fandomhigh | Library, Tuesday

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Library, Tuesday

For all its flights of fancy, the library certainly knew when to get down to business ~~to defeat the Huns~~. The books were all where they ought to be, nothing was flying around unexpectedly, and the only thing that wasn't usually in the library were the plates of gingerbread cookies that had appeared on the tables, because apparently the library had decided the researchers needed some sustenance to get them through the task.

Well, there was also the sign informing students there were no weapons allowed in the library, next to a large box for them to deposit said weapons, but that wasn't the doing of the library itself.

In any case, it was open and ready for business!

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"Those jerks from the dig site?" Topher asked with only the slightest decrease in volume as he started to play with the communicator. "It's cool-looking. Definitely a communicator, and can I say clunky?"

He fiddled with a knob or two, then peeled off the back compartment with seemingly little regard for the advice about being careful. "I wonder what kind of network this thing uses..."

Riley watched, a little impressed with how quickly he was figuring the thing out.

"Jerks from the dig site, yeah," he said, leaning back. "I've been working on finding a network but I can't get the damn thing to work."

"Well, yeah, it might need a boost," Topher mused, and soon he was scrambling for his backpack, thrusting the ECHO back in Riley's direction with a mumbled "Hold this" as he rummaged through it. While he dug around in the bag, he explained, "If you found it yesterday and it didn't get charged since then, maybe it ran out of juice -- that thing's clunky but not that heavy, so who knows what the battery life is like. Or maybe it's code-locked, which eventually you could get past by trying all the combinations, but who has the time for that? Well, teachers, maybe, I guess." Thaaaat wasn't very nice.

Finally Topher surfaced, clutching a cable from his bag that, upon inspection, seemed to be what he was looking for. "Either way, if I hook it up to my laptop, that should solve both problems."

The kid seemed to know what he was talking about so Riley let the quip about teachers slide. He held onto the communicator, watching while Topher moved around.

"And hopefully when you hook it up, it doesn't have some GPS coordinate thing kick in and lead these guys right to the library. I don't wanna deal with an angry librarian."

"...Good point," Topher granted, sounding genuinely surprised about that. "But I wouldn't worry. Construction workers in a library? Not very likely." Offensive, rude, and not strictly correct about the dig site engineers' occupation. But great, Topher. "But I can try and confuse the signal just in case."

After some quick typing away on his computer, he jammed the end of the cable into the communicator, sticking the other end of it into the side of his laptop. "Huh, it fits," he marveled. "I'm awesome."

Charming.

"Not bad."

Riley could give compliments when something worked that he didn't think would actually work. He leaned over, glancing at the communicator.

"How long do you think it needs to charge for?"

"It might not be a charging issue..." No, it almost definitely wasn't, because the communicator chose that moment to come to life (not literally), lighting up in response to its new connection to the computer. Topher snapped his fingers. "Okay, either it's the least efficient portable electronic of all time or there was a key combination we missed," he concluded. "Well. You missed." Again with the unnecessary!

"Aaaanyway," he said, stretching out the word as he cracked his knuckles and rolled up his sleeves before dramatically taking the communicator in hand, "let's see if this thing has a data plan."

Topher was just lucky that Riley was used to this sort of thing. Topher was like Ben except with technology instead of history.

When the communicator sprang to life, Riley leaned forward and immediately started trying to get a fix on any network with the various devices on his computer.

"I hope this thing is a little more advanced than just being used to talk to your friend across the street when it's bedtime and you can't talk on the phone anymore," Riley said idly.

"Who talks on the phone anymore?" Topher said absently, missing Riley's snark entirely. Sorry, Riley. That was Topher's bad.

It took a moment or two before Topher declared, looking up from the tiny screen, "Aha! Search engine."

He tapped in the word HYPERION, scowling a little when the results seemed to be a little heavy on the company propaganda. That was not of interest to him. Topher scrunched up his face and looked up at Riley. "Did you hear what the radio guy was saying this morning about what they're building? I forget what he called it."

Riley stopped typing for a moment while he tried recall what the broadcast had been about. It took him a few moments before he snapped his fingers in a true eureka moment.

"The Vault!" he said, typing those words out before he'd even finished saying them. He started hitting search engines and various other databases that no one but a hacker would be able to access for something on this company.

"Yes!" Topher followed Riley's lead and immediately resumed his search, half-determined to beat Riley in this race but otherwise just curious about what the dig site was going to be. He'd been wondering about it for twenty-four whole hours, damn it. That was much too long for a teenager who loved the internet as much as he did.

However...

"I really wish they could have given it a more distinctive name."

"Agreed."

Aaaaaand now Riley was apparently in a race with a student. But, he didn't care. He was firing up various tools, searching matrices, accessing databases, combing through news articles and pinging various towers to pick up a signal.

His laptop was chugging along though the fan had come on and was protesting the work that Riley was putting it through.

Finally Topher thought he had something. He'd come at a particular site that he'd seen flagged a couple times through decidedly tricky hacking work, and while a lot of the text didn't make it through his first attempt at decryption, one name did. He blurted it out fast, just so that Riley couldn't say it first.

"Patricia Tannis!" Again with the outdoor voice, Topher. Seriously, work on that. "She's a doctor. Her name's all over this page. Guessing she knows her way around a Vault."

He paused. "Wow, that sounded really dirty."

"Tannis?"

Riley typed that name into a few of his searches, sending various pings off different towers now. He peered over at Topher's screen to check the website so he could navigate there.

"Let's see if maybe we can get in touch with her, right? Might as well since we've got the tech and I'd love to say hello."

"Wait, really?" Ooh, this was becoming cool. "Yeah!" Topher slid the communicator over to Riley. "'S all yours."

He was inclined to be more generous and cooperative when people proved themselves to have good ideas. Congratulations, Riley.

"I need the communicator," he said, digging out a cord from his own bag and connecting his laptop to Topher's so they could be networked really quickly. He didn't want to unplug the communicator and risk it not coming back on.

"Shouldn't be too hard," he said, typing furiously once he and Topher's laptops were linked up. "A little bit of this, a little bit of that, hit a few powers, send a few signals and..."

He hit enter and...

[And now we are here! (http://fandomhigh.livejournal.com/3514731.html?thread=203823723#t203823723)]

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Library, Tuesday

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