Sapluusana: Magic On Earth - If Magic Did Exist, #4

By Matt Deckman

Keith is a computer prodigy. Some argue that he's better than the computer genius Damian Mackeths. To Keith, it doesn't matter as Damian has had control of Keith since he was a teenager, at 16, back in high school. Keith, at that time, had managed to hack into the best security system on the planet; Eleanor herself.  When Damian caught Keith, Damian offered him a deal, one of which he couldn't refuse.

Now, 15 years later, Keith is working for Future Tech Corp, and has been put on a new assignment; to design, develop and build a computer network of monstrous proportions. A new city is being designed that will allow the peaceful fusion of the Humans, FireCats and Elves, along with the Dragons found only 15 years ago.

Trinity O'Connell, a world class academic, who is also a journalist, blogger, professor and photographer, has been hired to help promote a massive project.  

However, things don't go as planned and her pathway in life isn't as straight forward as she once thought it was, as she reminisces her high school years, when she trained and fought Kronck.

~ Adults only - 18+ ~

• Language: English
• Publisher: Matt Deckman
• Release date: Nov 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781540158659

Book preview

"The word 'saplūšana' is a rough translation of the word 'fusion' from English to Latvian. There is a similar word in Finnish, 'sapluuna', meaning 'template' in English.

The name 'Saplúúšana' here is a fusion and play on the two translation, pronounced 'Sap-ploo-sana'. 'A template for the fusion of various creatures; the perfect city of co-existence.' Once completed, Sapluusana will be a safe haven for all those who wish to live in piece, regardless of their species, culture and faith."

~ Trinity A. O'Connell Photographer, Journalist and Scholar

Saplúúšana - Table of Contents

Notice

Copyright @ 2016 Matthew B. Deckman  All Rights Reserved.

Only publishers indicated on this website are distributing this book.

The story line gets progressively darker and more mature.

Glossary

All technical terms that have an explanation in the glossary are bolded.

Links

Saplúúšana Page: Sapluusana

Website: Magic On Earth - If Magic Did Exist

Social Media:

Twitter: @moeifmgcdidexst

Facebook: ifmagicdidexist

Reviews:

If and when you finish this book, could you kindly leave a review on the site that you got it from.

Sapluusana

Chapter 1

The sound of fingers hitting a keyboard was all that could be heard in the room, other than the dull humming and buzz of a computer and its fans trying to keep it cool. Characters were flying across the scream as the user typed in another string of code.  He was almost done breaking through the last layer of encryption and had only another few seconds left.

When he hit enter, the code executed and he was inside the system…but it wasn’t just any system. After months of researching and looking around, he had finally been able to understand the security system underneath Eleanor.  The system he just cracked and was viewing confidential files. The system that only five people in the world were even talented enough to attempt to crack.

But he was only a teen of 16 and he, Keith, had just broken through its firewalls and security, and was now looking its heart.  He had bypassed the Honeypot, bypassed all the fake leads. He had studied everything; every scrap of writing on the system and researched the latest methods of security and wrote out what he thought they may look like, just to make sure he could recognize some form of it.

It had just all paid off. He could now be considered one of the top ten hackers in the world.  His mother and father didn’t and would never approve of what he was into, but now, he had just proven himself in his world, they’d have no choice but to accept it.  His father was a plumber and a good one. He had his own business and his mother was an accountant who worked with his father.  They weren’t not accepting of his computer field as they thought it was just typing and not actually building something with his hands.

Keith had to look for and copy something over that only a person who broke in could get access to. He had to stay away from financials because that could cause trouble.  He went for the graphics and started looking for a logo or something, something that would be revealed soon and nothing that could be on the internet.

His cell phone buzzed. It had been on vibrate as he couldn’t risk the noise and lose concentration. He answered it without looking at the caller ID.

Congrats, you’re one of the very few who could break through the security on Eleanor… the person on the other end said. This got Keith’s attention. He looked at the caller ID and searched it quickly.  Damian Mackeths.

Surprised? You should be.  Don’t pull a stunt this stupid again or there will be trouble. Take silent pride and walk away, Damian said and hung up.

A window popped up in the screen.

‘Purge system or have information transferred over in 10 seconds…9…8’  Keith’s eyes widened as he realized what this meant.  Damian was pressing him into either formatting his system himself or have information be taken.  Keith’s went with his first thought and pulled the Ethernet cable.  Afterwards, he pulled the power cord.  To make sure Damian couldn’t get back in, he tore out the wireless card and rebooted. 

No Ethernet cable yet.  He reset the router to a dynamic or changing IP address. He had a static one on there and restarted his computer, the router and switches. He was in panic mode and tried to cover the basics.  If Damian couldn’t find the router IP, he couldn’t find the computer.

As soon as the computer was booted and ready, he put the Ethernet cable back in. As it clicked into place, a window appeared.

‘Nice try. Got the home address. 7…6…’ read again and realized he couldn’t put the system back online anymore.  He unplugged the desktop again and hooked into the laptop. ‘Switching systems? The moment you transfer a single bit of data to the desktop, it will be purged. This laptop is now infected with a purging virus. As is any other device that connects to the network. Get over it already, your desktop is going to be purged to stay out of trouble.’

The window disappeared.  Keith knew that Damian had the ability to do that. It would only take a small, 100 KB program to destroy the computer. All it had to do was delete and shred files. Anything could transfer it these days without notice. Dial up and DSL were obsolete in every part of the world thanks to Damian, as those were the only ones that could allow a person to catch the download.

Keith set about formatting his desktop, but not before backing up documents onto a small jump drive, which he hid afterwards on the back of a drawer fashioned with scotch tape.  As soon as it was formatted, and plugged back in, the window reappeared.

‘Good.’ And it disappeared. Keith sighed. Damian was right, take silent pride in it and go on with life.  He got ready for bed and went to sleep.  It was going to be a long day tomorrow as some of his friends were going to be asking for proof of the break in and he had nothing except a formatted computer and a jump drive with no break-in evidence and only his notes. He couldn't print anything out because if he did, he would have to disconnect his computer to keep it from being purged and Damian was probably keeping tabs on his computer at the moment. This meant if it disconnected, legal actions would be taken.

The next day was not kind to him. He became known as the guy who chickened out and didn’t hack it. He didn’t even have the remote control software to prove his machine was formatted. 

By the end of the day, he was feeling miserable. He started to walk home when someone came up from behind.

I believe you, Rebecca smiled. He looked at her.  What was Rebecca doing here?

You do huh, then you’re either feeling guilty about it or trying to cheer me up, he grumbled.

Nah, you’re the best there is with computers in this school and I want to make you feel better, she smiled.

* * * * *

The rest of the way home was silent. Rebecca blushed several times, trying to figure out ways to cheer Keith up.  He watched her from time to time.  He had a feeling about her and wanted to ask but waited till home.

As he unlocked and walked into his house, he went straight to his bedroom.

You want to get it on before the ‘rents huh? Cool, Rebecca blushed softly.

You’re still a virgin aren’t you? Keith asked.

Rebecca looked at him, "No…I’ve…I’ve had plenty of sex before

But you haven’t slept around like you say you have. Otherwise you wouldn’t have blushed all the way here. I figured you were trying to decide what ‘fun’ to have, Keith looked at her.

Look, she got flustered, I’ve had sex before alright, she put her hands on her hips. She was clearly enraged that Keith thought she was still a virgin.

He picked up something off her desk and tossed it to her.  When she caught it, she looked at it, A USB drive, 64 GB. Decent size.

So what else do you know? Keith looked at her as he knew he was about to break apart the mask. She also knew what he was doing. Two of the same type of people in the same room, with one playing this game, the other would surely catch on.

Look, I’m not as dumb as everybody makes me out to be, Rebecca tossed back the jump drive, "I’ve got straight A’s in school. I’m in several different clubs and I let the president of each club take the credit.

I hate being this smart and having the type of reputation that I do. I hate being called the class slut. I’ve only had sex one time and that was with my ex-boyfriend. I was in 9th grade and since Junior year started, I knew it was a mistake. My mother knows, my father doesn’t. That’s how I want to keep it, Rebecca sat on the bed and looked at Keith.

A thunderstorm started outside. The rain pelted the window.

Then prove to yourself and the rest of the school that you’re smart and end the reputation. Dress respectably and act accordingly, he waved at her appearance.  You honestly look like a whore with the mini skirt, the low cut tank top with the paper thin bra on, nipples pressing out. You’re begging for attention and eventually a teacher or some older guy will want...take advantage.  Afterwards, you’ll have been raped and probably a baby on the way, Keith was honest.

Rebecca didn’t like what he was saying but knew that it was true, So what do you expect me to do? I don’t have much in the lines of cloths and I don’t really have much time…

Well then, how much does it cost for some cheap tops and some pants?  We can always start you out with some solid color or stripped shirts and blue jeans. They don’t have to be designer. Hell, nothing of mine is designer, Keith was curious.

Dude, everybody knows you’re the class nerd. You brag about hacking and have more computer crap than most of the other kids do combined, Rebecca smirked at him.

Keith walked over to his computer station, turned the light on and showed her what he had, I’ve got 3 monitors hooked up, all different sizes and brands. I’ve got a 6 core machine with 24 GB of RAM and about 5 TB of hard drive space and a 256 GB solid state.  I have extra cards, RAM and a few other things. It’s not that much really.  My parents don’t approve of my field of choice. That’s why I hacked into Future Tech, for recognition on their end. The 16 year-old that hacked into the most secure computer system on the planet.

Rebecca nodded her understanding, Were you serious about getting me new cloths?

I’ve got a debit card that I have two grand available.  Aside from chore allowance, I do work on the side with computers. You want to head out now? Keith put on a jacket.

Sure, Rebecca said as she glanced outside the window.  On their way out, Keith grabbed another jacket for Rebecca.

* * * * *

Keith wasn’t quite sure why Rebecca couldn’t make up her mind with cloths. She wanted to try them on in all combinations before settling. When it was 5:30, he made a decision that irritated her.

You like it, throw it in the cart. Don’t try it on. Do that later, while at home. I’m going to assume you have a full body mirror there? Keith stopped Rebecca from going back into the changing room.

Yeah, but I want to make sure it’s cute, Rebecca tried to insist.

Keith sighed, It’s not supposed to be ‘cute’. It’s supposed to be ‘functional’. Put it in the cart and let me buy it so we can go home.

After the 15th shirt and 12th pair of pants, the total was approaching 300 dollars.  He wasn’t going to like the hit but it was better than having Rebecca get raped and having a child before graduating high school.

As they were walking home, he used some magic to keep the cloths dry. When they said goodbye at her house, he continued walking home.  He didn’t see any lights on when he arrived home and knew that his parents were still working.

Dad always put in overtime, not only to make sure that the jobs got done, but to make extra money.  He paid himself like every other employee he had under him, he worked by the hour and kept the rest inside the company.

Keith walked inside, hung his coat up above the floor mat and went to his room.  He flopped on his bed, not believing he just bought $300 worth of women’s clothes for Rebecca.

Tired? said a voice in the shadows.

Keith scrambled out of bed and looked around. He couldn’t see anybody and grabbed the fixed blade from his night stand without looking at it.

Don’t even try Keith, you won’t stand a chance with that, a light turned on at his desk. He saw Damian Mackeths sitting at his computer.

Nice little rig you got here. 6 core processer by AMD, operating at an overclocked 5 Ghz with overlocked RAM, 24 GBs worth. You’ve got a solid state as the operating system drive. You cracked Windows 10 and reprogrammed parts of it like Linux. It ran incredibly smooth there for a while. Actually better than smooth, you re-invented parts of the operating system beyond what Microsoft could do in another 20 years.  I was impressed by that.  You also have 5 Terabytes of hard drive space. Not much porn though which I’m surprised at, given your adolescence age of 16, Damian dug deep.

Yeah so, what the fuck do you want? Keith moved into a battle stance, knife ready to slash or defend.

I’m not here to fight you Keith, I’m not here to cause trouble, Damian held up a hand.

You broke into my parent’s house you moron! You’ve already caused enough trouble, Keith snapped, correcting him.

No, I didn’t break into anything. I didn’t leave a mark as I magically opened the lock, Damian hissed, Pay attention you dumb brat.

Damian stood and got serious, folding his arms, Here’s the deal: you’re going to finish your high school education and when you graduate, you’re gonna apply for an internship at Future Tech. I’ll be waiting for it.  When I get it, you’ll be hired in the IT department.  You’re also going to start college as well. You’re going to double major in two computer fields. One is to be Computer Science. I want you to have two bachelor degrees when you’re done. With your current computer knowledge, you can literally ace a computer science degree.

Keith interrupted him, And why the hell should I do that?

Because otherwise I’ll press charges to the point of having you thrown in juvenile detention for 2 years, then jail for eight years of your life. No computers for 10 full years. Think about that, you’ll shame your parents, yourself and everybody else you knew for 10 years of your life. Your father especially, since he doesn’t like them much, Damian looked at Keith, And he’ll say ‘I told that boy so and he didn’t listen.

Keith didn’t like where this was headed. Damian had him cornered and they both knew it.  Keith lowered his knife and sat on his bed.

So what do I do now? I don’t exactly have the means of getting my stuff back. You told me to purge it, Keith hung his head.  He had momentarily forgotten about the hasty backup, but he couldn't let on that it existed.

Yeah, I know you had to purge it.  I also copied your hard drive while you were hacking. Eleanor knew of it and showed me the hack. I told her to copy your hard drive as it was and put it to an external, Damian pointed to the small hard drive that was on Keith’s desk, It’s an image. I’ve rooted through the information and deleted stuff you shouldn’t have, added a folder to the desktop that I think would be of interest to you.  Stay clean, don’t mention this and apply yourself.

Damian left the room and the house.  Nobody but Keith would ever know that he was there.

The next day, Keith went into school with a heavy heart. Rebecca showed up next to him in study hall in her new jeans and shirt.  She was wearing the denim jacket that she had gotten yesterday with Keith.  He smiled briefly when he saw her, though his thoughts were on what Damian had said.

What’s wrong Keith, Rebecca sat down next to him.  Her hair was down this time, instead of up in a pony-tail or pig tails. It was also combed out and shiny.

I had a visitor last night, a certain someone who I hacked, Keith started.

Was it Damian? Rebecca asked.

Yeah, he gave me an ultimatum: I work for him, take two bachelor degrees in college and stay clean in high school or I go to jail… Keith said.

Oh, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea, what about your dead computer? Rebecca asked.

I got a cleaned image of my system from Damian. I reinstalled it last night and saw a lot of crap was deleted by him and a folder was on there. Stuff he thought I may be interested in. It was a little dry, but the subject content was definitely interesting. I’m looking more into it today and tonight, Keith replied.  He couldn't even let Rebecca know of the backup he created.  It was still in the same spot that he put it. He could only move it when he had to put something into a safety deposit box.

Rebecca was pleased that Keith was going to be alright after all of that. However, she wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the ultimatum.

As if reading her mind, I’ll be taking advanced courses here in high school in my senior year, that way I can start on my college degrees ahead of time, Keith commented in a low voice.

Rebecca rubbed his back, There are worse things in life Keith, like giving yourself away in your 14th year of life and having your life fall apart afterwards.

Yeah, except instead of doing that, I hacked a multi-billion-dollar corporation, got caught and told what to do for the next 10 years of my life without consideration, Keith rolled his eyes.

At least you’re not going to jail and you’re going to be learning from the absolute best in the business, Rebecca nudged him in the shoulder.

Ryan O’Connell is the absolute best in the business. He designs computers for a living and reprograms them on the fly, Keith stated.

Yes, he does and he’s also married to Melissa O’Connell, who has a daughter that’s 18. Trinity O’Connell. Keith sighed as the bell rang. He reluctantly stood up, I’ll see you around Rebecca.

* * * * *

It was another rainy day as Keith looked out his living room window. He was waiting to leave for work, work which involved working at Future Tech; in its WAN and LAN department, or Wide Area Network and Local Area Network.  He had sped right through the Bachelor degree programs, taking on more of the courses required in a year than most did in two years. He was able to test out of several and took several others at advanced rates. 

In college, he was considered a computer prodigy, with at how fast he learned the information. He was 28 now, working on a doctorates degree program, having a Masters in Computer Science and two bachelors in Computer Science and Computer Engineering.  He was taking networking courses, hardware courses and extremely advanced programming courses with his work load.  It didn’t slow him down, at least not the programming courses.

He had redesigned his Windows copy several times and once he learned how to properly design software, he rebuilt it from the ground up and was able to create a copy that looked like windows and operated at speeds double that of Linux.

Keith had graduated at the top of all his classes and had kept himself clean in high school.  He made friends with Rebecca and held it throughout high school. He didn’t know where she went afterwards, figuring she probably changed her name or got out of state as her reputation had leaked out to various high schools and their students. 

Keith looked at his watch, it read 6:29am. He opened the face up to expose a small touch screen that was roughly 1.25 by 1.25. He saw several emails lined up.  He closed the face and saw 6:30am.  The wearables department had redesigned the Apple Watch and this was the creation.  Apple couldn’t nail them on any patent violations because instead of the touch screen on the front, it was under the top cover.

Keith turned away from his window and headed to work.  The moment he stepped outside, a barrier was created to stop the rain from hitting him.  He was in a white dress shirt, black dress pants and had his laptop slung around his back.

The watch had been a very expensive gift from his parents, whom he had stopped talking to several years ago. At the time it had been bought it was a state of the art Rolex watch with Apple Watch ingenuity. It was also a way for his father to get back into good graces with his son. He had been working for Future Tech the better part of a decade and the last upgrade in salary pushed him over the 100k mark.  His dad had become thrilled at the amount of money he was making and only saw that.  After Keith realized his father only saw dollar signs now when he looked at him, Keith didn’t want anything more to do with his father.

The laptop was a machine he built himself and pimped out, figuratively. It was a hefty machine in weight, which was the reason behind it’s specs, other than that it was made out of military grade materials.  It was an AMD machine that had 2 16 core AMD processors incorporated with 96 GB of RAM. Though the video card was integrated, it had design aspects of both Quadro and GeForce lines.  Rumors circulated that his laptop was stronger than Trinity O’Connell’s laptop, which boasted excellent specs as well.

His was an AMD based machine with 32 cores and 96 GB of RAM. Hers was an Intel Core i7 8000 Extreme series that had 8 cores running with hyper threading at 5 Ghz and 128 GB of RAM with solid states. His was overclocked to 5.5 Ghz. While he had more cores and faster clocks, she had more ram. They both had solid states, she had a dedicated video card, he didn’t. He didn’t have room to put a dedicated in. Quite honestly, he didn’t care. Their machines served their intended purposes.  However, while she had the ram and dedicated video card, he could access any wired or wireless network and make it run at 1 gigabit speeds, regardless of the type of connection, and that included dial-up.

He approached the large rotating doors of Future Tech. He could already see figures inside and could see the silhouette of an unpleasant person waiting for him.

Joseph Jankins or Joe as he liked to be called.  Joe was a human and of the worst type. He was an obese man, balding and lacked the social graces that others acquired over time.  He either knew what he was saying was insensitive and didn't care or didn’t know and didn't care.  Keith could never tell which one. Joe was also in the IT department, how, Keith didn’t know. He sucked at even the basics. How he ever graduated with his Bachelor’s in Information Technology, Keith still couldn’t fathom or figure out.

In short, Joe was riding on the coat tails of Keith. Joe also considered himself Keith’s arch rival which Keith just found stupid.  Five long years of hell knowing Joe and it was only getting worse.  Keith shook his head as he pushed through the front door and saw Joe waiting for him there.

Morning Keith, I’ve got a few support tickets here, some are immediate attention, some aren’t as usual and there is a server down in the communications lab. They’re yelling like banshees to get it back up and running. I took a look but couldn’t figure it out, Joe started every day like this.

Of course you couldn’t, it requires work and you’d rather not take the side panel off or boot the machine if it’s off Keith thought.  Keith strode right towards the elevator as normal, knowing that Joe would follow. He nodded to Luci, a receptionist, who smiled back.

As soon as the elevator doors were closed, as it was only Keith and Joe, I’d push her over in a second.  That was Joes polite way of saying ‘I’d bang her.’  He was referring to pushing Luci over a table and doing her from behind.

Probably take it in either or, Joe was already fantasizing.

I keep telling you, she’s a lesbian, Keith rolled his eyes.  He knew that Luci was a lesbian. Before Joe started working for Future Tech, he did attempt to ask Luci out, but he had brought up what he observed first as not to make a total ass out of himself.  Joe never believed him that Luci was a lesbian.  Pretty much everybody secretly knew that she was one and had the hots for a certain someone in the biology department.

Pft, please, a girl that good lookin’, right. Joe discarded it with a wave.

The elevator dinged and Keith stepped out and went right for his office.  It wasn’t the largest nor the smallest.  Modest really. Two fake plants to keep it colorful and an odd picture to cover the wall. He had two computers, three screens and a printer.  It wasn’t special equipment, just enough to get the job done. He also had a wireless router which he had locked down.

It wasn’t five minutes after Keith sat down and started looking over support tickets and figuring out what his schedule would be like for the day when his boss’s boss walked in, looked at Joe to leave and waited.

Joe, you’re gonna need to leave for a few minutes, Keith said as he looked over his tickets.  He didn’t need to look up, he could tell who the man was by the sound of his footsteps.  Joe reluctantly left the office.  The door was closed and locked behind him.

Honestly, why don’t you just fire that man… the man in the black suit asked.  He was a human but had the work ethic of a business FireCat; confident, high precision work, taking the time required to get the job done the first time and making it last.

Because Andrew, Sir, I’m hoping that he’ll turn around? was Keith’s normal reaction as he stood up and shook the man’s hand, Morning and how’s it going?

I’m doing fine Keith. In-fact, better than fine as we start a new project today and you’re in-charge of it, he handed Keith an envelope, Your eyes only. Do not let Joe see the insides of that unless you deem it necessary.

Understood, Keith nodded his head.  Andrew was always civil enough around Keith.  While they didn’t have much in common, they both liked their jobs and wanted to keep them.  Joe made both uneasy.  Joe was their main hatred about this company.

I mean it, this project is considered classified, Andrew said. Keith nodded again as he walked out.  Joe slipped back before the door clicked closed.  The lock was still in the lock position so Joe would have been locked out had he not caught the door.

Ok, so that folder is thick which means a lot of problems or a large project. Large project means big paycheck… for the company, Joe cracked his knuckles.  Keith was already irritated by the money comment. Sometimes that’s all Joe thought about, the money. He opened a draw and put the envelope into it, locking the draw.

You didn’t have to do that, Joe looked at Keith.

I actually did, it’s considered classified, Keith looked at Joe, standard procedure.

Standard Procedure my ass, Andy just doesn’t want me fingering through it… Joe started then lowered his voice to a hush, Like I should be doing to that receptionist…

A vein pulsed in Keith’s neck. He was irritated at the receptionist comment and at what Joe called Andrew. Andrew deserved more respect than ‘Andy’.  Andrew worked his way up with hard work, he knew the ins and outs of those under him and was an excellent manager.

Come on Keith, I’ll triple check what I’m doing on this project, Joe started again.

You mean having me double check your work like you should already be doing, and having me do the triple check? that was the last straw for Keith. He stood, opened up another draw and pulled a folder that had a label with ‘Joseph Jankins’ across it.

In the past 6 months Joe, Keith began as he opened the folder, You’ve cost the company 40 thousand dollars with paying you, on top of that, you caused a 400 thousand dollar down time incident that should have taken you no more than 5 minutes to fix, without shutting down that particular server. You formatted a manager’s computer because you couldn’t figure out how to restore the recycling bin on the desktop. Keith looked at Joe.

Com’mon, the server needed a reboot, Joe defended himself.

"It was rebooted the night before. Face it Joe, you need to redeem yourself in order to even get close to that folder. You’re not on the job and you won’t be until you show some sort of drastic, and I mean drastic improvement over your current situation."

No more sexual innuendos, no more computer mistakes, no more fuck ups, no more bullshit like you’ve been pulling. You either clean your act up or I’m going to start following my boss’s recommendation, his boss’s recommendation and kick your ass to the curb. Straighten up or get out! Keith looked at Joe.

Joe was a little taken back at Keith’s sudden outburst, Well that was rather mean…

It’s the god damn fucking truth Joe! Keith raised his voice. His raised voice tended to travel, even through walls and glass. It was a trombone like voice. He inherited his father’s voice abilities; to be able to get loud, project and be heard over a crowd. Now get out of my office. Go to another tower and work over there for the day.

Joe turned and left Keith’s office, Jesus, simmer down kitty.  Once Joe was outside his office, Keith walked around, shut the door and locked it.  He needed to cool down a bit before continuing anything.

Keith picked up the phone and dialed an extension, "Hey Samantha, its Keith, how are you?  Great…I’ve got a request and I know you’ve been bugging me for a while now.  That safe you keep offering me, the SentrySafe 1.2 cu bio fire safe, I’ll be taking it now…yes, sensitive material.  I also want it bolted to the floor. I want a thief to be forced to bring a plasma cutter or helicopter to get the stuff out. Thank you much!" He hung up.

The Joe problem was solved, he’d wait till the safe was secured and ready.  In the meantime, he was going to start reading that packet. He pulled it back out, opened the folder and started reading.  He didn’t see Joe anywhere and called around to the other IT departments.  Once he was sure that Joe wasn’t in his tower, he created a faux package and put it back into the drawer, locking it.

After that, the safe came with two maintenance people and one security guard.  Keith signed off on the safe and waited for them to be done anchoring it to the floor. It was next to the window and as they finished, Keith adjusted the one plant to be in front of it. 

Keith quickly read through the instructions and figured out that he could configure the safe so that it needed a key for the biometric and digital key pad to even activate.  It required a six-digit number and his finger print.  Once it was programmed, with the number, his finger print and the key, he felt confident that Joe wouldn’t be able to get into it.

* * * * *

It neared 10 am when a conference was called via email.  He only saw a few people on the email and it mentioned the code name ‘complex’, which the packet was, to meet in a conference room.  Keith stretched, stood, grabbed his gear and headed out to down the hall.

Joe was taking care of the tickets today, regardless what he wanted or thought. Keith didn’t have time for his bullshit today.

The second he opened the door, he was greeted by a few people; one was a soldier, Andrew, two more FireCats, a human and an elf.

Welcome Keith, I take it you’ve started reading? Andrew asked.

Yes I have sir, Keith replied.

And Joe?

Won’t be able to touch it.  I had a safe installed about an hour ago, he won’t be getting it. Keith smiled.

Ah, I wondered who was getting that 100 lb. beast. Andrew smiled.

After that, Keith sat down and started reading over the project again.  Once everybody was in, around 10:15, the room became silent.

Welcome everybody, Andrew started again, "This project is considered classified and sensitive material. It’s military in nature so all actions will be taken to ensure the information contained in here stays in here.

"This project is, in a simple sentence, a humongous housing complex for military and civilian personnel, for all species. It’s going to contain everything a society needs to survive on its own, free from outside interference.  We’ve called the absolute best and brightest into this room to help design, coordinate and complete the project.

I will introduce the Team leaders of the project, as they are all present and accounted for. The first I’m going to introduce is Keith Schneider.

Keith stood up.

"Keith is going to be in charge of all technological aspects, from the computers to the hardware and cabling, software, whatever. Everything that is digital and contains data, he’s in charge. End of discussion.

Next up is Timothy Creswell. He is the project manager. He is going to make sure everything meets its deadline and is going to coordinate all information and meetings concerning this project. He has the authority to make the decisions that nobody else can.

Keith nodded to Tim.  They went to college together. Tim was a competitive son-of-a-bitch and he pressed and surpassed Keith in everything but computers. He was currently a managing Director for one of the towers of Future Tech. While Keith was in charge of the technology in one tower, Tim was in charge of a single tower.

"Our Architect and engineer, Rebecca London."  That name caught Keith’s attention. Tim noticed this.

Rebecca is going to be the lead architect and engineer on the project.  She will be handing all structural details, all piping, duct, electrical, what have you.  If a design issue arises, it goes to her.  She has final say, end of discussion.

Excuse me, is this the extent of the team? a human asked, dressed in a slightly tattered brown leather jacket.

Yes, it is. Andrew answers.

Great, we have three kitty cats running this show, a human says quietly in the back ground.

The human in the brown jacket looked at his fellow human, "Yeah, Ok, I can always fire you and find someone else who is more qualified. I thought this group was the absolute best in their businesses…since I am the one writing the check for this entire project. Labor and materials. All that funding is coming from this wallet." He held up his wallet.

Anybody else have a problem with 3 FireCats running this show? he looked around and saw no complaints, Good.

After that, it was meet and greet time. Tim and Keith had the same idea, meet the person writing the check.

They arrived at the same time, but Tim spoke first, My name’s Timothy Creswell and I wanted to introduce myself personally.  He shook the human’s hand, And this is my buddy from college, Keith.

Keith shook the human’s hand, Keith Schneider. Information Technology manager for the WAN and LAN division of Future Tech as well as lending consultant to about 6 other major companies. Please to meet you, he smiled. He knew exactly how to introduce himself to the person writing the check.  Name, Title, specialty and main extra.

Pleased as well. Who is Joe? the man asked.

Joe is someone that is on a thin thread and is under Keith’s supervision, Andrew answered before either Keith or Tim could talk.

The human looked at Keith, How thin of a thread are we talking and will he be a problem? 

Tim wanted to answer, but let Keith do this part, he’s an assistant IT troubleshooter and he will not be a problem. I’ve secured the necessary measures to make it so that he won’t ever become a problem. 

Good. I like to hear that. Proactive thinking. Now if you excuse me, I’ve got to meet everybody else. The human moved across the room to another group of people.

Keith Schneider? a female voice asks.  Keith turned around to face Rebecca London, the same girl he knew in high school.

He couldn’t help but smile and extended his hand, Rebecca London? She took his hand and smiled.  Same person.

She pulled him into a hug, It’s great to see you, and I see that everything paid off for you!

Yes, yes it did, and you look fantastic! Keith eyed her quickly.  Short jaw length hair, business jacket and a skirt to match. He quickly remembered Tim, Rebecca, this is Timothy Creswell, a buddy I knew from college. Tim, Rebecca London, a dear friend from high school.

Tim and Rebecca shook hands. Tim realized that the two wanted to catch up and went to look over his information about the project.

Goodness, it’s been what, ten years? Rebecca asked quietly.

"Yes, it’s been ten years…wow, Architect and engineer?  Did you double major?" Keith was astonished that she was both.

Yeah, I wanted to be like you and I found that I had a knack for designing and building things. So I went for it and became both…rather quickly actually. Rebecca smiled, So what double majors did you do?

Bachelors in computer science and computer engineering, Masters in Computer Science and I’m working on my doctorates, Keith said.  Rebecca was wide eyed.

A master and two bachelors? Going for Doctorate, go you! she couldn’t help but feel happy for him.

Keith and Rebecca sit down and look over the project. They’d have time for small talk later.  It wasn’t long afterwards that people started to file out.  Keith and Rebecca did the same, with Tim following Keith to his office. Rebecca went to her temporary office until a permanent one could be found.

As Keith and Tim are walking towards Keith’s office, Joe hurried up behind Keith, Keith, I’m done with the tickets.

You didn’t format any computers or break anything did you? Keith glanced at Joe.

No, don’t be silly! Always a joker… Joe shot a glance at Tim, So what was that conference about, I saw you in it…

Nothing that concerns you, Keith kept on walking.

Now that’s just mean, Joe retorted. A few papers fell from his hand, forcing him to stop and pick them up. Unfortunately for him, he had to reorder them before continuing. This gave Tim and Keith enough time to get into Keith’s office and close the door.

Keith, I want to team up with you on this project…it could make our careers and propel us into the next decade, Tim started.

Joe opened the door and went right to Keith, I need you to look over some numbers really quick.

Seriously Joe, these can’t wait? Keith looked at Joe, as it was apparent the closed door wasn’t a good enough hint not to interrupt.

No.

Excuse me Joe, but we were talking here…it was rather rude of you to barge in and demand something like that…over what? Tim started. Keith handed him the papers as Tim looked over them, Seriously, this could have waited, he handed the papers back to Keith who scribbled his signature across them and shoved them back at Joe.

Once Joe left, Tim shut the door and locked it as Keith indicated, Why do you put up with that wanker? Tim sat back down.

I have no fuckin clue…you can honestly say anything in front of him, about anything and he won’t care…I guess that’s why? Keith tried to figure out why.

He’s a tub of lard and from what I’ve gathered from gossip, he’s a dipshit who couldn’t hold his own against a teenager, Tim commented.

Anyways, about this project, do you have an office designated for it yet? I know you have an office a few floors up… Keith asked.

No, and I’m afraid of letting this folder out of my site with that idiot running around, Tim admitted.

Here, give this person a call, Keith handed him a card of the maintenance department, ask for Samantha, tell her I referred you and ask for a SentrySafe, the same one I got.  I just got one installed and there is absolutely no way in hell he’s getting into it. I even had it bolted to the floor. Keith pointed to the safe.

Tim laughed, Nicely done. I’ll take that into consideration. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to familiarize myself with this project. Tim stood and went towards the door.

Tim, Keith started and looked at Tim, Through thick and thin, honestly, it’s good to see you again. I don’t get to see you much since you work in the tower over there, Keith thumbed behind out the window.

Yeah, cause the 10-minute walk is such a killer, Tim looked at him as if saying ‘honestly?’.

* * * * *

After work, Keith met up with Rebecca at a local bar to catch up. He bought dinner and she bought the first round of drinks.

So tell me Keith, how has life been treating you since high school? Rebecca started.

"Life was rushed after high school. I started two bachelor degree programs; computer science and computer engineering. Damian actually paid for both in full, much to my parents’ delight. They weren’t happy with the choices and didn’t understand it, but once the tuition had been paid in full, they didn’t care.  I worked on school work from then and had the internship I was studying under.  I gained not only academics, but actual experience at the same time.  Afterwards, I started making money, serious money. My dad took notice after I hit 70k a year. When I was 25 I hit 95k. My dad only saw dollar signs after that.  I recently just hit the 100k mark. I honestly don’t care for making that much money but they don’t listen.

I’ve got my own apartment which I pay out the nose for. I’ve got a wicked system now and I manage all the IT support and crap on the WAN and LAN division. Nobody questions anything I do. Keith summarized.

How are your parents? Rebecca asked.

I honestly don’t know since I haven’t talked to them in over 3 years. For all I know, my dad could be dead, Keith took a sip.

Sorry to hear that Keith. Rebecca sat closer.

What’s up with you and where did you go? Keith looked at Rebecca.

Well, after that talk we had, I obviously cleaned up my act in high school. For college, I moved away, far away and started a new life. I was respected by people and they had no idea who I was and I kept it that way.  I studied architecture and engineering. I was trying to double major like you and somehow I managed it.  It wasn’t cheap, but now, it pays off. I can not only design a building, but I can make sure everything inside it works.  Companies are constantly calling me to hire me. I’ve been offered 4 jobs a month since I got my architect seal. I currently consult as I can name any price I want and once the job is done, I move on, Rebecca summarized.

You didn’t bother trying to keep in contact, what’s with that? Keith asked.

I was about to when someone managed to get into my accounts and looked through my contacts. I had to delete everything and start from scratch. I did want to get back in touch with you, but someone wasn’t letting me and I never found out who, Rebecca answered.

Log into your old AIM name, I’ll track them, Keith pulled out his phone.

Rebecca logged in and instantly, the ID that was there in college showed up. Keith realized that it meant the person had line of sight.

Rebecca, go to the bathroom, Keith said. Rebecca looked at him oddly but he insisted.  Once she left, he watched people in the back drop at the bar, watching for someone to move to see Rebecca go in.  He saw a male watching her and he had to move to see Rebecca go in.

Keith dialed her number and told her to leave the bar through the front door.  She did as told and walked out. The man followed her. Keith followed as well. 

Once outside, he saw the man following Rebecca. She glanced back and saw the man and started to run.  Keith was already pounding pavement after the guy as he realized Rebecca saw him and chased after her.  The guy didn’t get 50 feet before Keith tackled the man to the ground, twisted both wrists behind him.

Who the fuck are you and what do you want?! Keith yelled.  The man resisted but couldn’t move under Keith’s weight and strength. get off man!

Dude, I’m muscle, you’re not going anywhere, Keith pulled on the man’s arm.

I’m Jason, Jason Burne from high school, god stop pulling on my arm! the human yelled. Keith got up and saw him turn around. 

As soon as they made eye contact, Keith knocked the guy out cold with a single punch. He grabbed the kid’s collar and dragged him back to a light post.

Let’s get out of here, he pulled his cell phone and walked away with Rebecca.  Moments later, two cops showed up, saw the unconscious man, saw the bar and hoisted him into their car.  He was going to spend the night in lock up, getting ‘sober’.

Eventually both made it to Keith’s place. It was quite late at night, but with the city, trains and buses were still going. Rebecca looked around Keith’s apartment, at least of what she saw.  It was decorated lightly, to give a bit of color, but otherwise was very neat and tidy.

I wasn’t expecting such a clean place from a single guy, Rebecca smirked.

I’m not here long enough to make it dirty. I spend most of my time in-front of my computer, working or doing school work, Keith waved the way for Rebecca and told her first room on the left. As soon as she walked in, she was in awe.

An 8 monitor system. She couldn’t believe how much screen space he had.  And they weren’t 24 inch monitors, they were 28 inch.  She looked at either side of the desk and saw two towers.  A two tower system…how was it linked?

Rebecca looked below the desk and found a 10 gigabit hub with two Ethernet cables to each pc, How do you link them?

4 CAT-8 cables. It’s a special software that simply links between the two machines. Each has its own OS, identical. Each change made on one is transferred to the other and comes out as one on the desktop. It’s a cluster or mirrored computers that have the same setup inside for hard drives. The difference here is that while the data is mirrored, the hardware and resources for RAM and CPU are cumulative. I had to re-engineer the software that makes clustering possible, to make this work.  Only a few people have ever gotten it to work. I was the first. He explained.

What are the specs?

Are you sure you want to know? Keith raised a brow. Rebecca smiled.

"Intel Xeon E10 Processor, that’s 24 cores in a chip, 2 chips per tower, two towers, so 96 cores. Each running at an overclocked 5 Ghz.  I’ve got 2 TB of RAM in each, and two Ge-Quadro FXTX cards, 4096 cores each with 12 GB of VRAM each. 2 1TB solid states in the mirrored RAID 10 and about 6 TB extra worth of space, per machine.  It’s a monster," Keith explained.

Why do you need so much power? Rebecca asked.

"Because I run multiple demanding programs at once. Photoshop, Maya, CAD, Solidworks, Robo-Analytics, among others." Keith smiled.

School and work I hope? Rebecca raised a brow.

Some of it fun… Keith asked. Rebecca shook her head.

Once they were back out in the living room, they continued with small talk until about 11.  Rebecca stood up, straightened her skirt out and started for the door.

You know Keith; we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other over the next several years…we could always do what I suggested all those years ago… Rebecca looked at the door.

Rebecca, don’t ruin this… Keith started.

Keith, I’m joking. It’s just been quite a while since we’ve spoken and we’ve both grown quite a bit, Rebecca ended it, I shall see you tomorrow… I wanted to see if you turned out like all those other guys did from high school and you didn’t. You’re a gentleman, and someone that’s will to protect and be a knight. Hopefully in shining armor.

She opened and closed the door.  He didn’t know what to make of that but sent her a text, asking for her to let him know she got home safely, wherever that was.

At 11:15, he got the text.  He pinged her phone with his computer and found that she was in the building across the street. He went to his window and looked out. He dialed her number.

Rebecca…what floor are you on? He started.

He saw a light turn on and smiled as Rebecca went to the window. She waved.

You smart ass, goodnight. He smiled and hung up. He couldn’t believe she lived across the street from him.

Chapter 2

The next morning Tim knocked on Keith’s door. Keith waved him in as he was reviewing paper work from yesterday.  Some of it was about Joe, acting a little unusual. He had concentrated on his work, double checked it and was direct and inquisitive in nature.

This is interesting, Keith started, Joe was acting weird yesterday with the tickets… I wonder if it’s because I threatened his job.

Good possibility, people tend to shape up with you mention firing them, Tim replied, About the lead engineer, Rebecca. What’s her back story?

Subtle Tim. Interested? Keith typed a short response.

Yes, very. You know how it is… Tim smirked.

I knew her in high school, we talked and afterward high school, we lost touch until yesterday, Keith summarized. He was going to leave everything else out. If Tim knew it, he’d try to play the card.

That’s it, no relationship or anything else? No boyfriend girlfriend thing, no, Tim waved the door closed, no sex, no doing the hanky panky with her? She is attractive Keith. She’s cute, has an interesting dress style, but she’s attractive to say the least.

Keith looked at Tim, Tim, we didn’t do anything of the sort. I’m not going to do anything. She’s her own woman, so good luck with whatever.

Ok, ok, but remember, we have that conference and we need to figure out where we’re working here and all that good jazz… Tim got up and left.

Keith shook his head and continued working. Joe stopped by shortly afterwards, knocking, opening the door and gently put down a packet of papers and a few tickets, I couldn’t figure these two out. Googled and still nothing.  He left immediately after that.  Keith looked through the tickets and was able to call the people, remotely hop into their computer and within 10 minutes, had the problems fixed.  He couldn’t blame Joe for these, they were registry fixes that a registry cleaning software would miss.

Meanwhile, Rebecca was getting her drawing table and office ready for the project. Tim knocked on her door frame, Hey, getting your office set up?

Yeah, trying to figure out where everything is going to go, Rebecca moved her drawing table into place, across from her computer.  There was a huge 55-inch touch screen on top of a flat panel tv.

What’s with the huge hardware? Tim pointed to the tv.

"That is for when I have to take a better look at things