Forever Yours
19
Deep Water
KAITLYN CALLED Sunday evening to tell him she was back in town. Of course, they’d had a few dozen text messages through the week, so Henry already knew she’d placed second in the national tournament. They made arrangements to go out to dinner the following Saturday.
Monday afternoon, Henry took some time to grab a cup of coffee and hang out in the student lounge. He often saw members of his cohort there and wanted to discuss how to test his counterattack software app.
“You dirty bastard!” Dan growled when he joined Henry.
“Hey! What a collegial greeting. How’s it going, Dan?”
“You know how it’s going. My computer is trashed,” Dan said.
“What? How’d that happen?”
“Jesus! Stop playing so innocent. You knew some of us would probe the defenses on your server. You set a trap. Now my computer is in the shitter.”
“Whoa! Wait a minute! Don’t tell me you tried to get past our corporate server firewalls!”
“Of course I did! I’m not the only one. You grabbed testers who are curious and always want to dig a layer deeper. You had to know we’d test your servers. You didn’t have to nuke our computers.”
“Are there more than you who tried?”
“I can’t imagine I’m the only one. You could have at least given a warning.”
“First off, don’t scrap your computer! Nothing’s damaged on it. All you need to do is change the file type on the system core. Secondly, I really didn’t think any of you would test it, especially since you knew who it belonged to. And third, I just installed the app on Saturday and was waiting here to catch people to figure out a way to test it. You jumped to the head of the line. So how did it work?”
“Now you want a testing report? Shit, man! It worked fine. I’d just gotten past the first level of the firewall and all of a sudden, my computer was toast.”
“Hmm. Suggested improvements?”
“Besides don’t kill my computer? At least give a warning. People figure they’ll get rejected from a good system, not that they’ll get attacked. How did you even identify the computer?”
“Pretty much the same thing you’d do as a hacker to find the server you want in the first place. I trained a narrow AI to trace the proxy chain to the source. As soon as the source was located, the counter was implemented,” Henry said. “Why should all computer security be based on defense? This is just a next step in the process.”
“I don’t know that I agree with that. It seems unethical.”
“Ask Josh. Here he comes,” Henry said.
Josh scowled at his two study partners.
“How was your break?” Henry asked.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to play bright and innocent,” Josh growled.
“You, too?” Henry asked. “Did all my so-called friends try to hack into my computer this weekend?”
“It was supposed to be a joke,” Josh said. “We were just going to leave a token that would put fireworks on your screen when you logged in.”
“You guys all get bombed by this asshole, too?” Leonard asked as he came up to the group.
“How many of you tried to hack into my corporate server?” Henry asked. “This is ridiculous!”
“Only those who knew you are Open Cloak,” Josh said. “Except Lisa. We didn’t let her in on the hack-a-thon because she lives with you.”
“She rents an apartment from me,” Henry corrected. “But I’m glad she wasn’t involved. It would have made things complicated.”
“I broke a nail!” Simon said as he came up to the group.
“Well, at least you can’t blame me for that,” Henry said.
“When you killed my computer, I slammed my hand down on my duvet and snagged the nail. It was terrible! You nasty man!”
“I’m not sure I should even tell you all the fix for your computers,” Henry said.
“Just reinstall the system,” Leonard said. “Worked fine.”
“It’s easier than that,” Henry said. “Just change the file type ID of the core file. I wasn’t out to do any serious damage to anyone, even if you were trying to break into my secure corporate files. If you guys had waited to check in with me today, I was going to ask for volunteers to test the security software. I just installed it Saturday night. Thanks for running the test without me.”
“Dude, seriously. It was just a joke,” Josh said. “We never expected to have a counter-attack launched on us.”
“Which brings me to the question of ethics that Dan brought up,” Henry said. “Not whether or not it was ethical for you all to launch an attack on my company—even as a joke. Dan felt it was unfair of me to install a trap that would disrupt an attacker. He feels that computer security should all be passive.”
“I don’t see that as a problem,” Leonard said. “If you’re doing it for real, you should corrupt the bios and ROM. Teach the bastards a lesson they will never forget.”
“I didn’t want to do permanent damage to anyone,” Henry said.
“Plant a virus that keeps corrupting the computer and all its files, even when it’s been reformatted,” Simon said.
“Oh, that’s nasty,” Dan said. “I guess I see your point. I still think you should have given some kind of last second warning. ‘Retreat or die!’ Something like that.”
“That would just be a challenge to the hackers I’ve known,” Leonard said. “If you use that kind of warning, make sure they die.”
“I don’t know whether I want to ask you for a copy to install on my own system or to hope I never see it again,” Josh said.
“Well, it’s not for sale,” Henry said. “Not until I’m sure it can’t be used as a tool against the one deploying it. I’m not even sure I’ll leave it on our server. Which is not an invitation for you to ‘test’ it again.”
When Henry told Lisa about his development and the study group’s ‘test’ of it, she was horrified.
“Why didn’t they invite me?” she asked. “I’d have been suspicious of the whole thing because of our conversation on counterattacks.”
“Yeah, well, they didn’t tell you because we ‘live together,’” Henry said.
“We don’t live together!”
“That’s what I told them. But please do me a favor and don’t try to hack into the server.”
“Why would I do that? I’m attached to the server. And I’ve got some designs to show you later this week,” she said.
“That’s great. Let me ask you this. The guys said I should have given them a warning before I attacked their machines. What do you think?” he asked.
“You mean you actually succeeded in attacking them?” Lisa said. “I hope you trashed their computers!”
“Not quite. I corrupted the system core file. It’s not even a difficult fix.”
“But it worked! Congratulations!”
“Warning?”
“Well, a warning would probably thwart a percentage of attacks itself. You aren’t really out there laying a honeytrap for hackers. There’s another percentage who would see the warning as a challenge to step up their attack further. In gaming, we always give an out. I mean, the object of the game is to get to the ultimate level and win, but you can’t do that if the game just randomly eliminates you. Even if it is an ambush, there’s a clue that there’s a threat. You see the monster and have a chance to retreat or engage. That kind of thing.”
“But I don’t want to challenge them to get past me. I want the challenge eliminated,” Henry protested. “Our so-called friends will probably try again to see if there’s a way around the counterattack. All I can do is step up the penalty they’ll pay if they do.”
“If you’re concerned about them, then a warning is definitely in order. What about if it’s a hacker from Russia trying to steal your latest AI design?”
“I’d just eliminate him.”
“Like he was a linebacker after your date.”
Henry stopped and looked at Lisa. He’d acted instinctively against the guy, picking his most vulnerable point. ‘Did you kill him?’ she’d asked. ‘Don’t know. Don’t care,’ he’d responded. Of course, two weeks later, the linebacker had been back on the field. If they met again, Henry was sure the guy would try to kill him.
“Should have made sure,” he sighed. “I hear you.”
Henry and Kaitlyn had fun on their movie date Saturday. The movie was a very sensuous portrayal of Cleopatra, played by one of the top actresses of the decade. Henry was happy to watch her, whether he was interested in the movie or not.
When the show got out at nine-thirty, they went to a nearby pizza place and had a loaded pizza with Cokes. And they talked about the movie, as well as life.
“So, she had an oracle she consulted about Caesar,” Kaitlyn said. “But it was so obscure to hear that he was one but not the only. She immediately went out and killed her brother-husband so Caesar could be the only one.”
“But, of course, she was then forced to marry her younger brother, who was only like five at the time,” Henry added.
“She eventually got rid of him, too. But then Marc Antony came along.”
“Isn’t that the nature of oracles?” Henry asked. “They never give a straight answer, so whatever happens you can say, ‘The oracle said this would happen,’ no matter how far you have to stretch it.”
“Why do people bother?”
“Do they still?” Henry asked.
“Heck yes. That’s what astrology is all about. Fortune tellers. Tarot cards. I ching. Magic 8 Ball. They’re all forms of oracles people seek out to tell them what is going to happen in the future, or just to find the answer to a puzzling question.”
“What question would you ask?”
“When is Henry going to actually make a pass at me?” Kaitlyn asked. “The suspense is killing me.”
“The oracle says, ‘The alignment of the stars makes the future cloudy.’ I hope that is sufficiently obscure so that it will come as a complete surprise when it happens,” Henry laughed.
“When—not if. I think I’ll check my horoscope when I get home.”
When Henry walked her to her door, they shared a very nice kiss. There were plenty of opportunities for him to make that pass as Kaitlyn held him and rubbed up against him. Henry decided to let the idea brew for a while since he knew now that Kaitlyn was expecting it.
“Oracle, oracle, oracle,” Henry muttered as he sat in his office Sunday afternoon. He’d spent part of the weekend refining his counterattack software. Among other things, he wanted a record of when it was activated and against whom. It seemed a little crazy that his study cohort had all attacked him and he didn’t even know they’d been repelled or that the software was even activated. He needed a log.
He also had the software put up a five-second warning. He didn’t want it displayed, though, until the AI had a fix on the source of the attack. When it was triggered, a message flashed up on the screen that simply said, ‘You have been identified. Response launched in 5 seconds.’ Then the number would count down from 5 to 1. It didn’t go to zero because by that time the counterattack would have been launched. If the attack was broken off before the final countdown ended, the software deactivated.
He didn’t consider the software particularly polished, but he didn’t want to work on it any longer on Sunday. Instead, he stumbled down to the kitchen in a T-shirt and pair of cutoff sweats to start frying up some bacon for his breakfast. Or lunch if he bothered to look at a clock. He kept mumbling about an oracle.
“Hey, are you cooking bacon?” Lisa said, looking around the corner of the stairs.
“Yeah. I haven’t eaten yet this morning. Sorry about the smell.”
“Don’t apologize. I was up most of the night. Can I toss a couple of strips in, too?”
“Sure. What had you up all night?”
“Calculus in Three Dimensions.”
“That class was a bitch,” Henry said.
“Why are you chanting ‘oracle’ over and over? Want to conjure up their success?” she asked.
She went to the refrigerator and pulled out eggs and bread. It looked like they were having breakfast together.
“Oh. No, I suppose I need a different name if I ever do anything with it. I was thinking about ancient oracles that people consulted to find their future,” Henry said.
He really didn’t know why his discussion with Kaitlyn had struck that chord with him, or why he didn’t make the expected pass last night. He was sure now she would welcome it.
“Mmm. What’s that famous one? Delphi?”
Henry pulled out his phone and spoke into it.
“What are the names of famous oracles?”
“Pythia was the most famous oracle of Apollo in ancient Greece and was found at Delphi,” the phone recited back to him. “Dodona was the oracle of Dione and Zeus at Epirus. The Sibylline Oracles are a collection of oracular utterances ascribed to the prophetesses called Sibyls. Most oracles were ascribed to Apollo, the Greek god of prophecy. There are many other lesser oracles. Would you like me to name them?”
“No. Thank you.”
The phone went silent.
“That was interesting,” Lisa said.
“I bet there were all kinds of prophetesses. Who was that one in Troy who no one believed?”
“Cassandra,” Lisa responded. “That was a sad story. Did you read The Iliad? It’s a lot of war crap to wade through, but the parts about the gods were very enlightening. Apollo fell in love—or lust—with Cassandra, who was, like, twelve. He tried to woo her by giving her the gift of prophecy, but she would have nothing to do with him. So, he cursed her by telling her she would only ever be able to speak true prophecy, but that no one would believe her.”
“A missing part of my classical education. I’m sure if I was getting a BA instead of a BS, I’d have had to take some course in classic literature,” Henry said.
“It’s not all bad. How do you want your eggs?”
Henry realized they were standing elbow to elbow at the stove. It was kind of nice. He felt he could have good conversations with Lisa without the burden of trying to maintain ‘a relationship.’ They were just friends and classmates. And she was his employee.
“Just break the yolks and make them hard. I don’t like them runny,” he said.
“Neanderthal,” she laughed. Nonetheless, she broke the yolks and cooked all of the eggs into a scramble.
“So, what got you interested in oracles this morning?” she asked as they grabbed the toast out of the toaster and sat at the table.
“Oh, the movie we saw last night. Cleopatra consulted an oracle and we talked about it a little. I was just thinking about the comparison between that and predictive text on a smart phone.”
“That’s a leap!”
“Not really. It’s the way generative AI works, isn’t it? Listen to the question, then run through the data banks for the most likely responses. In its untrained state, the AI doesn’t know what’s right or wrong. It just hears the word ‘Thou’ and the most likely next word in a sentence is ‘shalt.’ Then you branch. Do you continue or do you modify with ‘not.’ Put up a hundred actions to follow the branch and you are as likely to get ‘Thou shalt kill,’ as ‘Thou shalt not eat.’ I just think that the vocabulary an AI uses can be customized. Narrowed down, if you will. Only train the AI with oracular sayings and the AI becomes an oracle.”
“You know, I’ve only been awake for an hour. I think I need to come back to this subject when I’ve had more sleep. Don’t you have enough on your plate right now?” she asked.
“Oh, hell yeah. I’m not pursuing this. Well, I might do some web scraping for oracular sayings. But anyway, I really liked that last rendition of the UI you came up with. I think tomorrow I’d like to start coding it in. It would be good to test it with our group,” Henry said.
“Yeah. I have the spec and most of the graphics ready. I can work on refining the graphics once they’re connected to the code.”
“Fantastic. We’ll have a real product by Christmas, I think.”
“Wow! You really think this fast before coffee?” She took a sip of her coffee and squeezed her eyes shut.
“I had the first pot at six this morning,” Henry sighed. “Don’t worry about it.”
Henry took Kaitlyn to the Improv the next Saturday evening after dinner. The comedienne was funny and they had a good time. At one point, though, she pointed at them and asked “Are you two a couple?”
Henry wasn’t sure what to answer, but Kaitlyn immediately nodded her agreement.
“You aren’t too sure and you are definite,” the comic said. “Keep it that way, girl. Keep him guessing is what I always say. How long have you been dating?”
“A month,” Kaitlyn answered.
“And when did you start doing the deed?”
“Oh!” Kaitlyn said, blushing. “We… uh… haven’t yet.”
“No wonder he’s not sure!”
She moved on to some other audience members and Henry breathed a sigh of relief that Kaitlyn had handled all the interaction. He wasn’t interested in being a part of her show.
“What did you think?” Kaitlyn asked as they pulled out of the parking area.
“She was funny. She was a little crude at times, but that didn’t bother me. Were you okay with it?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah. I thought she was really funny. I wasn’t expecting to be asked how long we’d been fucking. That was a little embarrassing.”
“Yeah. But she wasn’t any harder on us than anyone else.”
“Are you really not sure about our relationship?” she asked.
“Well, we’ve never really sat down to talk about our relationship,” Henry said. “I mean, we are dating, but I don’t know if that even makes us a couple. And I’m not saying it hinges on sex. I’d be just as confused if we did that.”
“Oh, look at the view over the river,” she sighed. “Can we stop a few minutes?”
“Sure,” Henry said. He found a parking area and pulled into a space where they could see river traffic moving down the Monongahela toward the Ohio River.
He’d just turned the car off when Kaitlyn launched herself across the console to kiss him. It was an irresistible invitation. He clutched her and accepted her tongue in his mouth. In a few minutes, their clothing was in disarray and Henry was holding her breast in his hand. She had large hard nipples—easy to find and play with. He thought briefly that they would be easy nipples to pierce.
They finally relaxed a little, the console gap between the seats making it difficult to keep up the passion for long.
“Oh, wow!”
“Maybe that will help clear up your confusion about whether we’re a couple,” Kaitlyn said.
“I guess so. I’d better take you home before we get too carried away.”
“You just had your hand inside my shirt pinching my nipples. How much more carried away do you think we can get in this little car?”
Henry didn’t respond and Kaitlyn pulled her clothes together before they reached her apartment. At her door, they engaged in another tongue battle with a lot of grinding together, but she didn’t invite him in. He went back to the car and finally reached his house a little after midnight.
Henry was still conflicted. He’d been very fond of the women he’d had sex with in the past. He liked Kaitlyn, but he had to admit he felt closer to Chastity than to her. And, though he hadn’t heard her talk about it since they started dating, she’d been pretty committed to finding a husband who would support her while she golfed all day.
He thought she must have changed her goals some since he certainly couldn’t be on her prospect list. And how fond of her did he need to be to fuck her? She was sexy enough. The mess he made after he got to his bedroom was testament that she turned him on.
He halfway expected her to lean over the gap between the seats and give him a blowjob, the way their making out was going. He probably wouldn’t resist that. He’d still feel like he owed her one, though, and getting a blowjob in the car was a lot easier than eating a girl out in the front seat.
He wondered how she tasted.
Well, if it happened, he just wasn’t going to resist. It had been a while.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
