by Zoey Ivers
"So, Pumpkin..."
"Locked in the closet?"
"I'm afraid so. And you can blame it all on Victor Zuloft, the same boss who insisted on us moving into the Barton Street Gym as soon as it opened, so we could observe the weirdness from up close."
Alice opened her mouth to ask if they were going to be allowed to move back home after the problem was solved. And shut it. Adventures in strange dimensions, the bio-models at full scale, meeting Joe and Tommy. And changing the world by making friends with an AI.
She followed her father to the closet.
"Oh, this is a much better closet than the last one. May I use the copy machine?" Alice walked the aisles of shelves, trying to guess the purpose of some of the things that certainly weren't office supplies. "Is that a defibulator? No, it has clamps. Car starter for dead batteries?"
Her father chuckled, and scribbled a number on the back of a card. "That'll run the copier, please don't break the bank. We call that thing a zapper. It is supposed to be for frying dangerous computers. AI's that are trying to take over the world and so forth. We, ah, check that it's in working order by occasionally using it to start a car with a dead battery. I don't think we've ever used it on a computer."
Alice giggled. She dragged the chair from her dad's office across the hallway, and looking around, set it up by an empty shelf. "This'll work fine. Just don't forget that I'm here and go home without me."
"You got it, Pumpkin. Sorry to do this to you." The door closed behind him.
Alice pulled out her comm and started tapping out a message to Joe. He probably wouldn't access it until after school, so she'd better not assume she had any backup coming.
But the opportunity to zap the T-Rex directly wasn't to be missed.
She pulled a screw driver out of her backpack and popped the ovals off the d-door. She grabbed two heavy storage boxes and piled them by the door. Then she went back for the computer-killing car-starter. Zapper. Huh. The T-Rex was one heck of a big bug. Alice shrugged into her back pack and pulled the door open from the top. Computer lights gleamed. No T-Rex in sight. But what does the door look like from the hallway? If Father opens it, what will he see? Joe and I need to experiment. More.
She slid the top box onto the door, added the second. Would they keep the door open? Would they anchor it in place so she could escape? Only one way to find out. She hefted the zapper and stepped through.
Stumbled. Dropped the zapper as it expanded or she compressed.
"Oww, oww, oww! I hate that part." Alice picked herself up and frowned at the car starter. The heavy blue case with the coiled wires was now about the size of a refrigerator; the wires were stretched out spaghetti with huge metal alligator clamps. "Holy Moly." She put her shoulder to it, and shoved. It didn't budge. Looked back at the d-door. Still open.
Studied the computer architecture around her. "This is where I need a geek to know what to zap. She pulled out a notebook and made a sketch map, so that perhaps she could find this spot, and the zapper, again.
Today is not the day I'm going to save the world. Darn it.
When her father returned, she was hard at work, notes all around her. He didn't notice the missing equipment.
***
Joe sighed in relief at the follow-up message. She's the closest thing to an actual human friend I've got. I'll tell Barton Street that she's positioned some equipment in dimension four that might take out the T-Rex.
He looked up as the door clicked and opened.
"Dad? You're home early, is there a problem?"
His dad trotted down the stairs, all awkward and gawky.
I hope I grow that tall, but please, just a little better coordination?
"Oh, no, it's just something left over from the City Hall mess made me realize how little family time we've had lately, so I thought I'd get home early enough to catch you for dinner." He pulled his big portable out of his briefcase and connected it to the desk top. It was nearly as powerful as the desk top, with ultra-secure LAW connections.
One just like it was at the top of Joe's Impossible Wish List.
"Sounds good. Even before we moved, we were lucky to have breakfast together." Joe shoved his other problems aside and followed his dad out. "How about Italian? There's a place on eighteen that's got the best meatballs ever."
His dad winced. "I guess you've explored everywhere. How long has it been? Just a bit over four months now that we've lived here?"
"Seems longer, doesn't it? Maybe because I don't sleep any more. Every day is like, thirty percent longer." Joe pondered that. "I don't even notice not sleeping anymore."
"Yeah, it's nice to have the time, when I can escape from my boss. Who, by the way has a holy terror for a daughter. Makes me really appreciate you. Hey, why don't we catch a movie?"
Chapter Fourteen
Alice nodded as Joe sat down. Cabin fever had driven her out of the cubbie in short order. If only I could lay down and sleep, dream away a few hours... And her father had even agreed that "a friend" could join her so long as all they did was homework. In clear view of the public. She already had her new comp out and was referring to notes on a paper pad. "I have a biology project. Strictly literature search, this semester. Next semester we get to do some actual tests ourselves."
"Whatever you do, don't use frogs. They're slimy. And there's a big mean-looking black guy looking at us."
Alice followed his glance. "My father. He thinks I'm going to run off with a tattooed biker."
Joe blinked at her. "Err, have you ever?" No wonder she's got such a good tan. I wonder what her mother looks like?
She sighed. "I snuck out to a party that they'd expressly forbidden me to go to. I was curious, more than anything. Well, and mad at them for saying no." She slid a glance toward her father. "I'd had two beers and was dancing with a guy with tattoos when he tracked me down and dragged me home. Grounded me for the whole summer. Err, actually, I haven't managed to get off restrictions yet."
"Wow. My parents are divorced. I spend a couple of weeks with my mother every year, if it isn't too inconvenient for her. My dad's really busy and really absentminded." Joe shrugged. "I guess I could party all the time and he wouldn't notice unless the police called him."
Alice sighed. "In my dreams. Well, not the partying. Beer isn't that good, and the guy was a lousy dancer. But I'd like to be left alone more often."
Joe grinned, but turned and fired up his current project.
The next time he looked over, the big man was standing, speaking to a petite woman who took his seat and pulled out a book.
"Is that your mom? You do look sort of Asian."
Alice looked. Rolled her eyes. "Mom's half Philippine and half Chinese. Father's half Jewish, half Black. Family get togethers used to be, umm, interesting. Everyone survived them, but sometimes I wondered how." She tapped her pen on the table. "I suppose I ought to warn you. There was this guy, one of the other hostages at City Hall, I think he's really with the DWLF. He's been following me."
Joe perked up. "A stalker? Cool! The worst trouble I've every had, in the real world, so to speak, is school bullies. I'll bet we could double team your stalker and really make him regret he'd ever laid eyes on you."
She giggled and shook her head. "I think he's gone away."
Joe sighed. "I missed all the fun. But just in case... " He looked around and grinned. "I'll be right back."
"Fun! Those DWers, it's no wonder they call them terrorists. They were armed, had home made noise suppressors, and smoke bombs. They were right on the edge of uncontrolled, and the whole attack could have been much worse." She tapped her fingers on her computer for a moment. Stopped. "I wish they'd put all their hostages into one closet, I could have gotten them all out of there."
"I think you were heroic enough." He headed for the vendomat.
She watched Joe as he bought something from a vendo, grabbed something from the condiments box at a food vendo and disappeared briefly into a mini-spa.
When he
came back to the table he pulled two sheets of paper out of his backpack. "I'll keep the others, in case I can do something from the other side."
She nodded absently, while her eyes tracked movement in the lounge.
Sitting around in public was beginning to look like a bad idea. Alice saved her work and started putting everything away.
"Alice." Joe's voice was low.
"Yeah. I noticed them too. I don't like the way the one on the left is up close and behind my mom. I'm going to take her home, right now." She closed up her comp and slid everything into her shoulderpack.
Except the letter opener that she had sharpened. She reached deep into the pack and slid it up the sleeve of her sweater.
Joe spotted it and gulped. "Save that for desperate. Okay?" He rotated his right shoulder oddly and grinned. "If they try anything, I have just what the doctor ordered." He popped the lid off a stiff plastic case and reached in.
Alice got up and headed for her mother. As she approached, the man beyond rose, and stepped forward, looking at her mother. "Mom! Look out behind you!"
Trish Brown had been riding public transit all her life; the last few years had been harrowing. As she stood, she gripped the side of her chair and swung without even looking. The man dodged back, jumped forward and found himself being kept well out of grabbing distance. Alice ran forward, to get between her mother and the second man. Something zinged past her and hit the second man in the face. With a wet splatter. A bit reddish. He yelled, sounding surprised, then again with real pain as his hands went to his eyes.
"Water balloon." Joe sounded smug. "With some hot taco sauce. Works like a charm on bullies." He smiled at the man trying to reach Mrs. Brown. "You want one, too, Skippy? Got it right here for you. Or you can grab your stupid friend and take him somewhere to rinse his eyes."
The man backed off, baffled. Alice and Joe stuck close to her mom as they retreated. "Skippy" grabbed his friend and followed at a distance. Mrs. Brown didn't set the chair down until the three of them backed into an elevator and the door started closing.
"Were those some of those Displaced Worker terrorists?" There was a tremble in her mother's voice. Anger or fear? Probably a mix, like Alice was feeling.
"I've never seen either of them before. What's the big deal? What do they want from me?" Alice was getting worried. Scared. If I were a ruthless killer, I'd lure them into the fifth dimension and lose them there, let them get munched by the T-Rex. Except they might escape, having learned about the dimensions. Which is the last thing I want some criminals to know about. She shivered.
Joe dropped his second water balloon back into the plastic case. "Hey, don't go all girly or I'll start mistaking you for Jenni."
Alice grinned, and her mother actually laughed. "Joe, thank you. I hope they haven't identified you, though, they might harass you or your family."
Joe grinned. "That could be pretty funny. Dad doesn't intimidate."
"Good. Mine doesn't either. But it probably wouldn't hurt if you got a hair cut and started wearing sunglasses." Alice ground her teeth. What should I do? They know all about me. I don't know enough about them to even research them. With a sudden change of mood, she barely managed to subdue a giggle. Maybe I can get extra credit for a report on the DWLF. Can I interview myself and use it as a reference?
Chapter Fifteen
This time it was dimension one that had the problem. It started with a trojan, which he, it, didn't notice until the virus hit. While Barton Street was busy containing and unraveling the virus, the trojan came out to play, opening up all his exterior access without any security at all. He was armed with all the best antiviral, anti-trojan, anti-worm programs available on the open market. So, at least four days behind what the script kiddies had devised most recently.
And yet... the sheer volume of the attacks... either all the hackers in the world had decided to attack all at once, or the T-Rex was just throwing them at Barton Street as they were reported to a security company... did all security companies report virii to the Federal Information Security Organization? And how long before they were reported to the Federal computer in Milwaukee?
It lobbed an update request to its own antivirus supplier, with a request that they download to him the latest from FISO in DC.
And suddenly he was seeing all the attacks as they began and started closing them down at his outer perimeter. Except for a few inputs from within his interior grid. He searched for their egress, and found nothing. It felt like several, three, small units were pulling viruses from thin air.
There were alternate connections, somewhere, and he had no idea how to track them down. Perhaps he could contact one of the vermin with a chip.
That very perceptive Bambi unit...
***
"Problem, Father?" Alice watched her father, as he kept pacing even as he put the phone away.
"My boss says the big computer is locking up." He stomped downstairs.
Alice followed. "You don't mean the Ten Peta computer do you? I thought it could do anything." Is Barton Street attacking the T-Rex?
"Something is sure giving it fits. It's running the latest viral discoveries in a loop. It must be some sort of a Trojan, using it to send the viruses everywhere. But how did something get inside its security?"
Wait. The T-Rex is sending viruses? Alice's attention was caught by Bambi, trotting out, waving the ear plug. Uh, oh. Bambi doesn't usually bring herself to Father's attention. She took the plug and stuck it in her ear.
"Barton Street says he's under a major viral flood attack, through three different ports that are inside his first firewall. Is there anything you can suggest?"
Her father, of course, couldn't hear a thing. Alice bit her lip. Three... her eyes drifted to her father's portable, with all its security and the ultra secure, Local Air Wave to the Federal computer---to the T-Rex. And I know of two of Father's co-workers who also live in the Gym.
Alice pointed at her father's computer. "Umm, what if something like the Gym's main frame was infected? Could it use that LAW connection in your portable to... "
Her father reached and pulled the connecter cord loose. Then he pulled out his phone. "Fred? Was there just a change? Damn. Start calling everyone with Local Air Wave and tell them disconnect from any and all hard lines to main frame computers. I'll get Phil and Henry." He clicked off and tapped more numbers. "Phil, disconnect your hard line, I think the mainframe here might be dirty." Click, more numbers. "Henry disconnect your hard line... what do you mean you're across town? Have you got your computer? Did you leave it connected to the Gym's grid? I know, I know, I do it too." He stomped off, up the stairs.
Alice bit her lip. That's two thirds of the assault on Barton gone. He ought to be able to fight off the rest. But Barton said he'd altered my ID to open any d-door. And Mr. Stephanopolis was up on floor twenty-seven. And his door would have an optical security plate on it, like we've got for father's work...
"May I pop down to the bathroom on my own now?"
Her parents swapped wry looks.
"I guess we can't wrap you up forever. Go ahead." Her mother tried to smile.
"Be quick, please."
"Father!" Alice ducked out and hustled for the elevators.
Which way did he come from? Drat, he was waiting at the elevator, but I didn't see him when I entered the corridor, so I'll start on the other side.
The elevator stopped at twenty-seven and she hustled out, turned down the blue hallway. She trotted quickly down the corridor, scanning the bases of the d-doors. A couple of people gave her frowning looks. Never seen me before, or maybe there aren't many kids on this floor. Weren't some floors "Child Free?" Snobs.
Around the corner. There. The innocuous looking plate between the optical port and the retransmitter.
She waved her wrist at the plate and held her breath as she pulled the latch. The door swung open. She stepped in. Took a quick step up to look... Mr. Stephanopolis had his computers set up upstairs. She whisked over and pu
lled the connector loose. Turned around and headed right back out. It would be so embarrassing to be caught in someone else's cubby. She turned to retrace her steps, and there was Mr. Bloody Nose. He must have followed her; how he'd known she was on this floor she couldn't imagine.
"Now Miss. I think this time you'll answer my questions."
Alice backpedaled. Where was the stairway?
"What? About how I knew it was safe to leave the closet? Those stupid idiots were using their phones right outside the door; we were listening in. Then they got all crackley, like they were going away, and then it got really bad, like they'd gone around a corner. Geez. It's not rocket science. And Lupe pinched my butt, so I shoved him out. And then I saw the police, so I told everyone to get going."
Stairs. She jerked the door open and bolted down the steps. The man was right behind her, but she burst through the door to twenty-three and slammed it in his face. He cursed, and sprinted after her.
She rounded the corner and smacked into her father.
"Sorry about my daughter, sir." Bloody Nose reached for her.
Father's fist hit the still swollen nose. Blood splattered, the man landed on his back.
"I think what you meant was my daughter." Father purred as he reached down and jerked the man to his feet. He shoved the man against the wall. His head made a satisfying thump.
The man's eyes widened over his smashed nose and he twisted out of her father's grasp and bolted.
Her father took one step after him, then turned, grabbed Alice and hustled her home.
"Sorry Pumpkin, I shouldn't have let him go, but he's just a gofer, we want to follow him back to someone with some authority."
Alice closed her eyes in relief. Father didn't see us come out of the stairway.
"So, what happened?"
"He was between me and the cubby, so I backed up. I think I did a whole lap of the building. And I babbled some nonsense about how I 'knew' it was safe outside the closet, hoping he'd go away. Hah. Like I wouldn't have peeked carefully if Lupe hadn't pinched my butt." Alice squirmed, a sudden shot of guilt worming its way into her mind. "I really shouldn't have shoved him through the door. He could have gotten killed, and even he isn't obnoxious enough to deserve it."