The Holy Grail
‘Well, the key is . . .’
‘You’re going to spew when you find out, Gand,’ Electron interrupted.
‘Yes . . . go on,’ Gandalf said. ‘I am listening.’
‘You won’t believe it.
‘WHAT???? WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ Gandalf exclaimed. ‘No!!! IT’S NOT TRUE! Bollox! You are KIDDING?’
The British hacker was thumping himself on the head. The name of the frigging university! What a stupid password!
Phoenix gave an on-line chuckle. ‘Hehe. Yeah. So hard to guess. We could have had Deszip for all these months . . .’
‘Jesus. I hope it’s still on that JANET system,’ Gandalf said. Now that he actually had the password, finding the file became even more urgent.
‘Pray. Pray. Pray,’ Phoenix said. ‘Yeah, you should have seen the licence text on Deszip – it was by NASA.’
‘You’ve seen it? You saw Deszip’s source code?’
‘No,’ Phoenix answered. ‘When I went back to the BEAR machine to check if Deszip was still there, the program was gone. But the licence agreement and other stuff was there. Should have read the licence . . . truly amazing. It basically went on and on about how the people who wrote it didn’t want people like us to get a hold of it. Hehe.’
Electron was growing impatient. ‘Yeah. So, Gand, when you gonna go check that JANET system?’
‘Now. Fingers crossed, m8! See ya l8r . . .’ Then he was gone.
The waiting was driving Electron nuts. He kept thinking about Deszip, about how he could have had it months and months ago. That program was such a prize. He was salivating at the thought of getting it after all this time pursuing it around the globe, chasing its trail from system to system, never quite getting close enough to grab it.
When Gandalf showed up again, Pad, Phoenix and Electron were all over him in an instant.