A digital ghost calls - 03

Although The Duke scans the screen through Alex mobile, it seems unsure how Alex would deal with viruses, if ever, due to a recondite voice emitting from the notebook.

-“Who the heck speaks in this gibberish?”

In Dülmen, at the other end of the phone, the cryptic speach trails off into familiar for the Duke although.

-“Holy spigot! He speaks chi’timi!”

-“What? Chi’timi? What is it and who is that he?”

-“Ha ha! Someone from Picardy!”

The Duke knows all about Picardy.

What sounds asinine to Alex, seduces the Duke’s memory with the funny tch’mi, the local French dialect of Johann, the Picquigny nautical base owner he shares once and again the 1,5 hour long rafting with on the river Somme to Croy Saint Pierre, three leagues northeast of Amiens.

Croy Saint Pierre is the village along the Somme river, the dynastic House of Croy adopted its name from. The Arpadian Prince Marc married Catherine, an heiress to the barony of Croÿ and d’Airaines in 1147.

His sudden recollections, trail arm in arm with facts of Family history, hug the Duke around like arms of an octopus.

The Duke shakes them off, mindful of his buddies as possible foes to Alex.

- How lucky if Alex believes that contemplation inside him overcomes what belligerent circumstances impose upon him now.

The Duke devotes himself to protect Alex. He nods expecting the screen to show some understanding or a final annihilation.

Alas, streaming lines on the monitor contradict expectations. The Duke and Alex stare at the monitor in astonishment, both.

- Bit flips help me. They make me able to win your mind neglecting your ancestry so far. They are technical gimmicks. I warn you, never fight a digital ghost who calls for protecting an Arpadian prince!

The Duke frowns sick at heart.

- "Especially, that you are a she."

- Prince Andrew needs your help.

It seems Alex would also observe the threat the Duke perceives.

-“Tell me Dad, what that Picardy guy did speak about.”

-“Scratch your ass, it's your arm's length!”

Picardian humour although wants to excel but happens to miscarry more often than not. Alex stares at the screen and wonders why his Dad makes fun of him.

“- If ever you, Dad, would say something less ambiguous, leaving all not to my choice! Must I go over it again and again, from its beginning to the end?

-“Lexi, I bet all these spooks intend to nettle you. In stress one becomes uncultured and believes that all is an emergency. If they want something done right, why not bothered us 800 years ago?”

It seems digital devices have sensors and form opinions as men. Now that to the Duke’s words characters come through the mobile, energy of a shark springs to screen demonstrating:

- No greater mistake than to do nothing because a little can be done only.

Besides anger the monitor seems to disclose explantions also.

- Verne attested evil to Rontgen rays when deemed me to invisibility.Rontgen rays made me then to disappear and bit flips enable me now to contact you.Technology is the magic in Verne's hands, as it is in mine.

The Duke scans the screen through Alex mobile, but his bent would rather dissent him from 21st century gimmicks and return him instead to inherited resolutions: to shun as long as possible.

“Lexi, if you sense it a flirt, at least sit down. It was how my grandma, Isabella warned so Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria when her racy lady-in-waiting, Sophie Chotek, tantalized him.”

Yet the invisible Techie blinks the Duke’s yarns away and streams infos onto the screen.

- Bit flips help tame the deficiency Verne forced on me. Google informs you how bit flips beat invisibility.

The Google name shocks and impels in Alex a fury of his family neglect. He wants some clear meaning with their Arpadian heritage.

- “How will I find the truth after 800 years?”

- Jean d’Allyue could have known the truth. A sword of the Chinese hilt.

A belated clue. A sharp flash on the computer screen kills the helping sentence closing. Anger and impatience have Alex tear the computer plug out from wall socket.

-“I kill you, fucker.”

-“Relax Lexi, the age of romances has rolled by already. Useless to challenge invisible viruses to a duel. Ha ha! Yet who doubts and acts; questions yet finds the truth! ”

The Duke’s hints miss hitting target also.

Neither the Duke nor the Covid forced home closure can regulate Alex anymore. The notebook’s whims justify his power-break and breakout.

- To act I must not doubt.

- "Good bye, Dad!I must investigate it!"

The front door slams loud behind him.

Introduction