赤裸裸的滑稽故事

Ashleigh stared at the screen, but all she saw were a lot of letters, numbers, and symbols written in lines all over the page.

“I don't know what any of that is,” she said. “Shouldn't there be folders?”

“Well, if this drive held actual documents, yes, it should,” Alice replied. “But that's not what this is.”

Alice turned the computer back and typed several more commands before pulling the drive and closing the laptop. She handed the USB back to Ashleigh.

“So… what is it?”

“This is a key,” Alice replied. “There is definitely information on there. But the only way to access it is by merging its code with the code of another program. One designed to read this thing.”

“What program? And how exactly could you figure that out when Nessa wasn't able to after all this time?”

“Well, I doubt Nessa has spent much time snooping in Summer systems and memorizing code sections in different simulations,” Alice sighed. “But at least one of me has. I recognized it pretty quick. Then I just had to do a little digging to create the missing pieces and prep the key for use.”

“So, this is part of a simulation?” Ashleigh asked, remembering the journal mentioning a simulation that Caleb was being trained on.

“It's connected to a simulation. So, all you have to do is run it while keeping the drive with you. It will connect and show you the message.”

“That's all?” Ashleigh asked.

“Yea,” Alice replied. “Pretty simple to figure out. As long as you know exactly what you were supposed to do, which simulation it connects to, and have admin rights to the program. I might not have mentioned that only the person who owns the program can actually use the key to see the message.”

“So, Caleb?”

Alice nodded.

Ashleigh took a deep breath and nodded. She suddenly felt a weight easing off her shoulders. There were still things to do and questions to answer, but this was a step in the right direction. She looked at Alice and smiled.

“Thank you,” she said.

Alice grinned and turned away, pretending to be more interested in the wall.

“I had nothing else going on right now,” she replied.

An hour after Ashleigh had left, Axel returned.

He found her staring at the computer screen.

“What are you looking at?” he asked, coming over and kissing the top of her head.

Alice smiled and reached up to him. He leaned down to hug her with his chin resting on her shoulder.

Axel glanced at the computer screen. He wasn't proficient in computers. He had some basic knowledge, but that was all. What he saw was a blank screen. A white page with a blinking cursor.

“What is this?” he asked.

Alice swallowed.

“I'm not sure…” she said softly. “I think… I was trying to make something. But… the how got away from me.”

Axel clenched his jaw. He kissed her cheek and smiled.

“Let's find something else to do, alright?”

“I helped your sister,” Alice said. “I solved her puzzle.”

“What puzzle?” Axel asked.

“It was a computer puzzle,” Alice replied. She swallowed before speaking again. “I was able to do that… but now….”

She stared at the blinking cursor.

“I don't know what I was trying to do.”

“Come on,” Axel said, pulling her to stand.

Alice stood and turned to look up at him.

Axel smiled and touched her chin.

“The doctor said you needed to rest,” he whispered. “The more you overwork yourself, the worse it will get.”

“Until it's the worst,” Alice smiled with tears in her eyes.

“No,” Axel shook his head. “No. He said that it could be temporary. The blood Bell gave you has already healed more than they expected.”

Axel held her face in his hands, gently stroking her jaw with his thumbs.

“We're going home, Alice, and you're going to rest,” he said. “In time, you'll get better.”

Alice leaned into his hand and smiled. She took a deep breath.

“No rest for the wicked, sweet boy. I still haven't given you my report on the rogues.”

***

Once Ashleigh had explained what Alice had told her, and he had gotten over the shock of Ashleigh asking Alice for help. Caleb had immediately taken her to one of the simulation rooms.

“My dad was the one that originally designed the program you saw when you were here for the exchange,” he said as it was loading up. “He told me there had been rumors of fae sightings. He was worried that someday they might come back.”

The forest scene loaded around them. The Treant she had seen massacre the first team appeared before her eyes. She gasped, remembering the attack in Winter.

Because of this simulation, she and many others survived that night. If she hadn't witnessed the team’s mistakes and learned from them, she had no doubt she would have died. Even with the aid that Caleb and his wolves had provided.

“It's alright,” Caleb whispered. “I adjusted the settings to peaceful; he won't attack.”

Ashleigh nodded.

Caleb looked around at the scene, but nothing was happening. It all looked the same to him.

“I don't get it,” he whispered. “Am I supposed to do something?”

“She just said to start the program and that you would be the only one able to access the message. Maybe you need to be holding it?” Ashleigh replied, offering Caleb the USB.

He took it, and almost instantly, the program recognized the key. Before him, a floating transparent laptop appeared.

It asked him a few simple questions that Ashleigh recognized as a security feature to verify it was him.

The laptop disappeared, and all around them, pictures, documents, and charts all appeared floating in the air.

Ashleigh stepped forward to one of the pictures. She recognized it from the drawing and her father's description, it was a fae mound. Beside it, she began to read a document. This was one of the mounds near Broken Crag that Clara had said was missing. Further in the report, she saw where Cain noted that he had successfully destroyed the mound.

“These must be his research pages, all his notes, his ideas….” Caleb whispered as he looked around him at all the pages and images.

“It's amazing,” Ashleigh said. “I wonder if we can download and print them out for Clara to help us sort through it all.”

Caleb reached out and touched one of the documents, and a menu popped up. After a few more options, he found what he was looking for.

“I just sent a full copy of this to my personal drive. We'll be able to look at it all from there.”

“That's great,” Ashleigh said, looking around them. “But Alice said there would be a message.”

“It must be in these documents somewhere,” Caleb said, moving from one document to another.

Suddenly everything disappeared, including the forest and the Treant.

“What happened?” asked Ashleigh looking at Caleb.

“I don't know, maybe–”

But he didn't finish his sentence. Instead, he stared silently with eyes wide behind Ashleigh.

She turned around and gasped at what she saw.

A man who very much resembled Caleb, with glasses and a silver streak or two in his auburn hair, stood smiling at them.

“Hello, son,” he said in a powerful but gentle voice.