"I NEED THE DAMN KEY!" Q yelled after an hour of typing away and losing to the virus.
"What key?" Mark asked. Q took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.
"This virus is one that has a key to unlock the patterns of the virus so that I can break it, basically it would uncoil from the constant spirals it keeps giving me and lay out the program to shut it down. But I don't have the damn key!"
"What kind of key is it?"
"The key is a legend that matches up all the different combinations this thing is giving me and won't make any sense unless I have it. Some use a song or a person's name or…" Q trailed off and put his glasses back on. Mark tried to remember anything that would be useful.
"Well he always went on about how the British would be their own destruction. He kept going on about different events in our history that affected the Chinese community and ruined families."
"What events did he mention in particular?" James asked.
"I can't remember, they all began to blur together after a while."
" 'the British would be their own destruction,' " Q murmured. He began looking up historic accounts online that were about Chinese immigrants and cross referencing them to the Chinese databases, that had been translated into English for him.
"Any of this popping out at you?" Q asked quickly.
"No, he talked more about um, a small village having its children taken from it and being murdered. I can't remember the name of it!" Mark wanted to punch something.
"I'll bet it's the name of that damn village he had a map of in his office." James commented.
"Can you remember the name of it?!" Q demanded.
"Give me a minute!" James hissed.
Time moved on and no progress came of the program hacking. Q was getting more deshelved as time went on. Mark was not doing so well either. He began to feel like the energy was being zapped out of him, like he was getting a cold. In a sense he was, getting a cold virus that is. He really began to notice it when he went to use the washroom and fell over onto the floor. James hoisted him up and dragged him back to the couch.
"I'm fine." Mark managed to say.
"Oh I'm sure you are." James answered sarcastically.
"Jus' need to..." but he never completed his statement because he fell unconscious and the floor rushed up to meet him.
"Dammit Q we need to do something!"
"I'm working on it! Unless I get that name I can't do anything!"
"I'm going to go back and see if I can get that name."
"You mean go on a suicide mission?"
"It's not s suicide mission, it's in and out." James went to his bed and loaded his gun.
"The security will be on high alert now that one of their subjects has escaped. And there is no way to know if that is the right keyw-"
"What would you suggest, hmm? Stay around here and watch the boy die?!" James pointed at Mark unconscious on the couch beside Q.
"I've seen enough death Q, I'm not about to just stand by and watch someone slip away when there is something that can be done about it!" James stood there, looking at his shocked quartermaster.
"Just be careful." Q looked back to his computer screen. James went to retrieve his gun, backups, and earpiece in case he needed Q's help again (not that he'd admit to this).
"Oh James, one last thing." Q handed James a box. Three exploding pens. "Those are my last ones."