Cheat, page 30
The box was settled in the work room, where she’d asked to be placed. Ford walked around after him, but wasn’t talking. Pointing at the VR space, he decided that getting that imbed was going to happen, since he wasn’t sharing a suit with his brother for sex, and it was really clear that his had been used for that purpose, since it looked like it had been ripped in several places.
“Clean up in there. We can print you a new VR rig tonight. One for each of us. So, you were telling me how you’ve been doing?” Managing to be cheery was a lot to ask for, since his nerves felt like wires that had been stretched too tight for too long, but he didn’t snap, or sound too much like a prick.
“Yeah? I couldn’t get your stuff to work. I, mom and dad kicked me out. I don’t know why I did it, but I tried to print out a sex-bot. Deidre Omry? She has these huge green eyes, and a teardrop ass that…” There was a moan then, nearly a grunt, and a pelvic thrust.
It was true that she was attractive, but she was also a nice person. More to the point, a real one, and a friend of his. He didn’t try to tell his brother that, just going into his bedroom, which had been being used, and changed his shirt. There was a cloth bag in one corner, and an old guitar case. That reminded him to turn the music down, which he did with a thought. The pressure in the place went way down then.
Then he found a clean shirt, and some shorts. It was a nice day out. He didn’t close the door to change, since he wasn’t a fat fifteen-year-old afraid of being seen now. Mason waited for the barbs to come, but there was just a low sound that seemed pained.
“Your back, it’s covered with bruises. Lil brother, are you in trouble?”
“No, I’ve just been living tangentially to it for a while now. A whole week and a half. So, Deidre Omry? She’s nice. Really sweet.” He dressed without hurrying, or going slow. It was just a thing, and if Ford called him fat, the guy would be in for some insults in return. Maybe with some hitting. Not that he was a violent person, but he was more than a little on edge at the moment.
“You’re telling me. Anyway, I wanted a high end model, and our loving parents weren’t into that, so tossed all my stuff out the window and called the cops. They were going to take me in, for disturbing the peace, or some made up bull crap like that, when they checked my place of residence and found that I lived here. I have to say that one was a surprise. I mean, I’d considered calling to ask, but it was already set. Thanks.”
He finished arranging the short sleeved red shirt, and slipped the shorts on before speaking.
“Reagan, too. I do expect you to find someplace else, as soon as you can, but I know that can be hard. Still, my house, my rules. That means I get to give the dad lectures around here. Different rules though, because you know, you aren’t five and I know that.”
There was a large masturbation gesture then, but his brother laughed and choked down some of the mouthwash. That probably meant he was pretty desperate if he was willing to drink that kind of stuff. It was so strong that it stank. Mason liked mint too.
“Sure, what, I have to be in by nine and take the first job that comes up, even if it won’t pay as much as state care?”
That did kind of sound like what their parents would have said, just trying to fix their broken boy. It was also insane, since having a job that paid less than he was getting would probably end up with him in prison.
“No, but this place stays clean. I mean, don’t leave a dish in the sink, or a shirt on the floor. You’re the maid, and if I have to tell you that twice, you’re out. That should take you maybe an hour a day to do a good job, but it’s a real thing, got it? You can’t be sloppy here. I have friends and business associates that come by. So, you get that right? At any time they might be over, including in the next few hours. I’ll pick up after myself, but if I don’t get to it instantly, you need to be right on top of that.”
There was a dickish grin, and his brother’s chubby cheeks fought a smile.
“Wait, you have friends? Did you build them? Program them in VR?”
“Nope. So, this shouldn’t have to be said, but do not, under any circumstances, hit on any of them. If you do that, or try to so much as feel one of them up, you’re also out. Other than that, try not to be a jerk, and we should be fine. So, clean, no hitting on my friends, and don’t be you. That should be doable, right?”
He stopped, thought about what was said, and shrugged.
“Besides, you asked if I was my own boyfriend. So you clearly don’t think I’m that big of a loser.” The instant the words left this mouth he thought of ten different ways that his older brother could have said that and still thought he wasn’t worth much as a person, but there was a gesture with the drinking glass, which was low enough not to splash now.
“Of course you aren’t a loser. Why would you even say that? I know I say some things, but you have to know that you’re the one that everyone is proud of back home. Not just mom and dad, either. We all are. The neighbors even. They don’t even know what you look like now. I can see you having friends. Good ones even, that don’t vanish because you don’t have any money at the end of the month. Not that I’ve had any for years. I should have been born smart like you, not just good looking.”
It wasn’t funny, but his brother smiled and walked out of the room. Mason didn’t know why that was, but after a quick trip to the slightly messy bathroom, he walked out and started cleaning, which got his now shirt wearing brother to do the same.
They scrubbed, in silence, for several hours, with him trying to get in touch with Sam, or Lisa, to see if they were all right. It wasn’t the best spy protocols ever, but they were either dead, or doing their espionage part that way, since neither picked up. He left a message for each, and then tried to get in touch a few times after that, not doing it again. There was no benefit to leaving the same words a hundred times, but he really was worried.
He’d been told they were fine. That John might have said that to get rid of him was possible however, so his nerves were a bit on edge. Then it occurred to him to just ask Sys. She might be busy too, or not want to speak with Ford there, but it couldn’t hurt to ask.
“Hey, Sys, not to be a pain, but is there any information about Sam and Lisa? I mean Lexi.” He didn’t know if the AI would have picked up on the double name thing if it came from him.
“They’re in a safe location. Alive and unharmed. Tim and Lisa were able to neutralize the enemy forces very easily, once they hit the woods. I passed a message to them that you were fine, already.” The yellow smiley face got wiped down, since he had a damp cleaning rag already, and it didn’t hurt to do everything at once.
A sense of relief poured through him then, and he sighed, finally relaxing.
“Okay. I feel better now. Do we know who was attacking, or why?” He had some ideas, but it was only a guess. “I mean, Charlton Warburg comes to mind but why bother trying to kill her, right?”
He whispered the words, but could hear singing again in the other room. Possibly with cleaning going on at the same time, since it was a bit choppy sounding.
Sys made a sound. It was like bells at first, but after a moment he realized it was laughter.
“Ah. Well, yes, it was very clearly our friend Charlton. As to why he tried to kill her, well, that one is simple. He wants to punish you for scolding him. He can’t go after you, so he went after the closest person to you that he could find.”
“He did? Why? I mean, wouldn’t a bag of poop on my doorstep be enough to teach me a lesson? What…” He wanted to ask what the man was thinking, but that had to be pretty obvious to everyone.
Charlton was used to getting his own way in pretty much everything. The question needed then was a different one.
“Why can’t he come after me? I’m no one important.” Not that anyone should know about, even if his tech did end up changing the world.
“That would be due to me, I’m afraid. When he was going to harm Lexi, I was about to intercede, and send him a message, threatening him with death if he did it. Instead, since you moved to protect her, I sent one to his internal phone directly, telling him that if he went up against you, he’d lose. Without you even working very hard to make it happen. It isn’t supposed to be possible to take over a phone at that level, since he has an encrypted one, but I have all those codes. It’s the law, so I cheated a bit. That means, as far as he’s concerned, that going after you personally will not end well for him.”
The singing stopped, and so did the talking, until the song changed and Ford went back to it.
Sys almost purred after that.
“I bet he’s worried now. He sent twelve genetically engineered combat veterans after two regular people and two of the same kind of soldier, armed with much less advanced and powerful weapons. Four of his people died, and five more were injured enough they couldn’t fight any longer. Given that they’re designed to keep going until they’re nearly dead, that’s no small feat. Three of those went down going up against you personally. Taken without you using any weapons at all.”
He nodded.
“And as long as there’s no footage of me flopping around and being shot over and over again, it sounds pretty good.”
“Heh. Funny, there isn’t any vid at all. I have a reconstruction as to what must have happened, so I assume he will too, but that isn’t the point. He didn’t know he was doing it, but he accidently sent a hit team for you, and your friends. Now he’ll live in fear of your counter attack. I doubt you’ll need to worry about him again however. Acting now would force you to go for him, just to survive. My guess is that he’ll vanish from the public eye for a while, and try not to make you mad.”
She seemed very certain of that one, for some reason, but that kind of thing was part of her job. What she was designed to do. The single thing that Watch did better than almost any other AI in the world. Predict the future.
“Hey, you knew, didn’t you? And Lexi, she ducked down before the attack happened. You told her that it was coming?”
There was a long silence then, filled only with the dulcet tones of Adam Genesh, being half drowned out by his brother. There was a tinkle of ice, and the scent of mint in the air. It was a clean and antiseptic scent, if nothing else.
“I got enough data to put it together some time before that, but came under attack on one of my sub-processors by Data-Net. That took all my resources for a while. We’re not allowed to truly do battle, so we have to use creative means to thwart one another. I won, in case you’re wondering who’s better. Then, I have four times the level of resources at my disposal, which makes a difference.”
He could see that helping. It would be like a three or four-hundred-pound muscle man going up against his hundred and forty-five. He might win a fight like that, but it wasn’t very probable. When you went up against powerful beings, the best you could do was change the game so that you could win. Cheat, basically. Anything else was pretty much just ensuring that you’d lose.
Thinking of that he bent forward, his back so sore he could barely make himself do it.
“I hope we get a few days off. I don’t need another set of bruises, thanks. That vacation was the least restful thing I’ve ever done.” He nearly added a line about how on the good side Carry wasn’t there to keep coming after him, but he didn’t want to jinx his good luck.
Then, because his thoughts clearly had power he didn’t expect them to, there was a knock at the door. That meant his brother just answered it, his face bright and shining as he let the couple in.
Mason saw it all happening, and smiled, “see I was just thinking of you, Carry. Ben, good to see you. This is my brother, Ford.” He didn’t explain anything about him, because you were allowed to have extra family members around. A lot of people did, from time to time.
He saluted with a glass, and Ben made a face that was so obvious that they all noticed it.
Ford looked at the tumbler, and sighed.
“I wanted red wine, but this was all the machine here will make.”
It wasn’t really true, which Ben knew, so they moved to the little two-person table, to discuss what was wanted. That reminded him to set up the needed instructions in the other room. He needed a new float screen, since it would be a lot easier to work that way. As it was he had to close his eyes to use his imbed for it.
That got Carry to glare at him, when he looked up. She moved to sit on the sofa though, as Ford watched her like she might not be a real woman.
She sighed, making it a long and loud thing, so he wouldn’t miss it. They couldn’t have that.
“You’re mean, Mason Sims. Saying that I can’t act like that, in public. That hit the media, you know.”
“Well, you had just been slapping me for no reason. It was annoying. Especially after spending all week trying to make everyone hate me like you had.” He knew why that was, but she just shook her head, which Mason took to mean that project might not be totally done.
“I invited you to the party, and you dropped me to sleep in the basement on the first day. What was I supposed to do?”
Ben coughed a little bit, and looked away.
“So, red wine? We can do that. I’d actually been thinking of doing a whole dinner, with dessert, chicken? That would need a white wine though, by tradition. Not that I won’t break that from time to time.”
Mason started by bringing up the chemical composition of several classic, but well known wines. The trick then would be to make minor changes that wouldn’t impact flavor too much. What came out seemed off to him, since he was thinking that it should be like grape juice. Sweet and slightly tart. Ford took a large sip, and closed his own eyes, distracted from Carry by it.
“Not bad. A bit dry at the edges.”
Ben had some and agreed with the assessment.
“Can you lower the tannins in it? Maybe add a slight apple wood hint to it?”
That took longer than the rest of it, since believe it or not, no one had ever invented apple wood flavoring. He got the CR on it as they worked. Whatever it did for the drink, the others liked it. Even Carry.
She explained the show premise to Ford, who looked at her carefully the whole time, like what she was going on about was the most fascinating thing ever. After a bit he reached out and took her hand, his face smiling. She didn’t yank it away, but looked slightly troubled. Mason saw it happening, but it could be considered normal enough in some social circles. Hers, for instance, so he didn’t say anything. Ford didn’t press his luck either. Possibly getting that pasty colored heavy guys didn’t get the hot girls most of the time.
After a while he let go, and the conversation went on.
Ben smiled. “I’ve been with my agent about it, and he feels good about it as an idea. With the backers we have in on the project it will probably go through, unless Charlton Warburg has a problem with it. That… Could happen.” There was a shrug, and even Carry didn’t make a comment about it. The man could, obviously, hold a grudge.
Holding up his hand, he walked to the other room, and got the man’s personal number from Sys. She was fighting a laugh when the man’s avatar appeared, overlaid on reality.
Then he walked back to the other room.
“Charlton? How are you doing?” Everyone else looked at him, but Ford clearly didn’t get what he was doing. The others did, it seemed, and looked like their eyes were going to fall out.
“Who is this?” There was no real heat to the words, it was just a question.
“Mason Sims? We met the other day? You accidently tried to kill me earlier? I trust that’s over now? I expect better from you. If we’re going to be friends, we both have to act like it.” He was half channeling his inner child and half his father in lecture mode.
The man spoke, sounding slightly nervous, but not blustering yet.
“You noticed that?”
“It was a slow day, so yes. Anyway, bygones and all that. So, Ben Starky and Carry Samson have a new printable food show that I’m going to be backing. Can we get fast tracking on that, or whatever you call it? Skip a few of the hoops? Just to sweeten the deal, I have a new VR imbed that will revolutionize the field, and be cheap enough for people to actually get. I could send the specs over to you and your people in a few weeks? Having things ready to go and compatible when the industry changes can’t hurt.”
There was a low mutter, and he was nearly certain that the man called him a mother fucker. Then he answered for real.
“Certainly. I’ll set that up on my end. Thank you for the consideration. Hopefully my little miss-step won’t be taken too harshly? I don’t want any bad blood between us, I’m sure.”
He nodded, “fine. This time. Understand though, Charlton, I can’t afford to be that kind twice. Not even for a friend. I don’t want problems, but I won’t let people mistreat me, or my friends.”
“I quite understand, Mason. Until next time?”
Then the line cut. Before he could go to the kitchen area and get a tumbler of water, Ben answered his phone, and looked surprised.
“We have the show? Wonderful! I’d heard it might be going through, but that was faster than expected. Thanks Bill.”
Just like that, they had things underway.
Chapter twenty
The next day Mason got up early, and picked up his assignment from S&B by eight. That one was an interesting project, after a fashion. It was a macro-redesign of a water flow valve. The problem was that over the last century every shape for the valve flap that could have been used had been. There were already attempts to get around that, using double and triple flap designs, extra holding chambers for the fluids being used, and even electrical systems that would monitor and control the exact pressure in those holding cells.
So it wasn’t just a matter of altering the color and painting a smiley face on the outside, as far as getting a new CR on something like that. Valves, as boring and simple as they sounded, were a problem for a lot of big companies. You had to use them in almost anything that involved shifting liquids around, but that meant paying someone else for their use. Those little internal costs could add up.
