Graceful Deception

7. And I Thought The Decoder Was Snazzy

“And just what are you guys doing?” I asked, looking over at Stella and Ren.  “You’ve been typing something nonstop for the past ten minutes.”

“Oh, you know,” Ren shrugged as his fingers continued to fly over the keyboard.  “Just stuff that’s going to help us with each of the break-ins.  Nothing that important.”

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion.  “What are you talking about?  John said something about the decoder to me last night…”

Stella smirked, one eyebrow raised.  “Yeah, but I’m betting that you really didn’t hear much, especially since the decoder he has is pretty much useless when it comes to government building security systems.”

“And I would know,” Ren put it, “since I’m the one who programmed it.  But for these types of systems, you need a much more complicated decryption program, which is what I’m working on now.”

“So you’re creating the codes that will hack into the security systems?”

“Pretty much.  I’ll also have control of every electronic lock, every video camera, pretty much everything.  We have earpieces that each of us will wear since we won’t be in the same place at the same time.  I’ll be where I can get a strong connection to the system, Stella will be on lookout, and you and John, of course, will be getting the boxes.  It’s basically going to be a team effort.”

He leaned down and pulled something out of the bag at his feet, a small, black plastic box.  When he opened it, I leaned over to see the small black ear pieces that he’d been talking about.  They kind of reminded me of Bluetooth headsets that you would use for your cell phone. 

I reached forward and picked on up, looking at it before back at Ren, who nodded as if to tell me to try it out.  Looking at it once more, I fit it in my ear as Ren got one also. 

“There’s a small switch on the back of it,” he said, reaching up to put his in his ear.  I saw him move his finger at the back of the earpiece.  “Flip it down, and it should automatically link up with mine.”

Finding the switch he was talking about, I flipped it and almost immediately heard three beeps, indicating that it was at least thinking about working. 

“So how exactly does it work?” I asked, looking back at him.

“Just like that,” he replied with a smile.  I could hear him both normally and through the earpiece.  “It’s completely hands free, so you don’t have to worry about pressing anything to be able to talk.”

Stella snorted.  “But you have to be careful what you say or all of us will hear you.  You’ve had that happen before, haven’t you, sweetie?” she said to him, reaching over to pinch his cheek.

Ren swatted her hand away, rolling his eyes.  “She’s right, though.  Everyone can hear what you say, no matter how quietly you speak.  It’s designed to pick up even the lowest whispers.  You know, for the places you have to be extremely quiet in but we also have to keep in contact.”

I shook my head in disbelief, reaching up to pull the earpiece from my ear and turn it off.  “This is…incredibly awesome, I must admit, though there’s a lot more to it this time, like you said.”

“But it sounds like it’s going to be a lot more fun than the last time, though, huh?” he grinned, glancing up at me.

“Sounds…like you said, complicated.”

“That’s because it is.  All of this…this is nothing.  The codes are a different story.  There’s so much that goes into it, though nothing I can’t crack in a few hours.  There are multiple levels, mostly for national security reasons.  The code for Buckingham Palace took me three days.  The reason they take a few days each is because I go for complete control, not just playing with a few of the systems.  I’ve been working on these for the past two weeks and I still have the last three locations to do, though the one for the White House will hardly take me any time at all.”