The Search for Artemis - By P. D. Griffith Page 0,109

Dr. Wells said as he motioned for Verne to come forward and speak to the operatives.

“Okay, well, umm”—Landon was surprised by how timid and nervous Verne seemed to be. He was so energetic and passionate when he’d first met him in the Forge, but now he seemed absolutely terrified—“Uh . . . Apollo here has already gotten a glimpse of this . . . but, uh, anyways, this little device here—” Verne held his hand up to the Pantheon. Stuck on the tip of his index finger was a little black dot of a thing. “—it will allow you access to the entire computer network at Metis Labs. You see, they have a polymorphic, 1024-bit, multiple encryption routine, which will take forever to manually hack into, but this will do it in approximately ten seconds.” Verne moved closer to the console and started shifting his attention between the computer and the operatives with erratic motions of his head. “You just place the device near the computer, like, say, on the keyboard, or maybe on top of the monitor, uh, whichever you choose. It’s your decision. It will do the rest.” He let out an audible sigh of relief. An uncontrollable grin stretched across Landon’s face as he watched Verne’s neurotic behavior. “I call it the Janus Key, you know, because Janus was the—”

“Thank you, Verne. I believe they’ve got the idea,” Dr. Wells interjected before Verne could continue to ramble on about his own ingenuity. “Team, we’d like you to attach the device to somewhere that the scientists won’t notice—somewhere discrete. What Verne failed to mention was that it will also allow us remote access to their servers by installing an untraceable back door in their system. We’ll be able to monitor their future activities from here and hopefully not get ourselves into such a rushed situation in the future.

“Echo, the facility is heavily guarded, so we will need your abilities to guide the team through the complex without getting noticed. Apollo, you’ll be there to provide any additional ground support should an issue arise. I know it’s sudden, but welcome to active duty you two.” Dr. Wells looked directly to Landon and Peregrine as he spoke to them and gave each a little nod of acknowledgement before addressing the entire team again. “You will leave at 2200 hours. Good luck.”

Dr. Wells then turned to the Altar console and pressed a few buttons that caused the hologram to disappear and the glass divider to disengage. Once the barrier had descended back into the floor, Dr. Brighton turned and spoke to his team.

“All right, everyone, go and eat something, prepare yourself and be at the Stable at 2130 ready for takeoff. Dismissed.”

• • • • •

Landon sat alone while he ate his lunch. He hadn’t spoken to a single person since the briefing. He never would admit it, but he was questioning whether he was truly ready for his first mission. With the training and the practice, he knew the day would come, but he just couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that in less than twelve hours he’d be leaving the Gymnasium and traveling to a place where he was responsible not only for his life but the well-being of every member on the team. One misstep or error in judgment could mean death. As he fought to swallow a bite of spaghetti, the pressure to succeed weighed on his mind.

“Landon, everything okay?” Riley asked. He and Landon hadn’t spoken since their blow up in the medical wing, but Riley had been sitting a table over from Landon, and perhaps he could tell something serious was bothering his friend.

“Hey,” Landon replied meekly as Riley stood in front of him with his empty tray in hand. “I’ll be all right.” Landon then lowered his head and returned to rearranging the pasta on his plate.

“Well you don’t look all right,” Riley replied matter-of-factly. “And I bet it’s about something you can’t tell me so I’m not even going to ask, but you should know. . . . Whatever it is that you’re freaking out about, I’m sure you’re overreacting. You’ve been here for almost a year now, man. You’ve been training your ass off. You know what you’re doing. You just need to go out there and do it. That simple.”

Landon looked back up at Riley and smiled. Even though he had no clue what he was talking about, Riley had somehow managed to say exactly what he needed to help