Chapter 15

That Code

They were back in France but not in Paris instead they were in the town of Nancy which is one the resistances biggest points of operation in France. It was a beautiful city... one of the few she had seen that had never been touched by the gruesome thing this world called war.

Marla was sitting on one of the balcony's of the hotel (which is really a resistance hideout) looking out over the town. This was a lot more different than Washington DC was what she thought every time she went to a different town. Even during a time like this she was a little home sick... but who wouldn't? Anything would be better than fighting this war... the only thing that really kept her going was Jason.

She smiled just thinking about him but now every time she looked over at him he had a look of doubt in his eyes. Ever since that one day when he met back up with his brother he had been acting this way.

Right now he was sitting on a chair a laptop by himself trying to get that GD card to work... it was password protected and the resistance had nothing to hack it with Jason was even lucky that they gave him any computer to work with. Every so often she would hear him curse when he got close but failed.

She decided to go over and take one look at the screen again. "So hows it going?" she must had asked him the same question these past few days over a hundred times but he was so determined to get in the cards files he didn't even notice. "Not good... not good at all I'm clue less..."

She really wanted to help him but she wouldn't even know where to start... so all she did what she'd do in any situation when he was down like this by calming his nerves. She lightly wrapped her arms around him and hugged him while he was typing, his shoulders were tense at first but soon he began to relax up a bit. "I'm sorry I've been absorbed in this for awhile now but its..." "Your just fine no need to apologize." at times she did feel a little left out when Jason did this kind of stuff but she knew it was usually something really important. "I think your the only one who really ever understood me."he sighed while leaning backing into his chair toward her. "I don't think anyone other than me in this world could ever understand you." They both laughed which seemed to clear the atmosphere a little.

Jason turned his neck around in the chair and gave her a kiss "You know... I.." he stuttered out but then turned back around "Whats wrong" she could feel his shoulders tense up again. "I... I..." then she noticed his eyes were closed tight like he were trying not to cry. "You can tell me" it took him a while to get the words out then finally. "You know when people say... their whole life flashes before their eyes when their close to dying?" he asked trying to holds the tears back. "Yes" "Well back during that day before you guys arrived... and that gunner had me in his sights... all I thought about was.. was you and the moments we shared together"

As soon as the word got out she could feel the tears coming out of her eyes traveling down her cheeks nevertheless she never stopped hugging him. "I hope you never have to go through that again" she began to cry even more which made Jason rise from his seat to hug her for awhile... just crying the both of them while holding each other it was ironic really. "I love you" "I love you too" then the tears as the tears came to a stand still all that was left was the two of them alone in the quiet room with only the traffic and pedestrians still moving and continuing to make noise.

Then out of nowhere he kissed her and she kissed back while things magically went off from there. It had been awhile since the last time they made love like this but when you thought about it how could they do it at times like these.

Before she knew it their clothes ended up on the floor with both of them in the bed under the covers. Each kiss he laid on her was gentle and light like he was handling her delicately. She continued on with him as they both embraced each other with care. She looked up to see Jason's eyes who was laying over her but his eyes were closed as he caressed her however for a brief moment his eye lids opened back to life revealing his piercing blue eyes staring back down on her.

To her that was his most distinct feature that fancied her eye the very first time they passed each other on base when she had been transferred there, one of the few things she thanked her military for. To meet this fine, smart, good looking, and courageous man was to her one of the biggest highlights she had in her whole life.

The time being they both closed their eyes and kissed each other. I now change him to the biggest highlight of my life she concluded in her mind. I really love this man... and couldn't imagine a world without him. To her he made this war scorched planet look like a friendly peace loving world with no violence... the reality she longed to have with Jason.

After they were finished she laid up now looking at the ceiling and with a relaxed tone she said "That was nice" turning over to Jason with her arm laying over his chest. His arm slipped behind her neck on the bed to rest around her shoulders. "It was" then it was all interrupted as the door to the room opened up.

"Alright brother this codes a real..." and as soon as Jake got a good look at him he blushed and looked away "I'm so.. sorry... I didn't mean to.. uhhh" All Jason and Marla did was laugh then Jason told him "Its alright brother but you might want to get out of the room so I can get some pants on" Marla could see all the way from where she laid even with his head turned that Jake's face was bright red. "Oh jeez just shut up" Jake said still embarrassed as he shut the door. All Jason and Marla could do was laugh at the whole thing.

As Jason put his legs through his pants one by one he said "We should let him catch us more often" "Oh stop" she giggled while putting her clothes back on too. Then after that her boyfriend walked back to the door told his brother he could come back in. "I'm going to knock next time" "Maybe you should" Jason loved teasing his little brother it was like they were still children. "Alright Jake what did you want to tell me?" he asked as he sat back down next to the laptop. "I got a whole list here.." "I've gone through ten lists of your passwords and none of them worked what makes you think this one will work?"

Jake sighed then said "Just try it out and see if any of these guide us to the files." As Jake said that while Jason was typing he froze "Say that again..." the first impression from what he said it looked like he was pissed off but then she realized he must of been getting on to something. "Say what?" Jake asked him with a clue less stare.

Jason face palmed and said again "What you just said" Jake thought for a second then "I got the whole.." "No after that" Jake sat down in the chair next to him and thought for a little longer then it all cam out slowly. "Just.. try.. it out and.. see if any.. of these guide.." as soon as he said the last word Jason pounded the keys on the laptop typing in what he just heard 'Access Granted'.

"Yes!" Jason cheered out loud "Finally!" He yelled so loud it surprised both Jake and Marla. What could that password possibly be? "What did you type?" she asked the man who had jumped out of his seat with excitement. Then that's when his mood went from happy to kinda of dull while he slowly sat back into his seat. "Guide..." when he said it he didn't look too thrilled she soon figured out why. "It was one of the last words Francis spoke to me as he handed me this chip... he said Let it 'Guide' you so.." Then looked up at her and said with a grin "At least we're not lost anymore" then chuckled.

"I never understood that man while serving under his orders but I knew one thing... he definitely knew what we were getting into and how to get through it." He was sure right about that. "Lets see was he left here for us"

As soon as Jason tapped the enter key the whole screen lit up with letters and numbers moving vertically and horizontally then eventually a window with a video caption appeared on the screen buffered and came to life.

The beginning of the video displayed their missed comrade Francis sitting back in a chair calmly then stirred up and cleared his throat to say what he had to. "Hello my friends if you are watching this message sit and listen carefully but don't make any notes or any sort of copy only because the risk of it being confiscated by our enemy is great and when my video log ends all the memory on this chip will be fried..." by the look of his face she could tell he wasn't enjoying making this at all but who would?

"There's a lot that I should had told you all about why your here and why your doing what we continue to live on and accomplish but I can only say so little on here.. well lets get straight to the point, the O.L.A.G.S have to be permanently disabled one way or another and you can't let Olga fall into enemy hands in the process those weapons are the strongest out of anything anyone could get hold of in the world and would be fired off without hesitation by anyone... even our side..." the words sent a chill down her back.

"The only way to destroy it is to go to the main point of operations which I'm afraid is at an unknown location, blast your way through to the control room, and activate the weapon to its full blast to over heat the weapons main frame which will completely melt and destroy itself while in orbit which also means that when you activate I suggest you pin point the target of its firing zone some where with no population or civilization near by... I only say this because during the process of destroying the weapon you will have to fire it to over heat it which would mean it will or will not whether you could find a way make contact with the planet right and dead on the area you chose... my time is running short but I wish you all great luck if you choose to destroy it and to make the right decision... Farewell."

The room was silent while Jake quickly ejected the GD card from the laptop and set it to let it sizzle to nothing on the table. Everyone let the information digest then started asking each other "Okay you got all that right?" a voice from the door surprising everyone sitting around the computer said "Yeah we got all of that." Ron had said with Natalie, Catherine and Tom standing beside him in the door way.

"Me too lads" Marcus stumbled behind them with his crutches in the hallway. Everyone laughed as he regained balance "You don't think a temporary cripple could get the job done?" Ron reached over and patted him on the shoulder "No buddy not at all I'm pretty sure you can handle yourself out there"

"So where do we even start?" Tom just had to ask the question nobody knew. "Not really sure about that..." Natalie uttered. Think... think... think I got it! "To find the answers we need to get people to talk" the idea box had opened

"We'd have to find some really important people wouldn't we? I mean your not going to find some body who knows about a weapon that could change the course of this war to be sitting at a cafe" Jason put fourth.

"Their going to be reach and powerful or high in ranking" Catherine added. With enthusiasm Marcus snapped his fingers "There's a good start only problem we have there though is exactly who?" Then Natalie chimed in "Well we're going to have do a bit of homework its not going to pop up magically like Houdini." Every soul groaned over that but it was the true reality that they had to look far into things and turn over into the constant grasp of danger to find which meant getting their hands really dirty...