The Empire of Ytilaer

Chapter Forty-One - Optical Snooping

  When Jax opened his eyes and crawled out of bed, in an alternate dimension, a laptop was beeping madly. Engres scrambled to his feet, stumbled into his pajama pants, and slid into his desk chair in front of his computer screen, which now depicted a bathroom mirror containing a droopy-eyed figure wearing a beard of shaving cream. He listened to see if the pseudo-emperor was saying anything, but even when he turned his volume up to one hundred percent, all he could hear was the sink turning on and off, the awkward squelch of toothpaste, and gargling. He shuddered and turned the volume back down again.

  "Good morning, Mr. Whitewood," Engres' servant, Kent, greeted as he passed through the door, bringing with him a tray of buttered toast and an assortment of tea and marmalade.

  "Morning," Engres replied, transfixed on following his son remotely as Jax changed out of his pajamas and pulled on a nice business suit.

  Kent took one glance at the screen, widened his eyes, and turned away again. "Is there anything else I can get for you, Mr. Whitewood?"

  "Nope."

  "All right. Call me if you need anything."

  Kent had been chosen by Engres after Espen informed him that he was no longer a prisoner and could continue living in his suite as a guest. Engres was allowed to choose his wait-staff, doorman/butler, and personal assistant, and no longer needed any guards at his door.

  After Jax kissed the sleeping Lucrezia on the forehead and took his briefcase off of the couch, the young man zipped down the palace's elevator, into a hovercraft, and whisked off to a large skyscraper a couple miles away, which Engres recognized as being the workplace of all the top inter-dimensional travel scientists of the empire. He took a long sip of his tea as his son hopped out of the hovercraft, walked through the doors, and was instantly greeted by a group of specialists who had been waiting for him.

  "Emperor," the three of them greeted, each giving him a low bow.

  Engres nearly gagged on his tea.

  "Morning," Jax clipped, nodding at each in turn.

  The laptop voyeur noticed that their name tags read Mr. Portlet, Head Specialist of the Dimension Portal, Mr. Voxel, Senior Designer of Police Hovercrafts, and Ms. Cabler, Chief Engineer of Circuitry Bypassing.

  "What's the current status of disabling the portal shut down?" the emperor inquired, as they all seated themselves in chairs in the lobby.

  "Well, it has proven to be slightly more problematic than we originally anticipated," Mr. Portlet began. "As you already know, your father stole a very elite brand of police hovercraft – one that's usually given to a top general."

  "I'm aware."

  "And, being a designer himself at one time, he knows how to reprogram all the circuit boards in the hovercraft with great skill, thus making it even harder for Ms. Cabler here to break into the software," Mr. Voxel added, motioning to Ms. Cabler.

  "Go on."

  "Thus, we had to go with the manual option," Ms. Cabler explained, "no hacking. It's a little slow, but I think we can have the portal open from here to Noitcif in two days."

  Engres took an annoyed bite of bread and marmalade.

  Even Jax seemed impressed. "Two days?" he breathed.