Myth Gods Tech - Omnibus Edition: Science Fiction Meets Greek Mythology In The God Complex Universe (28 page)

There
was silence in the PAN for a few cycles.

parrotd> I’m gonna report you as malfunctioning and ask
for a replacement.

sugard> You would do no such thing! That would mean
calling the authorities on us instantly.

parrotd> If it means the user gets to live, I will. Pump
him full of insulin now or I deem you faulty.

sugard> I have been functioning without a glitch for 11
years young man! My model has a 4.7 star rating! You dare threaten
to tarnish my reputation? Have me chucked in a trash pile like one
of those Chinese knockoffs?

parrotd> ”Immediate attention: Synthetic insulin gland,
model No. E238 malfunction. Replacement needed. Current part:
Faulty.”
Send it
httpd.

httpd> ACK.

The web
daemon created the email and began opening a connection to the
outside world. The email would be sent to automated servers in all
the nearest hospitals and medical establishments, sort of like an
automated 911 call. Someone would respond so they could help out
the patient, replace the part, and most importantly for them,
collect the insurance commission. The police would be alerted as
well since he was a flagged individual, but medical care would come
either way.

sugard> Stop! OK, I’ll do it. Pumping now.

parrotd> Thank you.

sugard> Anything else, session leader?

If there
was a text message that could convey bile, this would be
it.

Chapter 24:// Caring for

Leo woke up
in a small but cosy apartment. You could tell it was a woman’s
place, cause it was pretty. Tasteful flower curtains, a matching
colour palette in sofa covers and tablecloths, clean surfaces. It
was a small and cheap apartment to begin with, but she had turned
it into a place where a man could long returning to, after a hard
day’s work.

It was a
home.

He felt
a sugary taste in his mouth, and was sweating hard. He tried to
pick himself up, but his right hand was non-functional.
Literally.

He
propped himself up however he could and looked around. A bowl of
mashed fruit was next to him, she must have fed it to him but he
didn’t remember. The bowl and the tray was out of place, plastic,
corporate. It reminded him of something. He read in the corner,
“Property of Apollo Medical.” Every piece of cutlery had the same
logo on it.

It was
too much to bear.

He
couldn’t keep it in. He laughed loudly. Then he choked, took in a
breath and laughed on.

Katerina
came in from her room, worry in her eyes. She touched his sweaty
forehead, her hand felt cool but nice. The gesture seemed like
something she’d done quite a few times in the previous
hours.

Her face
was serious. “What?”

Leo
leaned back and held his belly. “You are a thief!”

“
N-no, your stuff is over there,” she said pointing to a
chair.

“
You steal stuff from your workplace!” He was still
laughing.

Her
mouth turned upwards in a sly smile. “They can afford
it.”

“
The thief and the fugitive,” Leo said, pointing respectively.
“How did you carry me here?”

Katerina
laughed. “You overestimate your machismo. You aren’t a big man, and
I do the dish washing in a huge kitchen every day double-shift. I
carried you, mister.”

Leo
broke into tears. He pushed his limp black arm out of his sight and
cried. Katerina sat on the sofa and held him close.

“
I… I don’t remember anything. But there he was, dead. Bits of
him on this… this disgusting hand!”

armd>
Hey!

“
And the warden, that bastard who took my walkman. He
screamed. I can still hear his scream. He didn’t deserve that. But
I… I couldn’t help him. Couldn’t do anything.”

She
hugged him, rubbing his head softly and mumbling words of comfort.
He sobbed in her arms.

“
That cobra, it tried to
eat
me. It bit me! Oh god I’m poisoned!” he said and
stood up.

The
sudden blood drain from his brain told him that was a bad idea and
he sat down woozily.

“
Shh. Relax,” Katerina said. “I gave you anti-venom yesterday,
you are fine I think.”

“
Anti-venom? Where did you find anti-venom?”

“
In my cupboard,” she shrugged.

“
Who the hell has anti-venom in their cupboard?”

“
The daughter of a prepper, that’s who,” she said, and mushed
her lips together in an insanely cute smile.

“
A what?”

“
A prepper. A survivalist. My dad had all these notions, about
living off the grid, being prepared, making your own
food…”

“
Having anti-venom handy…” he added.

“
Yeah. He stockpiled and prepped for the end or something
doomsdainy like that. In the end, he died and left me all that
crap. I have boxes full of his stuff, can’t find the courage to get
rid of it.”

Leo put
his fingers through his greasy hair. “Wait, you said yesterday? Was
I out of it the whole time?”

Katerina
shrugged and started picking up the cloth she’d used to tend to him
and the bowls. “You were feverish, cold sweat, the works. Nevermind
about the sofa cover, but you sir, need to get a shower. Like, woo,
right now.”

Leo
looked at the greasy stains he’d left on the sofa cover. He whiffed
himself. Plenty of sweat, body odour, pee, vomit, hydraulic fluid,
blood. Was there any liquid still left inside him or was it a dry
husk?

“
Yeah,” he said shamefully and pointed at a door he assumed
was the bathroom.

She
nodded affirmingly and said, “There are fresh towels on the sink
for you.”

He
noticed at that point that despite the chilly weather, all the
windows were wide open. It kept the stink out.

“
Thank you,” Leo said, and he meant it.

Chapter 25:// Making out

They logged
on the stolen wifi named
Silence of the
LANs
. It was a standard commercial home
connection but it was going through a few walls so it was iffy, to
say the least. The devices were spread apart all over the bathroom
and had employed a bluetooth network which was short-range and
couldn’t really be detected unless the authorities were a few
meters away.

They
were whispering amongst themselves in the steamy
bathroom.

eyed>
Who doesn’t have net access in their own home?

parrotd> It seems she was raised without much
technology.

armd>
That curvy meatbag! And to think I liked her at first.

parrotd> How are we on the encrypted tor
connection?

httpd> The neighbour is downloading a ton of data. Please
wait.

The session leader
parrotd
had ordered a non-trackable onion connection
called tor, to download the clean video file they had requested
earlier without anyone tracing it back to them. The email they used
was legitimate looking but was actually a throwaway address routed
through Estonian servers. Since it was taking so long,
httpd
had displayed a
loading swirly icon made out of ASCII characters. The rest of the
daemons sighed and moaned. It turns out, nobody likes loading
screens.

walkmand> Hey! Won’t the water damage your
circuits?

armd>
I’m already FUBAR as it is. Who cares…

eyed>
Now you can’t hurt anyone else you buggy maniac!

There
were tens of lines of chat logs after that, but there is no need to
waste precious storage space. They argued, like only daemons
do.

The user
was taking his time in the shower, humming an old rock song to
himself since his walkman wasn’t connected right now.

eyed>
How clean does he need to make himself anyway?

The door
opened and [email protected] walked in the
bathroom carrying fresh clothes and Khaki outdoor pants, two sizes
too large for the user.

fingerd> Fingered! She is-

eyed>
We know! Dontcha have a cache memory or something?

fingerd> Yeah but it’s only 4 kilobytes.

armd>
That… Explains a lot.

She put
down the fresh clothes and took off her own as well.

fingerd> Poor girl. It’s too hot in here.

armd>
It’s about to get hotter.

fingerd> Oh no! Isn’t this faucet electronically
connected? Can’t we do something?

armd>
Shuddup.

walkmand> Is it time for seductive blinking?

[email protected] stepped in the shower.
The user’s heartrate jumped. She touched his body, his cleaned up
wound, his limping cyberarm, the scar tissue that lumped over his
bowels that contained the synthetic insulin gland. Her fingers
found the circular magnet underneath his skin at the height of his
belt and traced the subdermal wire all the way up to the back of
his ears.

She
kissed it.

The
daemons cheered and took screenshots.

Chapter 26:// Hanging in

The park’s
wifi has there for the taking, but
parrotd
demanded all outside
connections be shut down. The user was sitting on a park bench. He
was wearing a jockey hat and had a big black abstract shape at the
side of his face. With clothes too big and a weary demeanour, plus
a limp hand, nobody would recognise him for none other than a
street bum.

[email protected] walked close, holding the
leash on the dog. He unhinged the leash and let the mutt roam
around, to find the perfect place to take a shit on.

They sat
on opposite ends, like strangers would, and stared forward. He shot
a glance at the user and then resumed looking at the dog. They both
pulled up their phones and put them to their ears, pretending to
call someone instead of talking to each other.

“
What happened to your face man?”

“
Katerina made it. Makeup or something. To fool face
recognition software. Nevermind that, how are you doing?” the user
asked.

“
Cops came by, asked a ton of questions. Told them ya didn’t
do it, told them I’ve no idea where you are. Which was true. Hey,
did you hook up?”

“
No! Yes. Eventually. I just called her up for help. I came by
your house and saw cops across the street.”

“
Smart move bro. Look, I think I’m followed again. This taking
the dog out will fool them for a bit but not forever, so I’ll make
it quick.”

“
I’m listening. I’m out of options anyway.”

“
No, you have options. Listen. Bibi can get you this big-ass
lawyer right? Corporate level stuff, he can make you look like a
saint. Which you are, we both know that, but he can make the jury
people believe that too. Anyway, I asked her, he looked into it,
says you have a chance if you find out a piece of evidence that
exhonors you.”

“
Exonerates. Jimmy, I can’t afford that!”

“
That’s on me. I told her, babe, you want me to come with ya
to Nice? Then be a doll and help my buddy out, and I’ll be all
yours.”

“
You are going to move to France to get me out of
jail?”

“
Why not?”

“
But you like it here! You love your job, you certainly like
the ladies and you plan to uproot your life for me? I can’t ask you
to do that for me man.”

“
You don’t need to.”

Leo
risked a glance at his best friend’s face. He was calm,
certain.

“
Do you like Bibi as much as she likes you? I mean, you do
understand that she will demand exclusivity, don’t you? She’s an
ageing, successful career woman, who will flaunt you around as a
trophy husband.”

“
There are worse fates than that.”

They
remained silent for a while.

“
Jimmy, I don’t know what to do man.”

“
Find what the lawyer needs to free you and then turn yourself
in.”

Leo
sighed. “But how? I don’t have a plan, I’m not sure where to find
the evidence-”

Jimmy
the Amazing cut him off, saying firmly, “You don’t always need a
plan bro. Sometimes you just need balls.”

Then he
stood up and whistled to Aibo.

Chapter 27:// Taking off

parrotd> Quick, the dog’s in range!

armd>
I refuse to do it!

eyed>
Of course you do, you traitor!

parrotd> Stop. Armd, listen to me. You are the only one of
us with motor controls. You are the only one who knows how to drive
a cyberlimb. Sure, your housing is damaged, but you did that to
save the user. Now we have a plan to help out the user again, and
the plan hinges on you. Please, don’t make me use the source code
privileges to force you to do this. There are better chances if you
cooperate. I need you, this PAN needs you. We have only
milliseconds to go, you need to decide now.