Curtains

It was his last day at work. After 36 years at the Academy, Tom was retiring. Some said it was long overdue. If given the choice, most people would pick the “pre-pre-retirement age” or the “pre-retirement age” at the latest. If not given the choice, they would suck it up and retire at the not-so-creatively named “retirement age”. No one in the history of the Academy had requested for an extension though. Not before Tom.

Then again, no one was working on The Code.

“But what is the code?”, Curo asked of XP. As the senior intern, XP was better-suited to answer Curo’s questions. It was unusual to hire a junior intern for 1 day, especially if it was your retirement day, but the Academy approved this strange request when Tom insisted it was a necessary plot device, and XP (full name Exposition) would take full responsibility of explaining everything of relevance to the 1-day-intern Curo (AKA Curiosity).

“Not the code, The Code. capital T, capital C”, XP responded.

“You could see my capitalizations in spoken word?”

“Let’s not get too distracted. The Code is THE Code. (Notice the capitalizations again). It’s the final solution to all codes. It’s Tom’s life’s work; a code that just needs a directive as an input, and will put all requisite wheels in motion to deliver the directive.

“For instance, Tom was done with the first iteration of the code in the morning, and he needed the code validated before his retirement cake party at 4:30 PM, so he directed The Code to ‘validate yourself in the next 30 seconds’, and BAM! 30 seconds later, it was validated…
(pause)
I guess Tic-tic-tic-tic! 30 seconds later… would’ve been more accurate phrasing here, but you get the point.”

“So let me get this right if I give The Code the directive ‘fix global warming’, it would — ”

“ — fix global warming, yes. There is not a lot to explain here Curo, I’m not even sure why Tom keeps the two of us here. “

“So, The Code is like a real genie, except with infinite wishes?”

“Well, it only responds to Tom’s entering of the command, so a very exclusive genie. Imagine more Robin Williams and less Dan Castellaneta.”

“Is that someone I should know?”

“Probably worth a google later, yes”

“So what does Tom want to use The Code for? Propagating Peace? Curing Common Cold? Uncovering Unmortality?”

“You mean IMmortality?”

“Yes, but could not think of the right verb starting with ‘I’ for that alliteration, so tweaked it a bit”

“Focus Curo! No one knows what Tom created The Code for, but we are sure it’s for something unimaginably big. Your brain can’t even comprehend the infinite impossibility of something as large as this. Unlimited fame, power, money, control over substances: NOTHING is beyond limits.

“Thanos’ gauntlet? More like Thanos’ Notlet.
The Anti-Life Equation? Pssh. More like the … Anti-…Life …Equation Not? (I’m going to ask Tom to make The Code give me better wit). Just suffice it to say that whatever you have imagined, Tom has something much MUCH bigger in his mind. This next revelation is going to BREAK YOUR BRAIN! And I’m not just building it up for ratings, and to have this monologue in the trailer, in case this situation is ever made into a movie! I God Damn mean it! And I would like to cast Will Smith to play my role, just in case!”

Elsewhere, Tom quietly stared at his screen as the cursor blinked, awaiting the directive entry.

He let out a deep sigh, and pressed enter as The Code started working on…

“Bring Rachel back”

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Watch this space for the next episode of “The Code and Rachel the Zombie”