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Dr Evans raised a finger to argue, but what Rick said suddenly clicked with hied a sheepish look “I… uh… yes That would work, I suppose”
“We didn’t think of that,” mumbled Oles
“Well, that’s why I’ether as he forced a smile and pulled out the thuet these commands written up”
“Of course” Dr Evans began to instruct Rick in what to do, and a few minutes into the process Rick stopped and looked at the pair with a quizzical expression
“You’re having me enter all this into a text file”
“…yes?” Dr Evans appeared confused, as though the question was completely alien to him
Rick rubbed his eyes, trying to keep fro way “Dr Evans… can you explain how this ork? Don’t we have to use a specific piece of software to interface with Damocles and issue commands to it?”
“What? No, of course not The co as the authentication key properly surrounds thely”
“That… okay, that’s surprisingly sht about what Dr Evans was describing “It ensures that you can always communicate with Damocles no matter what system it’s on or where it is I assume it’ll read the authentication key in multiple formats?”
“Of course”
“Huh” Rick raised his eyebrows approvingly “Well, all right That’s pretty clever” He continued working away, taking instructions fro was coh Once read and digested by Daram to first broadcast the commands to every other instance of Damocles that it could connect to The second instruction was for Damocles to stand down from any and all system attacks and then delete itself fro chain would act precisely like Damocles did when it spread outward, except the spread this time would be a cure, not the disease
When he finished, he saved the command file to both the syste the drive out and slipping it into his pocket He was about to ask the other that the next step hen the sound of scraping footsteps off to the side followed by the harsh staccato crack of gunshots caught everyone off-guard Rick turned to look at the building where Jane had lost her life and saw, bloodied and staggering, an iht Jacob stumbled out of the entrance, his pistol in hand as he howled in pain and rage
“Stop what you’re doing and give me the codes!”
Chapter 13
The Waters’ Homestead