Talitha Koum

Chapter 02

TALITHA KOUM

CHAPTER 02

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With Julie in the lead, the two of them made their way through the lab and headed toward the far corner. Wending their way past tall cabinets all around, which formed a zigzagging array of narrow corridors, the two emerged into an open space the size of a two-car garage. It was a secluded clearing amid a forest of metal closets. On the far wall, near the ceiling and above the top of the tall cabinets, were two small windows that connected this area of the basement to the outside world. They didn’t let in much light at all.

In the middle of the clearing stood a simple desk, a workbench. On the desk sat a single computer monitor and a keyboard. The wires that came out of the back of these pieces led away to a row of cabinets behind the desk housing servers. A heap of solar panels lay stacked off to one side. No ceiling lights reached this corner of the lab. The only illumination came from the lazy, setting sun outside and a lamp on the desk, the kind that was attached by a screw-on clamp. It was turned on but pointed away from the monitor.

The whole lab had been quiet to begin with, almost eerie, but around this lone desk, in this one solitary corner of the enclosure, the silence was even more concentrated, more viscous. Tom inspected the machine from where he was. He stared at the creature in the middle of the clearing, surrounded by a dense, impenetrable forest all around, with trees reaching into the night sky.

And it regarded him in turn.

An owl spoke in the distance and the laughter of children turned into screams, as the old woman shut the door behind them to the candy house. The monitor face was matte, black, spotless. It was an eye, an unblinking eye, glaring at Tom from the middle of a mammoth Venus flytrap.

Ten feet away from it, Tom found himself stopping.

~~~

“What? What’s the matter? You okay?” Julie laid her set of cables on the ground.

“Yeah, I…I don’t know.” With Julie’s help, Tom eased the cables off his shoulder too.

“What? You don’t look so good. Like a little pale…”

“No, I’m fine.” He smiled. “Blood sugar’s probably just a little low.”

“Oh, good then. ‘Cause I ordered take-out.”

“What? I thought we were going out.”

“No, too busy. I have this other thing after…”

“So, why didn’t you ask me?”

“About what? Going out? Come on! It’s just food!”

“But…”

“Come, come, come…” Julie took Tom’s arm and ushered him into the seat in front of the desk. She sat down in another chair beside him. She presented the monitor and the banks of servers behind the desk with a flourish. “Ta da! Say hello to—DaNI!”

“Danny?”

“Well, DNI, actually. Data Network Initiative. The whole project started out with looking for a better way to connect bits of data together…”

“Hence the odd name.”

She nodded, beaming.

“So, what does…DaNI do?”

“Well…” Julie’s eyes looked like they were beginning to glow. “…imagine a computer system that could take a question, any question, any question from anyone, anytime, anywhere and come up with the right answer—every time!”