“We can’t tell,” answered Chris. “Not yet anyway”.
“Right then,” Tan began to walk to the room’s only workstation, “do you want me to get started?”
“Take it away,” submitted Chris.
Tan lowered himself into the chair in front the computer, and the monitor instantly powered on.
“What’s he doing?” asked Eve, again puzzled.
Lon got to his feet and walked to where Tan was now sitting. “You’re not gonna hack anything are you? Cos that’s pretty dangerous!”
“Yes, I am gonna hack, that’s my specialty” posited Tan.
“And no,” Chris continued on Tan’s behalf, “it’s not dangerous. Well, not for us anyway”.
“Huh?” Lon was not completely certain about this claim. “It is dangerous, the government can track everything you do online!”
Chris found this amusing. “Don’t you think it’s in my company’s and my employees’ interests to protect their information? I run an electronics business. It’s well within the law to protect our data, and we’re also more than competent enough to know how to do it”.
“But hacking is definitely a black area as far as the law is concerned! You could get into real trouble if you get caught,” argued Lon.
“The point is,” said Tan, “I won’t get caught; I ain’t no amateur! I programmed the security system for this company, as well as the security system for this whole building”.
Lon was worried because he and his friend were probably already in trouble, and his other best friends were missing with no trace, and now his brother’s company and employees may be at risk. “At least go to a different building to do it, one where they’ll never guess it had anything to do with you or this company”.
Tan again attempted to reassure Lon, “Don’t worry about that, we’ve got several splitters set up so that if they manage to detect my activity, they’ll think I’m somewhere in Angola. Besides, I’m hacking the NGT, not the government mainframe”.
“Fine,” said Lon, giving up. He still was not completely trusting in Tan’s confidence.
“Okay, let’s get started!” exclaimed Tan confidently. He made a sweeping gesture on the desk in front of the monitor and a keyboard appeared. He quickly began to work, “You see, each console within this company has a lot of installed security software, which I wrote, that protects each employee. What most of them don’t realise though, is that there are also provisions set up on certain computers, like this one, to aid in accessing information elsewhere, usually to keep an extended eye on our security. If we think someone is watching us, we watch them,” on the screen he was tapping regularly to switch between multiple windows, and was scanning through the masses of information displayed in each. “It’s a bit complicated to begin with, that’s why I’m using the keyboard. Okay…” he paused, “ah! I’ve found their main database”.
Eve was utterly amazed, “Seriously?! That only took about half a minute!”
Tan smirked. “Like I said, I’m hacking the NGT, not the government. Besides I didn’t say I’d cracked their database yet, I’ve only found-” he cut himself off and looked at the timer at the top of the screen, “Okay, cracked it. That took forty-two seconds. I like to speed-hack, so I installed a timer to let me know how long it takes for me to find and hack a database”.
“Jesus, that’s incredible!” exclaimed Lon, “I knew you were good, but that’s just crazy!”
“That’s why he programmed our security system,” said Chris, as if proud of his own child.
“Right, now I have the information, I just need to put it in a more presentable form,” said Tan. A few moments later the screen was displaying a list of all the companies in the city who were linked to the NGT system.
Chris turned to face the large television screen on the wall behind them and using both hands gestured as if he were stretching something across the screen, at which it powered on, but with no video signal. His next gesture was a right to left swiping motion with his left hand, which loaded the feed from the computer terminal.
All four people in the room faced the television.
There was a list displayed on-screen entitled “Next-Generation Transport System Business Access”. The list was surprisingly long, thus somewhat disheartening.
Chris began to read out some of the company names, “Ventotom; Lanedaming; Singleis; Daltfax; Goldtech… I’ll have to check with my lawyer about that one; Donholdings; Kinnix; Yanmedia…” he sighed, “Are they in any kind of order?” he asked Tan.
“Ah, sorry, I forgot to make it alphabetical,” Tan tapped a few times on his keyboard and the list rearranged to show only the companies beginning with the letter ‘A’.
“There are still this many?” asked Chris, becoming frustrated.
“Well,” Tan began to answer, “this is a list of both types of companies: those which only have private access to the NGT, and those which are physically linked to the NGT system”.
“Hmmm…” Chris briefly covered his mouth with his hand in his regular thinking pose. “Okay, let’s see the ones that are physically linked to the system”.
Again Tan tapped the keyboard a few times. The screen refreshed and the list had reduced drastically; all the companies that were physically attached to the NGT system could be viewed on one screen. One very large screen.
“Well! It’s an improvement!” remarked Chris.
“So what do we do now?” inquired Eve, “There’s still too much information to be of any help, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right,” said Tan, “but I’ve downloaded the information nonetheless, it may be of some use at some point”.
“Okay,” said Chris, “encrypt it then back it up on the server, and then do the same with your palm screen, just in case you need to pass it on”.
“Will do chief!” said Tan, who then commenced backing up the stolen information.
Lon was understandably frustrated. “So we’re still no further than we were before”.
“Sorry, but it would probably take us days to find something useful in that information. For now we should check the news for anything new”.
“Okay, but,” Lon turned to Tan, “if you’re still logged in to the NGT database, then can you check for Eve’s and my data? I wanna know if they actually registered us as fare dodgers”.
“Oh, yeah,” replied Tan, “good idea. It would be better to know whether the police are after you or not. What’s your ID number Eve?”
She recited it to him.
Again he began to tap away at the keyboard and the monitor. A few moments later he was once more scanning through several windows’ worth of information. “Right, got it”. He brought up another data display simply entitled “Evelyn Chen,” written in red text, followed by, all in blue text, a string of numbers, her ID number, “D.O.B: 20/04/2176” and “Ethnicity: Chinese”.
“Dammit!” Eve yelled.
The others were taken aback.
“I’m not Chinese!”
“That doesn’t matter,” said Lon, trying to calm her down. “What’s important is finding out whether you’re in trouble or not”.
“This is your NGT check-in and check-out data for the last six months,” said Tan. Give me a moment, I’ll narrow it down to today’s information”. A few taps later the screen once again refreshed.
There were five rows of information; two check-ins and three check-outs, the last of which, like Eve’s name, was written in red.
“Aw, crap,” said Eve.
“Dammit,” added Lon. “Could you please check mine too?” he told Tan his ID number.
Tan obliged and again brought up a new screen, this time entitled “Lon Dres,” written in red text, his ID number, “D.O.B: 04/03/2176,” and “Ethnicity: White”.
“These are your records for the last thirty-six months,” said Tan.
There was a single instance of Lon using the NGT system displayed on-screen. It was written in red text.
“God dammit! I
was doing so well!” said Lon, very annoyed at his tarnished record. “Can’t you delete that?”
Tan hesitated before he answered, “No”.
“What? Why not?”
“Well, from here I can easily view the NGT system, as you can see, but if I try to alter anything, it makes it easier for me to be detected. Obviously I don’t want to run the risk of being caught while in this building. I don’t want to put Chris’ business at risk”.
“Hmmm…” Lon was not pleased.
“Anyway,” said Chris, “let’s worry about that in the morning. For now we should see if we can pick up any new info from the news”. He gestured again at the television and said “Search for local news”. Several separate boxes appeared on the screen, each displaying what looked like a news broadcast, each with the channel number written. “Seventeen,” said Chris, and the feed from channel seventeen expanded to fill the whole display.
It was a female reporter at the shopping centre where Lon and Eve’s awful situation began. “… hours ago, and eye witnesses are yet to come forward. Police have been scouring the area for evidence of any form of struggle, but as yet have discovered nothing. It’s just as though the people shopping and working simply vanished”.
The screen changed to the video surveillance footage that Lon and Eve had seen earlier.
“Surveillance footage from before the disappearance doesn’t seem to show anything out of the ordinary, although footage from the numerous surveillance cameras in the shopping centre is still being analysed. At 6:43pm the video feed from all surveillance cameras inside the shopping centre and on the NGT platform outside the shopping centre was cut. According to surveillance technicians at the scene, numerous electronics malfunctioned simultaneously. The cause is as yet unknown”.
The screen returned to the news reporter at the scene. “This incident bears a resemblance to other incidents that have been happening across the municipality within the last several years, where large amounts of civilians disappear with no apparent cause. A range of theories have been put forward, ranging from-”
“So they’ve found nothing new,” said Lon, interrupting the news broadcast.
“Well, what do you expect?” said Chris. “As far as they know there weren’t any witnesses, and there’s no evidence of what happened. It’s understandable that they have no idea".
"Then, what now?” asked Lon, discouraged.
“Wait until tomorrow,” said Chris, “we should think more about it when you two have had some rest. In the meantime we should keep an eye on the news. Oh yeah, and you should both stay here tonight”.
“What about you?” asked Lon.
“I’ll stay too, I’ve got a lot of work to do, and don’t have time to go home. Which means there’s only one spare bed. That’s okay, isn’t it?”
“Oh!” exclaimed Lon, “Um, we’re not, um-”.
“Ah, I see,” said Chris, slightly embarrassed, “sorry about that. Well, um, there’s a spare quilt for one of you to sleep on the sofa with”.
“Eve can sleep in the bed, I’ll take the sofa,” decided Lon.
“Okay, that’s fine”. Chris then turned his attention back to Tan, “Before you go home, can you please alter the security data of all the cameras in the building that saw Lon and Eve?”
“Not a problem, boss man,” said Tan, and he and Chris returned to the workroom.
“If you need anything, give me a shout,” Chris said as he exited the room.
As the door closed, Lon stood up and walked to the workstation. “Eve, I’m gonna fix my palm screen. Do you want me to fix yours and mod it at the same time?”
“Oh, yes, please,” she said. She pulled back the arm of her shirt to reveal her forearm, pressed her thumb into her skin and slipped it under the edge of the palm screen sleeve that tightly hugged her wrist, and then carefully removed the entire machine from her limb. She handed it to Lon. “How are you going to fix it?” she asked.
“Hopefully I’ll just need to replace a few parts. Chris should have a microscope and some other tools around here,” he pulled open several small drawers by the workstation and began searching for the appropriate tools. After a few moments he found a computer microscope attachment which he positioned next to the monitor, and a few other technical tools needed to work on intricate computer parts. He then began to work.
Eve in the meantime kept an eye on the news, regularly switching between channels in an attempt to discover unheard news.
“Yep, it looks like it could’ve been an EMP grenade, the memristor’s blown. If I can replace it, the computer should be able to power it on, then I’ll be able to mod it”, said Lon.
“Okay, how long will that take?” said Eve.
“It shouldn’t be too long, it just depends how quickly I can replace it, because it’s so small, and my hands are shaking because I’m hungry”.
“I never thought about that,” said Eve, “I’m actually really hungry”.
“There should be food in the kitchen. Just take what you want, there should be plenty”.
“What about you?”
“I’ll try to get this done first, because it’s important,” said Lon, and he set to work fixing the palm screens.
Eve did not have the motivation to prepare a meal, so she settled for a bowl of cereal, and took up her seat again in front of the television, waiting for some more news about the day’s incident.
Roughly thirty minutes passed before Lon took a break from his work, and sat on the couch in front of the television, also with a bowl of cereal. “I’ve managed to physically fix your palm screen, the computer’s reformatting it now, and then I just need to mod the operating system. I hope you had no data on there that you wanted to keep, cos it’s all gone now”.
“It’s okay,” replied Eve, “ever since I lost my dissertation once and had no backup, I always make at least one backup of everything. Right now it’s on my computer at home”.
“Well, I would suggest synching your palm screen with your backup from here, but if the police are by any chance monitoring your home’s data flow, then maybe it’s best not to right now,” explained Lon.
“Do you really think they’ll be after us just for not paying for an NGT ride?” asked Eve.
“I dunno, but I’d rather be careful,” said Lon.
“Yeah, I suppose,” said Eve, “but how can we resolve the problem?”
“Well, for now I think we should be more focussed on more important things like figuring out where our friends-” Lon interrupted himself when he saw what was on the television screen. “Oh, looks like there’s been another murder,” he pointed at the news report on the television screen.
The scene was outside, in front of a large building. It was footage of a corpse being carried away from the scene.
“The body has been identified as that of Hugo Winters, eldest son of famous banker Arnold Winters. The circumstances surrounding his death are still being investigated, however, police are not treating the incident as suspicious, and are not calling for witnesses. Initial findings suggest that Mr. Winters jumped from a window on the twentieth story of the office building owned by his father’s company, and where he also worked”.
A recently recorded clip of Hugo Winters taken at some function was played on-screen.
“Hm, that’s weird, he seems familiar, I recognise his pointy face,” said Lon, “I wonder if he’s been on the news before”.
“Probably,” agreed Eve, “I’ve seen him before too”.
“Why would the son of a banker want to kill himself?” asked Lon.
“I have no idea,” said Eve. “It can’t have been money issues, and his social status is probably extremely high”.
“Maybe that’s why; maybe he was put under too much pressure by his peers, or his father, or something”.
“Maybe,” said Eve. “Being at the top doesn’t necessarily mean that everything in life is great”.
“Formatting completed,” sounded the computer.
Lon showed Eve to the spare bedroom where she immediately fell asleep once laying down on the bed. He then returned to the workstation in the living room and continued repairing and upgrading the palm screens.
Chapter 4
Dawn broke across the city well before 6am, but the darkened windows did not lighten and allow light to pass through until 8am. The sunlight across his face, along with the sounds of Chris making breakfast, caused Lon to wake. For a moment he had forgotten where he was and was confused by awakening on the couch in front of the television.
“Goeie môre,” said Chris in a light tone.
“Oh, morning,” said Lon, finally remembering where he was.
“It’s 8 o’clock. You’re lucky it’s not a weekday, else my employees would start arriving soon, and it would be difficult for you to remain inconspicuous”.
“Oh, yeah, lucky,” said Lon, still a little dazed from his sleep.
“Did you find out any more information from the news?” asked Chris.
“No, each report was the same as the last”.
“I see. Did you manage to fix your palm screens?” asked Chris.
“Yes,” replied Lon, “but mine took much longer to fix than Eve’s, typically”.
“Why? Does she have a different operating system?”
“Same operating system, different make,” said Lon. “I thought mine would be easier because it’s newer, but I was wrong”.
“Oh well, at least you fixed them,” said Chris. “I’m making you breakfast by the way. Is Eve vegetarian?”
“No, she eats most things, as far as I know,” said Lon.
“Good!” said Chris, “Because I’m making a fry-up”.
Lon stood up and turned to face the window to admire the morning view. It was one of the reasons he enjoyed staying at his brother’s workplace. “I’ll go and wake Eve,” he said before entering the hallway leading to the spare bedroom where Eve was asleep. The door of the room was shut, so he knocked, but got no response. “Eve, time to wake up,” he shouted in hopes that she would hear him, but still there was no response. “Eve, are you awake?” There was still no response, so he slowly opened the door. “Eve, time to wake up,” the windows in the room were still tinted, therefore not much light was getting in.
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