by James Cox
'Thanks, dear.' Robin noticed the channel activity rising. 'Hey. U need me up?'
'Not atm. In fact, not unless it gets seriously grim, which it doesn't look to be. U just sit back and relax. Think about that dinner you're gonna buy me someday. I like the Tasty-Play Buffet!'
Now Robin laughed hard. Tasty-Play was the cheapest and lowest-quality restaurant on Echo Bend or for several systems around it!
'{action}FoxBird luvs you too, you silly Grape.'
'[system]FuzzyFeet is in +UptownCafe+'
'Fuzz!' 'FF!!' 'FuzzyBuddy!'
FuzzyFeet replied and fired off a few actionscripts. When he swapped a pair of puns with Grape Robin knew he was a Cafe reggie. As soon as the channel settled Robin sent him a chat.
'Hey, Fuzz. How are you?'
'*Great*!! I'm really starting to like this.'
'Good! How did you and Gem hit things off?'
'Really well,' he said after a long pause.
'Cryo++. Are you two a pair yet?'
Again a long pause. 'I... What did she tell you?'
'Nothing, dear. I just know her pretty well. She and Rocky olled a while back but parted friends.'
'Olled?'
'As in on-line relationship. On-lining.'
'Oh. {action}FuzzyFeet takes a couple deep breaths.'
'What's wrong, hon. You seem uncomfortable.'
'I am. Umm... just how much stuff is sailing around the net?'
'Nothing, dear. You should know, though, that there aren't many secrets among the reggies.'
'oh. should i unregister and leave?'
'What?! Whyfor!?!! We *like* you here and Gem is pretty picky about her partners.'
FuzzyFeet said nothing.
'[system]FoxBird:PRIVNAME:Robin Fuzzy? U here?'
'[system]FuzzyFeet:PRIVNAME:Edward Or just Ed.'
'Polar,' said Robin, 'now we're just a couple of friends chatting over tea.'
'k'
'Not that different from IRL, is it? When I was in school lots of conversation pivoted around who was paired and who wasn't. Have things changed that much?'
'Not really.'
'So does it put you totally out of phase when someone talks to you about your g/f?'
'{action}Edward doesn't have one of those.'
'Really? Why not?'
'i just don't. Can we maybe talk about something else?'
'Sure. Umm... What are your plans after school?'
'I want to be a hovertran driver.'
'?! I thought they were automatic.'
'They mostly are but they still have someone in the cockpit just in case. My granther and uncle are 'tran drivers. They've told me all about it and that's what I want to do!'
'Pyro++!'
Robin felt Edward relax as he launched into great detail about his planned career. As always Gem picked a winner!
By the time Robin started feeling sleepy Turbo still hadn't shown. She said her farewells to the channel, closed her chats and went to bed.
***
Robin woke the next morning after a night filled with fitful dreams. She showered quickly, dressed and headed to work. Several or Wrighten's regular customers had semi-rush jobs and enough pull to get them priority. Robin handled the data absently, her thoughts far abroad.
Instead of gobbling her lunch and spending the rest of her time working Robin lazed through it and watched the crowds pass. She finished eating with about ten minutes left. She considered popping into chat but decided against it. Quite a few others around the office imm'ed or messaged but not Robin. Company policy was marginally against it and she had ample work to fill her time besides.
As closing time approached Robin heard three of her coworkers discussing someone else just outside her cubicle. These three often did and Robin ignored them. Few spoke to her outside of job-related discussion and if any of the juicy bits of gossip concerned her Robin cared not at all.
'[system]FoxBird is in +UptownCafe+'
Robin swapped greetings and pops as she nibbled her supper and checked on Thomas. The sys-stat server reported no activity since before the weekend. Several of the reggies queried her as to his whereabouts but she pled ignorance.
As the evening passed Robin felt the beginnings of boredom. The channel was dead slow and most of the reggies also had other projects to occupy their time. With no private chats open and no pressing help requests Robin said her goodbyes and logged out.
Robin inserted her chip into her reader. She had a manual freeze on her net connection and a very low-level portmon in place. She cut off a generous chunk of Thomas' data and began dissecting it. After a few minutes she stripped off the transfer protocols from Thomas' machine and the original transfer; that left a nice, big chunk of raw data straight from its source.
The first layer bore all the signs of an efficiency-encryption compression algorithm. Robin thought about trying to crack it but decided against it. Instead she configured her recognizer apps and let them hash the data. Generating heuristics from it would take time but extra memory helped and Robin had her machine maxed. When the recognizers finished she fed their results into a positive-feedback format decoder. She lit a 'stick and watched the PFFD iteratively massage the data. When the process stabilized - 73 percent, not bad! - she plugged the chip containing the public planet-wide domain registry.
As the datamatch ran Robin lit another 'stick and stepped out onto her balcony. The city sparkled before her with myriads of lights moving in all directions or simply sitting still, some blinking some not. It took no imagination to picture it as the net, swarming and pulsing with information.
When the datamatch beeped it presented Robin with over thirty high-likelihood possibilities. By what she knew of Thomas she pared that down to seventeen. She cached those, cleared the rest and cut off another chunk of the original data. She frowned at the estimated run time but didn't want to loosen her criteria. She terminated all of her net protocols, disconnected the machine from the net and configured her programs to burn the ultimate results onto a chip. With that done she turned off the screen and went to bed.
Robin spent the next morning on a job from one of Wrighten's largest customers. It took her almost until lunch and it nearly distracted her from what she planned to do. It wasn't illegal. Technically. Still, Robin's nerves fluttered in her stomach.
Robin checked her chrono. Eighteen minutes of lunch left. Plenty of time. She didn't know of anyone who hadn't done something personal on the company net, at least once. Anxiety gnawed at the lump her lunch left in her stomach. She took a deep breath and plugged her chip. As soon as it started she heart footsteps outside her cubicle. She tensed and started to turn around but held herself back. The footsteps reached her and passed. Just someone back from lunch. Nothing more.
The database Robin queried wasn't restricted. Businesses accessed it routinely. Net providers did as well but they charged for it and kept logs of who used it. She herself used it as a matter of course, but always for business purposes. Until now.
Several others walked by, one humming tunefully. She started to abort the chip but it had almost completed. When it finally beeped and burned Robin almost wilted with relief. She pocketed the chip and took a calming breath, desperately wanting a drugstick. Tight with tension, her neck and shoulders started to ache. With a firm foothold the ache began working its way upward. Robin took a tablet for it, went to the fresher and washed her face.
Despite her apprehension and anxiety to the contrary Robin's afternoon passed uneventfully. She spent the hours until closing time certain that LaGrange or his supervisor or the CEO herself would appear, furious, to fire Robin with great noise and ceremony. When she walked out of the building she almost laughed aloud. Of course they wouldn't fire her, even if they saw the logs. Only she knew her reasons; anyone else would assume it a part of her assignments! The lifting of that burden lightened Robin and she made her way home cheerfully.
***
Robin logged in meticulously. Working with fast, efficien
t precision she assembled a low-level connection to the net. With equal care she routed an encryption tunnel through eleven low-security sites with decent pipe. Earlier she logged into chat with a visitor alias just long enough to verify that Turbo had not yet appeared. This was far longer than the time required to rebuild his machine, even assuming he didn't have a backup image or three chipped.
With her machine now stripped of every non-essential module Robin plugged the chip she burned that afternoon. She loaded the first site config and started burning. She encountered severe wallz and dogz but nothing she couldn't handle. She had a particularly efficient mirror-mirror prepared for defense with codefog backing it and a rotten fish generator for the dogz. For her attack she had a collection of highly-customized throbbing needles; each designed to compromise a different style of wall. She also had a progressive glass raincoat spawned along each node of her tunnel; that should hide her appearance.
The first site fell easily to Robin's attack. The watchdogs there converged on the rotten fish she threw out and that left her ample time to peel away the firewall. That done she slirped a sample of the first internal file she found, repaired her breach and left quickly.
The next five sites went just as easily. No doubt any sensitive or financial data would be heavily guarded but Robin carefully avoided that. She had no trouble garnering a data sample from each. The sixth site forced her to use two needles and her codefog and cost her two nodes in her tunnel. She replaced them as quickly as she could but didn't bother spawning her raincoat along them.
Robin loaded the seventh site configuration. This one, Capital Interstellar, ranked highest on her list of suspicions. She sent a creepy crawler into the site first. It returned an amazing amount of archival and public relations information but less than she liked in the way of site structure. Still, it reported no suspicious activity so CI's warez must have classified it as legitimate.
She burned past the initial security easily. Its purpose, she suspected, was simply to keep overly curious visitors at bay. When she probed a bit deeper she provoked more serious security warez. She morphed her raincoat and fired off a few rotten fish just to confuse matters and turned back to business. She peeled most of the firewall ahead of her when it hardened and another dozen modules began activating.
Robin abandoned subtlety. She activated mirror-mirror and fired her heaviest needle against the wall. It penetrated easily and Robin had her choice of a dozen files. She grabbed the second, started the transfer and turned her attention to the new warez popping up around her. She saw no less than five trace modules moving toward her which meant at least that many stealthed versions, probably well into her tunnel by now.
Robin deployed her codefog and trashed whatever she could while it executed. The system space around her heated up severely so she left and collapsed her tunnel. She sat at her terminal for a few minutes calming herself. She chipped the data she gathered and purged it from her terminal. Next she disconnected it from the net and reimaged it from her last archive. When she powered up it responded exactly as it should so she reconnected it to the net and again nothing abnormal happened.
'[system]FoxBird is in +UptownCafe+'
Robin noted the presence of most of the late-night reggies and greeted them all.
'{action}BAKBLAST is *really* glad to see you FoxyBirdie. Like-back-wise from Rimmie. How've you been, lovely lady?'
'Pyro-cryo. Anyone seen Turbo l8ly?'
'Nak,' said BAKBLAST, 'Grape said to tell you a couple of newts were asking about him earlier. Didn't mention nicks, tho.'
'Thx. {action}FoxBird is either really upset or really concerned. Depends on TF's excuses.'
After a bit more idle chat Robin logged out. She knew Thomas wouldn't be there but she wanted to monitor her net traffic closely and in detail. Several parameters showed some deviation but nothing suspicious and easily within tolerances considering the traffic. She disconnected the net again.
Robin scowled and lit a 'stick. She loaded the CI data along with an equivalent chunk of Thomas' and ran a stochastic comparison. At highest refinement it barely broke fifty percent. She got a higher likelihood at coarser intervals but with disproportionately greater error. She programmed the machine to analyze the other samples, turned off the screen and went to bed.
***
Robin worked her terminal lackadaisically. Lunch rumbled in her stomach and distracted her from both work and conjecture. None of her other samples broke twenty percent at any of the intervals she set and in some cases the error exceeded the likelihood. The thought of burning any of her other high probables brought a sour taste to her mouth so she decided to operate under the assumption that Thomas tried to burn CI and got caught.
Robin's rational mind told her she didn't really have a stake in Thomas' business. She'd never met him in person and saw him only as a voice on the net. She knew of him only what he shared and that might or might not be true. Then the rest of her began arguing. True, he was only words on a screen but she felt closer to him than to anyone else in her life. Silliness, countered the rational part. But still true.
Robin remained at work a few extra minutes, not unusual, to finish her assignments. Very unusual. When she did finally leave she chided herself Aunt-Lilly-like for her lack of focus and efficiency.
'[system]FoxBird is in +UptownCafe+'
Prior to connecting the net and logging in Robin carefully purged the chip containing Thomas' raw data. Then she hid the data on all the other chips and purged them too. Then, just to be absolutely certain, she reimaged her terminal again.
'... so LEAF me alone, you SAP,' posted Grape, 'You are totally BARKing up the wrong tree!'
Robin shook her head. Not bad but certainly not down to Grape's usual low standards. After quite a bout the punsling began tapering out. Robin helped a few newts but mostly she swapped chats with the reggies.
'That's lame, Grape,' said Rimmie, 'That puppy today must have addled your gray storage. Your usual DOGged determination seems ready to FLEA.'
Robin posted a groan as did several others. All the reggies knew Thomas hadn't put in an appearance for an unusually long time but they didn't ask questions. At least to her.
'Shame on you, RimFire,' retorted Grape, 'I'm gonna TAIL your PAW you're HOUNDing me.'
Robin groaned. 'Bite your fingers, Grape. *I* could've done better than those!'
'{action}MoldyGrape sighs thunderously. Me <-- break++. I had a rough day.'
Robin knew that for truth. Earlier that afternoon some clickpuppy tried the latest, hottest chatburners on the Cafe. Slidewire, only recently promoted to moderator, was up at the time. The burnware popped his connection well before he could think about acting and suddenly the puppy was in charge. As soon as that happened he launched a massive swarm of intrusion warez against everyone in channel.
Fortunately Grape was present. When Slidewire vanished Grape activated his security and defense scripts. He managed to demoderate the puppy but the stape had some really hot warez triggered on that. Grape managed to keep his connection active and he, the other moderators and several of the reggies finally managed to oust the intruder but it was a close call on all counts.
'{action}FoxBird slides down the sofa to Grape. {action}FoxBird sits square on Grape's lap. {action}FoxBird gives Grape a long sizzling *HUG* and a *KISS*!'
'po-LARITY,' said Grape, '{action}MoldyGrape feels a *LOT* better now!'
Robin smiled. It turned into a yawn.
'{action}FoxBird has been worn out by Grape's attention. G'night, all.'
Robin stayed long enough to collect her parting huggles and smoochies, then logged out, powered down and went to bed. She missed Thomas but enjoyed the others in his absence.
***
Robin waited nervously outside Ted LaGrange's office. She had an ordinary morning with nothing whatsoever unusual. After lunch she started preparing a large dataset when she received the message summoning her. She backed up her work and powered down her terminal with no small
trepidation.
As she walked through the building Robin dwelled on her recent access to the database. She thought it a trivial matter. Others, apparently, had a different opinion. She didn't think she'd lose her job over it but even one reprimand on a record conspicuously clear of them would affect her chances of promotion.
Then, for the final touch, LaGrange made her wait. His secretary announced her then smiled and indicated a chair. Robin tried flipping through several magazines there but her mind insisted on dwelling on her misdeeds.
"Signora Macy? You can go in now."
LaGrange sat behind an impressive desk with his hands folded before him. Two others sat there, both dressed in somber and severe fashion. When they looked at Robin she felt chilled: no emotion whatsoever crossed their faces.
"Sir?" Robin managed to keep her voice steady but only just.
"Sit down, Robin," said LaGrange, voice steady and even, "I'd like to introduce Cyril Aaron and Drew Barkeley."
Each man nodded when LaGrange mentioned his name.
"They work for Durastel Mercantile and they came to me with a request."
"We need a data structuring technician," said Aaron, "One who is capable, competent, fast and efficient. Seigneur LaGrange recommended you most highly."
Robin held herself steady as relief melted the cold knot within her.
"Our need is for an indeterminate time," said Barkeley, "We will pay full fee plus commission based on how quickly you can accomplish what we require. We are not at liberty to discuss the details but it may last quite a while. It must be completed at our facilities and we will require a nondisclosure agreement."
Robin clamped down on her emotions but this time to contain her excitement! These assignments usually went to senior techs with years of experience.
"Our terms are quite generous," said Aaron, "both for yourself and for your company. The initial data is time-critical, though, so we'll need an answer quickly."
Robin gave a slight nod. Nothing unusual there. She faced LaGrange.
"I'll be happy to take it, sir. Will I need to relocate?"
"No," said Aaron, "You'll be working at our facility here in Primary." He handed her a datacard and a crypcert.
