The P.U.L.L || #Wattys2017

Chapter 6: The Plan

Emma turned her laptop on as soon as Joshua laid his plan for them. Her objective is to hack into the airport's mainframe and register their names into the plane that they're going to board going to England. For an average hacker, this would be a challenge, since the airports maintain high security in their cyberspace. But for Emma, who had been taught by the best programmer in the world, this is child's play. Joshua glanced on her shoulder, carefully reading the binary codes that ran from the top to the bottom of the screen. Emma paid him no mind as she deftly typed a series of commands on her computer.

Meanwhile, Rick headed to the house's storage since he was assigned to get everything that they needed for the travel. He had his doubts on the plan but he knew that he had to trust Emma's talents. He managed to find the storage room after a while. After finding a set of shoulder bags, he began stuffing them with food and equipment he knew that they're going to need. He looked around the spacious storage room and something caught his attention: A map, a compass, and other navigating tools lying on top of a drawer.

We already had a couple of accidents happening to us. The worst thing that might happen to us is to get marooned on a deserted island. The possibility is highly unlikely but it's better to prepare for the worst. Rick told himself. Better safe than sorry, I guess. He quickly put everything into one of the bags.

.....

This is my first time doing this, and I only know the extended codes. Gladiola and I have been taught the hard way of coding for hacking purposes. But the two of us weren't taught the shortcuts. This might take me longer than I thought. Emma bit her lip as she began to continue with her work.

"Um, Emma, why are you doing it the hard way?" Joshua said as he watched her work.

"How do you know? And why are you telling me that? If you know a shortcut, do it then."  Emma sighed. "We've only been taught the hard way so we won't miss any steps in our coding. I don't know a thing or two about shortcuts, in other words."

"Here, hand it to me." Joshua offered.

Emma reluctantly handed her laptop to Joshua. Joshua carefully studied the codes that she had written. So, she's planning to get us tickets instead of registering our names. That's safer than my idea, I guess. Well, I'll just stick to her idea in these codes. She easily hacked the airport's mainframe. All that I need to do is put some codes to get us tickets. Joshua thought. He began to type a series of codes to the computer as Emma watched him.

"I didn't know you're as skilled as I am," Emma commented. "Who taught you how to do it?"

"It's my little secret that nobody knows, but I guess because you could be trusted, I might as well tell you," Joshua said, his eyes fixed on the laptop's screen. " I pretty much memorized everything I needed to know in the library. I dunno, but I completely remember everything I read. I never forget it as well once I read it once. I tried my best to hide it though. I purposefully get myself an average grade so as not to get suspicious. But I always maintain an A-plus so my mom won't scold me."

"Why did you do that? You could have had an easier life if you keep on getting perfect grades, you know." Emma responded. I really can't understand this guy. She thought.

"Much like everyone else, I'd like to have an ordinary high-school life, you know. I had enough extraordinary stuff as it is going on with my life." He said, his eyes still glued to the screen.

"Ah, I get it." Emma looked at the screen. Joshua's almost done with the coding. Had it been her, it would have taken her an hour or two. Still, she couldn't believe that Joshua has a lot of information in his memory bank.

Rick rejoined them as soon as he finished packing everything they needed. Apparently, he couldn't understand anything about coding so he just sat and watch as Emma and Joshua set to work.

.....

"Here, it's done," Joshua said to them. As he finished checking the codes. 

"Okay, so we head at the airport right now?" Rick asked.

"Not really necessary, the earliest available flight is still at two-o-clock in the morning." Joshua confidently said.

"And what time is it now?" Emma sarcastically said.

Then they heard it. The old grandfather's clock in the living room struck midnight. All of them got shocked at the sound at first, but when they realized that its already midnight, they immediately went outside.

"Lucky for us, my allowance is just enough to get us to the airport," Emma said as they ran towards the highway.

"You should have hacked the cabs so we could go there for free," Rick commented as he struggled to run and carry both of the bags simultaneously.

"No one can do that!" Joshua responded.

After running for a couple of minutes, they finally reached the highway. Cars whizzed past them as they look around, hoping to spot a cab on a seemingly busy highway. A ride towards the airport usually takes an hour or two but they aren't going to take any chances. If they get late, that means returning home and starting the process of hacking and coding all over again. If that happens, they would lose a relatively precious amount of time. As far as they know, something dangerous might have happened to their parents at the moment, not to mention that they don't know anything about it. Desperately, the glanced around, trying to spot a cab.

There!

From their right, a cab was heading straight towards them. They frantically signaled for it as it got nearer. Fortunately, it stopped right in front of them and they quickly hopped in.

"Where to? Everyone?" The driver asked.

"To the airport," Joshua replied as he sat on the front seat.

"Our parents are waiting," Emma added. To be rescued. She thought.

The driver started the car and drove towards the airport without saying another word. He was taken aback when he saw the three of them frantically waving at him. He began thinking that their parents must've been waiting for them for hours at the airport and that they might probably be late for their flight. He wondered if they were siblings, but he pushed it out of his mind as he picked up his speed. I couldn't afford to be late since their parents are waiting. I might get blamed if we got there late or they might reason out that I drive slow if we really get late. Either way, I'll get blamed so better avoid it as much as I can.

With that thought, the driver increased his speed.