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What was this thing anyway? It annoyed her even more that she couldn’t figure it out. Was this even really a star...? She had been trying to open it, but maybe the solution wasn’t the inside, it was the outside. Suddenly, it was as if something had clicked. Eden moved it slowly, turning each edge and corner into a different position. She had been trying to make sense of it, unlock something and open it, but this couldn’t be as simple as that. Although she had pushed it into a different formation, maybe she hadn’t been precise enough on what she wanted to shape it into. Eden tried to make a sphere first, but it just didn’t work as something completely round. No matter how she tried, there were some hills and bumps, nothing that would take a completely spherical shape, maybe a pyramid then? Eden tried it. A square, a diamond, anything with edges didn’t work either. This thing didn’t want to have sharp edges, but it still had little bumps and corners...
Since she was so focused on it, Dante and Rolf were simply staring, curious to see if she could figure it out. Meanwhile, Beer and Bullet were still barking and happily playing under the mountain of computers Loir had hidden himself in. Who knew when he’d finally come out...
“What could he have done with that...” grumbled Eden.
Dante came down to the mat, stepping next to her. Eden tried to ignore him, but it was hard to ignore a presence like Dante De Luca’s. She could feel a faint wave of heat come over her... Still, she stubbornly stayed focused on the fake star instead, trying to figure it out. She had games like these when she was young, she knew there ought to be some shape or something she hadn’t tried yet, some sort of key only she had. Her master wouldn’t have made something so simple that anyone could figure it out. Pan was good at games. He had definitely picked something that would work only for Eden, something she’d have to be the one to figure out.
“Are you sure your master did it?”
“Yes. I recognize his work. The fact that he appeared too and said...”
Eden paused.
What Pan had said. “Good job, Eden.” He had called her by her real name. The name she rarely used in Dives, a name only her closest ones knew. Before, he always had a gentle nickname for her. Baby, Little One, Girl, or Ghost. Loir calls her Kitty when she Dives. It was a precaution. They never knew who could be listening to their Dives. It was very unlikely with Loir or her master’s skills, but it was still something they ought to be careful about. Using real names was often a dangerous key to their SINs. The Core was constantly looking for their real identities, which was why Eden didn’t even know Loir’s real name. She didn’t know Pan’s. Even the name Eden may not have been the one she was registered as in the Core. It was something intimate... The name Eden was something only a handful of people knew.
There was no way someone like Pan would have made such a mistake... It was definitely not a mistake. Plus, he had appeared while Eden was in the Ether. Why there? Was it to be sure no one but her could hear him? Eden chuckled, and quickly moved her fingers. It was hard, as it wasn’t something as simple or precise as a square or a sphere, but... she was excited. She knew she had the answer.
Dante understood she had figured something out, because he carefully stepped back, staring at the shape Eden was quickly working on. Maybe he thought that it might explode, but it was unlikely. Not while Eden had that smile on her face... Loir too carefully popped his head up from behind his desk with a suspicious expression. His hand grabbed a new slice, and he chewed his pizza silently, too focused on Eden.
The last click resonated in the room, and in Eden’s hand, the shape was done. It was perfect, there was no doubt about it now. She smiled, her heart beating loud and fast in her chest.
“...An apple?” questioned Dante.
“Eden’s apple,” she chuckled. “That’s definitely Master’s idea...”
There was a little piece sticking out, probably meant to be a leaf. Eden grabbed it and slowly spun it.
The object in her hands began to shine brightly, and suddenly, it exploded into thousands of shiny pixels. Eden opened her mouth wide in wonderment, and stepped back to see what was going on. They all were in awe. The Apple had spread into dozens of shapes, high and low, squares and... buildings. Eden realized right away, they were looking at a three-dimensional map.
Moving her hand, Eden grabbed one of the buildings and zoomed in, making the building a lot bigger for everyone to see.
“Holy macaroni...” squealed Loir.
Eden slowly stepped back, still completely amazed by what she was seeing.
“Is that...”
“The Core,” said Dante, with a terrific smile appearing on his lips. “An impressive and very precise map of the Chicago Core...”
None of them could believe what they were seeing.
The Core’s geography wasn’t so hard to find. Some old maps could be found in stores; those on paper were bound to last longer. For the Dark Reality, though, it was a little bit harder to find such a thing. The Core was protecting itself, and protecting itself meant keeping its configuration hidden where no eyes could scrutinize it. Research on precise parts of Chicago were possible, but recent, genuine maps were rare, and expensive. If not the Core itself, many owners of those buildings were extremely careful with who they allowed to look up their information, and why. This very building was probably heavily protected by hackers the Tiger would have hired to prevent intruders from accessing it easily. Accessing a building’s systemic map meant having a front row seat to its functions, and for hackers, there wasn’t a more solid base with which they could use to hack.
Loir too had come out of his hiding place, and was now leaning over his desk to look at the Map, his creepy smile stretching from ear to ear. The way Eden could completely zoom into a building, a street, or a park was absolutely amazing. Not only that, but if she moved her fingers, the Map would evolve to show different layers of Chicago. At first, there was only a basic three-dimensional configuration, like the premises of any building. However, if Eden moved her fingers, the shapes would change to show thousands of little lights, probably meant to be all the electrical conductors. If she moved again, there were now green and blue pixels, and those were moving like a very precise network, the web of a spider named Chicago. Eden was completely in shock. This Apple... no, this Map’s knowledge had an unfathomable value. Eden was curious to know what more she could show them...
“Interesting...”
Eden turned to him. On the side, the Tiger’s golden eyes were shining with a scary glow, like a cat ready to bite its prey. Of course he’d also know the value of such information. There was no way someone like him, who probably had both hands in the Black Market, wouldn’t know...
“Bloody Mary, Kitty! The Master is a living god!” squealed Loir.
He moved too fast and ended up falling somewhere behind the screens, making Eden frown. She walked over, but Rolf was closer, and faster, to pick the hacker up and put him back in his chair. As soon as he got in there, though, Loir literally jumped on his keyboard and began typing fast, his eyes stuck on the screen. Curious as to what was going on, Eden came to look at the screens, but things were happening back on the Map.
Loir had now gotten full access to the Apple’s control panel; hence, he was toying with it, making the Map change to show more and more new layers. Eden was in awe. She couldn’t even understand half of what she was looking at, but this was clearly classified information. Not only that, this wasn’t information that anyone should have been able to access at all. There was just too much in there. The data center’s position. The electrical, air, and gas conduits. The air filtration systems, and their layers of particles. All the roads, the electric vehicles, and the real-time movements of those vehicles, hundreds of little lights shining and moving on the Map. The government’s Overcrafts and their hidden parking spots. Even the top secret location of the magnetic field of the train that railed Chicago to the other Cores!
“...How did he get access to this?” she whispered.
Eden couldn’t understand. This wasn’t something she would have ever dreamed of getting her hands on, and she was one of the very best in her field. Still, this was exactly the kind of thing the Core would retain in its very center, keep secret, and do anything to protect. Eden knew better than anyone how the Core could act to protect its System.
