Dimension 987 Chapter 8

"seems like there are mega computers only in major companies like Singtel and Creative. all the main outlets are found over at Tuas." Sheri confirmed, and Wan nodded. "could we manage to actually break in to use it, is the problem." Theon asked. Wan and Sheri looked at him in amazement as Hisagi took a loud sip of what he believed was 'koke'.
"..." Sheri looked at Hisagi with the 'dude, wtf?' face. Wan laughed and then turned serious. "look, this whole search engine thing could be arranged only if we know how to reprogram the whole system to become a search engine. doing so would probably get rid off all the information inside the computer."
"we save it first. wouldn't it be solved that way?" Sheri said simply. Wan shook her head.
"Wan is right." Theon said, turning away from the screen for a moment to look at all of the others. "such a large risk might damage the hard disk of the mega com. it has always been a storage space for numbers and codes. to reformat it into a search engine might be the most dangerous thing to the data in the server."
"could we transfer the data?" Wan tried. 'that could work...' she considered.
"no, that would take up the same amount of storage space, we would need another mega com to store the information in. or at least a storage space of its size." Sheri connected, and Wan nodded. "Maybe we really could reformat it... without transferring." Theon turned to the internet icon.
"how... i see." Sheri looked at him opening tabs on Wikipedia, Yahoo and Google. "you want to transfer the data onto the WWW, even if just for a minute. smart."
"the problem is whether it would work. transferring this this much data could cause corruption in some of the numbers and facts and figures. data could be lost." Theon frowned and Sheri joined him. "it's worth a shot." Wan said, looking over to the silent jumper.
"i do believe this could work, but first we would have to find out how much data can be stored in each website, and then how much data is left after the transfer. the amount of space left after transferring the data must be enough to support the reformatting of the storage space to an efficient search engine." Sheri said, and she turned to the screen. she took the point space and started typing as soon as the doorbell rang.
Theon went to open the door in case it was a Walls salesman or something. he didn't need the rest to know of his consumption of paddle pop. 'they'd never let me live it down.' he thought, shivering.
"Th...Theon..." Ryan said, and he nearly fell through the door. Theon wanted to catch him, but missed. Ryan fell face flat on the floor. everyone sweatdropped.
"what's going on here?" Wan said, joining them at the doorway. "oh, Ryan's complaining because we made him walk some." Jean rolled her eyes, holding up 2 bags. "and this was all we got." Faye said, gesturing to the bags. "yes..." Ryan said, getting up slowly, "and you spent billions of years walking around the mall deciding to get it."
"it was an hour." Faye protested, and Ryan nodded. "an hour of torture."
"Enough, we need to discuss strategies of break in." Theon said. seeing the look of curiosity on their faces, he smiled.
"you will not believe what has been discussed here while you were shopping."
***
"are you certain it would work?" Ryan asked for about the ga' billionth time. Sheri nodded irritably. "yes Ryan, it would work." she looked at Wan and Jean. they seemed slightly out of it, walking into pillars halfway to class. "i don't want any second thoughts about this, it's going down tonight."
"i'm up for it. the whole chalet thing because of Sheri's birthday happens to be running perfectly." Faye said, slightly excited. Sheri was sure Faye really meant to go. so did Theon, even if it wasn't his principle. "if it needs to be done, I'm doing it. what other choice do i have?" he had said, and several of them nodded slightly. Sheri stuffed the 2nd book in the Magician's Guild series into her bag, The Novice.
"Hisagi hasn't said a word since we last spoke to him in a group, since we met him." Ryan said, and his eyes widened. "do you think i offended him?" Faye rolled her eyes. "no, Ryan, i don't think you did."
"yeah, just give him more coke and he'll be happy." Wan added, and Jean smiled. "this is where we split," Sheri pointed at their class. "... later."
***
"ugh.. of all times to not pick up." Jean said, flipping her cell shut.
"what's wrong?" Wan asked. when Jean told her, she shut her eyes. 'the most important bits, and that guy just... oh god...' she shook her head, and Faye tsked. "we wait for another 4 minutes, and times up. we can't wait too long." Theon said impatiently.
"tonight's the only night, and he should have met us here 9 minutes ago. he knows that." Sheri said, and Faye nodded. "tonight might be our only chance, with the function going on including all Singtel personnel." she said, and Theon nodded.
"jeez, that boy is seriously messed up. he just couldn't..."
"...charge his phone at the right time."
Ryan got out of a cab behind them, and smiled. the cab drove away into the distance. "did you give the driver the right excuse?" Faye asked immediately. Ryan nodded. "a church camp." he answered, and Wan nodded.
'if we all give different excuses, the taxi firm will have no proof of us coming here for this.' Jean thought, looking at Faye. 'that was some smooth thinking, Faye.'
"let's figure out how to get in." Theon said, bringing them all back to the problem. Sheri sighed. 'here comes the difficult bit.' she thought. they, including Hisagi, walked up to the entrance of the building. "that, is going to be hard to get by." Ryan said, ticking his finger in the direction of a small metal box located on the left of 2 large metal doors. it had a few buttons with gold greek numbers imprinted on them. Faye leaned up close to examine the box.
"hey..." she said. 'these aren't in order.' she leaned in closer. "these aren't greek numbers... they... they are hieroglyphics!" she backed away. Sheri took her place. "no way. this is how far they'd go to prevent a break-in? jeez... this is going to be difficult. we had a list of codes ready to try, the president's and vice's birthdays and stuff, weddings... but these aren't numbers." she observed. "how you know they aren't numbers?" Wan inquired.
"i went to Egypt last year." Sheri replied, and Theon came forward.
"maybe there's something underneath." he looked at the box from downward and used a torch. nothing. he observed the box at a distance, then looked at it up close again. he touched the box.
Red light began to flow from behind the buttons, like it was an activated cell phone. the rest grew alarmed, and began to back away. But not Theon. he walked up to the box and squinted at the light like it wasn't blinding at all.
"... The blue circuit has an engraving which would be this button, and then the red circuit has this..." he punched in the buttons. "Red is technically closer to the start of the
pantone colour chart, and thus... no, it should be this one, then the insignia on the blue circuit. next would be the engraving on the purple..."
Sheri walked up to his side with Wan and the other 3 on the other side. Hisagi stood on the pathway, a couple of metres to their left. he was smiling. 'Finally.' he thought. 'at last.'
Theon's eyes were clouded over and slightly with a pale red hue.
Sheri backed away in large steps.
'What's going on?!'