RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 219

A couple of minutes later, D.i.c.k came into the hall as expected and he had pulled out a bag from the car trunk and handed it to Thaddeus while holding onto a suitcase. “I will probably be staying here for some time. Would be mighty pleased if you could provide me a room and put my bag there,” requested D.i.c.k while slipping him a few credits.

“Glad to have as a guest, young master, D.i.c.k,” said Thaddeus as he took the bag and walked away leaving him to meet with Balthazar and Glen.

“How long are you planning to stay at the mansion?” asked Glen. “We might not have much time to spend here,” he added. “Hope you are familiar with other people here.”

“Oh! I have lot of friends here. Just not ones as young as the pair of you. Anyway, it is not an issue. Until otherwise informed by Bruce, I will be tagging along with you and Balthazar. Maybe even have to move with him back to the border force barracks when he is done with his break,” joked D.i.c.k.

“What? You are planning to stay that long?” asked Balthazar surprised.

“I am finding my position beside you a bit redundant, right now,” grumbled Glen.

“Haha, I am joking,” said D.i.c.k. “Those were just instructions. It isn’t like I am a stickler for orders. So, now that I am joining you guys, mind to fill me in.”

“Follow me, I will take you to a safe room,” said Glen as he took them both out and into the flight hangar of the grounds of the family. He took them through a few corridors and into a private meeting room. After a few preliminary checks, he pronounced it free of bugs. “Explain it to him, I will guard outside,” said Glen as he went outside, locked the door and sat down leaning his back against it.

“He brought me directly to the hangar. You planning to leave to leave right now?” asked D.i.c.k.

“Not unless you have a way to get us to the planet DH-8 without anyone in the family noticing us,” said Balthazar who had received a message that he was currently lodging at DH-8 at a friend’s place and he could come to Asklepian in the morning.

“You are saying DH-8 is your destination. So, close to home?”

“No, it is more of a pit-stop. A place where I can get an old acquaintance to get me to the place I need to go.”

“And what place might that be?”

“Yes, that. Might need a bit of help from you to find that out,” said Balthazar as he pulled out the smart watch from his pocket. “This is supposed to indicate our destination.”

“This?” asked D.i.c.k taking it into his hands. “More than a century old. Tech is currently useless. Not a valid option as a communication device, unless someone is broadcasting from a nearby source that source definitely being on the planet. If he could actually put in an interplanetary connection with this shit, he doesn’t need to use this. Getting and using the infrastructure require for that is harder and more revealing of his whereabouts than coming to meet you personally.”

“I thought so,” said Balthazar. He himself had some amount of knowledge in communications as that was the field he worked on in the military. But he still found it hard to accept that it was a useless thing and that there might be some other method hidden in it. “Anything else, you can get from it?”

“Sure, the operating system and other things are not hard to operate. You have a password?”

“Raymond,” replied Balthazar as D.i.c.k put it in and started to examine it. A few moments later, he still couldn’t figure out much from it.

“You know, it is a pain to use it for interplanetary communication, but it is not so within the planet a couple of antennas repurposed can give you a planet-wide coverage on this,” suggested D.i.c.k.

“I doubt he would be successful to come to this planet, especially with the bounties on his head. I suspect that he is stuck somewhere, and we might have to be his rescue,” said Balthazar.

“True. Ryan Rowley is in a bit of a pickle, right now,” agreed D.i.c.k nodding his head. “This was meant to be a clue, right?”

“Yes, he took a lot of precautions to avoid it from falling into other’s hands. Even put it in this container have some kind of corrosive agent or something,” said Balthazar showing him the puzzle box.

D.i.c.k looked at it for a second before giving it back to Balthazar. “Keep it away, it might not be just a corrosive agent which could aerosolize once the glass breaks. Such things were used during the war. Some of these chemicals react with the glass to form a flammable gas causing it blow up. Put the cylinder back without the device and lock it and put it away safely.”

“Wow! That is something. You have quite a good amount of knowledge,” said Balthazar admiring the wide variety of things that D.i.c.k knew.

“You need to know broad scope of things to collect information or hack. Else, even if I am successful, I would remain as clueless as before,” said D.i.c.k. “Anyway, looking at the precautions he took, I think it is best if I try out a few more things with the device. You have any setup which I could use.”

“These things are so old that I don’t know what to use,” said Balthazar. “But I will introduce you to Ellie. She might be aware of it.”

“Don’t bother, I will ask her uncle, Elias. He would be a better option,” said D.i.c.k. He was acquainted with few of the technologically proficient people of the family due to prior interactions. Elias was actually once introduced to him by Evelyn Price as the man to first contact for any communication requirements.

A moment later, Elias was on video call with D.i.c.k. He seemed to be in the party along at Ambrosia restaurant. He looked quite drunk. He first asked them where they were as they were missing the party, but once he saw device in D.i.c.k’s hand, his attention was stuck to it. “Damn! That is a really old one. Can I have it after you guys are done with it?” asked Elias as he looked at the watch.

“First, can you help us get a cable that fits into this?” asked D.i.c.k.

“No. But I have the specs for the device. Come to my lab beyond the. Don’t bother, I will send you the location on your device. Be there in an hour. A makeshift port could be designed using 3-d printer and some solder,” replied Elias. “Now about the device.”

“Sure, but it comes at a price. It isn’t for free,” said Balthazar.

“It is your’s?” asked Elias surprised.

“Yes,” replied Balthazar.

“I thought it was the Rowley kid’s,” interrupted D.i.c.k.

“Consider, it mine. I will deal with those things,” said Balthazar. He had to pay quite an amount to Elias for setting up the somnium technology virtual training platform. So, he hoped to get a bit of a discount on that.

“Yes, I will buy it,” said Elias without much thought. “How much?”

“How much?” asked Balthazar stumped by the question. He had no idea of its value or a clear idea of the rarity of the item. He needed the assessment of a professional before he could make any deal. “Why don’t we discuss it later? I am not even sure if it will remain with me after we are done with it.”

“Yes, we will stop at your lab in an hour. Get yourself there in time if you want to have a look at it,” said D.i.c.k and cut the call.

“So, what do we do till then?” asked Balthazar.

“You told something about getting to the planet, DH-8?” asked D.i.c.k.

“Yes, I have an acquaintance who is currently at DH-8. He is somewhat of a freelancer and I contacted him about getting a ride. Told him that I have a solid lead on finding out about the Nirbaadh pirates and he could collect on the reward,” said Balthazar.

“Apart from that, I told that I have a personal interest in a Shadow Card mission. My own and that I am willing to pay the reward amount along with its details.”

“So, he agreed to help you and informed that he is currently at DH-8. He told you that he could pick you up at that point as everyone are trying to avoid the planet due to Winston’s speech,” said D.i.c.k.

“Nice guess, but he actually didn’t say anything about it. If anything, I replied telling him to stay there. There are lots of eyes on the planet due to Winston and those eyes would be more concerned on who are getting in rather than who are running away. I plan to be among the second kind,” said Balthazar.

“I don’t think it is much of an issue, but sure it is better this way. It also allows people to see me getting out of the planet while I can hide the pair of you in my shuttle. If you can act like you were recuperating in your room and avoiding public due to Winston’s speech, it would be good. I suspect many of the family would try to avoid public for now because of that,” said D.i.c.k.

“Hmm. I guess that is right. His speech did give me a better chance of remaining hidden with a proper excuse,” said Balthazar.

“Cool, then make all preparations to deal with it. We can depart once the device is examined,” said D.i.c.k. “But what do you plan to do if we don’t find anything from the device. There is a good chance that we failed to identify his message or if it failed to function properly. It is over a century old and is an electronic device. A good chance exists that it hasn’t been maintain in perfectly functioning condition.”

“We still continue to move in the direction of the quadrant, the pirates escaped or towards the location of the Rowley family. They have a private moon where most of the family resides. We move towards it,” said Balthazar.

“Good. We need to have alternate plans of action in case of first attempt fails,” acknowledged D.i.c.k as the both of them got up. As they got up, Glen who was outside guarding against any unwanted guests also got up and came in. Being just outside the door, he had heard everything that happened inside clearly.

“Tell Thaddeus to give me the keys to your shuttle. I will have our equipment put in it,” said Glen as the door opened. He had already made a call to the butler and made D.i.c.k inform the butler that D.i.c.k needed to carry somethings out of the mansion for some mission.

Thaddeus had prior experience with such requests and didn’t question much. In this way, the managed to set up a story to chief butler of the mansion and they knew that he would inform any who asked the same.

After that D.i.c.k and Balthazar made way to the lab whose address, Elias sent Balthazar through e-mail. Balthazar and D.i.c.k took a car from the family garage to get to the location. It was large 4-storied building and once, Balthazar told of his identity, the guard allowed him inside as he was already told by Elias that Balthazar would be arriving with another visitor.

As they parked the car, Elias came to them jumping in glee along with another man. The man was rather portly with a thin pencil like moustache, a button nose with a pair of beady eyes wearing a top hat. He was in some kind of uniform and they both looked slightly drunk as they walked towards Balthazar slightly wobbling along the way.

“How was the trip?” asked Elias happily as he addressed them both.

“How do you do, Colonel Balthazar,” said the portly man shaking his hand vigorously.