Bogotá, Colombia (Monday) 11 pm
Carlos stepped out of the Disco at the north of the city. Although, he was not very fond of nocturnal life, his home was close to a zone where there were many entertainment places. He had just graduated from high school; a couple of weeks ago, when his classmates invited him to a special celebration dance.
- I live close, I'll go. – he had said two weeks ago.
- You impress me. – Said one of his best friends. – You always prefer to stay home and mess around with that computer of yours.
- Well, this time is special. So, I'll go. – he replied bitterly.
Of course, for his friends it was a little earlier to go home, bur Carlos really felt a little uneasy and wanted to go home.
- Leaving so soon? – Said rudely one of his classmates. – Don't you have a true friend around that will make you stay?
- Nope, I guess someday I'll find one. – he said opening the front door.
- Ok buddy, have it your way.
He walked along the sidewalk toward the apartment complex he lived in. It was just 5 blocks away. Of course, there had been complaints in the past with neighbors regarding the high level of noise, however they had come to a settlement quite a while ago.
As he walked slowly he sensed something was behind him. He turned around quickly; nothing was there. He continued walking looking behind him from time to time. He felt watched.
Finally he arrived to the main gate to the apartment complex. The watchman there, greeted him as usual. A gust of wind suddenly crossed on top of him. He looked around anxiously like something had flown past his head.
" It must have been the few drinks I had" he said as he approached the walkway to the building where his apartment was.
He looked up stunned as he saw that the window to his room was opened.
"What?" I thought dad would arrive later. He told me his plane would come at 1 Am.
Fernando Diaz was a business man. He had to fly to different capital cities in the country quite frequently to cut deals regarding farming supplies from seeds and pesticides to tractors.
"I must have left it opened before I left" he thought as he turned the key in the keyhole to open the door.
He came into the kitchen and he served a glass of milk and on a plate he served some chocolate chip cookie leftovers.
" My favorite meal to eat while I send E-mails" he said in satisfaction.
He rushed upstairs. The door to his room was slightly closed. He pushed it open with his elbows.
He shrieked and dropped the plate and glass to the floor as he saw something on top of his bed. He ran to the closet of his brother in the next room and drew out a baseball bat. He walked slowly back to his room. He reached for the light switch and flipped it. No use; the light bulb had burnt.
It was pitch dark, so he could only distinguish the shape of some animal on top of his bed. It was bent down, like grooming himself. It was too big to be a cat, he thought as he stepped closer and cleared his throat to call the attention of that creature. He could tell that it turned his head to look at him but then he returned to what he was doing before. Carlos came closer and tried to touch its shoulder. With contact, the creature squirmed violently and like a flash of light it got under the bed.
- Hey!, Whatever you are! Come out now! –demanded Carlos turning on the table lamp close to his computer.
Carlos gulped saliva as he saw that a very strange hand with sharp claws grabbed the edge of his bed. Carlos couldn't help to leap backwards pressing his back to his own closet when he saw the face of the critter with the dim light of his lamp.
His head was round with long ears that twisted 90 degrees along its length so the tips pointed to the back. His skin was blue and scaly, and near his mouth that looked like one of a toad, the skin changed slightly to light gray. His eyes were enormous with red irises and he had no visible nose. Instead of that he had a small ivory horn that protruded to the front just above the V shaped upper lip. Close to the edges of the mouth Carlos could see fangs that looked sharp and dangerous. It called Carlos attention that on his Forehead, this creature had a very clear marking of a huge Yellowish V. Close to the cheeks he had similar markings.
As the creature sat fully again on top of Carlos's bed, he could see the shape of his body. It was slender, lizard like. His feet looked like the ones depicted in dinosaurs with very large claws.
- What the hell are you?! – said Carlos gasping.
The creature didn't seem to mind Carlos reaction. It kept staring at the computer on top of the desk just in front of the bed.
- You look harmless. – said Carlos after several seconds.
The creature nodded his head referring to the computer.
- You want to see what's this. – said Carlos as he switched it on. – It has not been working well this last few days….. Oh sorry… I'm Carlos, and you are…..
The creature groaned and leaped from the bed to the seat in front of the computer.
- Don't do that!!! – said Carlos leaping backwards. – You are scarring me! What do you want?!
The creature placed his hand on the CPU and suddenly the screen of the computer began cycling from program to program at very high speed.
- Hey, Hey, what are you doing!? –I have my information here!
The critter kept staring at the screen and continued to make the computers program cycle in successive flashes.
"What's he doing?" asked Carlos to himself when suddenly he heard a noise downstairs.
- I am home! – sang the voice of a man downstairs.
- Drat!! It's dad. – Stay here! – he said turning to the visitor who was still staring at the computer screen.
He slammed the door close and came rushing downstairs where he found his father drinking a glass of juice in the kitchen.
- Hi there. – said the father greeting with a smile. - Hey, You're sweating. Is there something wrong? – he asked very concerned.
- No! It's nothing. How did it go?
- It went good I guess. – he replied sipping the last of his juice looking at Carlos with the side of his eye.
- That's the face of mischief. – said the father as he went upstairs.
- No dad, Everything is fine.
- Then why is your bedroom door closed? – he said as he pushed the door open.
- No wait! – said Carlos trying from behind to prevent his dad from opening the door.
- Oh no! Carlos. pick up this mess! – said the father seeing the spilled milk and cookies. The computer was switched off. – The bulb is burnt out. I'll put up another one while you get a cloth to clean up. Go.
Mesmerized, Carlos brought from the kitchen a cloth and cleaned the mess at his doorstep. The father came along with a brand new light bulb.
- Ok. It's set. – he said directing Carlos to flip the switch. The light came on.
- It's been a tough day and I need my good sleep so I don't want you to switch that computer on. Go to bed.
- Ok, I won't. – said Carlos without hesitation.
- Very well then. I'll see you tomorrow afternoon. Unless you want to come to the office with me.
- No it's fine dad. I'll go to bed.
Carlos came uneased to his room. There was no sign of anyone besides him.
"Was that a dream?" he though putting his pajamas on.
Japan, Monday, 1 pm
- Everything is Haywire! – said Rosa as she saw trough the virtual reality visor what was going on in cyber space.
- What's the status? – said yamaki.
- I'll project it on the dome. – said rosa typing commands on her keyboard.
She was sitted on a high chair set on a dolly like contraption that was docked to the ground with a very thick steal beam surrounded by cables.
On the celiling a huge red mark with the shape of a blob just became fragmented.
- What's happening? – asked Yamaki.
- It's moving sir. It fragmented in several pieces that are migrating in different directions.
The smaller blobs disappeared suddenly in front of the astonished eyes of Yamaki.
- What happened with the fragments? Can you track them down?
- I have pinpointed the IP addresses where they were last located. They correspond to different geographical locations. Activity in the network is returning to normal.
- I need Chen to crack that information! – yelled Yamaki as he pressed the intercom button. – Chen! Any progress?
- I have been able to read part of the program. Looking at it overall it looks familiar.
- Do you know who might have wrote it?
- I still don't know. I need more time to read out this data.
- Ok Chen keep me posted.
- What do we do now sir? –asked Rosa from her post.
- We can only wait……