Chapter 30
For the next several hours Cody taught her the limits of their new existence. A terabyte server seemed gigantic in concept, but in reality, the claustrophobic limits of the place were little different from that she'd felt in prison. Just like there she knew there was a great expanse of world outside, and she yearned to be a part of it. But access would remain closed until they were ready to deal with the Velvet Dogma program.
The single greatest dilemma about online living was how to tailor the input possibilities. On one hand, Rebecca found it difficult to rethink herself without the relevance of her body. She'd always seen with her eyes, therefore when she thought about sight, she thought about eyes. But in reality she had no eyes. Cody taught her how to be omnipresent. Unfettered by the limitations of the human body, she could see everything all the time if she wished. Her processing power slowed considerably as her mind strove to process the information, but it could be done. Within the server they conducted dozens of simulations until she felt confident that she could handle the interaction alone.
Do you miss it? She asked.
My body? The physical world? No. I don't miss it at all.
Not even a little?
The only thing I miss is food. If there's a single kind of food I miss, then it would be pizza. The ID can take care of all your other senses except taste.
I'll miss that too. She'd just discovered curry and even now remembered the exotic taste.
I had cancer, you know.
I had no idea.
Everyone always made fun of me because I smiled all the time. I knew it, but I didn't mind. The alternative was to scream constantly. I was always hungry, you see. Not 'missed dinner' hungry, but starvation hungry.
What was wrong?
Besides the loss of my kidneys? Cancer of the pancreas that spread to the stomach. I wanted to eat, I loved to eat, but even the smallest amount of food exacerbated the pain to the point that I'd crawl into the bathroom and huddle on the floor for hours.
Oh, Cody.
Like a chasm that couldn't be filled, my hunger couldn't be abated. So you see, death, or rather this change in status, was welcome for me. I looked forward to it.
What about touch? What about feeling with your hands?
I was never a ladies' man, Rebecca, so I never had the opportunity to know what I missed.
I miss it. I miss Andy. There was a way he touched me that no one else ever duplicated.
There's nothing to be done about it.
There's always something to be done.
What? You can't return to your body.
No. But I can exact revenge.
Why would you want to do that? It isn't logical.
No. But revenge would make me feel better. She paused. You know I always imagined that this would be an emotionless existence, but I'm finding that some of my feelings are actually magnified.
Perhaps because here you aren't constrained by the limitations imposed by society. You can do what you want, to any degree you want, limited only by the physicality of your universe.
The ID goes everywhere, doesn't it? She asked.
Essentially.
Then that's what I'll do. Once we corral Velvet Dogma, there are a few people I need to find.
Why, Rebecca? Do you miss them?
No, Cody. I hate them and I mean to kill them.
Soon after that Cody opened the firewall that had served as a trap door to their small server and allowed them the run of the mega-servers of Velvet Dogma Earth that were ensconced in the Mammoth Dome of Mammoth Cave. When she'd seen a wire-diagram of the place from the outside, she'd never thought she'd have this vantage. Inside she had no sense of direction, no sense of proportion. She traveled between packets of data, creating a path as she went, her speed regulated only by her willingness to exert herself blindly. Moving through the data reminded her of moving through a crowd of people, navigating by looking ahead and judging how other people moved, as much as how she should move through them.
Cody showed her how to flow through fiber optics and activate equipment attached to the server. One by one they turned the lights off then on inside the cave. Appliances started then stopped. Music skipped through songs. She locked a short, bald man in the bathroom for fifteen minutes, teasing him by unlocking then locking the door over and over. Eventually she let him go, and when she did she felt more confident and more at home in her universe.
She snapped all the cameras on at once. Although she was receiving input from thirty-one devices, the process felt no different than if it were one. She counted twenty-four people working at different stations throughout the cave. If she were to believe Andy, her brother had organized them to deliver her program from the ID. What a tremendous feat he'd accomplished.
The thing she most regretted was not being able to tell him how impressed she was, not being able to tell him that he'd grown into the sort of man to be proud of.
Andy.
"Rebecca?" He turned from conferring with a pair of technicians and faced the nearest camera. "What is it?"
I am ready to proceed with Velvet Dogma.
"So soon?"
Velvet Dogma needs to find a home.
Andy nodded. "Let me get with—
Panchet is coming your way. He should be there in seven seconds.
Andy stared into the camera for a long moment, cold horror in his eyes. It only lasted for a moment, but Rebecca read it nonetheless, and in that moment accepted that they could never again be lovers. With his human perspective, he could not understand her existence. Unless he was to do something to his brain, he could never join her. He needed to move on. If she was forced to, she'd give him reasons to do so.
Panchet arrived, his hoverBoard purring into the room several feet off the ground. His haggard look fit him like an old sweater. He glanced at the camera, then surveyed the people around the room. He took a long moment before he spoke.
"Rebecca, we want to thank you in advance for doing this. We didn't expect it to turn out this way," He looked down at his hands as he gathered his thoughts. "You've given up so much. I hate it that this is how it will end." He glanced quickly at Andy, who was staring at the floor. "You deserve better."
Seems to be the slogan for my life. She hadn't meant to say it, but somehow her thoughts were spoken aloud through the system. Just as well.
"You've given so much already," Panchet repeated. "If we manage to contain Velvet Dogma, we'll be able to shine the light of truth on the dark corners containing the world's secrets. The knowledge will give us the upper hand as we try and help reform Earth's governments."
You will reform them?
"Oh, yes. This hacker conclave is only a stepping stone, a mere beginning to a plan that first found genesis when you were newly arrived to prison. The information we get today will be the fuel for a new organization we'll form which will mandate and oversee change on a global scale." He held up his hand. "I know what you're saying. There will be attempts to ignore our mandate, countries believing themselves more important than the whole, willingly challenging us to action. There are always some who refuse to go along. For these we will show no mercy, and by their example others will cooperate. But that's another matter. Now we have the problem at hand—how best to control and contain Velvet Dogma. Once we open the firewall and your thoughts propagate the ID, the program will recognize you and come at full digital speed. We have to make certain you're ready. We need to make sure you survive."
Andy—
"A few things you should know," Andy interrupted. "Although the program was created by old school code, it's most definitely adapted over the years, integrating visual packet data as part of its prime packaging. This means it will be a highly visual program, and it will try and fool you."
How can I disable it?
"We have two things on our side. Panchet has created a code breaker meant to keep the program distracted while you're searching for the operating kernel. We don't know how effective it will be, bu
t it's one of our only hopes. Let's face it, Bec, you can't handle this on your own."
The kernel was the command module for the program. She'd created it long ago, the code the simplest of forms. Where it would reside now, she had no idea; with her luck, in the very center of the gargantuan program.
How are you going to distract it?
"Bit-torrent effect," interrupted Panchet.
From where?
Panchet grinned mightily. "The gravBoarders. That's why I made them. That's why I did this to myself," he gestured towards his legs. "You don't know this, but everything I've done in the last twenty years has been to live up to this moment."
What are you talking about?
"About two years into your sentence I saw the potential of your program as it began to grow exponentially. I tracked it for a while and was blown away by its ability to adapt and consume other programs. I knew that to change the world a program such as yours would have to evolve. Your program is the computer viral version of an evolutionary leap, Rebecca. Your program was so much more advanced than everything that came before it that anything in its way had no chance. I saw the opportunity and did what I had to do."
Andy, did you know about this?
"I didn't know about his legs. Panchet, are you serious?"
"Oh, yes. I was at a standstill in my research, struggling with the arcane symbolism in the Cheng-Li Gauge Theory and trying to merge algorithms with the Irwin-Jones Twin Spin Theory. I had my legs removed for motivation. And it worked. Nothing makes a man work harder than the need to innovate a replacement for missing appendages. Less than a year later I'd done what had never been done before. I'd conquered gravity."
Andy looked horrified. "You cut off your own legs?"
"It all worked out. Now we have gravBoard technology, and with it, a battalion of mobile servers."
"But, what if it hadn't worked out?" Andy asked, his face a mask of incredulity.
"Then I would have found some other scientists and cut off their legs. Get a roomful of them. Now that's motivation," Panchet chuckled. Seeing the looks on the faces of the technicians in the room, Panchet let go a high-pitched laugh. "I'm kidding people."
Andy shook his head slowly. "But that's not funny."
"Neither is the world we live in." Panchet abruptly faced the camera again. "The servers will be used for bit-torrent. We won't have the code breaker complete in any one of the servers. Instead, we'll place parts here and there, while moving chunks of data through the wireless. If Velvet Dogma manages to disable that program we might as well quit, because that means it's far too sophisticated for us."
A part of Rebecca saw the relationary logic to his solution. The gravBoard servers would indeed be a benefit to their plan. She admired his foreword planning and use of assets. But another part of her, a part that still remembered what it was like to be human, was stunned by the man's disclosure. He cut off his own legs? He'd been following her program since the beginning? She'd thought Panchet a quirky old man and a friend, but now she was worried. His behavior was more that of a stalker.
What about the gravBoarders?
"The servers should be fine."
I'm talking about the people.
"They should be fine, too. The majesty of the device is that they don't know when their board is being used as a server. For them it might as well just be a mode of transportation."
She wanted desperately to speak with Andy, but there was no way for them to be alone. Panchet was crazy. She'd never heard anything about his political motivation and she wasn't exactly thrilled with helping him. How was he going to make countries cooperate?
But she reminded herself that Velvet Dogma needed to be contained. It had killed enough people, and any hesitation on her part might allow it to kill again. She was at a loss as to what to do.
She watched as Andy gave wide berth to Panchet as he left the room. He snatched a POD from a table, then went into a bathroom. Locking the door, he placed the POD on his head.
She felt the buzz as he turned it on. Rebecca shot away from the cameras, searching for the wireless interface. She eventually found it and allowed herself to bridge the gap, leaving part of herself behind in the server. Once in the POD, she sought a way to communicate.
"Bec, are you there?"
I'm here. The sound erupted in Andy's head, making him wince and almost rip the POD off. She modulated her thought-speech and spoke more softly. I'm here Andy.
"Thank God."
Is Panchet insane, Andy?
"I think he may be."
Did you know about this?
"I knew about some of it, but I had no idea that he'd cut off his own legs."
Did my brother know about this?
"I think so."
What did he have to say about it?
"Nothing, Bec. He didn't say a thing."
Not even a little? Come on, Andy. He had to say something. Think. I can't believe my brother would partner with someone so clearly deranged.
"I didn't know he was that crazy, Bec."
But you didn't work with him as much as my brother, either.
"That's true. There was one thing that was weird, I suppose."
What was it?
"Do you remember the vid that we wouldn't show you? The one I took from David's apartment?"
Of course I do. That really pissed me off.
"I know. Trust me, I know. There wasn't much on the vid except your brother and that stupid picture."
What picture?
"The velvet dogs playing poker."
That picture? What'd he say?
"There was a video of the picture and then a shot of David. He said that you'd know what to do."
It was infuriating. She had no idea. Is that it? Is that all he said?
No, there was one more thing. He said that grandma was right."
Now there was something. David had been famous for being always right, or actually for being unwilling to admit he was wrong. He and Grandma had constantly gone at it. Rebecca had forgotten how much her grandma had hated that picture. She'd called it trash. He'd called it art, pointing out how wonderfully rendered the dogs were, how the light and hues were so expertly applied, and how it looked as if, by the way they were concentrating on the cards, the dogs really were playing poker. Her grandma had said something then that Rebecca had all but forgotten: 'just because the artist has talent, it doesn't make the picture any good.' Then she went on to say that even Picasso had things he'd thrown away.
Was that it? Had she remembered it correctly? David had loved that picture. Was it because it represented a victory over his grandma's wishes? No—the message had to do with grandma, Rebecca was sure. Was her grandma right about the picture? Was it all style and no substance? Was it something that should be thrown away rather than kept?
Suddenly it snapped into place. That picture was her namesake! Velvet Dogma. The project to find Becka-309 and contain it was Velvet Dogma. During a horrendous fight one night grandma had remarked on the picture. 'You worship that thing like it's some sort of velvet dogma. You want to do something with your life, you'll get rid of it.'
Accidental as the pun was David had loved the appellation. Not just because using it infuriated grandma, but because David had felt it was the most accurate thing he could call it.
"Rebecca? Are you there?"
I'm here Andy. I have my answer now.
"What's your answer?"
Promise me something, Andy.
"What?"
Promise me something.
"Before I even hear it?"
Promise!
"Fine. I promise."
Good. Now go and be with Panchet. He'll need you soon.
"Wait—Rebecca!"
What is it, Andy?
"What did I promise?"
You promised to love me no matter what.
"But I do that already."
We'll see. I might just surprise you.
"What do you me—"
She ret
urned to the servers that comprised Velvet Dogma Earth within Mammoth Cave, searched out and once again found the camera node. Panchet was doing the hover equivalent of pacing back and forth, occasionally hollering at the camera. "Velvet Dogma, answer me!"
I'm ready, Panchet.
He stopped and shook his fists in the air in triumph. "There you are—finally!"
She sought the camera that showed her body and stared at it for a long moment. She lay like a princess waiting to be kissed. If this had been a fairy tale, Andy would stride into the room, kiss her passionately on the lips and she would awaken from a deep and magical slumber. But this wasn't a fairy tale. This was the ragged truth where her brain had been destroyed by the evil wrought by Kumi Rasangawan. And not only brain, but also her future, her hopes and her dreams of being a woman.
Cody, where are you?
She felt his presence next to her.
When I begin, you need to escape. Rebecca began to gather herself, searching and binding the edges of her construct. Go to the remaining Ack Acks and find a place to be safe. Go to Maria. Go to Abraham. Go anywhere but here.
Why Rebecca? What's going to happen?
Death.
Destruction.
Ruin.
Chapter 31
Everyone stood at their stations awaiting Panchet's command to open the firewall. Rebecca hid at the bottom of the server chain, disguised as a string of unformatted data packets. All she had to do was get to the kernel and change the code and they'd succeed. But that sounded simpler than it was. For Rebecca it was the computer equivalent of changing the collar on a charging rhino.
Piece of cake.
Cody hid beneath her as she'd insisted. Her program would eat him like a snack, so she needed to keep him safe until he had a clear shot to the exit. That the complex was in the Kentucky woods was both a blessing and a curse. By being this far out they didn't need to concern themselves with all the wireless nodes of a city which would have allowed Velvet Dogma to attack through each or even all of them, coming at Rebecca from any direction. The virtue of their seclusion was that there was a single wireless node leading to the entrance to the cave, which meant attack from only one direction.
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