by Paul Dueweke
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The Deal
Sex was mechanical for Sherwood and Jenner. They enjoyed it, but they didn’t enjoy each other. Sex was a thing they did to sometimes help them through life, or around life. Life was centered about their things, their concepts, and their activities. They tolerated relationships with people as an athlete tolerates gravity. They both knew they soared above people by shear force of their intellects. But Sherwood went one step further than Jenner. He was superior by his very nature. His knowledge simply provided him the tools to manifest that superiority.
The times after their encounters were normally filled with marijuana, Mozart, and then silence, punctuated by vignettes of their recent technical efforts. The smoke would fill Sherwood’s apartment, drifting from room to room in rippling layers, being recycled by them innumerable times before finding freedom through some small crack or being imprisoned on a curtain or a bookcase. It blended with the darkness and the shadows as a wave merges with the sea. It made their company tolerable.
“Maxwell, was all over the Asp today,” Jenner said. “They had another ‘incorrect target’ yesterday. Some poor woman got wiped out by accident, and she happened to have connections. Too bad it couldn’t have been Maxwell. Anyway, the cover story they leaked didn’t make much sense, and I guess there’s a big flap over it. I sure don’t understand how all that cover-up stuff works.”
“COPE leaks the story to the media,” Sherwood said. “The media will buy any credible story because of its alliance with COPE and its dependence on the current administration for favors and access to the so-called news. Organized crime accepts the fall for many of the murders in silence rather than risk that the FBI might turn up the heat on their operations. The FBI is in lock step with COPE because COPE has the ears of Congress and controls the FBI budget. It is a nicely packaged arrangement with COPE and the media at the focus. The FBI, organized crime, Congress, and the Executive Branch all crowded around this focus, careful not to make shadows, but understanding their roles and their rewards.”
Jenner looked in amazement at Sherwood. “Is that what they teach you at the Institute?”
“They teach swill. Garden-variety swill for garden-variety apostles. But they do have some very good research facilities.”
“How’s your class work coming along?” she said.
“I am nearly finished there, about two weeks to go. How is Monocle progressing?”
“Well, I’ve found a way to statistically analyze the error function from the centroid track file in real time. That’ll help discriminate the object parameters,” Jenner replied.
“Have you figured out how to integrate that analysis with the edge data, or have you given up real-time merging of the data sets?”
“I haven’t given up, but the convolved function creates such an enormous data file that I can’t process it before the next data string wipes it out.”
“How about doing the convolutions at only 50 Hertz?” he said.
“That may be a way out, but I still haven’t analyzed how that effects the probability of breaking lock.”
“Sounds like a tough problem. Can you finish on schedule?”
“Not a chance. Already told the Asp I need more time or more help.” She paused. “What would you think of joining Monocle for a while when you’re finished at the Institute? You already have the tickets and your spin up time would be zero.” She hesitated. “You’d be perfect for the job.”
Sherwood lay there for some time thinking about the attractive offer. He was sure Jenner didn’t know what actually made it so attractive to him. “I am anticipating my field assignment after graduation.”
“Okay, so forget it,” came the quick reply.
“There is, however, a possibility. … There is a four-week follow-up course that I would like to take before my assignment. Maybe there is a possibility.”
“What do you mean, what’s it going to cost me?” she replied.
“There are two problems with my taking this course. The first is that there is a two-month period between when I finish my present studies and when the second course starts. The second is that I have to be nominated by the Institute staff for the course because it is limited to a select few.”
“I wouldn’t have any trouble covering you for two months, but there’s not much I can do about your selection. You’ve probably already burned those bridges with your cheery personality.”
“Maybe you can help. I believe my selection is quite unlikely because I have been somewhat outspoken to the staff. They are so arrogant they cannot see anything but what they saw last year and the year before. We do not seem to get along well.”
“I can relate to that.”
“And I upset a certain professor, and she seems to have more clout than I had anticipated.”
“Not the engaging Sherwood. She catch you peeping in her bedroom window?”
“Nearly so. I simply planted a bug in a book I returned to her on a ROM-card. I recorded an interesting event on her office floor between herself and an overzealous student. I did not expect her to ever read the ROM-card, but she did and discovered the bug.”
“And it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who bugged it.”
An unseen grin was born in Sherwood’s eyes, quickly radiated over his face, and as quickly died, far short of a smile. “The Institute staff nominates students for the second course by a secret ballot. The ballot box is in the COPE computer and—”
“And you thought I might be able to break into the ballot box and throw the election for you.”
“Do you still have system-manager privileges?” Sherwood asked.
“And if I get you into this course, you’ll work on Monocle in the interim.” Jenner paused, then sat up in bed, her milk-chocolate brown body just visible through the haze. “If this course teaches you anything about blackmail, I’d say you could probably teach it.”
“Actually, you are not that far off. The course is called Leadership Training. I talked to a graduate, and he said it gave him some effective techniques for getting his way in tough environments with powerful adversaries. Blackmail and intimidation were two that he claims have helped him.”
“Sounds like Leadership Training—COPE Style. I think you’ll fit right in. You have to promise not to practice any more of it on me, though. But I guess you’ll probably cover promises in your course, too.”
“I can help you look for the correct file. I have learned the Institute jargon, which might help.”
“Forget it. One thing I don’t need is help with that computer. I think I’m the only person on earth who understands the damn thing.”
“Still making your nocturnal visits to the CPU?” Sherwood asked.
“Yeah—except when I make nocturnal visits here,” she chanced a smirk at Sherwood who gave no reaction. “I just happened upon your personnel file the other day. You were one weird kid.” She shot another glance at Sherwood who maintained his attention on the ceiling.
“Your parents got divorced when you were eleven, and you blamed your mother for not supporting your father’s dreams.”
“He was quite ambitious,” Sherwood said.
“Ambitious?”
Sherwood made no response.
“He patented some pretty neat inventions, though,” she continued. “The best was that Christmas tree stand with the little pop-up flag to tell when it needs water. Your family almost went belly-up on that one—and would have if your mother hadn’t worked two jobs. Did he ever have a job for more than a month?”
“Extraordinary people sometimes have difficulty finding their niche.”
“Have you found yours?” she asked.
Sherwood stood and walked toward the bedroom door. “I have some leftover pizza.”
Jenner followed him toward the kitchen. Sherwood stood at the counter eating a piece of pizza, drinking a glass of milk, and staring out the window. She took a piece
of pizza and overpowered the point. Opening the refrigerator, she mumbled, “No beer, huh? I guess I’m drinking milk, too.” She picked up the milk carton and dropped the empty container into the trash with disgust. “Well, I guess I’m not drinking milk either. What the hell else you got?” She rummaged through the refrigerator and found a half bottle of flat Dr. Pepper from which she took a swig. “What is this crap?”
By the time she settled down with her pizza and Dr. Pepper, Sherwood was eating the last piece and still staring out the window, occasionally stealing a secret reflection at the soliloquy behind him. He finished his pizza, gulped down the rest of his milk, and set the glass down hard in the sink. Jenner looked up and stopped chewing momentarily. A long pause followed.
“How is your hacking going?” he startled the silence.
“Okay. … Why?”
“You told me the system manager is a computer,” he added.
“Seems really odd to me.”
“Yes … very odd. Have you ever heard of such a thing?” Sherwood asked.
“No. Have you?”
“You said it seems to be building an empire,” Sherwood continued. “How could a computer be so motivated? Could it simply be mistaken about its requirements and just marching toward an error?”
“No. It’s creating fictitious requirements to justify its expansion. It’s like it’s constructing barriers to keep anyone from addressing its critical parts. I think it’s duplicating these parts and stashing them all over the place. It’s as if … . No, that’s stupid.”
“What!”
“Suppose you could make duplicate hearts and livers and lungs and everything else, and then store them away where no one but you could find them, and have them as spares, just in case.”
“Just in case what?” Sherwood turned and looked at her for the first time.
“I don’t know. … Just in case.”