Read Online The zenith angle by Bruce Sterling - Free Book Online

that a response was required of him. “Sort of.”
    Rachel bored right in. “Have you ever met Thomas DeFanti, Dr. Vandeveer?”
    “Yes,” Van and Dottie chorused. They both always answered to “Dr. Vandeveer.”
    “That’ll be my new research post in Colorado,” Dottie said. “With one of Thomas DeFanti’s foundations. He’s always been a very big supporter of astronomy.”
    This whole business was very like Dottie, Van thought sadly. If he chose to mess up their fragile, tender status quo, then she would not fight with him about it. No, she would cooperate fully, by messing up their lives even faster. Would Dottie really move all the way from Boston to the Rocky Mountains while he’d be moving from New Jersey to Washington, and working for Jeb’s outfit? There would be nothing left of their life together.
    Well, there would be e-mail.
    Helga happily chowed down on her chicken wing. Helga didn’t realize it yet, but soon, very soon, Van would have to fire her. He didn’t have any place to keep her. Her nicely furnished suite in Merwinster would be history.
    Van pulled a chunk of chicken from the bucket and jammed it in his mouth. He gnawed silently as the rest of them chattered happily. Then Van dumped his bare chicken bone and went out to the Rover. He beeped it open and fetched the Iridium phone. It was heavy and shaped like a brick. Van hadn’t yet had a chance to try out an Iridium phone. The phones were clumsy, expensive, and didn’t work indoors. The Iridium satellite network had gone broke—but at the last minute, the new post-bankruptcy owners had been rescued by the U.S. Defense Department. The U.S. military had suddenly realized that it might be pretty handy to have phones that worked off-road in places like Afghanistan. Now Van would take the plunge for the first time as well. A fatal announcement like accepting Jeb’s job was worth the ridiculous Iridium charge of two dollars a minute. His father hastened after him. He had a bleak, naked look on his face. “I know that they want you in Washington, son! But you don’t have to go through with that. There’s no need for it!”
    Van shrugged sheepishly. A teenager’s gesture.
    “Think about it. What are you going to get out of this? Do you want a Christmas card from Henry Kissinger? Son, I know people from al Qaeda. I’ve met them. They don’t matter in this world. The only way they can matter is to kill themselves inside our jets and buildings. Al Qaeda can’t build anything. They can’t invent anything. But you can, son. You’re a builder, you’re an innovator. People like you are making people like them matter less every day.”
    “Look, Dad, I write software, okay? Don’t get all philosophical. I’m never going to shoot anybody. But computer security matters.” Van sighed miserably. “That scene is just so bad. You don’t know what it’s like to run those networks. Nobody knows who hasn’t done it. It’s a much, much bigger mess in there than any normal person imagines. It’s been neglected way too long.”
    Van’s grandfather appeared at the door of the duplex. No one had been watching over him. He took off down the sidewalk at a brisk walk.
    “Every big outfit gets like that, son,” his father insisted. “If he wasn’t in jail now, I’d take you to meet Aldrich Ames. That son of a bitch is the poster boy for the crisis inside the Company.” His father groaned. “He sold out every asset we had inside Russia. And no one in the Congress even noticed that Ames did that, ever! We had brave people dying who were never missed.”
    “Dad, the Internet gets kicked flat by teenagers in Canada. That just won’t do.”
    The two of them apprehended his grandfather. “I’m going out for some Marlboros,” the old man protested.
    “I want you to have a happy life, son,” his father insisted, taking a firm grip on his grandfather’s bony upper arm. “You have everything, Derek. You’re a big success, you’re enjoying