The words were written boldly in red. The door required special key cards. She was willing to bet that less than five people in the whole base had a card. That had to be the room she was looking for. She found a corner and watched. Soon enough, a young man walked to the door, opened it, and went in. She smiled. The restroom wasn’t far from the door. She went to wait for him in front of the restroom. The man walked out some minutes later. Vivien walked out of the restroom as though she had just used it. She bumped into the man.
“I’m so sorry,” she said in Russian as she put her hand to her forehead.
“It’s all my fault, high priestess,” the man said. “I apologize. I should have been more careful.”
“Oh, it’s okay. I see you’re busy,” she said, and she glanced at the man’s pockets.
“Oh, yes. There’s a lot to do tonight. The server for the meeting needs to be secured. That’s what we’re working on now.”
Vivien nodded.
“Great. Well done, brother,” she said as she hugged him. “Russia owes you a great debt. Thank you for sacrificing your life for this cause.” She was shorter than him, so her arms went under his arms.
Mikolas was surprised by her gesture. Her humility and warmness wasn’t something he easily saw among the other superiors. She ended the hug and nodded for him to leave.
“I learn from role models like you, high priestess,” he said as he nodded and left.
Vivien followed behind, though she walked at a slower pace. When he was far enough, she turned and walked back briskly, twirling the card in her fingers. Once she got to the door, she paused and said a prayer.
Let this be the room. Let me not get caught.
She slid the key she had taken through the slot. The red light turned green, and she pushed the door open. It was empty. Relieved, she entered and pulled out her phone from her pocket.
While she had served as the Chief of Staff, Ray of Hope had used her access to infuse the White House computers with a virus they had developed. The virus, Wormhole, was special as no existing antivirus could detect it. It behaved like the normal system software. Ultimately, it replicated all the content of the host computer on another prespecified computer. The problem was that uploading it to the CPU was complicated and usually took about twenty minutes.
May I not be caught.
She hoped the Ray of Hope was arrogant enough not to have created and installed an antivirus for Wormhole on their computer.
She found a small laptop computer connected to the large CPU; then, she began to work.
“Mikolas, use the main computer to stabilize the signals!” Harris said to the young man standing by him. Mikolas nodded and headed for the supercomputer room. He got to the door; then he put his hand in his pocket to get his card. He frowned. It wasn’t there. It had to have fallen somewhere. He turned to look for it.
Vivien noticed the shadow beneath the door. Someone wanted to come in. The upload was 69% complete. She bit her lips in anticipation. There were still at least eight minutes to go. She didn’t have the luxury of time.
Please hurry up!
Mikolas walked back to the operating room where he had come from. He’d searched for his card everywhere but hadn’t found it. He didn’t understand what was happening.
“Status report, Miko,” Harris said without turning to him.
“I’m sorry, sir. I think I lost my card somewhere around here,” Mikolas began.
“There’s no time for that, boy.” Pointing to another agent, he said, “Peter, go with Miko and open the door for him. Don’t lose your card too.”
Mikolas followed Peter to the door.
They opened it and went into the room.
It was empty as usual. They went to the small laptop and began to navigate it. It worked normally. Mikolas took notes of what he needed. Together with Peter, he left the room.
Vivien came out from the small space between the furthest wall and the CPU. She sighed in relief. She waited for a minute before she went to the door and opened it.
No one was on the corridor. She shut the door and left for her room. When she got to the restroom, she dropped the card on the ground so that Mikolas would find it whenever he came that way again.
The Ray of Hope was as arrogant as she hoped it would be. Mission accomplished.
17th November 2021