[dcs_p]Her eyes glided over her surroundings to find a single camera hanging above the
doorway. Two library visitors sat at computers near the door. One was a short
heavy man with a well trimmed mustache and thin graying hair. The other was a
younger man of a large build, with a shaved head and sparkling white teeth. The
bald man winked at Jasmine, noticing that she had looked in his direction.
Immediately Jasmine felt her guts wrench. Something would go wrong, and that
man would play a part in it.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]Turning back while continuing to look alarmed about the door’s slam, Jasmine
walked farther into the room. Here sat two more men, though these two were in
separate rows from one another. The first was of thin build, with jet black hair
and a suit of the latest fashion. The second was of slightly more muscular build,
with sandy blond hair and large rimmed glasses. Jasmine mentally kicked
herself. I’m screwed.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]After calming the emotional rush that had been triggered by an instinctual threat
of imminent danger, Jasmine sat down at the last row of computers in the small
room. She casually bent down, opening her briefcase to remove the single data
disk. She slid it into the computer’s dataport. After a brief hum and a special
coded command, the computer screen came to life in a very unique way. Rather
than booting up the library’s standard infoserver, the system showed a blank
white screen. The computer began the extraction process by prompting Jasmine
for specific responses. Its first question asked for her age. After answering
quickly via a typed response through the keyboard, Jasmine was asked another
question.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]”What is your favorite color?”
To this question, Jasmine typed a memorized response she had created some 25
or 26 years ago.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]”My favorite color is a shade of turquoise, created when the waves meet the
shore on the eastern shores of Lake Verratika in the early spring of each year.”
After this response, the computer began a series of nonsense questions, most of
which were designed to look like riddles but were only created to confuse any
thieves that might make it this far. With well timed and rapidly-typed responses,
Jasmine finished this part of the password. After 14 questions of nonsense, the
computer screen returned to its original blank white screen.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]”Download now?” it finally asked. To this strange basic question, Jasmine typed
“RADICAL”. Within 20 seconds, it finally began to write information on the disk.
In a matter of 45 seconds, the disk was finished. An uncoded copy of the
location of the Star League Warship could now be read from the disk via any
regular computer dataport, while the library’s computer-core copy had been
deleted from existence.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]As Jasmine removed the disk from the driver, she bent over in her seat to reach
her gun inside the briefcase. Before she had even touched the gun, she could
see the men in front of her begin to move from their seats. She quickly pulled the
pistol from her briefcase and did a partial roll to take cover under the computer
table. A sudden gunshot momentarily cracked throughout the silence, and a
moan could be heard.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]From her new location under the table, she watched the thin man with jet black
hair die. The individual with the shaved head had apparently shot him in the chest
with some kind of high-powered slugthrower. Falling to the floor just meters from
Jasmine, he looked to Jasmine and whispered “DEST” as he fell unconscious.[/dcs_p]