The buddha fell from Nirvana. He decided to make a more stealthy device next time before striding off to the data room.
Anita laughed at his serious back. After her mothers died, she had become crazy with vengeance. But her father caught her legs like a lotus that trapped her on the pristine surface of the water. The trap was very easy to dispel, but so very, very precious. She hadn't been able to dispel it until this very day.
When she went to the data room, she saw her father, who was on Level 2, the highest level for human timekeepers, had already set up a capture route for all the duplex mirrors that can possibly be captured. A timekeeper's perspective changes as he grows one level. But he can no longer see things from the old perspective. This is a concern for a sciencekeeper like Sahoo.
He had so much faith in his daughter that he wanted to capture that single instance and extract information from all duplex mirrors at once. A duplex mirror combines the perspectives from two consecutive levels. Sahoo built a mechanism to build a room of mirrors so that the information they capture in a moment can continue to reveal itself to them. He did all that in the small amount of time Anita took to leisurely walk to the data room.
Anita was shocked. And she was a little sad. Pod Deva was a warkeeper pod and no one expects anything from father. But he too had given up rising his influence after mothers died. Clearly, a young and vigorous man, but he lives like a monk who seeks nothing.
Sahoo pulled her daughter to the computer while inputting all kinds of commands. He prepared the ground for her while explaining how to do a few things. She is a very smart girl, but she follows a different path. These moments when she's willing to listen to his lessons were very precious to him.
Sahoo's worries were groundless. Anita would soon completely give up battle in order to concentrate on Aniket. Since all the destruction in the world had come home, why go to the battleground?
Anita gave her father a triumphant look. Letter by letter, she inputted the string of letters, 'King Adharma lives forever'
'That's it?'
'That's it!'
Sahoo was disappointed, but his smile remained the same. Let the little girl try it.
It's only an instance he built over ten years. There are more precious things to lose. He nodded and let Anita press enter.
Anita gleefully and loudly pressed enter. She didn't even look at the screens. She clapped and turned to see his gobsmacked face. It was the expression of the century. She must quickly take a click.
Unfortunately Sahoo was faster than her nefariousness. He closed his dropped jaw and nonchalantly organised the information that was pouring in from eight duplex mirrors!
Of course, there were all kinds of alarms from all kinds of timekeepers at various levels. He quickly let his XO handle those alarms, attacks and deployments around the world. Suffice to say, father and daughter created worldwide panic over a saturday hangout.
'How did you do this?' Sahoo was half serious when he looked at his daughter. This was the most serious he had ever gotten with her.
Anita straightened up and told her dad everything. To which he nodded. 'So the gibberish the boy spoke was automatically fed to your XO somehow…'
'Not automatically. Timekeepers often use code while talking. I have this passive program in my XO to automatically input code that might trigger the duplex mirror function.'
'So that's how…' Sahoo nodded multiple times, 'Naturally, my daughter is most industrious.'
This was the main takeaway from the entire incident.
After sending her out, Sahoo saw that a certain teenager with exquisite looks was leaning on the car door without doing anything. Rather, warkeepers always do the same thing. Vigilance.
He nodded at Sahoo and opened the door for his wife, nary a smile on his serious face. Sahoo could tell the boy was nervous. Nate probably told him there is a first degree alert on pod Deva. Normally, those brats never come to pick their girl up.
Anita joyfully jumped into the car seat after seeing Aniket's face. But the joy turned into alarm when she heard her father's voice.
'King Adharma lives forever.'
'Dad!' Anita stopped being formal when the cub was attacked. Those words were spoken by Aniket inside the womb!
But her father shut the door on her face and faced the child instead. He was watching the boy's every expression. He needed to know where Aniket came upon that string of code. How he knew those words.
Anita was going to come out the other door, but she saw Aniket was very composed. She relaxed and let the men have their conversation.
'Aren't you going to say anything boy?'
'Aren't you asking the question old geezer?'
Sigh. Nate was such a respectful son-in-law…
'Where did you hear this code?'
'Who said anything about a code?'
'If it is not a code, then what is it?'
'The truth.'
Afterwards, Aniket received a message from Nate to start. He got in the car and left. Not a goodbye father-in-law, not an adieu, take care, not even a smile or a hug.
A precise and complete cold-shoulder.
'It's fine. Grandchildren are supposed to be bratty.'
A certain son-in-law was immediately relegated to the status of a grandson because of this incident.
Anita always wished she never Aniket's womb with her father. She learned that his disappearance three years later was because of the duplex mirror. He developed it to an extent where there are no more blocks between levels and information can flow freely as long as one had access codes. Anita didn't know what happened after that. Nate and herself were not of high enough level to figure it out. Her father had also put in safeguards so she cannot look into what happened. It was unclear whether he was attacked or he went into hiding.
But she fully inherited pod Deva according to her father's intentions. At least, it gave her some solace. Whatever happened was planned by him. The last thing she heard about him was that he was working with spacekeepers before his disappearance.
Anita had no idea what spacekeepers do. Only, whenever she cried, Aniket would promise that she would find her father again. He said mystery protects the truth and truth worships mystery. Father-in-law is only lost because mystery shrouded him. One day, truth will be revealed.
'And what did the sphynx tells you Aniket?'
Nate lightly pressed Aniket's head and asked. For a long time this has become a signal of truce between them. Nate is not his teacher or his boss, he wouldn't judge or reprimand. This is Nate's way of creating the safe place. The man's womb of listening.
Aniket turned towards Nate and buried his face in Nate's stomach. It truly was very soft. This wretched technique of cotton gravity is very strenuous and boring to practice. It needs enlightenment to grasp. Aniket has never been able to make an improvement. But he knew this was the source of Nate's extreme confidence in battle. It makes him infallible.
Aniket's anxiety was softened as Nate kept pressing his head. He relaxed his body and tried to breathe. But that effort made him hyperventilate.
Nate never saw Aniket like this, but he knew how to deal with soldiers having panic attacks. He dealt with the issue step by step and slowly calmed him down.
Anita was very angry at Aniket for abandoning Nate, but she had forgiven him after Nate told her everything. She worried endlessly because that child was left alone on the island. Who knows what his frame of mind was like, after everything that happened?
As a result, Nate never had the luxury to be a patient. He was soothing Anita on one hand, and directing the time servants on another. He had set up a perimeter to watch Aniket without disturbing him. All the while, doing very painful exercises to back his mobility.
Because of all this, Nate was very tired. He fell asleep in the middle of the important moment.
It was just as well, because when he felt Nate's hand on his head relax completely, Aniket started whispering. He spoke very fast and he spoke in code. But Anita was prepared for this.
Anita has experienced his womb once. She made the precaution to break all the codes he uses as spoken language. She also prepared decoding softwares for anything that may develop out of the existing ones.
After saying everything he wanted in one go, Aniket finally relaxed. He wanted to go and smoke a joint as celebration. Anita gave him a tight smack and let him sleep on the spare bed.
After which, she promptly raided his backpacks, his sleeves, his socks, his shoes, the seams under all these things and every place he had been since coming to the hospital. She cleaned up the trash thoroughly.
Only then did she sit and listen to the decoded recording.
When she was done listening, she held her breath. She couldn't wait and urgently woke Nate up.
'I'm sorry hon. Will you sleep for some more time?'
Nate felt his wife's cool hand under his neck as she lifted him up to a seated position. His movements are very slow in the first few minutes that he wakes up. Even for a short nap like this, he needed her help. He was in a lot of pain.
'It's fine. Tell me.'
Anita heard her husband's strained gravelly voice. She immediately got in bed and hugged him. Neither of her boys received serious injuries after she knew them. This could be said to be the most serious hospitalisation in their family. It would be a lie to say it wasn't concerning.