Maxwell Huxley's Demon (9 page)

The car angles across the alley, blocking his exit .
Max waits halfway between the car and the wall where Virginia is still screaming at him to run.

Think. Tick .

Looking back , Max sees the car door open. A large man in a suit steps out . W
hy did they send a football player in a suit ?
The man stands and smiles.
“It’s all over kids, stop running .”

Think.

Ten metres t o Virginia and ten metres to the football player .
Electrons always move; they transmit data/energy when they change state. How w ill I call the electrons though ?
H
ow will I seed the programs?
The n e utrons will know me, but there’
s no boot strap yet.

Max runs.
I only need to mak e it three metres .
The football-player-in-a-suit runs.
Naomi sneezes .

Tock.

One step. Think. Two steps. Momentum. Three steps. Max looks at the garbage bin closer to him than Virginia is . Four steps. Mr .
Football M
an gets up t o speed fast. Five steps. Not too soon, wait. Six steps. Wait. Seven steps. Look back , turn toward the garbage bin . Eight steps.
A large hand reaches for Max.
Max drops to the ground , curling into a ball .

Max is sma ll, he stops quickly. P
hysics kick s in for the football player .
His hand over shoots Max. Instinct keeps him from stepping on the boy, instead, he trips .

Max looks u p at the airborne man.

Tick.

‘
e=mc 2
’

‘
k=dc 2
’

‘
Knowledge = Da ta process x Clock tick squared ’

He has a gun.

‘
D = Information/Process ’

‘
K=
ICt /p . . .
I have to tell Walker this.
’

Approximately when Max thinks about Walker , the man’s skull collides with the garbage bin . The bin makes a sound like a church bell .

Tock.

Virginia arrives and picks Max up off the ground .
I believe she has wings.
S
he pushes him up the wall, while Walker reac hes down grabbing Max’s wrists . The last thing Max sees , as his friends push and pull him over the wall , is the football player looking as if he is having a seizure .

---

Virginia and Naomi pull Max and Walker out the other end of the alley onto a small d owntown street lined with independent shops and restaurants.
“F
ind us a school , Walker , ” Max says.
“
W
e’ve got about a minute before they come down this street.”

Walker pulls them all into the first restaurant he can find. The hostess raises an eyebrow. “
Can I help you?”

With t ears brimming in her eyes , Virginia says, “We’re on a school tri p. We got separated. We’
re supposed to be at the school already. We’
re in so much trouble. Are we close to a school ?
If we are, we should—”

“
Shh . . .
Y
es , you ’re close to one .
You start by . . .”
The hostess gives them directions.

B
ack outside, “Guys, ” Max says. “We have to stop running.
We saw them bec ause they didn’t fit in. They’
ll see us unless we fit in.”

Naomi clutches Max’s arm and poi nts left and up the street.
A large black car glides around the corner.

“
It’s OK
. W
e only have to make it four block s , ” Max says . “They’
re looking for four of us, split up, follow adults like those kids across the street are doing.
M
eet at the school.”

---

The car moves slowly along, i ts driver scanning the street and sidewalk for any sign of the kids . He looks over his shoulder at his partner in the back seat, who has blood streaming from a gash on his head.

He touches the radio.
“
MGA unit 011-43 reporting.”

“Go ahead,”
says a voice from the radio .

“
Made contact with Canadian 1A target s , one agent injured and on board , still in pursuit, last seen heading toward Columbia Avenue, any further instructions?
”

He listens to static for a minute, then, “
Nothing further . . . m aintain pursuit .
”

---

They split up. It’s lunch time so there are numerous parents on the road heading to school to pick up or drop kids .
Individually, t hey blend in and make it to the front of the school as the bell rings . M
orning classes let loose into the school grounds.
A screaming mass of kids spill past Max. Some head for playgrounds, others line up for some reason by a door back into the school, other s eat snacks while they run, some kids seem to just run randomly .
Chaos . We play at our school. But not like this.
Compared to this , everyone at my school is calm, subdued.

While Max ponders that, a male teacher wearing a suit comes out of the school.
W
e have an hour at most befor e we get picked up. Think.

Max looks around and easily spots Walker, Virginia, and Naomi. He just looks for the only kids standing still with their mouths hanging open as they stare at the other kids.
He gathers them and takes them to a set of bleachers across the school field .
Hidden from view, t hey sit in a circle under the bleachers .

Walker opens his laptop and boots his reader.
“Signal strength is good here.”
Walker wr ite s and commit s ne w code .

When they commit code it’s pushed out to the nearest infected processing space and then spr ead farther by other electrons.

“So . . . those t wo are smart, I know how smart,”
Virginia tells Naomi while pointing at Max and Walker . “
You’re not as good as they are at coding.
S
o how did you hijack what they did without having someone help you ?”

“I didn’t hijack anything, ” Naomi says, “
I just changed the keys.”

“
Hmpf .” Virginia look s unconvinced. “W
hy are you here?”

“I just wanted out like you did.”

“I don’t believe you , I still think—”

Max touches Virginia. “All s he did was copy what we did and change it a bit.
Walker made everything.
Naomi just saw an opportunity and—”

“Oh, shut up, Max!”
says Virginia.
They all fall silent and listen to Walker typing.

Later, Max hands Walker the phone. “
I finally got it working.
Can you h ack in what you have so far?
F
i rst thing , make the p rotons alter the SIM
card ID
every time we make a call.
Can you do that?”

Walker nods and connects to the phone. “But in order for a call to work the SIM ID
has to be valid AND
approved by the carrier.”

“
I t only has to be approved by the towers, ” Max explains.
“J
ust get ‘a pproval ’
proton s and e lectrons onto the nearest tower—got it?
”

“Uh-huh.”
Walker types f aster. “Anyone have any food?”

Virginia throws a granola bar at him , bouncing it off his head.

They sit in silence for a while , watching the school kids.
These kids are free, that’s the difference.
“So does anyone know where we are?” Max asks.

“We’re on the west coast of northern BC
, Canada .
A t wenty hour drive from Vancouver .
850 kilomet re s straight line from Seattle, Washington. One and a half hour drive north to Terrace, which has the nearest airport.
Three and a half hours to Prince Rupert. Rio Tinto Alca n is the largest employer here. They mostly make a luminum and have a large pier and railway line on property . . . what?”
Naomi stops talking as the rest of them stare at her .

“That is . . . quite . . . uhm . . . detailed, that’s all.
Thank you though,” Max says.

“Canada, ” says Virginia, “
I’m with Walker on this one.
W
hat are we doing in Canada?
We think Walker is from South America ; Naomi is probably from Ireland or something .
I gotta be from Japan .”
Virginia turns and looks at Max. “
And y ou’re from the planet Krypton, right?
So why would they bring us to Canada?
”

“
Remote locations are hardest to escape from , and Canada is loaded with remoteness. W
e need to get to a big city as fast as we can , and t here’
s no fast way from here to a real city. I have an idea but we are gonna have to get lucky.
Time’s up Walker , ” Max says.
“We need to get moving.”

Walker types faster.

“Where to?” b oth girls ask in unison.
The school yard is quiet now with most kids inside.

“See that RV across the street?
” Max points.
“
Been getting loade d up for the last half hour. Read the sign on the back?” The sign reads: Bon Voyage David and Liliana Soon to be Vancouver’s best urba n Bee Keepers “Look on top. P
lywood boxes with tarps over them.
I’ve been watching . . .
they’
re throwing in stuff like bicycles and camping gear. W
e ride up there.”

“For twenty hours!” Naomi says .

Max just shrugs. “Let’s go.
We’ve gotta keep running.
”

Chapter 9
–Overpass

The four of them crowd in to one of the large plywood boxes , sweltering in the heat under the tarp s .
Max looks out through a knothole in the box and hopes that when they drive through the mountains it will be cooler .

Putting some distance between us and the school feels good.
Max surveys the equipment stored haphazardly around them. Bar clamps , a rake, hoses, and a sprinkler . On the other side is a bicycle circa 1970, some rope, chain, and what Max guesses are broken down bee hives.

Max begins to doze off , but Walker shakes his arm. “Max . . . Max, I got your phone working. L
ook it ’
s got a signal.
”
Trust no one; the teachers at the school actually said that, what a stupid thing to say, no one can trust no one.

“P
erfect. C
an I ask you to work on something else now?”
Max feels bad asking Walker for more work when he intends to sleep so soon.
“
Can you create a process that intercepts credit card transactions, changes the credit card number , and approves the transaction?
”

Walker doesn’t answer , but Max can see him thinking.
“No,” Walker finally answers. “I won’t code something that just steals money.”

“
No, wait , you don’t understand . . . It doesn’t steal money. Let me explain.
I t ’ll be kind of like the cell phone process we made that changes the SID ID
all the time,” Max adds. “The credit card number will be new each time the card is used. You don’t need a real account just intercept and approve the transaction.
The store gets th eir money. We get what we want.
Eventually the bank claims the loss, and then the credit card company makes an insurance claim. It’s just three massive companies p l aying a shell game, shifting money around. You remember when they were teaching us about fraud at the school, right?
”

Watching Walker reminds Max of all the time spent in “
compsci ” lab working on intrusion techniques and how the school taught us how to do this.
Did n’t they expect us to use these techniques against them?

“
Hmm . . . I’ll start on it and see how it goes.
” Walker says, looking only partially convinced.

Max fight s sleep and turns back to his reader.

Virginia catches Max ’s eye. “Max, where are we going?”

“Vancouver,” Max says .

“No, what will our final destination be, where are you taking us?”

“Where we can play like those kids today.”
Max shrugs and dozes off , the rocking of the RV
and the wind noise comfort s him.

---

Max wraps his arms around her neck, his short little legs clutching as she carries him down a path.
He dozes , resting his head on her shoulder smelling her skin . The dappled sunlight in the forest calms him.