Genesis (Man vs Machine #1)

9 | REVELATION

When the doors to the IntelOps headquarters slid open, the first thing Warner noticed was that Alder's station was just as disorganized as he had expected. The room was empty except for the two of them. Alder's desk, mere feet from Warner's, was littered with various circuitry and several holo-pads that flickered erratically.

He was typing commands into the computer just as fast as it spewed out a torrent of errors and new firewalls. The CPU they'd retrieved earlier lay on its side next to the holo-screen, flashing red and green in time with the code Alder stared at.

He hadn't noticed Warner enter, and not wanting to disturb him, Warner walked up to where the tech sat as quietly as he could and stepped over to the shelves on Alder's left. They were strewn with more circuitry, old computer parts, and to Warner's surprise, a hologram that flashed pictures of Alder's life.

Alder as a six-year-old, holding a baseball bat next to his smiling parents at an artificial greenery park. Alder aged nine, not wanting his picture taken, blocking his face as his parents stood behind him, laughing. At twelve, his father's funeral, wearing a suit that was too big for him. At sixteen, laughing, holding his mother's hand as she lay in a hospital bed.

Finally, Alder was twenty, holding a diploma – nobody stood behind him.

Warner watched Alder's life flash by him; in every photo, the tech's smile grew smaller. He stretched his hand towards the hologram. It flickered as his fingers passed through. Suddenly, Alder cleared his throat and he startled, sending a small metal box flying to the floor. It popped open to reveal a tangle of tiny screws and hooks that went scattering over the seamless tile floor. Warner bent to pick them up.

'Leave them there, man. Why're you here? You should be having lunch with everyone else.'

Warner glanced towards the door. 'Not hungry. I, uh, wanted to see how it was going.'

Alder's mouth quirked up a little and he spun back around to face the holo-screen, gesturing to the other chair – Marrcel's - as he did so. Warner walked over to the chair and made himself comfortable.

The Titan's CPU blinked green more often than red now, and a small, triumphant smile was spreading over Alder's face. Finally, there was a small beep; the CPU blinked green for a moment and the light finally switched off.

'Yes!' Alder whooped, looking from the holo-screen to a confused Warner. 'I'm in!'

'Mind telling me what exactly is going on?' Warner didn't know as much about coding as Alder did, but a little bit of Alder's contagious excitement was causing him to smile, too.

Alder grinned and clicked around a little more. 'Basically, there are a helluva lot of firewalls. I just bombed through each and every one of those suckers with my high-tech wizardry.' He winked. 'Now, I've got to trace where the data is going. It'll be hard, because this guy isn't transmitting right now. But I can do it. No worries.'

Warner grinned back and gave Alder a high-five. 'That's great, man.' He watched as the tech concentrated on the copious streams of information crossing the holo-screen again. Alder typed furiously, and the CPU beeped at regular intervals in response; it was almost as if they were having a conversation.

Then Alder frowned. 'Hold on, the data isn't transmitting from here. I'm so stupid. Of course it's coming from the comm chip.'

He got up, swearing, and lifted the comm chip from the box they'd brought back that morning. It was tiny, no bigger than a thumbnail, but Warner guessed that it was pretty powerful. Alder jammed it into the Titan's CPU – the light blinked slowly orange, then a steady green again. A new dialog box opened up on the screen.