Interphase (8 page)

"Shall we go?" Clyde asked.

"You could have destroyed those whenever you wanted to!" David rubbed his shoulder, a feeling of numbness spreading down his arm.

"Well, duh. I wanted to see if you could hold your own if we ran into trouble. Normally a class 5 isn't much to write home about."

"Gee, thanks. I trust you're satisfied now?"

Clyde gave him a half-grin and offered him a hand up. "I can't help it if you forgot to bring your own personal code deflector."

The last corridor opened into a wide room. A barrier of rippling energy stood at the center. There were no drones here, but the shield was imposing enough that they weren't necessary. No access panel was visible. David glanced at Clyde, who just nodded at the wall of light. "All right, Harris. Let's see about this gate."

David activated his holo-screen and gave the barrier's coding a cursory examination. It was as complex as he would expect from a gate protecting V-Net's information core. He attempted to launch a pair of code probes, but they were quickly rebuffed. Frowning, he tried again, stretching his search farther this time. He received a response, but it was not the one he'd been hoping for. A wave of energy rippled through the barrier, and Clyde swore under his breath.

"What did I just do?" David asked.

"You just alerted the system! VERA knows we're here."

Chapter 8

Clyde shoved David aside and inserted a probe into the barrier. He executed a masking program and found the alert, fragmenting the data flow so that the signal dissipated before reaching its destination. Slowly, the shield quieted.

David shuffled his feet nervously. "Are we in trouble?"

"No," Clyde said, already starting to work on the gateway. "I did a signal spread. The alert won't reach anyone now."

"Sorry about that."

Clyde shrugged. He had been expecting an error sooner rather than later. There was no sense getting upset about it. When hacking, strong emotional tension only clouded one's focus. Inside the system, he couldn't afford to lose his edge, or VERA would win.

Cracking the barrier only took a few seconds. It faded, and Clyde motioned for David to follow. He led them through a wide passage to a massive chamber. A circular dais sat in the center of the room. Against the wall behind it was an extended computer terminal. "Welcome to the Central Database, Harris."

Glancing over his shoulder, Clyde saw David's indifferent expression change to open-mouthed awe. He quickly interposed himself before David could step forward. "Let me handle this next part. We can't afford any mistakes in the core."

David nodded reluctantly, and they walked to the console. Clyde reached for his bandolier and withdrew a pronged tool. He slipped it into an access port and twisted. It discharged a flash of light, and the central operations console flickered to life. "All right, Harris, you said I could use the Crash Storm energy to completely mask parts of V-Net from VERA," he said. "Where do I start?"

"Well, uh…" David fidgeted.

Clyde turned and fixed him with a stare. "What is 'uh'?" He raised the barrel of his weapon and pointed it directly at David. "If this
is
some part of a sting, Harris, VERA will be the least of your worries."

"Whoa, whoa, hold up." David raised his hands in a show of non-aggression. "There's no sting. I needed you to get me in here because I'm trying to find someone."

Cocking an eyebrow, Clyde lowered his weapon slightly. "Okay. Now I'm curious. Who could be so important that you would risk crossing me to locate them?"

David blushed and tried to speak, but no words came from his mouth.

Laughter echoed through the chamber, the silence of the room torn apart by rough guffaws.

"David Harris dragged me all the way into the central bloody core of V-Net itself to find a
girl
?" Clyde paused for breath. "That's something I wouldn't have seen coming if you'd told me about it before-hand."

Glaring at Clyde, David fired back, "There's more to it than that, you know."

Clyde chuckled and turned toward the entrance of the room. "I'm sure there is, Harris, but I've had enough. I'm gone, and I suggest you get that way yourself. When my counter-code withdraws, VERA will see you, plain as day."

"Just as well, this was too much for you to handle anyway."

Clyde stopped in his tracks. "There is
nothing
in this network, or any other, that I can't hack, decompile, and rebuild in a day."

"Big talk from someone who's never succeeded in breaching VERA's 3rd Protocol."

Clyde whirled, his face a mix of surprise and anger. "How could you possibly know about—"

"You aren't the only one who keeps tabs on his associates." David narrowed his eyes and sized Clyde up before continuing. "I'm hardly the novice you seem to think I am. Despite your skills, I don't know if you have what it takes to crack this mystery. So perhaps it would be best if you scurried on home."

Reassessing his companion, Clyde grudgingly smirked. "Well played, Harris. Fine, fill me in on the details, and we'll see about your 'mystery' girl."

"Start your search in my log files, Monday, about 9:15 AM." David stepped aside as Clyde approached the console. He set down the rocket launcher and let his fingers hover over the luminescent controls. "I was doing a demo of my latest program and after an accident, I managed to break through into another module."

Clyde's eyes widened, then narrowed. "That isn't possible. Virtual space isn't connected in
any
sort of physical sense."

"Tell me about it. You should check my medical charts from the same time. The crash did a number on my body."

Clyde had already brought the logs up and was running a trace on the crash point. Nothing conclusive came up. Turning back to the controls, he cancelled the search. "No luck there. Let's check the specs on your module."

"It's on a secure field. You can't access it without—"

A look from Clyde silenced him. "If it's inside the system, I can find it. Shut up and leave the real hacking to me."

Clyde brought up the code map of the hover-bike module. "Okay. There should still be a point of impact in the program. Let's see if you left any directional markers." He navigated to the point of the accident and peeled back the top code layer from that spot. Just under the surface he detected an unknown formula.

"Not bad, Clyde," David conceded.

"Like you could have pulled it off." Sifting through the search pings, Clyde lifted a module address from the program and ran a trace into it.

An instant later it bounced back: no location data available.

"That can't possibly be right."

"Tell me about it," David echoed.

Clyde tried again, watching the trace disappear like an atom of light into a black hole. A ghost ping returned: no identification.

"What kind of module could be cloaked like this?" David asked.

"I've no bloody idea." Clyde was stunned. He re-examined the data, trying to make the results fit into the rules of V-Net. "The trace is going
somewhere
, but I'm getting no location data whatsoever."

David leaned in closer. "So what does that mean?"

Clyde didn't answer. His fingertips danced over the control board, and he chewed his bottom lip in thought.

If it was attached to the system, he could find it.

He punched in a new command. "Hang on to something. I'm gonna open the core's bridge-gate to the mystery module." Clyde paused. "Remind me to add that functionality to my mainframe."

David gaped. "Clyde, you're insane! If you don't have the precise location data, you could collapse the entire—"

"Do you want me to find your 'girlfriend' or not?" Clyde snapped. "If I can send a trace, then it's going somewhere. If it's going somewhere, I
will
get us there. Now shut the hell up and let me concentrate!"

David clenched his pistol but made no further objection. Clyde turned back to the console. VERA's system controls opened before him, yielding to his will, but the signal kept brushing against a wall of… something. It was like no code he had ever seen. Somehow, impossibly, it rebuffed him, bouncing his link back.

So, VERA thought she'd found a way to keep him out.

Cracking his knuckles, he launched the bridge directly into the code wall. A doorway began to form on the center dais, a lined rectangle filled with a still blackness.

Within the doorway, the darkness pulsed.

The gateway recoiled, shaking the entire level and knocking David off his feet; it just pissed Clyde off.

She was hiding something!

Clyde opened a link to his mainframe and loaded every breaching program he'd developed. He strung them together, rapidly constructing the code equivalent of an energized sledgehammer.

He smashed the wall with his full strength…

Clyde opened his eyes, wondering when he had closed them. He blinked, and a headache slammed into his skull like a pile driver. David was nowhere to be seen, and it took Clyde several minutes to realize that he was staring at the ceiling of his apartment.

***

David woke with his face pressed into a patch of dewy grass. Pain flared from the base of his skull when he moved his neck. Groaning, he got to his knees and managed to look around. From the lush foliage and the green sky overhead, it was obvious that Clyde had succeeded in opening the bridge. Of the hacker himself, however, there was no sign.

"Clyde!" David called, inspecting the ground for signs that his companion had been there. Nothing was disturbed, and there was no signal when he tried a tell-channel. "Well, you definitely got us here."

Glancing behind him, David saw a passage leading back to the database core, black walls and green seams visible through the doorway of blue light. As he watched, he realized the gateway was slowly shrinking. Something was trying to close it. Panicking, he grabbed a rock and wedged it into the narrowing gap. The blue line collapsed around the rock but held steady. A quick exam with his wrist-computer confirmed it as stable. He sent a signal into the doorway, and it resumed its former size, closing automatically after a minute had passed.

A trace sent into the command level still wasn't able to pinpoint his location in V-Net.

At least David now had solid proof that the module hadn't been some grand, oxygen-deprived delusion. As strange a place as this was, it was real. He chose a trail that led deeper into the trees and started walking, making sure his computer mapped his route.

The environment was lush, more verdant than any fantasy module David had accompanied Jessica into. It felt solid. The programming work was absolutely impeccable. David raised his hand to brush a low-hanging vine; the arrowhead-shaped leaves were smooth, glossy, and released a faint scent when touched. Flowering plants were in abundance, all unfamiliar, and all beautiful.

It had to be a persistent module, and a very old one at that. Whoever ran it possessed unparalleled programming skills, not only to build it, but to mask it so effectively from the rest of the network. Normally such modules merely offered a long-term adventure. This place… a person could lose themselves in a world like this.

David thought back to his meeting with Analara, and a concern began to voice itself. If she was fully immersed in this world, would he ever get a chance to meet her outside of it? What hope would he have if she had buried herself in the system? The only way to know would be to find her.

Continuing his meandering trek, David was surprised when he emerged from under the trees and saw a sea of flowing grass. What he had thought was a forest was actually a large grove of trees. Others like it rose up throughout the plain like islands of greenery.

A breeze sent waves rippling through the grass and whispered through the trees behind David. He knelt and combed his fingers through the ankle-high stalks, marveling at their unusual softness. A sudden childish urge overtook him, and he rolled down the gentle mound leading from the grove. He lay sprawled at the bottom, staring up at a cloudless green sky.

Above the sound of the wind, David heard a chittering noise in the brush. A snub-nosed creature rose out of the grass a few feet away, peering at him. The face reminded him of a squirrel, but its fur was tan and stretched across a long, thin body. They stared at each other for a time before the animal rubbed its paws over its nose and ducked under the waves of grass. David stood up, but it had already disappeared.

Across the plains, the nearest grove's trees swayed dreamily in the breeze. Like giant willows they let their crown of leafy tendrils hang low, their gray-barked trunks standing straight and proud. David drew near and craned his neck trying to see the tops of them. Passing under their shade again, he bowed his head in respect. The breeze reached through the delicate branches to brush his face. The murmuring of the trees was quieter here, broken by the occasional trill of a strange bird.

David walked on, wandering down trails as he found them and checking his wrist-controller frequently to make sure his path was clearly mapped. He crossed a small brook, and movement registered at the edge of his vision. He turned, and a shadow vanished around one of the massive willows. A faint sound tickled his mind, like a voice crying out from an impossible distance. He shook his head.