“We could use Archimedes.”

“Archimedes?” Modred laughed. “You can’t be serious!”

“Why not?” said Wyrdrune defensively. “It’s worth a try, isn’t it?”

“You don’t know what you’re suggesting, ” Modred replied. “The

data banks at General Hyperdynamics are protected by one of the

most sophisticated, thaumaturgically warded security systems in

the world. And Merlin’s little toy is nothing more than a playful

personal computer. I’ll grant you that it’s sentient, but it would be

no match against their safeguard programs. They’d detect the

break-in immediately, lock on, trace the source, and that would be

the end of it. Archimedes would be destroyed and, worse still, we

would be exposed. No, for a moment there, I thought you might

have stumbled onto an idea, but using Archimedes would be out of

the question. It’s a delightful little unit and it would be a shame to

lose it on such a fool’s gamble. It’s simply not equipped for such a

task.”

Wyrdrune grimaced, reluctant to give up the idea. “Isn’t there

any way that Archimedes could be modified to handle it?”

“Again, I’m not expert on computers, ” Modred said, “but I can’t

see how.”

“Well, what if we were to upgrade its chips or something?”

Modred pursed his lips thoughtfully. “It could be done.

State-of-the-art thaumaturgically etched and animated chips are

not exactly available over the counter, but they can be obtained far

more easily than a complete hyperdimensional matrix unit. But

that would only solve part of the problem. There would still be the

matter of the programming. Avoiding safeguard programs is an art

in itself. In effect, it would be necessary to teach Archimedes how to

become the computer equivalent of a

Samurai Wizard 37

master cat burglar. And none of us possess the necessary

knowledge to do that.“

“Maybe not,” said Kira. “But I might know someone who does.”

They all looked at her expectantly.