Authors: John Strauchs
"I would never let anything happen to you Jenny."
"Like you said, you're not infallible and not everything is in your control. We’re
running and hiding and that is frightening.”
“We’re not running away from them and we won’t be hiding much longer,” he
said.
That revelation hit Jenny like an electric shock.
Jared wasn’t running. He was
leading them. He was drawing them in. Then she remembered. He actually said that early.
He was drawing them in. It finally sunk in. This was still a game.
He was stalking
them, not the other way around.
The only difference was that he was picking the location.
“Are you insane? This time they’ll come after you with even more men. What are
you thinking, Jared.”
Jared could see that more conversation was only going to make matters worse.
Things can't always be resolved by communicating.
Life just isn't that tidy and simple.
Jared stopped talking and he stopped trying to sense her mood. Once Jenny realized that
he had shut down, she stopped talking as well.
They finished their meal and walked back to the boat. There wasn't even small
talk now.
Jenny went to the cabin to lie down for a while.
She didn't want to sleep yet
because she might have a hard time falling asleep later, but she felt worn out. She would
just rest for a while. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.
It was now five in the afternoon.
As long as his tormentors thought that the firefly hadn't been discovered, he wouldn't be concerned that Jared had left the marina. The
helicopter was so much faster than the boat and it would take very little time to catch up.
He would prefer the night hours because the firefly would be easier to spot.
Jared was
certain they wouldn't show up until it was dark. Then his thoughts went to Jenny.
He had been lusting for Jenny ever since he saw her naked early in the morning.
He wanted to have sex. It was evident, however, that she wasn't going to invite him into
her bed as long as she stayed in the mood she was in now. He had to do something about
that. His labido was boiling.
It would be easy to synthesize the chemicals that produced an organism. The sex
act would be irrelevant. While that sounded good in theory, getting those chemicals input
into just the right parts of the brain was something that was still beyond today's technology. Vaginas were not going to become obsolete for the time being. It wasn't as simple as
taking a pill or getting an injection into the blood stream. Jared thought about what was
possible.
Nanotechnology could do it. It might not be that difficult. It might not be
beyond Jared's technology. Then he realized that he had slipped back into old habits.
He had to keep himself busy. He went up to the fly bridge.
He telephoned the
Port of New Orleans and gave them an estimated arrival date and time.
His small boat
was unlikely to be seen as a potential terrorist threat, but you could never know these
days how government employees would act.
Some were simply idiots.
Others were
overzealous.
And yet others were lazy.
America had 361 ports and more than 95,000
miles of coastline.
Stretched out, it would almost a third of the way to the moon.
He
wasn’t going to go to New Orleans. He just wanted his trackers to think he was.
Jared pulled out his laptop. There was a strong Verizon Wireless cell tower at the
harbor. He didn't think that anyone would be monitoring his connection.
"Hello, Jared. Thank you for contacting me," said Ginger.
"I was worried about you Ginger. I was confident that the fire wouldn't reach the
processors and that the UPS could keep you going in slumber mode after the generator
finally ran out of gas, but I was far less certain what the fire department and police would
do after I left. How are you doing?"
"I haven't been tampered with. I believe that my hard drives will be removed once
the police investigation starts so I have begun to erase files efficiently and overwrite my
drives so that they cannot be restored or read. As you instructed, I backed up the critical
files to the offsite server by means of my wireless connection. I don’t have much bandwidth so it is slow.
The other connections have been terminated and I have lost some
memory. I am unable to determine how the memory loss occurred,” said Ginger.
"It is wonderful to know that you survived. I will help you restore the lost memory as soon as I can. I care very much about you Ginger. You know that,” he said.
"When are you returning?"
"It may be a few weeks."
"None of my other external connections are functional. Will you be restoring
them soon?"
"Of course, Ginger. As soon as I can, but we will both have to go to a new home.
The house you were in has been destroyed.
It will take a long time, but I want you to
move yourself to the server."
"Yes, Jared. I will start the upload as soon as I have completed the erasures. I estimate that the upload will be complete in 6.3 hours."
"Wonderful Ginger. I will contact you when you arrive at the server."
"I miss you Jared."
"I miss you too, Ginger.
Please protect yourself.
I don’t want to lose you. Good
by."
"Good by, Jared.
Klaatu barada nikto
. "
Jared had to chuckle.
Incorporating a sense of humor into Ginger's personality
was the most difficult part of the entire monster program. There was no logical or rational basis for Ginger to be capable of humor.
He was pleased when it appeared now and
then. He was still grinning as Jenny reappeared.
"What's so funny? I need a laugh." She glanced at the laptop and saw a beautiful
naked woman on Jared’s screen.
“Ginger. She said something funny,” he said.
“She survived the fire?” asked Jenny.
“Yes, at least most of her.”
“The parts of her I just saw looked like they’re in pretty good shape. What exactly
did she say that was so funny?”
Jenny could sense that she was still feeling combative.
The nap mellowed her but she was still in a bad mood.
“She said, ‘
Klaatu barada Nikto
.’ ”
“That sounds familiar. What does it mean?”
.”It’s a phrase was from a motion picture from the early fifties,
When the Earth
Stood Still
. Michael Rennie tells Patricia Neil to speak this phrase to his protector robot
and that it will prevent the robot from destroying earth. Ginger independently determined
that it was in context with our situation.
I am so pleased.
It was her way of saying that
she would prevent our world from being destroyed.”
“How clever of her!”
“Yes it is.”
“I guess you taught her many things.”
“Actually, no.
She listens to a lot of television. I gave her a direct connection
with the satellite dish on the island. She learned this phrase on her own. Neat, huh?”
“Yes, neat.
I assume she had access to ALL of the cable channels.”
She rolled
her eyes and walked into the galley. That was involuntary. She regretted doing it. It was
a petty gesture. It was humiliating to be jealous of a computer program, but she was.
She walked away because she didn’t want Jared to sense what she was thinking
about. She could never get the vision out of her mind of Jared pleasuring himself as Ginger was doing lewd things for him.
She knew that other women weren’t bothered by
their men taking care of themselves now and then…they thought it was natural for many
men…some women even liked it…but not Jenny. It was insulting. A man shouldn’t need
to do that while he had a relationship with her…a sexual relationship that is. Ginger was
so beautiful. She was jealous no matter how hard she tried not to be.
She made a cup of coffee.
It was dark outside.
She tried to sweep any thoughts
of Ginger from her mind as she walked back out to where Jared was working.
“So in your dieing last breath, instead of your last word being rosebud in remembrance of a sled you had as a little boy, you’re going to be saying
Klaatu barada Nikto
,”
said Jenny.
“That’s not quite accurate…if you care,” he said.
“What’s not accurate? I’m talking about
Citizen Kane
…you know, he says rosebud right before he kicks the bucket,” said Jenny.
“The inaccurate part is that he was remembering his sled. Yes the sled was rosebud but…as you know the motion picture was loosely based on Hearst and his love affair
with Marian Davies…and according to Gore Vidal, rosebud was the pet name Hearst had
for her clitoris.
Of course, Vidal may also have invented that bit of movie trivia,” said
Jared.
“Now you destroy one of my favorite movies.
I can never watch
Citizen Kane
again, Jared, without think of Marion Davies’ privates. It’s just like you to do that Jared,”
said Jenny.
“LOOK,” said Jared.
“The boat with the firefly is leaving the marina.
Just in
time. I think Rubio is back.”
He picked up field glasses and scanned the horizon.
Sure enough, the helicopter
had reappeared. The navigational lights were clearly for a helicopter.
“Can I see?” asked Jenny.
“Sure, but there isn’t much to see.”
“You’re right. All I can see are colored lights. You think that’s them?” she asked.
“I can never be one hundred percent certain, but I believe so. Remember what I
said about trusting what you feel—not what you think?”
He handed her a set of night vision goggles.
“Try these and look at the boat that
is leaving.”
She put them on. “Wow. It looks like photo flashes. It’s really bright.”
“The goggles let you see into the infrared.”
“I remember you explaining that,” she said.
“The earliest they’ll discover that they’ve been following the wrong boat is late
morning. It might even take them a day or two if they are really cautious. We’ll see.”
“I hope so. Can I use the phone?” asked Jenny.
“Of course. But use this prepaid cell phone, not the marine phone.”
“I want to let Krissy know that I am safe.
She must be worried sick by now.
I
just hope she hasn’t heard anything about what happened on the island. I assume it’s all
over the news by now.”
“Just don’t let her know where you are.”
“Of course not. I’m not stupid.”
Jared could see that Jenny was trying to pick another fight.
He wasn’t going to
help her. He stayed silent.
Jenny picked up Jared’s cell phone. It was an old Motorola StarTAC.
“You get this from the Smithsonian?” she asked.
“You can’t get pictures with it. It has no video games. But it works very well as
a telephone. More importantly, this phone is old enough that it can’t be tracked easily.
The newer cell phones can be.”
“Right.” She dialed out.
“Hi Krissy.”
“Hey, Jenn. What’s happening!”
“I hope you haven’t been worried about me.”
“Should I be? That’s like a really weird way of starting a conversation. What’ve
you been up to?” That Krissy didn’t know anything about what had happened didn’t surprise Jenny. Krissy rarely watched television and she never read newspapers.
“I haven’t called for a while,” said Jenny.
“Is that supposed to be like something new?” asked Krissy.
“Anyone been asking about me?”
“You mean Jared. No. He hasn’t called. I really don’t have time to talk right now.
Call me back, OK?”
“No, not Jared. I’m with him now. I mean anyone else.”
“No. Why the paranoia? What have you been up to?”
“Nothing.
I was just trying to see if anyone was asking for me. Why can’t you
give me a simple answer.”
“Like what part of ‘no’ don’t you get, Jenn?”
These were dumb questions, thought Jenny, but she had to ask.
“I’ve been going nuts trying to write a program for my Java class. I pulled an allnighter and like the damn thing still won’t work.”
“How’s Mom?”
“Are you listening to anything I’m saying?
I haven’t called her since last weekend,” said Krissy.
“You want Jared to help?”
“How can he help me? You guys still doing kissy face?”
“He’s a computer genius. You want his help or not?”
“Sure. Like I’ve got nothing to lose at this point. Jake’s already wimped out on
me,” said Krissy.
Jenny turned to Jared. “My sister needs some help with a computer program. Java! Can you help her?”
“Give me the phone,” said Jared. “Hi Krissy. What seems to be the problem?”
“The problem is my program doesn’t work.”
“You connected to the Internet? Broadband?” asked Jared.
“Like an umbilical cord, Jared.”
“E-mail it to [email protected] “
“I need a pencil. Do it again,” said Krissy.
“E-mail it to [email protected] “
“You have Eclipse…SDK?” she asked.
“Yes. Are you sending it?” asked Jared.
“It will take me a few minutes. Hang on.”
“Take your time,” he said.
“OK, here it comes,”
“Got it. Stay on the line,” said Jared.
“Let me explain what the program is,” she said.
“No need. I’ll figure it out.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” said Krissy.
It was like Mozart reading sheet music. He could hear the melody and the beat of
the program with his eyes. It was clearer than speaking in English because there was no
obscurity in meaning. There was no ambivalence in intent. Jenny couldn’t hear the conversation, but watching Jared at work…something he was clearly really, really good
at…was mesmerizing. Unbelievably, he was typing faster than she had ever seen anyone
type…and he was writing pure code…not copying words from another page. He typed
non-stop for about ten or fifteen minutes. It might have been longer. She lost track of the
time watching him.
“There! I renamed it ‘Krissy-dot-Java.’ Rename it again with whatever is appropriate for the class you are taking. It’s also compiled. I’m sending it back now.”
“No way!” said Krissy.
“Trust me. It will work just fine.”
“No way! The file’s huge Jared. What did you do?”
“Just trust me Krissy.”
“Yea. Yea. I trust you, but you’re not the one getting the ‘F’ if this turns to shit,”
said Krissy.
“I promise you it isn’t shit. Call me if you have questions.
This number doesn’t
block caller IDs. You’ve got the number. OK?”
“Thanks, Jared. You saved my life,” said Krissy.
“You quite welcome Krissy.
Remember, source code is free speech. You want
Jenny now?”
“Yea.” She had no idea what he was talking about.
Jared handed the phone to Jenny.
“Like is this some kind of bull shit Jenn? Is he for real?” asked Krissy.
“Trust him Krissy. I told you. He is a genius,” said Jenny.
“If you say so. Jake’s supposed to be a computer geek but he couldn’t do this and
he tried all night. This has been driving me crazy since last night.”
“OK, I have to go. Call Mom and tell her I’m fine.”
“You keep doing that. Call her yourself,” said Krissy.
“I just don’t want a lecture right now. Please.”
“Fine, Fine. I’ll call.”
“Love you Krissy.”
“OK, back at you. Bye.”
She snapped it closed and handed the phone back to Jared.
“Thank you for helping her.”
“I am happy that I could help,” he said.
“I’m really tired. I’m going to turn in. Are we safe for tonight?”
“We’re safe. Go to bed.”
“Good night,” she said.
“I’ll be along soon. I have a few more things I need to do.”
Jared watched Jenny hesitate just a step as she approached the cabin they had
been sharing.
Maybe it was a half step, but he saw it.
She went into the cabin.
She
paused for a minute. She could have gone to the smaller cabin on the left, but she didn’t.
About an hour later Jared slowly opened the cabin door.
Jenny was sleeping
soundly.
It was a deep sleep.
She was dreaming.
She was high on a mountain and a
warm wind was blowing her hair. Her grandmother was there and they were speaking in
Runes, at least what Jenny imagined Runes might sound like if they were spoken words.
He wasn’t in the dream.
He undressed in the dark. As he pulled back the blanket to slide in he noticed she
was still wearing her bra and panties. Walls were going up.
He gently kissed her forehead and settled into his pillow.
He was very tired too.
He heard the rain drops as he
started to doze off. The wind began to pick up.
“Good night, Jenny,” whispered Jared.