Questions and codes

Victor set the hard drive besides his computer and sat down, cracking his knuckles lightly before activating his computer, plugging in the hard drive and beginning to work on cracking the code, his fingers racing over the black keys of his laptop, lines and lines of green computer coding circulating through the screen as he attempted to bypass the security locks. Looking for loopholes, weaknesses, flaws...anything that could permit him access into the mainframe, so that he could withdraw the knowledge within. He didn't notice Athena had gone off towards the bathroom, but he heard the water flow into the sink, and assumes that she was washing her face, or her hands. The face was certainly more likely due to the make up that had become damaged in the drama that had unfolded in the past day. Though what did he know about her habits....surprisingly, not as much as he should...perhaps he would make up for that soon, or perhaps he wouldn't. Fate was in motion.

Over 11,000 miles east a bad@$$ car raced along the roadways in California, a dark desert highway to be exact. It was late, it was getting colder as winter was approaching but to the girl inside of the vehicle, she didn't care. No, Lindia Inetia wasn't bothered by such things such as the temperature, or anything at all as long as she was firmly seated in the leather and her hands were gripping the wheel, burning rubber on the empty stretch of road as she pushed her baby, her corvette to the max it could go. That is, until her phone started ringing.

Glancing at the apple device nestled in its docking station between the front seats she pulled up the emergency brake, slid her foot off the gas and turned the wheel as hard as she could, performing a donut that left black tire marks across the pavement, wearing out the treads in her tires as well.

Once the vehicle had stopped though, she pulled the shift into park, released the emergency brake and put her phone to her ear, answering her friends call. "Hello?"

"Sup, Street Cat?" Athena replied to the sound of Lindia's voice, finding it slightly strange to hear something so familiar during the crazy action that had been raining down on her lately. "Sorry, been kinda busy," She said, before her friend could even address the issue.

She dried off her hands and turned off the water, as well as the speaker, before exiting the bathroom and leaning against the pillows on the bed. "I was kind of kidnapped by a crazy nut-job. But I wasn't," She tried to explain, glancing over at Victor to see if he would notice. She would be more surprised if he did than if he didn't. Not that she really minded, though, and not that it really was a kidnapping. It was really just the easiest way to describe whatever the hell had happened.

"So...How many hearts have you broken while I've been gone? How many poor souls am I going to have to comfort?" She asked, taking a rather cliche teenager pose as he crossed her legs and flipped herself upside down , letting her black silky hair graze the floor as she held the phone between her shoulder and ear, examining her insanely chipped manicure. And completely broken nails. Ugh. The salon was going to be a must after this was all over.

Victor heard her slightly, but honestly paid her no attention at all as he worked. She would speak with the alley cat, street cat...Lindia; and he would be working on these files, trying to decide the right decryption code, the language that these letters and numbers were arranged in. It would take a while...days, maybe weeks.

Lindia laughed as she turned off the headlights and relaxed in her specially designed seat, resting her head as she put the phone onto speaker, connecting it to the cars computer system. "Eh, I haven't been too busy braking hearts. I'm actually on my way to Vegas, there's this show I want to see that doesn't come to anywhere closer, so I'm taking my corvette for a spin. You know, my baby?" Lindia smirked as she talked to her friend.

"So, where are you and the nutjob now?" She giggled, remembering how athena and victor had vanished from camp two weeks ago or sometime. "You better be bringing me a souvenir" she added with a chuckle, trying to reason if she could access her Skype or not.

"I'd tell you, but we'd probably be somewhere else by the time I do," She joked lightly, imagining her friend kicked back in her corvette. It was a miracle she even recognized the name. Though she was okay with minor repairs and an above-average driver, she was terrible with car brands and logos or whatever. Her father had tried to teach her how to run some of the automobile-powered machinery, as well as how to save some cash by doing her own minor repairs, it took her years to memorize all the names. Besides, seeing how she didn't exactly need the skill, she'd fallen out of practice a while ago.

"If you really want to know, though, you'll have to find out when I get back. A lot's happened. I'll tell you everything I can next time I see you," she promised, loving the getting that came from causing others anxiety and excitement. Lindia never really did let that anxiety show, but it was still pretty satisfying.

"If you meet a theater dork, get me his number. I need a free show or two."

"I could always ask victor, I assume he has my number, I never gave it to him but you should know how he is by now. After all you've been traveling with him for what, two weeks? Three?" Lindia asked her friend and pulled her bass from the passenger side of the car and lightly played with one of the metallic strings. "And if your trying to get me worried or anxious, it's not gonna work" She added and strummed a minor chord.

Then she heard Athena speak about a theatre guy and laughed lightly. "You know I'm not gonna go to Vegas just to flirt like someone would" she retorted, insinuating her friend, because that's what would honestly happen. She knew Athena well from that first night they had met in new Rome. Ah, what a lovely memory. Though now she couldn't resist teasing her about victor. "So, when's the marriage between you and mister conspiracy?"

Victor glanced over at her and spoke "tell Lindia to get to Paris when you say, we may need additional help..."

Athena rolled her eyes at the other girl's retort. She must have forgotten that she was talking to Lindia, arguably one of the most...oh...let's just say careless girls in the camp. She honestly couldn't care less if Athena held the information from her.

"Please. I don't flirt. I entertain," Athena corrected lightly, before addressing her teasing comment. "And really, Lindia. Do I seem like the girl to even consider marriage? I mean, I've got the looks, no doubt, but no guy in their right mind would be able to live with me."

She didn't even wait to see if she was interrupting before adding Victor's request into the conversation. "Oh, we might need you soon. Can you be ready to get to Paris when I ring you up?"

"Honestly, I hardly even know. Victor here just told me to ask you. All I know, though, is that we're in Hong Kong at the moment., but we'll probably gone within the next forty-eight hours." She responded, using her fingers to brush lightly through her loose hair, before beginning to braid it loosely.

"I never knew you would be so interested in my nonexistent love life. Frankly, as you should know, I prefer cigarettes and vodka to having to drag around some poor heart," She replied, a slight scowl obvious in her voice, though it was soon replaced by a determined smile. "You know, if you ever need some extra cash, you should try writing one of those sappy movies," She began, letting out a snort before covering her mouth to contain her laughter, and her pig-like manner which she'd never been rid of.

"So I'll see you...whenever, verdad?" She asked, signaling that the conversation would soon be drawing to an end.

"Sure thing. Though text me a little more got it? I don't need tone worried about you, but at least I wanna know how much better Vegas is than Asia" Lindia laughed and smiled a little. "Anyways, see yah" She said and ended the call. Putting her seat back up and her bass back in the other seat she pressed the pedal to the metal and shot off.

Victor was still typing as he worked, trying to decipher the lines and lines of codes. Already he had one set of coordinates, that registered when translated into his mapping program of being in France, Toulouse actually. However lIndia flying from the states, the best flights she could get were into London or Paris he knew, so they would simply have to meet her there. Of course he wasn't putting too much thought into that right now as he furiously tried to search through seemingly empty files for some sort of clue for location or anything when it hit him. Why search for the location, when he could search for the outsources! With a confident smirk he set his computer to autosomal turned to face her.

Athena hung up, cramming her phone back into her pocket and continuing to examine Victor, retaining her upside-down position. As he typed away, she gave him a very slow glance, observing all visible areas of him. To many, especially if he were to be seen walking down a crowded street, would find him pretty attractive. The blue eyes, the blond, messy hair, not to mention the tall, relatively muscular frame.

But personality mattered more than most would think, though it was, ironically, one of the hardest things to change and the traits you had the least amount of control over. Athena knew this very well, as she had tried very hard, yet still slightly unsuccessfully, to change her own. It didn't matter if you were beautiful, if you starved yourself to no end to be able to sit with the girls at lunch. Schools didn't need to continue with that whole "its what's on the inside that counts" campaign. If you were a beautiful, nerdy weirdo, you would be accepted as a nerdy weirdo. And if you were an attractive, likely-insane conspiracy theorist, you would be accepted as an insane conspiracy theorist.

She was stirred from her though as her target of scrutiny turned to face her, confidence obvious on his face. She flipped back up quickly, ignoring the ensuing throbbing in her head from doing so. "Well, someone figured something out. Go on, spill."

Victor took a moment, observing her as he felt her observing him moments beforeZ he had felt her stare right into the back I his headX and also how she continued to watch him as he had turned around. "I've discovered many things. The biochemical files you stole from inside the mansion are mostly personal, her collection of photos and such. You've mostly stolen a few dozen thousand bikini shots, vacation and Christmas photos, and scenes from her obvious buisness trips around the world. However, after many, many minutes had been used; not wasted, used to decide half of this data, which is 1.3 terabyte mind you, I've discovered that most frequently she has traveled, contacted, or somehow interacted with the city of Toulouse, France. Which is why I asked to bring Lindia, once we make it to Paris. I'm not convinced we are done here, as while I was going through her other files, most certainly her agenda and using the hard rice as a doorway back into her mainframe I figured out that tomorrow she will be going to Nanking, china. Therefore we will be going to Nanking, the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be traveling to shanghai."

Victor too a moment and extracted the identifications of them as a model/heiress and security guard and ripped them up, lighting a match and dropping it into the metal trash can with them. "We cannot use those anymore, so we must rely on the tourist angle for much of this. Shanghai, in fact will be tourist entertainment for the both of us. Shop, enjoy the surroundings and all...I do need to meet with...an old teacher of mine however, and while I am meeting with him you could go to the spa or such. Before you ask. No you cannot come with me to see him" victor felt the burn over his face and sighed lightlyX a memory creeping back into his brain before he turned back to the computer.

"Are you familiar with the mikado?" he asked after a moment of analyzing his computer, a very strange case from a crime and conspiracy website he helped manage calling to him as he read the message again, and noting how it was also in shanghai, how lovely it would be to take a break from this large conspiracy to learn of a smaller...man outside the law so to speak. "Also, are you fluent in any Asian language?"

"Sounds great. Well, if we have nothing left to do for today, I'm going to try to do some reorganizing and supply management," She said, throwing her bag onto the bed and opening it, pulling out her new assortment of athletic-wear, and a simple

"I would say you're talking about the nineteenth-century opera, but I'm guessing you aren't. It seems familiar, though. From experience, I'd have to say its either a person or a society doing something bad," She answered, dragging up a memory of a stupid "Appreciation of The Arts" class that she'd been assigned to after refusing to go to her Philosophy class at the Correctional Institute (Which is quite the story, actually. It led to a small protest consisting of ten or so students, but we'll get back to that).

"As for your question on languages, I can honestly say that I don't regret that the answer is no. I find the languages clunky and stiff. I tried learning Mandarin once. I couldn't get past writing my name before my hand began to slowly die. I prefer characters that don't sprain your wrist every time you try to write one sentence, thank you very much."

OOC: Really busy today, but my schedule should be pretty free tomorrow! I got your pm! I'll respond asap!

Victor smirked and pressed his hands underneath his chin, much like any self respecting villain or thinker would as he watched her. Her responses brought...a sensation to his mind, one familiar to him that of being curiosity, for she didn't seem to be the type to know of the opera. None the less, she did and it would make it easier for him. The blonde boy slipped his hand through his hair and smiled lightly towards her before replying. "Ah, but I was. And I wasn't. You see, the opera is being performed while we are in shanghai and I was wondering perhaps if you would like to attend, after all we have been traveling around quite a bit, being shot at and falling from heights....uncovering a conspiracy and simply...well not vacationing. Not that I would enjoy a vacation" He smirked lightly "vacation, from a Latin root...although I assume that if you already know that because you speak Latin fluently, no? I would assume you do seeing as your a soldier within the twelfth legion, same as I. Of course me being more of a scribe than anything else" He responded with a cunning smile, one that could either say he was taking over te world, or saving it.

Turning back to his computer he reread the latest incident revolving around this mysterious man...one who quoted the Gilbert and Sullivan play as he made the punishment fit whatever crime they had done. This crime, or at least the latest victim had been a high profiling doctor, at least until a gambling addiction had caused him to do shady things, such as....removing a perfectly healthy kidney from one of his patients to lay the debts...which in turn had caused this man, this strange man take the doctors kidneys. Both then died of complications in surgery. Such an odd case, but stemmed of a fitting expression. Eye for an eye.

"So, like, a date?" She asked, a hint of her nerves reaching into her voice. "I don't know. I've never actually been on a date before. Besides, it doesn't seem very much ch like you. I never took you for the romantic type. Or the dating type. Or the type to experience anything close to positive human emotion," She commented after quickly collecting herself. "But, hey, you wanna take me out, I'll let you, as long as you dress up, get me flowers, and actually ask me properly. You know, like in movies and crap, where the guy just kinda rings her door bell and stumbles over his words and she laughs and says yes. You be the Ren to my Ariel and you can drag me into a meat factory if you like," she replied, turning around to face him and resting her hands on the bed, crossing her feet at the ankles.


"Honestly, though, I'm flattered. Too bad my standards are way too high. Anyway, I'm going to try to see up one of these dresses, because dress shopping is slowly killing me."