“We’ll keep an eye on the big picture and external threats, and be available to support solutions for internal disruptions. We want students to concentrate on learning. Part of that learning is handling their own balanced lives as individuals and as part of a group.”
“We will be learning to balance alone and together. That’s one thing that’s always bugged me, the extremes of individualism and collectivism. It’s like there is just one choice, give up every part of you for the good of all -- or live only for yourself and avoid the pleasures of sharing. The people that demand these opposites don't apply such limits on themselves.”
“That’s true. Those claiming the virtue of sacrifice will not give up all their own privileges to achieve equality within the hive; they only demand selected sacrifices that won’t seriously impact them. On the other hand, self-righteous egotists miss tasting the sweetness of selfless acts like teaching poor families to prosper. In fact the word selfless scares them. They won’t consider the community wealth and stability such unforced sharing of opportunity generates. The rewards of sharing are too distant from their immediate well being. ”
We talk for maybe ten minutes about an ugly sentence he pulls up as a quote from some pre-chaos guy named Wallace. “Abundance comes from voluntary cooperation to achieve mutually exclusive self interests.”
I finally say “This is all voluntary? So I and the other kids get to run amok?”
“You want to be a hacker for human rights. Is that enough to focus your efforts toward respecting other’s individual human rights?”
“Yeah it is, as long as they respect mine.” I say. I add a bit of us-instead-of-me to our talk. “And it’s like having an unlocked window in your bathroom where I could have escaped. We don’t want those that will abuse their freedom to learn advanced hacking. Hacker School will become self sorting. Admins will remove bad fruit from the barrel as it shows.”
“There’s no reason to let spoilage increase or allow fruit flies to breed.”
“So what does a hacker school attack dog do?”
“Over the next few months we plan to add another couple hundred students. You will by your nature be one of the leaders. Keep pushing the students and the staff. Don’t let anyone know how well you fight physically. Keep your fighting skill and military mindset as hidden weapons as long as you can.”
“And who are you? You have too much inside knowledge to be a prison guard.” I find myself smiling. “I can’t keep thinking of you as Mr. Muscles.”
He laughs. “I’m admin Jake. I’m running Condor until we find a qualified Dean to take over the day to day stuff.” He pauses, “Can I call you Charlene?”
“Make it Char” I say “I prefer simplicity when I have a choice.”
Chapter 5
“Jake, your friend has rescuers; they’re following us.” The driver glances again in his rearview mirrors. “That old pickup at Juvie, and it’s full of guys with guns.”
I look back as we go up a hill, fiddling with my tronics. “They just called home,” I say looking at the display. “I’ve jammed them with a general app; I’m looking to see if they have a device number.”
All the muscles look at me, shaking their heads. Jake smiles and then turns to the driver. “Bill, take a right turn on the rough dirt road in a mile or so.” Following us down that in a pickup will shake their teeth loose. Are they trying to get close?”
Bill doesn’t sound worried, there’s no stress in his voice. “Hard to tell, I think they’re trying to keep us in sight without us noticing.”
Jake turns to the guy next to the driver, what my parents called riding shotgun. “Jim, keep an eye on them with your mirror, we’ll let Bill concentrate on driving.”
“When we turn off they may realize they’ve been spotted.” Bill says.
“It won’t matter if they can’t communicate for back up. I hope they will think we live in this area.” Jake looks at me, “Any luck?”
“No device number, so I can’t order around its chips without taking a lot of time. But the software is yielding to an exploit; I’ll just crash the thing so they can’t repair it.”
“Can you stop the truck?”
“I think a rough dirt road may kill it. I’ve seen that rust collection, it’s a jumbled up wreck already. Juvie's General brought it in for the inmates to restore. They must have put everything they have on the roads trying to find us. Okay, their phone or whatever is forever dead. I’ll check out the truck.”
“Don’t kill it yet, even if you can.” Jake says “Let’s give them a long walk home. Their guns and tactical gear will get mighty heavy.”
I speak up “I’ve found some weak spots in the trucks electronics, but I’m not sure what’s critical. Give me the word and I start shutting things down.”
Jake is a happy man. “I’d rather we didn’t let anyone from outside know what you can do; their communications will be written off. We don’t want a whole series of coincidences. Right now they're just mad we stole their favorite gambling attraction. I’m setting up a trap that may make their misfortune look like stupidity.”
My smile does not feel nice. “Knowing girls that were abused by those goons, they deserve something real bad.”
Jake’s smile fades, maybe he’s thinking of his daughter or wife in captivity. “Bill there’s another trail before that big tree, turn left there.”
We travel through a small wood and start to climb a hill. Looking back I can see the dirt road we left. Jake starts giving directions “Bill, pull up a little higher and stop. Jason, take the binoculars and watch the road. Bill if they decide to stop and snipe at us pull off to the right out of sight, there’s a decent road at the bottom of the hill. We’ll take that road into the woods and back to the main road.” Jake finally explains, “I used to go hunting out here.”
Jake continues “I hope those Juvie guys try to take a shortcut across the meadow to get at us. Everyone except Jason stand back from the crest so only the tops of your heads can be visible. Think rock. We don’t want them realizing this is entertainment.
The Juvie Pickup slows and stops, a guy hops off the bed with a rifle. Jason scampers back over the hill and Bill eases the van off the road and down the hill. We can hear the sharpshooter shout a curse as he jumps back in the truck. The truck is already rolling right toward us.
Jake doesn’t move so I’m not about to. Okay, no running. Jake says “The shooter could have gotten a better shot staying in the truck and using the cab as a rest.”
“Yes,” I reply “but when they chase down escaped girls they usually have bets on their shooting. I'm sure he wouldn't trust the other jerks not to 'accidentally' bump into him as he squeezes the trigger.”
The speeding pickup is finding the soft meadow more to its liking than hard dirt ruts and potholes.
Jake tells us to wait here, as he steps onto the road. The truck slows and the sharpshooter jumps out again, and sinks into soft mush to his knees. The pickup is no longer skimming above the meadow, but is slow enough to start sinking into it. The sharpshooter tries to balance himself. As he straightens for a shot, his footing shifts and he falls twisting onto his side. Jake was right, this is entertainment.
As the stench of freshly stirred swamp rot tries to drive us from the top of the hill we witness the folks inside the cab struggling to open their doors. The truck has settled to where ooze rises above the door sills and blocks their exit. They crawl out the windows to escape their trapped sway belly nag. I’m happy to see a brutal sergeant crawl out the driver’s window and slide headfirst into the slime. All the screws get coated in rotting vegetation dragging him to his feet. The stench is getting so bad I can’t stay. Pity, this is the first time I’ve laughed in forever.
“It’ll take at least an hour to get out of there with their equipment. The barbarians will be exhausted. The truck will stay stuck as a warning; locals will shoot it full of holes until it finishes rusting away. The guards won’t see Juvie for days, perhaps weeks. The on
ly time that short cut’s safe is midwinter when it’s frozen.” Jake looks satisfied, we’re all laughing. He turns to me, “A little payback little one?”
I smile “Not as much as they deserve. By the time they get home they’ll realize they can be victims as well as brutes. That may help for awhile. I’d still like to kick in some teeth.”
Jake turns solemn as we remount our faithful steed. “Everybody with a little power over others is tempted to use it. Almost all of them do. The way the world is we are never safe; but we can emerge victorious.”
Chapter 6
I’m no more likely to join this Condor Gang than any other. They are intelligent and so far easy to get along with. So was my roommate at Juvie until she tried to smother me one night while I was sleeping. The screws put her up to it. They had a betting pool going on if she could succeed and kill me. They timed it, from start of attack until my roomy was unconscious, 23 seconds. A weasel in procurement won the pot. I hope the money ruined him.
After that I was not given roommates. I like depending on no one but me. You can’t trust a friend if she's chosen by your owners.
Condor gives me a roommate. There is room for maybe a thousand kids here. But the sheet they give me says Jane will be sharing my cell. She’ll be arriving next week, unless things go wrong. In my life, things go wrong.
I explain the situation to Jake. “I might kill this girl. I don’t wake up nice, and surprises at night tend to be met with force. What do you have against this Jane girl?”
Jake looks at me and pauses before he answers. “You are the best we’ve found with firmware. Jane is the best with software. Both of you are leaders. If we can get the two of you working together with our computers we may figure out what we have. The system you will be working on needs the best, because it’s way beyond the technologies any of us understand.”
“I can easily handle anything my mom’s group of Knowledge Keepers works with, nothing is that tough.”
“Come with me.”
Did I tell you Hacker School is underground? All that’s above ground is a little farmhouse and a seed store. There is also no Condor whatchamacallit league. There was a famous hacker whose handle was Condor, it’s kinda cool they honor him like that. Condor was the first weekly name; they still use it sometimes so it comes out natural if they need an alias. This week we have another fancy name. It’s in all the records; for this week only. Next week some other name will be official. I think they just enjoy fooling around with records. Anyway I follow Jake down a hallway carved out of rock. That’s a tech I don’t know.
He stops at a pair of big steel doors, they slide open on their own. I’m getting curious. He steps into a short hallway and walks through a smaller door into what he calls a reception room. It has furniture that is different than anything I’ve ever seen. “This might be a nice place for a break.” He says, “The office where you and Jane will work is through that far door.”
I give him my disgusted look and walk to the door across from us. The door opens. It moves toward me, I don’t budge. Anyone that uses automatic doors can make them safe, these people did. I can only stare at the room ahead of me. Spread across the room in well ordered rows and files are perhaps a thousand computers. I didn’t know there were that many computers in the world. I study it for a moment and excitement turns to disappointment.
There aren't any computers, just keyboards and monitors. Really skinny monitors and some big display monitors.
“There’s nothing we can do with partial systems. What a letdown.”
“Not a letdown,” he says. “Sit down.”
I take a seat in what has to be a specially designed chair for sitting at a computer, I’m upright but comfortable. I look with a growl at Jake; “I hope there’s a reason for this.”
“Turn on the monitor.”
“Okay, whatever you say.” I don’t mean it. Almost immediately something starts loading. I’ve got a login screen; International Defense Network: User Name and Password. “Jake, what country was this? Did they have any national symbols, animals or people?” I try symbols like flag as user names; variations of international, Washington, and defense as a password. Fourth try I get Your Password Is Incorrect. I’ve got a user name, Eagle. My next try I’m locked out: Only five Attempts Allowed, See Network System Administrator. “I take it ‘Jake the admin’ is not what it means?”
“Not me, admin must have been a job title for a functionary.” He sits down, and his head sags a bit. “You’ve hit me in my pride. You got further in thirty seconds than any programmer that has spent days; including me.”
I decide to give him a boost, there’s a first time for most things. “Just wait until Jane and I tackle this, it’ll be begging for mercy.” I’ve considered his statement that she’s as good with software as I am with firmware. We can teach each other.
His head comes back up. This is my first indication I’m willing to work with Jane.
I want information. “Tell me about this system.”
“Do you just want to know the system or the full story?”
“Make it a story that will be done in time for dinner.”
“Do you want a snack right now?”
“I haven’t had a snack in years. Yes I want a snack.”
It takes us half a minute to walk to what he calls a break area. Comfortable chairs, couches, and a refrigerator with goodies in it. There are other machines about but I take a donut, canned drink, and a fresh apple to a couch. “Start talking.” I say with a bite of donut already in my mouth.
“Since The Great Chaos people like your mother have protected knowledge. Some of the knowledge protectors, again like your mother, have shared knowledge allowing bits and small pieces of civilization to be rebuilt. They were actually more liberal with knowledge than pre-chaos societies.”
That puzzles me. “But if I share a digital file with you, I lose nothing and may gain additional insight.”
“Back then unjust laws stopped open sharing of information; unless permissions were secured from bureaucracies; a difficult, expensive, and unpleasant task. Inventions and creativity were thus harnessed to serve the elite. Information controls had more to do with securing national power and profits than advancing humankind or protecting creators. Without those century long copyrights and patents our ancestors might have been settling off planet before the dieoff.”
“You’re saying the pressure that exploded to kill billions might have been released safely.”
“Maybe” Jake replies. “Private knowledge was basically any knowledge of value not claimed in the public name. ‘The King Owns All.’ Aggressive laws controlled information for the benefit of favored bureaucracies long after creators died. Entertainment was just one constrained resource. The legal slowing of invention, improvements, and innovation in science and medicine cost unmentioned millions of lives.”
“I follow you. There was no private information, but some information could be released by its controllers and was called private. So knowledge that was once a slave to a few is now free to serve the many. What’s going to happen with information now?”
“In the last few generations bandits that preyed on settled peoples have taken over sections of society and settled themselves. Their leaders were quick at picking grand names like King or Minister Of The People. Also armies that once protected some of these societies became strong enough to usurp any power of the people and make their generals Kings and Presidents, their elites representatives. Not being happy with a little, wars and aggregations have increased the sizes of these kingdoms.”
“My mom’s knowledge defense group was, under threat, swallowed by a larger group which has since been swallowed itself.”
“Exactly. It was done for ownership of people, and more importantly to tyrants, power over information.”
“So you’re saying there’s a trend toward larger, more powerful combatants. Once the earth fills, pressure will build again. We may get another dieoff.”
“Your summation is as real as the pain of a tourniquet.”
“Then beyond a short term benefit of slowing individual brutality, aggregating power greatly harms people long term. I know my parent’s lives are much harder than they were, and they were never easy. I didn’t know this applied to the whole world.”
“Overall it does. There are a few brighter spots, either isolated or individualistically empowered and armed so as to discourage aggression. These centers of human rights are where creation is expanding today, improving everyone’s lives. Progress of humanity and human rights require each other -- and an environment where all effort is not expended on survival.”
“You also said progress requires open and transparent sharing of ideas and only short term protection for innovations.”
“So I did, and I’ve probably mentioned several other complications. Simple answers should always be suspect.”
“I think I understand. So now answer these two big questions. What is this computer complex? Why is your choice for developing it a hacker school?”
“This complex protected public knowledge. In the double speak before the dieoff that meant everyone owned it -- so no one was allowed to see it -- except the elites and their human tools. Just as private meant owned by bureaucracies; so public meant owned by governments. Governments themselves were said to be secretly fought over by bureaucracies and influence peddlers.”
Jake shakes his head and continues, “Just a few small caches of such public knowledge have allowed re-creation of wide angle blasters and other weapons of general destruction. We can only guess what these monitors may show us. Perhaps we have access to the seeds of another dieoff, or an inoculation to hold it at bay. Do viruses die?”
“Ouch. Nuclear power or nuclear destruction may be lurking under those keyboards. You want it first.”
“I’ve been a Knowledge Keeper, that’s how I found out about these systems. They were built for war, and buried in man made caves with living quarters to protect politicians and armies. I’m sure others have found similar projects. Life will become infinitely messier once this information is hacked by governments.”
“So you want Hacker School students to hack in first. Why should I trust you not to become a king or king maker?”
Hacker School Trilogy Page 4
