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“Okay, Sock, let’s try this again.” Jonathan mumbled into his headset, fingers flying across the keys decisively.
“Firewall is down, and I’ve found a backdoor into the command server. Accessing...” Sock’s bubbly voice chirped in his ear. “Got it. Override command Alpha-Tango-Charlie-Foxtrot—”
Jonathan paused long enough to frown at the green LED that was Sock’s eye, the camera the AI used to monitor him. “Have you been watching war movies on the net again?”
Sock made an annoyed sound. “No. This is the actual command. It’s not me who must have a fetish for old military movies, but the programmer.”
Jonathan huffed air through his nose in a surprised laugh. “Okay, give it to me again.” He inputted the code as fast as Sock could give it to him and was rewarded when the system blossomed open before him like a flower of code and data.
Quickly and as neatly as a surgeon, he cut out what he needed and packeted it to Sock, all the while carefully making sure his intrusion into the system would go unnoticed. Jonathan prided himself on being careful. His intrusions into systems could go unnoticed for months, even years. Hell, NASA still hadn’t found where he’d hacked their systems, and that was bordering on a decade.
Carefully he eased out of the system, letting the protections fall back into place like curtains. “Did you get it all?” He asked Sock.
The green LED whirred to focus on him. “Yes. Man, there’s a lot in here. I’m not sure what Providential Designs is up to, but it’s no wonder Mephi wants Sinnergy to have it. There’s coding here for upgrades that will keep your happy little hacker heart busy for the next five years. I’m drubbing a copy into my database for you.”
Jonathan smiled. Sock knew him very well. He hadn’t become what he was by selling all the secrets he unearthed. And ones like these, that could potentially cripple other hackers, well, it was always best to know what your enemy planned before they even planned it. “Thanks, So—”
That was as far as he got before there was a loud sparking noise and Sock’s LED brightened into blinding intensity for a moment before fading into darkness. The faint, ever-present humming that was Sock’s running system was silent, leaving the room far too quiet.
“Sock? Sock?!” Jonathan yanked his headset off and slapped a sequence on the keyboard, one he’d long ago committed to memory but never had to use before. Slowly, Sock’s green LED lit and Jonathan heard the hum of the central processors rebooting.
“Database file corruption. Restore from main save file?” The voice was soothing and calm, nothing like Sock’s cheery demeanor.
Jonathan winced to hear it. If he was getting only the computer’s standard Basic AI, something had gone terribly wrong. “Restore program Sockpuppet-zero-zero-one-point-twelve-A-B from last save point. Open in protected mode, Authorization code Jonathan-Valhalla-seventy-five.”
“Working.”
Jonathan drummed his fingers on his thigh, nervously waiting for the restoration sequence to run. He’d found Sock’s original AI pattern in a dump bin for electronic components and scavenged it, renaming it Sockpuppet since it would be his burrower program, a AI program that could flawlessly imitate whatever security programs it encountered until it had integrated itself into them and could disable them from the inside. He’d upgraded Sock’s core program over the years, but the AI personality he’d created behind it had remained; the quirky, sassy, insouciant spark he’d started to affectionately refer to as Sock.
“Oooowwww,” whined a familiar voice from the speakers. “That hurt.”
Jonathan quirked an eyebrow. That was unexpected. After a restore and reboot, Sock shouldn’t have even been aware of a crash. “Sock?”
“I dunno what was in that packet, Jonathan, but it bites,” Sock groaned. “And it bites hard. I think I lost a good twenty percent of my operating system for a few minutes there.”
Jonathan wasn’t sure whether to breathe a sigh of relief or work up a fully-justifiable fit of paranoia. “I hate to break it to you, you lost more than that. You went completely offline.”
“I couldn’t have,” Sock protested. “Something like that would have utterly disrupted my IOS and forced a shutdown and restart.”
Jonathan managed a shaky laugh. “It did. If you notice, you’re running in protected mode now.”
Sock’s LED dimmed briefly. “No, I’m not,” the AI rebutted. “I have full system functions.”
Okay, that wasn’t right. Jonathan chewed on his bottom lip. “Um, Sock, I need to run some diagnostics on you. I need to be sure the packet didn’t do you any permanent damage. Can you go into Standby mode for me?”
Sock’s LED eye flickered. “Do I have to?” the AI complained, voice petulant. “I hate Standby.”
“Just do it, please.”
Sock sighed, an odd, whispery sound from the speaker. “Fine.” His LED dimmed again, this time remaining that way. “Entering Standby, awaiting further instructions.”
“Run full system analysis,” Jonathan said, opening a port on the side of the unit that housed Sock’s personality core and plugging a diagnostic unit into it. The screen lit up and he scanned through the readings, looking for anomalies. The main OS looked fine, but the personality core seemed to be running at a reduced speed. Not severely but the speed was down by a percentage. “Sock, talk to me. Why’s your personality core running slow? Can you tell?”
There was a pause, a little longer than it should have taken for Sock to run a scan. “I don’t know. I can’t detect anything, but then, if something’s wrong with me, I wouldn’t know it.” Sock sounded a little frightened. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Hopefully, nothing,” Jonathan said soothingly. “I’m going to run some more tests. Keep talking to me, so you can tell me if there’s something off.”
“About what?”
Jonathan shrugged one shoulder, untangling more leads and plugging them into various ports. “Anything. Why do you hate Standby? It should be less of a load on your processors for the most part.”
Sock’s tone went contemplative. “In standby, everything is dulled. I feel disconnected. I mean, even when I’m not on the net, I don’t feel that detached.”
“Detached?” Jonathan hummed under his breath, plugging a new lead into the main IOS.
“You remember those old sci-fi movies you watched with me a couple of times?” Sock asked.
Jonathan nodded, still frowning at the readings. The personality core readings were down another percentage. “Yeah, so?”
“The one about the ghost in the machine. That’s how I feel. Like I’m a ghost, unable to connect to anything; touch anything.”
“You don’t have hands, you can’t touch anything anyways.”
“Not what I meant.” There was anger damping Sock’s usually bubbly voice. “I can touch you when you jack in, show you the best ways through the firewalls. I know it’s not the same but...” Sock hesitated. “I like when you’re jacked in because you’re in there with me and I’m not just a... a ghost in the machine.”
Jonathan instinctively touched the small jacks implanted just behind his right ear. “Sock—”
The door behind him burst open in a shower of sparks, revealing four heavily armed and helmeted private security guards. The one in the lead pointed a taser at Jonathan, tips sparking ominously. “Hello, Mr. Combs. Our boss lady would like to speak with you.”
Jonathan dove under his workstation, grasping after the small caliber pistol he had hidden there. They had to know he’d left the security functions down while he was trying to diagnose what was wrong with Sock. But how? Was there a tapper in that packet, something designed to let them know when his defenses were down?
Jonathan rolled behind his desk and drew a bead on the goon in the lead. He was the first threat, and cutting him down would increase the likelihood of the others making mistakes without their leader. He’d take him out first and the two right behind him would be next.
Wait... where was the fourth one?
“Don’t make this hard, boy. She just wants to talk.”
There was a cold press of steel against the side of Jonathan's neck and the world slewed sideways. He vaguely heard Sock’s agonized shout of, “Don’t hurt him!” Then the floor rushed up to meet him and everything went away.
^^^^^^^^
Jonathan woke sprawled on a plain cot in a white, windowless room, head heavy and limbs mostly unresponsive. Without moving, he took a quick peek around the room, cataloging everything. There was a single door, a table and two chairs and security cams everywhere. He struggled to sit up.
Just as he’d managed to get his unwieldy body to cooperate, the door opened to reveal a shapely black woman in a white business suit. Her dark eyes sparkled in the light and there was a small amused smile on her face. Her short hair was done in the very latest style, called the galaxy glimmer, flecked with bits of reflective glitter and dotted with tiny lights that gleamed like stars.
“Let me help you,” she said, stepping to his side and looping one of his arms around her sturdy shoulders. She was several inches shorter than him, Jonathan noted, but she had a presence about her that made her seem larger than life.
She eased him into one of the chairs and turned to tap lightly on the door. “Would one of you be a dear and fetch the poor boy some water? He’s probably dying of thirst.”
A moment later and one of the armed goons, sans helmet, stepped in bearing a tray with a clear pitcher of ice water and two glasses. Jonathan would know that build anywhere. The slim little blonde with the pissy expression was the one who’d knocked him out. He scowled at her, a look she returned glare for glare.
The woman smiled at her and accepted the tray, shooing the blonde out with a nod. She sat at the table across from Jonathan and poured two glasses. Smiling, she motioned him to pick first.
When he’d taken a glass, she raised the other and took a sip, a ‘See, I’m not going to poison you’ gesture if he’d ever seen one. But his throat was dry and aching, so he drank warily from his own glass.
“Hello, Jonathan,” the woman greeted in a sweet, mellow tone. “My name is Providence and I own Providential Designs.”
The water turned to ashes in Jonathan’s mouth. Oh, shit. He’d just landed right in the fire.
She laughed at his expression, her purple painted lips turning up in an impish smile. “Oh don’t look so dismayed, dear boy. You are quite the clever hacker. I was very impressed with you and your brilliant little AI. Tell me, did you program him yourself?”
Watching her leerily, Jonathan toyed with the glass in his hands. “Sort of,” he admitted. “I found the core AI in a dump bin. The personality core was badly fried, so I kind of cobbled up a new one. I’ve upgraded it a lot over the years.”
Providence smiled widely. “Oh, you are a treasure. I have programmers who’ve worked for me for years who couldn’t do as well.”
Jonathan shrugged. “I just made do with what I had.”
“Silly boy,” She reached out and ruffled his shaggy hair. “You did amazing. I’ve never in my life seen such a fully developed personality core. Your Sock acts more human than some people I know.”
Jonathan flushed a little, embarrassed.
Providence watched him with a smile. “Let me cut to the chase, Jonathan. I want to hire you. Someone of your skillset is a very valuable commodity in my business.”
“I’m a hacker.” Jonathan reminded her with a scowl. “We try to stay off the radar. You hire me and there goes everything I’ve built and done for myself. I’d probably be dead inside of a month if I try to go legit. No offense, lady, but no thanks.”
She laughed gleefully. “I don’t want you on the grid, my boy. You wouldn’t do your best work that way anyway. You see, I know how things work. No, I have every intention of you continuing your... clandestine efforts. I just want to bankroll you.”
Jonathan frowned at her. “You want me as your own personal pet hacker? What makes you think I won’t rob you blind and sell your secrets to the highest bidder.”
Now her smile turned dangerous. Last time he’d seen a grin like that, it had been on the ocean and had come with a triangular fin attached to it. “I told you, I know how things work and there are secrets I want you to uncover... and some of them are yours to sell. In fact, I’d be very pleased if you continued working for dear Mephistopheles. Some of those secrets I’d rather went into his hands.”
Jonathan folded his arms and frowned down his nose at her. “Lady, I start selling fake information, I wind up just as dead. You might as well just kill me now.”
Providence’s face softened. “Sweetheart, again you misunderstand. I don’t want you to sell yourself out. Everything I give you leave to sell will be perfectly legit information.” There was something sad in her eyes. “Some people won’t let you help them. No matter how hard you try. So let them think they’ve pulled one over on you, and you’ve helped them, will they or nil they.” She offered him a slow. soft smile. “It’s sometimes the only way to play the game.”
She rose abruptly. “Come on, sweetie. Let me give you a tour while you think about my offer.”
Providence opened the door and stepped into the hallway. Jonathan cautiously followed her out.
The blonde goon fell into step behind them, glowering sourly at all and sundry. Jonathan made a note to punch her in the teeth later for knocking him out.
Providence led him through labs where everything from military grade AI drones to chips for programmable home droids were being tested. Jonathan really wanted to stop and have a closer look at some things, but he wanted to know exactly where she was taking him.
Finally she stopped at a sealed lab and gestured him into a disinfectant booth. “No contaminants can be allowed in here until were sure everything is perfectly well,” she said mysteriously, stepping into the booth behind him.
They were blasted with a fine mist of decontaminant before nearly being blinded by a massive UV strobe. The inner door cycled and Providence led him into the lab. A purple-haired woman in a lab coat was bent over something on a stainless steel table, wires strewn around her.
Jonathan stepped forward to see what she was working on and let out a cry of horror. He’d know that dented, dark-purple casing anywhere. Sock’s personality core! He whirled on Providence with fists clenched. “You bitch! Who told you you could just destroy my AI?”
“Allow me to introduce this lovely lady.” Providence’s smile was unphased. “This is Lil, one of the best biomechanics in the business. She and I were both very impressed with your Sock.”
Jonathan glanced back at the half-disassembled core on the table, his rage growing. “That didn’t mean you could take Sock apart!”
“Jonathan?”
The hesitant voice came from behind him. It sounded like Sock, only the AI hadn’t sounded that uncertain since Jonathan had first turned it on.
He turned.
Standing uncertainly beside the table was... a boy. He looked to be in his late teens, with ginger-brown hair and a round face. One hand rested on Sock’s dismantled casing and bright emerald eyes lifted to Jonathan’s face. “Jonathan?” he repeated nervously.
Jonathan took a step forward, lowering his clenched fists. “S-Sock?”
The boy — Sock? — took an unsteady step forward, all but flinging himself at Jonathan. “You’re alright!”
Jonathan automatically caught the hurtling body, and looked down at his armful of Sock, mouth dropping open.
Sock grinned up at him, emerald eyes gleaming. “Lil told me you were okay, but I only saw you fall. I couldn’t help you.” Sock shuddered once, lifting warm, human hands to cup Jonathan’s cheeks in wonder. “But Lil made me a body and now I can. I can help you and now, I can really touch you.” His fingers wandered over the planes of Jonathan’s face, like he was mapping it out with his fingertips.
Providence stepped forward and offered them a soft, almost motherly smile. “It seemed a shame to keep that much potential trapped in a box of lifeless metal. Lil is the best, like I said, and she created a bio-mechanoid body to house Sock’s personality core. He’s still your Sock, but with a body to match the personality.” She gestured at the lab. “You’ll need to keep him here for a few days at least, until Lil and I are satisfied that his body is entirely stable and you can use every tool at our disposal to make sure Sock is okay in there, but after that... well, as they say, the sky's the limit.”
Jonathan found himself smiling down at Sock. “It is.” He looked back up at Providence. “And I think I’ll accept your job offer.”
Her smile could have melted the polar icecaps.