Chapter 60: Please Show Your ID
Romeo stood on the table, using dental floss to tamper with the fire smoke sensor on the ceiling. Then, Romeo said, “Do you have a lighter or matches?”
Normally, a lighter would not be able to pass the security check here. However, since Claire had the ability to smuggle in an external computer, smuggling in a lighter or some other ignition device was not a problem.
Sure enough, Claire rummaged through one of her luggage bags and actually took out a lighter. “Here,” Claire threw the lighter to him.
The lighter drew an arc in the air and then landed precisely in Romeo’s palm.
“Thanks,” Romeo said.
Romeo squatted down, took Della’s honey bear-patterned mug from the table, and then took a few wooden coffee stir sticks from the storage box on the desktop. He lit the stir sticks and threw them into Della’s mug.
A pungent, grayish-white smoke drifted out, slowly rising. When it, like a winding snake, attached itself to the smoke sensor, the smoke sensor did not sound any alarm.
“I’m not sure when the smoke sensor will react,” Romeo said. “But we’d better get back before it screams.”
At least a minute had passed of the fifteen minutes. The two could not waste any more time. As soon as Claire had stuffed the portable computer back into her luggage, the two of them quickly set off.
The actual action was very different from their plan. The actual area of the I.F.A.D. headquarters was much, much larger than it looked on the 6D map. In addition, the two were not very familiar with this place. Even though they had memorized the 6D map, it still took some effort to find their way.
To save time, their pace gradually changed from a fast walk to a trot. What was worse was that Romeo, not looking where he was going, bumped into a passing, seemingly high-ranking, elderly Alpha staff member, knocking him to the ground.
The Alpha looked at him, his face filled with anger, but Romeo just threw out a “Sorry, I’m in a hurry. I’m going to be late for my meeting,” and then dragged Claire and ran, leaving the staff member far behind.
“Heh,” Claire’s face was expressionless. “I hope he doesn’t complain to Della or Wen En.”
“I hope not,” Romeo said. Suddenly, he stopped. “We’re here.”
They stood in front of a door. The door of this room looked very narrow and was tightly closed. There was a doorplate on the door, and below the number were the words “Electronic Archives Management Center.”
“It doesn’t look like what I imagined,” Romeo said.
This place looked too small. He had originally thought that a place like this should be bigger and more advanced. Forget it, that’s not the point.
“There are still eight minutes left,” Romeo said. “Is that enough time?”
“It should be enough,” Claire said.
She watched as Romeo took out the commuter card he had stolen from the Omega and swiped it to open the door, but she did not follow.
“What’s wrong?”
Romeo sensed a slight abnormality, turned around, and looked at her, puzzled. This plan was proposed by Claire. Claire had said that she was going to help a friend destroy their identity information stored in I.F.A.D. It just so happened that Romeo also needed to check the file of an acquaintance, so he had agreed.
But they had already come all this way, and Claire was suddenly standing here like a wooden stake, neither moving forward nor backward, as if she were in a daze.
“Nothing,” Claire seemed to have suddenly woken up. “I’ll be right there.”
The two pushed the door open and went in.
Romeo had not expected that he had really underestimated this “Electronic Archives Management Center.” Pushing open this small door, there was actually a tall and vast space hidden inside.
“Wow,” Romeo said. “I take back what I said before. This place is really big.”
This place was large and empty, with no reception desk and no cleaning robots, only very bright incandescent lights. But there were many data connection ports on the surrounding walls, for I.F.A.D. to input or copy data.
“Welcome,” a mechanical voice suddenly said.
A projector extended from the wall. The blue light of the projector’s camera flashed, and a blue-light synthesized image of a Mediterranean old man in a light blue suit appeared in front of Romeo and Claire.
Claire looked at the work badge on the old man’s image. The name on it was EK Harvey. This should be the old man’s name.
“I know you,” Claire said. “You’re that famous physicist, but you’ve been dead for fifty years.”
EK Harvey said in a mechanical voice, “I’m glad that there are still younger generations who recognize me. But I’m not a physicist now, nor am I a resurrected soul. I’m just an AI in charge of managing confidential files.”
“Please show your ID,” AI Harvey said.
Romeo looked at Claire. Claire nodded, walked to the wall, took out a small chip, and inserted it into the data connection port. Soon, a touchable projection screen popped up there. The screen was filled with codes composed of letters, numbers, and various symbols, which was dazzling.
“I’ll be done soon,” Claire said, modifying the messy code. “You stall for time.”
Romeo took out the Omega staff member’s commuter ID and handed it to AI Harvey. AI Harvey scanned the ID once, looked up at Romeo, and his eyes emitted a scanning blue light, looking at Romeo from head to toe.
Suddenly, a red light flashed. Romeo looked down at the red dot on his chest. Cold sweat gathered on his head. He looked up at the ceiling and saw three infrared remote-controlled laser guns appear on the ceiling, their muzzles aimed at Romeo.
“The person does not match the ID,” AI Harvey said. “You have two more chances.” With that, the door behind him made a “click” sound and locked.
“Not very friendly to the younger generation, are you?” Romeo sneered.
This really leaves no way out.
“Almost there, almost there,” on the other side, Claire was almost driven mad by modifying the code. Heavens, this is too complicated. Complicated was one thing, but time was also tight, and there could be no mistakes. This was simply torturing her brain cells.
“Please show your ID again,” AI Harvey said without emotion.
“Here,” Romeo swallowed and handed over the ID again.
“The person does not match the ID,” AI Harvey said after scanning again. “You have one more chance.”
Romeo looked up again. The three infrared remote-controlled laser guns that were aimed at his heart were already preheating. The originally dark muzzles had turned red, as if they were about to fire red laser bullets and blast Romeo into a pulp.
AI Harvey reminded, “You can ask for help from other staff members of the department and use a third-party proof to pass the identity verification.”
That’s not an option. This was equivalent to a thief being robbed and asking a police officer for help, directly delivering a performance report to their door.
Romeo decisively refused, “I refuse your suggestion.”
“Roger,” AI Harvey said without emotion. “Please show your ID again. A friendly reminder, this is your last verification chance. If you fail, you will be treated as an intruder.”
“I know,” Romeo handed over the ID again.
At the same time, his eyes kept glancing at Claire, frantically giving her a look, telling her to hurry up and finish this thing, otherwise they would both die here.
Unfortunately, Claire did not notice him at all. Her eyes were fixed on the damn code. The more she worked on it, the angrier she got, so angry that her face turned pale. What the hell is this? Which bastard set up this code program?
AI Harvey took the ID and, after the third scan, he said something that made Romeo’s face turn ashen, “The person does not match the ID.”
It’s over. Romeo’s vision went black. He didn’t know what Claire was up to, but he was no longer in the mood to complain about her.
“I’m sorry, but go to hell,” AI Harvey said.
Romeo closed his eyes, squatted down, and lay on the ground. The reason was simple: he wanted to die a little more comfortably.
Huh, why is there no movement?
Romeo secretly opened one eye and saw that the muzzles of the remote-controlled laser guns on the ceiling had turned from a preheated red to black, and then retracted into the ceiling.
???
“Verification passed. Have a nice day,” AI Harvey said. With that, the image of Harvey in the light blue suit turned into light particles and disappeared before Romeo’s eyes. Romeo jumped up from the ground like a rabbit. After a few seconds, he finally reacted. He… he had actually survived?!
Romeo did not hesitate for long. He turned and walked to Claire’s side. He saw that Claire was not in a much better state than him. Her lips were colorless, and her forehead was covered in fine sweat. The hair that fell on the side of her face was stuck together. It seemed that the situation just now had also scared her quite a bit.
“There are still five minutes left. We have to hurry,” seeing that she was not in a good state today, Romeo said, “You take a breath first. I’ll do it. Whose information did you want to destroy?”
Romeo had intended to ask Claire to tell him the specific name, but he hadn’t expected Claire to misunderstand him. She said, “No need. You can just do your own thing. Don’t worry about me.”
“Huh? Claire, I mean…”
“I mean, I don’t want to help that person destroy their identity information anymore, Romeo. You just need to do what you have to do, understand?”
It was unclear why Claire had suddenly changed her mind. Since she had said so, Romeo couldn’t be bothered to ask so many questions. He said, “Alright then.”
He stood in front of the touchable projection screen, tapped it quickly, and entered a person’s name: Peterlov…
Because the memory was too long ago, Romeo had almost forgotten the person’s last name. After entering the last letter, Romeo clicked confirm.
As expected of the most advanced identity system in the entire galaxy, this search only took two seconds to load the result Romeo wanted.
Looking at the familiar face in the file photo, Romeo thought, It really is you.
