Tempest: The Champion

Phase 10, part 3

Katerina

We wake up in a small, confined room whose only furniture are four plank beds and a bathroom in the corner. A large metal door isolate us from the outside world.

"Shit. The detention cell," Ryan answers my unspoken question.

I realize our detention is justified since we were walking through restricted areas. But I have a feeling it's not only for this simple reason. Someone knew what are we doing and wanted to stop us.

The small window on the upper part of the door opens. We see two pairs of eyes behind them - intense green eyes highlighted by a thick black eyeliner and meek dark eyes behind glasses. "Did I get the right ones?" we hear rough, coarse female voice belonging to the person with eyeliner.

"Yes, I remember the man," a quiet, timid voice replies. "The girl is probably with them, too."

"Célia Thibault!" Ryan lashes out. "You snitched on us! Why?"

"I'm sorry, it's nothing personal," Célia, Nightingale's partner, replies. "I was thinking about our conversation. I don't really care if Valentina uses illegal means to win. I can't afford to lose the money she makes. I can't let you disclose her."

"Shit!" Ryan bangs his fist on the metal door, then wails in pain and shakes the bruised hand.

"Couldn't say it better," Julia, the green-eyed woman with rasping voice, replies. "Goodbye. The Wardens will be here soon. Have a good time explaining! Everyone will believe your tear-jerking story about Nightingale cheating in Neoclash."

Both women leave.

"There has to be a way out," I say. "We're not just gonna wait for the Wardens, are we?"

"That bitch took my pentop," Ryan rages. Then, his face slowly turns into a smirk. "But fortunately, she took the wrong one." He opens up his jacket and unzips an invisible pocket on the inner side. From there, he pulls out the small electronic device.

"I... I thought you carry your pentop in the sleeve on your belt," I say.

"I do, but it's a cheap model," Ryan explains. "In case someone wanted to take or steal my pentop, they'd take the visible one, and that's not a big loss. This one," he shows me the hidden pentop, "contains all the useful toys I've developed. Eight terrabytes memory, software compatibile with lab equipment, several programs some may consider controversal. I used this one to analyze Svetlana's blood where I found the braker. It's my most faithful assistant and it would be a tragedy if I lost it. So I use a decoy."

"That's... smart!" I appreciate Ryan's foreseeing abilities.

The pentop is already open and Ryan rapidly writes some kind of code. "Skilled Wardens would probably find it. This one was an amateur," he mutters. "Now we have to hurry until she gets out of reach. I can see her own pentop in the database of nearby devices. If I crack its security fast enough, I'd be able to download her outcoming text messages and maybe we'll find what we need."

A moment later, Ryan gives a victorious smile as the download progress bar shows up. However, it stops roughly at one third. "Damn, she's out of reach," Ryan groans. "But we have the latest messages. See? As long I have the technology, I can do anything."

"Really?" I say. "Then let us out of here."

"Zoya has a better comeback. She says except to get a girlfriend," Ryan starts to examine the door's lock. "It's a standard, high-security electronic lock. They have one big weakness - they're wirelessly connected to the central control panel. I have a program which can crack its security, but only for roughly fifteen seconds. Then, the security protocols will find the leak and block this device."