Something Interesting
Ed had a point Ian thought as he took the paper and neatly stacked the rest. He managed to overlook simple things in everyday situations, not because he was slow, but because he was too smart for his own good. His mother had always said the smartest people are normally very stupid, and he himself had told his friends on a few occasions he is probably the dumbest smart person they know.
The paper was marred with logic and discrete mathematics equations, but Ian knew his mistake was there. It was a small logic error and the only reason Ed knew that was the page he was looking for, was because Ian had made the joke at the time of writing it that; should he be wrong, the AI would accept ‘I am a human popsicle’ as a valid species.
He scanned through the lines and lines of symbols until he found the point he had marked at the time and swapped the operators. He would have to read in the change to his code from the paper, but it was easier to find it in the ink than in the bytes.
“Come one, we’d best get ready if you wanna be there early,” he said to JR as he left the library.
“Cool, buddy. Ed joining us?”
“Nope, he has to study,”
“And you?”
“Nope, I need to LAN,” he said with a grin.
It took them an hour to get everything packed into Ian’s car. The new-ish Subaru looked a few years old next to Ed’s new Lexus, but Ian didn’t mind. After they packed, the greeted Ed, wished him luck and headed off to Liberty LAN.
Ian had booked seats, as he was want to do, so they took their PCs inside, then went to get the rest of their stuff before he went to collect the access bands and JR started to set up. By the time Ian returned, JR was busy downloading stuff from the few people that were there and Devon and Marko had arrived.
Ian helped them bring their stuff inside before he started to set up his own rig. Once he, Dev and Marko were settled, they jumped into a quick Call of Duty game to kill some time before starting to look for things to download, not that Ian had any idea what he would download. He had long ago reached the point where he had everything he wanted. Almost everything…
“I’ll be damned,” Ian said as he looked to his left and saw Melisa set her Pc down on the table next to his.
“Oh for the love of-”
“I hadn’t thought to see you till Monday,”
“Monday? Wait does that mean?”
“I’ll tell you Monday, for now, let’s pretend we’ve just met. Hi, I’m Ian,” he said and held out his hand.
“Melisa,” she said, accepting the handshake somewhat skeptically.
“The crazy guy next to me is JR, next to him is Marko, and the other guy is Devon,”
“Hi,” she said to them all with a little wave.
As the night wore on she became a little less apprehensive of them, and Ian’s weird request. As the morning grew on, the others went off to sleep one by one until only Ian was left sitting among their seats. There was still a good few hundred people awake, though most of them had gone to sleep, which meant less matches to play, so Ian resorted to watching series.
His phone rang, he didn’t hear it but felt it vibrate. He took it out and answered without looking at the caller ID.
“Erasmus, we need you here ASAP. I’m sending you coordinates now,”
“I’m busy,”
“Get here, now,” said the Cornel and she hung up on him.
An hour later he was at the crime scene. If he had his badge it might have helped as the police men at the parameter stopped him, only after the Cornel told them to let him through was he able to pass under the police tape and into the house. It was a lavishly decorated house with top of the range home entertainment, high end furniture and a big hole in the roof. Below the hole, skewered on a rod about the side of an I-beam, just slightly narrower and less I-shaped, was a man in his late thirties. “Five,” said Ian and a bold man turned to him.
“How did you know?”
“It would appear you have been reading some of our files on the network,” said the Cornel “Of course,” answered Ian, “I had to, otherwise I wouldn’t know where to start looking. But you’ve known about this guy for a year now, how is it no one has found him yet?”
“He’s good,”
“He’s the very best,” said the bold man.
“That’s up for debate. So, I need you to get on this man’s pc,” she said and pointed at the poor soul standing like a marinate in his own living room, “and find out what you can about why Thor would want him dead,”
“Thor used a hammer, this guy uses sky-nails,” corrected Ian. “And I told you, I’m busy,” “This is your new job,”
“Which I only start on Monday, when was this guy killed?” Ian asked looking to one of the forensics guys.
“Oh, umh, judging by rigger mortise, around one thirty, two this morning,”
“Then I’m going back to my LAN,” said Ian as he made to leave.
“You have a job to do, Monroe, I’d like you to meet your new partner,”
At that, Ian stopped in his tracks. He turned around to face the Cornel, the bold man and Monroe who had just come from the kitchen. He had seen her portfolio photo but it did her little justice. She was slender, tall and gorgeous, with long red hair and grey-blue eyes. “You say he died this morning?” Ian asked and the forensics guy nodded, “Then Thor, as you so ineptly named him, will not kill for at least a week. And pleased to meet you, Captain, I’m looking forward to working with you. Now, I’m off to my LAN,”
“Erasmus,”
“Look, Cornel, this guy is dead, may his soul find rest in the Beyond if he did not know it on Earth. And there is a reason we cyber-hunters come out at night, and it’s not the lack of internet traffic. It’s the lack of surveillance at night. Now, I’ll work on trying to find this idiot. Tonight. Until then, good day,” he said and started making his way out the house.
“See you at the office tomorrow,”
“Monday,” he answered.
When he got back to the LAN, the others were awake once more. He had bought them breakfast so they ate and talked a bit before getting some practice in. They joined a few of the competitions and got to know Melisa better.
Ian knew he wouldn’t date her, she was his employee after all, he knew Ed would look at this with some wonder, very little stopped him from pursuing romance. JR, on the other hand, was getting very cosy with her.
The managed to place third in the DoTA and HoN competitions, and Devon and Marko placed top five in the CoD competition. By nine that night they started to pack up, each one of them exhausted. They greeted Melisa, Ian told her that he’d see her Monday when she came for her first day of work, then watched as she got in her car and drove off.
He was glad they had taken his car, he didn’t mind being driven around but he felt saver driving himself home than letting a sleep deprived JR do the same. Ian connected up his PC and switched it back on after they had gotten home. JR had gone straight to his room and Ed was on the roof writing, or pretending to write. Once more Ian opened his web browsers and third part apps that he had written himself and started his hunt.
Ed woke up well past twelve the Sunday morning. He had written well into the early hours and needed to recharge.
“Morning,” he said as he made his way down the last few steps.
He sat down in front of the island and looked at the spot in front of him, waiting for Ian to place his cup of coffee there…
Ed looked up and noticed that Ian was not in the kitchen and neither was breakfast. He got up from the bar stool and headed to the garage door. No, Ian’s car was there and there was no note so no one picked him up. Ed went back up stairs and noticed Ian’s door was open.
Ian was sitting in front of his computer, arms folder, but upon further inspection, Ed found that the PC was off and the screens had gone to sleep. He approached Ian and saw that he had fallen asleep sitting in front of his PC.
Ed stood there for a second faced with the decision to wake him up or not.
The paper was marred with logic and discrete mathematics equations, but Ian knew his mistake was there. It was a small logic error and the only reason Ed knew that was the page he was looking for, was because Ian had made the joke at the time of writing it that; should he be wrong, the AI would accept ‘I am a human popsicle’ as a valid species.
He scanned through the lines and lines of symbols until he found the point he had marked at the time and swapped the operators. He would have to read in the change to his code from the paper, but it was easier to find it in the ink than in the bytes.
“Come one, we’d best get ready if you wanna be there early,” he said to JR as he left the library.
“Cool, buddy. Ed joining us?”
“Nope, he has to study,”
“And you?”
“Nope, I need to LAN,” he said with a grin.
It took them an hour to get everything packed into Ian’s car. The new-ish Subaru looked a few years old next to Ed’s new Lexus, but Ian didn’t mind. After they packed, the greeted Ed, wished him luck and headed off to Liberty LAN.
Ian had booked seats, as he was want to do, so they took their PCs inside, then went to get the rest of their stuff before he went to collect the access bands and JR started to set up. By the time Ian returned, JR was busy downloading stuff from the few people that were there and Devon and Marko had arrived.
Ian helped them bring their stuff inside before he started to set up his own rig. Once he, Dev and Marko were settled, they jumped into a quick Call of Duty game to kill some time before starting to look for things to download, not that Ian had any idea what he would download. He had long ago reached the point where he had everything he wanted. Almost everything…
“I’ll be damned,” Ian said as he looked to his left and saw Melisa set her Pc down on the table next to his.
“Oh for the love of-”
“I hadn’t thought to see you till Monday,”
“Monday? Wait does that mean?”
“I’ll tell you Monday, for now, let’s pretend we’ve just met. Hi, I’m Ian,” he said and held out his hand.
“Melisa,” she said, accepting the handshake somewhat skeptically.
“The crazy guy next to me is JR, next to him is Marko, and the other guy is Devon,”
“Hi,” she said to them all with a little wave.
As the night wore on she became a little less apprehensive of them, and Ian’s weird request. As the morning grew on, the others went off to sleep one by one until only Ian was left sitting among their seats. There was still a good few hundred people awake, though most of them had gone to sleep, which meant less matches to play, so Ian resorted to watching series.
His phone rang, he didn’t hear it but felt it vibrate. He took it out and answered without looking at the caller ID.
“Erasmus, we need you here ASAP. I’m sending you coordinates now,”
“I’m busy,”
“Get here, now,” said the Cornel and she hung up on him.
An hour later he was at the crime scene. If he had his badge it might have helped as the police men at the parameter stopped him, only after the Cornel told them to let him through was he able to pass under the police tape and into the house. It was a lavishly decorated house with top of the range home entertainment, high end furniture and a big hole in the roof. Below the hole, skewered on a rod about the side of an I-beam, just slightly narrower and less I-shaped, was a man in his late thirties. “Five,” said Ian and a bold man turned to him.
“How did you know?”
“It would appear you have been reading some of our files on the network,” said the Cornel “Of course,” answered Ian, “I had to, otherwise I wouldn’t know where to start looking. But you’ve known about this guy for a year now, how is it no one has found him yet?”
“He’s good,”
“He’s the very best,” said the bold man.
“That’s up for debate. So, I need you to get on this man’s pc,” she said and pointed at the poor soul standing like a marinate in his own living room, “and find out what you can about why Thor would want him dead,”
“Thor used a hammer, this guy uses sky-nails,” corrected Ian. “And I told you, I’m busy,” “This is your new job,”
“Which I only start on Monday, when was this guy killed?” Ian asked looking to one of the forensics guys.
“Oh, umh, judging by rigger mortise, around one thirty, two this morning,”
“Then I’m going back to my LAN,” said Ian as he made to leave.
“You have a job to do, Monroe, I’d like you to meet your new partner,”
At that, Ian stopped in his tracks. He turned around to face the Cornel, the bold man and Monroe who had just come from the kitchen. He had seen her portfolio photo but it did her little justice. She was slender, tall and gorgeous, with long red hair and grey-blue eyes. “You say he died this morning?” Ian asked and the forensics guy nodded, “Then Thor, as you so ineptly named him, will not kill for at least a week. And pleased to meet you, Captain, I’m looking forward to working with you. Now, I’m off to my LAN,”
“Erasmus,”
“Look, Cornel, this guy is dead, may his soul find rest in the Beyond if he did not know it on Earth. And there is a reason we cyber-hunters come out at night, and it’s not the lack of internet traffic. It’s the lack of surveillance at night. Now, I’ll work on trying to find this idiot. Tonight. Until then, good day,” he said and started making his way out the house.
“See you at the office tomorrow,”
“Monday,” he answered.
When he got back to the LAN, the others were awake once more. He had bought them breakfast so they ate and talked a bit before getting some practice in. They joined a few of the competitions and got to know Melisa better.
Ian knew he wouldn’t date her, she was his employee after all, he knew Ed would look at this with some wonder, very little stopped him from pursuing romance. JR, on the other hand, was getting very cosy with her.
The managed to place third in the DoTA and HoN competitions, and Devon and Marko placed top five in the CoD competition. By nine that night they started to pack up, each one of them exhausted. They greeted Melisa, Ian told her that he’d see her Monday when she came for her first day of work, then watched as she got in her car and drove off.
He was glad they had taken his car, he didn’t mind being driven around but he felt saver driving himself home than letting a sleep deprived JR do the same. Ian connected up his PC and switched it back on after they had gotten home. JR had gone straight to his room and Ed was on the roof writing, or pretending to write. Once more Ian opened his web browsers and third part apps that he had written himself and started his hunt.
Ed woke up well past twelve the Sunday morning. He had written well into the early hours and needed to recharge.
“Morning,” he said as he made his way down the last few steps.
He sat down in front of the island and looked at the spot in front of him, waiting for Ian to place his cup of coffee there…
Ed looked up and noticed that Ian was not in the kitchen and neither was breakfast. He got up from the bar stool and headed to the garage door. No, Ian’s car was there and there was no note so no one picked him up. Ed went back up stairs and noticed Ian’s door was open.
Ian was sitting in front of his computer, arms folder, but upon further inspection, Ed found that the PC was off and the screens had gone to sleep. He approached Ian and saw that he had fallen asleep sitting in front of his PC.
Ed stood there for a second faced with the decision to wake him up or not.