Code Lyoko: Revolutions and Evolutions

Chapter 16

Jeremy awoke out of very peaceful and restful sleep. He got up out of his bed gently so as not to disturb Aelita and investigated the search to zero in on the tracking signals. As he checked the data, he was very much surprised at what he saw. The program had taken a lot longer to lock onto the signals than he anticipated. As he ran a system diagnostic while the search ran, he soon discovered the reason for this anomaly. 

The signal, while broadcasting was subject to a splinter signal. Every half hour the program would get closer and closer before more than half of his work being reset. Jeremy wrote down the coordinates factoring in how far he had gotten before each splinter. Factoring in the digital signature and the coordinates on the globe as best he could Jeremy, narrowed down the search to somewhere within the territory of the French and German border, somewhere as best he could tell between Metz and Darmstadt.

Jeremy recalibrated the search engine to hone in on the new parameters and launched the search within the area. He watched and waited, closer and closer it came until once more, the signal splintered.

Jeremy chuckled, thinking to himself, "This is like cyber-limbo. How low can you go?"

Jeremy locked in the new parameters before the cut-off and homed in once more this time; he had narrowed the signal down to twelve blocks. Putting his head in his hand he contemplated. Patching into more of a domestic search, he punched in the twelve-block coordinates, and using satellite feed, Jeremy looked into what was available for the search area. Scanning each pane, Jeremy looked for large enough to not only house the super-computer but to camouflage its energy readings through thermal imaging. 

There were five significant candidates: An underground train, linked to it nearby were various subterranean cafes for commuters, above ground was a water-treatment plant, up in the far east of his search; there was also an automobile manufacturing plant, and to the far west, was what appeared to be a maximum-capacity greenhouse.

Jeremy reclined in his chair and said to himself, "So, in any one of these areas, the computer can potentially be. So, one more time, I have to plug in the variables to zero in on the location. So—"

Jeremy plugged in the variables as well as the numerical consistency in the splintering of the signal, a window that in itself grew smaller and smaller by one-fourth of a degree. He rationalized that if he could calculate the next split before it happened, that he could isolate and extract a hard location down to the very block and from that, have a more precise educated guess as to which energy signature to focus on for the supercomputer's most likely location. Once his computations were finished, Jeremy activated the search and the correlation between the tracker data emission and the energy signature correlated in the very gentlest of overlaps but its location, far more precise than he'd hoped. Jeremy saw the screen automatically pan and zero in on the tracer signal. It was sandwiched in-between the restaurants and the underground tube station.

"There you are," Jeremy thought, "But why sandwiched in that exact location?"

Jeremy typed in the location and zoomed in from the satellite feed. As the lens focused more and more on that area, Jeremy's eyes went wide. "So that's it." he thought, "Smart fucking plan, John, not smart enough, though."

Jeremy wrote down the coordinates of the super-computer location, and luckily for him, it was just inside the peripheral French territory so he could act using his program for military acquisition. But he had to be careful. Jeremy knew he couldn't just issue the order; it wasn't that easy. He knew, however, the main element of what needed to be done. All it would do as far as the overall general public was concerned is take out communications for the better part of an hour. But that wouldn't do. 

What needed to be done instead to get the super-computer back as it was, was to ensure that even with the super-computer uprooted in its new form, that a significant disruption could be circumvented through directing traffic into another source to provide at best a hiccup in communications, not an hour-long blackout.