Codespell (24 page)

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Authors: Kelly Mccullough

Tags: #Computer Hackers, #Magic, #Fantasy Fiction, #Computers, #Contemporary, #General, #Fantasy, #Wizards, #Fiction

BOOK: Codespell
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“That explains your split with Fate, but I still don’t understand why you didn’t go after Persephone.”
She froze, her shoulders stiffening. “I can’t tell you that, Ravirn. Not at this time. I hope you understand.”
“It’s all right,” I said. “I know that Tisiphone the Fury has responsibilities that may conflict with the wants and needs of Tisiphone the individual. As much as I dislike the idea, I’ve come to understand the dual nature of power vs. person. The Raven and Ravirn are decidedly not the same thing.”
“Thank you.” Tisiphone relaxed and turned back to face me with a wistful smile. “That understanding is why we can share what we have today. It’s why I’m glad you’ve become a power at the same time that I mourn for you. It’s not a burden I would wish on anyone I cared about.”
“Uh, Boss.” Melchior poked his head into the still-open doorway. “Could I interject a question?”
“Sure,” I said.
“So, I’ve been sitting out here for a bit, and I couldn’t help overhear the discussion, and I was wondering about something. It—”
“How long have you been there?” I interrupted. I was a little bit appalled by the idea that he might have listened to our entire performance.
“He arrived a few minutes before we finished having sex,” said Tisiphone. “I heard him sit down.”
“How could you have heard me over all that banging and . . .” Melchior trailed off, blushing. “I mean—uh. Well, hmm.”
“I have very good ears, little goblin.” Tisiphone grinned. “And a certain level of paranoia comes with my job.”
“Oh.” Melchior’s entire head had darkened to a deep indigo with embarrassment.
“There’s no need to worry,” said Tisiphone. “I know you have your partner’s best interests at heart, and I have no personal modesty at all. You could have come in and had popcorn for all it would have bothered me.”
Mel opened his mouth and raised a finger.
“Veto,” I said, before he could begin his comment. Whatever it was, I didn’t want to hear it. “Now, you had a question? ”
“More an observation, really.” Melchior came through the door and took a seat against the wall. “She hasn’t yet said
why
the Furies need you.”
I’d been wondering when she was going to get to that myself but hadn’t wanted to press. I turned and raised an eyebrow at Tisiphone.
“Sorry,” said Tisiphone. “I wasn’t being evasive. It’s just I’m not entirely used to this kind of conversation. Things are very different when speaking with my sisters or with our . . . customers for that matter.”
“What a very diplomatic way of saying victims,” said Melchior.
She gave him a sharp look. “Besides, I would have thought the answer was obvious. We need Ravirn to help us reach Necessity, then to fix her.”
“Oh,” said Melchior.
I blinked several times, trying to take that in. It didn’t help.
“You. Need me. To fix Necessity.” I choked on the last word and had to stop and cough for a moment. “That’s crazy.”
“Who else are we going to get to do it?” she asked quietly. “There really aren’t many powers with the necessary computer skills, and whoever takes the job will have to have total access—the ability to change the very nature of the multiverse. To whom would
you
give such power? We now know we can’t trust the Fates. Athena’s almost as bad, and she’s entirely in Zeus’s pocket. No one sane trusts Eris. That doesn’t leave a lot of options.”
“I wouldn’t even know where to start,” I said, stalling while I tried to think of someone else who’d be a better fit.
“Start with Shara,” said Tisiphone, before I could think of another name. “That’s a big part of why it has to be you. I got to read Shara’s Fate thread when we were sent after you the last time. There are only four people in the world whom she really trusts. You two”—she pointed at the pair of us—“Ahllan—currently missing—and Cerice, who works for Fate. It’s got to be you.”
I wanted to argue, to say that it wasn’t my problem, that someone else would take care of it, maybe even Cerice, who was already working on it. But Tisiphone was right. Even though I still trusted Cerice on a personal level, she was working for Fate, whom I did not trust at all. I like Discord, but it would be the ultimate act of madness to put her in charge of all of creation, even for one second. After my recent encounter with Athena, I didn’t think much of giving her that kind of power either.
Who else was there? Who
would
I trust? I couldn’t think of a single name. The gods, my family, have too many quirks and vices and not nearly enough leet skillz among them. But me? Fix everything? The idea was patently insane.
“I see a problem,” I said after a moment.
“What’s that?” asked Tisiphone.
“I don’t trust
me
either. Not with that kind of power. I don’t trust anybody with that kind of power.”
“Somebody has to do it,” said Tisiphone. “We took a vote, and you won.”
“Simple majority?” I asked.
Tisiphone grinned. “No. Unanimous.”
“Megaera voted to trust me with the very soul of Necessity and everything that entails?”
“She did. She said that at least she knew where to find you and that you weren’t immortal yet.”
“Oh.” Now that I could believe.
Of course, if I got my hands on the source code for everything, I could fix it so Megaera would never bother me again. I could fix a lot of things. I could make the multiverse into my playground. Then I shook my head. That was a Very Bad Idea. I was
already
being corrupted by the thought of all that power, and I hadn’t even agreed to try it.
“I’m a hacker and a cracker, and you’re offering me the keys to the kingdom,” I said. “This is really a bad idea.”
“Actually,” said Tisiphone, “your hacking past is a big part of why Alecto agreed to the idea. She said you’re sloppy and you consistently overreach, but that you always manage to kludge things together.”
“She thought that was a
good thing
?” demanded Melchior.
“So did I,” said Tisiphone, turning to face him. “We don’t want someone who’s going to rewrite the master code. We just want someone to get the goddess onto her feet long enough that she can make the decisions on how best to proceed from there. Nothing Ravirn does is seamless; he’s too much of an improviser. Once Necessity has herself back under control, we should be able to find and adjust anything he did fairly easily.”
I opened my mouth to tell her that wasn’t entirely true. I’m an absolute wizard at leaving invisible back doors for example. Then I realized that now might not be the best time to brag that up, so I closed it again. Besides, assuming I took the job, I might want that back door someday.
“Could you toss me my robe, Tisiphone? I need to pace, too.”
“Why bother with the robe?” she asked.
“She’s got a point,” said Melchior. “Ain’t nobody here who hasn’t seen you naked or who’s likely to be offended. Amused on the other hand . . .”
“I care,” I said. “It’s harder to think naked.”
“Weird,” said Tisiphone, bringing me my robe and handing it over. “Here you go, but that’s just weird.”
“Said the naked embodiment of vengeance.” I winked at her and pulled on the robe.
“What’s your point?” she asked me.
“Nothing at all, just sayin’.” I paced for a little while. “Megaera really agreed with you on this one?”
She nodded. “Of course she did. It’s not like you could get in without one of us—me in this case—to disable the physical security and open the door after you get around the soul lock. She knows there’ll be someone there to keep an eye on you. But even if that weren’t the case, she didn’t have a lot of choice. Put simply, you’re the best candidate.”
Maybe I really was. I got up and began to pace, well, limp in circles actually, but the intent was the same. I still couldn’t think of anyone else I’d let have the kind of access this job needed. They were all even less trustworthy than I—from my point of view, at least—which was frankly terrifying since I was already starting to think about the myriad of little things I could do to make my life easier. I could erase myself from Hades’ memory, make Athena love me like a son, even write myself back into the family of Fate.
Or write Fate out of the picture completely,
a voice whispered in the back of my head as a shadow that only I could see engulfed me, a shadow with wings. I shuddered and opened my mouth to refuse.
Would Eris be any better? Athena? Cerice and Fate?
I forced the shadow to retreat, but I couldn’t force back its arguments.
“All right,” I said finally. “I’ll do it.” The faintest flicker of darkness edged my vision, bringing with it an instant of inhuman satisfaction. “I’m going to regret this”—I already did—“but I’ll do it.” Somebody had to.
“If it’s any consolation,” said Tisiphone, “you’ll probably regret it less immediately than you would have regretted saying no.”
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“Megaera again. She said that if you didn’t agree to try to save Necessity, all bets were off and she was going to kill you even if it did piss me off for the next five hundred years.”
“Oh.” I caught Tisiphone’s hands in my own and looked into her eyes—I wanted her to understand that I was being serious and sincere and not the least bit snarky. “I don’t mean to criticize, but is there a reason you didn’t mention that part up front?”
“I didn’t want you to say no,” she said simply.
“Oh my,” said Melchior, whistling. “She’s really got your number, doesn’t she?”
“What’s that supposed to mean, Mel?” I let go of Tisiphone and turned to glare at my familiar.
“Nothing at all, contrary boy.” He grinned. “Don’t let it worry you.”
I sighed. He might actually have a point there—in amidst the gloating.
“Where do we start?” I asked.
“Isn’t that your job?” asked Melchior.
“I’m just thinking out loud,” I replied. “We’ll have to see if we can find a way to communicate with Shara.”
“How?” asked Tisiphone. “My sisters and I have tried everything we can think of to get through to Necessity. Nothing works.”
“That’s why you called me in. I’m the expert hacker, right?”
“Yes,” she agreed.
“So, have you actually tried to reach
Shara
? As opposed to Necessity?”
“Well, no, not exactly,” said Tisiphone, “but we’ve tried to get through to Necessity hundreds of times, and they’re in the same place, both cut off behind those damned soul locks.”
“This is true,” I said. “It’s also irrelevant, since you can’t really know where the communication breakdown is happening. It could be the locks, or it could be something specific to Necessity, something that’s stolen her voice. Something that might not affect Shara.”
“Why didn’t we think of that?” Tisiphone looked dumb-struck and abruptly sat down on the bed. “I mean, part of why we decided you could help was because of your connections to Shara. It should have been obvious.”
“Maybe it’s because you’re mostly in the killing-people business and only do tech support as a sideline,” suggested Melchior. “Now, I don’t know a lot about the ripping-folks-to -shreds-and-grinding-up-the-bits industry as a whole, but it would seem to me a fairly straightforward kind of process.”
“You might be surprised,” said Tisiphone. “Hunting targets like Eris is not as easy as it looks.”
I thought back to witnessing the Furies battle with the Goddess of Discord and shuddered at the idea that Tisiphone thought of that as
looking easy
. From his expression, it gave Melchior a bit of a pause as well.
“Point taken,” he said. “I imagine chasing Ravirn down posed some special challenges, too.”
“It was fun.” Tisiphone smiled broadly. “He’s very unpredictable, and that makes the game last longer. He also does things that seem terribly stupid at the time but that nevertheless work out quite well. None of us are entirely sure whether that’s the result of a sort of weird genius or some kind of divine fool’s luck.”
“Can I vote for the divine-fool option?” asked Melchior.
“No,” said Tisiphone. “Furies only.” Then she winked at him. “Either way, he makes for a good chase. Twisty.”
“Thanks . . . I think,” I said. “Can we get back to the topic at hand? Namely, figuring out some way to contact Shara. Melchior and Cerice and I tried Vtp, and we tried Voice Over Mweb Protocol and MIMs and all the other traditional high-tech solutions without any success. Absolutely nothing got through. What have you done to try to reach Necessity?”
“All the stuff you mentioned, of course. We also tried chaos modulation and physically traveling to her domain. That might have allowed us to bypass the mweb and the soul lock, but we simply couldn’t reach her.”
I held up a hand. “Before you go on, could you explain the hows of those two? A lot of the stuff you Furies do seems to violate the rules of existence as I was taught them growing up in the Houses of Fate. Take the way you rescued Mel and me from Fate security yesterday. . . . It was yesterday, wasn’t it?” Things were starting to get a little blurry around the edges.

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