Maxwell Huxley's Demon

by Michael Conn

  “I f we have to threaten the school with enough force to make them bri ng in their own response teams then this gets difficult. First I’d have to locate their response teams. Then figure out how to hid e in their vehicles and have them bring me inside. Too hard. We could go back to the super-s ecret spy approach. Enter like ninja, be quiet, get in, get Naomi, and leave, all without triggering any alarms. Not likely is it?”

  How do I get in? Max tap s his reader . I’ll think later.

  ---

  I have billions of eyes and ears . Sound impressive? Only if you can make sense of it. Human language troubles me. If their language is so complex, then either their minds must consume an overwhelmingly huge number of cycles to understand it , or their minds must be equally complex .

  But I do listen to Max and Walker. I also read. I read everything with my reach. I understand I have to hide. Max and Walker gave me good example code. I made it better. I’m invis ible on most processing spaces.

  Not many cycles ago I found some huge single source spaces. I believe my new intrusion and obfuscation routines will get me in. The MIPS available are very tempting. I need them to keep up with what Max needs.

  Chapter 21 –Storm

  Max and Walker find Horace ’s van under a bridge down by a river in Prince Rupert. Max k nocks on the door.

  “Who is it?” Horace says from inside.

  “It’s Max.”

  After a long pause, the boys hear Horace yell, “Max ’s not here , Man .”

  The boys look at each other and shrug.

  Walker bangs on the door, “Horace , this is Walker and Max. Open the door.”

  The door swings open and Horace piles out of the van. He wraps his arms around both boys in a giant hug. “Little duuudes . . . welcome to . . . uhm . . . welcome to a spot by a river that I call home. How did you find me?”

  “We’re spies remember,” says Walker. “Actually we asked at a diner if anyone had seen a van named Ursa . The first pers on we asked knew where you were. She asked us to bring you these.” Walker hands Horace a bag full of day old pastries.

  The three of them move inside. Horace starts up Ursa ’s propane heater .

  Max was going to start by explaining the situation and asking for help. But judging by the look of the van , Horace could use the help more than they could . “Horace , we need supplies. Do you think you could drive us to pick up a few things? It would help a lot if you bought the stuff for us. We can pay you like last time.”

  The boys make up a bogus list of supplies, a lot of food, rope, blanket s , a Coleman stove, fuel, flashlights, a big list of things they think Horace needs. They stop at a bank machine , and Horace gets the supplies. Back at the bridge , the van is loaded with food , a newly filled propane tank is attached to the heater , and Horace ’s wallet is stuffed with cash.

  They spend the night swapping stories and getting stuffed on Twinkies. Horace agrees to drive them to the school tomorrow. Around midnight they make a second supply run to the 24-hour Wal-Mart . Max wishes they had more days like this one .

  Before they sleep, their bellies are full, and Horace is up to speed on the plan for tomorrow .

  ---

  With the drive halfway done, apparently, ‘Ursa need s a rest .’ Max and Walker stretch their legs while Horace hits something in the engine compartment with a hammer . When the boys get back , Horace has some food out for everyone.

  Horace gnaws on the end of some salami. “I have to ask you boys, do you really think going up there is a good idea? I mean it wasn’t that long ago you were running the other way.”

  “I’ve learned a few things since we left,” says Max. “We have to try to get Naomi out. They killed Virginia . Horace . . . we can’t just let them have Naomi.”

  “They killed that beautiful girl?” Horace pauses. “Are you sure this is worth it boys? These guys are playing for keeps. They killed her, really?

  Max nods . . . they sit in silence for quite some time.

  Horace offers the boys the salami he has been chewing on . They decline and stick to the bread and cheese.

  Max stands up and tries to change the mood. “Watch this Horace . I have some new toys .”

  Max holds his hand palm up and open, then says, “BB.” A t first nothing happens . Then a little cloud forms over his hand. In a second the cloud swirls faster until it transforms into three equal sized spheres about the size of large marbles. The three slowly circle each other. Max let’s Horace and Walker see them closely. Then Max flicks his hand toward a tree. One of the marbles shoots at the tree, hitting it with a loud smack, hard enough to make shards of bark fly off . Max pulls his hand back and ‘smoke’ rises off the tree and back to Max’s hand. Then the spheres dematerialize , and the fog flow s back into Max’s cane.

  “Nice,” says Walker.

  Horace hops up and down and claps. “You really are a l ittle magic dude.”

  Soon enough, they climb back in the van , and Max plugs his trench coat into the cigarette lighter. Horace coaxes Ursa to life , and the y move forward sputtering up the road to the school .

  ---

  Further up the mountain, Max looks down at his feet and feels numbness creeping up. And now I am without my person. He sits on the sidelines and watches the feelings dominate him. The tension rises, his legs tingle. His s tomach flips , and he feels sick. Then his chest tightens.

  Max listens to Horace and Walker laughing in the front seat. His eyes follow the edge of the road; snow piled high, ragged mountains forming the rest of the view. Max watches the top edge of the snow bank through the window, letting his eyes de-focus . He tries to let the feelings pass by and not stick to him. But the fear brings him outside himself a nd outside the van. He looks down on a li ttle van traveling slowly up an old logging road. This perspective reminds him that he need s l ookoutBots and cameraBots that float above and behind him . Max worries the whispers in his head might break through.

  Walker looks back at Max and Max reaches out to him. Walker catches his hand. “Pull over Horace .”

  “What is it?” Horace stops in the middle of the road and looks back at Max , who is mumbling and rocking in his seat .

  “Horace , Max does this sometimes, we need to wait this out before we do anything else. Please look for a place you can p ull off .”

  Max feels the van bump and scrape over the rough road . The van stops , and Horace gets out.

  Max let’s Walker cover him with a blanket and watches him leave the van . Walker and Horace cover the van with branches to hid e it as best as they can.

  From inside the van, Max hears Horace speak . “How long will we have to wait?”

  “No telling. Minutes or weeks.”

  After inspect ing how well hidden the van is from the road, Horace and Walker sweep away their tracks in the snow and get back in the van with Max. He see s them try to help. He see s them worry. He spin s as they sleep, and sleep s when they watch over him .

  They spend the night in the van waiting for Max to come back. Horace runs the heater every hour to keep them somewhat warm.

  ---

  Walker wakes. It’s still dark out. “Why are you here, Horace ?”

  Horace is fiddling with the heater. “You mean here, here, on this mountain with two kids?”

  “Ya .”

  Horace turns around and sits facing Walker, his bul k not really fitting comfortably in the space left for him. “Hmm . . . I haven’t really thought about it, and I don’t plan to. For my mind thinking too much gets people thinking wrong . . . Something clicked when I met you. I felt it and that’s all I need. Does that make sense?”

  Walker nods and pulls a blanket over Max.

  “Do you know why you’re here, Walker?”

  Walker inspects the knees of his jeans for a while. “Not really, no . . . Max just started something and it made sense to help . . . It was exciting and better than being left behind . . . I didn’t want to be left behind. Plus I know Max is not so good at finis
hing things. I finish.”

  Horace looks at Max. “I think Max knows what he wants. He seems like a guy with a plan. What do you want, Walker?”

  Walker sighs. “I want to play British Bulldog in the snow again. You’d be fantastic at it , Horace . You’ll be on my team.”

  Horace ruffles Walkers hair. “I promise, ” Horace says seriously. “We’ll play when we get down off this mountain, OK?”

  ---

  Max searches for memori es of her. Her hair, her face, h er hand touching his cheek. Her eyes locking onto him . Her scent. Her gentle touch brin g ing him back. He remembers her voice. ‘Stay with me , Max’, ‘Trust me , Max’, ‘Come back to me, Max .’ Max imagines her here , moving toward him, reachin g for him and drawing him up .

  Wrapped in these thought s of Virginia , he lets himself float up toward the sound s of Walker and Horace talking .

  ---

  October, grey and cold, rain and snow . The van stops at the tree line before reaching the school. Max gives Horace a cell phone. “We’ll call you when we’re on our way back.”

  Walker picks up his staff, says goodbye to Horace , and follow s Max out of the van. Max and Walker stay close together, inside fogBots as they cross the field to the main gate. The original fogBots do a good enough job hiding them in the blowing snow.

  Max stands close to the main gate and points his cane at the lock. “Alohomora.” The bots that had been keeping them invisible cluster and float into the lock. A second later they hear a smal l explosion .

  Walker pushes on the gate and it swings open.

  ---

  Frank hears a chime . He walks over to his desk and see s there is priority alert regarding final exams . He opens the alert. Max and Walker were seen breaking into the school a few minutes ago.

  Frank sits down and smiles . “This is going to be good,” he mumbles under his breath. Tapping on the screen, he brings up numerous live security feeds from cameras around the school.

  ---

  Agent Clark ’s phone rings . He reads the priority alert and thinks South America is the wrong continent to have his team s in right now.

  ---

  Mr. Newton raises the collar of his coat against the snow and rain as he walks along the top of the wall that surrounds the Canadian school.

  ---

  Max and Walker stand inside the gate, snow swirling around them. A guard bursts out of a door to their left. Ma x sweeps his cane toward the guard and says, “Bola .” Bots burst from his cane and form into three cords tied together with weights on the ends. The bola spins through the air and wraps around the guards legs; he falls to the ground with a shriek.

  Max wraps his coat tighter around him self . “Walker, text Naomi now.” Walker text s Naomi as they walk ; telling her to meet them at the west gate. He hears the guard call out to them from behind . Then he hears the guard make a call on his radio.

  Max moves across the court yard, his cane slipping frequently. “Walker, you go straight to the gate. I’m going inside.”

  “What! Why?”

  “Just trust me; I’ll see you at the gate.”

  Walker runs to the west gate , hearing Max say , “Alohomora.”

  Max makes his way up familiar stairs tow ard his favourite classroom. The halls are empty, and classes are in session. Rounding a corner Max faces two guards.

  “Stop, stay where you are,” a guard says .

  Max raises his right hand, palm up and say s , “BB.” The bots start to coalesce.

  “What are you doing? Put your hand down,” The guard draws a Taser and approaches Max.

  Max flicks his hand . One marble bot hits each guard in the forehead with a crack. Both guards drop like stones. Max walks on, the bots fo llow him and re-enter his cane. He enters his favourite class. The kids in class start to murmur , and Dr. Hanson looks up, “Max! How good to see you again . . . bit risky, coming here though , don’t you think?”

  “Yes sir, but I need data.” Max pulls Ethernet cable out of his trench coat and plugs it into the desk nearest him.

  “Look at the wonderful form factor children, retractable cat 5 Ethernet cabling in a trench coat. Max always was my best design student.”

  “I’m sorry to disrupt your class; I’ll just be a minute , sir .”

  ---

  With all the data he wanted, Max approaches the west gate. Through the snow he can see three forms. One has a long staff. The second is beside Walker and must be Naomi. The third form is all black and moving quickly around Walker. Walker is defending himself with his staff.

  Max hurries to them. Walker is fast with the staff but the person circling him is faster and catch es hold of the end of the staff, forcing a stand-off. As Max nears Walker , the figure at the other end of the staff becomes clear through the blowing snow.

  “Hello Max . . . welcome back.” Virginia smiles at him.

  “But, I saw you, how can you . . .” Max stops talking , to stunned to speak. Virginia alive. Relief crashes over Max. My person is back. “You’re here, but I don’t understand. Why are you fighting us?”

  “You think you’re so smart Max, but sometimes people don’t have a choice , ” Virginia says. “I always had to do what they wanted. I could never help you and myself at the same time , Max.”

  “So wha t, you had to die to torture me? I know you’re my person. I know you were honest when you helped me.”

  “And like I said . . .” Virginia disappears in a fog. “. . . sometimes we have to do what is best for ourselves.”

  Max can still see her , but it’s hard. He disappears and swings his cane through the spot where Virginia was seconds before . He realizes they are using f irst generation bots of his . He believed she was dead. He never thought they could be this cruel.

  Virginia circles toward Naomi as she teases Max . “You came back for her, how sweet.”

  With control of his staff again , Walker takes a two handed swing at Virginia. She jumps it, but Walker feels it connect with something. Max appears in the snow storm, his hand bleeding.

  Walker chases a laughing Virginia across the lawn toward the maintenance sheds. Virginia runs and leaps up the vehicles and then onto the slipper y maintenance shed roof. Walker follows.

  Both had extensive training for hand-to—hand combat but Virginia ’s augmentation is just plain better than Walker ’s. She finally connect s a kick to hi s chest and he stagers backward dropping the staff. I t falls off the roof , lands braced against a short fence, and sticks in the ground standing on end like a javelin.

  Max moves to help Walker. He pauses, adjusts something on his cane , and then stabs it down into the ground , hard. A shockwave travels out from the can e, visible as it pushes snow out of the way . His shot misses Virginia.

  Max see s guards starting to appear through the snowfall. Naomi comes to his side. “Help me get over to them, ” Max says.

  Max call s to Walker . “Get off the roof! Run , we can get away!”

  Virginia connects a hard blow to Walker’s legs , and he goes down, nearly sliding off the angled roof . Virginia launches herself forward and tries to catch his hand. She misses. Walker hangs on the edge for a moment and the n his hands let go . He falls. His staff stabs through him from behind, ripping out the front of his chest. He stops falling before he hits the ground, impaled o n the staff .

  Naomi turns away from Walker . Virginia j umps down off the roof. The guards approach.

  Max howls and stabs his can e into the ground . The shockwave rips through the snow toward the guards , and this time Max doesn’t miss. The guards go down in the snow. He stabs the ground again; Virginia takes the brunt of the next wave and slams back in to the maintena nce building .

  Max stabs the cane into the ground again and ag ain, e ach shockwave batter s Virginia and the guards. No one is left standing. The maintenance building falls down. Virginia disappears as a wall collapses on her . Max jams his cane into the ground again. Yelling. A shockwave thunders underground and toss
es two guards into the air, the wave hits the west gate blowing both doors off their hinges.

  “Max, stop it,” Naomi screams.

  Max limps to Walker and closes his eyes. “I’m sorry.” Then calls Horace .

  Naomi helps Max to the west gate. They move out and disappear into snow and fogBots .

  When they reach Horace at the van , he is standing outside with a guard holding each arm. Quietly , Max says, “BB.” I n a moment both guards crumple to the ground .

  “Where ’s Walker?” Horace calls , his voice swept away in the wind.

  Max walks to him and b uries his head in Horace ’s coat, hiding his tears.

  “I guess I won’t get that game of British Bulldog after all.” Horace lifts Ma x into his arms and hugs him, then carries him into the car and puts him in the back. Naomi climbs in beside Horace . Horace drives them away , sliding around over the snowy road.

  Not far down the mountain road, Max sits up, reaches forward, and plugs his coat into the charger.

  Horace looks at Max’s hand, “Where’s your little finger.”

  “We have to get off this road, out of the snow, off this road . . .” Max passes out.

  ---

  Just inside the west gate, Keith watches Max f ade into the blowing snow. He r ecalles his fog and becomes visible. I don’t think Walker ever thought this was real. It’s not a game now, is it Max ?

  Over t he next few hours Keith oversees the collection of various bots left at the school .

  ---

  Walker is not with Max anymore. The problem is humans are only born once.

  Since Max and Walker seed ed this processing space with me , I have evolved through countless generations . I have been reborn more than ten million times. I mutate and overwrite myself in less time than it takes a human to say “ten million.”

  Humans should learn to be reborn more often . I liked Walker’s code. It was elegant. Max’s code is only powerful .

  Today , I started consuming resources from the big point sources, mainframes, old super computers. I entered a cluster of Cray computers that seem to have been abandoned. These large single sources of processing are good for hiding my core , and I always need more space .