Super: Origins (30 page)

“Could you find out? Let's assume at this point that they want the documentation in a couple months, and if we find out differently, we can adjust. I think I'll have a couple of half-days a week to work on this, but I won't be able to start until the week after next. However, we could begin over the weekends, if you're going to be here.”

Riss nodded, a flash of something Lex couldn’t read in her eyes. “Oh, I'll be here.”

“What time would you like to start on Saturday?”

“Any time after noon; I'm not an early riser.”

“How about we plan to start at one Saturday afternoon? I can get some more information about what our sponsors want to see, and we can start figuring out how to identify everything here.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Riss said, nodding her head and giving another tiny grin. “Thanks, Lex.”

Lex waved as she made her way out the door and across the hall. She yawned as she opened her door and quickly shucked off most of her clothes before crawling under the covers and curling up for a nap. Smiling to herself, Lex drifted off, feeling deliciously warm and comfortable.

Chapter 12: Mysteries and Meetings

The next day Lex met with Mr. Chen in the morning, feeling fully recovered after a good night's rest. She sensed a change in the way the two of them worked together that day, however. It seemed that Mr. Chen had become more careful in the way he treated Lex, and she asked him about it as he watched her in the studio mirrors, reminding him that she felt fully recovered. He looked away for a moment and then sighed.

“Lex, this is the way we should have been learning together all along. I assumed some things about you that aren't true, and was impatient and unkind with you as a result.”

“What do you mean,” Lex asked, looking at him with puzzlement. Mentally comparing training under Mr. Chen with her father's teaching methods, Lex had always found him to be kind and gentle.

“One of the first things I was taught when I began training many years ago as a young boy was the Chinese name of the skills we know. If you translate the words roughly into English, they are 'stop fighting.’ My teacher explained that learning what we call martial arts would be learning the skill of how to stop or prevent fighting. Of course, as a young man I sometimes forgot this and misused my training, but the older I got, the truer I understood those words to be. So, when we first met, I didn't want to teach you, since I guessed you were a martial artist who did not know this truth. But as I learned about you, I understood that you are not that way.” He sighed again. “I should have listened to Casey about you to begin with.”

Lex looked at the wooden floor for a moment, smiling but feeling a stinging in her eyes. “Thanks, Mr. Chen,” she said, swallowing the lump in her throat before they started work again.

The rest of the week rushed by in a blur of training, strange medical tests, and trying to incorporate her belongings from the condo into her room. Lex had still been working on setting her new things up when she had to move the rest of her old things in, but by the end of the week most everything had either been incorporated or discarded. She looked around in satisfaction Thursday night before she went to bed, happy with the small sleeping, study, and sitting areas she’d created.

Lex didn’t feel as great after she saw Casey off on Friday afternoon, mentally preparing for a long weekend in. Casey would be spending the weekend with some visiting cousins, and she'd grilled Lex at dinner for the past couple of days about fun things to do in the area. Later Lex had to turn down an invitation from Serena to go clubbing, reminding her that she couldn't leave the facilities that weekend.

Serena growled at the unfairness of it. “I wish you could come. I had so much fun the last time we went out.”

“Sorry, Serena. Maybe next weekend?” Lex suggested, trying to smile.

“Let's plan on it! There's this new club that just opened that I hear has the hottest guys,” Serena told Lex with a grin, just before she left for the evening.

At about ten that night Lex gave up and got ready for bed. The loneliness and darkness had gotten to her, and the feeling that no one was waiting for her and wouldn't be next weekend, either.

She felt a little better when she woke up Saturday morning, and after breakfast and a good workout she studied her strategy books until the time she’d agreed to meet with Riss. Grabbing a new notebook and a pen, she headed over to the other woman's room and knocked.

“Come in,” she heard Riss’ muffled voice sound out, and Lex entered the darkened room.

Riss sat in nearly the same place as when Lex had seen her last, but she wore different clothes now, a faded black t-shirt and grey leggings.

“So,” Lex asked, sitting in an office chair nearby, “where should we start?”

Riss gave one of her almost-there smiles. “Well, first I should get dressed and have some coffee and then we can figure out what to do next. Make yourself at home while I finish waking up.”

“OK,” Lex agreed. “Do you mind if I start by having a look at the computers here?”

“Help yourself.” Riss worked on starting a pot of coffee at a coffeemaker perched on the edge of one of her computer tables while Lex began to examine the computers in the room. She'd brought a tiny flashlight to look up their serial numbers and maker's marks in Riss’ dimly lit room when she realized what she’d originally found strange about the setup.

“Riss, where are the keyboards? And mice?”

“Look under the left hand table, I think,” Riss replied, a considering tone in her voice. “There should be a wireless mouse and keyboard there. If you want to move it to any computer, just use the USB key that should be in the Dell desktop, the last one on the table on the right.”

So saying, she disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door. Lex found herself left with the sound of coffee brewing and her own confusion. By the time Riss came out, however, Lex had examined some of the computers and had begun to take a few notes, buoyed by the smell of strong coffee. She looked up at Riss as the woman poured a cup, her curiosity nearly boiling over and not willing to hold her tongue any longer.

“Riss, why aren't there any input devices connected to any of these computers?”

Slowly stirring sugar into her coffee, Riss fixed Lex with a gaze. “I don't really need anything like that when I use computers. That's why they want me here, I guess. I can communicate with computers directly.”

Lex nodded, intrigued. “So, you can speak to them with your mind?”

“As far as I can tell.”

“That must be amazingly useful. Have you always been able to do it?”

Riss shrugged. “I don't remember being able when I was really little, but I got into computers at a young age, maybe eight or ten. It was around then that I figured out that I didn't need a keyboard to tell a computer what to do.”

Lex nodded, thinking. “That should probably help a lot in this job. Have you used your abilities to try to help you catalog what's on the network here?”

“Yes, but the problem is that if I'm not sure where the computer is, or what type it is, like in a network, I can’t effectively give it commands or get information. We've tried some experiments like that, and the results have always been random, as far as what I can do.”

Lex nodded in understanding, but wondered why Riss didn’t seem able to meet her eyes at that moment. “I still think it could help, along with some tools, maybe. I tried to figure out the best way to tackle this, and thought maybe we should work on the catalog of resources first, and then talk about what your plan is for securing the computers. I can do the write up and you can verify it. When we're both satisfied, we can turn it in. What do you think?”

Riss nodded. “Sounds good to me. Do you want to get started with the inventory?”

“Sure, but don't you want to get some breakfast first?”

“Not really, I'll get something later.”

Lex shrugged, but began by showing Riss the basic data she'd put together for all the computers in the room. By using Riss' skills, they quickly gathered the rest of the needed information about the twenty-three computers in her room. Once Lex had noted everything down, she turned back to Riss.

“Do you know if we have a computer room here?”

“It's right next door,” Riss replied. “I actually have the permissions to go in. Do you want to go there next?”

Lex nodded in reply so they went next door, being allowed in after Riss hit the access panel near the door with her ID. After getting inside Lex just stood for a moment, staring at the sight. Racks upon racks of servers had been jammed into the room, leaving just enough room for one person to squeeze past and through them. Multi-colored wires came from seemingly every direction, creating a tangle like spaghetti behind the machines and on the floors. The power and network ports all looked overloaded, and the room seemed uncomfortably warm compared to the hallway or Riss’ and Lex's rooms. The hum of working computers seemed to drown out all other sounds. Lex finally looked back at Riss with wide eyes and watched the other woman shake her head.

“I know,” Riss said with a shade of disgust in her voice. “I've told them this room needs a lot more attention than it gets, but they don't listen to me.”

“Is there even someone who administers this?” Lex asked, her hand gesture taking the whole server room mess in.

With a shrug Riss said, “Supposedly there's someone who watches it remotely, and occasionally I've seen someone come in here and mess around with it, but I think it was set up and then basically left alone ever since, aside from the occasional software updates or addition of new gear.”

Lex sighed. “I guess we have our work cut out for us here. I think we should probably make recommendations about having someone administer this place at least part time, do some maintenance, and make some upgrades to this room so it can really handle this many servers.”

“Never hurts to ask, I guess. Maybe they'll take
your
word for it.”

“Why wouldn’t they listen to your recommendation? You're the computer expert; my knowledge of the subject really isn't all that much. I'm just good at figuring things out and turning them into some kind of order, that's all,” Lex replied with a shrug.

Riss gave her an odd look for a long moment, which caused Lex to meet Riss’ eyes, wondering at the distrust there. Finally, Riss raised an eyebrow with an almost invisible smile. “I guess the others aren't much for gossiping,” she eventually said. “Ask Casey about me sometime. She should be able to fill you in.”

Lex looked down at her notebook, twisted in her hands. “Casey says that I should always ask people about themselves.”

“Tell her I said it's OK if she talks to you about it,” Riss replied, looking at Lex with an unreadable expression and then turned to examine the servers, running her hands over their faces.

Lex swallowed. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry or upset you.”

“I'm not upset,” Riss said with a sigh. “It's just something that's difficult to talk about. Anyway, forget about it for now. Let's get cracking on these.”

“OK,” Lex agreed, turning back to her notebook. They worked for a while, making good progress, but after a few hours Lex had to call a halt.

“I'm sorry, but I've got to eat. Aren't you hungry?”

“I guess,” Riss replied, looking unconvinced.

Lex gave her an odd look, wondering how the woman could work for hours on coffee alone. “But you didn't even have any breakfast! Come on, let's get something to eat now. We can finish this later.”

Again, Riss shrugged but followed Lex as she went downstairs to the kitchen. The two of them poked around in the freezer to find something to eat and eventually located some frozen dinners that didn't look too unpalatable. As they sat to wait for them to heat, Lex wondered aloud why it was that even though a number of people lived in the building, they barely ever ran into one another.

“Pretty simple,” Riss replied. “Serena and I keep later hours than you and Casey, so I see her more than anyone else if I need to leave my room. Joan’s been out on maneuvers with her old unit for the past couple of days, I think, but she's usually out at some of the local bases anyway, even when she's in town. Lily’s only ever here if we're going out on a job. They have her working on some other project in the area during the day, and though she has a room, she doesn't even live here.”

Lex stared down at the kitchen island for a moment, lost in thought before she responded. “So what usually happens when we're sent out on an assignment as a team?”

“It doesn't happen all that often, but when it does, we don't usually stick together. Joan tries to tell everyone what to do but no one really listens. Instead, we all go off and do our own thing.”

Lex felt puzzled. “When I was reading my contract, it talked about regular team exercises and training. Don't we do things like that?”

Riss looked back at her blankly. “I've been here about a year and a half, and we've never done anything like that in all that time.”

Lex gaze fell to the island again, her fingers digging into the smooth surface, this time feeling even more confused.
Why isn't the team training that’s supposed to be happening going on
, she wondered? She rested her chin in her hands while she leaned her elbows on the kitchen island, thinking that it didn't make any sense.

After a brief dinner where Lex wondered if someone forgot that only the outside box was supposed to be made of cardboard, Riss and Lex continued cataloging the machines in the impromptu server room, Lex stopping halfway through to get her laptop to transfer some of the information she’d gotten by that point. It was late when they finished. Lex had started to yawn every few minutes, but she wanted to keep going until they’d finished cataloging the room.

“OK,” Lex said, tiredly turning to Riss, “I'll finish writing this up tomorrow and store it somewhere we both have access to so that you can change or add stuff if you need to. Tell me where I should put it.”

After Riss finished explaining the network setup for the building and making sure Lex was connected properly, she added, “After this we'll still have to identify and catalog all the other machines in the building.”