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Authors: Michael Conn
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proteins.
I can build this , and I might be a bit faster at it than Max is. Why didn’t I have the idea to build it? Creating a framework that hacks into processing spaces for you. Hiding itself as it enters. Then waiting for instruction. I can write this but I’d never think of it.
A little more work , and our hacking will be done for us. After that we just piggy back into whatever system the platform has found and send in whatever instructions we want executed from the inside .
The truck lurches ; the laptop almost falls off the racks. Walker looks at the other kids. “Hey, anyone else getting excited to be in a city for the first time? ” Walker recalls pictures and video he had seen of cities. They always seem like efficient machines. “How big is Kiddymat anyway?”
“It’s Kiti -mat, and it ’ s small compared to most cities. About ten thousand people, ” Naomi answers.
“No sky scrapers then? ” Walker sounds disappointed.
---
Agent Pirelli mans the roadblock , talking to his hands-free cell . “ The kids are nine. All of them. They’re either walking in a wild environment that is entirely hostile to human life, Canada, or they hitched a ride ” .
“Which is it? Hitched a ride or walking?”
“ They hitched a ride. I’ve stopped every truck with a trailer and nothing so far. I’m running out of time. I t’s not likely I’ll find them today. ” No wait. I definitely won’t find them today. But I have to sit here and put in my time. One of the officers on duty taps on Pirelli’s wi ndow. Pirelli mutes the cell call and lowers the window.
“What time can we call it a day?” the officer asks.
“Couple more hours.” The officer sighs and walks away. Pirelli un-mutes the call. “I’m b abysitting grown-ups and little mutant critters. What kind of nine-year-old s breaks out of a maximum security prison four hours up a mountain road and then evades an experienced pursuit team looking for them on the one and only road out of the facility? ”
“The kind we made.”
“I hate these mountains!” He drops the call. I’m never going to catch this one. The whole scene is spotless; I have nothing to go on.
Agent Pirelli waits in his car as vehicles pass through his roadblock.
Chapter 7 –Keith
As he waits, Keith alternates between sit-ups and push-ups. It’s been three days now; Dr. C. will come get me in about five minutes. He’ll be calm and considerate and try to make me understand that I am only hurting myself. I’m starting to believe that the only way to get out of here will be to hurt others. I want to determine my own path and leave nothing to fate . I will not sit around and wait for someone to help . I’ ll pull together what I need. Then I’ ll hav e revenge. Then I’ ll be respected .
The door buzzes, unlocks, and opens. A guard motions him to come out. From past experience , he knows there will be two other guards here , one on either side of the doorway. They lead him down a sterile white hallway to a room he is quite familiar with. Dr. Concilian sits at a stainless steel table and gestures to the chair across from him. “ Have a seat, Keith.” Keith sits. Dr. Concilian waves the guards away. They leave, locking the door behind them. “So—Keith. You ’ r e back here. What do you think?”
“I think you’re a sad old man with nothing better to do than frighten children . What do you think Dr. C?”
“I think you’re not making it. I think you’re angry, frustrated, and isolated. I think you’re dangerous.” Dr. Concilian open s a file on his tab let . “Your—eight h escape attempt?”
“Ninth. I like to count the time you found me building a tank in shop class as an attempt.” Keith blows his nose into his hand and smears it on the table top , marring the perfectly clean surface.
W ith a pinched look on his face , Dr. Concilian shivers and backs slightly away from the table and the boy . “So , after this interview wher e do you think you
I can build this , and I might be a bit faster at it than Max is. Why didn’t I have the idea to build it? Creating a framework that hacks into processing spaces for you. Hiding itself as it enters. Then waiting for instruction. I can write this but I’d never think of it.
A little more work , and our hacking will be done for us. After that we just piggy back into whatever system the platform has found and send in whatever instructions we want executed from the inside .
The truck lurches ; the laptop almost falls off the racks. Walker looks at the other kids. “Hey, anyone else getting excited to be in a city for the first time? ” Walker recalls pictures and video he had seen of cities. They always seem like efficient machines. “How big is Kiddymat anyway?”
“It’s Kiti -mat, and it ’ s small compared to most cities. About ten thousand people, ” Naomi answers.
“No sky scrapers then? ” Walker sounds disappointed.
---
Agent Pirelli mans the roadblock , talking to his hands-free cell . “ The kids are nine. All of them. They’re either walking in a wild environment that is entirely hostile to human life, Canada, or they hitched a ride ” .
“Which is it? Hitched a ride or walking?”
“ They hitched a ride. I’ve stopped every truck with a trailer and nothing so far. I’m running out of time. I t’s not likely I’ll find them today. ” No wait. I definitely won’t find them today. But I have to sit here and put in my time. One of the officers on duty taps on Pirelli’s wi ndow. Pirelli mutes the cell call and lowers the window.
“What time can we call it a day?” the officer asks.
“Couple more hours.” The officer sighs and walks away. Pirelli un-mutes the call. “I’m b abysitting grown-ups and little mutant critters. What kind of nine-year-old s breaks out of a maximum security prison four hours up a mountain road and then evades an experienced pursuit team looking for them on the one and only road out of the facility? ”
“The kind we made.”
“I hate these mountains!” He drops the call. I’m never going to catch this one. The whole scene is spotless; I have nothing to go on.
Agent Pirelli waits in his car as vehicles pass through his roadblock.
Chapter 7 –Keith
As he waits, Keith alternates between sit-ups and push-ups. It’s been three days now; Dr. C. will come get me in about five minutes. He’ll be calm and considerate and try to make me understand that I am only hurting myself. I’m starting to believe that the only way to get out of here will be to hurt others. I want to determine my own path and leave nothing to fate . I will not sit around and wait for someone to help . I’ ll pull together what I need. Then I’ ll hav e revenge. Then I’ ll be respected .
The door buzzes, unlocks, and opens. A guard motions him to come out. From past experience , he knows there will be two other guards here , one on either side of the doorway. They lead him down a sterile white hallway to a room he is quite familiar with. Dr. Concilian sits at a stainless steel table and gestures to the chair across from him. “ Have a seat, Keith.” Keith sits. Dr. Concilian waves the guards away. They leave, locking the door behind them. “So—Keith. You ’ r e back here. What do you think?”
“I think you’re a sad old man with nothing better to do than frighten children . What do you think Dr. C?”
“I think you’re not making it. I think you’re angry, frustrated, and isolated. I think you’re dangerous.” Dr. Concilian open s a file on his tab let . “Your—eight h escape attempt?”
“Ninth. I like to count the time you found me building a tank in shop class as an attempt.” Keith blows his nose into his hand and smears it on the table top , marring the perfectly clean surface.
W ith a pinched look on his face , Dr. Concilian shivers and backs slightly away from the table and the boy . “So , after this interview wher e do you think you
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