Page 100 of The Commons

Becoming Bait

Frantic, I turn to Swin. “But didn’t you say the sensor is connected to his brain? Doesn’t it need his identification or something to self-destruct?”

“It needs Patron De Londe to self-identify every one hour until it destroys itself completely. So, it needs to scan his iris and his cognitive areas, aka his head, to make sure that it is really him destroying it,” Swin clarifies.

“And it’s gonna take 15 hours for it to self-destruct, you said?” I inquire.

“But how long is left for you to hack The Begon, Swin?” Pesh asks.

“17 hours at least,” he responds.

“At least?” Levon shouts, panic stricken.

“17 hours. Yeah. I have to actually get it done in 16 hours and 45 seconds, so we have time to get out of this building before it blows up!”

“Wait, wait, wait. I thought only The Begon will blow up?” I ask, distressed.

“No! It will blow itself up, including everything in its five-mile radius. So this entire submarine will be blown up the moment it is hacked,” Swin responds.

“Unless we can throw it into the water once we hack it,” I say, thinking out loud.

“Yeah, which would mean I need to complete it in about 16 hours and 10 seconds or less. But that doesn’t change the fact that it will self-destruct in less time than that!” he rants to himself.

“It will self-destruct in 15 hours,” Levon reiterates.

“Right. 15 hours, Levon Lerogaski,” Swin confirms with a hint of attitude.

Levon wrinkles her forehead and turns away from him, irritated.

He sighs, rubbing his hands on his eyes. “I’m sorry, I just⁠—”

“Just don’t.” She raises her hands up.

Silence.

Pesh paces. He looks up with a darting stare. “Then the only thing to do is this. I have to go to him and buy us time.”

“How are you gonna do that?” I turn to him.

“I’ll pretend that we already hacked it with technology he doesn’t know about and present him a fake Begon. That way, he will be distracted and won’t be able to give his thumb print or have his iris scanned for the last two hours while you guys hack it and get out of here,” Pesh articulates.

“What can you possibly talk to him about for over two hours?” Levon asks, turning to Pesh.

He pauses for a moment.

“My mother.”

His eyes meet mine in a serene moment.

“Well then, I’m coming with you,” I say to Pesh.

He turns to me and smiles with a glow in his eyes.

“Well, we need a way for all of us to communicate. Do you got anything, Pesh?” Swin interjects while typing continuously.

Pesh opens the drawer next to Swin’s computer. He brings out a gold briefcase and opens it. Inside are tiny ear buds, the size of a grain of rice.

“What are these?” Levon asks.