Olympus

Chapter 35

The director's office was still in a state of tempered chaos when Megan arrived back with Ricardo in tow. Dennis remained in front of the monitor-map with a glare like that would somehow force the red dots to converge onto one stable point, but Kei and Jay had now joined Adolf, who was obviously at wit's end with the tracking, by the computer-desk. Arthur just watched everything on in concerned silence.

The door slid open to admit the duo in and the others turned to acknowledge their presence; Arthur and Dennis leaving their spots to meet them.

"Heard you're in quite the pickle, Director," Ricardo started with an almost taunting smirk on his face, but he sobered when he saw the state of the monitor-map. "What can I do to help?"

"The Doomsday beacon was activated about an hour ago but the system can't seem to locate it no matter what we tried," Dennis explained.

"Okay, let me see what I can do." He nodded and moved forward towards the computer-desk.

However, just before he could touch it, Arthur suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder from behind and forced a spin to face him. "Mr. DiSanto," he said, "I'll like to remind you that the safety of the world is dependent on what happens at this moment. No games will be entertained."

Can you be more threatening, Arthur? Megan thought, suddenly feeling herself offended by the action.

Truth be told, she understood why he did it. He was the Principal officer in charge of the UN's covert affairs department, a part of which Olympus was in spite of its autonomy. Anything that went wrong in the organisation would ultimately fall on him.

But Ricardo isn't a threat, she thought, I already told him that.

Anyway, Ricardo responded with a smile, gently taking Arthur's hand from his shoulder to put it on his own instead. "Mr. Dean," he said, "all I've ever done in my life is to help the world into the truth. Today will be no different." He turned to face Dennis behind him. "Director, if you will."

Dennis placed his hand on the table, sparing a glance at Megan who urged him on. "Computer, grant full access to Ricardo DiSanto, guest."

As with the one done some time before, the computer scanned Dennis's palm, confirmed his identity and pended the request, then scanned Ricardo's palm, confirmed his identity and the request.

"Please state your operation," the AI requested.

"Source code," was Ricardo's response.

Everyone in the room made a confused expression at what he had said, even Megan. He's not going to make this worse on purpose, is he? She wondered. She figured it was what he could do just to spite Arthur for his behaviour towards him.

But then Ricardo entered a command on the keyboard and several layers of the code became highlighted in red. "That's why you haven't been able to pinpoint the beacon's location," he explained. "Apparently, someone accessed the system's source code a few minutes before the beacon went off and wrote a bunch of confusing commands onto it."

"But that can't be, Mr. Disanto," Arthur countered. "The only way to access Olympus's source code is through an high-level clearance issued on site."

"Well, in that case, the mole is one of the bigwigs in the organisation and is most likely in the building right now watching every move we make."

No sooner had Ricardo finished that statement that the power in the building suddenly went out, trapping everyone in their spots on the mountain. The emergency power kicked in but the computers were offline, except in the director's office where all the occupants turned to see Dennis holding his tablet with a knowing look on his face.

"Director, what are you doing?" Megan asked, suddenly feeling apprehensive at the vibe she was getting from him.

"Exactly what I'm supposed to, Miss Months," he replied and showed her his tablet where the notification flashed Director's authorisation confirmed, lockdown initiated. "I'm saving the world."

Okay, what the hell is going on here, Meg? She asked herself, confused at the turn of events.

The Nameless mole within Olympus was a high-level operative- truth be told, she didn't exactly understand what that looked like besides Dennis's Directorship position- who apparently sabotaged the system before the Doomsday beacon went out and had them all chasing their tails for a long time; and then Dennis locked down the entire mountain, saying that he was saying the world.

God, how did I get myself mixed up in all these? She groaned and kicked herself on the inside.

"D., you're not making much sense," Adolf said beside Megan. "How is locking everyone inside supposed to save the world? The threat is out there."

"Actually, the threat is in here," he countered, the look on his face shifting in calculation like a mathematician after too many coffee. "You see, whoever rigged the system wouldn't have just left it unattended. You said they're watching every move we make, I bet they're watching the code too to see if we discover the move they made."

"And I just highlighted a whole space full of malicious code," Ricardo seemed to catch on to what Dennis was driving at and he nodded in thought.

"Exactly, Mr. DiSanto," he concurred. "Now, what would you do if you were in their shoes?"

"Report it," Megan smiled when it clicked in her mind, "which you've prevented now that the mountain is on lockdown." She showed her phone with no bars on it. Dennis isn't a traitor, she realised, he's a tactical genius.

"Okay, happy people," Kei interrupted just then, "we've successfully locked the traitor on Olympus with us. What then? How do we find them and still recover Item 13 in time?"

"We split into teams," Arthur replied immediately. "Miss Months and Mr. DiSanto, you lead the Supermen to locate and retrieve Item 13. The director and I will search for the mole."

Megan's resultant expression was that of surprise. "Are you sure, Mr. Dean?" she asked. "I mean, you did just refer to the Supermen as incompetent and Ricardo as an enemy combatant. You're sure you want to stake the safety of the world on that crew?"

"Well, I don't have choice," he returned, shrugging. "Plus I know that with you Miss Months on any team, the day is saved sooner or later."

Now, Megan quirked an eyebrow. Somehow she figured that Arthur wasn't just speaking from a place of faith. He knows something about me, she thought, something that gives him a lot of confidence. But exactly what that could be, she had no idea and it bothered her a lot.

Unfortunately, she couldn't persist on it as Dennis drew Arthur away from her. "The computer will be ready to pilot the Chariot for you at your command, Mr. DiSanto," he said, "you just find Item 13's location and input it."

"Good luck, Director," Megan said and the others nodded it.

"Good luck to you too," he returned and took his exit with Arthur.

The moment the door slid close behind the duo, Ricardo turned back to face the computer-desk, needing to sit down now that the operation had become manual.

"First, we correct what was damaged," he inputted some lines of code in blue and the entire source code changed to green, "and then we let the system do its work." He pressed enter on the keyboard and all the red dots disappeared.

"Doomsday beacon located," the AI's voice came on immediately. "Plotting coordinates."

The monitor-map zoomed in on a location and Ricardo smiled. "Guys, get ready," he said, "looks like our last stand's in Shanghai, China."