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"If you're watching this—" He ducked out of view. "Fuck, that was close." The vision shook and something behind him rumbled. "There's a lot of Iri here. Too many to…" The screen crackled and several words were cut off. "Putting coordinates on this chip. Get it to the IF… main headquarters…" He was breaking up badly now.
"Too many to stop at once… Need to get inside. We're gonna try…" The screen crackled again. Slek glanced over his shoulder, then back at the screen and smiled.
"Zarex says hello."
The whole screen seemed to shake, then the video ended.
"Shit," I breathed. "There should be another file on there."
Brinley closed the video and searched through the files for a moment. "There's a small file, but it won't open." She pressed on it a couple of times. "It might be password protected."
I frowned toward J'avet. "He might be the only one who knows it. Unless we can guess."
"I don't think it will be ‘123456,’ or 'sexypants,'" Brinley said.
I barked a short laugh. "Probably not. Knowing him, it's something obscure." I sighed. "Slek would be able to hack it."
"Maybe Slek put the password on there," Brinley suggested. "Something only you would know."
I thought, but drew a blank. I had no idea what he would choose, that I would remember. He had no cutesy nickname for me. I didn't have one for him either. Danec called him Slekie once.
I took the tablet from Brinley and right clicked on the icon. An option to put in a password popped up. I keyed in 'Slekie' and pressed return.
The screen responded with, 'Incorrect password.'
I ran a hand over my hair and tried, 'Danny', Slek's nickname for Danec.
"That's wrong too," I said, frustrated. I tried a few more words, including 'orgasm' and 'sex'. I even tried 'puny,' which I used to tease him and his enormous muscles.
"I'm starting to think I don't know him," I said, frustrated.
"What about where you met?" Brinley suggested.
"On board Infinity." I tried that. Still nothing. I keyed in 'Kalvix,' the doctor who he flirted with, but who was later killed, a causality of the conflict between the Freytaurians and the Iritauri.
The file opened.
"Holy shit!" I said, louder than I intended. There on the screen was a series of numbers. "We did it."
"You did it," Brinley said. "The question is, what do we do with it?"
I closed the file and handed the tablet back to Brinley. "We go after them," I said firmly. "Slek wanted to let us know where to look." If he and Zarex had gone in themselves, they might be dead now, or worse, hosts.
"If they got the chance," Brinley said. "That video… They might have been taken before they could try anything."
"All the more reason for us to go looking," I said. After a moment, I added, "You don't have to come."
"Can you fly a ship?" she asked.
I hesitated. "I could learn," I said finally.
"You don't have time to learn," she said. "I'm coming. On one condition, and it's not negotiable."
I looked at her sideways. I trusted her implicitly, but I was always doubtful when anyone put conditions on things.
"What is it?" I asked carefully.
"We have to wait for J'avet to wake," she said. "He knows what happened. We need to see what he has to say before we go off half-cocked."
