The Unseen (12 page)

If Kari hadn’t known what she was looking for, she would have had no idea what was going on, or that it was even possible.

“It took me a year to get this procedure down,” Joseth said. “Twelve or fifteen hours a day. In many ways, I’ve spent more time on that tiny little printer than anything else in my entire life. Once it’s finished, it contacts its host printer for materials that it uses to print some worker nanobots that will gather additional resources
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Those resources will allow the nanoprinter to produce as many nanobots as possible until it wears out.”

“So a regular printer prints the nanoprinter, which prints workers, which allow it to print more nanobots until it can’t print anymore?”

“That’s right.” Joseth laughed with Kari. “But it gets even better than that. You see, the worker drones know how to replace parts of the nanoprinter when it wears out, so it’s a fully self-sustaining system.”

“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen something so incredible,” Kari said. “Really, I didn’t even think Oedipus would be able to do something like this.”

“Well, no one can join the Unseen if they don’t have skills, myself included,” Joseth said. Kari stopped paying attention as she saw a tiny dot leave the nanoprinter and move around the tray. She had to focus to see it, but it was there.

“Wow, there it is!”

“Yeah—give it a few minutes, and we’ll have a tiny nanobot army.”

“The night that you . . . rescued me, right before your cheetahs and auto-auto showed up, a soldier pointed a gun at me. I was done for; she looked like she meant business with it. Then, her gun just sort of disintegrated in her hands. If you were behind the EMP, it makes sense that you were behind whatever happened at that time as well.”

“I’m surprised it took you this long to figure it out,” Joseth said.
In my defense, there has been a lot on my mind lately.

“So you haven’t sold it to the Middle States yet?”
Why do I say things like that?

“No, and I don’t think I’ll ever be selling this particular technology,” Joseth said. His voice was solemn and serious.

“Oh . . . why not?”

“I couldn’t trust anyone else with this. It’s too powerful. The world’s not ready for it yet.”

“I know the feeling,” Kari said, thinking of the hacking drones that she had refused to give to the government. She hadn’t printed a single copy of those drones since the night she used them to force her way through the US Army.

“I sent a few modified cheetahs, an auto-auto, and around a hundred million nanobots to save you from the Middle States.” Joseth smiled as he watched Kari’s reaction. Kari felt her eyes go wide, and she blinked a few times.

“You can’t be serious!” The reality of what she was witnessing was finally starting to process in her mind.

“I am. The nanobots are transported in the cheetahs and then dispersed in clusters. I ordered several million of them to crawl onto each of the Middle States soldiers and begin to reproduce. The gun disintegrated because I unleashed the nanobots on it. It doesn’t take millions of tiny robots long to chew through advanced weaponry.”

“That’s absolutely unbelievable, Joseth!” Kari’s mind spun as she thought through the thousands of ways that Joseth’s nanobots could change the world. It was exciting and terrifying at the same time. She leaned in even closer to the printer to try to see the beginning of new nanobot horde.

“Thanks, that means a lot coming from you.”

“So, they can make more nanobots and eat guns. What else can they do?”

“I’m still figuring that out. To be honest, that was the first time I’ve used them outside a simulation. But I know they can alter weapon systems so they misfire, and jam mechanical armor so soldiers can’t move as effectively as they would like.”

“Well, that explains why I was able to outrun soldiers.”

“I’m sure you could have done it without me.”

“Are you kidding me? They had the drop on me. I’d be trying to hack my way out of another prison if you hadn’t saved me.”

“It was nothing. I’m just glad you’re here now.”

“So, one question,” Kari said.

“What’s that?”

“How is this part of an apology?”

“You trusted me with the knowledge of your hacking drones, and I was a buffoon and pushed you to show them to me when you weren’t ready. Yet, there I was not trusting you with the knowledge of my nanobots.”
Each word was soft and delicate, and had an air of being rehearsed. “So now I am trusting you with this, my greatest invention. And whenever you’re ready, I hope you trust me enough to show me your hacking drones.”

“That’s really sweet of you, Joseth,” Kari said. For the first time, she realized how close he was standing next to her. She stopped focusing on the printer and the nanobots.

“I realized after the little dispute how much I cared about what you thought of me, and how much I cared about you,” Joseth said, inching closer with each word.

Joseth leaned in and kissed her. Kari pulled away at first, but something stopped her. The shock of Joseth kissing her was overwhelming.
I never imagined Oedipus would think of me this way . . . I shouldn’t . . .
She didn’t put up much of a fight before kissing him back.

Some printers across from them activated and starting printing, causing Joseth and Kari to suddenly pull apart. Kari breathed in a big breath of air for the first time in minutes. Joseth looked to be doing the same, as they both searched around to make sure that no one could see them.
When Joseth didn’t see anyone, he shrugged and stepped in to continue where they had left off.
David!

“Sorry, I . . .” Kari didn’t know what to say. She stepped back and continued to catch her breath and try to figure out what just happened.

“You? You didn’t like it?”

“No I did,” Kari said.
It wasn’t as electric as my first kiss with David, but it was great in its own way . . .
“But it’s not that . . . it’s that I kind of have someone back home.”

The guilt she felt doubled as she said it.
Great, now I feel like I’ve cheated on David and led Joseth on. Life was so much easier when boys couldn’t care less about me.

“Oh,” Joseth said. He was the one to step back this time.

“I’m sorry,” Kari said. “I didn’t know what was happening . . . I shouldn’t have let that happen. I’m sorry.”

“Right,” Joseth said. “Well . . . how about we figure all that out later.”

“Good idea.” Kari finally felt like she was able to catch her breath, but she still hadn’t figured out what she was thinking.
I kissed him back. That’s the truth. I care for David, but I kissed Joseth back.

“Here, I’m going to hand you control of the printer and the nanobots. Then you can play around with them for a minute while I take a little walk to clear the air.” Kari accepted the invitation to take control of the nanobots. Joseth rubbed his head while he walked past her and farther into the basement, quickly passing out of sight behind a row of printers.

I told David that nothing was going on, and he believed me. Now, I sit here and do this.
She didn’t know what to think or do, so she took control of the nanobots.
There wasn’t much to them, just little signals and some vague readings about their surroundings. They were too small to have cameras or any advanced sensors, so controlling them felt like she was flying blind. She ordered the two dozen nanobots to form a tiny little ball while she let the printer and workerbots continue their tasks.

Kari stooped closer and squinted her eyes to get a better view of the nanobots. Even grouped up together they were so small that they were hard to see. They were like a tiny spec of electronic dirt. She wasn’t sure what to do with them, so she searched her pocket and found a wrapper from a candy bar she had picked up from one of the snack trays earlier in the day
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She set it on the printer’s tray and ordered her tiny nanobots to disintegrate it.

The nanobot spec rolled over to the wrapper and disappeared. Kari leaned as close as her eyes could focus, but she still wasn’t able to tell what was happening. She knew the nanobots were chewing through it, but with so few of them the changes were too slow.
Joseth must have ordered millions of them to disintegrate the gun that night he brought me here. The fact that he was able to even give that command with his limited visibility is astounding.

“So what do you think?” Joseth said from over her shoulder.

“About the nanobots? I think they are amazing, but I think it’s hard to get a good feel for what they can do when there are so few of them.”

“Yeah, I think you’d get a better feel for them by commanding a few million.”

“That would be fun.” The conversation between them didn’t feel natural anymore. Kari was too proper, and Joseth was trying overly hard to play it cool. Kari wanted to leave.

“Well,” Joseth said, “how about I give you that chance in a few days. You know, once we’ve had some time.”

“Yeah, some time would be good, I think.”
I have a feeling I might need a lot of time to figure this mess out.

“So . . . anything else you want to talk about?” Aubrey said.

“What is it?” Kari said.

“Well, it’s just that I was telling you about everything going on around here, about Dallin and Austin and everything else, so I was just wondering if there was anything else that maybe you wanted to talk about . . .”

“Real subtle Aubrey—what do you want to talk about?”

Aubrey smiled in a way that told Kari she had absolutely no problem with being caught. “So David might have mentioned that you’re staying with some friends from online, and there may or may not be a guy or two with you.”

“Did he, now?”

“Yeah, he tried to play it off like no big deal, but I could tell he was a little jealous. But in a cute way.”

Aubrey had been staying with David’s family, and from all accounts she had been getting along relatively well with them. Unlike David’s modified college schedule, high school hadn’t started again yet, which made it hard for Aubrey to find new friends. She spent most of her time at the Pratt’s house playing with the younger girls and trying to find ways to help out, which made her all the more eager to try to live through Kari. Every time they talked she pried into anything that sounded the least bit exciting.

“Well, he’s right. I’m staying with some friends from online. They’re in a situation similar to mine, so it’s working out for now, but I’m not sure how long I’ll stay with them. Need to keep moving and all that.”

“And the boys?” The pitch of Aubrey’s voice rose with every syllable.

“Um . . . there are a few here. But there’s nothing going on.”

“Nothing?” Aubrey always knew when Kari wasn’t telling her everything. There is no escaping her. Kari knew she had to give her something, or she wouldn’t leave it alone.

“Well, one of them likes me, I think, but I have David and everything, you know?”

“Oh yeah, of course, of course,” Aubrey said. “Is he cute at least?”

“He’s not horrible, I guess,” Kari said. “But, I’m sure he’s no Austin.”

“Good! Not that it matters because of David, but it’s better when they are cute.”

“Well, I should probably get back to work. David is pretty insistent I figure out how out how to end the war and all that.” Kari liked talking to Aubrey, but she was a little too boy crazy for her at times.
That, and she didn’t trust her to keep any interesting details safe from David.
Just the fact that I have details to keep from David is the problem. But, then again, it’s not like we are anything official. And we’re young!

The call with Aubrey ended, and Kari was left to choose what to work on.
Trying to figure out the killer and the weapon, or paying my rent for a place where apparently I’m not supposed to trust anyone. But, Joseth trusts me, and there haven’t been any assassinations in a while . . .

Kari loaded up her development environment and opened the project that contained all her work on hacking the security system. She had tried everything she could think of to hack past the system’s defenses, but nothing had worked yet.

She had kicked off programs to scan and test the system weeks ago, utilizing every well-known toolkit and exploit, but they still hadn’t found any weaknesses.
It’s like I wrote this system myself.
Writing security software had been one of her staples when she had a more active freelance career. She had made millions hacking them as well, but this one was more difficult than any she’d ever faced.

Some hackers bragged about hacking into high-security government databases and corporate bank accounts, but she had never claimed any of her hacks online. It was too risky, and reading about how other hackers had risked it all to break into a system felt a little self-congratulatory for her.

Kari started another round of programs designed to test different parts of the security system, but stopped them all right away.
They’ve got all of the traditional weaknesses covered; otherwise, I would have found them by now. Brute force won’t work—it would take centuries to try to break through their system the old fashioned way. I don’t know whom this is for, so I can’t social engineer my way in . . . I need a new approach. A unique solution to a unique problem.

Kari started looking at the profile of the system again; looking anew for characteristics she could try to attack. It was new software, designed to protect anything and everything inside of its physical perimeter. Any digital traffic trying to reach any device on the inside of the physical perimeter would be protected. It was a super-firewall, combined with access control and other security packages. It was a full suite, developed by Lantern Dynamics, one of the mega-corporations in Texas. It had no weakness; it would protect everything it touched, whether it wanted to be protected or not.

It was a system that superseded any other software. It wrapped it up in cushy bubble wrap and kept it from being touched without its approval.
But what if the new thing it’s trying to protect is already claimed by another identical system? Can’t have two boyfriends, can’t have two security systems
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