Interphase (7 page)

He rested in the link chair and drew deep breaths as the burning sensation faded away. Perhaps the system accident hadn't left him as untouched as he originally thought.

How had the Storm allowed him to break through a part of V-Net? Had he been permanently damaged by the lightning strike?

Unanswered questions were piling up, and finding the mystery module felt like the only way to get answers.

David stalked back to his bedroom and flopped down on the bed. He dozed off and awoke from a dream of wandering through a lush landscape hand in hand with Analara.

Whoa now. Getting ahead of myself.

He'd only met her once, under some very strange circumstances. He knew nothing about her except for her name, and the fact that she'd saved his life. And yet, she intrigued him. This beautiful, mysterious woman who had rushed to save the life of a complete stranger.

David wanted to thank her, and maybe, if luck held, a chance to get to know her.

When the opportunity presented itself, he needed to make amends with Jessica. Despite his own insecurities, she'd been his one true friend for longer than he could remember.

But first he had a new plan to locate Analara. It would likely be more successful than his prior endeavor.

It was also highly illegal. Finding Analara and her module would be worth it though.

David just needed a way to convince Clyde that the risk would be worth it to
him
.

Chapter 7

The board was set. A slow, simple beat pulsed inside his ears. He always worked better to music.

The pieces were about to make their opening moves. Clyde cracked his knuckles; he fixed his gaze on the data streams and let his fingertips hover above the keyboard. He nodded in time with the rhythm.
Now
.

At exactly 9:13 AM, the assault on the V-Cop mainframe began. Sophisticated anti-intrusion algorithms immediately locked the network behind a firewall and logged the attack. Kill-bots flooded the area, like a body's immune system responding to a threat, seeking targets to destroy. Clyde sent his program charging into the line of defenders. It struck a weak point, and two of the bots went down, allowing him to slip past. A second wave swooped in milliseconds behind, but they couldn't catch up before his program slammed into the firewall.

Nothing happened. The defenders fell upon Clyde's attack code, scanning and blasting. Soon, nothing was left but a dent in the firewall that was already repairing itself.

Clyde grinned. An innocuous snippet of code wormed through the firewall itself and emerged inside. It had read the firewall's composition and recoded itself upon impact. These elaborate security systems would never be able to keep up with his biomorphic infiltrator—a spy guided by the most skilled hacker ever to challenge VERA's domain.

A small number of transmission bots had been loaded within the worm. One by one Clyde deposited them at strategic surveillance hubs. He had set monitors along one wall of his apartment. Each time a t-bot activated, another screen lit up. V-Cops monitored users, while Clyde now monitored the V-Cops.

With all of the bots planted, Clyde steered his creation toward the mainframe. He had to be more careful here. Faster, smarter guard programs patrolled the area, and any stray piece of code would be deemed hostile if it was detected. He would have to weave and slip around their notice to get to his destination.

Clyde's infiltrator darted between data streams and storage structures, sneaking ever closer to his target. The entrance to the secure mainframe loomed before him like a fortress, surrounded by sensors and code-killers. He prepared his secret weapon, readying the spy to assimilate one of the mainframe defenders and take its place. Soon the V-Cops would have no secrets from him. VERA's realm would be defenseless, leaving him free to hunt her down.

A sound, abrupt and unfamiliar, buzzed at the edge of his senses. Clyde jerked in his chair, nearly ripping his headphones off. Gazing around his dingy apartment he realized the noise was an incoming call. He still got those?

Clyde's computer suddenly sparked. Half a dozen mainframe guardians located his infiltrator and sent a seek trace to get a fix on his position. He yanked the cords from his primitive machine and kicked the case over, aborting the program lock. The monitors on the wall went dark.

"
Damn it
!" Clyde slammed the desk with his fist and shot a glare at the ringing earpiece. He snatched it up. "Whoever you are, you better have one hell of a good reason for—"

"Hello to you too, Clyde." The answering voice sounded surprised. "It's David."

"David?" Confusion overrode Clyde's ire. He sank into a well-beaten armchair. "Wait. David
Harris
?"

"Yeah. It's been awhile."

Awhile? Seven years, to be exact. Not since high school. He remembered David well. Talented programmer, if lacking in passion. They had made a good team until the administrators caught them hacking into school records. David had broken ties with him after his stepfather got on his case.

David's stepfather. Roger Smith… Captain Roger Smith, head of the 9th V-Squad. Oh shit.

"What do you want?" Clyde didn't try to mask his suspicion.

"Access to something I can't get to by myself," David said. "I need a way into V-Net's command level."

Clyde snorted. "Now I
know
this is a sting. You're a class 5 hacker. Got some decent X-games to your name, but there's nothing you need command access for."

"You've seen my stuff?" David sounded almost flattered.

"I keep tabs on all my former associates. It's not bad work."

"Why Clyde, I didn't know you cared."

"Don't get cute, Harris." Clyde's tone sharpened. He leaned forward in his chair like a spring wound too tight and glared at the empty monitors. "This isn't one of your game modules. This is a full Nexa level security detail. This is neural tracing and assault-bot response teams. So you'd better tell me
exactly
what you want in the command level, because it had better be
good
if I'm gonna risk staring VERA down."

The pause lasted several seconds, and then David's tone was all business. "How much do you know about Crash Storms?"

***

Clyde's stealth shell module was a fascinating piece of engineering to David. It was undetectable and traveled through secure V-Net sectors like an invisible Trojan horse. Clyde kept his eyes glued to his control panels the entire trip, maintaining their course and ignoring David entirely. David was too busy poking into the module's underlying code to attempt conversation.

"Stop that," Clyde said without looking up. "If you're a good little programmer, I'll show you how to write one yourself."

Snorting, David cancelled his probe scan and studied his former friend. Clyde had always been tall and skinny, but now he leaned toward emaciated. He had his light blond hair cut short and ragged, and small twitches seemed to constantly play across his face. Everything about him spoke of nervous tension.

Perhaps it was merely focus. No one in the right circles of V-Net could deny that when it came to hacking, Clyde was the paragon of the craft.

"We're here," Clyde said, and his gaze grew even sharper.

David leaned over to look at the readouts, but Clyde was already shifting the system modes, as well as his avatar. His skinny frame morphed into a barrel-chested, rocket launcher-wielding soldier. David threw his head back and laughed at the familiar sight.

"Sergeant Doom, eh? All right, if that's how we're playing."

David tapped a shortcut to his character loader, and his outfit shifted into its new form. The weight of a pistol settled on his hip. He tipped his fedora and flashed Clyde a suave grin. "Meet Detective Smith."

"Smith, huh? Yeah, you don't have any sort of complex about your step-dad, now do you?" Clyde retorted. "You think that little slug-thrower will be able to keep up if there's trouble?"

David drew the revolver and stared down the sight. His fingers brushed the lion head embossed on the handle before slipping it back under his trench coat. "Depends on your definition of 'trouble'," he replied. "Anything particular I should be on the lookout for?"

"Leave that to me."

The exit opened into blackness. An enormous central room spread before them, with corridors splitting off at regular intervals. The walls were constructed with black slabs of raw code material, held together by seams of gold light. Diffused white lines crisscrossed within the walls, marking the network relays that traveled throughout the system.

Clyde tapped a pair of buttons within the module, and the golden seams nearby shifted to green. The color spread along the lines of the room. "Sensory counter-code," he explained. "This will prevent VERA from directly observing things if
you
screw up."

David stepped inside, eyes trained for movement, and admired the beautiful simplicity of V-Net's core. "How often do you come up here?"

"Whenever I feel like it," Clyde said. Moving toward one of the corridors, he raised his weapon in preparation.

"Have you ever seen VERA? Inside the network, I mean."

"Nobody sees her here. She's locked behind so many protocol barriers and security systems, that you'd get disconnected and thrown in the pen before you saw which wire you tripped." Clyde kept his eyes forward, but there was something in his voice, an undertone of challenge that snuck in when he spoke of Phoenix's governess.

Clyde's parents had been part of some conspiracy several years ago. They had been executed for their crimes, but Clyde had inherited their opposition to the fact that mankind was ruled unconditionally by an ancient computer program.

David had to admit that it sometimes seemed unnatural, but considering that humanity had destroyed their home world ages ago, while VERA kept this world flourishing and balanced, it made sense. The system wasn't always perfect, but David had no issue with bending the rules when he needed to. It was one thing to bend the rules, however, and another to seek to destroy the guardian that sustained humanity.

Clyde came to an abrupt stop, and David, lost in thought, bumped into him. Clyde rolled his eyes, held a finger to his lips and motioned for David to look forward. A low humming noise drifted from one of the corridors far ahead. "Defense bot," Clyde whispered. He altered a setting on his rocket launcher. "Can your weapon disrupt LO encryption shielding?"

David nodded and tapped options on his holo-screen. "LO, BKP, even AP if the target is stationary."

"All right, all right, you came prepared. Now shut up and wait for it to show."

The hum grew louder, light streaming down the corridor as the bot appeared. It was an orb-shaped machine about a foot wide, floating several feet above the ground. A pair of scanning ports rotated around its surface. Clyde stood up, aiming the launcher. The bot spotted them, and its scanners changed to red. A warning siren abruptly blared.

A single rocket annihilated all traces of the bot, but the sirens did not go quiet. A whirring sound echoed down the corridor, and a swarm of bots charged into view. "Time to earn your keep, Harris," Clyde shouted.

David raised his pistol and fired. His first shot scored, and a bot disintegrated into faint code snippets. The second and third shots struck true as well. Retreating, the wall of bots took cover and launched beams and bolts of their own.

"You're not bad with that thing," said Clyde, still fiddling with his weapon.

"Too many shooter modules as a kid," David answered, ducking into a small alcove as a blue beam fired past. "Maybe you could, I don't know, earn your keep as well?"

Clyde shrugged. "No loss to me if this doesn't work out." He eyed David with a grin. "Oh, and try to avoid getting shot. Those are ident-tracer pulses. They'll knock you out of the network, log your location, and alert VERA's nearest assault-bots to come pick you up."

David looked at him in wide-eyed amazement.

"Told you this would be fun."

Well, it was necessary to find out more about what had happened to him, and it would be worth it to see Analara as well. Diving from cover, David fired several rounds as the defenders approached. He ducked a pair of shots before taking a hit to his shoulder. The force of the discharge threw him to the ground. Scrambling, he reached the safety of the alcove.

"I thought you said they were firing ident-tracers," David shouted over the blasts.

Clyde poked his head out for a look before responding. "Nah, the square ones are firing nerve disruptors. Not much of a problem for you now, but… well, you'll be feeling it in the morning." He smirked evilly at David.

Standing up, Clyde leisurely aimed his launcher at the oncoming throng. Blasts ricocheted off the walls near his head. David reached out and tried to pull him down, but a glare from Clyde convinced him not to. David stared in horror when several bolts struck Clyde directly—

And bounced off.

Bracing the launcher, Clyde fired a burst toward the other end of the corridor. There was no explosion of light or sound, but all firing ceased. David peeked out from his corner and stared at the empty hallway.