Quotes from the science fiction, time travel novel THE HUNT FOR KOMODO CRACKER
“Yes, yes,” Barnaby murmured, his mind still in a cloud. He turned to the tall, thin man who waited nearby, his backpack open. “Put it in quickly, and let’s go. And for God’s sake, be careful—the future of the world is in your rucksack.”
Professor Barnaby Lancaster
Relaxing back into his seat, Barnaby pulled his notepad from his breast pocket and flipped it open to the translation. “Who are you, Thomas K Faraday,” he said slowly, “and why is your name on a twenty-five-hundred-year-old Persian stela?”
Professor Barnaby Lancaster
“My goodness, Thomas, I just finished telling you—he’s back.”
“Who’s back?”
“Komodo, of course.”
Michael Griffin and Thomas Faraday
I would like you, the most worthy students in your fields, to be the first to witness the public unveiling of a find that will change the way the world understands God. Maybe even the way the world worships.”
Professor Barnaby Lancaster
Thomas dropped his face into his hands. After a long moment of reflection, he looked up at Michael. “What am I going to do without work? You remember what happened after Amélie passed. I don’t want to go back there. It’s a very dark place.”
Thomas Faraday
Thomas snickered. “Bytes. Are you trying to tell me this tablet has a message written in binary code?”
Thomas Faraday
“This is the one and only spaceship to successfully travel back in time. You see, Thomas, I believe someone from that ship carved this stela especially for you.”
Professor Barnaby Lancaster
“I don’t know what God wants with you, Thomas, but we can’t ignore the facts.” Nicolas counted on his fingers. “One, you can identify yourself on the stela. Two, ‘Komodo’ has significance in your life. Three, you end up at our League’s gateway just days before the training process is about to begin. Four, you have knowledge of the place and period involved with this mission, the Medo-Persian world power. Yes, Thomas, you’re the one.”
Nicolas Knox
“Hold on there, Ms. Latimer,” Thomas retorted. “I was practically bribed to come here. It’s not my fault I don’t know what my role is. For all I know, this is a misunderstanding and I’ll be out of your hair in two weeks.”
“Now that’s unfair,” Thomas protested. “You can’t blame me for my situation. Besides, you don’t know me. You have no right to judge me like that. And rest assured, Ms. Latimer, if I decide to stay, I will work as hard as everyone else to earn my spot. I’ve never in my life accepted handouts and I sure as hell won’t start now.”
Thomas Faraday
Anna leaned forward until she was only inches from Thomas’s face. “What will be your motivation, free scotch?”
Anna Latimer
“Which was more challenging than it sounds,” Derrek added. “We needed to read and understand the entire programming code before we could change anything. You see, Mr. Faraday, the real creators of the system can’t be found.”
“Can’t be found,” Thomas said. “Why can’t they be found?”
“We don’t know,” Derrek answered. “No one would tell us what happened to them. All they said was that we’re on our own. I wish we could meet them, though; their work is nothing short of genius.”
Derrick McCarthy and Thomas faraday
“Hello, my name is Kelile. I have been given the privilege of giving you the necessary physical training to stay healthy on the great mission to Persia. I will teach you to be proud of your body. I will teach you to defend yourself by applying techniques from different martial arts disciplines. I will teach you to skillfully use ancient Persian weapons of war. I will see you at four o’clock this afternoon. Thank you.”
Kelile Lemuel
“I too would like to propose a toast,” Kelile said as he raised his glass of carrot juice. “To the health of all those, I was able to help on the road to maximum physical fitness and the mastery of martial arts. And,” he held his glass in Thomas’s direction, “to Thomas for at least giving it his best shot.”
LemueKelile
“The vacation you planned for me. You knew all along I was the man on the stela. Did you make that stela yourself, to trick me into accepting this mission?”
Thomas Faraday
Michael had nothing to say. After two agonizing minutes, Thomas looked up at Michael. “Are you Komodo?”
“No, of course not.”
“Do you know who Komodo is?”
“No man, I have no idea who he is.”
Michael Griffin and Thomas Faraday
the inevitable?” “You should not blame yourself for what he did. He suffered much hurt in his life. Healing can take many years. He is not healed yet. Sometimes, when a person has lost a lot, they cannot accept the good that comes their way. So he hurts himself by chasing away the good, fearing it won’t last, so why Kelile said.prolong
Kelile Lemuel
“It’s because of Michael’s loyalty that Thomas reacted that way. It is our responsibility as his friends to help him realize he has the right to be happy.”
Kelile Lemuel
“Now please come over here. If you look through these large windows, you can see the Kismet. It is one hundred and thirty meters long, twenty-two point five meters wide, and fifty-five point five meters high.”
“Now back to the portal. It was here that the large wormhole was discovered. Although it’s as large as wormholes come, it must be enlarged even further for a ship like the Kismet to pass through it.”
Dr. Patrick Walsh
“Somehow when Nasato attached the umbilical cord earlier—” Thomas giggled at the irony. “Well, to put it bluntly, we’ve been sent back twenty-five hundred years. So congratulations. As far as we’re concerned, the mission has started.”
Thomas Faraday
“We also know the invisible shield is working, which leads me to believe all or most of the systems are in working order. It’s as if the mission started prematurely.”
Thomas Faraday
“There’s more, Thomas,” Derrek said. “Knowing there shouldn’t be a password, we pressed the Enter key, and a message appeared. It said we have three more attempts at getting the password right. The message also said after four failed attempts, the system will self-destruct.”
“If the system is destroyed, how are we to get back home?” Anna said.
“Oh, there’s one more thing,” Derrek continued. “I know this will interest you, Thomas. The message is signed Komodo.”
Derrick McCarthy
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“Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Daramy assured me they will work at deciphering the encrypted password. At the same time, they will work on configuring a new server to take us back home. Apparently, this is easier than trying to figure out the password. Keep in mind that it took six years to design this program; we have ten months. You do the math.”
Olivia Washington
“We’ve decided to send two groups, each with specific missions. One will compose of Nicolas Knox and Brody Powell. They will go to Jerusalem to discover the location of the Ark of the Covenant.”
Olivia Washington
“Team two’s objective will be to observe and record the events found in the Bible book of Esther, as well as finding random relics of biblical significance. They will spend most of their time in Babylon with the last two months in Susa, where they will observe and record the conflict between the Jews and the Amalekites.
Olivia Washington
“Before I give you these I need to explain something. About three and a half years ago, there was a cracker who penetrated my network at Northern F.P in Montreal. He was good at what he was doing; he seemed to be able to wander throughout our network, yet as far as we know, he never stole anything, nor did he cause any damage. He simply left fifty-four files in a folder where I could find them.”
Thomas Faraday
“What bothers me,” Thomas added, “is the communication problem. What if it can’t be fixed? How will we contact the Kismet if there’s a problem?” “You can always use smoke signals,” Quincy said as he approached them. “That’s not funny,” Thomas said. “If we can’t communicate with you, we’ll be stuck down there until we return ten months from now.”
Thomas Faraday
The man narrowed his eyes at Thomas. “How do I know you’re not spies working for our enemies, like the ones we caught not two months ago? How do I know you’re not from Athens or Sparta, coming to exploit our weaknesses?”
Officer Zubin
The officer shoved through to face Thomas. “I don’t believe your story. I think you’re spies coming to steal our secrets.”
Officer Zubin
“Find Aridai the son of Haman and tell him more travelers from the west have arrived. Tell him they’re a much smaller group this time, and we were unable to detain them. Tell him they suspect nothing and they’re staying at Artemisia’s house. Now be quick at it; we have no time to lose.”
Officer Zubin
“There was this one pirate who went by the name Komodo who managed to penetrate our defenses whenever he wanted, without leaving a trace. Catching this pirate became an obsession for Thomas since he’d designed the security system.”
Michael Griffin
“My spy in Hit assured me that they are weak, so we can easily get rid of them, just as we did with the last group. The problem is, Artemisia of Halicarnassus has taken them under her wing, and we all know what she can do.”
Aridai
We would like to hire you in the capacity of enforcer. You’ll need to make sure that a group of no less than five and no more than ten never leave Babylon. Can you do that?”
Parshandatha
“Don’t you think I’ll be doing my own plundering?”
Sadhanah
“Come on, Michael, don’t tell me you’re falling for her,” Thomas replied. “She must be—what? Five, six years older than you?”
“No man, of course not,” Michael insisted.
“Good, because if you are, you know it could never work. In ten months you’re going back home and she’s staying right here.”
Michael Griffin and Thomas Faraday
“What you’re looking at is the god Baal.”
“That little thing is the mighty Baal?” Brody scoffed.
Nicolas Knox
“My friend and I are not from these parts. Where we come from, there are no Baal gods or any human sacrifice,” Nicolas interjected smoothly. Although he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the details, he knew that for the sake of the mission and its biblical accuracy, he had to ask. “Since we’ve never attended a Baal sacrificial ceremony, can you describe the procedure for us?”
Nicolas Knox
“Derrek and I have been alternating twelve hour shifts to solve the virus situation while at the same time programming a new server to get us back home. Recently we’ve noticed changes not documented by either of us. At first we thought it was absentmindedness, but after considering these lines of codes, we suspect it was done by someone else. We therefore feel it’s necessary to let you know that someone aboard this ship is sabotaging our progress.”
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Quincy Daramy