Chapter 123 Chapter 123
Stanley's POV
I was sitting by the counter when Nolan called to let me know he was on the porch. He voice sounded smooth and even like he had everything under control, but there was a heaviness behind it that propelled me faster than I should have reacted. I opened the door and saw him with his bag on his shoulder. His eyes were clear, scanning, like he was already warned up, but he smiled at me briefly.
"Thanks for dropping by," I said, stepping aside to let him in.
"No problem. Let's get through what she left us," he said. His voice was low but there wasn't anything quiet about it. He sounded ready to work.
He walked straight up to the table and dropped the bag on the wood. He opened it up and started to remove things. A laptop, wire coiled tidily, small gadgets that looked ordinary but I could tell they weren't. They were handled with care, laid out in an order, like the tools of a surgeon getting ready for an operation.
I was standing there, hands in pockets. My chest tight.
"You can sit, you know," Nolan growled without looking up.
I shook my head. "I'm fine."
The thing is, I couldn't sit. It was funny that it was the guest that was offering me a sit. The air in the room was too heavy. I brought the system and dropped it there and the sight of it reminded me of everything it contained. All the things she had worked on, maybe all the things she could died for. The idea turned my stomach.
Nolan inserted the drive into his system. The screen lit up with codes and immediatelyI sighed. Nolan leaned in close, his face inches from the light, fingers held steady on the keyboard. He typed quickly, paused, made adjustments and typed again.
"She wasn't negligent," he said after a moment.
I lifted my head. "What are you saying?"
That is heavy encryption. AES-256. Military grade. And stacked. She stacked them on top of each other.
I was more amazed than confused. I furrowed my brow, frustrated at the tech speak. "What does that mean, exactly?"
"What that mean, exactly, is that she didn't want anyone just picking this up. And it means, too, that if I press too hard, the system will trigger a purge procedure."
I moved in closer. "A purge procedure?
He finally looked at me and scowled. "How are you with Liana but know almost nothing about our world?”
I chuckled. “I do, but not this department.”
“Thats a relief.” He said and we laughed it off. Being a man was a lot. We had somehow found a way to laugh in this situation. “But back to business,” he cut my train of thought. “It's like a clean sweep. The instant it senses a calculation error or brute force break, all will be one. No do overs."
I rattled my fists together. I could feel my throat tighten, as if someone was clenching their fist there.
"So how likely is it?" I asked.
Nolan shrugged barely, eyes back on the screen. "You don't want me to say it."
The silence that followed pressed against my chest and the room constricted. The soft whine of his machine lingered in the air. I read the green and white lines of text running across the black screen, but they might have been printed in another language. My mind returned to Serena. Definitely a cautious one. Always planning five moves ahead. Now dead in the mind, Nolan could barely access the stuffs. We needed her real self.
Minutes passed. Nolan's focus was unyielding. He muttered to himself now and then, soft words, numbers and letters in order, as if speaking to the system itself. I paced back and forth behind him. Every strike of a key startled me. Every pause made my chest tighten.
The screen flashed and Norlan made a sound.
"I have fragments," he said to me. "Not the documents themselves. Just headers… Metadata."
I bent over his shoulder. My eyes cleared until the blur of text was visible. File names. Interrupted, cut off, but there. One read "Strictly Confidential." Another had Serena's initials before breaking down into symbols.
My heart was beating in my chest. This was proof that what we needed was inside.".
"Can you open them?" My tone was rough.
Nolan shook his head. "Not yet. The encryption is like glass. You touch it the wrong way and it shatters. All I can do now is examine the edges."
I stared at the screen. The urge to snatch his computer and slam it open was so strong, I could feel my hands shaking. It was within reach. All that she had struggled for. All that we bled for. And yet, it was too far, locked away.
I was useless. Stood there, waiting. Protecting Serena had been my purpose for so long. Even after she was dead, it was the only thing I could hold onto. But now someone else was fighting her last battle, and all I could do was stand on the sidelines.
"You have to get it," Nolan whispered. His voice cut through my mind. "This system is alive. She programmed it to strike back. Without Serena's key, I cannot go on. And if I risk it, you're out of luck."
I dragged my hand across my face. I hurt here, in my chest. I was too full of pressure. I needed to hit something. Break something. Scream until my throat ripped raw. She was too close. The truth was too close.
Nolan kept typing a few minutes longer, tentative, exploratory, then he sat back. He closed his laptop partially and looked at me.
You've only got one shot at this," he said to me. His voice was sharp, definitive. "With or without Serena, this code is limited, if we don't get log in soon, the timer she set might expire."
The words hit me like a hammer.
I nodded, though my throat was dry. I could barely breathe. I wasn't sure if I was agreeing with him or if I was just trying not to fall over him.
The truth was simple. We had come so far, and Serena and her system were our only map.