(A/N) Hey guys, NicKenny here, sorry about the low quantity of updates lately, but unfortunately normal schedule won't resume for another week, until I finish my exams. However, once I'm done we'll be posting more than ever, and with hopefully less delays! Hope you all had a very happy Christmas, and a great New Years! This chapter features another of our new Freelancers, but from a writer who you'll all be familiar with: TunelessLyric, the writer of the former Agent Michigan! We've selected our writers for the second-half of this fic, but we will, in a month or two, be searching for writers for Agent Texas, so keep an eye out for that!
Enjoy!
Chapter Twenty-One – Nerd Herd
Agent Nevada
Written by TunelessLyric
"It's hard to beat a person who never gives up." - Babe Ruth
When she walked in, Nevada was taken by the sheer number of computers and miscellaneous electronic equipment. The air seemed to shimmer with the low hum of the consoles ranged in a loose circle around her. "Whoa."
"Agents, thank you for coming," the Director said from Nev's left, his face serious, and she was already beginning to wonder if he had any other kind. "I have had this room added to the Invention solely for your use."
She started, turning to him sheepishly. Next to her Connecticut and Georgia did more of the same. Around the room a few technicians gaped.
"I have a very important mission for you three," he went on. "As you can see, your talents with hacking, and all things electronic, will be put to use today."
"Sir, with respect, I don't know what it is you want me to do," Georgia spoke up, glancing pointedly at Nevada. "Unless you want me to tear all these consoles apart, clean them and turn them into a solar-powered flare gun," he added hopefully.
The Director leaned over to the Freelancer in green and pink. "Your genius-level IQ will be sufficient, and knew Arkansas best while he was with the Project. Agents Nevada and Connecticut will be able to find some use for you, I have no doubt."
Nev swelled with pride at his words. Maybe hacking wasn't Georgia's strong suit, but he couldn't ask for better teachers. She would see if she could give him a leg up on the business. She glanced to the side at the engineer curiously.
He seemed to have deflated somewhat at the mention of his former roommate and good friend.
On Nev's other side, Connecticut snorted, which she hastily covered up as a sneeze, her long hair falling across her face with her helmet in her hands. The Director gave her a hard glare before sweeping on. "You will be working on what former Agent Arkansas dubbed the 'Mastery Cube'." He pulled a black box which glowed green internally from the counter next to him. "The Project's top scientists have told me that… well, maybe you'll be able to tell me why this task falls to you. The Crimson Sun must be found. I need to know their troop numbers, movements and if you have what it takes to combat Ark's hacking abilities. I have been told to have confidence you three will be able to track them using Arkansas' Cube. Get to work."
Nev snapped to a quick salute, mirrored by Connecticut and Georgia. She hurried to the main console. "Pinky, you're with me. Connie, you start setting firewalls and try a routine –"
"What makes you think I'm going to follow your orders?" the other woman flashed back.
"If it's all the same, I'd rather work alone," Georgia objected. He seemed to reconsider after a venomous glare from Connie.
Nev bit the inside of her cheek to stop the sharp retort already lined up. The Director's lips pinched and he released a slow breath.
"Good luck, agents." With that, he quit the room, setting the Mastery Cube down as he did so.
Nev rounded on Georgia. "I don't know what it is I've done, but I want to help find Ark. Can we start over?"
He nodded, somewhat sheepishly.
"Good." She sat at the nearest terminal and tugged her helmet off.
With the Director gone, techies swamped Nevada and her companions. Georgia had to knock one aside just to sit next to the woman in green and black. Connecticut sat at a far monitor, fingers flying over the keyboard on the desk.
Nev tapped the screen twice to activate it. She waved Georgia closer, explaining as she went.
"Okay, so first things first. We have to make a safe bubble to work from. No good if we alert Ark and the Sun to what we're up to. If they know we're after them, he'll up security measures and make it impossible to crack them."
Firewalls in place and alarms set, Nev leaned back, trying to decide what method to start with. Connie worked fast, which was a nice step up from being alone. She opened up a window on her spare monitor to chat with her teammate quickly.
"What do you need me to do?" Georgia asked.
Nev glanced at him. "Right now, I need you to watch. Once I get you on the basic page, I'll turn you loose… with some supervision, of course. See what I'm doing?"
He pushed a techie out of the way and peered over at her screen. "What are you doing?"
She suppressed a sigh. "I'm writing a program to feint at Ark's Cube's defenses. It may not be a complete machine, but that thing is quick on the draw. It must have taken him years to get it this far," she muttered in admiration.
Oh, god. Don't tell me you're actually in love with the damn thing, Connie messaged her.
"It's a beautiful piece of equipment," protested Nev. "I wish I'd designed something so awesome. Ark must be a genius!"
"Oh, he is," put in Georgia. He paled a little once he realized what he said.
Nev felt sorry for the man. Nothing like having your best friend turn around, kill a fellow agent and become your sworn enemy.
Don't bother with the usual Trojans, warned the other member of their team, seemingly over Nevada fawning over their shared project.
Please, I got off the playground years ago, get with it, she sent back, hurt the other Freelancer would even have to say that. That thing is way too advanced to be pestered by the average virus.
"I should probably tell you –"
Nev waved the technician away. "Can you get me something to drink? It's a little stuffy in here."
His mouth dropped for a moment, apparently indignant at being sent on "coffee duty", but he let out an annoyed sigh and nodded, but had one last question for her.
"So what are you going to try next?"
She grinned at her partner. "We are going to test out one of my Spybots. Turn that console on before you leave, will you?"
While Georgia set about following her instructions, Nevada got busy with finishing her bot. She had to admit, this time she had outdone herself. She had been working on this for several years, itching to test it out on something really big. She shot it off at the Cube and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
The techie came back with a pot of coffee. Nev grabbed a cup and continued to wait for any kind of response.
At length, she got it. The banner scrolled across the screen. She slumped in her chair. "Well, fuckberries."
"What is it?" Georgia glanced over, wide-eyed, from where he was working on a tracer program.
Nev pushed her fingers through her short black hair and growled with annoyance. "It didn't work."
Any more bright ideas?
She could swear Connecticut was laughing at her from across the big room. For a moment she indulged herself in imagining her slamming the other woman's face into the countertop.
You're up, champ, she replied. She sat back and swore repeatedly. "I was so proud of that little bot."
Georgia opened his mouth, probably to sympathize, when her chat screen beeped again. Nev checked it and saw a long list of steps. She read through them quickly and considered the plan. It needed some cleaning up, but was similar to one she had used successfully before.
At once she sent back a few tweaks to a couple steps and got started. "Okay, here's what I need you to do, Pinky…"
Georgia nodded and complied with her orders. He bent over his screen and tapped away at commands.
On and on it went. Connie and Nev alternated coming up with the perfect plan to cripple Ark's defences. The Mastery Cube continued to shut down every attempt to crack it. Nev kept guzzling the coffee.
Eventually, a horrible idea floated to the forefront of her mind. Her hands stopped in the process of writing yet another software program, eyes glazed and face slackened. "Oh, come on!"
Georgia, six technicians and Connie turned to her. Nev continued to mutter, mostly insults aimed at Ark and his blasted box. Her love affair with the Mastery Cube had lasted until about the first time it foiled her carefully planned out attack.
Get a grip on yourself! What's going on? Connie sent.
She snapped back to the tech room and shook herself. "You ever come across an Eternity Code?" she asked casually.
All conversations ground to an abrupt halt at her words. Nev's teammates gaped, Georgia in confusion and Connie in shock.
"Not possible," the other woman said dismissively.
"You explain it then," Nev shot back in frustration. "Give me a good reason for none of our best plans working. I hacked ONI's CHRYSTANTHEMUM files with one of these. You?"
That drained the words right out of the mouth of her most severe critic.
"Eternity Code?" Georgia squeaked.
Nev spun her chair to address him. "Based on a made-up language, the code could have x amount of possible permutations. The kicker? Only Ark knows how the Mastery Cube's language corresponds to English. In short, he's the only one able to crack the Mastery Code."
The technician she had sent for coffee hours ago shuffled forward. "I tried to tell you that when you got here."
She waved him away. "Could have been an Eternity, could have been passworded with his grandmother's birthday. For all we know, it could be."
"So what do we do now?" Georgia asked, eyes wide.
Nev grinned. "Now we break it."
"And just how are you planning on breaking an Eternity Code?" demanded Connecticut. "There's a reason why it isn't just called a May Take An Hour, Six Tops Code."
Nev's grin slipped a couple of notches down. She turned the matter over and over in her head. "I'm going to get back to you on that one, 'kay?"
Connie snorted and turned back to her work. She busily typed, face a mask of frustration, annoyance and hope. Georgia sat back thoughtfully, fiddling with the knobs to adjust the height of his desk chair. Nevada watched as he slowly sank toward the floor, stood and raised the chair's seat back to full height. Lather, rinse, repeat.
She found a small lightpen and began clicking it on and off. Her thoughts strayed to the time she hacked the Project Freelancer server a month ago. Had she thought she was clever! That was, until the Director caught her. And offered her a place. She had read the personnel files. She knew exactly the circumstances for Arkansas and Pennsylvania defecting. She knew why the rookies were here and why the Project went on a… sabbatical of sorts. To put it delicately.
Stop doing that! her screen read.
She immediately threw the lightpen at a sour-faced Connie. "You can help come up with a plan, it's actually your turn!"
The other agent dodged the unlikely projectile, disappeared under her desk and returned with the pen. She beaned it back at her companion with a furious stare.
"Ladies, please," Georgia tried to calm them with a shaky laugh, after ducking as the lightpen went wide, "can we act our intelligence level?"
Nevada might as well have had a lit up light bulb appear cartoon-style over her head as she was suddenly struck by an idea. She pondered for a moment, glancing around the room. Her eyes fell on the green and pink agent by her shoulder and smiled wolfishly.
"What if we wrote our own Eternity Code?"
Silence, of the stunned senseless variety, percolated through the room.
"W-What? Are you joking? You've got to be kidding me," Connie finally spluttered.
Georgia gaped openly. "How?"
With an eye roll, Nevada gathered her scattered thoughts. "What's the last thing you would bargain for if you encoded a super computer with an unbreakable program? The same type of program to crack it!"
"That still never even touched the how, which I would very much like to know myself!" shouted Connie, exasperated and confused.
"Don't worry, I have a plan for that."
"Oh really?" she challenged. "Great. Okay, let's say we actually succeed with our own Code. How exactly does that help break the Motherfucking Cube?"
Even Nevada had to admit, that was a nice play on the hateful machine's name. "They have millions of mutations available to them, right? They can change and adapt with attacks. All we have to do is download ours to his and let them go at it. Ark's Code is set to protect whatever's in the box, ours will be designed to open the box. If it works, hey, we've written a successful Eternity Code of our very own. How does that sound?"
"And if it doesn't work?" Georgia asked quietly.
"If it doesn't work, I'll smash the thing open and rewire it myself," she promised darkly.
"Oh, no," objected Connie. "You'll have to get in line for that honour. I'm smashing it first."
"We'll see about who gets to kill it when." Nev turned and raised an eyebrow inquiringly at Georgia. "Time to put that brain of yours to work, Pinky."