Faster

by Alex Schuler

  “But you just said Rusty told us not to. Ashton is supposed to be our biggest competition.”

  “That’s exactly why I want to respond to Sam. If Ashton wants to play games with us, then we should give those . . . those ash-holes something weird. Something to confuse them.”

  “Ash-holes.” Harry laughed and nodded in agreement, but then shook his head. “Ted, it’s totally fine to ignore their email but rules of protocol are clear. If we provide information to them, it must be good information. It’s unethical to provide misinformation. Rusty will find out and we could even be disqualified.”

  “I didn’t say we needed to give them bad data, Harry. We could just give them old data—with a little twist. Maybe from before we installed the gimbal. Do you still have those algorithms?”

  “I have it all backed up.” Harry paused and stared at the project plan charts covering the walls. “But Ted, if you’re going to give them information, it has to work. Old is okay, a little gray in the ethics department, but still okay. If you “twist” it too much, you will have crossed a line.”

  “Relax, Harry.” Ted licked some bits of peanut butter from his fingertips and gulped his coffee. “I think Sam’s fishing—probably under orders from Vin. It sounds to me like Ashton is trying to size up the competition. I think we should do the same.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning we ask for something in return.”

  “Like what?”

  Ted clasped his hands above his head and leaned back as he stretched. Leaning forward again, he pursed his lips and exhaled loudly, his hair falling in front of his eyes. The springs on the underside of the chair creaked as he rocked back and forth in thought.

  “Are there any software issues we’re still having?” Ted propped his elbows on his knees and cradled his chin in the palm of his hands. “I know we told Rusty that Cyclops sees perfectly. But I thought there were still some hiccups.”

  The two men stared at each other for several seconds.

  “Short trees,” Harry said. “And people.”

  “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

  “It has to do with our simulator.” Harry adjusted his glasses and scratched the top of his bald head. “Nico and I were doing dry runs through the Mojave maps Lori built. We’re especially worried about the Urban Challenge when Cyclops will be going through city streets. Lori gave us some maps of the DSU campus to use in our simulations for that competition. We’re getting Cyclops to see things like people and signs. Most of the time it does great.”

  “But?” Ted asked cautiously. “What? Short tree people confuse it?”

  “Pretty much. We put people along the side of the street to make it as real as possible. Cyclops couldn’t tell the difference between trees and people that were the same size and shape.”

  Ted laughed as he imagined people shaped like shrubs and bushes covered in leaves but with human faces.

  “I don’t get why that’s a problem,” he said. “It’s not like there will be trees crossing the street.”

  “It’s the opposite. Cyclops kept getting hung up at the same intersection because it thought the small tree in the center island was a person crossing, and it just sat there forever. He just kept waiting for them to move out of the way.”

  “Well, on the plus side we have a very courteous self-driving vehicle.” Ted frowned and ran his hands across his scruffy chin. The long days and nights were taking their toll, and he hadn’t bothered to shave since the weekend. “So, you want me to ask Sam if they can help us tell the difference? Shouldn’t we ask them something we know the answer to?”

  “Nico and I think we have it figured out. I’ve got someone working the subroutines. But let’s see what Ashton has to say. You said this guy Sam bragged about their software superiority. So let’s see what they’ve got.”

  Ted smiled and stood up, pushing the chair and letting it roll across the floor until it banged against Lori’s desk. He grabbed his coffee mug, status report, and the rest of his bagel and headed toward the door.

  “Sounds like a plan, Harry. Let me know when you have those old algorithms I can send to Sam.”

  “Do you want me to just forward them along? If you give me his email, I could also explain the tree problem to him.”

  “No, let me handle it.”

  “Why? Ted, I’m really serious about not giving them bad information. You have to swear to me that you will not give them bad data.”

  “I promise,” Ted said as he stuck his right hand in the air. Inside his pocket, his left hand had crossed fingers. It won’t be bad, just tweaked. He already had an idea of how he would scramble what he sent.

  “Okay, I’ll get you the algorithms then.”

  “I’ll make it sound like we’re struggling with that tree problem. Sam will think Ashton is lightyears ahead of us. He will be completely shocked when we roll into the Mojave with Cyclops.”

  “What if Sam tells Vin what we sent—and then Vin contacts Rusty?”

  “I’m going to tell Sam the truth—that Rusty said not to answer him. I’m going to pretend we are struggling and that Rusty doesn’t know. I will beg for Sam’s help.”

  Harry laughed and clapped his hands a few times.

  “Remind me to never play poker with you, Ted.”

  10

  Ted awoke to tingling at the tip of his nose. Buried deep within his sleeping bag, his head was hidden behind the cool zippered edge. He had left a four-inch crack open near the top corner to allow in some fresh air. Bracing himself, he slid his hand through the opening and pushed against the zipper, spreading the sides apart. The air that greeted him was shockingly cold. He looked at the electric heater several feet away. The power light was off.

  “Shit,” he said as he crawled his way out of the bag.

  The interior of the abandoned freight train car was nearly pitch black. Ted could barely see Nico and Harry fast asleep in their sleeping bags on the opposite side of the dead heater. One of the doors was ajar just enough to allow a power cord inside. The morning sun was still below the horizon, but the sky had taken on a faint pale blue glow, casting a sliver of light across the inside of the car. Ted used the light to find and lace up his snow boots.

  Crawling over to the heater, he flicked the switch a few times. Nothing. Dirt and sand on the floor of the train car clung to his hands and sweatpants as he continued on all fours and followed the power cord to the side door. He paused, sticking the side of his face against the opening. The crisp wind bit at the curved edges of his ears. He let out a sigh as he shoved his body against the door. The wheels groaned in protest as the massive metal door slid open.

  “What the hell?” Harry asked from beneath the depths of his sleeping bag.

  “Why is it so cold?” Nico asked as he popped his head through his zipper. He looked back and forth between Ted and the heater. “Are we out of gas?”

  “No clue.” Ted shrugged, then turned and jumped from the railcar.

  The Eastern Atlantic Depot facility was tucked along the banks of the Allegheny River, far from DSU’s main campus. During the 1920s, the site had served as a repair facility for the major train lines that ran along the East Coast. Nowadays, it was used to store old, broken, and abandoned freight cars. Half a dozen rows of dilapidated tracks stored over fifty different cars and several engines. Adjacent to the tracks sat a hollowed-out maintenance building, the neglected roof gaping with holes.

  For Ted, Nico, and Harry, this was day three of this brutal cold. Lori and her team had stayed behind, contending with their own challenges at DSU. Rusty’s schedule required the three men to first design the course Cyclops would navigate, followed by actual testing. On the first day, the team had agreed on a basic route through the seventy-five-acre site. Testing on day two had gone poorly.

  The brutally cold weather that greeted Ted on day three was most unwe
lcoming. Snow was falling, and the temperature was well below freezing. The snow was also mixed with small ice pellets being driven sideways by heavy gusts of wind. Each of the railcars sang at different frequencies as the various-sized ice capsules bounced off them on their way to the ground.

  Ted held the heavy-duty extension cord in his hands and followed it back to the Ford Econoline van borrowed from the DSU maintenance department and parked several yards away. Ted, Harry, and Nico had loaded it with spare parts and the bulk of the support gear they would need to test Cyclops. Ted’s brow furrowed as he reached the van. The engine was off, which explained why their portable heater had no power.

  After fumbling through his pockets, he pulled out a spare key for the van and hopped inside. Nico and Harry were standing in the doorway of the train, buried deep in the sleeping bags they had wrapped around them. Ted made a couple of attempts to get the engine to turn over, but it was completely dead.

  Nico disappeared from the doorway briefly, returning without his sleeping bag and a heavy coat in his hands. He jumped from the freight car and ran over to join Ted, pulling his heavy coat on as he moved. He opened the back of the van to check the inverter he’d installed and followed the leads to the van’s battery to make sure everything was connected correctly.

  “We’re out of gas,” Ted said as he stepped out of the Ford. “Do you have any in your Civic?”

  “I’ve got three two-gallon jugs in the hatch.” Nico slammed the rear doors of the van shut. “We forgot to top the tank off before going to sleep.”

  Ted made his way back to the freight car as Nico ran off to get the gas to refill the Ford. Harry was back inside, still wrapped up in his sleeping bag. Ted closed the freight door most of the way to block the wind and snow, but left it open a crack to allow in a bit of light.

  “This sucks, Ted.” Harry’s voice was shaky. “This is inhumane. We shouldn’t be out here. Rusty is out of his mind.”

  The team had brought a foldable card table and set it up along the back wall of the train car. Ted walked over to it and began gathering everything he would need to make a pot of coffee. He stopped when he remembered they still didn’t have power.

  “When you told me we’d ended up in boot camp, I really thought you were joking.”

  “When did I say that?” Harry stuck his nose through his bag. “Oh, that first day you showed up. I remember. I thought you were going to trash my Segway that day, too.”

  Ted laughed as he opened a cooler and pulled out a bottle of Red Bull. He waved it at Harry, but Harry declined and slid back down into his cocoon.

  “This schedule is a joke,” Harry continued. “I wonder who we could complain to?”

  “You want to file a complaint?” Rusty asked.

  Ted spun around, startled to see Rusty looking through the doorway of the freight car.

  “Who said that?” Harry asked. He popped his head out of his sleeping bag and stared at Rusty in total shock. “Nothing. We, uh, had trouble with the van running out of gas. Nico has it fixed.”

  “Everyone outside,” Rusty said. “I need a status report.”

  Harry thrashed himself free of his sleeping bag—his bright yellow Cheerios shirt practically radiating light—grabbed his glasses and yanked on a pair of boots. In dual layers of sweatpants and sweatshirts and a heavy winter coat and hat, Harry followed Ted outside, where they met Nico and Rusty beside the van.

  “How was last night’s testing?” Rusty asked, his handlebar mustache accumulating snow. He kept his hands shoved deep inside his pockets. Rusty didn’t bother to wear a hat, despite the bitterly cold wind. “When I left last night, you still hadn’t gotten Cyclops to complete the first milestone.”

  “We just woke up,” Harry said.

  “Did I ask about your sleeping schedule?” Rusty responded.

  “Cyclops still shuts down after about five laps,” Nico said. “We want him to run that first course for fifty laps, but he keeps going offline.”

  “So, you’ve made no progress?” Rusty began to pace back and forth. “I left here at five last night. Why isn’t it fixed?”

  Ted could see Nico’s anger rising, while Harry looked ready to collapse. Ted shared both of their concerns, and took a couple of steps forward, positioning himself between Rusty and his teammates.

  “It’s the cold,” Ted said. “We’ll be facing extreme heat in the Challenge, not cold. Cyclops isn’t designed for this.”

  “Are you trying to tell me how to harden my robots? My rovers have gone to the moon, Ted. They have to face both extreme heat and extreme cold. It shouldn’t matter.”

  Rusty moved closer to Ted until the two were less than a foot apart. Ted stared up at the hulking man, refusing to be intimidated.

  “Show me,” Rusty said, his voice a deep baritone.

  Ted turned and led everyone over to Cyclops. The vehicle was covered in a giant tarp to protect the fragile equipment covering the roof and fenders. Nico helped Ted release two of the ropes staked to the ground, and together they carefully peeled back the navy blue sheeting covering the Humvee.

  “These cameras are the issue,” Ted said as he pointed to one of two small black cameras mounted on the front fenders. He tried to temper his anger. Rusty’s twice-daily visits had become more than a little annoying. “We need them for short-range data gathering, but the data feed is inconsistent. It’s the cold temperatures. Harry’s been playing with the code to try and compensate for the data issues.”

  “How many robots have you built . . .” Rusty asked as he stepped closer to Ted. “Before you started working for me here at DSU?”

  “None, but—”

  “Then why the hell are you telling me how these sensors work? I brought you here because you said you’d never met a problem you couldn’t solve.” Rusty pushed Ted aside, almost knocking him to the ground. He bent over and yanked one of the stakes from the ground. “How many times do I need to tell you that if something isn’t working, throw it out and start over?”

  In one swift move, Rusty thrust his arm out wide and rotated his torso, swinging around and driving the tip of the stake into the lens of Cyclops’s closest camera assembly. The glass lens shattered instantly, and the entire assembly tore loose from its mount.

  “Have you lost your mind?” Nico screamed.

  Rusty lowered his arm and unclenched his fist, allowing the stake to fall to the ground. It bounced a few times against the cold hard ground before coming to a rest between his boots.

  “Start over,” Rusty said. “Those cameras have been causing you issues since before Ted arrived, Nico. There’s no excuse for them to be failing at this late stage. None!”

  Rusty walked between the three men, knocking Ted and Harry to the side.

  “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Ted said. He reached out and grabbed Rusty by the shoulder. “You can’t just break our shit and leave!”

  Rusty spun around and grabbed Ted’s jacket with both hands. He plowed forward and pushed Ted backward. Ted stumbled to keep from falling and wrapped his hands around Rusty’s huge wrists. He tried in vain to get Rusty to release him. Ted groaned as his back slammed against the side of the Humvee.

  “Your shit?” Rusty said. He leaned forward until his nose almost touched Ted’s. “I can break whatever shit I want. This is my team. My vehicle. My shit. And who are you to tell me not to break shit? Isn’t that your M.O., Ted? You love to break things to get them to work. Push them to their limits until they fail. Or did you forget the sales pitch you gave me in Nevada?”

  Rusty and Ted glared at each other, neither willing to look away. Rusty finally said, “Consider yourself pushed.”

  Rusty gave him one final shove against Cyclops before releasing him, then swiveled to face Nico and Harry. Both were standing with their hands in their pockets, frozen in fear. Harry immediately looked away, his glasses crysta
llizing from the cold. Nico stared at Rusty in anger.

  “My robots have gone a mile underwater and to the surface of the moon.” Rusty headed toward Nico and Harry, who stepped aside to let him pass. “If you jackasses can’t solve a little cold, then you have no business being on this team. I’ll be back tonight at five, and I expect this to be resolved.”

  Ted was seething with anger. He clenched his fists as he pushed himself away from the Humvee. Tears streamed down his face. He walked up to Harry and Nico but never took his eyes off Rusty.

  “I thought you understood who I am,” Ted cried out. “You’re . . . you’re worse than my dad.”

  Rusty paused a few yards from his Ford Expedition and slowly turned around.

  “I’m not your friend, Ted. And I’m certainly not your daddy. I don’t give a shit about whatever baggage you’ve got rattling around in that head of yours. You are here for one reason and one reason only. DSU is going to win the FAST Challenge. We will do it with or without you.” Rusty glanced at his watch. “That applies to all of you. I’ll be back here in exactly ten and a half hours. Get to work.”

  Ted wiped the tears from his face as he watched Rusty drive away. He was both taken aback, and a bit embarrassed at how emotional he’d become. He kept his eyes focused on Rusty’s green SUV as it slowly disappeared. Several seconds of silence passed as the wind and snow continued to blast their way across the train yard.

  “We’ve all been there,” Harry said softly. He pulled his hand from his pocket and gently let it rest on Ted’s shoulder. “It’s his thing. He finds this way of just crushing your soul.”

  “Thanks,” Ted said. He lowered his head and glanced at Nico. “You warned me. You both did. He gets to everyone, doesn’t he?”

  “Everyone,” Nico replied. “Even Lori.”

  “Lori?” Ted said as he wiped his nose dry. “She’s like a block of ice.”

  “It was the first month she was here,” Harry said. He shoved his hand into his pocket. “She tried to tell Rusty how much time her team would need to do the mapping, and he ripped her to shreds. He started insulting MIT where she came from and telling her that men are better at math than women.”