by Jade Bitters
“It was meant to shut her off for a day, so that I could have her taken to Austin, like cargo...but it didn’t go according to plan. The bracelet worked too well: Juliet was woken up. She became cognizant. She learned what she was and I can manipulate people...not machines. Not anymore: you know why I gave that up, Stratford,” he said, shooting a dark look to the man who had taken his paper and turned it into a corporate product.
“In the meantime...I sent documentation to Romeo, explaining what Juliet was, telling him to come here and help me get her out of the city, when she’d reboot on her own. But, the courier I sent, John, wasn’t able to get to the airport in time for the flight, because someone’s company decided it was super important they have a private transportation system that uses public roads,” said Lawrence, shooting a look to Ferdinand. “And someone’s company’s buses were held up by protestors who beat the absolute shit out of said buses. So John came back to me, a few hours ago, and I came here, to see if I could get Juliet to wake up earlier and come with me, back to Wattage, until Romeo arrived, and could have all of this explained to him. By the time I got here, Romeo had already gotten in a fight with Paris and deployed a program, a copy of the one Juliet had developed, except...it had turned into a worm, a virus, and it wasn’t something that could be stopped or reversed. There wouldn’t even be time to do it.”
“The altered program...it deletes all files of a given type found on a given system, in the cloud or on a hard drive, and it can find covert networks. Romeo was going to use it to bring down Thisbia, because he thought you had Juliet hostage, but instead, it connected to him. How? Someone decided that it was a good idea to make their products also function as routers,” said Lawrence. “Oh wait! Both of your companies did! So the program connected to your projects, who...were thus deleted. Entirely. There is no bringing them back because every last bit of code associated with them has been destroyed, because you thought it would be a good idea to make proprietary file types for Juliet and Romeo.”
“Well, Juliet woke up after a delay because to wake up, she needed to connect to a WiFi connection, and of course, the routers here were overloaded given that there’s sort of a hackathon going on and every script kiddie this side of the Mississippi is taking the opportunity to use the fast connection to pirate warez. Romeo didn’t wake up, because he deployed the program, the worm that ate him from the inside out. He meant to die, in a way: to commit social suicide, so that he’d have nothing to lose, but his system is literally destroyed. Proprietary hardware that solely relies on proprietary software...sort of needs that software to function, by definition,” said Lawrence. “I asked Juliet to come with me, to leave, because at least I could try and save her. But...she refused to come, and I hard someone coming, so I left. I guess she ran the program to, and the program deleted every last copy of her files, everywhere, so you won’t be able to reset or restore her. Amy knew about the plan for the two to leave this city. I know that what I did was illegal, and I don’t care.”
“You’ve always done what had to be done...even if I disagree with your methods,” said Alex, rubbing his temples. “But where’s the Pyrymyn employee? What does he know?”
Barry cleared his throat. “I told him that something had happened to Juliet...so he took a private plane to San Francisco, from Austin.” He pulled out Romeo’s phone. “He said he wanted me to send this email to Mr. Caliban for him...and said if I tried to stop him from doing whatever he was going to do, that there’d be Hell to pay.”
“Let me read that, I’ll read it over,” said Alex, holding out a hand. Barry placed the flat piece of plastic and glass into Alex’s hand. “Where’s Elissa? The girl who got security? Miss, what was Paris doing here?”
“He came to see Juliet,” explained Elissa, still bare foot except for her nude pantyhose. “And he told me to stay outside, not to another him...and so that’s what I did. Then someone came with a laptop bag, onto the stage. He got in a fight with Paris, and so, I ran off to find security.”
Alex scrolled on the phone. “This email confirms what Lawrence said. How they met, what Romeo thought happened, it’s all here. It says that Romeo purchased a program from a hacker...and that he brought the code here to take Thisbia down. Ferdinand, William...do you see what’s happened because of your rivalry? What you’ve done over the years as come back to bite you in the ass. Because I let this shit slide for far too long, close personal friends of mine have gotten hurt, seriously hurt. I’m withdrawing my support from both your companies.”
“Ferdinand...whatever happened to us?” asked William. “Before I left Pyrymyn, we were so close. I want my Juliet back as much as you want Romeo back. Let’s join up and make that happen.”
“I can give you something even better,” said Ferdinand. “I can dedicate my entire hardware department on a data recovery project. We’ll get her back. As long as San Francisco sits above the Bay, I’ll make sure that her memory never fades.”
“And the programmers at my company will help you bring back your boy,” promised William. “To think, we let our hatred destroy the things we loved.”
“This is the darkest of treaties,” said Alex. “This fog will never lift from the city. Let’s talk about this further, in private. Some will be forgiven, and some...somebody’s going to have to pay, for never was a story of more code, than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”
About the Author
I write new adult/young adult romance novels that retell classic stories for a modern audience...with a sci-fi twist. If you like science-fiction and timeless tales, check out my books, like my newest novel, "RomeCODE and JulieTEST", starring Romeo and Juliet in San Francisco's startup scene.
All of my titles are available through the Kindle Unlimited program. They can also be downloaded as a monthly free borrow by Amazon Prime users, and they're available for FREE for the first five days upon release! I love to read reviews and get in touch with readers, so please follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook.
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MOBILISIM posted by mad.donna