Code Lyoko: Revolutions and Evolutions

Chapter 56

AN: I thank all of you for your readership and reviews. I appreciate all my reviewers whom I have contacted and given me honest feedback. I thank God for his help in making what I believe to be a perfect launch point for what is to come. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I'll see you next time.

Pagliacci-11.

Anthea was in her office. It was just after seven o'clock in the morning.

Anthea looked at the sun, the fiery rays as they shined elegantly through her

office window. Silently as she thought, "Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning. Hmm. We'll see."

Her mobile rang, and Anthea looked at the number, it was Akiko. She accepted the call, "How'd you get this number?"

"I have my methods. You're not the epitome of the specter as you'd like to be. Want to hear the latest?"

"I assume that's why you called. You were never one for idle chat. Alright, give me the rundown."

"Very well. We had a few investors on the Assendorp angle pull out and their associated faces on the board. Unfortunately for us, this was well-timed. These investors are very evenly spread, yet it would be hard to tell just who our friends are. The investors that left did not leave at once but in a staggered fashion. Either way, I think North-Gate saw something was up and so didn't take the bait."

Anthea took a drink of the nearby coffee and suddenly spat the coffee back into the cup, "Oh, that's awful!"

"I know. The finance committee won't be pleased—"

"No, not that, my coffee! For goodness sake! Did a colorblind one-armed orangutan make this swill?! Ugh!"

"Hey, Prima Donna, focus, will you?" Akiko said somewhat angrily, "There are more pressing matters than a cup of coffee happening. You were confident that North-Gate would scoop up Assendorp claims in the agricultural sector, and they didn't. Additionally, some of our own investors were hesitant after unnecessary protractions to flush out our enemy. Even though they knew this was your plan, you went too slow with the process. Despite knowing your reasoning, those on higher levels of investment firms saw this threat as a threat that likely didn't exist."

"Oh, so it's my fault, is it? I was confident, but I wasn't absolutely certain. I made an emphasis on that point in my report. I told Marcus there was a good chance it would happen, but I never said I was certain."

"Regardless, we lost the Hans. Anthea, you're a great commander. But people upstairs, they want you to move. With the demonstration of the cannon that was testified by Gupta, we know North-Gate's active. We know they're aggressive. We equally know they're going to target the last two supercomputers in our possession once where they figure out where they are."

"Yeah, Gupta went a bit far in her test phases. We'd have to change the energy output signals to camouflage them. Unfortunately, that takes time for those output signals to be overwritten. Until replaced, they emit the same signal. We could shut them down until we can replace the output, that is an option."

"It is an option, yes. But not ideal for upstairs. If we turned them off, we'd lose a lot of our calibration data and frankly, Anthea, the bosses won't take the loss. Because the threshold they've reached in the last six years is too important to sacrifice."

There was a click on the line, and Anthea went to the nearby wall and plugged in a jack, "Clear." She said.

Let me tell you something, you didn't hear this from me, but it doesn't matter if those upstairs lose the supercomputers. Their plans are much bigger than that. That's why I switched over to the secure line. It doesn't matter. The supercomputers are nothing more than a contingency plan if their main endeavor doesn't work. They care about their investors because their investors will pave the way for a whole new realm of interconnectivity, the likes of which we've never seen. They're focused more on the viable future. Really, you're just the arm to keep the backup safe. You're a key master. No more, no less."