Basil watched and re-watched the national and Greek news. Then he activated a translation app and tried the Turkish news, then Syria and Egypt. All the commentators agreed that things looked very grim indeed.
"So are we going to do this, or not?" Daphne asked.
Basil cleared his throat, but it stayed uncomfortably tight. "Even if everything goes perfectly, and we save the world from certain destruction, we'll still end up in prison. What you're proposing has to be against every law on privacy protection that was ever passed."
Her jaw muscles clenched and unclenched. "I know. Not to mention the fact that trapping someone in a virtual world is a morally despicable thing to do." She met and held his eyes. "I still think we should do it. We can worry about the law later, if we live long enough." Her eyes were wide, and a hint of moisture gathered in the corners.
Basil swallowed. And swallowed again. Then he forced air into his too-tight chest. "All right. Let's get to work."
"Is that a desktop computer?" Daphne exclaimed a few minutes later. "How quaint!"
In spite of himself, Basil grinned. "Yes, that's a genuine desktop computer, complete with keyboard and monitor. And, more importantly, an off-switch. Unlike the apps on your NIF, this relict can be powered down, and becomes completely untraceable as soon as it's switched off."
Daphne looked thoughtful. "Oh. That's handy, I suppose."
"So it is. Plus, this ancient machine still has a lot of outdated software that allows me to access low-level functions that have been buried under layers and layers of modern apps on a standard NIF. That gives me tools to work on a level that nobody ever bothers to check these days." He gave her a mischievous smile.
Her answering grin looked a bit lopsided, but it was the first genuine smile he had seen on her face since this whole madness started.
Heartened, he set to work. Daphne watched over his shoulder while he activated the first set of false identities and started probing a ministerial assistant's NIF security app.
Twenty hours later, he had checked out nineteen of his twenty-six Greek targets, and still had not found a single foothold from which to break into Greek security.
"Crap, another miss," he said, voice low and rough from exhaustion.
Daphne didn't look much better than he felt. "You almost triggered an alarm there on that last attempt," she said. "Go get some sleep. Is there something I can do while you rest?"
Basil shook his head, as much to clear it as to answer her question. "No, after that close call it's better to switch off the computer and disappear from the cloud for a while. You might as well get some sleep, too, and we'll start over with a new set of identities when we're both rested."
Since the sofa was laden down with dated computer manuals, discarded fast-food containers and half-eaten cookies, Basil made Daphne share his wide bed.
"I promise I'll be good," he said, and her lips twitched.
They fell into bed side by side and were almost instantly asleep.
****
Basil woke shivering from a confused dream-a nightmare of trapping someone in an endless war game. Or had he been trapped himself? His heart still raced, but the memory of the dream was already fading. He opened his eyes and met Daphne's wide-eyed gaze. She, too, was shivering.
"Nightmares?" he whispered.
She nodded.
He gave her shoulder a tentative caress. When she didn't object, he took her in his arms. They fell asleep clinging to each other like a pair of frightened children. It helped-there were no more dreams that night.
"You know," Basil said, "even if we managed to pull this off without a hitch, how do you think the rest of the world will react?" Why hadn't he thought of this earlier? "We can't have three whole governments drop off the face of the earth with no-one noticing."
Daphne nodded. She obviously had considered the question, and come up with an answer. "We'll need to broadcast what we're doing just as soon as we've trapped all the major players into the war game. Then the rest of the world can watch them screw up. Maybe someone, somewhere, will actually learn something from this mess."
Basil's stomach cramped. If they publicly confessed what they'd done, how could they keep their identities secret and escape unscathed? He wanted desperately to shake his head, jump up and scream his denial at Daphne.
Instead he stared down at his hands and nodded.
The days passed in a flurry. One by one, Basil fingered all of their Greek targets' security apps. None of the Greeks had left their NIF access conveniently open, and neither had any of the Turkish government officials. Basil started in on the Cypriots while Daphne worked on removing the emergency off-switch from her nuclear war game.
They worked themselves into exhaustion, slept for a few hours, started over. And again.
And then the breakthrough came.
Alexis Tsirgiotis, undersecretary to the Cyprus Minister of Finance, had neglected to change the password for the admin access to his NIF security app. It still was the old generated code that the app had been delivered with. Finally, Basil had an entrance.
Sleep ceased to be an option. Daphne kept him in coffee and pizza while he used Mr. Tsirgiotis' NIF to launch a virus that would attack the NIFs of every other Cyprus government official. That done, he decoded and searched every file on every Cyprus NIF he could lay his hands on-and struck pay dirt again. The Cyprus Foreign Minister had ignored every rule of NIF security and had stored his access codes to the Greek security network in an inadequately encrypted file on his NIF.
Thirty hours later, Basil was a barely conscious wreck-but he had an access to all the Greek and Cyprus NIFs in question. He fell into bed but was too exhausted to sleep. He tossed and turned, trying to think of a way to break into Turkish security.
Only when Daphne climbed into bed with him and held him tight did he sink into a dreamless slumber.
"After the last days of valiant efforts on our brave defenders' part, our troops have been forced to give ground, and the Turkish aggressors have advanced past the former UN buffer zone," the news speaker said. "The Cypriot and Greek forces were able to fight the enemy to a standstill along Grivas Dhigenis Avenue, but nonetheless, the general population is strongly encouraged to leave Nicosia.
"The international airport in Larnaka has been locked down. ."
Basil shut down the newscast on his NIF. Daphne had stopped watching some time ago and sat staring straight ahead, hugging herself. Basil laid a tentative arm across her shoulders, and she sagged against his side, holding on to his other hand.
"We need to leave. Where can we go? You don't have a car, do you?" The hand gripping his was clammy.
"I have my motorbike. We could leave on that, but there's no way we could take my computer." The computer itself wasn't large, but old as it was it used a huge amount of energy, and it required a bulky set of solar collectors to keep it running.
"We cannot leave the computer," he continued. "I don't think I can manage to break into the Turkish security apps without the software I have on there."
He was astounded how calm he felt. He should be quivering with fright, but all he could manage was a kind of weary resignation.
Daphne shivered, and he pulled her closer. "So we need to stay." Her voice wavered, then firmed. "So be it. We have to see this through, no matter what."
She turned her head and kissed him. It took him a moment to react, but then he responded with an enthusiasm not entirely born of desperation. For the next hour neither of them thought about the war.
"The war game is as good as it's going to get," Daphne said, "And I've removed access to the game menu, as well as the emergency interrupt."