Prodigy (Complete)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Aris passed through one of the living rooms and walked slowly into the adjoining room. All the lights in the house were off, but there was a glow from the digital paintings on the walls, which continuously cycled through a slideshow of classic art.

He proceeded into a grand ballroom that had large decorative rugs stretched out across polished white marble tiles. The ceiling extended high and had exposed wooden beams. A fancy crystal chandelier hung in the centre. It was the epitome of modern-day opulence and was truly spectacular. If Aris was not on an important mission, he would have liked to take his time looking through each room. He kept moving.

As he made his way through the house, it became quite clear that no one was at the compound – not a guardian, chef, groundskeeper, or maid was there. The place looked like it had been abandoned. After a brief investigation of the compound, Aris dictated the following message:

‘I’m at the house and there doesn’t appear to be anyone here. I have a strange feeling about this.’

On the top floor, overlooking an exquisite garden was the Leader’s office. Aris entered the room, walked over to the desk, and sat in the plush leather chair. I can’t believe I’m sitting in the Leader’s office, Aris thought. It was a surreal experience for him.

A large picture hung on the wall behind the Leader’s desk. It was a portrait of a man who bore a striking resemblance to the Leader. The dapper man wore a suit and had the bone structure of a god. Below the handsome man was a placard affixed to the frame. Trevor Morrison, Aris read. Hmm, never heard of him.

Aris cracked his knuckles then proceeded to get to work. Although he hardly considered himself to be an expert hacker, he knew enough to enable him to bypass most password encryption protocols. He first paired his access pod with the computer and then using a simple hack was able to determine the most frequently used alphanumeric combination at the start of each session. The computer produced a jumble of letters and numbers, which appeared on Aris’ access pod: UY0P9LSO2M9. Aris stared at the scrambled mess and shook his head. He separated the numbers and instructed his access pod to rearrange the remaining letters into words. Seconds later, the results were displayed.

SLUMPY – SYLPUM – PULSMY – MYSLUP

The words that came back were gibberish. Aris abandoned that approach and reevaluated the configuration on his own.

“What am I missing?” he pondered.

He took another looked at the entire alphanumeric combination: UY0P9LSO2M9. After studying it carefully, he realized where he had gone wrong. He had accidentally omitted the letter ‘O’ as he had mistakenly identified it as a zero. He re-inputted the new data into his access pod and was relieved when the results populated. The first word on the list was OLYMPUS. Now all he needed to do was affix the numbers to the word in a logical order. Since there were only four numbers, the most logical arrangement was a date of some sort. Aris wasn’t sure, but his best guess given the numbers was 2099.

Satisfied that he had the correct passkey, he proudly said, “OLYMPUS2099.”

The computer analyzed the voice command then said “Voice recognition not found.”

Aris leaned back in the chair and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. Then an idea came to him.

“Where have I heard that name before?” he pondered as the creaky wheels in his brain began to turn. “Find Maxim Morrison Olympus,” he commanded into his access pod.

“Searching global database for Maxim Morrison Olympus,” the soft voice spoke back. “Data found.”

Aris scanned the list of search results and discovered very quickly that Olympus was the name of the space program that the Leader spoke about at the Megalopolis pyramid.

“That’s right,” Aris exclaimed. “Now I remember.”

“Pull up the audio from the 2117 State of the Union speech where Maxim Morrison mentions Olympus.”

Instantly, the part of the speech began to play.

‘In the year 2099, I had a vision to create a space exploration program that would seek out new planets, new resources, and possibly new life forms. Today, I am proud to announce the Olympus project, which will be the largest space station in the history of humankind. Space… is the final frontier!’

“Ha, what an idiot! This is too easy. Isolate ‘Olympus’ and ‘2099’ in that order and play it back,” he said.

“Olympus2099”

Instantly the computer came to life. “Prepare for retina scan,” a monotonous voice said.

“Dammit!” Aris shouted. Just when he thought he had outsmarted the security system, there was another obstacle in his path.

Just then, a portion of the desk rose up and a mini-scanner emerged. “Well, it worked last time,” Aris said as he came up with another workaround.

“Find Maxim Morrison’s eye in the highest resolution,” he instructed.

Within seconds a picture of the Leader’s eye came up on his access pod.

“Holo-enhance image,” he said.

The two-dimensional image on the access pod’s screen transformed to a full-scale, holographic three-dimensional image. It was in perfect resolution as if the eye was floating in the room.

Aris steadied his arm and brought the eye closer to the scanner. Just before the scanner could obtain a proper reading, the hologram disappeared and his access pod burped up the message, “Battery low, powering down” right before it shut off.

“No!” he screamed in frustration.