I shook my head at the idea of her being within a hundred yards of a chess club these days. She’d once been damn good at the ancient game. It was thanks to me she learned to socialize and party with the best of them. Sometimes I thought I might be a bad influence on her. She insisted she had a lot more fun after she met me than before, so I was pleased about that.
Soon, we’d be hurtling through space back to our homeworld where we belonged. It all depended on me plugging this little device in Kal’s computer.
And that depended on me convincing Niik to follow me into this room.
“Come on,” I said to Niik. “I’ll leave the door open. Don’t worry.”
Niik seemed to take some reassurance from that. The truth was, even if my life was on the line, there was a zero percent chance I could ever hurt an innocent animal. How dedicated was that to animal rights?
Niik wasn’t having any of it, so I had to play my last-ditch attempt to get him to move.
I tossed the two dozen bacon niblets across the room. They scattered and pinged against the walls and metal trophy frames.
“Go get ‘em!” I cried.
Niik yelped with joy and skidded on the hardwood floor as he took after the tiny pieces of meat.
It wouldn’t take him long to collect them all. I needed to hurry.
I backed out of the room and left the door wide open—I didn’t want him getting trapped and start barking and howling to be let out. He’d get everyone’s attention.
I checked over my shoulders as I hustled toward the study. I didn’t want to run. It would be too conspicuous.
Not that I could spare the time. I only had a handful of minutes left.
I entered the office, checked no one was there, before making a b-line for the desk.
I extracted the device from my clutch purse. There was a circle of metal protruding out the end like a standard USB drive. I assumed that was how I inserted it into the computer. I held it out and—
There was no computer.
No motherboard. No keyboard. No circuit board. Nothing.
“No, no, no, no, no….” I muttered. “There has to be a computer here somewhere…”
I surveyed the room. Where was it? What did a computer even look like in this crazy Titan world of theirs? I returned to the desk and sifted through the papers.
Could a computer look like a piece of paper in this world? I pressed the device to the papers, to the books, to the chair…
Nothing happened.
Nothing on the desk was the computer.
Then where the hell was it?
I scanned each of the walls. There were portraits, photographs, moving images…
But no screens. No blinking electronic lights.
This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening.
The hardest part of this damn plan was supposed to be getting inside the room, not finding the damn computer!
The seconds were ticking down now.
I wasn’t going to do it.
I was going to fail.
And then me and my friends wouldn’t get home.
We’d be stuck here.
And it would all be my fault!
“No!” I yelled, slamming my fist on the desk.
A portrait on the wall, displaced by my outburst, slipped and fell on the floor. I was about to pick it up when I had a sudden realization…
There was artwork on every wall…
Every wall but the one behind me. One of the panels stood slightly ajar as if it were warped…
I glanced at the doorway but it was empty. Thank God!
I heard Niik’s nails scrabbling for purchase on the floor in the next room as he rushed excitedly to scoop up the last of the few bacon pieces.
I moved to the back wall and fingered the warped panel. It wavered beneath the pressure I exerted on it. It opened like a door on hinges. I eased it open.
Behind it was the largest computer I’d ever seen. The wall in this room and the one out in the hallway ended at different points. The hallway ended a good yard from the computer’s front. It’d been altered to cater to the computer’s girth and spanned the entire width of the room. I’d only ever seen computers this large in old documentaries.
I tugged a second panel open. Lights blinked and there were more dials and switches than you’d find on an airplane.
What did they use such a computer for? These Titans lived very traditional, old fashioned lives. Judging by their level of technology, they could zip across the galaxy at whim. A computer of this size must be a supercomputer. I felt along the computer’s face, looking for the circle hole where I could insert the device.
I found it and slipped the device inside. It occurred to me that having it sticking out of the computer terminal wouldn’t exactly be the most inconspicuous thing in the world. Anyone who saw it would easily notice it. But I needn’t have worried. The device morphed, shifting into a liquid-like material, and slithered through the hole I’d inserted it into.
I stepped back. Would the computer explode? Overload the system? Turn it into a weapon?
The lights blinked and the dials and switches remained exactly as they were. I guess it was some sort of virus or tracking program. The Changelings didn’t mention destroying anything, only spying.
And that was it. My mission was complete.
I could go home. So could my friends.
We were getting out of there!
I hopped on the spot and clapped my hands.
Then the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. It always happened when I felt eyes on me.
Someone was watching me.
But not from the doorway…
From the opposite wall.
I turned and expected to see someone standing at the window, peering in at me from outside. But it wasn’t someone outside. It was the portrait I’d accidentally knocked to the floor.
It was of a woman. She had
