Silvertroll

The Codex

Alicia rips open the plastic bag and scatters the contents on the kitchen table. Bailey looks on, smelling like trash, having earned Alicia respect by getting knee-deep in the garbage with her.

"I'm finding it hard to believe he would do this to you," says Bailey, a continuation of the chat they had earlier.

Alicia regrets opening up to her. Her other friends within the force were few and even to them, she'd never express any of her personal issues. But she can't help it, "I've given him three days. After that, I'm done."

"Oh," Bailey seems surprised by her hard stance.

Alicia searches through the rubbish, focusing on finding the notebook. "I told Nathan not to touch anything, and what does he do? He just doesn't get it."

"He's being selfish," adds Bailey.

Alicia continues scavenging. "Damn right, he's being selfish."

"It's not fair on you. Leaving you to take this on all by yourself."

Hearing the words out loud unleashes Alicia anger, "Okay, can you stop. I know. Okay. I know."

"I'm sorry," Bailey backs down.

"No, I'm sorry," backtracks Alicia. "I just can't think about that at the moment. I just need to find it."

"What are we looking for?"

"The contents of Julian's bin is in here. I told Nathan not to throw anything out."

Bailey joins her sifting through the rubbish.

Alicia says, "You're right, he's being an ass."

"Look," Bailey offers, "from what I can see, he's suffering from severe depression. It's causing him anxiety, extreme anger... paranoia."

"What do you mean paranoia?"

Bailey hesitates.

"Paranoid over what?" presses Alicia.

"I don't think it's the right time to discuss this."

Alarm bells start ringing inside her cop head, "What's Nathan paranoid about?"

"Nothing."

"What aren't you telling me?

Bailey pauses before explaining, "He's convinced it wasn't an accident."

The words cut her like a knife. Alicia glares at her colleague, horrified at what motive lay behind all this. "What?"

"He's wrong."

"Why would he think that?"

Bailey explains, "He's grieving, Alicia. He's still in shock. Hell, you're in shock. We're all in shock."

"Is that what he's been doing?"

Bailey seems reluctant to answer, "He's been pushing for an investigation. We've done everything. He's wrong."

"Is that why he delayed the funeral? Is that why he's been behaving like such a fucking jerk?

Detective Bailey reaches over and touches her on the shoulder. "He needs help. Your husband is a ticking time bomb."

Alicia sits down, her stunned brain floating in her head, causing her nausea to rile her stomach.

"He's been getting more delusional each time I interview him. I'm concerned he's going to get violent."

The words bounce inside Alicia's head as she spots the corner of the tattered notebook hiding among the broken pieces of red glass. Crumpled, stained, and scribbled over, the cover is marked with the word CODEX. She reaches over to pull the dog-eared notebook out.

"And if he does," adds Bailey, "the way I see it, God help us all."

"I need to do something." Alicia holds the notebook to her chest as she hurries back to the house.

"Okay," says Bailey, "I'll let you get on with it." She follows her to the front door. "Why is that so important?"

"It's my son's."

The detective nods and turns to leave. Alicia hastens inside and goes to look through the window. She watches the detective meet up with the other policeman. Bailey opens the door to the squad car. Before getting in, she pauses to look at the house, her face clearly concerned.

Alicia waits for the squad car to leave, then turns and stomps up the stairs to Julian's room. She sits down and glares at the computer rig, at the login prompt, the notebook trembling in her hands. Alicia opens the Codex and sifts through the pages. Handwritten scribble page after page, until she comes across a title - Hex Password Calculator.

Alicia grabs a pen and reads the Codex.

Question One: Priority?

Alicia flips through the book and runs her finger down the page, a list of words under a heading - Priority Catalogue. From highest priority down, the list reads...

Tutankhamun.

Orpheus

Stockholm

Babylon

Marigold

Alicia selects the highest grade and flips the page to the next question.

Question Two: Identity?

"What is the identity of the account?" she reads. Sitting back she ponders the question. She looks at the computer rig, remembering Julian giving it a name. Alicia scrolls through the Codex for...

...a schematic of the house. Spanning four pages, each room is crisscrossed with lines; a network linking all the devices within the household, with each node allocated a name. She works out which is Julian's room and reads the name of the largest node.

Heptameros.

Alicia goes back to the questions.

Question Three: What are the first three letters. Capitalise.

Questions Four: What are the corresponding keypad numbers?

Question Five: What are the corresponding keypad special characters?

Question Six: What is the alphanumeric sum?

Fair enough, concludes Alicia as she begins typing into the screen. She enters in the highest graded word and is rejected; wrong password.

She chooses the next grade...

orpheusHEP4337$##&19

The central monitor changes into a large logo, HELLSCAPE, surrounded by flames and temples and demons. Alicia waits for the software to load. A prompt on the screen requests a confirmation to link [Neechat] with [Hellscape].

Alicia hesitates, then clicks 'yes'.