Phoenix

08. Omen

​Twenty-seven minutes later, the romantic elegance of the evening was a memory. Jin and Arya were back in the belly of the agency, the air heavy with the hum of overworked servers.

​Arya was a storm of motion, but as she reached her terminal, her movements seized. Her face, still framed by the stylist's work, went pale under the harsh fluorescent lights.

​"What is going on?" Jin demanded of Jong-il.

​"I can't tell exactly," the director replied, his eyes darting between the blinking red consoles. "I was checking the last-minute mission reports when every alarm in the building went off. The computers started screaming. I tried to kill the process, but she-" he nodded toward Arya, who was staring at the screen with an intense, narrowed gaze, "-she did something to the system. It's locked me out. I have zero access."

​"Arya?" Jin asked.

​"It was an experiment," she whispered, her voice tight. "I installed a tripwire. I designed a program to monitor the NASA signal-if it identified any repeating pattern, it would trigger a hard-line emergency alarm."

​"Still the NASA signal?" Jin frowned.

​"Yes. But... it's an interstellar signal. Our terrestrial systems shouldn't find a familiar pattern in it. Not unless-" Her eyes suddenly widened, reflecting the scrolling green text. "Unless it's intentional!"

​Without another word, Arya dropped into her chair. Her fingers became a blur across the keyboard, her concentration so total that the rest of the world seemed to vanish.

​"We should go," Jong-il murmured to Jin. "She's in the zone. She won't hear us."

​Jin nodded, turning to follow the director. But they didn't even make it to the door.

​"Oh my God!"
​The shout stopped them in their tracks. Jin turned back instantly. Arya was standing again, her hands trembling slightly as she pointed at the monitor. "Come here! Quickly! Something impossible just happened!"

​"What?" Jin reached her side, his eyes scanning the chaotic lines of code.

​"This part... I can read this part!" Arya's voice shook with a terrifying mix of excitement and disbelief. "And this time, I can actually understand the meaning!"

​Jin's mind flashed back to their car ride. "You said it was impossible to understand the visual transformation of an audio signal. You said it was just noise."

​"Exactly!" Arya gripped the edge of the desk. "I'm in the dark as much as you are, but the logic is right here."

​"What does it say?"

​"I don't know the full context yet. There's something hidden in this message-a layered, incredibly complex code. But I can see specific digits. Date and time markers. There is a time-delayed command buried in this sequence."

​"What date? When?"

​Arya checked the internal log. "Four days from now. Something is scheduled to happen roughly ninety hours later."

​"Is there any way to know what?" Jin's voice was low, sensing the weight of the mystery.

​"I'd have to break the code. That's the only way." Arya looked at the screen, then back at Jin. "But I won't give you false hope. I can't break this. It is way out of my league."

​Jin's frown deepened. "You're the 'Phoenix.' You have the reputation of being the best code-breaker alive. At least try."

​"Jin..."

​"If you can't, I can contact Larry at NUMA," Jin interrupted, his mind racing. "He has full control of Venus. He can help."

Jin had a very good relationship with NUMA especially after he had participated in many of their expeditions let alone the main reason behind it was saving the life of their director once.
Not just that, they honoured him offering a position of honourary director which he obviously declined politely.
But nonetheless, he made few well wishers there including the tech genius Larry king and his supercomputer "Venus."