation?"
Cooke sat opposite of him, "Not really. Other than your terrible attempt at a joke."
Markus rolled his eyes, "No, when I got distracted by a paper in my notebook."
"No."
Markus reached into his backpack and pulled out the unusual sheet, "Take a look!"
Cooke looked the sheet of seemingly random numbers and letters, and awkwardly placed breaks, "...What am I looking for?"
Markus shrugged.
Cooke flipped over the paper, "Oh, you missed a line... Huh."
"What?"
Cooke slid it over. They only thing on that page was a single line of numbers, which was 313131313131313131313131313131313131313131313138.
"And an eight... How did you get this paper?" Cooke eyed.
"I don't know, I don't remember it." Markus sat back, "Wait, how are threes and ones repeating significant? And why the eight?"
"How is this entire paper significant?" Cooke raised, "...I think I might have an idea what this is though."
"I'm open to suggestions."
"It looks like the sequencing to an... Encryption of some sort?" Cooke shrugged, "But even if that is what it is, it's useless unless we know what we're decrypting."
"Maybe it's a coded message. That would explain the random letters." Markus proposed.
"Well, I'm no code breaker, but I do know we need a legend of some sort." Cooke slumped back.
"Or, maybe it's just gibberish. It only makes sense to the person that made it." Markus gave up.
Cooke leaned forward, "Okay man, think back. Did you make this late at night fueled by unhealthy energy drinks? Maybe you picked it up by accident? Or maybe you bumped into someone while comedically running to class and your notes mixed?"
"No, no, n-"
"Oh?"
Markus put his face into his palms. How could I be so stupid?!
"I was running to class, and I bumped into Shelda, mixing our notes."
Cooke slammed his fist on the table, making Markus jump, "BINGO! This is significant!"
Markus slouched back, "Okay, what should we do with it then, Detective Cooke?"
"Try to crack it, of course!"
Markus laughed, "Be my guest. I'm not gonna worry about it-" Markus' phone rang, and he picked it up, "Hello?"
"It's Jeremie."
"I know, what's up?"
"We figured out how to open the door to the Cortex without Aelita!"
"Really?! Excellent!" Markus leaned towards Cooke and included him in the call, "We should start making plans!"
"We have a plan, and that's get here now and get it over with." Jeremie bluntly explained.
"Wait, now? We still have classes!" Cooke rejected, "Classes I will be attending."
"The sooner we eliminate XANA, the better." Jeremie shook his head.
"Don't you still have to make the virus?" Markus queried, "You said last time it took you guys several months to make it."
"With all the data we took from Tyron, we had more than enough time to make a new and improved one."
"Well, you'll have to sit there until three- er, nine in your time, until we get out of class. After all, you need me to go do it." Cooke flaunted, "Until then, go... Eat dinner! It's six for you right now."
"Gah! Tu me prends la tête! Très bien!" Jeremie hung up angrily.
Cooke laughed, "We made our French fry of a friend very angry!"
Markus just buried his hands in his face, "Let's just eat our lunch and go to class..."
They got out of class, and began walking to their laboratory.
"So, how will I get the Cortex door open?" Cooke asked.
Markus shrugged, "I don't know. A miracle, I suppose. I don't even know how Aelita opens it. But, they say they found a way, so let's do it."
"Yeah..." Cooke pulled out his phone, and stopped suddenly, "Don't move."
Markus froze, "What? What is it?"
Cooke began walking, with phone in hand in front of him, "...Keep going like normal."
Markus began moving, and saw that Cooke's phone was blank. He screen wasn't even on, "What are you-"
"Shhh..."
The duo walked forwards a bit more, then Cooke jumped up and spun around, "WHAT ARE YOU- Huh?!"
Markus turned around, and saw nothing behind them, "You're scaring me, man. What are you doing?"
Cooke relaxed, "I swear I saw Shelda in the reflection of my phone following us!"
Markus looked around, "Well, unless she can teleport, there's no one behind us."
Cooke scanned the area with his eyes, "But... I swear I saw her... Pink hair and all."
"I'll take your word for it." Markus took a deep breath, and exhaled, "Maybe we're becoming paranoid and obsessive."
Cooke put his phone away, "I think we have every right to suspect."
"Suspect, sure." Markus continued, "But we don't have any real evidence that she's anything but a regular girl who studies Mechanical and Software Engineering and fancies French. Even with the number of lucky coincidences."
"But, the paper-"
"The paper is garbage unless we know what it is."
They walked up to their humble lab-
Where a black government issued SUV was parked outside.
"Oh great, what did we do now?" Cooke complained.
"Well, there's only the one SUV. So it can't be much." Markus hoped.
They approached the door, which swung wide open.
"There you guys are." Agent Juliet greeted, while sifting through some papers on the desk.
"Can... We help you?" Markus raised an eyebrow.
"Six week inspection." She bluntly reminded.
"Six week what now?" Cooke stepped back.
Juliet held up her copy of the agreement, "Page thirty one, section F, paragraph eight: I, the recipient, agree to participate in regular lab inspections every six weeks in assurance to the providers that the agreements made in sections A, B, C, D, and E have not been violated."
Markus took the paper and read it closely, "...I'm guessing A through E is all the safety agreements and assurance we aren't making weapons?"
"Correct."
"Huh." Markus flipped through the pages, "Maybe I should've read it before taking your word for it."
"Any other interesting loopholes we should be wary of?" Cooke folded his arms.
Juliet shook her head, "Aside from being able to take back government property if we deem it necessary, there aren't any that come to mind."
"Come to your mind?"
"Cool it, Cooke." Markus set the paper down, "I'll go through it later. But let's give this Agent a tour of our stomping grounds, yes?"
The area wasn't horrid. Over half of the lab was just flat, empty grounds for testing robots. The entire lab was 5,000 square feet, which was a pretty admirable size; compared to the lab they were working in, which was about 2,000 square feet. Most of the mess they have in there is actually from moving the robotics team down to the lab rather than the classroom they had. A risky move, considering there's a nuke below their feet and the only way to stop it is to covertly go into a virtual world.
"...Your lab isn't violating any rules." Juliet checked off on a list, "Well, yet."
"Yet?"
She pointed to the closet, "I need to see back there too."
"Ah, naturally."
Markus walked over and opened the closet door. Juliet snooped through their shelves, and eventually came to the secret trapdoor that was disguised as a safe.
"Is there anything in this safe since we last checked?"
Markus shook his head, "We don't even have keycards. We can't open it."
Juliet visually scanned the room and nodded, content with her search. "Have a nice day, gentlemen."
She left the premises. Cooke and Markus waited until they heard her engine start up and for her to leave, then quietly opened the trapdoor leading to Matriks, and scanned for bugs. None found.
"Phew..." Markus exhaled.
"That wasn't as nearly as bad as last time!" Cooke sighed in relief.
Markus woke up the computer, and connected to Jeremie.
"Hello?"
No response.
"Helloooo?"
"Bonjour." Jeremie smirked, "Shall we get started?"
"Do we have a game plan?" Cooke requested, "I've only been fighting for less than six weeks, I'm not what you'd call "experienced" by any stretch of the imagination."
"It's simple, really." Jeremie started, "You get in, open the door, go into the Cortex, install the virus, and pray you don't get caught by the ninjas."
"Now, you see," Cooke paused, "I can do all that, but it's the whole "ninja" part that has me confused and somewhat terrified."
"Don't sweat it. As long as you have enough time to get the virus in, the ninjas can devirtualize you all they want and it won't matter. That's also why we made the MantiSkid autonomous." Jeremie proudly boasted.
"I don't like that you've made so many precautions because you're expecting me to be devirtualized." Cooke shook his head, "Not exactly the best moral booster."
"Sorry, but even the five of us struggle to fend them." Aelita stepped into frame.
"No, I understand, but I just have really bad feelings about this mission if ninjas are involved." Cooke clarified, "Alright, we're wasting time. Let's go do this."
Cooke shot out into the Digital Sea.
"Hey, where's the other four?" Cooke queried.
"Probably in bed." Jeremie looked down at his watch, "It's pretty late for us, we might have to leave you for a little bit to get back to our dorms before lights out."
"I'm surprised they're not here to witness the fall of XANA." Markus chimed in.
"Well, it would be the third time. And it's not very exciting the third time around." Aelita joked.
Cooke chuckled. He kept going on the course towards the Cortex, and eventually came up to it.
"Alright, I'm here."
"Okay." Jeremie leaned forward, "Markus, are you ready to launch the decryption algorithm?"
"Ready."
"Alright, Cooke, activate the digital key"
Cooke pressed his hand on a pad to his left, and a beam shot out of his ship into the XANA-shaped lock.
Markus immediately booted up the decrypter, and it started working.
"Tyron probably beefed up his firewall, so this will take some time." Jeremie advised, "Enough time for us to get back to our dorms because we have to go now."
Jeremie left his seat, grabbed his backpack and left. Aelita picked up the earpiece, "And whatever happens in the Cortex, you've never met us and you have no idea what Lyoko is or who we are."
"Got it." Cooke waved.
After probably half an hour of fighting Tyron's firewall, Cooke got in!
"Alright!" Cooke celebrated, "This certainly took awhile!"
"I'm surprised our French friends aren't back yet." Markus worried, "I hope they didn't get caught by whoever monitors the halls."
"They're fine." Cooke promised, and flew the MantiSkid up close to the core and parked it next to the main path, "Alright, get me on land!"
Markus transferred Cooke to the surface, where he took a quick look around.
"Okay... No ninjas so far." Cooke eased up, "So... You know how to open the door to the core?"
"Aieee... No." Markus bit his lower lip, "Jeremie never gave me instructions."
"Lovely..." Cooke sat down with his back against the door, "I hope we haven't been noticed yet."
A few minutes of silence passed, with Markus carefully watching the screen.
"Hello?" A familiar whisper sounded.
"Oh, thank god you're finally back." Cooke stood up.
"Sorry. We were caught up with Jim. Gave us a lecture about being in our rooms before curfew."
Markus checked his phone, which was 4:10 P.M., "You guys were only a few minutes late for curfew?"
"No, we got into the building right on time. But we weren't "in our rooms" by curfew." Jeremie complained.
Cooke shook his head, "Okay, whatever, how do we open this door?"
"Okay... You're not gonna like this." Jeremie stressed under his breath, "Markus, you need to activate five towers and channel all that power into Cooke."
"Say what now?!" Cooke complained, "You're gonna juice me up more than Markus is during finals week?!"
"Jeremie, that kind of power can destabilize his code and splatter it over the Internet!" Markus protested.
"I know, but it's the only way I can think of!" Jeremie rubbed his head, "As long has he channels all that energy into the door in eighteen seconds, he won't destabilize."
"If I knew that was your plan, I wouldn't be here right now." Cooke rejected.
Suddenly, the door began to open up.
"Oh, wow. I didn't feel a thing!" Cooke smiled.
"Uhh, I didn't open it."
"Neither did I! Hide!"
The MantiSkid lowered under the platform, and Cooke took a risky move and hid behind a rock sticking out of the side of the doorway.
Suddenly, five green and black ninjas came out with swords drawn, looking for him.
"Wow... They look straight out of Tron." Cooke whispered.
"Except they're the red guys, not the blue." Markus added.
"How did they know we were here?"
"How do you think?" Markus quipped, "Thirty minutes to bust through their firewall and you didn't think they'd have some sort of notification?"
Cooke rolled his eyes, "Fair point."
The ninjas, now satisfied with their work, ran back inside and began closing the doors.
Cooke hopped over the rock and ran alongside the door, watching the ninjas step on to the teleportation pad and leave the room.
"I guess I better make my move!" Cooke slipped between the crack of the large round door into the room, "I'm in!"
Markus clapped and thrusted his fists into the air, "Great! Great!"
The door slammed shut.
"Uhh, new problem," Cooke ran his hands across the smooth door, "Now I can't get out."
"We'll figure that part out later." Jeremie insisted, "Right now, get in that room!"
Cooke spawned into the room with multiple platforms and uninviting spiked walls.
"This... Is really not that impressive." Cooke critiqued.
"Be careful, the spikes in the wall will come out and devirtualize you if they're active!" Jeremie warned.
"Y'see, this is why I wanted to make a plan first." Cooke stepped out into the room.
No wall spikes of doom.
Cooke drew his short sword, and hopped down a platform, "Nothing yet."
"Can you spot the console?" Jeremie queried.
Cooke looked around, and saw an egg-shaped device with a screen about eight platforms away, "I believe so."
Cooke hopped across the platforms without issue, and came to the console.
"Okay, Jeremie, what do I do?" Cooke scanned around, perplexed.
"Markus, send him the virus keycard." Jeremie directed.
"On it."
An ominous red card spawned in front of Cooke. He immediately grabbed it, "Okay... Now what?"
"Now put it into the center of the console." Jeremie strung along.
Cooke shoved the card into the console, which sucked it right in.
"Okay, it's in." Cooke relaxed, "Was... Was that it?"
"Yep."
"Uh huh."
Cooke smirked, "Well, that was anticlimactic."
The console began flashing red.
"Oh, me and my big fat mou-"
"AHA!" A voice filled the chamber, "Quelle surprise!"
The face of a rather beat scientist popped up on a large holographic screen, one that Cooke could only assume was Professor Tyron.
Tyron looked down at Cooke in surprise, "Heh. Recrue nouvelle, je suppose?"
Cooke looked up, completely flabbergasted, "I... I... I don't... What did you say?"
"Oh? American?" Tyron laughed, "I take it you aren't so good with the French, yes?"
"Not really..."
"Système d'éducation Américain, bien sûr." Tyron heckled, "American, tell me, what is your name?"
"Give me yours first."
"Ah, how rude of me not to introduce myself to guests. I am Professor Tyron."
Cooke already knew this, but he had to keep an illusion going on.
"Professor-"
"Ah ah!" He interrupted, "What is your name?"
"...Call me Cooke."
"Cooke, excellent." He smiled, "Now, you may have noticed I've blocked all your communications with your buddies."
"...Okay, yeah, I now notice that."
"Now, be honest, how do you, an American, know about Lyoko and the Warriors that fight for it?" He put up picture profiles of all the Lyoko Warriors' avatars.
Cooke looked at it dumbly, "Wait... You mean there's more people out there?!"
Tyron wasn't impressed, "You can't fool me. That virus you just sent me? I've already stopped it. You see, I was anticipating Mister Belpois would use that information to make that custom molded virus. You can't play the coincidence card, Mister Cooke. I know Belpois made it and gave it to you to infect me with."
Cooke was taken aback by this, "Sir... I don't know who this Belpois person is."
"I am NOT a fool, Cooke!"
"Sir, I'm here to stop XANA. He is literally tearing apart my city as we speak!" Cooke improvised, "I personally made this virus from the information I stole from him to attack him!"
"And just how did you know where to find him, Cooke? A hunch? Or a hint?"
Cooke cocked his leg back, "I followed XANA, duh!"
Tyron laughed, "You don't honestly expect me to believe that, do you? If you were here to eliminate such a... How do you say... Petty thing, you would've uploaded an anti-virus, not a virus."
Cooke folded his arms, "XANA is NOT a "petty" thing! It's not meant to be taken lightly! You are completely oblivious to the very real damage it has caused!"
"You and your little friends have caused very real damage to decades of my work! You don't think I'm just going to let- I don't even know why I'm talking to you!" Tyron picked up a radio, "Squads one through eight, show our guest the door!"
A ninja landed right next to Cooke. Cooke pulled the console over, and knocked the ninja off balance. The ninja regained his posture, and Cooke had already bolted to the next platform up, where a ninja fell on him from above.
"Jeezus!" Cooke knocked him off his back, and finally drew his tiny sword.
He looked around, seeing probably a dozen ninjas spawned in, swords ready.
"Alright... This isn't good."
Half of them sank into the platforms they were standing on, leaving the rest to charge him.
"Definitely not good!"
He couldn't predict where they all were, and he didn't have anyone to help.
He did the only thing he could, turn his sword into a bladed whip and charge.
He whipped through the first ninja, and his leg was caught by a floor ninja, effectively tripping him and dropping his weapon to a platform below.
Cooke was now surrounded by three ninjas, and one floor ninja holding his leg still.
"Persistent little jerks, aren't you?" He kicked the hand off him and rolled off the platform, barely catching the ledge.
He pulled himself up, and looked up at the ninja staring down at him from the bottom of the platform above.
"I can't compete with this..." Cooke brainstormed, "I need to be able to predict their movements... But they're not machines..."
The ninja absorbed back into the platform, giving Cooke an epiphany.
He closed his eyes, and concentrated until he saw a light haze, slowing down time and turning his eyes orange. "Extrasensory."
He opened his eyes, now clearly seeing all the ninjas, his weapon, and the exit.
First rule of order was to get his sword-whip back. It was only two platforms over, but he could see a ninja waiting to strike. He looked up to the exit, which was clear.
"Out numbered, out matched, out sworded, I gotta make a run for it." Cooke decided.
He hopped up to a clear platform, and was immediatly joined by a ninja with blades closing in. With extrasensory still active, Cooke dodged the two swords and redirected the force to swing the ninja around, right into the path of one of his leaping buddies.
Cooke jumped onto another platform, making sure to dig his heels into the awaiting floor ninja.
Thankfully, there was a comm crackle overhead, "He... Co... ke... Esta... Don't... Door!"
"Markus?!" Cooke called out, snapping out of extrasensory, "I need an escape plan, now!"
"I can't... Room... Out!"
"Get out of the room?!"
"Ye... Don't... Trans... Door!"
"Don't get out of the room?!"
"GET OUT!"
Cooke panicked, and jumped across to another platform, missing it entirely and grabbing onto the edge.
"Oof!"
A ninja came through the bottom of the platform, and stared down at him.
Cooke stared blankly back at him, "Uhh... Wassup?"
The ninja slashed at him, hitting one of his arms.
"Oww!" Cooke pulled himself up, and clutched his arm. It may not be real, but those things sting!
He leapt up to the last platform to leave the core, and got on the teleport pad with three ninjas hot on his tail.
Cooke got into the transfer room, and looked back up towards the giant closed door.
"Cooke?!"
"Markus!" Cooke breathed, "I need out of this room!"
"I-I'll figure out something!"
The three ninjas spawned in on the teleport pad, now putting an unarmed Cooke into a corner.
And thankfully, the door began to open.
"Wow, great job!" Cooke complimented.
"What?"
"On the do-"
A familiarly large blade struck through the opening, one that could only belong to a XANA-spawned William.
"...I NEED A SWORD! NOW!"
"I need some time!"
"I DON'T HAVE IT!" Cooke peered out of one of the openings, "-WAIT!
"What now?!"
"How long would it take to prepare a transfer sequence into the MantiSkid?"
"Uhh..." Markus looked at his screen, "A few seconds, if you're close enough."
"Don't disappoint me!" Cooke jumped through the widening crack in the door, and immediately jumped over the edge towards the digital sea before William could intervene.
He leaned his body towards the MantiSkid hidden under the pathway, and closed his eyes.
"TRANSFERRING!"
Thud!
Cooke opened his eyes, he was in the MantiSkid, "Phew! Good job! Good job!"
"Now get out of there!"
Cooke wasted no time, and dove into the digital sea.
The scanner doors opened, and Cooke stepped out.
"Oh... My... God..." Cooke slammed down into a chair, "We were hopelessly unprepared for that mission."
"I'm glad you got out." Markus relaxed, "I lost the signal as soon as you put that keycard in, I didn't know if you were going to come back to our scanner if you devitualized."
Jeremie popped up on the monitor, "Bad news, the virus didn't work."
"Yes, because he was expecting it." Cooke explained, "He knew you were going to use the stolen data to make a custom molded virus, so he prepared for it. As I recall, didn't I say something about this happening?"
"No, that was me." Markus reminded, "But, the point still stands."
"Does he believe we're behind the virus?" Jeremie checked.
"Oh, profusely." Cooke confirmed, "I think the only illusion I had going for me was my very American accent."
"Well, as long as we aren't caught together, we'll keep sending you solo." Jeremie bit his lip, "Risky, but necessary."
"Maybe if we got another person to join us?" Markus hinted.
"NO! Let's just keep risking ONE life!" Cooke cemented.
"Unfortunately, this means we'll have to come up with a new method or virus to take out XANA." Jeremie grabbed his head, "That could be a few months!"
"That..." Cooke tensed up, and eased back, "...Sucks."
"But!" Jeremie interjected, "Good news for you guys!"
"For us?"
"The super computer finished decensoring the document you guys had!"
"Excellent!" Markus celebrated, "Send it over!"
"However, it comes with bad news," Jeremie smirked, "This document is document three of eight."
Markus sat back in utter dejection, "You mean... We're missing seven more documents?!"
"Dude, it doesn't really matter." Cooke shrugged, "This document probably has more information than we actually need. We're just looking for what this project is and who ran it, I imagine it'd be pretty prominent throughout the document. Especially considering how many pages it has! What is it, like a few thousand?"
"Something like that."
"Well, you're gonna be in for quite a shock." Jeremie warned.
"How so?"
Jeremie breathed in, and exhaled, "Sit down, you're not gonna want to be standing."
"We're... Both sitting already..."
Jeremie pushed his glasses up and looked closely at the screen, "Oh. Okay, turn to page three hundred and thirteen, and read paragraph eight."
Markus scrolled through the pages, and stopped at 313. "Okay... Paragraph eight... Project MATRIKS shall be overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
"Okay, the CIA is a bit of a surprise, but not mind blowing. We are in Washington." Cooke shrugged.
"Keep reading."
"The project advisors are Franklin Dupou, Ph.D in Atomic Physics; Kraig Bangalter, Ph.D in Quantum Physics; Tera Turner, Masters in Electrical Engineering; and-" Markus choked up, and turned ghost white.
"Wha- what is it?"
Markus shook slightly, "Shelda Fercaow, Ph.D in Software engineering."