Day 14
The hallway twisted and turned like the cavern it probably actually was. We passed by a number of darkened double-doors, each with glass that showed empty unlit rooms. Finally, we came to one which looked exactly like all the others. Without preamble, Orin pushed his way through.
The room wasn't entirely unlit. A man sat in front of a bank of four monitors. He was surrounded on nearly all sides by electrical equipment, and a wooden bench against the wall featured many other bits of equipment in various states of disassembly. Behind the man stood Robin, who was watching the monitors seriously.
"As you can see here," the man was talking in low tones and gesturing to the screen, "the software's all written. If you want to test it out, I'm sure we'll get a few volunteers. Like these guys here." he gestured to us without even looking away from the screen.
Robin turned around and smiled wanly. "Orin, you cannot go one day without interrupting me." she didn't say it angrily, though, and I figured it was a long-running joke that was actually the truth.
"I simply can't stay away." Orin replied. "I am giving the young recruits The Tour, so I assure you that any interruptions were merely coincidence, and likely the result of you being in three places at once."
If I hadn't known that Robin was, in fact, in three places at once, I'd have merely assumed that sometimes she was at the hospital and sometimes she was here. This other Robin looked and acted exactly the same, which did nothing to dispel the illusion.
"You brought them here to meet me?" Chad said, spinning around in his chair. Though he had turn to face us out of apparent politeness, his gaze did not meet ours and it became readily apparent why: Chad was blind.
"Indeed, I have. Jamie is an accomplished net runner, to use the old phrasing, and I understand that John also knows of the hardware side."
"A bit." John conceded quietly. I'd been getting the vague impression during my entire stay here that John felt out of place. This place in particular didn't seem to appeal to him at all.
Chad nodded, "I recognize them now, came in with that van a few days back? I dreamt about them, but of course wasn't sure if it was the cameras or just me dreaming. You threw my rhythm off there, Orin, bringing them in so soon. Didn't expect that." he smiled.
Before I could ask what the hell Chad was talking about, Orin looked back at us to explain. "Chad is a machine empath, the only I or anyone I have spoken to have ever met. Sometimes he dreams the video feeds from our out-of-town cameras."
Chad shrugged. "Sometimes I just think I'm dreaming them and I'm just having a dream. It's confusing. That's why I like it down here to work - can't go five feet without a surveillance camera - but not to much for napping."
"I don't want you sleeping on the job." Robin said. "I can see you're busy so I'll let you introduce your pet projects to the group, but I'll be checking in later." With that she brushed past us with a wave and was gone.
"Pet projects?" I asked, glancing at the table full of material.
"My official job here is to keep the net infrastructure running, make sure we're untraceable, that kind of thing. In my copious free time, though, I like to do a little research and development. That "Nothing's Here" vibe you get upon entering town? I made that."
That was impressive - until now I'd been assuming there was some sort of volunteer telepathic guard who projected the illusion into the minds of uninvited guests. For it to be done by device - and in someone's spare time - spoke volumes for Chad's work. The most sophisticated device capable of sending a specific signal I'd known of had been the stunner. Specific impulses were light-years ahead of that.
"Nice work." I managed feebly.
"Thanks! I'm working on one now to instill panic. The Nobody's Here one and the pain one were easy comparatively, but unless I find some way to panic myself I'll never figure out how to get this one." He glanced from side to side and then stage-whispered: "Don't tell Robin!"
"Pain one?" Jamie said uncertainly. Her initial fervor for this line of work was beginning to fade.
"Wasn't too hard, just gave myself some shocks while thinking to the computer so I could record it. The "Somebody Else's Problem" field - borrowing Orin's words: to use the old phrasing - was significantly more difficult."
"I'm sure it was." Jamie was thinking of how she'd convince Robin to let her do the other half of Chad's job, the hacking part, while allowing him to handle the scary stuff.
"Anyway," I was fairly sure that Chad couldn't read minds, as a machine empath would be operating on entirely different frequencies, but he spoke up as though he'd been reading Jamie's. "like Robin said, that stuff's side projects even if it is what I like best. If you were in my section, you'd be either on maintenance, security, or ops. Maintenance is exactly what it sounds like, you get people accounts, you keep the 'net running for the town, you keep up its connection to the outside if needed. Security works closely with them, making sure all the links are encrypted, the bandwidth we steal can't be traced back to us - or at least not to this location, that sort of thing. Ops does the really fun stuff - spreading computer viruses to siphon money off the top of transactions to fund us, for one thing."
Jamie's interest level had risen again. She was considering both security and ops, having dismissed maintenance as the job she'd have had out of college. The ops side was what we'd been having her do, and she'd both had a knack and developed a taste for it.
Chad shrugged. "That's the speech. I can give you all accounts, but you'll have to ask Orin for computers, they're rationed I think. Just bug him."
Orin smiled and chuckled lightly as we left, only explaining as we were walking down the hallway and out of earshot of Chad. "What our presenter was too polite to mention was that the reason you would ask me for a computer is not because I am the founder of the town and thus control their distribution, but instead because my official job is in his division, as maintenance, and thus we control their distribution."
"So we just talked to your boss?" John said, liking the idea that someone outranked Orin.
"Yes, you did. And when I arrange for you to have computers if you wish them, I would very much appreciate a positive review, for promotion purposes." He said this completely deadpan, and I found myself wondering if he was, in fact, joking. A peek inside his mind, however, revealed he was trying not to laugh.
We walked down the hall and past another half dozen identical double doors before we reached an intersection. Orin turned left without hesitation, and the floor began to slant downward slightly as we walked. There were no more doors, just video cameras nearly every five feet. Chad may have been exaggerating when he said that, but not by much.
Finally, we came to another set of double doors, this one with a knob which opened it and another keypad. Orin punched in yet another code and waited with his hand on the knob until a buzzing sound was heard, whereupon he pulled the door open.
"Can't be too careful with this one, don't want someone wandering in when they're doing a test or someone's walking in front of the door with something heavy." Orin pointed out by way of explanation as we walked into the room. We ignored him, because the room itself had stolen our attention away.
To call it 'cavernous' was an understatement. It was a cavern. There was florescent lighting set up about 15 feet above the ground on wire frames in places, which led to it being fairly well lit, but I still couldn't see to the other side. I also couldn't tell how far up the cavern went. We were farther underground than I'd thought.
On the ground, in two rows of three, there were a half dozen helicopters. One had a number of people attending to it, another had just one man going over it, the rest were ignored, as their entry had been.
Now it was John's turn to be thoroughly impressed. "What is this place?" he said, in a tone that was nearly breathless. I didn't think I'd ever seen John this excited about anything, and that included the times I'd seen him in battle.
The room wasn't entirely unlit. A man sat in front of a bank of four monitors. He was surrounded on nearly all sides by electrical equipment, and a wooden bench against the wall featured many other bits of equipment in various states of disassembly. Behind the man stood Robin, who was watching the monitors seriously.
"As you can see here," the man was talking in low tones and gesturing to the screen, "the software's all written. If you want to test it out, I'm sure we'll get a few volunteers. Like these guys here." he gestured to us without even looking away from the screen.
Robin turned around and smiled wanly. "Orin, you cannot go one day without interrupting me." she didn't say it angrily, though, and I figured it was a long-running joke that was actually the truth.
"I simply can't stay away." Orin replied. "I am giving the young recruits The Tour, so I assure you that any interruptions were merely coincidence, and likely the result of you being in three places at once."
If I hadn't known that Robin was, in fact, in three places at once, I'd have merely assumed that sometimes she was at the hospital and sometimes she was here. This other Robin looked and acted exactly the same, which did nothing to dispel the illusion.
"You brought them here to meet me?" Chad said, spinning around in his chair. Though he had turn to face us out of apparent politeness, his gaze did not meet ours and it became readily apparent why: Chad was blind.
"Indeed, I have. Jamie is an accomplished net runner, to use the old phrasing, and I understand that John also knows of the hardware side."
"A bit." John conceded quietly. I'd been getting the vague impression during my entire stay here that John felt out of place. This place in particular didn't seem to appeal to him at all.
Chad nodded, "I recognize them now, came in with that van a few days back? I dreamt about them, but of course wasn't sure if it was the cameras or just me dreaming. You threw my rhythm off there, Orin, bringing them in so soon. Didn't expect that." he smiled.
Before I could ask what the hell Chad was talking about, Orin looked back at us to explain. "Chad is a machine empath, the only I or anyone I have spoken to have ever met. Sometimes he dreams the video feeds from our out-of-town cameras."
Chad shrugged. "Sometimes I just think I'm dreaming them and I'm just having a dream. It's confusing. That's why I like it down here to work - can't go five feet without a surveillance camera - but not to much for napping."
"I don't want you sleeping on the job." Robin said. "I can see you're busy so I'll let you introduce your pet projects to the group, but I'll be checking in later." With that she brushed past us with a wave and was gone.
"Pet projects?" I asked, glancing at the table full of material.
"My official job here is to keep the net infrastructure running, make sure we're untraceable, that kind of thing. In my copious free time, though, I like to do a little research and development. That "Nothing's Here" vibe you get upon entering town? I made that."
That was impressive - until now I'd been assuming there was some sort of volunteer telepathic guard who projected the illusion into the minds of uninvited guests. For it to be done by device - and in someone's spare time - spoke volumes for Chad's work. The most sophisticated device capable of sending a specific signal I'd known of had been the stunner. Specific impulses were light-years ahead of that.
"Nice work." I managed feebly.
"Thanks! I'm working on one now to instill panic. The Nobody's Here one and the pain one were easy comparatively, but unless I find some way to panic myself I'll never figure out how to get this one." He glanced from side to side and then stage-whispered: "Don't tell Robin!"
"Pain one?" Jamie said uncertainly. Her initial fervor for this line of work was beginning to fade.
"Wasn't too hard, just gave myself some shocks while thinking to the computer so I could record it. The "Somebody Else's Problem" field - borrowing Orin's words: to use the old phrasing - was significantly more difficult."
"I'm sure it was." Jamie was thinking of how she'd convince Robin to let her do the other half of Chad's job, the hacking part, while allowing him to handle the scary stuff.
"Anyway," I was fairly sure that Chad couldn't read minds, as a machine empath would be operating on entirely different frequencies, but he spoke up as though he'd been reading Jamie's. "like Robin said, that stuff's side projects even if it is what I like best. If you were in my section, you'd be either on maintenance, security, or ops. Maintenance is exactly what it sounds like, you get people accounts, you keep the 'net running for the town, you keep up its connection to the outside if needed. Security works closely with them, making sure all the links are encrypted, the bandwidth we steal can't be traced back to us - or at least not to this location, that sort of thing. Ops does the really fun stuff - spreading computer viruses to siphon money off the top of transactions to fund us, for one thing."
Jamie's interest level had risen again. She was considering both security and ops, having dismissed maintenance as the job she'd have had out of college. The ops side was what we'd been having her do, and she'd both had a knack and developed a taste for it.
Chad shrugged. "That's the speech. I can give you all accounts, but you'll have to ask Orin for computers, they're rationed I think. Just bug him."
Orin smiled and chuckled lightly as we left, only explaining as we were walking down the hallway and out of earshot of Chad. "What our presenter was too polite to mention was that the reason you would ask me for a computer is not because I am the founder of the town and thus control their distribution, but instead because my official job is in his division, as maintenance, and thus we control their distribution."
"So we just talked to your boss?" John said, liking the idea that someone outranked Orin.
"Yes, you did. And when I arrange for you to have computers if you wish them, I would very much appreciate a positive review, for promotion purposes." He said this completely deadpan, and I found myself wondering if he was, in fact, joking. A peek inside his mind, however, revealed he was trying not to laugh.
We walked down the hall and past another half dozen identical double doors before we reached an intersection. Orin turned left without hesitation, and the floor began to slant downward slightly as we walked. There were no more doors, just video cameras nearly every five feet. Chad may have been exaggerating when he said that, but not by much.
Finally, we came to another set of double doors, this one with a knob which opened it and another keypad. Orin punched in yet another code and waited with his hand on the knob until a buzzing sound was heard, whereupon he pulled the door open.
"Can't be too careful with this one, don't want someone wandering in when they're doing a test or someone's walking in front of the door with something heavy." Orin pointed out by way of explanation as we walked into the room. We ignored him, because the room itself had stolen our attention away.
To call it 'cavernous' was an understatement. It was a cavern. There was florescent lighting set up about 15 feet above the ground on wire frames in places, which led to it being fairly well lit, but I still couldn't see to the other side. I also couldn't tell how far up the cavern went. We were farther underground than I'd thought.
On the ground, in two rows of three, there were a half dozen helicopters. One had a number of people attending to it, another had just one man going over it, the rest were ignored, as their entry had been.
Now it was John's turn to be thoroughly impressed. "What is this place?" he said, in a tone that was nearly breathless. I didn't think I'd ever seen John this excited about anything, and that included the times I'd seen him in battle.
posted by Roger Ostrander at 5:39 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home