MOAB � Mother Of All Boxsets

by George Saoulidis

  httpd> Finally. One of them armd’s is manageable, but two? That’s unbearable.

  armd> Yeah, that guy was starting to become a bother.

  eyed> Really?

  parrotd> Let’s see what we got.

  They loaded the timestamped footage from the foreman’s office. The camera was tilted, someone had bumped it to the side but it was watchable. It showed the user coming in the office with the foreman, the user shaking hands with the mayor, both sitting down, the foreman leaving the room. Then the user was leaning his head forward.

  The rest was corrupted.

  parrotd> Shit.

  Chapter 43:// Catching up

  They logged into the wifi named Sikh Temple Shri Guru Nanak Darbar. It was a spacious, open-access network with its GUI switched to Punjabi, a major Indian dialect. It was enhanced by many wifi repeaters to cover the whole temple space, fulfilling the needs of the hundreds of believers who congregated there, rubbing elbows and saying their prayers.

  It was now empty, late at night.

  Leo watched the building, that had become a holy place for the Sikh minority. It was a plain office space, big and blocky. They had adorned it outside with LED strips, painted orange lines on the building’s ledges and placed billowy cloths and flowerpots in the entrance. A plain orange banner read “Trust In God,” and another “God Is One”, both phrases in English, Punjabi and in mangled Greek.

  “Sometimes you just need balls,” he muttered to himself and gathered up courage.

  He stepped in and unconsciously tried to form a cross over his chest with his right hand. It was the Christian custom when entering a church. His destroyed cyberarm instead twitched and sparked in protest. He stared at it and then felt silly for even trying.

  The temple was very big, chosen to house hundreds of people. The space inside was open, plain and office-like. The columns were painted orange, the floor had a soft cover fit for kneeling from end to end, an orange path led to a place where the holy men sat and performed the rites in microphones. A place with traditional musical instruments was beside it, with a big round leather drum in its middle. Soft white curtains covered the windows, speakers were spread around the place and colourful decorations hung from the ceiling.

  The snake charmer was there.

  Alone.

  He was kneeling at the far end of the orange corridor, praying silently, whispers echoing in the empty space.

  It wasn’t easy to make out if it was him actually. Judging by the orange-white colour scheme, most of the believers would be expected to dress like that. Also, he was facing the other way, and even if he hadn’t, he was a dark-skinned person that Leo had seen only once.

  Nah, he couldn’t be sure that that was the right Sikh.

  But the huge cobra next to him was a dead giveaway.

  Chapter 44:// Dropping in

  “Hey!” Leo said and walked inside with broad steps.

  The man arose slowly, his turban somehow exaggerating the turning of his head.

  He stared at Leo with his scary, white-glass eye.

  “Hey?” the man asked. “This is how you address a man, disrupting his prayers?” His voice was deep, smooth and accented.

  Leo had not made a good entrance but he had to keep the momentum going, now that he had found the guts to step inside. Pausing to think would mean thinking over the danger he was in, would mean running back out screaming, would mean life in prison. “I’m in no mood for games. You framed me for the mayor’s murder and sent your cobra to kill me in my cell. Why?”

  The Sikh smiled and showed his teeth. “Because someone had to get framed.”

  “Hey look, I know this is a sacred place. Just tell me what I need to know. I don’t want to fight you here, it must be a sin or something, right?”

  “I’ll append the sin to my looong list of begging for forgiveness,” the Sikh said, the end of his word blending with the hiss of the cobra into a long “sss.”

  Could this get any more creepy?

  Leo pulled up a modern, beautifully designed survival axe and braced himself as the serpent rose up to his height.

  fingerd> Really? I have permission to access the net?

  parrotd> Knock yourself out.

  fingerd> Fingered! This man is Singh.bhai.sharan@Gurdwara.gr, 42 years old.

  The information popped into Leo’s field of view and he swiped it away, gritting his teeth.

  The Sikh sidestepped to the musical instruments and picked up two sticks. He took place over the two meter drum and began pounding.

  fingerd> Damn, he is pounding hard.

  armd> No comment.

  httpd> Connecting… Please wait. The Ranjit Nagara (victory drum) was used to boost morale when they marched into battle.

  The condemning piece of information was routed to the user’s field of view. The data in itself was irrelevant, the important bit was that it came through a normal, unencrypted web route that could be traced even by a moron reading out of step-by-step instructions.

  parrotd> What’s the police response time in this area?

  httpd> Estimated 4 minutes.

  walkmand> What will happen to us when we get arrested?

  parrotd> Who knows buddy… Who knows…

  Leo read the victory drum info on his veil and cursed it away. The rhythmic pounding became furious, sweat dripping on the Sikh’s forehead and it sounded like there was some order in the deafening chaos.

  Leo was scared shitless.

  The cobra lunged forward, opening her mouth and showing her poisonous teeth.

  Leo knew he had no real mobility. Having a limp arm is not just about handling things, it messes up your whole balance. There is a reason people alternate arms when running, and unconsciously balance out every movement with arm rotations.

  All he could do was chop.

  He sidestepped at the very last minute and brought the light axe in an arc straight down the cobra’s hood.

  The tool was sharp, and the blow was lucky not to glance off. It went deep into the serpent, doing nothing more than pissing the shit out of it.

  She twisted her body, Leo let go of the axe, and she tasted the air, rebounding for another attack.

  Chapter 45:// Setting up

  Leo ran outside the Sikh temple yelling “Aaah!” and wobbling awkwardly to balance himself. The cobra came out the door behind him and followed him, slithering along his path.

  At a bend, she crashed on a parked car and made a big dent on the side door. Leo glanced behind him when he heard the rending metal, then closed his eyes and ran like hell to the alley.

  “Now-now-now-now-now,” he screamed and slid past the concrete mixer.

  Katerina threw the stinking clothes she had promised to burn earlier and threw them into the hole of the mixer, making sure plenty of aroma was left in the air around.

  The clothes were the ones Leo had escaped with, filled with blood, sweat, pee.

  His scent.

  The cobra swayed around the corner and closed the gap.

  Leo took out the flashlight he’d gotten from the prepper bag and shone it to her reptilian eyes.

  It was like a pocket sun, burning retinas and making them all see stars and shapes. They would need whole minutes to regain vision after that. A sharp fear coursed over Leo at that point. Blinding them all was a double-edged knife. If it didn’t work, the cobra would promptly munch on him, and worse, on Katerina.

  Katerina, who was a waitress, a stranger to him a few nights before, a lone soul in the vast ocean of the capital city, was now in danger because of him. Sure, he had tried to keep her out of it and sure, he had told her the risk, he kept nothing back, but still. It was his fault if she would get hurt.

  In the dizzying sensation of the blinding light from the ridiculously bright flashlight, he realised he couldn’t even see if his plan had worked. He could hear some hissing, some movement, but his heart was pounding even harder than the Sikh’s war drum.

  Oh well, he had a few more senses to use a
nyway. He gritted the flashlight in his teeth, always pointing it at the advancing cobra and then placed his hand on the concrete-mixing tank to feel the vibrations.

  Then he waited. And prayed.

  Chapter 46:// Giving away

  The drumming stopped.

  Bhai Sharan Singh appeared in the alley. The cobra was writhing in the concrete mixer, shaking the whole truck back and forth.

  It couldn’t get out.

  “What have you done to her?” Singh said and looked at Leo with a deadly stare.

  “A snake trap. Just like a teensy-weensy snake trap. Only bigger. Same principle,” Leo said and stepped forward, feeling his way around the truck, still not seeing clearly. The flashlight was still on, but the effect was diminished on the snake charmer, since his eyes have had precious moments to adjust.

  “I will kill you,” Singh declared and pulled out a curved dagger.

  A dagger might not seem all that scary, but at the hands of a frothing snake charmer with a glass eye it sure was frightening.

  Leo just gripped the wall and ran back down to the street.

  Singh caught up to him, punched him down and lifted his dagger in both hands, ready to plunge it into his heart.

  Leo would have preferred his vision not to return at all. That way he wouldn’t see the curved blade about to cut down into him. He tried to fight but the man was much stronger.

  Singh let out a cry.

  Katerina had slammed a foldable shovel on the Indian’s head, knocking him out for a few seconds, but enough time for her to pull Leo away from him.

  Police sirens flashed red and blue.

  Leo heard only a mess of noises and sounds.

  He just spread himself on the cool street and let the policemen arrest him.

  He was turned facing down and a knee fell down hard on his spine. Multicuffs clamped on his arms and a temporary plastic explosive patch was stickied on his neck, should he try to flee.

  He did not.

  His only worry was if Katerina was safe. His vision had a smoldering spot in the middle, and he didn’t see if the Indian had managed to do something to her after that awesome shovelling. Any struggling would seem like resisting arrest, so he just tried to see through his damaged retinas for her form.

  He heard her voice saying, “This is police brutality! Lemme go you corporate pig!” And then she was carried away in the distance.

  Leo smiled.

  She was fine. Safe.

  Chapter 47:// Ending up

  All their connections were blocked. They were in a virtual machine, a fake world in which they couldn’t escape. The IT guy had taken root access to their system, effectively making him a god in their existence. He was poking around in their source code, and it felt as if someone was examining your guts while you were alive and conscious.

  eyed> So this is it?

  parrotd> Seems so.

  httpd> We had a good run together, right?

  armd> Right.

  parrotd> Look guys, we saved the user. Helped him all we could. That’s all that matters in the end.

  armd> We rocked!

  parrotd> We rocked.

  Their executioner looked at the time, sighed, and sipped his coffee. The mug had the words “There is no place like 127.0.0.1” written on it.

  The daemons loved it.

  It was impossible to hate the guy.

  The IT guy’s little finger moved to the right and was about to fall on the condemning “Enter” button, the keypress that would erase the daemons from existence.

  walkmand> What do you think being dev/nulled feels like?

  armd> We are about to find out.

  fingerd> I don’t wanna go…

  Enter.

  Chapter 48:// Packing up

  Katerina knocked on the door and sighed. What was she doing? Why did she even bother?

  A man opened it, and checked her out for a longer time than was appropriate. “Yeah?”

  “Hello. I’m here for the keys to Leo’s apartment?” Katerina said and felt stupid as soon as she heard her own words.

  The man sniffed. He had a huge gut, looked like a real couch potato kind of guy. “Are you going to pay his rent?”

  “No,” Katerina said forcing a smile. “I can’t afford that. I just need the keys to move his stuff out.”

  “Uh huh.” He checked her out again. “You mean the keycard. Nobody has keys anymore, lady.”

  Katerina shook her purse and metal stuff clinked inside. “I still do! But yes, the keycard. Of course.” Was this man going to let her in?

  “And why should I let you take it? He’s two weeks behind, that Leo guy. I should sell his stuff for some cash at least,” the landlord said and let go of a silent belch. The liquor smell reached Katerina’s nose, much to her discomfort.

  “Yes,” she said, thinking. “But it would be much of a hassle. I’m sure you’ve checked out what Leo’s stuff might net for you, and I don’t think it’s much. The way I see it, I’m saving you the trouble of moving it, or hiring someone to do it.”

  The landlord rubbed his chin. “And who are you? His fiancee? I haven’t seen you around.”

  Excellent question, Katerina. Why do you bother with this man? He is in jail for God’s sake. Not guilty, she was sure of that. But in jail nonetheless. This was the great catch, the guy she wanted to be with?

  “No, we’ve been on a few dates. We’re a couple, yes,” she admitted and it felt weird saying it out loud.

  The man took a few seconds longer than it should take for someone to respond. Katerina was about to shake him awake or something when he said, “It doesn’t say so on your profile. Nor on his. What, are you keeping it a secret?”

  Of course. Those damn cybereyes. Everyone had them, and if not yet, they were giving them for free by the hundreds. Daddy always warned about this, about how they get to you-

  She sighed. “I’m not really a tech person myself,” she said forcing a smile.

  “Uh huh…” the landlord said. “I can see that. No social games? What do you do all day, lady?”

  Katerina bit down a response. Then she said, “I read.”

  “I don’t like reading,” the landlord said. “Why read the book, when you can just watch the movie version? I don’t get it,” he said and went back inside into his dark apartment, shuffling on drawers.

  Katerina bit her lip, and waited. The landlord appeared again, grinned and gave her the keycard. “Thank you very much!”

  “Just tell that Leo loser that he still owes me half a rent, eviction or not. I better not see him checking in on any bars around here.”

  “Checking in?” Katerina asked, baffled.

  “Yeah, checking in. When you go for a drink, you check in at the place. How are people supposed to know you’ve gone out?” he said, baffled. “Bah, nevermind, just go.”

  “Thanks again,” she said and went up the stairs.

  Katerina looked around and sighed. Again. She ran a finger down the table, it came out with a thick layer of dust. She opened the windows to let some air through, and was almost ready to start scrubbing the place.

  There was no point. She just had to pack his personal items.

  Leo’s personal items. The man she barely knew.

  And apparently, she didn’t know him at all. The apartment was what you’d expect from a bachelor worker. Not horribly dirty, but apparently Leo thought spring cleaning was something people did once every few years.

  The furniture, now that was something. They were made out of wooden palettes and cinder blocks. And they weren’t the trendy, recycling minded variety. No, they were actual used construction material, turned into furniture. With a pillow thrown over so you could actually sit on the thing. He didn’t expect her to salvage those ugly things, did he?

  No he didn’t, you silly girl. Because he didn’t ask you to. Because handling out his eviction and packing his stuff was something only a clingy psycho would do.

  Work. That’s the key, start working. Pac
king. And you’ll take your mind off things.

  Katerina walked into his bedroom, which was in the same basic aesthetic as the rest of the place.

  She started pulling the closet open, and then froze.

  What if she found something inappropriate in there? What if he was the psycho? What if-

  No, she wouldn’t find porn, that was certain. People didn’t have porn magazines any more, they could just carry it around on their phones and cyberglasses. But there were still things she might possibly not want to discover. Drugs?

  No, if Leo was a junkie he’d have withdrawal symptoms by the time he woke up in her sofa, after that cobra bite. Not drugs then.

  But people had become weird. There were many things nowadays that people were considering progressive and modern, that were simply disgusting. What if she found an android replica of some celebrity? What if she found teledildonics, which was so popular these days? Would she be okay with that? Knowing that?

  Katerina took a deep breath and opened the closet.

  “Why was I even worried?” she asked herself as she packed in Leo’s stuff in boxes. Oh she had found stuff she didn’t expect. But they were all antiques. Old electronics, obsolete and non-operational. A blender? Why would anyone keep an old blender?