Song of the Red-Legged Birds: Chapter 31: What’s in the box?
Wake gets real on the device tech
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With gratitude, Bill
Last week, in chapter 30, Arthur caught Christo up on events, and Careen cautioned Luke
Chapter 31: What’s in the box?
“So, Wake, what’s the deal with your Replay device? Does it work the same way? What are the chances you’ll scramble my friend’s brain?” Holly said with hands on her hips.
“Scramble my brain…?” Takeda mouthed.
“The device you’re looking at is more advanced than any consumer-level ones available at the Centers. I built it. I maintain it. And I’ve used it many times. Sheila and Scott have as well, right guys?”
“Fuckin-a,” Scott said and bumped fists with Sheila.
“Exactly how is it more advanced?” Takeda worried, looking over the shiny steel enclosure.
“As you know, the ones at The Centers can keep you in the Replay for fifteen seconds. My machine will let you go for thirty.” Wake smiled.
“That’s it? That’s your big advancement?” Holly scoffed.
“I said my machine will let you go for thirty seconds. That’s as far as I’ll let anyone else go. I’ve been in there for an hour.”
“An hour!” Holly and Takeda said at the same time. Triscuit grumbled a comment.
“Out of sight, right!” Wake clapped. Triscuit took that as a come here gesture and strolled over. The discovery rewarded her with pats.
“Isn’t that dangerous? Does it do anything bad to your body… or your brain?” Takeda got even closer to the machine as if asking it these questions.
“I get regular checkups and a yearly CAT scan.”
Holly stepped forward and glanced around the room. She pursed her lips like words were about to burst out.
“Wake?” She said.
“Yes?”
“I don’t want to sound like a shit, but I’m gonna ask you a question that’ll sound shitty.”
He chuckled, “Please, lay it on me.”
“All this,” she waved her arms around the room, “and you,” her hands cut the air describing his outfit. “The music, the lights, the Discoder thing. When did that start? Was it after these one-hour sojourns into the mystery box?”
A broad smile expanded across Wake’s face. “Holly, you’re groo-vy!”
“Hey! Don’t you call her… wait, that was a compliment, wasn’t it?” Takeda winced.
Wake got up and patted him on the shoulder, “It was.”
He went on, “It’s a great question. Yes, as you say, all this happened after I started running the replay longer... and more frequently.” He hung on the last word to watch their faces and got the desired effect. “Another advancement I’ve made is that my device works beyond your birthday. You can use it anytime you want. Can you dig it?”
Both Holly and Takeda’s mouth were slightly open.
“You might want to sit down again.” He walked to the couch, and they followed.
“It’s true. I started expressing my fondness for disco in a big way after many trips into the box. Let’s say I became more and more comfortable being who I am. I enjoy what I do, and I love life. I dance, sing, have parties, and laugh. I’m happier than I’ve ever been. As messed up as the world is, and as hard as I try to fight for what’s right, I love it! So, I let my freak flag fly.”
“It makes me feel a little uncomfortable,” Holly admitted.
“I dig it. I’m not trying to get all philosophical on you because, frankly, I know that I don’t know, ya hear? But check this; let’s pretend Sheila over there is super angry. Sheila, please stand up and give me one of your ass-kickin’ bouncer faces.”
Sheila got up with a threatening stomp. He balled up his fists and grimaced like he was considering taking a bite from the wall.
“Yeeeeeaaahh!” Wake said. “Now, Scott, give me a dose of that joyful stuff from earlier tonight.”
Scott sprung to the dance floor and unleashed a burst of gyrations that could technically be called dancing. He threw in a few wooooo hooooos to inform the audience of his pleasure.
“Scott, you’re like the sun in the evening. Out-a-sight!” Wake applauded.
“Now my question to either of you is, who are you more afraid of?”
They both reflected for a moment.
“You don’t need to answer. It’s a contrived scenario, and I’m no expert. But, I’ll say this, there’s something to our gut reactions to both of my good friends. I think it’s fear. I’m no longer down with being afraid of happiness and joy, mine or anyone else’s. But I still have a very healthy fear of the ass-kicking Sheila could give me.”
Sheila laughed. “Speaking of that, you said there’d be food.”
“Sorry, you can all grab some grub from the kitchen when you’re hungry. I ordered a ton of takeout.”
Sheila disappeared in a flash. Scott followed, continuing his dance by pelvic thrusting the whole way.
Holly had the look of several questions percolating.
“Whatcha got, my dear?” Wake ventured.
“How often do you go in that thing?”
“About twice a week.”
“How in the hell did you do it? How were you able to make it keep replaying?”
“Now that is a trade secret.” He made a zipper motion across his lips.
“Do those guys go in it as much as you do?”
“Absolutely not,” he said emphatically, changing his tone. “I’ve had great results, but I’m unwilling to let others use it like I do. Maybe someday, when it’s perfected. Until then, I experiment on myself.”
Holly pinched the bridge of her nose.
“I’m aware that there are unknown unknowns with what I’m doing. You may have already thought of some obvious dangers such as…?” He turned a palm up in her direction.
“That it could be like an addiction or a drug. What if you don’t want to get out during one of your test runs?” she said.
“Exactly. I can only tell you that it hasn’t presented as an addiction yet.”
“What about Holly’s second question? About not wanting to get out?” Takeda said, with obvious self-interest.
“I’ve built a few fail-safes. There’s an easily accessible kill switch. And each session is timed, the machine shuts down automatically. Lastly, I’ve set it so that an individual can only use it once a day.”
Takeda thought about that. “So, when I go in, I’ll see a kill switch? How does that work?”
“It’s literally at your fingertips, built into the handles. One tap will do it. You don’t lose awareness of your physical body as it takes a back seat to the Replay. The device monitors this. Even if you were to get lost or disconnected, it would trigger the kill switch.”
“You seem to spend a lot of time on safety.” Holly took her cigarettes out of her hoodie pocket. “Do you mind if I smoke?”
“Go right ahead.”
She lit up and took a drag; the cigarette pressed between her index and middle finger. Then she grabbed a nearby chair, rolled it closer to Wake, and sat.
“Why all the precautions? What happened?”
He sighed. For a microsecond, he attempted a poker face. Then he closed his eyes and turned his head from side to side, cracking his neck.
“I was lost in there once, for almost a day.”
Takeda pulled up a chair next to Holly. Muffled sounds of conversation came from the kitchen, along with the beeping of a microwave. Triscuit waddled after to inspect the smell of food.
“Lost?” Takeda said.
“Not long after I had a version of the software that let me enter the device as often as I wanted to, there was an incident. My best explanation is that I was so entranced I lost track of my being.” He patted his chest. “The timer failed to stop the device because of a coding error. Also, in my recklessness, I had gone in without Sheila or Scott around. And, of course, I didn’t have any of the fail-safes I mentioned earlier. I imagine what happened was like being an astronaut floating untethered in space. The main difference is that it was bliss instead of terror.”
“Wow,” Holly said.
“How’d you get out?” Takeda said.
“Dumb, dumb, stupid, lucky luck.” Wake recalled. “The power went out in the building, releasing the locks and making me tumble out on jelly legs. I flopped on the floor like a dead fish, and I had no idea where I was for a few moments.”
“The power went out? With all this fancy hardware, you mean to tell me there’s no backup generator?” Holly said pointedly.
“Another astute observation. I could use someone like you project managing me.” He smiled and patted her hand.
“I did have a generator. It turns out that the rats in this building knew about it… and gnawed about it too! They tore right through the cable, for whatever reason that rats would do that. It can’t be nutrition, right? The kicker was that no warning light alerted me to the defunct power supply.”
“This is not a confidence-inspiring story,” Takeda said, his eyes wandering around the room.
“I know, but I’m being straight with you. Well, to be fair, if Holly didn’t ask, I probably wouldn’t have shared this story. It is very embarrassing. The outcome of this bad scene was six months of safety development plans and procedures.”
“So, you’re on the floor there. What happened next? I assume that you were okay?” Holly said.
“I was. I was okay. Once the feeling returned to my legs, I recognized my surroundings. I was a bit dehydrated. A few days later, I got a CAT scan which turned up nothing unusual.”
“Couldn’t pinpoint the source of your disco fever?” Takeda smiled.
“There’s no cure for that, my man.” Wake raised his hand for a high five. Takeda waited for a beat, slapped Wake’s hand, then smiled at Holly, who raised her eyebrows to new heights.
Wake jerked at the sound of a helicopter passing close. He turned to face a couple of boarded-up windows by the side of the dance floor. Light leaked in from the edges and cracks as the chopper flew by the second time.
“Hey, Scott! Can you check that out?” Wake yelled towards the kitchen.
Scott came out carrying a slice of pizza. “Sure,” he said and disappeared through another door in the apartment.
“Nervous?” Holly questioned.
“Call it cautious. Overly so. There’s a lot of sketchy freaks squatting in this building.”
“But that was the police. Are you afraid of them, too?”
“Yes. I don’t want to get dramatic, but the government considers me a threat. Most of my time is spent defending my network,” Wake added air quotes to the last word. “The same one that you found. It’s under repeated assault by government-paid hackers.”
“Are you implying that it’s not a network or not real?” Holly guessed.
“Exactamundo! That site is loaded with misleading data, and I protect it with all the tenacity of it being real. That way, it doesn’t matter if it ever gets hacked. I could also let someone think they hacked it, which I’ve done occasionally to see what I could learn from my would-be hunters. I call that the discoder rope-a-dope. Let them keep swinging, meaning finding false data, and kick them out when I discover the intrusion. It’s genuinely a lot of fun.”
“Hmm, I wish my grandfather were still alive. From the stories my Mom tells, I bet you two would get along,” Holly said wistfully, suddenly wanting to take it back.
“I hope you don’t mind me saying so, but I’ve read quite a bit about your grandfather. His cyber exploits are the stuff of legend. I could only hope that he would find me the least bit amusing. I understand he spent some time teaching your Mom his secrets before passing. At least that’s what people have said.”
Holly gave Wake a careful look. “I don’t know about secrets, but yeah, my grandfather taught my Mom some stuff about computers and writing code. She said it was a way to bridge the divide between my Dad and him.”
“Did your Mom pass that knowledge to you?”
She waved her hand in a sideways cutting motion. “I don’t want to discuss my family.”
“Of course, I’m sorry to have pried. It’s not that often that I meet the descendants of famous coders; I get carried away.”
“It’s cool,” she said, clearly still bothered.
Scott came back into the room. “It looks like there’s a riot on the ground floor. Tough to tell what’s going on, but there’s a lot of police and shit. It looks like an average deal, but I think the parking garage is blocked. Might stay that way until the police clear it all up.”
“Hmm,” Wake said.
“What?” Holly said.
“It’s late, and with the riot going on, you might consider staying the night. Of course, you’re both quite welcome to, and we have a private guest room with a bath. Uh, assuming a single room is adequate for you both?”
“What’s the alternative?” she said.
“I suppose Takeda could sleep on the pull-out couch here and…”
“No, the alternative to staying here overnight.”
“Oh, standing by and waiting for the riot to clear. It could be an hour. It could be several. But staying the night might be a good idea in another way.”
“What other way?”
“It’ll allow you to sleep on the info I’ve shared. We can talk more in the morning. Tak gets more time to consider what I’m asking him to do.” He motioned to the device.
“Tak?” She turned to him and shrugged.
“I wasn’t all that excited about going home anyway. Crazy as it sounds, it seems safer here,” he said.
She looked at Triscuit. “What about her?”
“We’re well set up to handle the needs of man and woman’s best friend. I used to have a pup of my own. There’s dog food in the kitchen and a place in the back where she might powder her wet nose. May I show you to your room?”
“Before you do that, one more question,” Takeda said.
“Of course.”
“What is it you want me to do in there tomorrow? What are you hoping for?”
Wake pressed his lips together. “I want you to do whatever comes naturally. Maybe nothing comes of it but a normal run-through. Given all that has happened to you both, what I think will happen is that Chimera will appear again. Selfishly, I hope that she’ll deliver a message. That would be a huge step forward in understanding these phenomena.”
“No pressure then. Greaaaat,” Takeda said, trying to make himself feel better and standing up.
“Shall we?” Wake motioned toward the hallway, and seeing Holly nod, he led the way.
They passed a photo hanging on the wall, and Holly stopped to look. A couple was sitting on a dock at a lake, their feet dangling over the water. It was an e-Motion photo, every few seconds, a brilliant setting sun trickled through the trees, and the water sparkled like diamond rain. The two sat pressed close together. The woman leaned into the man, after which he kissed her on top of her head. She watched the scene replay a dozen times.
“Hypnotic, isn’t it?” Wake was suddenly next to her.
She shook her head as if caught in a trance. “It’s a beautiful picture. Is that you?”
“So many years ago. And that’s my lovely wife, Charly. We weren’t even married yet.” He reached as if to touch her in the photo, then pulled back self-consciously.
“Where is she?”
“She passed about fifteen years ago. I talk about her in the present tense because I still feel her in here as strong as the day this was taken.” He patted the middle of his chest.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you, but there’s no need to be. I hold out hope that she feels me as strongly as I do her, wherever, or whenever she is.” He smiled, eyes glassy, and continued down the hall.
Wake took a right turn into a tastefully decorated room. It had a queen-size bed, dresser, chair with a reading lamp, and a large vid screen.
“The bathroom is through there, and towels, robes, and various toiletries are on the shelves. Extra comforters in the closet, and please feel free to raid the kitchen anytime. Also, I’m a night owl, so the bedrooms here all have sound dampening built in.”
“Wow,” Takeda said. “Were you planning on having us stay over?”
“I like to keep a nice guest room. Anyone that I let into my home is someone that I trust. As such, I like to treat them like family. That’s a part of Charly that became a part of me.”
Holly walked over to Wake and surprised him with a hug. He hugged her back and said, “Thank you.”
They turned at the sound of Triscuit scrambling down the hallway. Scott yelled, “I didn’t give her that!”
She skidded into the bedroom, holding a large slice of pizza by the crust and panting. They laughed as a pepperoni slid off and onto the floor. Triscuit looked at them nonplussed - and fell over.
“She’s well trained. Must have heard you say it was okay to raid the kitchen,” Takeda said.
“That’s one cool cat. I mean dog!” Wake said. “Well, unless there’s anything else, I’ll say good night, and we’ll see you in the morning.”
Holly looked up, “There is one more thing. I need a phone.”
“Ah, of course. I can help you with that. Come with me.”
“I’m going to watch the rest of this battle royal with the pizza slice and then take her to do her business. Where do I do that?” Takeda asked.
“End of the hallway on the right. You’ll see it.”
Holly followed Wake down the hallway, past the computers, the device, the dance floor, and into a dimly lit workshop. A wall that ran its length was lined with tools above a scarred oak workbench. Several unidentifiable hulking machines sat dormant like dreaming metal monsters. Wake walked over to one of them and pressed a few buttons that appeared to turn it on. The face of the device was faux wood grain with Cigarettes emblazoned in large silver letters. Underneath were labels for Winston, Benson and Hedges, Marlboro, Salem, Newport, and Camel. Below each of those were plastic knobs.
“That’s pretty cool,” Holly marveled. “I’ve seen pictures of these before. It’s like an olden-days cigarette machine, right?”
“Indeed, it is–sort of. This little beauty is a phone printer.”
“I didn’t think that was possible.” She leaned down to examine its facade.
“It’s not all that hard. I’d get a patent if I were an entrepreneur and not a discoding hacker on the run.”
“Isn’t this a lot of effort for some phones? Why not just buy a bunch of burners?”
“Two reasons. Number one, because I can, and it’s fun,” he smiled. “Number two, these are untraceable and connect to my special communication grid.”
Holly tilted her head. “What grid? Where?”
Wake put his hands on his hips. “I AM THE GRID.”
She closed her eyes and sighed.
“Sorry, I always wanted to say that.” He bobbed his head.
“Okay…”
“Hang on,” he said, and unlatched a compartment on the side of the faux-retro butt distributor. A tube with a mouthpiece at one end emerged. “I’ll need you to breathe into this. A breath signature activates my phones. You’re the only one who can use this. I want to make that point very clear. If anyone, Takeda, Triscuit, or even me, tries to, it will self-destruct.”
“Seriously? That’s some badass spy gear.”
“Indeed.”
“How does it self-destruct? Will it blow up?”
“Nothing that dramatic. The components will heat until they turn into liquid. The whole thing will be a plastic blob within thirty seconds.”
“Would you please?” He motioned to the tube.
She breathed into it. A readout on the side of the machine changed color from yellow, to orange, to green and stopped.
“Perfect,” Wake said.
Holly backed up as Wake tapped at a display. She took a moment to glance around the shop. A robotic dog sat on the workbench—a tangle of wires emerging from its canine head like an electrical fountain.
The machine began to whir and rumble, threatening to walk across the floor.
She shouted over the noise, “Sounds more like a jackhammer than a phone printer!”
“This is what phone printers sound like!” Wake yelled back.
It buzzed and stopped. A large yellow smiley face icon lit up on its side.
“Now for the best part!”
“What’s that?”
“Pull one of the knobs under the cigarette labels.” Wake was almost giddy.
Holly grabbed a knob and pulled it. Nothing happened.
“No, you’ve got to yank it all the way out. They used to make smokers work for it!”
Holly tried again, pulling hard. A steel rod slid out several inches until the machine made a metallic ringing sound, and a new phone dropped into the catch tray with a clunk.
“Well, far out,” she said, knowing he’d appreciate it.
“I spent too much time with that add-on, but I love it. It feels like you’re really doing something, you know?”
“I guess,” she said, powering on the phone. It lit up. A pulsing dot centered on the screen. Holly glanced at Wake and breathed into the mouthpiece. It unlocked.
“That should have everything you need: messaging, internet access, camera, GPS, video streaming apps. Oh, you can make calls on it, too, hah! Full disclosure, any data you capture and all your usage activities are stored in my cloud. That’s the only price you pay. I can wipe it and remotely activate the self-destruct sequence if I need to as well. The battery should last at least two weeks without recharging, even with continuous use.”
“Two weeks?” Holly marveled.
“Nice, right? I won’t get into it now, but that’s nothing you could buy off the shelf.”
“Is there a nuclear reactor in here?” She held it up with two fingers.
“Nope. Safe enough to put in your pocket. Safe enough for a baby, uh, except for when it’s self-destructing. If you’ve given a baby a self-destructing phone, that’s just bad parenting.”
“Noted,” she said, sliding the phone into her back pocket.
“Any wireless charging device or station will top it off.”
“This thing is connected to your grid and can’t be accessed by anyone else, hijacked or hacked?”
“That’s the intent. But I never say never. As long as there’s technology that puts up borders, some, like me, will attempt to cross those borders. But as of today, yes, it’s secure.”
“Cool. Thank you. I appreciate this.”
“Holly… can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Who do you have to call?” Wake clasped his hands together.
“It’s personal. You can find out if you need to, I guess.” She nodded towards his computer systems.
“No need. I didn’t intend to pry. I only wondered if you needed help.”
“I’m all set, Wake. Thanks again.”
“You’re more than welcome. Have a good night’s rest, and we’ll catch up in the morning.”
She found Takeda helping Triscuit up onto the bed. The dog turned a few circles and settled on a final position with a sigh. Holly sat beside them and briefed him on her new phone, showing off the breath-activated security feature.
“How’re doin’, H? I’m wrung out. My mind won’t stop racing.”
She leaned into him, and he put an arm around her. “Same here. All this is surreal. I’m trying to roll with it so my head doesn’t explode.”
“You know, I was thinking,” he said.
“Always dangerous,” she patted his thigh and closed her eyes.
“We’re acting like we have to keep doing whatever the hell this is. With whomever the hell they are.” He motioned to the door. “We could get the fuck out of here, out of town. For good. Neither of us is tied down.”
She opened her eyes and tilted her head at him. “We? Like, we’d go together?”
“Well yeah.” He wrinkled his brow, realizing the magnitude of his statement, and smiled. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
“Because of the murderer, the killer trees, and contact with little green people from beyond?” she said sweetly.
He squirmed. “Because, shit. You know why. I know you know why.”
She smiled.
“You’re going to make me say it?”
Her smile increased by degrees.
“I don’t want to ruin it. You’re my best friend.” He tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear.
She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “I know I can be hard. But the girly side of me wants you to jump first.”
He turned to face her and took her hands in his.
“I love you, H.”
“I love you too, dipshit.”
They kissed for what seemed like forever. They kissed while the building gently swayed, and a helicopter made another flyby. They kissed undisturbed by the muffled music down the hall. This time, when he was inside her, they knew it was different and spent an eternity in each other’s eyes while their bodies dissolved.
She woke first, hours later, with him wrapped around her deep underneath the covers. She kissed his hand and got up, taking a moment to remember where she was. He was faintly snoring. She looked at the door where Triscuit had made herself comfortable after being scooted off the bed. The dog opened her eyes in recognition, stretched, and closed them.
Her clothes were scattered about the room. She grabbed the cell phone and tiptoed to the bathroom, the floor cold on her feet. On the back of the door was a clean white robe. She put it on and cinched it at the waist.
Holly powered the phone on and breathed into it. She located the text messaging app:
Hi, Mom, it’s me. This is a new phone number.
Thinking about you and hope you’re doing well.
I miss you.
She waited for the ‘Message Delivered’ confirmation. Then she brushed her teeth with a new toothbrush from the medicine cabinet. After splashing water on her face, the phone buzzed.
Hi sweetheart! It’s so good to hear from you!
I hope you’re somewhere safe and not battling fires tonight.
I just took a sleeping pill, so I will call you tomorrow.
Sleep tight, baby girl. I love you!! :-)
She smiled at the phone and clicked it off.
Holly washed her face, found some slippers, and returned to the bedroom. Takeda was talking in his sleep and twitching. Triscuit had gotten up on the bed and sat beside him–one paw resting on his side.
“Okay, okay… okay. We’ll go… okay,” he said, his pupils darted behind closed eyelids.
She sat on the bed beside him and gently smoothed his hair.
He sat up with a start and yelled, “North!” with wild eyes. Then seeing Holly, he relaxed and slumped back.
“You okay? Nightmare?” She kissed his forehead.
“Maybe…” He searched the remnants of his dream. “You and I were leaving here, leaving Boston and all this crap. But then she was there, in the back seat of the car.”
“Chimera.”
“Uh-huh.”
“What’d she want?”
“Something about us needing to go North. Together.”
“Why? Where North?”
“I don’t remember, or she didn’t say. Then I woke up.”
“Weird.”
“This time, I know I was dreaming, but it felt super real. You know that feeling?”
“I do. Hey, you said us. And you talked in your sleep saying we’ll go. I’ve never seen this apparition or little girl or whatever. Do you think she meant me? Am I part of we? The us?”
“I think so… yes.”
She slid off her bathrobe, letting it drop to the floor, and crawled into bed, pressing against him. He stroked her hair and ran a hand along her thigh. Triscuit jumped off the bed as if sensing that her space would be an issue again and went back to the door.
“H, that stuff I said before about taking off…” he paused.
“Yes?” she kissed his cheek.
“I want to see this through. I don’t want to run. I want to fight. Or, if not fight, at least I want to know what’s happening.”
She kissed him again near his ear.
“I need to do whatever I can to make it safe for us.”
She rolled a leg between his.
He looked at her, “Hey, were you awake?”
“Yup, I texted my Mom and brushed my teeth. Smell.” She breathed on him.
“Minty,” he said.
They kissed hard and in a rush. She straddled him and bit his ear; he pulled her down on him and took over. They both came quickly and lay panting in the twisted sheets.
“Jesus, Tak. You’ve been holding out on me,” she cooed.
“Me? What about you? If I’d known that telling someone you love them would bump the sex level up, I might have said it earlier.”
She laughed and slapped him.
“Want to watch something?” he said.
“Sexy talk. Sure, lover.”
He turned the big TV on, logged into Netflix, and then picked up where they’d left off in a Twilight Zone rewatch. A train conductor said, ‘Next stop Willoughby!’. They watched the show for five minutes before falling back to sleep.
Next week in Chapter 32, “Not on my watch” A meeting with President Chavez