The two friends remained speechless during long minutes as that second line of text was blinking endlessly. They were stunned by this unexpected lock on the disk. Max and Valentia, though both extremely efficient at hacking security protocols together, did not manage to bypass that one.
The disk remained unreadable to the two young thieves.
“Thank you! Thank you very much, Val!
— What’s your…
— What’s my problem? I don’t have any prob… Are you kidding me? You put our lives in danger to steal that disk and now you can’t even play it? Max interrupted, irritated.
— I am sorry. I am really sorry, Max. This was supposed to go smoothly. Usually I can go through anything, but this is the first time such a thing is giving me such resistance. But I know why I failed this time.
— Would that be the FuturaTech, again?
— Of course, but indirectly. But the level of security used here is far out of my reach in my current state of…
— But the principle of the disk is very old and deprecated how could there be such a level of protection on it? Max thought out loud.
— Well, it did disappeared from our lives a long time ago. That's certainly why they kept it as a way to store important data in physical form: current machines are unable to read it and you cannot find any antiques that could run it. Only custom-made machines like the one I built are able to play them.
— Then how do we decrypt it? Where can we find a key or someone who could hack it?
— No one would be able to hack into it, it is a highly-adaptive biologically-protected system and there is no human that could create a key for it. No. We need to find that key.
— If they have not destroyed it yet… Max said.
— No, they wouldn't do such a thing. If they had destroyed the key, they would also have destroyed the disk because it would be useless without the key.
— So… Where are we going next? The FuturaTech headquarters? Max asked.
— Are you crazy? That would be a suicide mission. Their security system is far too advanced for anyone and I am not even up to date on that subject.
— So what’s the plan, Val?
— We will go to the PAC.
— The… What is that?
— The Public Archive Center, the young girl answered, proud of her abbreviation.
— Oh, okay. Why did you have to call it that?
— I... Anyway!
— But why there? You really think they would have stored the key in plain sight among other archive content?
— The president of the Archive Center was amongst the leaders at the time of this disk. People at the time said he stood up against the Universal Government, which got him evicted from it and then put in charge of the PAC. Surely this was some kind of punishment by the president of the FuturaTech. Therefore I think he could have some interesting information for us on the key.
— You’ll go without me! Max said, scared. I don’t want to risk my life again for a stupid key we aren’t even sure to find there. This is a highly protected facility, how can you even be sure he has information?
— I am not. But I follow my gut on this one.
— Your gut? Max exploded with rage. Why am I not dreaming now! If only I could wake up and all this would just turn out to be another nightmare! I would…
— Stop that, Max! You are coming with me! Why? Because it is too late for you. I dragged you with me into this and I also may need your hacking skills again. Plus, your curiosity is already piqued.
— True... Max nodded reluctantly.
— You will not be able to stop there. We will leave in the beginning of the afternoon but for now, go to sleep. You did not rest all night and you will need to be strong.”
Miffed by how much Valentia knew him, Max threw himself on the bed, and buried himself under the sheets to try and get a bit of sleep. There was no need to argue with her, she had already won. And Yes, he really wanted to know what was in that disk. Also, he felt like he would never forgive himself if something were to happen to Valentia had he not gone with her.
Valentia took some time to look up for the PAC building plans on the network, as well as all security systems in place to guard the surroundings. The PAC was a heavily guarded building, but it had many weaknesses in its foundations, openings and especially in its protection against intruders. But the sole fear of the FuturaTech and the Universal Government had kept people away from breaking in for centuries. Plus, who would want to break in an archive center? The young woman carefully prepared the entry plan, taking into account the handicap Max was to her, before she finally decided to get something to eat. She lied down on the living room sofa to review her plan and bulletproof it without waking up Max, but she fell asleep after a few minutes.
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