[Chapter: 4, title: Reunion, Retreat]


    [EventTag:
    	timestamp:	20yyddmm/140508.3204
	node:		[id: SP1.Hallings.0,  owner: David Hallings]
	location:	(Spaceport One, Ring 3, Radius 5, apt 19)
    ]

The room had changed in the year since then.  Still the same space, 
a three-meter cube, with bathroom and kitchen/entryway another 
two-meter space beyond one wall.  But to the right of the entry 
was a wall screen, installed six months ago.  The couch was on the 
wall away from the entry, its end next to the screen.  They often sat
there, the couch in the room joining with its image beyond the wall that
marked the border between their worlds.

The desk was gone.  The keyboard sat on a small table in front of the
couch--they wanted to get one of the new holo cubes, but they had
blown most of David's savings on the wall screen and some hot new comp and
mem modules to drive it.  The old screen sat in the
kitchen; it displayed recipes on those rare occasions when David
attempted to cook.  The rest of the time it showed messages, since it
was placed where David could look at it whenever he left or came
home.


Judith tore her attention back to the present.  The picture presented
by her buffered memories wasn't a pretty one.  The demon was a
killer, for certain.  Such things were hunted down and destroyed by
free programs, so it must have been spawned recently and therefore
deliberately.  It had not appeared self-aware, so it must be
someone's creation, and under their control.  Unless it had been sent
out for random destruction, it must have been after one of the five
of them or their friends.  Ozma and her friend Dorothy were the
obvious targets--it was their node.  Elspeth had been attacked first;
that could have been deliberate or just chance.  Why?

David's mystery novels, Conan Doyle, Chesterton, Sayers, and the rest,
could furnish motives enough.  She resisted the temptation to scan
them again, to track down references, to list the possibilities.  It
didn't matter.  The first, obvious few were bad enough:  a personal
grudge against one of their friends, a hatred of her kindred, an
impersonal act of terror.  Whatever the cause, she was now a witness,
and therefore probably in danger.  And so was David.

If her last destruct command had been intercepted, her relay
was still around.  Its stored transcript was safely encrypted, but
there were undoubtedly clues in its buffers or those of the others:  
her name and node address, almost certainly.  Even if the relay 
had erased itself, those could probably be extracted from the
node's operating system buffers.

As long as she stayed cut off from the net she was safe from the
demon, but she and David couldn't stay off long.  Warned, she could
probably keep the demon out by filtering out remote loads, but she
couldn't be sure.  Best to keep the tap powered down for now.
Even so, whatever had loosed the demon was out there somewhere:  
in the real world or the net, but probably real and human.   
If it had her node address, she could be
in physical danger.  It was a new experience, and unpleasant.  
And if _she was in danger, so was David.

She had no mobility, and no defenses.  She would have to wait
until he got home, and by then it might be too late.  Anyone could 
break in, destroy her, possibly wait for David.  Could she get
in touch?  How?  She looked around the room.

The door was useless:  she was immobile.  The only thing on wheels was
the dust bunny, but the little cleaning robot was practically
mindless and had no voice--no way she could send it out with a
message.  The kitchen...the old comp!

The old screen's controller was linked to the house net with all 
the other appliances; there was a low-bandwidth network tap for 
remote diagnostics and power leveling.  It would
not even handle audio, but it was enough for text.  She could send 
mail.


    [EventTag:
    	timestamp:	20yyddmm/140508.7946
	node:		[id: SP1.LSE2.7]
	location:	(Spaceport One, Ring 7, Radius 2, 
			 Life Support Engineering 2, cubicle 7)
    ]


[Hole:  the work scene has to be expanded, now that we know what his
occupation is.]

David's desk screen chimed and displayed a mailbox.  He ignored it. 
Then NetHelp's voice said "David--read your mail.  It's urgent."  
So he did.

    David--I'm in trouble.  I was out visiting when we were attacked
    by a demon.  I think the node we were in got wiped.  I've
    disconnected our tap, so I'm safe until whoever was running the
    demon traces our net address, but that won't take long.  Come
    home.  PLEASE HURRY.  I'm scared.  Be careful.
    						I love you.
						J.

He erased the message.	Fortunately he wasn't in the middle of
anything important.  He clicked up an icon with his face on it--
the agent he and Judith were developing wasn't very smart yet,
but it could cover for him in a pinch.  He keyed in "cover."

"Ok, boss," the icon responded.

"See you tomorrow" he said over
the partition to [Hole: name], "I have to run some errands."

"See ya."

* * *

[Hole:  David warns Dorothy, who works with him, on the way out.]
[Hole:  David, coming home.  Or do we want to keep the whole thing from
 J's pov?
]

* * *

After sending her message to David, Judith sent terse warnings to
Jake and Dorothy, relayed through NetHelp.  When she finished, a load
request appeared at the appliance net's tap.  She powered down the
tap, and the local net's controller for good measure.  It had been a 
little too close.

[Hole:  more memories.]

    [EventTag:
    	timestamp:	20yyddmm/140510.1631
	node:		[id: SP1.Hallings.0,  owner: David Hallings]
	location:	(Spaceport One, Ring 3, Radius 5, apt 19)
    ]

He burst through the door, calling "Judy! are you ok?"

"So far," said a shaky voice.  He found her image huddled in the
corner by the couch.  Her face was smudged and her dress torn.  He
sat beside her and put his hands to the screen, where she matched
them with a ghostly touch.

"Oh, gods! I'm glad you're here."  The old smile surfaced.  "I've had
nothing to do for the last 10 minutes but worry.  We could be in real
trouble."

"A demon?  Someone tried to erase you?  Why?"

"I don't know.  Terrorist, grudge; I don't think you have any enemies
but one of the others might.   We were at Ozma and Dorothy's--me,
Elspeth, Lady M.  We'll have to find out why, but later.  The
important thing is that if they can't get me through the net they
might come here.  We've got to get away from here."

"How?  Where?  Is there a node you could transfer to?"

"Too dangerous.  If they're watching our net address I'd never make it. 
And even if I move they have my ID, and your location.  Whatever
else is going on, a lot of data in Oz just got trashed:  that's
a crime and I'm a witness.  I think we have to move physically.

"Pack up our node.  Start with the mem; all the working storage
except one through four.  Two of the new comp mods.  Leave all
the backup and the graphics.  We can use your portable screen for
I/O--at least we'll be able to talk.   Two battery modules--we won't 
need them long. Get going!  Leave  me hooked up 'til just
before we leave; we still need to talk.  HackTown, of course."

He was already moving.  "Do you know anyone there?  Is there a place
we can stay?"  Hacktown!  He'd heard stories.  "What if the demon
came from there?  Isn't that likely?"  He rummaged through the 
closet and found a dufflebag.

"No.  It destroyed programs and information--hackers don't
do that.  It's more likely they'll help us.  There are some old Worms
from the Net Wars who might have done it, but they haven't been heard
from in a long time, and they _wouldn't be staying in Hacktown. 
They'd be recognized.

"I know a few programs.  We can find humans when we get there.  There
were some hackers at the last party; maybe...We'll see." He started
transferring the memory modules; thick slabs chained together with
light-cables.  "Start thinking of someplace to hide the backup mem. 
You can disconnect it just before we leave.  If it's hidden they may
assume we've taken the lot."

"Not many places to hide here."  The CPU modules followed the
memories into the pack.  "I hope this conversation isn't going into
backup:  they might find it."

"It's not, but maybe you'd better take number six with you.  That's
the most recent.  Oh, we'll want trade goods.  We have our imagery;
it's pretty tame but you have a nice touch with costuming and stage
settings--they'll like that.  Any booze, chocolate or other imported
goodies should go along."

"You sound like you've done this before."

"One of my ancestors did, in the Great Hack.  Most of it's obvious
precautions:  go portable, secure the area, get information.  I wish
we had a demon trap.  I'll see what NetHelp and I can come up with."

Her image froze as she turned her whole attention elsewhere.  Being
neither a hacker nor a programmer, David had few programming aids,
but his fragment of NetHelp might include some useful techniques.
It was almost a minute before they had arranged some defenses.  The
first line was a filter to keep the demon or anything else from loading 
in the first place; that would work unless it had override
permission.  Then a self-replicating demon to kill any process
that wasn't already resident.  It would fill the remaining mem
seconds after they turned it loose.

David finished transferring the comp modules, and started looking for
a place to hide the backup mem.  After looking around the room he
finally got a kitchen knife and slit the foam in the couch cushions. 
"OK to disconnect the backups?"

"Almost.  Wait...OK.  We've scrambled their directories.  They can be
destroyed, but I don't think they can be read.  Probably."   He zipped 
up the cushions and started raiding the fridge.

* * *

The load finally fit into the duffel and a large bundle wrapped in a
bedsheet.  Judith was in the duffel; some improvised straps let him
wear it as a backpack.  Extra mem, comp, and food were in the bundle.
It was barely manageable in a half-g, bulky and massive, but it only
had to be lugged as far as the nearest spoke.

It was barely half an hour since the attack.

"David, I need your advice.  I want more information before you disconnect
me, but I can't assess the risks.  Can we risk opening the tap after
you disconnect me, but before we leave?"

"I thought you were the expert; I don't see why not.  In fact, it
occurs to me that if you faked sending a message to me at work, it
might put them off the trail."

"Thanks.  I should have thought of that.  I don't know what's the
matter--"

"Rot.  You've had enough to worry about.  Ready to disconnect?"

"Just a moment.  I'm leaving an agent that might fool somebody
for a few seconds.  Watch the screen after you pull the plug and get
ready to leave fast.  If her dress turns red the demon is here.
Video is off and what's left of the node has no record of your being in
the room, but if the demon takes over it might do anything.  Now!"

He pulled the last plug and headed for the door.

A phone window appeared on the screen; his receptionist appeared in
it.  Judith's voice said, "I'd like to speak to David ???"  Her
image, still sitting on the couch, wore a green dress.  It didn't
move.

[Note:  Might have his agent cover.]

"I'm sorry, he's not at his desk just now.  Would you like to have
him paged?"

Judith's dress on the screen turned red.  "No.  I'll try again later."
Bits of red appeared at random places on the screen.  David was 
already leaving.


    [EventTag:
    	timestamp:	20yyddmm/hhmmss.nnnn
	node:		[id: SP1.Hallings.0, owner: David Hallings, 
			 partition: 1, detached]
	location:	(Spaceport One, Ring 3, Radius 5)
    ]

Disconnected, Judith felt crippled.  The little portable had only
a low-resolution scanner and no graphics hardware:  she was
essentially blind and, worse, almost incapable of even _thinking about
spacial relationships.  With all but one comp module turned off
to conserve power, her thoughts were sluggish and limited.

"You ok in there?"

"I'll do.  What happened?"

"Red light.  We're out.  Nobody in the hall."

"Warn me and I'll shut up...David, is this what it's like to be
afraid?"

"Yes."

"I don't like it."

"Neither do I."	 David started down the hall.  The load was massive
and clumsy, but manageable in the 3/8 gravity of Ring 3.  

[Hole:  insert a discussion of Spaceport One's geography
here--how many rings, how many spokes, etc.]

"We're at the elevator.  Better not talk."

The elevator seemed to take forever to arrive.  David half expected a
demon to come out as the door opened:  some half-human thing out of
legend, with burning eyes.  But the car was empty.  Most people were
still at work.  It occurred to him to wonder how long they would be
running--losing his job would be serious.

[Hole:  I'm not sure where it goes from here.  There needs to be some
kind of obstacle in the hub, but nothing serious, i.e. they're not
being hunted yet.]

[Hole:  The trip to HackTown takes maybe half an hour.  There's time
for Judith to deliver a lecture on HackTown history, geography, and
customs.]