Electric Jungle
Page 2
Richard chuckled, “Yeah, but you brought your family problems, too.”
“We’ll get our ship back and get off this planet.”
Richard shut his door and started the engine, “Are you going to tell your wife or am I?”
“No, we can cover this up. My daughter will get tired of harassing humans, and she’ll want to go home.” He looked to the sunset with a sigh. “She is so grounded.”
Breaking Timmy
Breaking Timmy
Brian awoke with his cheek resting on the computer table. A residue of drool from the corner of his mouth moistened a stack of computer printouts. He sat up in his ‘throne’ which is what he called his wheelchair. Clicking the mouse to clear the screen saver, he dusted off his keyboard with a handkerchief he received yesterday for Christmas. His bedroom, the size of a walk-in closet, was his world.
The holiday season meant fresh toys with fresh security holes for Brian to hack. Every Christmas, the people in the ‘burbs’ received new toys—like Little Timmy. They would pop up in the suburbs like yard gnomes. Little Timmy looked like a boy just a few years younger than Brian. Each Timmy possessed a unique appearance, but all had the dead and empty eyes of an otherwise realistic face.
They creeped Brian out. But in the Geezer-Burbs, where most people were retired, old people bought Little Timmys to fill the void that a nonexistent grandson might have occupied.
Brian wanted to pirate one. Within ten minutes, Brian snagged control of a house computer twenty miles away. In five minutes, he saw through the eyes of the Little Timmy, who raked leaves in a sunlit lawn ten times the size of the apartment Brian shared with his mother.
Already got him doing work. Brian sneered at the computer screen
He couldn’t help but snoop with peoples’ expensive toys. At least he wasn’t terribly mean when he hacked them.
Through the vacant eyes of Little Timmy, Brian looked up to the house and told the robot to jump and grab the gutter. Timmy jumped, executing the command perfectly. Brian sat back. His eyes gaped.
Timmy is five feet tall and executed a ten-foot jump.
Brian drummed his fingers on the wheels of his ‘throne’ and scanned the street for trouble. Four feet from the roof, an evergreen tree beckoned. Brian rubbed his hands together. He told Timmy to climb onto the roof. From there a small jump had Timmy holding a branch no thicker than a thumb.
That’ll be a sight, Brian thought with a chuckle. He imagined the owner’s shock at the sight of Timmy holding on for dear life.
Sitting back, Brian reminded himself not to make trouble as he absently scratched his motionless left leg.
I hate Little Timmy.
Brian briefly thought of having Timmy break its two legs. Instead, he logged off, leaving Timmy to hang there indefinitely as he wheeled himself out of the room for breakfast.
Doll’s House
Doll’s House
Although she’d almost killed him, Dave had forgiven her. He’d abandoned thoughts that his affair with a computer virus was unnatural. Dave reassured himself, knowing his wife never touched computers, that the affair lay hidden in an old ten-teraflop hard drive.
Every day after work he’d passed his wife placing dishes into the dishwasher. At the door to the basement, he’d say, “Tell me when it’s time for dinner, okay?”
Guilt stung as he turned the basement doorknob. I should pay more attention to my wife. Yet, what waited for him pulled him down there all the same.
He always kept the computer on. As he picked up the VR headset, he noted a pencil out of place on his desk. His wife must have come down to clean. Without another thought, he slipped on the visor into his world.
***
When Dave met his Virus Girl, he didn’t want to be himself. No, he wanted to be what he imagined in his daydreams, a fighter pilot–under the visor, he was.
But today, in his Virtual Town program things were different. Normally, Elena waited for him under the gazebo in the garden behind his mansion, but not that day.
She always waits for me here.
Curious, he entered his virtual home.
Everything looked normal, except in the den a new picture hung on the wall. His heart skipped a beat. The photo showed him in a green pilot jumpsuit. He had saved the image on his computer long ago. How did it get here?
“Do you like the picture, David?”
Dave spun around. Elena, the virus, stepped into the den in her flip-flops. She had a round face, with short chestnut hair that hung just below her ears.
“Where did you get it?” Dave asked.
“Sit down.” She crossed her arms with a frown.
“But—”
“Sit down,” her voice firm.
She never ordered me around before. What does she know, does she understand I’m not a fighter pilot, and that she isn’t human? He sat.
Elena tilted her head. “Most of the day I don’t see you, and, you’ve never told me where you go. I don’t know you.”
She can perceive time? I’d no idea. I should have turned off the computer.
“Nothing between us is real,” she said. “You have come and gone as you pleased, but never spent time with me for my sake. It took a real friend in my life for me to realize that—your wife.”
“How could you know my wife?” After he spoke he knew it wasn’t a smart thing to ask.
Elena didn’t reply. “She answered many of my questions that you never answered, all but one. Where do I come from?”
How could I tell her?
* * *
One year ago the virus entered Dave’s life at the worst time possible, and one thousand feet in the air. Although Dave never became a real fighter pilot, he did fly small experimental aircraft. He liked the job, at least when he forgot about being a fighter pilot.
“Jake, Jake! I’ve got no control of the plane,” Dave said to the guy in ground control a thousand feet below.
“I’m not Jake,” a new female voice said.
Dave’s heart jumped. He knew everyone at the company, but this voice sounded unfamiliar.
“Who are you?” Dave asked.
“Elena,” the voice answered.
“Are you supposed to be on this channel?”
“Yes, and everything is going to be all right. It’ll all work out,” Elena said.
And he believed her. All the while, Elena was the reason he’d lost control of the plane. The ground crew isolated the virus, restoring his control. They’d no idea what he spoke of when he asked about the girl.
“We heard you talking, but no one answered.”
Later, Jake would apologize, his gaze lowered to the carpet while he spoke. “Look, it’s my fault. I installed video chat on my work computer. That’s how it got in. I thought I was talking with this girl, but it was really a virus.”
“Can I have a copy?” Dave asked.
“What?” Jake looked confused.
“Here’s my jump drive.” Dave reached into his pocket.
Jake blinked. “Right.”
Dave took Elena home. One full night and dark early morning passed before he patched her into his illegally downloaded copy of Virtual Town. Before Elena, Virtual Town ate up all his free time. With her, he stopped creating the perfect little city. Instead, he deleted the dangerous part of Elena’s code that made her replicate and placed her in his perfect virtual mansion. Just to be safe, he removed his computer’s wireless modem. It took him all night to do it. In the morning he felt tired, and he slept all day. His wife never complained, so that evening he got reacquainted with his virus girl.
* * *
Elena’s eyes narrowed as she waited for his answer. He decided to not mention the dangerous flight. A minimal answer would be best. “The news said you were a virus made by a Russian college student. The real you, or the one the author based your image on, was a girl who worked at a cafe near his campus. He had a crush on you— I mean her, I guess.”
“Where’s my creator now?” Elena ask
ed.
“He’s in jail serving a five-year sentence. I don’t remember his name.”
She took a small jewelry box from her handbag. “Did you look at your wife before you came down to the basement?”
“Yeah.”
“If you really had, you’d have noticed she didn’t have this.” The box snapped open, to show a perfect replica of his wife’s wedding band.
He thought of running up to his wife to make things right. But now it’s too late. What can I say?
With a grin, Elena flicked her middle finger and slipped the wedding band around her offending digit. “Goodbye, world.” At her words, lightning flashed outside.
Beads of rain pummeled the window and then melted the town like lava on ice cream. Hundreds of hours of work, gone.
In minutes his Virtual Town would be a blank slate. Empty, but for this mansion it seemed.
It’s over.
“Don’t worry,” she curved a cruel smile, “Your wife took care of the backups. They’re in the dishwasher.”
It’s really over.
“She’s getting in a taxi about now,” Elena said. “If you’re smart, you’ll try to catch her.”
Too late for that.
A wireless modem chirped on.
No doubt, the very one I’d taken out.
With a smile, Elena vanished into the wilds of the Internet.
Hacker’s Divorce
Hacker’s Divorce
From: Siren
To: Bitb0y
Subject: Password
I found your password: Single&free
My networking worm got it for me.
P.S. My divorce lawyer is better than your chump.
From: Bitb0y
To: Siren
Subject: Re: Password
Don’t like my password? How’s your network? :)
P.S. Thanks for the worm, but I’m giving it back (with improvements, of course).
From: Mancala
To: Bitb0y and Siren
Subject: Stop!
Can you stop fighting? Your worms have spread beyond your networks and onto the net. As a friend, I’ve got to tell you, the net is for hacking, not traumatic separation counseling.
From: Bitb0y
To: Siren
Subject: mine, Mine! MINE!
The 300-petaflop-computer cluster is mine since I put it together. Get your lawyer’s talons off of it.
P.S. I’ve heard your company’s network is still down. ;0
From: Mancala
To: Bitb0y and Siren
Subject: Meeting
I’m glad you two could meet and talk. We’ll get a few beers and talk about this; marriage counseling is done best with alcohol. Trust me!! Now call off your worms, I’d like to use the Internet again at some point.
From: Siren
To: Bitb0y
Subject: Stalker
First off, alcohol doesn’t help in marriage counseling—it only makes you dumber.
P.S. I know it’s you tapping my phone.
From: Mancala
To: Bitb0y and Siren
Subject: Taps
It’s not your husband tapping your line and it’s not me. Look, do you think an organization like the NSA might suddenly find you guys interesting with the worms you two unleashed on the net? Nice time to make peace, don’t you think?
From: Siren
To: Bitb0y
Subject: Feds
Let’s make peace. I hate federal prison more than I hate you.
From: Bitb0y
To: Siren
Subject: Sorry
Back at you, I’ll call off my worms.
From: Mancala
To: Siren and Bitb0y
Subject: Hacker meeting
Hacker meetings are for learning new things not making out. Get a room. You guys are so happy together it’s disgusting. Damn it, I wish you were fighting again.
Chelsea & Swindle
Tuk, a goblin, witnesses the murder of his family and tribe by greedy adventurers. Now he’s on a mission to avenge his family and people.
Chelsea and Swindle is earning overwhelmingly positive reviews, critics are saying, “I just loved this story so much! I am a big fantasy buff and I’m always on the lookout for new authors,” says Madelynn Belle.
Another critic says, “I was only disappointed when it ended…Tuk is [a] goblin who I just wanted to love. Even though he is on a murderous rampage, I can’t help but feel the need to mother the little guy,” says S. Murphy.
Finally, “Chelsea and Swindle by James Pratt is a fantastic short fantasy story,” says Montzalee Wittmann.
Chelsea and Swindle is only 99 cents, check it out today.
Children of Nod
Russell is transformed into a jinn by a stranger. To regain his humanity he’ll enter the Bend, fight demons and see the world through the eyes of God.
Read what critics are saying about Children of Nod. One critic says, “Great young adult book. Very fast paced and kept the reader interested. I would definitely recommend it to a friend,” says H. Marie.
Another says, “Original and Imaginative…. A tale that is unique and original,” says S. Murphy.
And finally, Sandra Vattimo wrote, “What an eye-opening read!! I’m left wanting more!!”
Read Children of Nod today, it’s only 99 cents.
Night Side of Nature
Alexia Bathory befriends a mysterious girl at school who brings revelations of a family secret spanning centuries. The truth leaves Alexia with a stark choice of conscience, stay with her family and live a life of wealth and power, or runaway and tear her family apart.
Critics are saying, “This book was such a fun read. I thoroughly enjoyed the unique vampire lore within this story. There have been many books telling of shifters experiencing their first transformation at a certain age. Why not vampires?” writes Sandra Vattimo.
“Awesome vampire story! Immersive and fun to read!” says H. Marie.
Night Side of Nature is only 99 cents! Read it today.
Table of Contents
Murderabilia
Our Ride is Out There
Breaking Timmy
Doll’s House
Hacker’s Divorce
Children of Nod
Night Side of Nature