Chapter: The Three Keys
“The entire personal fortune of the notoriously paranoid trillionaire Dabur Safaul was lost to history when he died. The security services he implemented to protect his wealth were wide-ranging, and the encryption protocol to access anything was known only to him. Even with the help of the third parties who offered external services, no measure was sufficient. Dabur’s children thus never saw a penny of their inheritance.”
—From the book The Rathogan Aristocracy by Memorist Yliax Raskar
Zaina squeezed through the crevice. By now Kazlo had set up more of his equipment—the cavern was illuminated by lights of every color, whether from screens or flashing monitors. “So, what’s the news?”
“Ah, there you are,” Kazlo said, waving his hand while keeping his eyes steady on a small chip. In his hand was a tool for placing miniature databoards on the chip’s surface, and his instrument was still as stone in his hand. “Give me one second and we can get to the good stuff.”
He delicately placed the databoard, set the tool down beside the chip, and rubbed his hands together. “I told you this little guy is special, eh? He wanted to talk to us the whole time, but we didn’t have the language to reach him.”
Zaina wasn’t quite sure what he meant, but he sounded optimistic, which gave her hope. “So you know what’s wrong with him?”
Kazlo smiled. “Yes. Absolutely nothing.”
She blinked a few times and replied, “I’m sorry, what?”
“What our friend here has been experiencing is a feature—not a bug,” Kazlo said. “This little guy has some secrets, doesn’t he?”
“Is that what the overflow means?”
“Sort of. See, it seems to me that Gir didn’t want Gizmo to be wiped before he came to you. Being that he knew the Order of Riiva intimately, he knew they would. So Gizmo here actually shuffled his internal assets. The Order wiped the databanks it was supposed to, but the wrong code was inside. Hence the malfunctioning, hence you seeking to get him fixed, hence, here we are. It was all a planned circumstance, if you catch my meaning.”
Zaina’s mind was spinning. “But—he’s worked fine for the past few months. How is it possible he’s been missing essential functions this entire time?”
“Ah—that’s where it gets interesting.” Kazlo turned to a monitor displaying several bars in order of longest to shortest. “You see this bottom one, here? That’s his data and memory regulation. Looks like those functions took the most serious hit in the wipe. He was able to rewrite some of the code from what he remembered, but imperfectly, which eventually led to a failsafe. I’m guessing the first time you noticed a problem, he initiated a reset ordered by Gir?”
Zaina’s eyebrow raised. “How did you know that?”
“I have the log here. But furthermore, it’s a protocol Gizmo put in place shortly before the wipe—very shortly, I’m talking, like, less than a week. If a particular threshold of newly written code to replace essential functions was triggered, that in turn triggered a reset which would be credited to Gir specifically.”
Still not quite sure what any of this meant, she asked, “Is there a way you can put that in, like, not-genius terms?”
Kazlo nodded. “Basically, it looks like Gizmo was malfunctioning on purpose because he was counting on you wanting to help him at all costs.”
She scratched her head. “But—that doesn’t make sense. What if he went to some other lancer? What if I didn’t want him? What if I got another glyph—Gir even told me to do that!”
Kazlo shrugged. “Then whoever else probably would have done a full system wipe at the first sign of malfunction, and whatever secrets he holds would be gone forever. Besides, can you honestly say anyone else would go the lengths you’ve gone to for a glyph? He must have seen something in you.”
He had a point there—this whole thing was pretty insane, and she was well aware of that. “I guess not.”
“Well, let’s be glad you did,” Kazlo replied. “Now—as for the ‘fix,’ as you might say. I have a feeling Gizmo will initiate a targeted reset after whatever secret files he’s storing are accessed. In a sense, unlocking the secret will return him to whatever ‘normal’ was for him before. The secret itself is protected by three locks. I’ve accessed the first, but now we’ll need to unlock the first lock to get access to the second. The good news is, I do know the sequence—coordinates, coordinates, passphrase.”
“Okay,” she said. “So what do I have to do?”
“We,” Kazlo said, “are going to a set of coordinates that I’ve already identified as referencing a settlement in Diraxus’s southern hemisphere. Once we reach the access point, the first lock will be opened, and we’ll know where to go next. Once those next coordinates are reached, wherever they are, a specific phrase will be required for the last lock. Make sense?”
Zaina nodded. Finally, they were on their way to getting him fixed—not only that, but all of this was intentional. It had to be—why else would there be keys? Now she had to make sure Reida didn’t interfere in any way. She winced. Our ship’s on her ship. Are we going to have to ask for a ride?
She sighed. “So—wrinkle in the plan on our end. Looks like our ship got damaged in our escape from the cartel. Reida’s got it aboard her own right now, so she might be coming with us to Diraxus.”
Kazlo turned pale. “That is grim news, indeed.”
“I’m sorry,” Zaina said, “but don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen. If she’s willing to take us, I’m sure you could get our ship up and running by the time we get there.”
“Ship repair isn’t my strong suit,” he muttered, “but I guess I’ll see what I can do. If that’s our best option—damn.”
“Like I said, I won’t let anything happen,” Zaina said.
“I’m grateful for the sentiment,” he replied, clearly forcing a smile. His eyes darted to her leg.
“Okay,” she said, clapping her hands together. “You get whatever you need to take with you ready, and I’ll go talk to Reida. Meet us by the ship. Does that sound good?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”
“Okay, perfect!” Zaina was beyond excited—all the nonsense she’d been through to get Gizmo fixed was finally paying off.
After leaving the cave she practically skipped back to Reida’s cruiser, where Reida and Baeus were hanging out. Reida had her back leaned against one of the landing gears, bottle in hand, while Baeus hovered nearby.
“Hey there, stranger,” Reida said, raising the bottle. “Where are we headed?”
Zaina stopped and put her hand on her waist. “Is that your way of saying I don’t need to ask for a ride?”
Reida shrugged. “Captain hasn’t inquired about my whereabouts yet. I’ve got time to see this through.”
“That is very thoughtful of you,” Baeus said, “though if you are needed elsewhere, I’m sure we could repair our ship.”
“No, I’ve got what I need,” she replied. “So, where is it?”
“Diraxus,” Zaina said. “Gir’s homeworld.”
“Who?” Reida asked before taking another swig of the foul-smelling liquid.
“A friend of mine. Don’t worry about it.”
“Oh, one of your lancer buddies,” Reida said. “Right. Well, I guess I’ll go get ‘er started, then. When you’re all aboard ring me and we’ll get going.”
“Thank you, Reida,” Zaina said.
She shrugged. “Not that it makes up for before, but—you know. It’s never personal.”
Not quite sure what to make of that, Zaina turned to Baeus while Reida left to start the ship. She waited until the pirate was out of earshot.
“So, what did you two talk about?”
Baeus chuckled. “Pretty much nothing. She started working on our ship and then took a break—then you came back.”
“Huh,” Zaina said. “Well, let’s still be sharp. We need to get the ship fixed by the time we get to Diraxus. That’s her leverage over us right now.”
“You know, you could always use your lancer beacon to call for another ship. It’s not like we’re stranded.”
“I know that. But if they have to come rescue us, they’ll start asking questions. I don’t have answers I think will satisfy them.”
“Fair,” Baeus said. “I wish we could go to the Order with this. Sometimes I think they’re too sticky about things of this nature. If they found out Gir intentionally tampered with his glyph, why, they’d probably destroy Gizmo. ‘A network is only as strong as its weakest link,’ they’d say.”
Zaina sighed. “Yeah. I wish we didn’t have to do all this sneaking around. And especially considering our company—”
Baeus stifled a laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“It’s nothing, really.”
Zaina crossed her arms. The ship above them roared to life.
“Oh, fine,” Baeus replied. “You have such disdain for her, but I think she likes you. I find it amusing.”
“Trust me, you won’t find her amusing when she burns you, too,” Zaina hissed. “Look—this isn’t a game. She’ll kill you and me both and not feel a damn thing. Our priority has to be getting our ship fixed. Once we do that and she has no leverage over us, we can make our move. Until then we have to play this right or she’ll stab us in the back and kidnap Kazlo. Got it?”
Baeus, seeming a little deflated, nodded. “Yes, very well. I understand.”
“Good,” Zaina said. “Sorry if that was a little harsh, but we do need to take this seriously.”
“No, I get it,” he replied. “You’ll have to forgive me, too—I don’t have a lot of experience outside the Order’s walls. I don’t mean to intrude on your area of expertise. I’ll try to follow your instincts.”
“Thank you for that,” Zaina said. “But there’s nothing to forgive. I wouldn’t be here, on the verge of getting Gizmo fixed, if it wasn’t for you.”
“Perhaps we make a good team,” Baeus said, smiling.
Zaina returned the smile. While Reida wasn’t worth trusting, she was starting to come around on Baeus. “I think I might say so myself.”
Maybe he deserved the full truth. Zaina continued, “By the way, there’s something else.”
“Oh? What is it?”
“I think—I think, based on everything Kazlo told me, that Gir did leave something for me. I don’t know what, and I can’t even guess, to be honest. But the lengths he went to keep whatever it is secret—I think it has to be important. Like, galaxy-shaking important.”
Baeus frowned, and his brow creased. “Yes—that does make sense. Though perhaps it was something more personalized for you.”
She was taken aback by this. “I doubt it. I mean, look at everything we’ve had to go through to get to this point. I doubt Gir would ask all that just for some good-bye message.”
“Probably not,” Baeus agreed. “Either way, it seems he trusted you a great deal.”
“And I trusted him. He saved my life at least three times,” Zaina said. “Twice from one of the Eldritch’s Disciples, and once from the Eldritch itself.”
“Well,” Baeus said, “I suppose there’s only one way to find out what secrets Gizmo holds. And look—there’s Kazlo now.”
Zaina turned—Kazlo, carrying a duffel bag twice the size of his body, approached.
“We all ready?” he asked.
Zaina nodded. “Let’s be careful, now.”
The three entered Reida’s ship. Once they were all aboard Zaina pushed a small red button connected by a pipe to the intercom system.
Reida’s voice came over the speaker. “You guys all ready?”
“Yep,” Zaina said. “Take us to Diraxus. We’ll be up with the coordinates shortly.”
“Sounds good!”
Zaina took her hand off the button and turned to Baeus. “Go to the ship and see what you can find out. I’ll take Kazlo to give Reida the coordinates, and then we’ll be down to help fix it. Sound good?”
“Yes,” Baeus said.
Kazlo nodded. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Zaina turned toward the stairs at the end of the narrow entrance passage. Yeah, me too.