The Other Side

By Lee Frey

Taking a slight detour in his college plans, Eric Decovney accepts a job he can’t turn down--a computer hacker. However, the dream job quickly becomes a nightmare when he uncovers more than he should. A combination of drugs and hypnosis opens the door to the other side--a world of infinite possibilities, and horrors.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lee Frey
• Release date: Dec 20, 2010
• ISBN: 9781311373953

Lee Frey

In the past ten years I have written several short works, six novels and several partial manuscripts. I write because I enjoy it--a delicious retreat each morning before the darkness fades away and reality reigns supreme. Nineteen years as a telecom engineer for an international company might not add to my writing credentials, but it does mean that I am not your typical starving artist.

Book preview

Book 1 of The Other Side series

a novel by

Lee Frey

SMASHWORDS EDITION

* * * * *

PUBLISHED BY:

Lee Frey on Smashwords

Copyright © 2012 by Lee Frey

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

This book is dedicated to my brother Chris for convincing me to publish the series. Apparently, writing a book makes you different, but writing a book that no one reads is just plain weird.

Special thanks also goes to my editor, and friend, the most awesome, Catherine Dube. Thanks again. A special thanks to my YA beta readers Lauren and Ryan Dube. It is hard to know what age groups will relate to a novel, so it was good to get their feedback. Thanks Team Dube!

And of course, none of this would be possible without my wife, Kim. Life is a journey, and it’s great to have a good companion for the trip.

Prologue

‘All that we see or seem, Is but a dream within a dream’

–Edgar Allen Poe

Hanging up the cell phone, he picked up the receiver from the phone booth and deposited his coins. Dialing the cell phone number from memory, he waited patiently for the call to be answered.

Hello? a female voice answered.

Pushing the play button on the mini recorder, which he held in his hand, he held his breath while the three seconds of tape ran.

Close your eyes, he said clearly and waited.

Almost ten seconds passed before he heard the loud boom, the tinkle of glass and then silence as the call dropped. Smiling, he hung up the phone and walked back to his car. It was just another car wreck, like so many others. People were too busy eating, playing with the radio, and talking on the phone.

>----- 1 -----<

Monday, February 27th

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP...

Eric reached over and slammed his hand down on the digital clock. It was seven a.m. and as usual, Eric was not ready to get up yet. His classes started at eight every morning, but he rarely went to bed before three a.m. and sometimes he’d just skip sleep all together. Last night he climbed into bed early--around midnight.

His major was in Computer Science and Engineering, with a specialty in Software Design, but that was not what kept him busy. Like most computer geeks, he liked to hack. If there were a degree in illegally gaining access into high security systems, such as the Pentagon’s, he'd be graduating Summa Cum Laude.

Unlike most hackers though, he kept his talents hidden. Few people really knew how good he was, even his closest friends. Also unlike most hackers, he rarely did any harm.

For the most part, he just did it to prove to himself that he could. Eric also learned quite a bit about security once he got in. He was able to look around and see all the different roadblocks the companies had in place. By reviewing the entire security system, which could sometimes take weeks, he was able to find most, if not all, of its weaknesses. Occasionally, he even wrote up a report and sent it to the violated company so that they could protect themselves from hackers.

When he sent reports like that though, he made sure that it couldn’t be traced back to him. To do that, he borrowed an email account from someone and routed it through a network of servers and anonymous email servers. But the people he chose to borrow the email accounts from were researched to make sure that if the trail were ever traced back, that the person would not be suspected. Eric generally picked elderly people who barely knew how to send email. He also made sure that they didn’t have any hacker friends or relatives. He didn’t want anyone hurt by what he did.

He was so good in fact, that he had never been caught. There had been times when someone noticed a security breach while he was in their system. He was immediately blocked and the port of entry as he liked to call it, was closed shortly thereafter, but even then, the trail was never traced back to him.

Eric returned to his sleep only briefly.

BEEP, BEEP...

Eric rolled over and propped himself up on his elbow so he could find the switch. He turned the alarm off and rubbed his blurry eyes. His eyes were a constant shade of red. Between the course work and surfing the Web, he had little time for sleep.

Class started at eight, which didn't leave him much time. Lucky for him, the classroom was not that far away.

Eric swung his legs over the side of the bed and searched for his slippers. He glanced out the window for signs of life. The sun, just now peeking over the buildings, revealed the few students out and about. He found his slippers and made his way to the shower.

His roommate was still snoring away. Rajesh had scheduled his classes later in the day. His first class started at ten and the last one ended at six. Eric’s last class ended at three. So even though they were best friends, and had been for the last four years, they rarely saw each other. By the time Rajesh got home from class, Eric had already had dinner and was off somewhere working on homework, or hacking. Their friendship was perpetuated by a constant stream of emails and text messages.

Eric turned on the shower and walked over to the mirror. He gazed at his reflection and didn’t like what he saw. His blue eyes were barely visible through the bloodshot haze surrounding them. He thought to himself, and not for the first time, I’ve got to stop doing this to myself. He reached over and picked up the Visine and put some in each eye, sighing deeply as the cold liquid lubricated his weary eyes.

Eric turned back to the shower and checked the temperature. Scalding hot--just right. Turning it down just a little, he climbed in. He let the water pour over his head for a while before lathering up. Finally he scrubbed clean and shampooed taking five minutes to rinse his hair. He turned off the shower, reached out and grabbed his towel. Another day closer to graduation.

He climbed out and finished drying off. He used the towel to wipe the steam off the mirror, though it steamed back over almost as soon as the towel passed over it. Eric hung the towel back up and grabbed the hair dryer. Turning it on high, he used it to clear a spot in the fogged mirror so he could see himself and then, turning the heat down to low, ran it quickly over his body.

He turned off the hair dryer and stared into the mirror. He evaluated his puffy red eyes, then the rest of his image. He looked a little like Val Kilmer. A nice firm body. Short spikey dirty brown hair and a firm jaw. Not big, but noticeable. His blue eyes were carved from blocks of glacier blue ice. With his looks, he should have been a lady-killer, but he spent so much time on the computer that he didn’t have time for relationships.

Eric shaved and brushed his teeth. He put the robe and slippers back on and walked out into the room to get his clothes. He picked out a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and returned to the bathroom to put them on.

By the time he got his books together and into his backpack, it was ten to eight. Right on time he thought to himself as he opened the door.

He walked out of Avery Center and headed south. It was late-February and the temperature was already in the low sixties. Cal Tech was located in Pasadena, California where the temperature was nearly perfect year round. The average low temperature for the entire year was around forty-five with an average high around eighty-five.

He walked along Holliston Ave until he passed the Security Office. He smiled as he thought of the numerous times he’d hacked into those systems. He turned west and went around the building. As prestigious as the college was and with the amount of leading-edge research that was carried out within its walls, the security was not very tight. He could have hacked in and done just about anything he wanted to do. Change grades. Add students. If some terrorist group wanted to learn how to build atomic bombs, it would be no problem to get anyone they wanted into the right classes. Lucky for everyone, nobody had done that--yet.

Eric opened the door and walked into Jorgensen Laboratory with a few minutes to spare. By the time he made his way to the room, it would be straight up eight. One more week, then finals and he’d be done with Cal Tech.

His family moved around a bit, never staying more than five years in any one town, though they never left California. His last move was to Pasadena almost seven years ago and now he felt that need to move on--that seven year itch. He had applied to MIT and expected to be accepted. His grades were nearly perfect and he’d received numerous awards from the college for his teamwork on several research projects.

Living his entire life in California, he had only been outside of the state a dozen or so times. He had skied a few times in Utah and Colorado and attended some seminars in Texas and Massachusetts. New England was pretty, but it got cold there. Since he had never lived in a cold region before, he was a little worried about that, but MIT was the place to be. Cutting-edge research. World renowned.

Up late again I see, a female voice drifted over to him as he took a seat near the front of the lecture hall.

Hey, Kate, Eric replied.

You really should cut back some or you’re going to burn out, Kate said.

Not me. I like the pressure. I work better under pressure.

You should at least take a break and get hammered with us at the bar every once and a while. As long as I’ve known you, I can’t ever remember seeing you drunk.

I like to keep my rhythm going--once every three years, Eric said with a smile.

I’ve known you almost four so you’re due.

Tell you what. If I get accepted to MIT, I’ll buy the drinks and we’ll all get hammered. But you’ve got to promise to stay sober enough to get me home. I can be a sloppy drunk sometimes, Eric winked.

Deal, she replied.

Eric didn’t have time for romance, but if he did, she would be on the top of the list.

Kate didn’t try hiding her feelings for him. She liked him and would like to give it a chance, but she was also a girl with a dream. She wanted to be the best of the best. Like Eric, she had also applied to MIT and was waiting for the acceptance/rejection letter. She spent a lot of time with her studies and research projects, but unlike Eric, she took the time to have fun once in a while.

She was attractive and smart--a combination that usually drove off the good looking ones and excited the goofy ones. Probably half the guys that asked her out could have passed for Bill Gates’ brother or even his twin. Kate was five-ten with long blonde hair that nearly reached her waist which was as thin as any model’s. She wished her hips weren’t quite as wide, but looking at the women in her family she was happy they were as small as they were. Her family had hips made for bearing children which was definitely not in her immediate plans.

Whenever she wanted or needed a guy, she’d go out with some friends to a bar away from the college. More often than not, she’d catch the eye of a good-looking guy and play the dumb blonde. She didn’t mind much since these guys were the dumb macho type anyways. She’d have fun and walk away with no strings attached and most importantly, no guilt. She didn’t do all of that just for sex, though she did have her fair share. She just needed to be held and talked to like a woman that she was, even if it was just careless bantering about sports or politics. Just to have a guy look into her eyes and smile. To see her as a beautiful woman and not some walking computer. When she did decide to start looking for a serious relationship, it wouldn’t be at the bar. It would have to be someone intelligent and funny--someone like Eric perhaps.

Class started and ended as usual. Sometimes it was so monotonous that it drove Eric crazy. The lectures were boring to him. He preferred the assignments. He saw them as challenges, whereas the lectures were a test to see if he could withstand the torture long enough to graduate. He was looking forward to graduate school. There was little to no lecturing in those classes. Most of it was pure research, and that’s what he lived for.

See you later. And let me know if you get the letter--either way, Kate said as they filed out of the room.

I promise. And you too. I want to be the first to know. I really hope we both get accepted. I’d like to have someone I know there with me.

Promise, she said and walked off to her next class.

MIT sent out acceptance notifications via email, letter and even posted the acceptance notices online. Kate and Eric had chosen the traditional letter, which meant that they would be notified later than some people would, but they wanted something that they could hold. Even as impersonal as the letters were, they were still better than a computer generated email.

Eric scheduled his classes with breaks between them so that he’d have time to do things without having to rush to the next class. Some people actually had their classes lined up so they’d be done by lunchtime. Eric’s schedule allowed for him to have breakfast before his next class and that was where he was headed.

Train’s Drive By was streaming through his earbuds as he walked. Eric softly hummed, but not because he didn’t know the words. He knew the lyrics of thousands of songs. Eric thought to himself, and not for the first time, How much of my brain am I wasting by memorizing useless lyrics? as he followed the same path back to the dorm.

The Avery Center was more than a dormitory; it housed graduates, undergraduates, faculty and even visitors. The complex had lounges, meeting rooms and a library. The dining facilities were the best on campus.

Eric went into the dining hall and headed over to the Belgian waffle machine. He lifted the pitcher of batter, which they kept sitting in a tub of ice water, and poured it into the huge waffle machine. His mouth began watering as he waited for the little light on top to go out. Today he had chosen buttermilk flavored, his favorite, with blueberries on top. Taking his hot waffle over to a table, Eric ate breakfast alone as usual.

Unlike the rest of Generation Z (or more aptly referred to as Generation I--I as in Internet or I as in me, myself and I depends on who you are), Eric didn’t have a phone glued to his head or severe damage to his wrist and thumbs from non-stop texting. He did have an iPod Touch and an Android based smartphone, but he rarely used his phone. He was, however, completely addicted to the Internet, but just not 24-7. Instead, he enjoyed being offline for short periods of time.

Eric pulled out his iPod and scrolled through his to-do list while he ate. He had one more project to complete, dead week, some exams and winter semester would be over, leaving one last semester before graduation. There was no doubt he could fail every exam and still graduate with highest honors. Some of the professors would probably just write 4.0 at the top without even looking at the exam. He had received one 3.0 in a literature class last fall, by far his weakest subject. If he had only aced the final exam, he would have received the 4.0 that he thought he deserved. Fate, however, decided that he had not provided enough details on some of the essay questions and was left with the one blemish on his academic career.

He had a wireless keyboard for his iPod that he used during lectures for taking notes, but he didn’t need it when just making notes to himself or reviewing data. Using his fingertips, he scanned through some other things, such as upcoming birthdays and weddings. Not a lot happening, except of course, his graduation. His parents and one set of grandparents would be there, but that’s about it. Eric was an only child and had few friends. Even his family was a little distant. He saw his dad’s parents once a year or so, but only visited his mother’s parents every few years. There were a couple of cousins on both sides of the family, but he’d never met them. The only relative he had ever met, besides the grandparents, was his dad’s brother and that was back in the early seventies.

Eric didn’t seem to mind. He’d always been a happy person, and he didn’t need other people around to make him cheerful. Even now as he sat alone in a room full of people, he was content.

An alarm on Eric’s iPod went off. Eric tapped the screen to turn off the reminder. Class started in ten minutes and it took about that long to walk there. He pocketed his iPod and grabbed his tray. He took it over and slid it into the cart that would later be rolled back to the kitchen where the dishes would be washed. Eric retrieved his backpack and headed to class.

His next class was just as boring. He took notes on the iPod using the keyboard so he could keep up with the lecture. After class, he put his textbook and the keyboard back into the backpack and withdrew earbuds and plugged them into his iPod. He scrolled through the list of songs until he found the one he wanted.

Eric had always loved music. He’d even tried playing in a couple of bands when he was younger. However, he quickly found out that no matter how much he loved music, he wasn’t musically talented. He could play notes on a guitar, but not good enough for any band outside of the sixth grade. He was good for his age back then, but could never really master the guitar. However that hadn’t stopped him listening to music, which was almost an obsession for him.

Over the course of a day, he listened to about a hundred songs on average. Even while he was hacking or surfing, he was listening to music. He downloaded tons of songs off the Internet. Some he bought, but most were acquired via more illicit methods. There were hundreds of places to download free MP3 music, if you knew where to look.

He grabbed his backpack and headed to his next class. It was in the same building so he followed the familiar path toward the room listening to his music as he walked. He listened to all types of music--hard rock like Nickelback, Evanescene, and Korn to symphonic pieces from orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic. Right now, the Foo Fighters were pumping through his body. He arrived at the room a little early so he listened to a couple of more songs outside before going in to have a seat.

This class was his favorite. It was a class on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Eric knew that the human mind could never be duplicated. Contrary to popular belief, the scientists weren’t even really trying to duplicate the mind. Scientists realized that they had very little understanding of how the brain functioned--how it stored thoughts and used those memories to solve problems that the person had never seen before--and this class didn’t try to solve the secrets of the brain either.

This class attempted to build systems that could learn from things done in the past. For example, suppose that you had a lab that was controlled by a computer with AI capabilities. Every morning at eight, you opened the door, walked in and turned on the lights. After time, the computer would notice that the light is turned on every time the door is opened at around eight a.m., so it starts turning on the lights for you. Now, you open the door and the light comes on. That’s one application of AI in a very simple form.

The most common form of AI is the game of chess. People have been trying to build computers that could think better than people for a long time. The most famous of these was Big Blue built by IBM. They developed an AI program that could play chess and each year they would challenge the best chess player in the world to a match. One man versus a computer the size of a large room, yet the human usually won. In the last few years, the computer had become smaller and smarter and won more often, but the computer was still no real match for the human brain. One year the chess master was able to confuse Big Blue by making a series of moves that were designed to do nothing--not to lose pieces, but not take any either. This was not thought of by the computer, so it had no past experience to base its moves on, and like a babe in the woods, it was lost. But of course, if you tried that again the computer would be ready for you--might not know what to do, but it would understand what was happening.

Some of the best applications for AI that Eric could foresee were in simulation of complex systems. Imagine, for example, that you ran a huge fabrication plant where integrated circuit (IC) chips were made and you needed to know what the delay/cost would be if a certain part of the process failed. A computer program could tell you where the critical phases in the processes were--where the bottlenecks were. This information could help you decide to purchase back up systems/machines if the delays/costs were too large. It could also be used to determine whether to shut down the whole plant or just keep running, knowing that the later processes could handle the backlog. You could spend hours, days and even weeks building a simulation model for the plant and then you would test it against the real world, taking data from the real experiences within the lab. Finally after maybe a year, you would have a pretty good model.

But that assumes the plant doesn’t change. In reality, it’s in a state of constant change. New technologies come out every day which are incorporated into the lab. It’s a never-ending struggle to keep the simulation model up to date. But Eric envisioned a new technology. He saw all the pieces tied into a central computer where a simulation program with AI technology was running. When a new piece of machinery was purchased, data was also provided that was used by simulation software to model the machine. So the simulation program didn’t need to be built by humans. Instead, it read the data from the machine and built the simulation for you. The operator just told the software how all the pieces work together--the order of the machines in the process. Then using real time data provided from the machines, the simulation software constantly updated its model. It could also detect when a machine was running below specifications or not running at all.

The simulation program could even make the decisions on whether to continue or stop when a machine went down. Because of the vanity of people however, the simulation program would probably just be used to suggest a course of action and let the people make the final decisions.

That was just one of the many ideas that Eric had for AI. He also saw great possibilities for it in computer security. Imagine a security system that could learn how each user works on a day-to-day basis, then using this data could decide if a user was acting strangely. For example, let’s say that a scientist was working on recombinant DNA research, but every so often, usually at night, the user was accessing Web sites about nuclear bombs. The security system could identify this as abnormal behavior and set off alarms for the security staff to investigate. The program could even lock the user out or trace the user to the computer he was using. Security systems like this could even track down people who write viruses. To Eric, having an intelligent computer monitoring the computer systems seemed like the single best way to increase computer security.

Energized from the class, Eric walked back to the dorm for lunch. On the way, he stopped by and picked up his mail. He didn’t bother to flip through the mail, he just put it in the backpack and headed over to the dining hall where he got in line and studied the menu. Tough decision--leg of lamb or baked polenta. Eric chose the leg of lamb with rosemary potatoes and grilled vegetables. He also checked out the dinner menu and decided moroccan salmon for tonight. He was so glad that he was able to get into the Avery House. There were only one hundred undergrads accepted into Avery and once you were in, you had first dibs at a room for next semester. A friend of his dad’s was able to secure him a spot his freshman year and Eric had been eating at this restaurant ever since. The one thing Eric would miss most about Cal Tech was the Avery House. Everything about it was plush. He wasn’t a snob like most people living there. He didn’t feel superior to the ones that couldn’t get into Avery--just thankful.

Eric took his lunch over to a table against the wall, sat down and began eating. The lamb was great as usual. He couldn’t remember ever eating anything here that wasn’t good. As he ate, his eyes scanned over the dining hall--looking but not really seeing anything. He finished his lunch and slid the tray to the other side of the table. Eric reached down, unzipped his backpack and pulled out the mail. Almost a ritual for him. First lunch, then mail.

The first two envelopes were from credit card companies. Eric had two already--why did he need more? He laid those two on the lunch tray destined for the trash without opening them. The next one was strange. The return address was Innovative Thinking with an address in Colorado. Eric tried to remember ever hearing of the company. It didn’t ring a bell. He was about to toss it, but finally decided to place it in the to read stack.

The last envelope was from MIT! He could feel his heart pounding. He knew that there was almost no way for him to be rejected. His parents could afford it. His grades were nearly prefect. Still, he worried. Eric calmly took the MIT letter along with the mystery letter, one in each hand, and mentally weighed them. Quickly deciding the order, he laid the MIT acceptance letter down, leaving the best for last.

Using the knife from the lunch tray, he opened the mystery letter. As he unfolded the letter it contained, a green slip of paper fell out. Eric picked it up and looked at it. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing--a check for ten thousand dollars! He looked at the rest of the check. It was made out to one Eric Decovney. The signature was too hard to read. At the top was the company name Innovative Thinking. Keeping the check in one hand, he began reading the letter.

Dear Eric,

I realize that you are probably still holding the check as you read this. I would be shocked too if I received a check from someone I had never met, so let me explain. I own a company named Innovative Thinking or IT as it is commonly called. The company is a think tank of great minds from all over the world. We have people from all disciplines--everything from psychologists to biologists, I like to say. I am contacting you because I have been following your progress, and I would like to offer you a job.

The position I am offering is in our computer security area as part of the team of five engineers that are responsible for our computer security. The research we do leads to new technologies almost daily. We have two full-time, in-house lawyers just to handle the patents from our work. Thus the research we do must be kept secret from out competitors, which is why we have very tight security.

The position I offer you is one I think you will enjoy. I also believe it is one in which you will be extremely successful. The job is to try to penetrate our security. When you do, you will then make suggestions on improvements. So you would be on our security team, but working both with and against our team at the same time.

I have sent you a check to cover your expenses. I wish for you to fly here and take a tour of our facilities during Spring Break. This is not an interview--the job is yours if you want it. The job has it rewards, but it also has its demands, which I’ll explain during your stay. All I ask from you is three days of your time.

I will pay for any expenses you incur for the trip and your stay. The check is just to show you that I am serious. Any money left unspent is yours to keep. If you need more, just ask. Simply make the necessary plans at your convenience and let me know when you will be arriving. I prefer that you come during the week so that you can see the company as it runs during normal working hours. Maybe you could fly in on a Wednesday and leave that Sunday. This would also give you a chance to see what we do around here for fun.

Please consider this offer and make the trip before you respond to the acceptance letter from MIT. I would hate to lose such a great mind as yours even to a prestigious institution like MIT.

Sincerely,

Jacob Moncroft

PS: Please bring this letter with you, as an invitation letter, when you come.

Eric read the letter again and again. He couldn’t believe what he was reading. In the letter, Jacob didn’t come out and say that he knew Eric was a good hacker, but he more or less implied it. Eric didn’t think anyone really knew about that. He had made a point to keep it secret. Some of the things he’d done could have landed him in federal prison if charges had been pressed. But the scariest thing was the mention of the acceptance to MIT. Eric glanced down at the letter from MIT. He was almost afraid to open it. Who was this Jacob Moncroft and how did he know about MIT?

DID YOU GET IT!!! a voice screamed out causing Eric to almost fall out of his chair.

He turned to see Kate running over to him.

Um, yes. I got the letter from MIT, but I haven’t opened it yet, he said as he folded the letter from IT and placed it and the check back in the envelope.

I was accepted! she said proudly as she handed a letter to him.

Eric scanned the letter quickly and glanced back up to her.

Congrats. I knew they wouldn’t turn you down.

Well, don’t just stand there. Open yours, Kate said as she slid into the chair next to him.

Eric sat down and slowly opened the envelope and withdrew the letter. For a second, he almost wished it were a