Save before you start this, because there are several levels of password protection and Gray won't be gone forever; in fact, you might need to do one level, leave, and come back later to do the second part. In any case, read all the way to the end of this hint for complete directions.

The first level of protection is not in the computer but in the drawer under it.

If you played Nancy Drew 24, "The Captive Curse," you probably recognize the Zap-Up. The goal here is to get all the lights solid green, either by clicking on them or by getting them to be triggered by other lights. Read to the end of this hint for one way to do this.

If the puzzle is unfamiliar to you, try clicking on one of the lights to see what happens. The blue-yellow-red lights give the most impressive display.

The basic process here is that if you click on a light, it goes up one step; a red light turns yellow-red, a yellow-red light turns blue-yellow-red, and a blue-yellow-red light turns green.

When a light goes from blue-yellow-red to green, it sends out a pulse in all directions, and any light that pulse hits goes up one step. If it hits a green light, that light also sends out a pulse in any direction where it can do some good (as far as I can tell).

You can't click on the green lights directly, but they can be used to relay a pulse. You generally get the most far-reaching reaction when you click on a blue-yellow-red light that's surrounded by green lights.

Oh, and you only have five clicks to get all the lights green, and then the puzzle resets and you have to start again. Best to save before you start this puzzle in case it takes so long that Gray shows up.

The way I tackle these puzzles is to look for blue-yellow-red lights surrounded by greens and click on them one at a time to see how far I get. It might be helpful to make a note of which ones you click on and how far they go, so you don't end up clicking on the same dead ends over and over.

The rules followed by the green lights aren't too clear. They generally shoot in all directions, but sometimes they only shoot in two or three. Sometimes they pass on a pulse and it bounces back and forth a couple times, and sometimes they just seem to swallow it. I'm sure there's some logic behind it, but it escapes me.

At any rate, here are the solutions I came up with by hook or by crook:

Once you finish that, the computer starts up -- and there's a circle of dots, Gray's second level of defense. What the heck are we supposed to do with this thing?