Fede woke up on the futon in the truck, his head pounding, needing desperately to pee. He pulled the door open and gasped a little as the sharp light of pre-dawn crawled in through his eyelids. He eased himself down onto the sand and out to where the bushes grew thicker by the dunes. After relieving himself he stumbled back into the truck and gently shut the door, unsocketing his legs and tossing them off the futon as he went. Then he opened a fresh bottle of water and sucked it down. He was terribly thirsty all of a sudden. He crawled back into bed.
Not long after that some people came in and then left. He thought it might have been Tonx.
Later, after that, he woke up again. His head hurt. There was a half a baguette, old tomato slices wedged against oily bits of mozzarella. A pair of small blue pills sat next to it on a piece of waxed paper. A new bottle of water held the paper in place. He took the pills and washed them down with the water, leaving the sandwich, and laid back down.
The ceiling overhead slowly changed color, the sound of the sea outside interrupted only occasionally by voices. The pounding in Fed's head subsided as he swam in and out of sleep.
Some time later the door opened and Cessus called his name.
"What?" he croaked, surprised to hear his own voice sound so hoarse.
"I asked if you want to launch" Cessus said, laughing. "Looks like we got an update scheduled within a 24-hour window. Now's the time, man."
Fede sat up suddenly and immediately regretted it.
"Oh Jesus" he mumbled.
Cessus laughed. "Come on. You've been sleeping all day. This place is amazing; let's launch and I'll show you around."
A little while later Fede had splashed the grit out of his eyes and struggled outside. His legs had gotten grit in the joints and whined and squealed; worse, the sockets had started to itch, which might mean infection. He tried not to think about it. It was ungodly bright, so he pulled on his gogs and toggled the world to a bearable opacity. Cessus was right; the place was amazing. The truck next to theirs had a huge stack of towels, swimsuits, water bottles, sandwiches, and other goods. It was manned by an darkly tanned and stubby German woman who spoke in a thick accent and smiled constantly. The next truck over had a big blue pipe that went down to the water and several smaller lines leading over to the dispensary truck. It was covered with solar panels.
"That one does all the water processing" said Cessus. "My guess is it's taking the solar power and using it to split the water into hydrogen cells to run the trucks. Leftover water gets filtered on its way to rebottling."
"Nothing but regenerative power, man. Fucking classy. Altogether these trucks pull up on any beach in the world, unload the tent, and drop a line in the water. Viola, you got yourself a party."
"What about the net access?" asked Fed.
Cessus pointed at the ocean. "Can't really see it, but there's got to be a boat out there. Probably two or three. Gyroscopically stabilized dishes is my guess, bouncing the signal to satellite and probably some land-based beacons along the coast. It's too far out to see them very well, but with a reasonable-sized tower they could provide line-of-sight connectivity in some pretty big waves. And they got all their traffic proxied through a dozen or more relays; run a traceroute and you'll see your data come out from spots all over the world."
Fede smiled, impressed despite himself.
"Who the fuck pays for it all?" he asked.
"Don't know. Don't want to know" said Cessus. "Somebody with big money and people to hide. Whoever they are they owed Tonx some favors."
He looked at Fed, rumpled his head roughly with one big hand.
"Don't worry about it. But don't bother folks here asking them about where they're from, either. Everyone's real friendly, sure, but they aren't exactly mixing it up."
Fede looked around again, peered at the variety of people lounging everywhere in Hawaiian beachwear obtained from the first truck. Cessus was right, mostly people were clumped together in little groups. They had their heads together or were scanning the crowd, polite nods and empty smiles the only contact between them.
He sighed. "Okay. We going to launch?" he asked.
Cessus smiled, his hands wriggling a bit in his pockets as he typed. Fede felt himself start to sweat in his grimy shirt and jeans. The sun was hot, the morning cool burned away hours ago. The ocean roared further down the beach, fiddler crabs running back and forth between the waves.
"Launched" said Cessus. "Baby, we're live."
Fede chewed one lip and watched a seagull coast by.
The first few hours he'd goggled in almost every ten minutes, sipping tomato juice (he'd never had it before) and watching for news of technical problems in China. But after most of the morning had slipped by in a sunny haze he'd given it up. Cessus assured him there were plenty of filters in place to catch anything that looked relevant and had even clamped one of his polyurethane dreadlocks onto Fed's head to alert him in case anything came up.
"Be careful with it" he said. "That baby's one of my only vibrating ones. Very popular with the ladies."
Fede had grimaced and mimed wiping his hands off, which had made Tonx almost fall out of his chair with laughter. Even Cass seemed to be enjoying herself, the elegant black bikini she wore shining with sea salt.
"Serious" admonished Cessus. "Cass charged me an arm and a leg to wire this thing up."
"How likely is it to come out?" asked Fed, twisting his eyes back to try and see the long black lock where it draped from the side of his head.
"Unless you suddenly go bald you'll be okay" said Cessus. "If it starts buzzing, get your butt back here and check the news. Easy cheesy."
Tonx and Cass had come up just as Cessus was fixing the dreadlock in place, and shortly afterwards a pair of sketchy-looking Hispanic guys came up next to him. One of them wore a light-colored suit of some fancy polymer-based fabric, light as silk and slightly transparent in the sleeves. The other guy looked like he'd gotten sunburned skiing, a sharp line under his eyes separating light skin from dark. He was pudgy, and didn't look at anyone.
They said a few words to Tonx in a slang Fede didn't understand, and Tonx nodded his head.
"Hey guys, I want you to meet Esco and Baby. They're friends of mine. Their boss is already in the contract."
They shook hands all around. When Marcus stood and leaned over the table to grasp Esco's the smaller man raised one carefully plucked eyebrow and grinned. Gleaming white teeth shone through his perfect lips as he asked; "Marcus, huh? I've seen your fights. Tight shit, nigger."
Fede could almost feel his eyes dilate. Esco was dark, but he looked Hispanic, not black. Fede suddenly had the idea that Marcus was going to reach over and crush the man's head.
Instead Marcus laughed and enfolded Esco's hand in a series of street grips.
"You know it, man. You mod too, or just naturally pretty?"
Esco jerked his head upwards at Marcus's chin. "Yeah, I'm mod. Strictly surface, though. How you support all that mass, man?"
The two walked over towards the truck so Marcus could get more water to wash down his supplements. Their street-slang patter faded into obscurity as they went.
Fede looked at Tonx, bewildered.
"What?" asked Tonx. "They're geeks, man. Both heavily modded. You think you computer jockeys got a corner on the market for obsessive hobbies?"
Fede forced a smile and looked at his shoes. His cheeks burned.
"What" he coughed, glanced at Esco's retreating back. "What's that guys mod?"
"Mods" corrected Tonx. "Major facial surgery, bone and muscle reconstruction. Probably lots of carefully balanced muscle therapy, some glandular adjustments. Possibly vocal chord tweaks, and definitely lots of depilation."
He glanced over at Baby, who shrugged.
"Point is" Tonx said "the guy's invested a whole lot of time and effort to reshape his body into an ideal. It's a more careful thing than just buffing out a six-pack. More of an art thing. Same as Marcus - just a different ideal."
"Oh" said Fed, feeling stupid.
Baby faded away, wandering slowly off towards the tents.
"Where's the guy who supplied the data set?" asked Fed. "The Frenchman?"
"Don't ask" said Tonx, grimacing. "You'll meet him soon enough."
Cass stood and stretched her long arms, her bikini sticking to her like it was painted on. It may have been, thought Fed.
"I'm going body boarding" she announced. "Anybody want to come?"
"Sorry, sweetheart. I got work to do" said Tonx. He eyed Fed.
"Why don't you take my bro, here?" he asked.
"What?" asked Fed.
Cass sized him up, the corners of her lips pulling back to reveal a pure, pretty smile.
"Yeah. Want to learn, Feed? Be good for those legs of yours… "
After a little more prodding he'd swapped in his grimy jeans and shirt for a pair of board shorts and gone out to try drowning. Cass said she'd learned to body board while she was couch surfing in California. She was a good teacher. Fede was surprised to find the water comfortably warm, and after catching a few waves he was laughing out loud and running back for more.
The day wore on, and Fede found himself forgetting about the code, the launch, the computers in China. He caught some good waves, got a sunburn, let Cass disappear to catch some better surf further down the beach. Eventually he bailed out; his skinny city kid arms were aching from trying to paddle out to the good waves. The rest of the afternoon went quickly, a nap on the futons followed by a dinner of BBQ pork ribs, thawed and flash-cooked in one of the trucks.
The sunset painted the sea all kinds of colors and Marcus showed him some of the basics of his fighting style, Gracie Jujitsu. It reminded Fede of wrestling with his dad when he was a kid, and Tonx and Cessus joined in, all three of them scrabbling and grabbing to pull Marcus down. Eventually the big man got a hold on all of them, and everybody went into the ocean together.
Fede skipped the martini that night, sitting with the group of them as night fell. As it turned dark he began to feel out of place, separate from everybody. They were talking a lot about the mod scene, laughing about people and making jokes about things Fede knew nothing about. Even Cass was part of it all. Fede guessed she was as mod as any of them, what with getting weird hormone therapies since childhood. Fede didn't know anything about it. He didn't have any mods, hadn't ever thought about getting any. He'd always had his head down, working on code. Watching the group of them laugh and argue he realized he was missing something. He missed feeling like a part of something, like a part of them. Like he belonged somewhere other than behind a keyboard.
After a while he excused himself and went to the bar. The German woman was there, big smile in place. She laughed as Fed approached and asked him if he wanted beer or a cocktail. He asked for something sweet and she gave him an oddly shaped bottle full of something pink. It had bumps and ridges and was oddly phallic, but he felt embarrassed asking her for something else, so he took it and left. It was good, sugary-sweet and citric.
He went down the beach on the other side of the bar, found a seat in the quite space between the tents and the shoreline. The night surrounded him, full of sound. He took a pull from his drink and noticed a figure approaching.
It was a short thin man in one of the ubiquitous Hawaiian shirts and shorts from the trucks. He had a hooknose and carefully fashionable hair, and something about him screamed European. Fed wondered how anyone could look European in Bermuda shorts and a floral-print Hawaiian shirt, but there he was.
"You are Tonx's brother, no?" the man asked. He had a thick French accent.
"Uh, yeah" said Fed. The man's eyes were supernaturally bright, the skin of his face tight. He looked like he was repressing a laugh.
"Then it is my honor to meet you" he said. "I am Poulpe. But you may call me Poulpe. I am in your debt. You have afforded me my freedom."
Fede took the man's hand and they shook once, firmly. Poulpe sat down next to him, carefully arranging his legs in front of him.
"I haven't afforded anybody anything yet" said Fed.
"Nonsense" said Poulpe. "I'm here now, yes?"
He seemed to be waiting for an answer.
"Uh, yes" agreed Fed.
"So. Then you have done me a great service. Is your recombinant processing in place?" Poulpe asked.
Fede dug his toes into the sand, pushed the corner of his lip between his teeth with one finger.
Poulpe cocked his head to look at him, and Fede met his eye.
"Yeah" he said.
"It goes well?" asked Poulpe.
"I guess so" said Fed. "We won't know for a while. So far it looks good. But there's no guarantees… " he let his sentence trail off into silence.
"That is all we can do, no?" said Poulpe. "We do our best, make things of beauty, and celebrate life. It is striving that makes it worthwhile, don't you think?"
Tonx's voice drifted over the beach, the end of a joke followed by raucous laughter. The ocean broke against the shore and erased the sound. Fede thought of his code, of the application's shape, the way it fit in his mind.
"Yeah" he agreed. "That's all we can do."
Poulpe smiled, a wide white grin. He thin lips stretched tight over his teeth and he made a long series of grunts. Fed realized he was laughing.
"Very good then" he said. "The night is beautiful… "
He cocked his head again, looked at Fede questioningly.
"Fed" Fede said.
"I thought you were called 'Feed'?" asked Poulpe.
"That's not my name" said Fed. "My name's Fed."
"Very well. Fede it is" said Poulpe. He smiled again, apparently delighted.
"Allow me to celebrate you" he said.
Poulpe pulled out a small silver container, its scratched surface showing a tiny cartoon monster done in red plastpaint over the bare metal. He opened it with a smooth twist and held it towards Fed. There were a dozen pink candies inside, rounded squares like little creamy pillows.