my sister first started sketching and writing poetry, she had this one pen she loved. It was just a normal pen, but it had this pattern on it, and she glued a flower to the top. Even when she started drawing more seriously, when we knew that she was really fucking good, and that the handwritten first drafts of her poems were important and needed to be saved, instead of using nice pens or artist pencils, half the time she still used this old-ass ballpoint pen. Langston would take it apart to put refills in it even though it was supposed to be disposable.”
Luca put his hand on Oscar’s shoulder, touched by the personal story his lover was sharing. “And you think that there may be something on here, perhaps a programming signature, that you can use to find her?”
“Exactly…but I think we might have something even better than a signature I’d have to go and find.” Oscar had half a dozen windows open, but he pulled one to the front. “See this? It’s a private FTP site—and according to the log, it was last accessed two days ago.”
“She’s still using it,” Luca breathed. “Can you tell where she was?”
“No. Not without the risk of crashing it since it’s custom. If she created this, and has been using it since she was young, I might destroy it if I mess around too much.” Oscar turned to him. “But we can leave her a message.”
“What?” Luca’s breath caught. “How?”
“A text file. We write a brief text file and upload it. It will get through since this computer is a terminal for the site. It can’t be a picture or a video. That would be too big.” Oscar shifted his chair, turning to look at Luca. “If you had twenty words. A sentence or two, to talk to your sister, what would you say?”
“Um, should we clear this with the MPF first? Call Owen?”
Oscar rolled his eyes. “And if they say no?”
Luca frowned. “I would still send it. I need to contact her. I need to know…”
“This falls under the category of it’s easier to apologize after than ask permission before. So what are we sending?”
Luca sat back. It would have to be something that only she would understand. He had so many things he needed to explain to her—mainly that he had stopped believing a long time ago, but had stayed in the hopes he could protect her. That he’d learned so much about the world, the real world, and knew far more than the Bellator Dei would have ever let her learn.
“I…I don’t know…”
“I know this is hard, but there has to be something just the two of you know, or would say?”
Luca thought for a few minutes, then he sat up straighter. “Egle, the Queen of the Serpents.”
“What?” Oscar asked.
“It was a story I used to tell Joli when she was little, whenever she was scared. My mom used to tell it to me before she died. Joli was a baby and didn’t have any memory of our real parents. I started telling her the story when we were at the orphanage and continued after we were adopted and moved to Italy. Signore and Signora Campisi…they weren’t overly affectionate people.”
Oscar leaned over and kissed Luca on his forehead, the impromptu, sweet gesture catching him off guard.
Luca smiled.
“Your childhood fucking sucked, man. I wish…I wish I could erase all that bullshit from your memory.”
Luca nodded, too touched to reply.
“So what’s the story? What should we say?” Oscar asked after a moment.
Luca considered the old folk tale. Since they didn’t know who or if anyone was watching Joli’s computer, he wanted to be careful not to say anything that might put her in more danger.
Oscar passed him the computer.
Luca stared at the keyboard but didn’t type yet, considering his words carefully. “My dearest Egle. If you’re alive, may the sea foam milk. If you’re dead, may the sea foam blood.”
“Jesus Christ, dude. That’s from the story you told your sister when she was scared? What the fuck does that even mean?”
“If she’s safe, she’ll say milk. If she’s in danger, she’ll say blood.”
“Ooookay. But is there something you can add to figure out where she is? Where the Bellator Dei is?”
“Oh. Of course.” Luca considered the story once more. “Where are your serpents?”
Oscar gave him a funny look until Luca explained that the serpents were Egle’s family. “She’ll understand,” Luca reassured him. He turned to the computer and typed out the