(Untitled)

[milkbonesoldier]

The door opens onto a quiet, small house in London. It smells faintly of baked goods and other things a bit more difficult to identify. Wells stands in the doorway a moment just inhaling before remembering his manners and stepping to one side. "Machine's upstairs," he says. "Annie keeps it in the bedroom. Anyone who asks gets told it's for the home

Comments

[stopped_signal]

Mr. Universe steps through, taking in the house and trying to catalogue the smells without really thinking about it.

"What's your firewalling like on that machine?"

[milkbonesoldier]

"If that's a blue box that says 'Sonic Wall' on it, with lights on the front and a shitload of ports on the back, then that's what we've got," Wells says. "Philippa's husband bought the setup for Annie, since he's in on me not bein' dead."

[stopped_signal]

Mr. Universe looks at him sideways.

"And what does Philippa's husband do?"

[milkbonesoldier]

"Investment banker at Barclay's," Wells says with a shrug. "Not exactly a computer expert, but it's better than any of the rest of us can do."

[stopped_signal]

Mr. Universe nods, satisfied.

"If he works with money, then he'd at least be around halfway decent security systems. Even if I could make it better, given the time."

[milkbonesoldier]

"Figured as much. The password's a nightmare, too, but better that than the alternatives, he says." Wells shakes his head and leads the way to the room with the computer in it. "Hang on a tic. Annie keeps the desk it's in locked, and she's got a lock on the keyboard as well. Two different keys, just in case."

[stopped_signal]

"Very good", he says approvingly. "You two know your stuff."

[milkbonesoldier]

Wells smiles a little. "Two years of me on the run and Annie pretending I'm dead in Scotland somewhere'll put an edge on anyone," he says. "Ah, here we go..."

The desk is quite attractive, for something made out of metal and chosen for security purposes. The computer is relatively advanced for 2006. As for the firewall, there is, in fact, a SonicWall TZ170 internet appliance plugged into the cables between the machine and the wall. "Annie said they wanted to sell her a wireless card for this thing," Wells notes. "Why the hell would anyone want a wireless card for a computer that's not bloody going anywhere?"

It boots up after he's unlocked the keyboard, and the user name and password prompts come up. Wells taps in boulanger under the user name- and then something that looks to be about eighteen characters long, with a few numbers and capitals thrown in, for the password.

"There, can you work with that now?"

[stopped_signal]

"Oh, I should say so", he almost croons to the machine rather than to Wells, grabbing the computer chair and dropping into it before rolling back over to the desk. "We'll have this set up in no time."

[milkbonesoldier]

Wells nods. "Right, then. Shall I leave you to it? There's lunch and such in the 'fridge if you want any brought up."

[stopped_signal]

"I'll come down when I'm done", comes the absent answer, before he loses himself in the programming.

[milkbonesoldier]

"Right, then," says Wells, and heads downstairs. To tell the truth, it's weird being back here. He hasn't been home for more than fifteen minutes in-

Well, in two bloody years. Not since he came through the door with Zuko, and left the next morning.

He's not quite sure how to take it.