赤裸裸的滑稽故事

“So, she bugs the system for months, almost destroys it, and then conveniently she has the only way to fix it? Did I get that all right?” Ashleigh asked not, bothering to hold back her irritation.

“I mean it’s a little more nuanced than all that,” Nessa said, “but yea, basically.”

Ashleigh looked back and forth between Caleb, Galen, Fiona, and Nessa.

“Am I seriously the only one that sees a problem in this?” she asked.

“I understand where you are coming from, and I don’t like it either,” Fiona replied.

“Thank you,” Ashleigh sighed.

“But,” Fiona sighed, “it does seem like our only option.”

“The amount of work we would lose… it’s not insignificant,” Galen said. “Just in the research we’ve gathered about the strange rogue attacks and the Fae in Winter… if we can save it, we need to.”

Ashleigh shook her head.

“Galen, you of all people I expected to agree with me. You didn’t trust her before you even knew what she had done.”

“That’s true,” Galen admitted. “And I don’t trust her now, but it’s not about whether I trust her or not, it’s about what is best for Summer.”

“There is no way this was done without some kind of backdoor trick for her to gain even further access to our systems,” she said. “There is a war coming, and you guys want to just open the doors and let Alice, a spy, who has already almost destroyed us once, waltz right in?”

“Ash, it’s not that simple,” Caleb said._.

“Seems like it is, we just don’t do what she wants. Simple.”

“Galen’s right, we would lose a lot of very important research if we did a full system wipe to remove the bugs,” Caleb said. “Not to mention, it would take time, and during that time, a lot of our everyday jobs, tasks, and quality of life would be affected. Our people would suffer.”

“But Caleb, she cannot be trusted!” Ashleigh growled.

“No one is saying that we trust her,” Caleb said, grabbing her shoulders gently. “Nessa will look at every line of code, double check everything, she will run tests, set up securities. But, we will do everything we can to make this a secure decision.”

“You guys thought you got all of her bugs out before, and they were there for months. So what makes you think this will be different.”

“Well… I mean, I found them pretty quick…” Nessa said quietly. “I wasn’t here before…”

Ashleigh sighed.

“Ash,” Caleb called her attention back to him, lowering his voice for only her to hear. “You said that Lian told you that it is important that you discover what my father learned.”

Ashleigh nodded.

“A system restore will wipe everything,” Caleb said. “Including his partition.”

Ashleigh swallowed. She handed thought about that. She assumed that they had already lost the files that Clara was able to access, it was unfortunate, but it wasn’t the end of the world.

They never cracked the partition, so in her mind, it wasn’t part of what was at risk now.

She sighed.

“If we use what Alice gave us, it keeps the partition safe, and it also restores the files we already lost,” Caleb said.

“But how do we know she won’t corrupt, alter, or steal the partition once it’s open…” Ashleigh asked. “How do we know that the partition isn’t her ultimate goal. Maybe she sent this ‘solution’ when she realized that the partition hadn’t been cracked yet.”

Caleb sighed.

“We don’t know,” he said. “Any number of things could go wrong if we do this. But we do know what will go wrong if we don’t.”

“If it helps…” Nessa said softly. “Once we implement the fix and systems are all in the green… I think I can secure the partition away from the network just in case there is anything left hunting for it.”

“How?” Caleb asked. “My understanding is that it is buried within the network. So you wouldn’t be able to move it without first accessing it, and once you’ve done that, assuming there is a bug, it will have access too.”

“Sort of. It’s hidden within the network, but if I can find it first, I can move it still completely locked down into a mirror system. They would only need to be connected during the transfer. Once it’s moved over, I can run a full security sweep and kill any little tag along if necessary before I get to work cracking that safe.”

“But how would you find it?” he asked.

Nessa smiled proudly.

“With my new pet.”

***

Axel sighed and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples.

He had been in talks with the Alpha of Frostbite for two days already, and they didn’t seem to be getting any closer to a resolution.

There was so much hostility in the room they were barely able to have a proper conversation, much less a negotiation before one side or the other started making threats.

Frostbite was a pack of wolves that, much like Broken Crag, leaned heavily to one-half of themselves. The wolf.

They were known to spend every full moon entirely shifted from sunset to sunrise. Giving in completely to the whims and urges of their wolf.

In their human form, many members of the pack had taken to filing down their teeth and growing their nails into sharp points, giving them a feral and aggressive appearance. Their tempers were short, and their diplomacy was almost nonexistent.

But even knowing all of that before they sat down at the table, Axel was having a hard time not simply jumping across and wringing their throats.

“Can I get you anything, my Alpha?” Saul asked.

“Please, just call me Axel,” he sighed.

“Can I get you anything, Axel?”

Axel took a deep breath.

“Patience, tolerance, if we’re out of those, maybe just a flamethrower… that seems good… I’ll take a flamethrower.”

“Apologies, I think I left that in my other bag,” Saul smiled, offering Axel a cup with steam rising. “I can offer you hot chocolate instead.”

“Hot chocolate?” Axel questioned. He looked down at the cup, sniffing the sweet scent.

He leaned his head back and saw the golden flecks in her chocolate eyes sparkling back at him. A soft smile spread across his lips. Followed shortly by a heavy sadness.

“What made you think to offer me this?” he asked, taking the cup in his hand. “Wouldn’t it normally be a coffee or a tea?”

“Perhaps,” Saul said. “But I have known you your entire life. You are not a coffee or tea drinker. On the contrary, chocolate is your calming taste.”

“My calming taste?” Axel laughed.

“Yes,” Saul replied. “For me, it’s garlic.”

“Garlic?” Axel asked with surprise.

“Yes,” Saul smiled softly, taking a sip of his tea. “When Pearl was a pup, her grandmother taught her to bake bread. But the only kind she was ever interested in making, was garlic bread. Her grandmother tried different kinds of sweet breads or different flavors of breads. But it didn’t matter. Each time, little Pearl would just make her garlic bread. A habit she continues to this day.”

“So, it’s her that calms you, not the garlic,” Axel said.

“Of course,” Saul replied. “But the scent of garlic, makes me think of her. Even if I am exhausted, hurt, stressed, that smell calms my heart.”

Axel smiled and nodded. Taking a sip of the sweet warmth.

“I am curious about something,” Saul said. “If it’s not too personal a question.”

“What is that?” Axel asked.

“The chocolate,” he said. “How did the kindness of one little girl leave such an impression on you?”

“What?” Axel asked, his eyes widened, and his heart quickened. How did Saul know about Alice? “What do you mean?”

“I’m sorry,” Saul said, looking away. “I didn’t mean to pry.”

“No, it’s fine… I’m just not sure I know what you’re talking about,” Axel said. “What little girl?”

Saul tilted his head and narrowed his eyes for a brief moment.

“Do you really not remember?” he asked.

Axel shook his head.

“After your… accident,” Saul began, referring to Axel’s scars. “Your parents ensured you always had a guard at the hospital. So the morning after, I was that guard.”

Axel remembered being in the recovery room at the Blood Moon. There wasn’t much to remember. Mostly just in and out of consciousness, seeing his parents, and always someone standing at the door.

“A little girl came to the recovery room. She seemed to have been a patient as well, she said that she had met you briefly, that you were her friend. I wasn’t going to let her in, but she said she just wanted to leave you something sweet, to forget the sadness.”

Axel clenched his jaw, as he saw the little girl he had met, his Alice, approaching his bedside. Crutches under her arms, bandages littered over her arms, and face.

“I was touched by her kindness, so I allowed her to place a candy bar beside your bed. It was from then on, that chocolate seemed to have become a source of comfort for you.”

“Sweet dreams, sweet boy,” Little Alice whispered. “I’ll find you again someday.”