Read Online Infoquake by David Louis Edelman - Free Book Online Page A

reassured by one of his contemptuous laughs. Instead, Natch nudged a periwinkle-colored chunk
of code with his left hand while he probed its cratered surface with the
fingertips of his right. "What makes you think I did that?" he said.
    "Come on, Natch! There aren't many people clever enough to pull
off that little fandango yesterday. There's even fewer who would have
anything to gain by it. I've seen you tinkering around with strange
programs over the past few weeks, stuff that doesn't look like anything
in our catalog. And then, of course, there's the fact that the so-called
attack happened exactly when our rumors said it would."
    "A happy coincidence."
    "And was it a happy coincidence you put our necks on the line instead
of yours? Did it occur to you that when the Council starts asking questions, the rumors'll lead back to Horvil and me? Not you, of course.
You didn't have anything to do with those rumors. You were busy getting our bio/logic programs ready for launch, as the MindSpace logs
will clearly show."

    Something she said finally penetrated Natch's thick skin. He
worked quietly for a few minutes without speaking a word, the gears
in his head clearly grinding away. The pause of a politician carefully
phrasing a key platform. "If you really think I would do that to you
and Horvil," he said at length, "then you don't understand me at all."
    Jara studied the fiefcorp master's face carefully. Could he possibly
be telling the truth? Could he be operating on a plane that far removed
from everyday life? Or was this just another one of his acting jobs? She
gazed into that unblemished, boyish face and wondered if there were
any truths at all buried beneath its surface, or if truth for him was as
mutable as programming code, subject to updates by the hour.
    A minute rolled by, then two. Jara cursed her body as a turncoat,
fired up Delibidinize 14a for the third time that hour. Can't he at least
give me the satisfaction of turning MindSpace off? she fumed. Finally, she
straightened her spine and looked him squarely in the eye. "I quit."
    Natch gave her a sly look. "Fine," said the fiefcorp master blithely.
"Quit."
    A stunned silence filled the room. Jara didn't move.
    "Stop being so fucking melodramatic, Jara!" Natch burst out. He
grabbed NiteFocus 49 with one hand and violently spun the virtual
code around like a wheel, himself stuck in the spokes. "You've got less
than a year left on your contract, and after that you'll have the option
to cash out. You're telling me you're going to give up all those shares
and start from scratch someplace else? Room and board for another
four years? I know you better than that, Jara. You're going to stay right
where you are and get filthy rich with the rest of us."
    "I could turn you in to the Council."
    Natch didn't lose a beat. "Without hard evidence-which I know
you don't have-where would that get you? Nobody wants to hire a
whiner or a whistle blower. You'd be right back where you were when
I found you: blacklisted by the major bio/logic fiefcorps, taking shit
from second-rate imbeciles like Lucas Sentinel. And don't tell me the Council will get to the bottom of this, because they won't. Dozens of
cases like this cross Len Borda's desk every week, and he's lucky if he
can close a tenth of them."

    "Then I'll tell the Meme Cooperative."
    "Don't make me laugh."
    "The drudges. I could send a message to Sen Sivv Sor and John
Ridglee right now."
    Natch shrugged, as if the effort of responding to such an inane
proposition was beneath him. He caught the spinning donut of code
with one hand and began studying its surface once more.
    Jara let her hands drop inertly to her sides. Is he right about me? she
thought. Is that all I am-a whiner and a whistle blower? She thought
back to her days peddling bio/logic analysis to Lucas Sentinel, to all
the times she had cursed her fate and threatened to quit. Wouldn't
Lucas pull the same stunts that Natch did, if