Bitten

Ch. 10

The kiss stopped eventually, and the boys stepped back awkwardly. “Um . . .” Dib said, taking a shaky breath. “S-sorr-”

“Don't say it, Dib-thing,” Zim commanded. “You have no reason to. Come on, we have work to do.” The Irken smiled and headed toward the computer, telling it what to do as Dib stood there stunned. 'He's so calm about all of this . . . does he really not care that I kissed him? Did he like it, or is he just being polite?' Thoughts buzzed around the teen's mind as he made his way over to the computer.

“What are you doing?” he asked as Zim worked away, moving images and bits of Irken code across the screen at a rapid pace.

“If Tak was sent here to take me to Irk, she must've had a mission assignment put on file. Once I finish hacking into the Irken armada's data base, I can pull her file and read all the specs of her mission. This way I can see how long she's expected to be gone and when they plan on sending back up. I don't want any more surprises today . . . bad surprises, anyway.”

Dib blinked. “Wow, I'm impressed. But how exactly are you going to hack them? Surely they aren't dumb enough to leave their files unprotected?”

“They aren't. The encryption software is based off of a series of obscure Irken history and technology. Only the programmer of the system would be able to locate and answer all of the questions correctly. Then there's the matter of activating the key to solve the encryption.”

“Then how are we gonna break the code? Hmm if we sneak into my house, we could root through all of my drives containing alien information. Combining that with your knowledge of Irken technology, we could possibly get access to the programmer's data.”

“Not a bad idea, Dib-fangs, but I have a better one.”

Dib raised his brow. “How? You said it yourself that only the programmer could properly answer all of the questions correctly. Even if you implant a sub-routine to distract the program and make it give you more time, all of our work might be for nothing!”

“Luckily for us, I happen to know the programmer.”

“Who is it? Will he cooperate?”

“She will, since she doesn't have much of a choice.” Zim said, mischief lighting up his eyes. “Once I finish getting through the second fire wall, we'll wake her up and make her help us.”

'Wake her up?' Dib thought, red eyes roaming over to the make-shift cell where Tak slept. The half-vampire groaned. “Why am I not surprised?”

A few hours later, the two sat at the kitchen table as Dib choked down a cup of coffee. It was clear that his body wanted blood, but that wouldn't stop him form pretending to be normal. The silence in the room faded as a cry rose up from the chute.

“No, no, absolutely not! I am never going to assist my target in hacking my own planet. I'd rather die! Do you hear me, Zim? I'd rather die than help you!”

The boys groaned and stared with dismay at the chute. Persuading Tak to hack into the data base was proving harder than they originally thought, as she seemed willing to endure anything so long as she could keep her loyalty to the Tallest's. It didn't matter if they pleaded, threatened her, or tried to reason with her- she wasn't having it. Admittedly, she was very loyal. However, she was also a giant pain in the ass.

“There has to be something that can motivate her,” Dib said with a weary sigh. “Something that will make her feel she has no other choice. But what?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Zim sighed. “I can't think of anyone who could persuade her to do anything against the Tallests wishes.”