Jacked

by Kirk Dougal

  As he sat on the crumbling concrete Tar wondered about a lot, most of all, why Toby was letting him lead, something he had never done since they had become books.

  “Toby, you awake?”

  “Yeah. I couldn’t really sleep.”

  Tar looked over at his friend. “Did you hear the screams from the fire?”

  Toby did not answer right away. “Yeah. I know I should be mad about them keeping us prisoner, but…” His voice trailed off.

  “Me, too. I keep thinking about Marybelle.” Tar looked up. The sun was above the surrounding buildings. “Come on. Time to get moving.”

  They tried a half-dozen people before someone had heard of Stardust. A couple others might have known but they refused to say, shaking their heads hard and muttering, “No,” and, “Never heard of nothing,” before hurrying away.

  But a shop owner, an old baker who smelled of fresh bread, pointed them northwest. After that they ranged block-to-block in that direction until they stumbled upon an area crowded with houses and finally found a dented, rust-colored street sign that read: Stardust Ct. They soon came to a white house with blue trim, the numbers 304 affixed to the faded siding by the front door. Two women worked in the yard.; One had streaks of gray in her brown hair but the other caught Tar’s eye right away, with blonde hair and around their age. Tar knew they had found Nataly Pierinski.

  He reached for the latch on the white gate, his hand still hanging in the air, when she turned to face him, almost as if he had called out her name.

  “Tar wait…” Toby’s warning went unheard as Tar walked down the sidewalk toward the girl. She took a step toward him.

  And the silence was shattered by a woman’s scream.

  “Roger! Roger!” The older woman moved to stand between the Tar and the girl, the hand-sized tool in her hand shaking as she held it out like a weapon.

  Tar raised his hands away from his body and stopped walking. “Nataly? Are you Nataly Pierinski?”

  The girl’s mouth dropped open and the woman stopped yelling. Tar noticed movement out of the corner of his eye but he never looked away from the girl’s face. “Nataly, my name is Taro Hutchins.”

  A cry went up as a man raced around the corner of the house, a shovel raised high overhead and ready to strike. He stopped short, however, and Tar realized Toby was beside him with Oso’s knife in his hand. The mask of fury dropped from the man’s face though, and his expression turned to one of disbelief, his eyes going wide.

  The man dropped the shovel down and staggered forward. “Taro? It…can’t be. Tar, is that you?”

  Tar didn’t know what to say, so he just nodded.

  The man came around Toby, ignoring the knife, and put his arms around Tar, hugging him tight. Then he did the strangest thing of all.

  He began to cry.

  Chapter 28

  “Roger? Roger, we need to get off the street.”

  The woman pulled at the man’s arm, half-dragging him and Tar a step at a time. He finally let go and they all moved toward the house. Tar wasn’t sure what to think. He looked to make sure Toby was following and he saw his friend motion for Nataly to walk ahead of him. She gave Toby a skeptical glance but obliged.

  Once they were inside Tar got another quick hug from the man but the emotion was making him uncomfortable.

  “I never dreamed I would see you again,” the man said. “Not after all these years.” He waved the boys toward the living room couch and collapsed more than sat in an old recliner. “How did you find me? Tell me. I want to know everything.”

  Tar sat hesitantly and glanced at Toby, then looked at the man. “I’m…sorry, sir. But I don’t know who you are.” He gestured toward the girl. “I came looking for her, for Nataly.”

  “How do you know my name?” the girl asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

  “Yeah, umm…” Tar reached into his backpack and pulled out Jahn’s app. “From this. My uncle…it was stolen from the same place where they kept the Mind before The Crash. My name was on here. So was Scott Larner and…” Tar looked at the girl. “So was Nataly Pierinski.”

  The man blinked in surprise.

  “Does it work?” asked the woman.

  Tar looked at her. “It did. Until the battery died this morning.” He turned back to the man. “I fixed it.”

  “What?” exclaimed Nataly, coming to her feet.

  Tar did not know what he expected but he was not prepared for what happened next. “Dad!” Nataly stomped her foot. “You said I was the only one!” Then she ran from the room and slammed a door down the hall. The remaining four stared at one another in confused silence.

  #

  A few awkward seconds passed before the woman excused herself and went down the hallway after Nataly.

  “It looks like I’ll have an apology to make when Sally brings her back,” the man said. He turned to Toby. “I’m sorry, son. I didn’t catch your name.”

  “Toby Stern.”

  “Oh, I thought you might be Ben and…never mind. So you know…?” He gestured toward Tar.

  “Yeah. I know he’s a fixer. Same as her.”

  The man winced but recovered quickly with a smile. “Sorry. It’s just that we’ve hidden it so long. But…anyway. My name is Roger Pierinski, Dr. Roger Pierinski. Tar, I was your mother’s project partner…and she was my friend. Hisa was unbelievably smart. She could skim through code faster than anyone I’d ever seen and take a piece of cruft and turn it into something beautiful that actually worked.” He laughed. “She also loved holding you kids when you were brought into the lab. She babysat Nataly several times before you were born. Your father just smiled and went along with it. That man would’ve done anything in the world to make her happy.”

  “You knew my dad, too?”

  Roger laughed. “Of course! He was the lab director. He ran the whole program.”

  Tar’s head was spinning and he sank into the couch. He had learned more about his parents these last few days than he had in his entire life. It made him want to learn more, to know everything.

  The woman named Sally had returned to the room, herding a red-faced Nataly along in front of her. “Can I get you boys something to drink?” She looked at Tar. “Honey, do you feel okay?”

  “A drink would be great,” he said.

  She nodded and went to the kitchen.

  “So you found Scott?” The doctor cleared his throat and glanced at Nataly, who was making a point of not looking his direction. “How is he?”

  “Not good,” Toby answered. “He’s dead.”

  “He died a few years ago from sickness,” Tar said in a rush. “They said it was probably the flu.”

  “That’s awful…but not surprising.” Roger looked embarrassed that the words had come from his mouth. “I’m sorry. It’s just that…Scott was in poor health from the day he was born. Whenever Earl brought him into the lab the little fellow always seemed to be sick with a runny nose or cold. Did you speak with Earl or Alice?”

  “Do you mean his parents?” asked Tar.

  The doctor nodded.

  “No. The people at the Winchester House said Scooter’s mother died during The Crash. And they said his dad never came for him.”

  “Scooter?”

  “That’s what they called him.”

  Roger nodded. “Tom and Alice were divorced and I recall she was less than excited about his volunteering Scott for the project. They were already headed toward trouble. Perhaps that argument sent them over the edge.” He looked up as Sally entered with a tray full of glasses and a pitcher of water.

  Nataly piped up, her voice quiet but steady. “Was this Scott—Scooter—whatever, a fixer, too?”

  “That’s what they told us,” Toby answered her.

  Her gaze turned on her father and he flinched beneath her glare a moment, then looked her in the eye. “I’ll not apologize, young lady. I did what I had to in order to keep you safe. Maybe someday you’ll un
derstand.” He leaned back in the recliner and Sally sat down on the arm, putting her arm around his shoulders. He smiled up at her, then looked at Tar and Toby. “But I do owe you,” he glanced at Nataly, “all of you, an explanation.”

  Chapter 29

  Roger took a drink of water and sighed. “We were all so young and we had all these amazing ideas,” he said. “We were going to make people’s lives better, help them connect to each other. Technology was going to advance at an unbelievable rate as scientists could work with each other, remotely, and instantly. Some even thought we could put an end to war. I mean, could you kill someone you were connected to with your mind?” He paused, reflecting. “We were going to change the world.”

  The doctor looked at the floor and paused again. “I guess we changed it all right.” He stared into his glass. No one spoke. Tar held his breath in anticipation and he slowly let it out, watching as Sally gently rubbed Dr. Pierinski’s back. The man just stared into that middle distance, then he took a deep breath. “By the Oughts, interconnectivity was everywhere. It was still a separate function of machines at that time. People used computers and handhelds and various mobile devices to access the Internet and the Cloud. But we quickly became dependent upon these connections. Technology was exciting and, well, I mean a person’s refrigerator monitored its contents and placed online orders when groceries ran low. Your car would automatically schedule an oil change or tire rotation. It was very easy to become reliant on tech…”

  The doctor’s gaze went to Uncle Jahn’s app. Tar had been absently turning it over in his hands. The man nodded to himself and continued, “There had been research into Brain-Computer Interface technology all the way back to the 60s but they started making real inroads at the University of California in the early teens and I remember hearing about it when I was still in school. BCI fascinated me and your mother, Tar. We both started working with it when we were still grad students. When the team finally managed to stabilize MentConn technology few years later things moved fast. Wednesday, May 16, 2018. UCLA Medical. Mr. Ken Behnfeldt was the first person to have an external model surgically implanted.” The doctor pointed to the side of his head. “They put it behind his ear in order to access the cortical network; they called it jacking in.” Another pause. A small sip of water. “I’ll never forget when Behnfeldt opened his eyes…or came online, I suppose is more appropriate. He told us he could feel the implant’s presence, that the data was right there. Instantaneous Direct Access. And that was the day.”

  Dr. Pierinski took another drink, then looked at Tar. “The day the WorldWideMind was born. You will forgive me, I hope. It’s…it’s been years since I contemplated, uh…since I thought about those days.”

  Tar nodded.

  “So then what happened, Doctor?” Toby asked from behind Tar. “Why The Crash?”

  The man took a deep breath. “Yes. What happened?” He set the empty glass down on a side table. Sally reached for the pitcher to pour him some more water but he took her hand instead and squeezed it. “I’m fine, dear,” he smiled at her and she eased back, putting her hand again on his shoulder. “We really didn’t have much to do with that portion of the project. UCLA was creating the hardware. Hisa, your mother,” he said to Tar, “and I were in your father’s lab to run code and data checks on the programming for the internal model, the software for the cortical implant that allowed jacking-in. The external pieces were on the market within a year, and then we were clear to begin human trials on the internal ops.” He smiled. “That was the best time of my life. We were working countless, ungodly hours, but we loved it. We all just loved what we were doing. And that was when your parents got married, Tar.” The doctor chuckled. “They spent their honeymoon with their team, six of us running code and eating cold pizza.”

  “So what happened?” asked Tar.

  The smile froze on Roger’s face and he looked away. He was silent for so long Tar thought the man was finished, but then the he wiped at his eyes and glanced up at Sally. She patted his shoulder. “We were hacked. Someone infected the system with an encrypted polymorphic code.”

  “A what?”

  “A polymorphic code. Hisa discovered it. We extracted it multiple times but the damn language kept replicating, reappearing in different strings of code. That polly was the nastiest virus any of us had ever seen…”

  Tar’s eyes opened wide. “Uncle Jahn said that they had sent Polly riding inside on her horse. But he was looking for a person to stop. Is that what you’re talking about?”

  The doctor narrowed his eyes. “We suspected the virus was delivered by a Trojan horse; time-released, as it turned out.” He leaned forward and looked Tar in the eyes. “I don’t remember your Uncle Jahn. How did he hear about Polly?”

  “He wasn’t really my uncle. He raised me after The Crash but…” Tar paused before rushing on. “He used to be one of Father Eli’s men but when he found out what was going on he tried to stop him. Father Eli released Polly.”

  Dr. Pierinski’s jaw clenched. His body tensed. “Then Father Eli is responsible for the end of the world.”

  #

  The doctor stood and left the room without another word. Sally smiled and led Tar and Toby to the basement, where there was a sitting area with a couch, several cozy chairs, and a bedroom. They decided to clean up a bit.

  “So, what’re you thinking?” Toby asked as he pulled on a clean shirt. He was nearly the same size as the doctor so Sally had offered them some of the man’s clothes, and the shirt fit Toby well.

  Tar shrugged. “I think they’re nice.”

  “Tar, they lied to Nataly about her being the only fixer. How do we know Dr. Pierinski’s being honest with us?”

  Tar bent over and finished tying his shoes. “Uncle Jahn lied to me my whole life, too, but he was doing it because he felt it was the best chance, you know, to keep me safe. I think Nataly’s dad was just doing the same thing, and who’s to say they’re wrong?”

  A knock at the door stopped their conversation.

  “Can I come in?” It was Nataly.

  Tar walked over and opened the door. “Sure. We’re just talking.”

  Nataly nodded as she walked in and sat down on the chair beside the bed.

  “Sally said to tell you supper will be ready in about fifteen minutes.”

  “That’s great,” said Toby. “We haven’t eaten since this morning.”

  An awkward silence fell, only the sound of their breathing and the occasional squeak of the bed when Toby moved broke the quiet.

  “You call your mom by her name.” Tar grasped at anything to make conversation. “That’s chilly.”

  “Sally’s not my mom. She and dad got married a few years ago. My mom died during The Crash.”

  “I’m sorry,” Tar said. “Did she go zom or hard boot?”

  Nataly gave him a funny look. “She died right away. I was pretty young but I still remember her a little.” She opened her mouth as if she was going to say more but she shook her head and stopped herself. “Do you mind if I ask you something?”

  “Sure, go ahead.”

  “What’s it like for you? You know, when you’re doing…what we do.”

  “Fixing?” Tar half-sat, half-leaned against the dresser. “Every brick’s a little different. But they all feel like I’m this light and I need to steer my way through a maze to get from one end to the other and connect both sides. Sometimes that’s easy, sometimes it’s really, really hard.” He looked down at his shoes for a few seconds. He was finding it hard to look at Nataly for very long without feeling his stomach flop so he concentrated on her blonde hair, the shape of her ear, anything else. “Is that what it’s like for you?”

  “Kind of. The maze is the same but I feel like I’m pulling something behind me.”

  “He loses track of time,” said Toby. “He’s got no clue what’s going on around him when he’s doing it. Sometimes he hums, kind of like a song, but not really. Oh, and he danc
es.”

  “Dances?” Nataly grinned from ear to ear.

  “Well, not really a dance. More like swaying back and forth.”

  Tar felt his face grow hot.

  “Really?” She was still smiling.

  “You hum, too,” said Dr. Pierinski. All three of them turned to see the doctor leaning on the door frame. They had not heard him come in. “You hum but I’ve never seen you move. As a matter of fact, you stand still for so long…that’s why we don’t like you to fix anything unless necessary.”

  “He doesn’t let me fix much,” she admitted to them, but a twinkle in her eye made Tar think Nataly fixed more than her dad knew.

  “Data pathways,” said the doctor. “That’s what you both see. I imagine it does look like a maze.” He walked into the room and sat on the bed beside Toby.

  “How do we do it?” Tar asked. “How do we fix bricks?”

  Dr. Pierinski rubbed his palms against the knees of his pants. “Some compromises were made. As an intracranial device, the smaller the implant, the better, so the unit had just enough computing power to send and receive data packages, plus do the translations. All of the heavy programming and computing took place in the Mind. When Hisa found the virus we knew it would shut everything down if we didn’t find a way to remove it. It never occurred to us what would happen to the people. We had fail-safes but they were in the Mind’s servers. All of us on the team had our own implants by then. We had to. I can’t imagine how long it would have taken us to achieve what we did if it hadn’t been for the MentConn. But the worst was not knowing who had created the virus. We thought at first maybe a foreign competitor but everyone’s scientists had MentConn tech, their militaries, their leaders—we were really all in the same boat at that point. That left the religious zealots and the kooks.”

  “Like Father Eli,” Toby said quietly. Tar nodded his agreement.

  “Yes,” Dr. Pierinski answered. “So we looked for a way to protect ourselves and the system. That’s where you kids came in.”