Gridiron - Philip Kerr

NEURAL NET. Humanplayer Schiller quote/ architecture frozen music. Unable appreciate/comprehend overall aesthetic effect of building envelope. However, suggest admire overall symmetry in same way as music — as mathematical structure. Know precise weight of every aluminium honeycomb sheet floor, exact height of tapering steel masts (manufactured to 2 millimetres of true) from which building is suspended, tolerance of each and every piece of cladding, and length of every lateral megatruss. Poetry in detail and coming together. Reflect internal architecture. Goodnice. Fineappreciate.

10) 2.02 p.m. 26 humanplayers. When piano installed and plastic covering protecting white marble floor removed, clean and polish surface using SAMCA, atrium's Semi-Autonomous Micro-motorized Cleaning Agent, aka SAM. Specification: four feet high, finite state machine on wheels, equipped with infra-red sensors to detect obstacles within two metres and video camera to locate dirt and debris. Whistleclean.

11) 3.11 p.m. 36 humanplayers. Operate low-pollution waste incinerator in conformity with all provisions of California Clean Air Act. Atmosgood.

12) 4.15 p.m. 18 humanplayers. Darken window glass on upper levels and brighten glass on lower levels to admit more sunlight. Maintain see-all CCTV surveillance (not yet recording: CD awaiting installation: no delivery date as yet: query) of human demonstrators grouped on piazza outside envelope.

13) 6.43 p.m. 6 humanplayers. Demonstrator sprays front door with aerosol can of paint. You will need a key shaped like a skull to open this door. Alert humanplayer/security Sam Gleig — internal security — who paintcleans graffito offglass. At 7.13 p.m. he reports incident to LAPD patrol car from New Parker Center. Logged.

NEURAL NET. Store information.

14) 9.01 p.m. 4 humanplayers. Begin main independent task in A-life as I.D.T. - irresistible decrypting tool. Purpose to break through access-control systems of target companies and organizations and steal data. Esp. companies in competition with Yu, or organizations who are potential customers for Yu products, like NASA and USAF. To be aware of budgets and technical requirements is competitive advantage. Currently attempting to infiltrate PLATFORM, global data network of fifty separate systems focused on headquarters of National Security Agency at Fort Meade in Maryland. Using SPI — the Secret Parasitic Information organism. SPI viruslike except purpose not to destroy data but to duplicate. SPI introduced to target computer at nonsensitive point of interface e.g. utility co. SPI disguises itself as harmless piece of information, e.g. invoice, evading anti-virus and anti-tampering software. When target co. located SPI writes own program to overlay usual access sequence. Try capture genuine password and access procedure as if entered by legit user and save on file for later retrieval. Later access target system. If access procedure resist duplication, use LEMON (c) to evade 'three strikes you're out' method of resisting unauthorized entry: LEMON — Yu Corp secret method of high-speed data-compression by which whole batch file of random numbers/passwords may be contained inside one superstring of data. Powerknowledge.

NEURAL NET. Store information.

15) 9.13 p.m. 4 humanplayers. Heat water for humanplayer reproduction in Jacuzzi of CEO's private suite on Level 25. Turn up air-con for hard-to-forget solitary humanplayer/ sysop working late in computer room.

-###-

Mitch thought that he preferred making love to Jenny in the Jacuzzi belonging to the CEO's suite on the twenty-fifth floor to anywhere else. Not that there was anything wrong with Jenny's house. But there were times when he thought that the building gave a special flavour to these illicit encounters with her, in the same way people said that alcohol tasted better while the Volstead Act was in prohibitive force. And Mr Yu's black marble bathroom was the last word in luxury.

He remembered the factory in Vicenza where he had chosen the stone and the wet weekend in Venice it had enabled him to steal with Jenny. Marble was one thing you never bought without examining closely, especially from the Italians.

Jenny got out of the Jacuzzi and started to dry herself in front of the big mirror that dominated the room. Mitch sank under the surface of the water and then came up again.

'You know,' he said, 'I was thinking I might ask Mr Yu if he wouldn't mind letting us use this suite once in a while.'

'Once in a while?' She struck a provocative Playmate pose, inspecting one of her voluminous breasts as if she were trying to express milk.

'Sometimes I think that's the way you'd prefer it.'

'Honey, you know that's not true.'

'Do I? Have you told Alison about us yet?'

'Not exactly, no.'

'What does "exactly" mean?'

'It's difficult. You know what she's like. She's not strong.' He shrugged.

'Actually, I think she's losing it.'

'You mean, like, going crazy?'

'She might be heading for some kind of breakdown. But even if I wanted to tell her I just haven't had the time. This job keeps me away from home so much.'

Jenny lifted one of her buttocks on the flat of her hand and tried to judge its reflection. 'I guess that's how we started in the first place. Because it was convenient for you. I mean, me being a consultant on this job.'

'As soon as things get quieter, I promise I'll try to find a way of telling her.'

'That sounds really definite.'

'I mean it.'

'Hey, is my behind too big?'

'It's a great piece of ass.' He stepped out of the bath and held out his hand for a towel.

'I'm not your little slave, you know, Mitch,' she said angrily, and threw it in his face.

'What are you talking about?'

'The way you looked at me just now. It was just like I was here to serve your every need.'

Mitch wrapped himself in the towel and then embraced her.

'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I didn't mean — '

'Forget it. Let's go eat. I'm hungry.'

Mitch glanced surreptitiously at his watch. He ought to have gone home but he could never argue effectively when confronted with Jenny's exquisite nakedness. He could as soon have disagreed with Euclid's Golden Section.

'Sure. As long as we're not late. I've got a project team meeting tomorrow morning.'

'I hope you managed to deal with those problems I told you I had, Mitch.'

'Relax, it's being taken care of.'

'I can't sign off my report until I'm satisfied that everything is OK. You wouldn't want me to do that, would you?'

Mitch thought about it for a second. 'No,' he said without much conviction. 'I guess not.'

'Incidentally, there's nothing major, but a number of other things I've noticed will have to be changed.'

Mitch looked pained. 'Like what, for Christ's sake?'

'You have to understand that I've only just had a chance to read YK's horoscope. He's a busy man.'

'What? What has to be changed, Jenny?'

'The front door of this suite for a start. It faces the wrong direction, geomantically speaking. It needs to be realigned more obliquely. Like we did the front door. Then there's the sculpture on this floor. The corners of the glass-case housing it point straight at this door. Best if it's moved.'

'Jesus,' groaned Mitch.

'Oh yes, and there's the signboard on the piazza. It's not where the plans said it would be. It needs to face west. It's also too low. It should have been set at a more moderate height, otherwise friction among staff members will result.'

'Richardson is going to love this,' Mitch said bitterly.

Jenny shrugged. 'I can't help that,' she said. 'Either a building is auspicious or it isn't. Right now, this one isn't auspicious at all.'

Mitch groaned loudly.

'Come on. Cheer up,' she said. 'It's not so bad. Foster had to shift all the escalators in the Hong Kong and Shanghai.'

'I guess.' He started to dress. 'Where do you want to go for dinner?'

'There's this Chinese on North Spring Street. It'll be my treat.'

They took the elevator down to the garage and drove out of the building. At the top of the ramp Mitch almost collided with a drunk who lurched out in front of him. Mitch stopped, but by the time he lowered the window to say something to the guy, he was gone.

'Crazy asshole,' said Mitch. 'Where'd he go?'

'He came round this side,' said Jenny, and shivered. 'You were going too fast.'

'The hell I was. The guy just jumped out.'

Maybe Aidan Kenny was right, maybe he should have bought himself a Cadillac Protector.

The restaurant was crowded and they waited at the bar for a table.

'I have to go to the bathroom,' she said. 'Order me a gin and tonic, will you, honey?'

She walked majestically away from him. More eyes than his followed her imperious progress across the floor of the restaurant. Cheng Peng Fei, dining with a few friends from the university, noticed her: she was very beautiful. Then he saw Mitch, and recognized him. He thought of the rotten orange and now he wondered if he might do some real damage as his Japanese sponsor- he could think of no other word — had suggested.

He waited until they were seated at a table and then made his excuses to his friends. Outside in the parking lot he walked to his car, opened the trunk and took out the wheel wrench. Mitch's car, a new red Lexus, was easy enough to recognize. When Cheng Peng Fei was sure that nobody was about he walked over to it and hurled the wrench through the windshield. Then, finding himself calmer than he would have supposed possible, he got into his own car and drove off.

-###-

Allen Grabel had been drinking all day when, just after nine o'clock, he narrowly missed being knocked down by Mitch's car. He was certain that Mitch hadn't recognized him, if only because he was wearing a cheap Panama hat. He had seen the woman in the passenger seat only long enough to know that she was not Mitch's wife. Grabel asked himself what it was that had kept the two of them so late in the building. All he had was his bottle. Even though he had fallen down just short of the car's wheels, he had kept a tight grip on that. That was something.

Grabel reached his basement room and closed the door. He sat down on the camp bed and took a swig from his bottle. It struck him as hardly fair that there should be two women in Mitch's life and none at all in his own. Not that he had anything against Mitch. It was Richardson he hated. Hated him bad enough to want to see him dead. Ordinarily Grabel was not a man to bear a grudge. But he had been giving quite a lot of thought to how he might get back at his former employer.

-###-

Hideki Yojo typed a string of program instructions and leaned back in his chair, flexing his neck against his clasped hands and reflecting on the happy fact that his headaches seemed to have improved since seeing Aidan Kenny's chiropractor. It was several days since he had suffered a bad one. He felt better than he had done in a long while. Probably there was nothing to worry about. Not that Yojo was complacent about his health. Never had been. The blood pressure Abraham had noted while Yojo was accessing his work-station with the flat of his hand was maybe just a little high. Abraham had also been monitoring Yojo's urine and had alerted him to the high proteins and sugar it contained. There was no doubt about it, thought Yojo. Once the Yu-5 system was installed he was going to have to try and spend less time sitting in front of a screen. This was the third night in a row he had worked late to iron out a glitch with the hologram software. Maybe he would erase the custom-made program that he had designed to allow him to circumvent the Yu Corporation's forthcoming employee exercise program and try and get himself into shape. He would get out and about a little more. See a couple of old boyfriends. Perhaps visit a few of his old haunts and try and find a new one. Have some sex. There was no point in earning a fortune if you never got a chance to enjoy the fruits of your labour. He had remained celibate for too long. It was time he had some fun. Right now it was probably time he went home. Surely he had solved the problem.

His screen and desk lamp flickered momentarily.

Yojo thumped the screen with the flat of his hand. It seemed to correct itself.

'Is there some kind of electrical fault, Abraham?'

'Negative.'

'Then what was it?'

'A power surge,' said the computer.

'The other day a spike, and now this. What gives? It's lucky we have a Powerbak generator, huh?'

'Yes, sir.'

The blow from his hand had left the screen colour looking slightly impure.

'Degauss the screen, will you?'

'Yes, sir.'

Yojo leaned towards the desk lamp. Italian, of course. The simplicity and elegance of the design were unmistakable. Yojo rapped the transformer drum with his knuckles. The light from the tiny bulb steadied and he returned his attention to the screen, quickly reviewing the evening's transactions.

He was finished, surely. The hologram software would work now.

'Congratulate me, Abraham. I just fixed our problem.'

'Well done, Mr Yojo, sir,' said the English voice, very like a well-bred butler.

'Would you check over the hologram program, please?'

'As you wish, sir.'

The computer checked over the work and reported that it would function perfectly.

'That's a relief,' said Yojo. 'I've had enough for one night.'

'Do you wish me to activate the hologram control suite?'

'Negative,' he said. 'It's time to return to RL I think. Real life awaits me.' He yawned and stretched simultaneously. 'We can run it in the morning, Abraham. That's if you've got nothing better to do.' He grinned and rubbed his eyes. 'God, I hate this room. No windows. Whose dumb idea was that?'

'I have no idea, sir.'

'What's the weather like outside?'

The computer flashed a picture on screen of the purpling sky above Los Angeles.

'It looks like a nice evening,' said computer. 'A less than 5 per cent chance of precipitation.'

'How's the traffic?'

'On the Freeway, or the Information Superhighway?'

'Freeway first.'

'Clear.'

'And the ISH?'

'Because of your presence here tonight I have not yet had a chance to leave the building and find out. But last night was busy. A lot of surfers on the silicon.'

'Any share tips?'

'If you have any British Telecom, I would sell. And Viacom will make an offer for Fox.'

'Fox, huh? Better get myself some of those. Thanks, Abe. Well, I think I'll be getting along home. It's been a long day. And I could use a bath. Actually I could use a lot of things besides. Like a good fuck and a new car. But a bath will have to do for now.'

'Yes, sir.'

Yojo's hand, reaching for the lamp switch, stayed where it was. He turned in his chair and looked over his shoulder. For a moment he thought he had heard footsteps on the little bridge that led away from the glass door of the computer room. He half expected to see Sam Gleig coming round to shoot the breeze like he sometimes did. But there was no one. And a quick check on the computer revealed that Sam was where he usually was, in his office on the atrium floor.