“Exactly.”
“It’s a nonissue in 2.0. And we can’t go all clear from our human state anymore. They removed that ability.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure,” Finn said, his voice quavering.
“But we haven’t field-tested that,” Philby said.
“No, I suppose not.” If Philby was trying to bait Finn to ask the obvious, Finn wasn’t biting. He refused to believe Philby could go all clear when in a waking state, given the limitation imposed by the 2.0 upgrade. If any Keeper was going to master that power, it would be him, not Philby. Or so he hoped.
Philby asked, “What if back in 1.6 we stayed on the ground when all clear because we wanted to?” He allowed Finn a moment to consider the idea. “The same way fear took us out of all clear, intention kept us where we wanted to be: standing on a floor or on the ground.”
“We control it all?” Finn said in a whisper. Then he said, “Is this honestly how you spend your time? Thinking up this stuff?”
“It’s interesting.”
Not really, Finn was thinking. You’re just showing off.
“What if we could master all clear in 2.0? Turn ourselves into projections with nothing more than the intention? Once all clear, 2.0’s stability would lock it in.”
“But it’s the stability of the upgrade that prevents us from going all clear. Right?”
“Is it?” Philby asked.
“You’re the wizard. You tell me!”
“We’ve barely broken the seal,” Philby said. “Like any upgrade to any operating system, 2.0 goes way deeper, has way more bells and whistles than we know.” He paused. “Way more!”
Finn felt like shoving him. It was like Philby was teasing him—that he was going to make Finn beg to hear more.
“What is it with you?” Finn said.
Philby grinned slyly. “Nothing,” he said, not meaning it at all. “No big.”
Philby hadn’t taken his eyes off his watch since arriving outside the Radio Studio on Deck 14.
“The security office is located on Deck One. That’s basically fourteen floors below us. Right now, with two thousand guests coming aboard, the elevators are packed and slow. That suggests security guys would take the stairs. At a full run it would take at least five minutes to get up here. More like seven or eight.”
“O-kay,” Finn said, a little tired of all the lectures.
“You understand,” Philby continued, “that what we’re about to do is illegal. Beyond illegal. It’s probably considered more like an act of terrorism or something.”
“Way to build my confidence,” Finn said.
“I’m just saying—”
“I get it.”
“Big trouble, serious trouble if we get caught.”
“I got it the first time.” Finn studied the door. “How are we supposed to get in there?”
“Wayne said we’d know.”
“Know what?”
“Don’t ask me! How to get in, I suppose.”
“And do you?”
“No,” Philby confessed. “But he named the time and place. It can’t be that hard.”
“You don’t sound convinced,” Finn said.
“Listen, this ship carries the most advanced technology there is. Only the U.S. Navy has stuff more serious than this. When we key this door open, that action is recorded into a log. It’s on a hard drive somewhere. And it’ll show up on security’s monitors—”
“As an authorized entry.”
“We hope so, yes. Hopefully Wayne is sending someone with access to the Radio Studio. So it shouldn’t raise a red flag. But a security guy could decide to take a look at the studio’s security cameras because of the alert, because of the entry. If he does, then he’s going to see two kids in there. So there’re two issues.”
“There’s a surprise.”
“First, if they see two kids on their monitors, chances are they’re going to come looking for us.”
“Perfect.”
“Second, if they’re watching us, we can’t show them what we’re up to. Don’t forget it’s likely being recorded. So we have to mislead them so that even if they review the videos they don’t get what’s going on.”
“You’re not talking just about security guys,” Finn said knowingly.
“Maybe not.”
“You’re saying the Overtakers can tap into the security video feeds?” He felt his heartbeat increase. “Seriously?”
“All I’m saying is it can’t hurt to take precautions.”
“So once we’re in there, we’re going to do one thing, but pretend we’re doing something else?”