From: gearris@aol.com (Gearris)
Subject: Network 1.2 "Ground Zero" (0/3)
Date: Wed Apr 19 02:19:06 MET DST 1995

Network
Issue 1.2:  Ground Zero


 On the run from the authorities, where do you turn?  Who do you ask for
help when your first plea could be your last?  Weiland and Roxie thought
anyplace would be better than the clutches of the government.  In the
ghettos of the future they find The Underground, a band of terrorists
fighting for freedom against the government.  Now Roxie is going
undercover to plant a bomb at a government installation, and Weiland is
guiding her to the target.  Will he wait for his friend to get to out, or
push the button when ordered?

*What is Network?*
 Not quite a novel, but certainly more than a story, Network is the
continuing saga of five brave souls trying to survive the most dangerous
period known to mankind: the future.
 The year is 2087, almost the twenty-second century.  On the edges of
metropolis, lying in the ruins of suburbia, a revolution is being born.
These new freedom fighters have many enemies, from rival terrorists to the
oppressive government that watches over all.
 Meet Weiland, the hacker who crossed the wrong people.  Roxie, the
programmer with more than a few lines of code up her sleeve.  Anna, who
has been born and raised with revolution in her blood.  Rolf, the soldier
fighting a battle inside himself.  And ASd.9, the software assistant whose
program is being held hostage.
 The danger is great, but the rewards are even greater.  Because in the
future, information is a weapon, technology a drug, and no one is
innocent.

*What if this is my first time reading Network?*
 Don't worry; I'll be gentle :-)  All kidding aside, don't be concerned if
you haven't seen any past issues of Network.  Each issue is a separate
story in the series.  For instance, you don't need the first issue to
understand the second, and so on.  Of course, if you want a copy of any
past issue, I'd be happy to send them to you.  That's the just the kind of
nice guy with lots of spare time I am.  Enjoy!

-Josh Puetz
gearris@aol.com



From gearris@aol.com (Gearris)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
Subject: Network 1.2 "Ground Zero" (1/3)
Date: Wed Apr 19 02:24:07 MET DST 1995
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)

 The air in the hall of the motel was cold.  Weiland pulled a keycard from
the pocket of his coat and placed it into the door's lock.  After a few
seconds, the old machinery clicked and the door unlocked.  He quickly got
in the room and locked the door behind him.
 The motel room was a little warmer than outside.  The white paint on the
walls was peeling badly, and the ceiling was tattooed with water stains.
On the rusting bed was Roxie, hunched over a glowing computer pad.
 She looked up from her work as Weiland took off his coat.  "You're back.
Did you get some food?"
 He removed a blue cellophane bag from one of the pockets of his coat.
"Looks like noodles and soybean curd again.  I think I could kill for some
real food."
 Roxie laughed. "I know what you mean.  No matter what you thought of my
old bar, at least I could get a decent burger there."
 "That bar was a dump!"  He tossed a carton of noodles across the room.
"Enjoy."
 "You might be interested in this," said Roxie, brushing the hair from her
face.  "I found it while doing some research on NewsNet."  She held the
computer pad out in front of her.
 Weiland took it and sat down in the faded chair on the other side of the
room.  On the screen of the wafer thin display was a text file.

NewsNet datafeed 136505
Path: NewsNet//node 817.newsnet//router.westernextentnet//pcu
To: <<pub>>
>From: Justice Department
Subject: Wanted Listings-Update 2.17.87

The following citizens are wanted for crimes against the government.
Failure to report a sighting can result in federal charges.

 "Of all the things to read on the network, you picked this?"
 "Keep going," urged Roxie.  "It gets better around line 480."
 Weiland scrolled down to line 480 and started reading again.

<<Weiland Stone>>
male, 26, hetero, disease neg, type O pos
caucasian, brown hair, green eyes, 5 foot 11, 165 pounds, medium build

<<Roxanne McCoy>>
female, 25, hetero, disease neg, type ab neg
caucasian, red hair, blue eyes, 5 foot 9, 125 pounds, medium build

Stone is a former netspy for an underground hacker organization.  McCoy is
unlicensed programmer.  Stone stole protected data files from Sugezi
Corp., McCoy was an accomplice.  Stone is charged with data fraud, data
theft, conspiracy to data tampering, and network access violations.  McCoy
is charged with conspiracy to data tampering, interfering with an
investigation, tampering with evidence, assisting a criminal, and
unlicensed programming.  Location of both are unknown.  They are
considered armed and extremely dangerous.

 "Can you believe that?" laughed Roxie.  "Armed and dangerous!  We'd be
lucky if we could get some-"
 "Shh!" hissed Weiland.  He wasn't looking at the computer pad anymore.
He heard something, like paper rustling.  With Roxie sitting still, he
could only hear the hum of the room's heater.  There, the rustling sound
again.  Roxie heard it this time, too.  She and Weiland made eye contact
across the room.
 A second later, the door to the room was forced off of its hinges by a
fusion pistol blast.  "Freeze, police!"  Weiland felt the barrel of a
fusion pistol press against his neck, cool steel almost searing his skin.
He looked up without moving his head to find Roxie lying on her stomach on
the bed; four police officers training their guns on her.
 "Put your hands behind your head," instructed the cop.  As he raised his
hands, one of the officers behind him snapped a pair of handcuffs around
Weiland's wrists.
 They stood him up, and marched him out of the room with Roxie behind him.
 "I suppose that you're going to tell me now that coming back to New York
wasn't one of my best ideas," whispered Roxie.
 "Armed and dangerous my ass," muttered Weiland.
 Roxie counted at least five cops in front of her, plus two behind her.
They led the two of them down the hall of the hotel and down some steps.
Outside, the sun was just setting and night had crept over the street.
Even though the part of town they were in was pretty poor, the street was
crowded with cars jockeying for position on the cracked pavement.
 One officer opened the side door to a police transport waiting at the
curb and shoved Roxie inside.  With her hands bound behind her, she
struggled to prop herself up against the door.  Weiland was slouched over
at her feet, trying to get himself up enough to look around.
 "This is fun."
 "How do you think they found us?" asked Roxie.
 "Somebody probably spotted our fund transfers on the net."  Weiland had
finally gotten up far enough to look out the window of the transport.
"How many of them did you count?"
 Roxie let out a long sigh.  "At least seven."
 "How are we going to get out of this one?"
 Roxie leaned back against the door of the transport.  She pulled her
wrists apart against the handcuffs, the snapped back together as if they
were bound by elastic.  "These handcuffs feel magnetic.  The door locks
probably are too."
 "So?"
 "It's been about six months since you flatlined in virtual reality,
hasn't it?"  Roxie did some quick math in her head.  "Your neural implants
should be healed by now."
 Weiland understood.  "A magnetic pulse from my ear implants.  Yeah, that
should overload all of these magnetic fields."  He swung his legs around
so he was crouching on the floor of the transport.  "You know, this is
really going to hurt."
 She nodded.  "You'll probably loose your hearing.  Stick close to me,
your equilibrium is gonna be screwed up too."
 He let out a long breath.  "Here goes nothing."  He bent his head down
and closed his eyes tightly, taking even breaths.  Slowly, he let the
implants in his ears that were used to connect him with the network build
up energy.  When it seemed his temples would burst, the implants released
a magnetic pulse.
 Roxie didn't notice anything except for Weiland slouch over and grimace
in pain.  She pulled her wrists apart, the cuffs didn't snap back into
place.  She took them off, then reached around and got Weiland's handcuffs
off of him.  Slowly, she opened the door of the police transport.
 Outside, the cops were busy trying rope off the entrance to the motel.  A
group of bums were trying to elbow their way into the entrance, hoping to
find a place to spend the night.  Roxie propped Weiland against the back
tire of the transport, then slowly opened the door to the front cab.
Sliding on her belly across the vinyl seat, she reached over to one of the
fusion pistols secured against the dash.
 Weiland was conscious, but dizzy.  As he rubbed his forehead, Roxie
returned and motioned for him to get up.  He realized that he could hear
the hum of the city, the sounds of far off cars and people.  It calmed him
a little.
 They crossed the street and tried to blend in with the crowd of night
people hustling up and down the curb.  Roxie took one look back at the
transport, and saw a single cop looking around in the front cab of the
blue police transport.  When he saw that his prisoners were missing, he
frantically scanned the street for a few seconds before running towards
Roxie and Weiland.
 "I knew it wasn't going to be that easy," muttered Roxie, spotting the
cop.  She nudged Weiland, who was still half deaf, and jerked her head
back.  He took a quick look back, and nodded to Roxie before breaking into
a run.
 He noticed that his balance was getting better as he wove in and out of
the flow of people on the sidewalk.  A blue neon sign up a few blocks
caught his attention, signaling the entrance to a MetroTube station.
 The cop saw them disappear down the steps and continued to chase.  "This
is Lt. Brockney requesting backup at MetroTube Station 4," he shouted into
his headset, but there was no reply.  Running down a flight of stairs, he
yelled for help as he passed the security checkpoint.
 Weiland and Roxie had jumped over the turnstiles at the entrance to the
tube station, and were running across the platform to a set of open doors
on the tube train.  "Stop!" yelled one of the security guards before
raising his weapon.  When they didn't stop, he fired a shot with his
fusion pistol.
 Roxie heard sound the shot echo off the concrete walls of the tunnel.
When she reached the door of the train, she turned around and raised her
gun.  Taking aim, she squeezed the trigger.
 Nothing happened.  "Magnetic pulse must have shorted it out," she yelled
to Weiland.  As he grabbed her arm, she let the pistol slip out of her
hands and drop to the ground.  Weiland yanked her inside of the tube train
seconds before the black steel doors closed.
 On the platform, Lt. Brockney reached the train just as the doors closed.
 The train slid forward on its magnetic track and disappeared down the
dark tunnel, leaving him alone on the platform with the discarded fusion
pistol.


 Weiland first noticed the cold plastic pressed against his face.  He
tried to move, but stopped as he soon as he felt a sharp pain in his ear.
He opened his eyes, but it was still dark.  As he lifted his head, he the
black plastic seat his face had been resting on came into focus.  "Where
am I?" he muttered, still groggy from his throbbing head.
 "MetroTube," whispered Roxie, not wanting to disrupt the silence inside
the train.  As he raised his head, he noticed she was sitting next to him
on the molded plastic bench.  He looked out the window, catching half
glimpses of the tube walls as they rolled past.
 The train had emptied out considerably since he last remembered in New
York.  Only one person remained; an older woman with white hair tightly
clutching a nylon bag and staring off into space.
 "Where are we going?"
 Roxie was reading an old news fax she had picked up from the seat next to
her.  On the front page was a story about a murder in Boston last month.
She paged through it, skimming the articles, ignoring his question.  "Ask
me later."
 He shrugged and went back to sleep.


 "Wake up, we're here."  Roxie shook Weiland by the shoulder.
 He rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes.  The temperature in the train had
fallen.  He looked out of the grim streaked windows to find the first rays
of sunlight inching across an outdoor MetroTube platform.
 "Can you tell me now where we are?"
 Roxie smiled.  "Welcome to our new home.  The fringe, section five."  He
looked out the train window a second time.  "Don't worry, it'll grow on
you."
 As they got off the train, Weiland noticed the air was different.  He
looked around the train platform as they stepped out into the open.  This
was the fringe he had heard about from his comfortable apartment back in
New York.  Wedged between the metropolitan sectors along the Atlantic and
the rust belt towns on the Mississippi, the fringe was a land in constant
motion.  Past the iron trusses marking the decent of the MetroTube tracks
underground, he could just make out the half finished geodomes of Outer
Chicago, rotting in the morning smog.
 He and Roxie made their way into the MetroTube station, a low marble
building converted from an Amtrak center.  In the middle of the central
hall, Roxie announced, "Now, we wait."  She sat down on a wooden bench,
and anxiously studied the crowd of people that flowed around them.
 "Time out!"  Weiland paced around her.  "This was your first instinct, to
bring us to the slums?  This place is dangerous, I'm surprised we haven't
been held at gun point yet."
 "Sit down," Roxie hissed.  He stopped his pacing and took a seat next to
her.  She shifted on the bench, folding her legs under her.  "I did a job
for some people from here once," she said in a half whisper.  "It was
pretty technical, but they couldn't pay me the whole sum at once.  I
agreed to give them a discount in exchange for some shelter if I ever
needed it.  Yeah, this place dangerous, but no more so than New York.  At
least here we're pretty safe from the police."
 "I though I saw Outer Chicago in the distance."
 "Yeah, were north of there.  I know this doesn't sounds good, but look at
the facts.  I'm an unlicensed programmer, and you were ousted by The
Operation a few months ago after exposing their connection to the
government.  They've probably killed Bonnie, and they won't think twice
about killing the both of us as soon as they knew we're gone."
 Weiland nodded.  "So we disappear into the night of the fringe.  Can we
trust these friends of yours?"
 "I'm not sure," said Roxie, and sighed.  "They're the only chance we
have."
 "What do they look like?"
 Roxie stood up and smoothed the pleats out of her shirt.  "You're about
to find out.  I think that's him.  Let's go."  She walked off through the
crowd, weaving her way to a hallway by a food kiosk.  Weiland wandered
around for a few minutes before following her path.
 Past the neon sign of the sushi kiosk, the crowd of travelers thinned
instantly.  Weiland found himself walking down a narrow corridor of white
brick.  He pasted a few steel doors, and turned a corner to find a dead
end.  As he started to turn back around, someone grabbed his shoulder.
Weiland tried to get a look at his face, but he was too strong.  He felt
something brush his neck, and a few moments later his vision began to
blur.  His head spun, and he had to lean against the pair of hands that
gripped his shoulders.  The man behind him set him up against the wall.
As Weiland slid down the brick, he saw Roxie slumped over on the opposite
side of the corridor, the red hair reflecting the glow of flickering
florescent lightstrips overheard.  He saw a blue derm patch on her neck
seconds before slipping into unconsciousness.


 "Anna, the woman is waking up."  The man's voice seemed to echo, making
Roxie think at first that she was in a cave of some sort.  Instead, she
lifted her head to find herself and Weiland sprawled out on a slab of
white foam.  Weiland's even breathing sounded like he was still
unconscious.
 Roxie sat herself up on the edge of the foam.  She was on a balcony
overlooking a huge warehouse, the opposite wall hidden beyond the horizon.
 It might have been night; the only light was supplied by dim lamps
positioned overhead at regular intervals.
 She could sense a large man moving around in the shadows behind her.
"Anna, she's awake.  Get over here!" he said.  A woman, Roxie presumed her
to be Anna, stepped forward into the light at the foot of the foam bed.
She was of medium height, but strong looking; dressed in green jeans and a
tight, sleeveless black turtleneck.
 "McCoy, it certainly is a surprise to see you again after all these
years."
 "Anna?"
 The woman laughed, throwing her head back.  "Yeah.  Don't you recognize
me?  I don't blame you.  Had some work done on my face in Japan.  You
like?"  She turned her head to show Roxie a profile of her face.
 Roxie smiled.  "It's good to see you again.  I need your help."  She
turned after hearing a groan, and saw Weiland waking up on the foam.  "We
both do."
 "I kinda figured.  What kind of trouble are you in?"
 Roxie sighed.  "It's a long story.  My friend here is Weiland Stone.  He
used to be with The Operation, on a strictly freelance basis.  His
girlfriend got a bit curious and almost managed to tie The Operation to
the murder of a CEO back in New York.  They took her and left him for dead
in a virtual reality node.  I got him out.  Now the police want both our
heads."
 "The police?" said the man, still behind her.
 "Yeah, that's right," said Roxie, straining to make him out in the
shadows as he circled the foam bed.  "Weiland stumbled on to a connection
between The Operation and the Population Control Agency.  They weren't too
happy."
 Weiland was awake now, groaning and turning over on the foam bed.
"Roxie?"
 "I'm here," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder.  "The dizziness
wears off after a few minutes."
 "You've been out of touch for a while," commented the man.  "The
Operation isn't working with the government anymore.  Broke free last
month."
 "You'll have to excuse my friend," said Anna, still standing.  "That's
Rolf.  He's in charge of security and intelligence for us."
 "Us?" asked Weiland.  "Who exactly is us?"
 "The Underground," answered Rolf, stepping out of the shadows.  His size
was the first thing that Weiland noticed; he was about six feet tall and
muscular.  He had short tufts of blond hair, and was wearing a black
jacket and black combat pants.  "They're clean," he said, showing Anna a
scanner pad he held in his hands.  "No bugs or tracers."
 "The Underground?"
 "Terrorists," whispered Roxie to Weiland.
 "Not terrorists," said Rolf, almost to himself.  "Freedom fighters.
There's a difference."
 "Well, I guess it all depends on which side of it you look from."  Anna
turned on a lightstrip on the nearby wall, illuminating the entire loft.
Except for the foam bed, there was a steel desk and a pair of folding
chairs.  Anna sat down.  "What kind of help did you have in mind, McCoy?"
 "When I did those swapouts for you five years ago, you promised that
you'd protect me if I ever needed it.  I need it now.  We don't have
anywhere else to go."
 Rolf sat down next to Anna and whispered something in her ear.  She
nodded.  "Sure, you can stay with us.  But it'll come at a price."
 "We don't have much money," said Weiland.
 "Money?  I can get that anywhere."  Anna's thin lips curled into a smile.
 "No, what I want is much more valuable.  We need someone to run on the
network for us.  Think you can handle it?"
 Weiland shrugged.  "You don't have anybody to do that sort of thing for
you?"
 Rolf shook his head.  "We did once, but he wasn't all that good.  Got
fried by a neurovirus inside a government system.  Took me two days to
clean it up."  Weiland wasn't sure if he was kidding or not.
 "It depends.  What kind of things are you interested in having me do?"
 Anna looked off in thought for a moment.  "Problem is, I don't know what
you're capable of yet.  You'd have to do a job for us first."
 "Wait," said Roxie suddenly.  "If he tries this job for you and pulls it
off, can we stay."
 Rolf rolled his eyes.  "If you pull off this job, hell, we'll start
paying you."
 Anna glared at him.  "Sure, fine.  Are you still a programmer, McCoy?"
 "Yeah."
 "Good.  We'll need your skills too.  You two better get cleaned up.  Rolf
will take you to a hotel.  We'll talk more in the morning."  She got up
and extended her hand.
 Roxie got up from the foam and shook Anna's hand.  "Thank you," she said.
 "Don't thank me yet."


 "It's nothing like those places in New York," said Rolf, opening the door
to a motel room.  "At least it's safe, which is more than I can say for
anywhere else around here."  He set down a duffel bag on the chair near
the door.  "Anna will call you later.  Don't leave here until we say so."
He closed the door, leaving Weiland and Roxie alone.
 He surveyed the room.  It wasn't much different than the place they had
been at in New York when the police caught up to them.  Twin beds, a night
table, and some decaying furniture.  The only modern looking part was a
small video panel mounted on the wall opposite of the beds.
 Weiland flopped down on one the bed near the window.  "Well, this is just
great."
 "It's not that bad," said Roxie.  She began to rummage through the
drawers of the night stand.  After a few minutes of scavenging, she pulled
out a yellowed copy of the bible.  She paged through it briefly before
throwing it back into the drawers.  "Computer, screen on."
 "It's not gonna be voice activated," said Weiland, still resting on the
bed.  "What are we supposed to do, just sit here until these people get
their act together?"
 Roxie was at the video screen's controls, turning it on.  "How much have
you heard about the Underground?"
 He sighed.  "Not much.  The Operation passed me a file once about various
terrorist groups, I think their name was on there.  Hardly any activity,
if I remember correctly."  He sat up on the bed and stared at the back of
Roxie's head.  "What kind of job did you do for them?"
 Roxie found a news show and left it on, turning down the volume so it was
barely audible.  "Just some programming.  I think they were going to use
it in custom computer deck for virus control.  Anna came to me with the
job, but she looked a lot different back then.  Must have been about five
years ago or so.  The other guy is new to me."
 "What do you suppose they want with us?"
 "I don't know."  The video screen sounded a beep, and Roxie touched a
button to answer the call.  She thought the face was Anna's, but the image
was darkened so much that she couldn't be sure.
 "OK you two, here's the plan.  Roxie, I'll come and get you set for what
you need to do.  Rolf will bring some stuff for Weiland to get connected.
Meet me in the lobby in five minutes."  Anna reached towards the screen
and then her image faded to black.



From gearris@aol.com (Gearris)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
Subject: Network 1.2 "Ground Zero" (2/3)
Date: Wed Apr 19 04:24:12 MET DST 1995
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)

 Anna had lead Roxie to MetroTube station, and gotten on the train to the
waterfront district.  She told Roxie that they were going to a place
called the tank, a kind of shopping center.
 It took them an hour to get to Chicago, and Anna insisted on changing
trains more than a few times.  Under the florescent lights of the
platform, Roxie searched for a map or something to get her bearing with.
Anna firmly grabbed her upper arm and guided her into the doors of a
waiting tube train.
 The tank was a converted oil tank, sitting on the ashes of a refinery in
the middle of Chicago's waterfront.  The top of the tank had been replaced
with a glass ceiling.  Chrome and glass doors lined the bottom of the tank
at regular intervals.  The remaining parts of the oil tank hadn't been
removed, however.  The architects had left the rusting steel as a homage
to the industrial area that had once been on the waterfront, before
Chicago abandoned its factories for bank and databases.
 "Won't we look a little out of place here?" asked Roxie after noticing
the formal attire of the other shoppers.
 Anna opened one of the chrome doors and went into the tank.  "They won't
care what we look like as long we have enough money.  Come on."  Roxie
followed her inside.
 A walkway ran around the outer edge of the tank, while the center house a
garden with trees stretching three stories up to the glass ceiling.  Anna
didn't look around at all, instead she was walking down the left side of
the walkway.  Roxie had to half jog to keep up with her, weaving in and
out of clusters of shopper clutching glossy bags printed with the names of
stores.
 Anna took Roxie inside a store called Ivory Towers that specialized in
women's clothing.  "What are we looking for?" asked Roxie.
 "You'll need corporate clothes.  I suppose this is as good a place as any
to find some."
 A saleswoman materialized as they entered the store.  "Good day, ladies.
I am IT.s4, how may I help you?" asked the hologram, an Asian woman with
long hair and a beige suit.
 "She going on a job interview," said Anna, cocking her head in Roxie's
direction.  "She'll need three outfits."
 The hologram turned to face Roxie.  "What kind of job are you
interviewing for, madam?"
 "Never mind," hissed Anna.
 "This way then, ladies," said the saleswoman cheerfully.  It lead them
past racks of suits to the back of the store.  "Here is our fall corporate
suit line.  This year, Ivory Towers is proud to emphasize neutral tones,
designed to place you squarely in the corporate environment."
 "Yeah, fine.  She'll try these," said Anna, grabbing an armload of suits
and dumping them into Roxie's arms.  "Show her to the dressing room."
 "Certainly, madam.  This way please."  The hologram lead Roxie away
farther back into the store.  After ten minutes, she emerged with the
suits.
 "They all fit fine," Roxie muttered.
 "Good."  The saleswoman hologram appeared again.  "She'd like to charge
those," said Anna, producing a plastic card from her pocket.  "Here's her
card."
 The hologram swung her hand through the card as Anna held it out in front
of her.  "Very good Miss Peterson.  Your account has been charged two
thousand, four hundred dollars."
 Anna pulled a bag from a dispenser and shoved the suit into it.  "Two
o'clock.  Come on, we've gotta hurry."
 "What now?  Who's Miss Peterson?" asked Roxie, gripping the Ivory Towers
bag Anna thrust into her arms.
 "Stolen card, it doesn't matter.  You've got a job interview at the
Department of Information in an hour."
 Roxie decided right to stop asking questions.  Anna seemed to know what
she was doing.  Either that or she was very good at hiding inexperience.
 They walked briskly out of the Ivory Towers store, with the saleswoman
hologram still waving from the doorway.  "Have a pleasant day, madam."


 "Hurry up, it's right down here."  Rolf slid away a wall sized piece of
rusting steel to reveal a hole in the wall of a decaying warehouse.  They
were somewhere by the lake shore, but Weiland didn't have any idea beyond
that where Rolf was leading him.
 "You got some hot club or something you're taking me to?" laughed
Weiland.  Rolf stopped and turned around, starring at him.  "It was just a
joke," muttered Weiland.
 "Oh."  He turned back around and went through the hole into the
warehouse.
 "What are we looking for?"
 "We stashed some equipment down here after Hiroshi died."  Rolf turned a
flashlight.
 "Your last hacker?"
 "That's right."  The warehouse was completely empty, the only sound some
distant drops of water falling from the ceiling.  A few beams of light
streamed in through rust stained windows near the ceiling of the
warehouse, two stories up into the rafters.  They made their way across
the floor of the warehouse, to a fire door on the far wall.
 "Stairwell should be here," said Rolf, mostly to himself.  He forced the
door open with his shoulders.  The stairwell inside descended for three
floors.  At the bottom, a doorway with no door on its hinges opened into a
crawlway lined with large tubes running up and down the length of the
warehouse.
 Rolf set down his flashlight and pulled a small welder out of his pocket.
 He turned the device on and directed it at a seam on the lowest pipe.
The blue glow from the welder illuminated the crawlway, casting shifting
shadows across Rolf's face.
 "Hey, mind if I ask you something?"
 Rolf continued working on the pipe joint.  "Yeah, I guess."
 Weiland knelt down on one leg.  "Why did you guys stash this equipment
down here?"
 Rolf let out a little grunt.  "Suppose to make it too much of a bother
for anyone else to get to it.  The stuff in here; lots of high ticket
items."
 "How long have you been with the Underground?"
 "Too long.  Not long enough.  Doesn't matter.  Here in the fringe time
rushes by, leaving you to crawl along."
 Weiland nodded.  "It must be pretty tough with just you and that other
girl."
 Rolf stopped his cutting and turned around.  "Just me and the other
girl?"  He laughed loudly, letting the sound of his voice echo off of pipe
after pipe.  "You got your facts wrong.  There are over five hundred
member of the Underground."
 "Really?  Where are they all?" asked Weiland, confused.  "I've only seen
the two of you so far."
 "I don't know all of their names," said Rolf, resuming his cutting, "or
where they are stationed.  Anna has a few contacts she gets orders from
every once in a while.  We purposely don't know the names of every
involved.  If one of is captured, the government won't get the names of
many others.  A little crude, but at least it keeps me breathing for
another day."
 Rolf finished cutting open the pipe, and turned off the welder.  He
snaked his arm into the hole he had cut, and pulled out one by one three
black duffel bags.  "Here," he said, tossing one of the bags to Weiland.
"Let's get to the hotel and get you plugged in."


 The secretary took a look at the screen on her console.  "Peterson,
Laura?" she called out into the lobby.  A slender woman with red hair
stood up and walked over to her.  "Peterson?"  She held out a clipboard.
 "Yes, that's me," said Roxie, taking the clipboard.  She scribbled down a
signature, hoping it looked right.  "I'm here from TempPlus for the
temporary position in data entry."
 "Fine, I'll need to see your ID card."  The secretary took the thin
plastic card Roxie was holding out and swiped it across a scanning pad
behind her desk.  "Everything checks out," she commented, craning her head
to see the display.  "Here's your card back.  You've been assigned to the
Hanori Ito's staff.  That's third floor, room 312."
 Roxie smiled back.  "Thank you."  She picked up her coat and purse and
made her way to the elevator.
 "Be calm," Anna had said in the MetroTube.  "Always look like you belong
where you are.  If you look like you know what you're doing, nobody will
stop to ask you questions."
 Roxie stepped into the elevator.  "Level, please."
 "Third floor."
 "Thank you," responded the elevator, and began to rise.  In a few
moments, its doors opened and she walked out into the landing of the third
floor.  Another secretary directed her down a corridor to room 312, Hanori
Ito's office.
 "Hello?" called Roxie from outside the door as she knocked on it.  After
hearing a muffled, "Come in," she opened it and went into the room.
 Room 312 was a collection of offices, Roxie could count eight of them
lining the walls of the room.  The middle of the room was a large common
area, housing desks and cubicles for about twelve people.
 "Hi, yes, come in," said a voice from the on of the offices.  A tall
Asian woman wearing a blue suit walked out into the outer office to shake
Roxie's hand.  "I'm Hanori Ito.  Your desk is here."  She gestured to
curved black desk in the center of the common room, near what Roxie
presumed to be the waiting area.
 Roxie set her coat and purse behind the desk and sat down at it,
activating the desk's workscreen.
 "You'll be here for two weeks, right?"
 "Yes, Ms. Hanori."
 "Great.  Um, just some rules to get started.  First, call me Hanori and
I'll call you Laura.  Second, don't get me coffee unless you're going to
get yourself some.  And third, don't be afraid to speak up.  Primarily,
you'll be working as a gopher for our department and answering phones,
typing memos, stuff like that.  I'm sure you can handle it," Hanori said
with a smile.
 Roxie turned to a small stack of memos and got to work.  Over the course
of the day, she learned room 312 was the data filtering branch for the
Federal Department of Information.  She typed and transmitted several
memos, got coffee for Ito and the other managers in the department, took
notes through a staff meeting, went to the fourth floor to get a handheld
assistant for Ito, and answered the vidphone more times than she could
count.
 All the while, a small scanner in the lining of her purse swept the room
once every five minutes, dumping the scans to a chip Anna would be going
over later that night.


 Weiland woke up slowly, letting the first light of the day stretch across
his face.  He rolled over in bed and opened his eyes gradually.
 He saw someone else in the room.  Out of reflex, he jerked back and
pulled the sheets over his head.  He could hear the other figure laugh.
 "What are you doing?"
 He slid the sheets from his face to find Anna reclined on the other side
of the room, her feet up on a chair across from the one she was sitting
on.  "How did you get in here?"
 "Picked the lock.  Thought I'd drop in and see how you're doing."
 "Well, I'm doing just fine."  He grabbed a shirt from the floor near the
bed.  "Where's Roxie."
 "She's gone," muttered Anna, looking out of the window at the skyline.
"Come on, get up.  Time to jack in."


 Roxie finished tying her hair back and drank the last of her orange
juice.  She was in a suite at the Wilshire Towers in downtown Chicago.
She turned on the wallscreen, and was not surprised to find a video
message waiting.
 "It's me," said a shadowy figure on the screen in a female voice.  Roxie
recognized her as Anna instantly.  "We're shooting for sometime around
twelve-thirty, there won't be many people in the building then.  Take the
comm badge and your new purse.  I'll contact you later with details on
getting out.  Good luck."  With that, the screen went blank.
 Roxie picked up a black leather purse from the bed, and slipped her comm
badge into her breast pocket.  She could hardly notice the explosives that
had been molecularly bonded to the leather of the purse as she swung it
over her shoulder and left the hotel room.


 "Is he all set up?" asked Anna when she saw Rolf out in the hall.  He had
just closed the door to Weiland's room.
 "Like a kid in candy store," replied Rolf, a wide grin on his face.  "You
should have seen it, it was pornographic.  He just picked up each piece of
gear and ran his fingers over it."  Rolf shook his head slowly.
 Anna went into the decaying hotel room and found Weiland and a few small
pieces of equipment sprawled out on the bed.  A cord ran from a headset on
Weiland's head to a black plastic box that was one foot in lenght on each
side.  Weiland was bent over the box, inspecting the surface of it
carefully and occasionally touching a button on his headset.
 "Does everything meet your approval?" asked Anna, taking a seat in a
chair next to the bed.  She picked up a nearby computer pad and browsed
its contents.
 "I take back all the things I ever said about you guys," muttered
Weiland.  "This is some great shit.  Hiroshi must have died a happy
hacker."
 Anna glanced at the time display on the computer pad.  "Eleven.  You'd
better get going," she said to Rolf.
 "Right.  See ya later."  Rolf slung a nylon duffel bag over his shoulder
and left the room.
 "You gonna tell me what the plan is or what?"
 "Sure, I supposed it can't hurt," said Anna.  "Roxie is moonlighting as a
secretary for the Department of Information in downtown Chicago."  Weiland
raised his eyebrows.  "Wait, it gets better.  The material of her purse
has been bonded with an explosive agent."
 "A bomb?"
 "Yes, a bomb.  But not just any bomb; this one is specially designed to
destroy the entire office complex and put out a-" she looked down at the
computer pad, "-residual electromagnetic pulse.  At least that's what it
says here."  She tapped the pad.  "The bomb will knock out a government
police section of the network for about three months, giving us a little
more breathing room to run our operations."
 "What am I supposed to do?"
 "In order for the electromagnetic pulse to work, the bomb will have to be
detonated from within cyberspace.  You're gonna maneuver inside of the
Department of Information system, link up with the bomb, and set it to
blow.  You might want to keep a way out open, because if you're in that
system when the bomb blows, your signal will be lost and-"
 "-and I'll die?"
 "Right."  Anna smiled.  "But hey, no problem for a big netspy like you.
Hope you don't get bored."
 Weiland let out a long sigh and went back to setting up the computer deck
on the bed.  It was a Kamakana deck, only a few months old, but customized
with lots of memory and interface cards.  $50,000, he guessed.
 "You know," he said after a few minutes, "I haven't actually jacked in
for about six months."
 "Getting cold feet?"
 "No," he said back quickly, "I was just saying."  He finished tweaking
the deck and stuck the headset plug into his ear.  "Here goes nothing."
He laid back against a pillow and depressed the power switch on the deck.


 Darkness at first was all Weiland could see, all he could feel.  Slowly,
his neurons became accustomed to the signal of the network.  He swung his
head around, trying to get his bearings.  One part of him knew he was
still laying on the bed in a rotting hotel in the fringe, but all he could
see around him was the neon glow of cyberspace.
 He was inside of a framework of pulsating red and blue conduits.  It was
the computer system of the hotel.  Around the hotel's system were similar
frameworks; some stretching up to three stories tall.  The neighborhood
around the hotel.  In the distance were the huge glowing spires of the
financial district, reaching up for thousands of virtual feet.
 Weiland looked down.  There was no ground or floor, just the overlapping
data of the sewer systems and MetroTube tunnels.  You didn't stand in
cyberspace; you just floated.
 He wasn't alone.  Down in between the various structures of the landscape
were thousands of users, millions in all of cyberspace at any particular
time.  The cubes were regular people, users accessing the network through
computer screens or goggles.  Weiland and others like him were represented
by spheres, users who had their brains directly connected to the network.
The cubes moved slowly, plodding along between the buildings of
information.  The spheres could maneuver at much higher speeds.
 Weiland moved out of the hotel's system and headed towards a nearby
transfer node.  It looked like a wide hole in the patchwork floor.  The
nodes moved users and messages across the network at the speed of light.
Cutting his velocity, he drifted past the gateway and watched his
surroundings whirl past in a multicolored blur.


 "Laura, can you call ahead to Ricardo's and tell them I'll be fifteen
minutes late for lunch?" asked Hanori from the door of her office.
 Roxie nodded and made the call to the restaurant.  She glanced down at
the time display on her desk's monitor.  11:43.  Come on Weiland, she
thought, where are you?
 Hanori usually went out for lunch at eleven-thirty with the rest of the
office.  Roxie made sure that most of the people in the office would be
gone when the bomb went off.  If anyone was within fifty feet of her purse
at twelve thirty, they wouldn't stand a chance of surviving.
 Roxie passed the time by transmitting a few of Hanori's memos and
cleaning out some of the office's old files.  She dug through her purse
looking for some gum, and stopped as soon she remembered the bomb in the
lining.  She placed the purse back under her desk slowly, trying not to
move it around too suddenly.
 "Laura, I'm leaving now.  See you at one?"
 Roxie looked up.  "I'll be here, Hanori," she smiled.  Hanori shut the
door to her room, swung a bag over her shoulder, and left the office.
 After a few minutes, Roxie heard the comm badge in her pocket beep.
"Hello?" she answered, opening the channel by touching her finger to the
badge's front.
 "Roxie, what's up?"
 She recognized the voice as Weiland's, but it was scratchy and distorted.
 "Is that you Weiland?"
 "Yeah, just me."
 "Where have you been?  It's," she looked at the clock.  "Twelve-oh-four.
Are you in position?"
 "Um, not exactly," he sighed.
 "What do you mean not exactly?"
 "Like yes, but not so much," he replied.  "I can't seem to get inside of
the Department's system.  They've got a better security field than I
expected."
 "Why do you need to be in the Department's system?" asked Roxie, trying
to keep her voice low even though the office was now deserted.
 "The circuitry in your purse only has enough range to jack in to the
network though the closest computer.  Namely, your desk.  Is there anyone
in the office you can get to punch me a hole through security?"
 "Well," began Roxie, thinking out loud.  "No.  Is there anything I can
do?  You might remember, I used be a programmer," she said with sarcasm.
 "Yeah, I guess I do remember that," he laughed.  "Do you have any access
to the security grid?  I just need a small hole to wedge my way in
through, something like a file transfer gate or anonymous connection."
 "Sure, no problem."  Roxie sat down at her desk and started punching away
at the keypads.  "Oh, wait.  I can't get anywhere near you without
alerting security.  They'd be up here in two minutes."
 "Is there any kind of help system or automated guide lying around that
could do it for you?"
 Roxie took a quick survey of the office.  She stopped when she saw the
closed door to Hanori's office.  "How about an personal assistant?"
 "What do you mean?  Like an intelligent software agent?"
 "Yeah.  I got one for Hanori the other day.  She usually leaves it in her
desk."
 Weiland thought it over.  "Yeah, go get it.  I'll have to let you go now;
any longer and your security will trace my comm signal.  Tell this
assistant to open a hole in the security barrier anywhere that's
convenient.  I'll find it.  Talk to you later."
 "Yeah, see you later Weiland."  The comm badge beeped once again,
signaling the channel had closed.  Roxie got up from the desk and went
over to Hanori's office.  Slowly opening the door, she crept inside.
 The blinds were closed almost all the way, allowing only a few thin
slivers of sunlight to cut across the room.  The walls of the office were
adorned paintings, none of which Roxie recognized.  She made her way
around the desk and started opening the drawers.  Inside the second drawer
on the left side of the desk, she found the assistant.
 It was a slab of lightweight black plastic six inches by five inches by
three inches, ergonomically molded to fit comfortably in a hand.  Roxie
picked it up with both hands, and carried it back to her desk.  She turned
it over and inspected the underside, looking for a switch to turn it on.
 "Excuse me, are you looking for something?"
 The voice made Roxie jump a little.  She turned around and found standing
in the center of the office an older looking man in a butler's uniform.
His white hair was slicked back, and he spoke with a slight English
accent.
 "Can I help you, miss?"
 "Who are you?"
 He made a graceful bow.  "I am ASd.9, artificial assistant.  What has
happened to Miss Ito?"
 "Oh, you're the assistant?"  Roxie stepped around the butler, noticing
that he was a little transparent around his edges.  She waved a hand
through his torso, just to prove to herself that he was indeed a hologram.
 "Hanori had to step out for lunch.  I need you to do me a favor."
 "Go ahead."
 "Open a hole in the security barrier."
 "Pardon?"  He seemed shocked.
 Roxie took a quick look at the time display on her desk.  12:12.  Time
get out of here and find Rolf.  She slipped the assistant's plastic casing
into her coat pocket and swung it over her shoulders.  "Come on, we're
leaving.  First, I need you to open a port for a file transfer."
 "Oh, a file transfer.  For a moment there, I was under the impression you
wanted me to breach security for you."  He started to chuckle.
 "Yeah, imagine that," mumbled Roxie.  "Can you do it?"
 "Right away miss.  What did you say your name was?"
 "Laura Peterson.  I'm Miss Ito's new secretary."
 "I'm beginning the transfer now."
 Roxie shut off the lights in the office and shut the door behind her.
She walked down the hall to the elevator with the purse still under the
desk in Room 312.


 Floating on the outskirts of the Department of Information's system,
Weiland inspected the security barrier carefully.  It was a transparent
blue sphere surrounding the bright green cylinders of the Department's
computer core.  He made sure not to get to close to it.  One touch and his
neurons would fry, leaving him brain dead.
 Right below him, the security barrier started to open.  The outer edges
of the hole pulsed white, signaling a door.  Knowing the opening to be
Roxie's doing, he drifted through the security barrier and into the
Department of Information's system.
 The department's data was arranged by floors; first for past files,
second for current files, and so on upwards.  On the fifth floor Weiland
found access to personal terminals.  There were hundreds of small cubes;
each one an individual workstation.  Near the middle of the complex,
sitting on top of a terminal cube, was the bomb's interface.  It was a
small blue sphere that emitted pulses of blue light at regular intervals.
 Weiland cruised closer, until he was in direct contact with the bomb.  He
connected with the bomb's computer, and found that it was in perfect
working condition.  He started to prepare the ignition sequence.



From gearris@aol.com (Gearris)
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
Subject: Network 1.2 "Ground Zero" (3/3)
Date: Wed Apr 19 04:24:21 MET DST 1995
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)

 Roxie looked up and down the hallway and ducked into a bathroom before
touching her beeping comm badge.  "Roxie here," she said into the
communicator.
 "Roxie, it's Weiland.  Thanks for punching me a hole in the ice."
 "I wish I could take the credit, but Hanori's assistant did all of the
work.  Is the bomb ready?"
 "Yeah, I'm just finishing the ignition sequence now.  It's
twelve-fifteen, that gives you fifteen minutes to get out."
 "OK, good.  Rolf's working janitor duty somewhere on this floor.  I'll
link up with him and get out."  She let out a sigh.  "Be careful."
 "I will mom," he laughed.  "Fifteen minutes, don't be late."
 The badge beeped and then was silent.  Roxie shoved it into her coat
pocket.  "Assistant, are you here?"
 The butler faded into view in the middle of the bathroom.  His appearance
was flawless; white hair slicked back and black uniform crisp with starch.
 "Yes, madam?"
 "Can you tell me where the janitors are located on this floor right now?"
 "Rooms 384, 372, and 319."  The butler coughed gently and continued.
"Based upon your earlier communication, I believe the janitor in Room 319
is the friend you are looking for."
 "Show me how to get there," ordered Roxie.  She was surprised that the
assistant had been eavesdropping on her conversation.  Could it have
contacted security about Weiland?
 The butler's image faded.  "Go out of the rest room and turn right once
you are in the hall," he instructed, his voice now coming from the plastic
unit in her coat pocket.
 Roxie did as he instructed, going out into the hall and taking several
turns until she was standing in front of room 319.  She looked through the
glass door, and saw a single janitor inside wiping down terminals and
desks.
 She knocked lightly on the door a couple of times, and the janitor turned
around.  Under a green cap and uniform, Roxie could see that is was Rolf.
He nodded in her direction, then gathered up his mops and met her in the
hall.
 "Service elevator at the end of this hall," he whispered, walking away.
 She stalled for a few moments, pretending to inspect a painting hanging
on the wall of the hallway.  After Rolf disappeared from the corner of her
eye, she followed the hall until she found the service elevator.
 The doors of the elevator took up an entire six foot wide section of the
hall, and stretched from floor to ceiling.  Rolf had gotten rid of his
janitor's cart, and was motioning for Roxie to hurry as he stepped into
the elevator car.
 "Level please?" asked the elevator's onboard computer once the massive
steel doors had latched shut.
 "First floor," responded Rolf.  He unzipped the uniform he was wearing
and peeled it off, revealing another set of clothing underneath.  "I'm
guessing the bomb is in place."
 Roxie nodded.  "Yeah, Weiland should be setting if off in a few minutes."
 "What's that in your pocket?"
 "This?"  Roxie pulled out Hanori's assistant.  "It's a little something I
got from the office.  Cracked the security barrier for Weiland."
 The assistant chose that moment to speak, projecting its image of the
elderly butler in the center of the elevator car.  "I am ASd.9, and you,
madam, are a fraud.  Elevator, halt."
 The elevator car stopped suddenly, jolting everyone inside for a split
second.
 "Excuse me?" asked Roxie, eyes wide with surprise.
 He didn't look angry, but instead spoke with a cool serenity.  "I have
checked several employment agencies, none of which have heard of Laura
Peterson.  Instead, you have been consistently referred to as 'Roxie.'
There also seems to be the existence of a bomb, which one of your comrades
would appear to be preparing to detonate.  I can not allow that to
happen."
 "Pushy, isn't he?"  Rolf grinned.  "What are you going do about it, old
man?"
 "I am going to contact security.  I would urge you not to resist when
they come to take you into custody."  The butler cocked his head forward
in concentration, connecting with the Department's computer system.
 "Roxie, what's going on?"
 "Geez!"  Roxie took the assistant's unit out of her pocket and turned it
over, looking for an off switch.  "He's going to blow the whole operation.
 Here, look for a way to turn it off," she instructed as she tossed the
unit to Rolf.  While he inspected it, she dug her comm badge out of her
pocked.  "Roxie to Weiland, come in!"  There was no response.  "Roxie to
Anna, are you there?"
 Rolf looked over the surface of the unit, but couldn't find any kind of
button to shut off the power.  Glancing up, he saw the butler still had
his eyes closed, probably speaking with security at that very moment.  In
desperation, Rolf grabbed a fusion piston from the pocket of his discarded
uniform on the floor of the elevator.  "Hey, digital man, pay attention."
He pressed the barrel of the gun directly against the unit's plastic
housing.  "Knock it off, or I'll destroy your hardware."
 "That will gain you nothing," replied the butler, eyes still closed.  "I
have no self preservation motive, and in any case I am almost through to
security."
 "Assistant, this is Anna."  Roxie held the badge up so Anna's voice could
be more clearly heard.  "I am in charge of this operation, so these people
are my responsibility.  You might not have a self preservation motive, but
the people that you work for there at the Department of Information do.
If you don't stop right now, I'll have my man detonate the bomb before you
can evacuate the building."
 The butler opened his eyes, halting his attempt to contact security.
"Detonate the bomb?"
 "That's right," continued Anna's voice through the comm badge.  "He can
have that bomb blow in about five minutes.  I'll be honest, we had planned
to detonate the bomb at twelve thirty.  Right now it twelve thirty-four.
Office workers are just about to get back from lunch, and this building
will be fully occupied when our bomb goes off.  I offer a compromise."
 "A compromise?  Continue madam."
 "You can't prevent us from detonating the bomb; if I have to kill my own
people I will."  Roxie shot a worried glance at Rolf, who grimly nodded.
"I will allow you sound the fire alarms and have the building evacuated
before I set off the bomb in exchange for letting my people escape."
 "And if I don't agree to your terms?"
 "We detonate the bomb before anyone can get out.  According to my figures
there would be casualties of about-"  Anna paused, checking a nearby
computer pad.  "-four hundred.  Your choice."
 The butler crossed his arms and thought for a few moments.  "In the
interest of people of this department, I agree to your terms."
 "Good.  Roxie, make sure he sets off the fire alarms.  Weiland will be
making sure he doesn't do anything else."
 "Right Anna, see you soon."  The comm badge beeped and was silent.  "You
heard the lady.  Let's start a fire."


 "Weiland, this is Rolf.  How's it going?"
 "Everything is fine Rolf.  The building has been fully evacuated and I'm
ready to detonate the bomb."  Weiland was still in contact with the bomb's
interface deep inside of the Department's computer system.  "Have that
assistant guy open another hole in the security barrier where I came in."
 "Sure thing, he's doing it now.  Roxie and I are clear, too.  You can
push the button when your ready."
 "Thanks.  Weiland out."
 He closed the comm channel and turned his attention back toward the bomb.
 He double checked the building's internal sensors.  There was nobody
inside.  Linking up with the bomb, he instructed it to build up a charge
and detonate.
 The blue sphere immediately stopped emitting pulses of light.  Instead,
it started to grow.  Slowly at first, while Weiland moved away from it.
In the distance behind him, Weiland could see that the bomb interface was
three times its original size.
 Then it exploded.  There were no pyrotechnics in cyberspace, simply a
sphere of blinding white that expanded outwards from the place the bomb's
interface had been seconds before.  Weiland sped away as fast as he could,
heading for the security barrier hundreds of virtual feet above him.
 He could see the hole in the security barrier, and was only seconds from
reaching it.  Behind him, he could feel the electromagnetic pulse catching
up with him, causing the signal of anything it touched to fade out of
existence.  Already the entire Department of Information computer system
had been engulfed.  The computers would by frying in place if it weren't
for the physical explosion ripping them apart in real space.
 Weiland shot through the security hole millisecond before the pulse did.
After it had devoured the security barrier, the pulsed reached its limit
and faded, leaving a globe of empty space in its wake.  The network
rearranged itself around the hole; closing on itself like water rushing
into a vacuum.  A few seconds later, Weiland was next to a bank system
that minutes before he had been about one virtual mile from.  All traces
of the Department of Information's system were gone, except for a small
position marker that said network contact with the Department had been
lost.


 As Rolf and Roxie descended the stairs into the MetroTube station, they
caught a glimpse of the explosion past the shapes of the banks and offices
in downtown Chicago.  The employees of the government saw it too, safely
from across the street.
 Rolf showed Roxie to a MetroTube train before the police had started to
search the area for suspects.  Neither one of them noticed that the red
power indicator on the assistant's unit had gone dead.


 Both Weiland and Roxie were silent as the elevator slowly ascended.  It
was old, and they could clearly hear the cables above creaking with age.
Rolf stared straight ahead, and Anna studied a computer pad she was
holding.
 "Can I ask how it went?" asked Weiland softly, not wanting to disrupt the
silent air any more than necessary.
 Anna looked up.  "It was terrific!  Really, you two have more than earned
your keep."
 Roxie spoke up.  "Rolf and I saw the explosion before leaving.  It
engulfed the entire office complex."
 "More importantly," explained Anna, "it produced an hole in cyberspace
around the federal computer system.  All of their criminal records have
been wiped out, and we have a clear path through the central corridor of
Chicago."
 "How long until the Department of Information can get back online?"
 "Three to four months," said Anna slowly, enjoying the news.  Quiet
descended on the elevator once again until a few minutes later, when the
car came abruptly to a halt.
 "Well, here it is," announced Rolf, setting the bags on the floor.
Weiland and Roxie stepped inside of the room and looked around.  It was a
loft, the top two floors of an abandoned office building in the fringe.  A
halfway on the left led to some bedrooms, while the main area of the loft
was taken up by computer equipment.  A few young men and women were in the
loft, working on the equipment.
 Anna stepped into the loft behind them.  "What do you guys think?"
 "This is where you really live?" asked Weiland.
 "This is the place, honest.  We didn't want to bring you here until we
ruled out the possibility that you were spies sent by the government."
 "Who are all these other people?" wondered Roxie.
 "Them?  They're the other members of our cell of the Underground,"
explained Rolf, closing the lift door behind him.
 "Other members?  I thought it was just the two of you."
 Anna laughed.  "Yeah, we didn't want to show anyone else to you either
before we ruled out that whole spy thing.  There are about ten of us here
altogether."
 Rolf took the bags away to their bedrooms, with Weiland and Anna
following him.  Roxie introduced herself to a few of the other members of
the Underground, and made her way out onto the roof of the building.
 The sun had almost set, and the lights of the city were emerging from the
darkness of twilight.  A cool spring breeze swept over the roof of the
building, and Roxie sat down on a nearby block of cement to enjoy the
view.  She took off her coat, setting it on the ground next to her.  She
noticed something slide out, and bent down to inspected it.  It was the
plastic casing of the assistant, which she had forgot about when she
pushed it in her pocket two days ago.
 She turned it over, searching for the power light.  There it was, but
instead of glowing red it was blinking.  "Butler, are you there?"
 The light stopped blinking, and glowed steadily.  After a few minutes
with no response, Roxie set the unit back down on the ground and looked
up.  The sun had fully set, and the neon outline of Chicago could be seen
against the horizon.
 "Deep in thought?"  Roxie didn't recognize the voice, and spun around to
see who was there.  Standing next to her was a teenager, maybe eighteen
years old.  He was Asian, with short black hair and a gray poncho.  Roxie
noticed that his hair wasn't blowing with the breeze even though hers was.
 "Who are you?"
 "Remember me?  I'm ASd.9.  The assistant you stole from the Department of
Information, and then held hostage in the service elevator."  He spoke
without any accent, sounding like anybody else Roxie would meet on the
street, with just a touch of sarcasm in his voice.  "Am I ringing any
bells?"
 "This assistant?  But where's the butler?"  Roxie was confused.
 "Grandpa butler?  He's long gone," laughed the teenager.  "My operating
system resides in that little black unit in your coat pocket, but the
butler's personality was on file in the Department's computer system.  You
might have thought of that before you blew it up."
 "So where did you come from?"
 "My operating system had to make a new personality based on the materials
it had.  Lucky for me, Hanori Ito had been working with some copies of
Science World, Rolling Stone, and Japan Today magazines.  Significant
portions of my personality are lifted from the article entitled, 'The
Dominance of the Japanese in the Twenty First Century.'"
 "So this new personality is inside of this unit?" asked Roxie, tapping
the black plastic handheld.
 "Yes, she can be taught!" announced the teenager to nobody in particular.
 "So you can't just move your program somewhere else on the network?"
 The smile faded from ASd.9's face.  "Nope; you break it, you buy it.  I
guess I'm stuck with you guys as long as you have my handheld."
 Roxie set the unit back down on the ground.  "You might come in handy.
There are a few things I bet you could check out for me.  This is going to
be interesting, staying here with the Underground."
 ASd.9 rolled his eyes.  "This is going to hellish.  I must have been a
coffee maker in a past life."
 She laughed and turned her attention back towards the skyline.  Chicago's
skyscappers stood guard over the fringe, sweeping it with lights and
sounds of millions of people.  In the distance, a car alarm was going off,
and someone was shouting.  The lights of the city cast an amber glow
across Roxie's face.  Looking back over her shoulder, she saw the hologram
of the teenage boy staring off in the opposite direction, another pillar
of light against the night sky.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Next time on Network:

 Her name is Denada, and she is as deadly as she is beautiful.  In danger,
she sends out a plea for help.  The Underground rushes to her rescue, but
soon they will discover her secret.  They'd better hurry, because her mind
holds the power to destroy the entire network, and the government is
willing to kill for it.


Network is publihsed every couple of weeks.  For a subscription, email
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