Inez perused the menu of the little outdoor cafe in Tikiville while she waited for Slider to arrive. Because he was working late, Slider had told her to go ahead and keep their reservation; he wouldn't be long. And as promised, he wasn't. Inez saw him coming across the street, and all the butterflies she had managed to keep subdued during the day began to flutter wildly in her stomach.
"Hey, sorry for being late," Slider said, taking the seat across from her.
"Nothing to be sorry about," Inez smiled.
"What'll it be?" asked the waitress cyborg, coming over to their table.
"I still need a few minutes," Slider replied, hastily picking up a menu. "You go ahead, Nezzie, if you're ready."
"I'll have a glass of coconut milk," she responded, turning to the waitress.
Swish! Ding!
All three looked up in confusion at the disc levitating beside Inez's head. "What is that?" the Earthling demanded.
"It looks like another one of those cookies from Amazin'," the waitress answered in annoyance. "Mine's been following me around all day."
Inez tipped the screen forward to see what the disc was trying to tell her. She remembered that Jackie and Shari had been talking to the creator of the cybersite store about "cookies" when she had been finishing up her purchases, but she really had not been paying attention to what it was all about. Something to do with suggested items?
Sure enough, the screen revealed an image along with the words "Suggested Item - Based on your previous purchase from Amazin'." The image was for pickled cranberries.
"That sounds disgusting," Slider muttered, looking over his wife's shoulder. "Why would that be a recommended item?"
"I don't know." Inez placed the cookie on the table top, not sure what else to do with it.
The waitress marked down Inez's drink order on her touch screen notepad and left the table.
"What had you working late?" Inez asked.
"Riptide - you know, that kid who lives up the street - came in with a broken skateboard. He asked if I could fix it before the junior league competition next week. That kid really can fly on a board, and do all kinds of tricks, too. He got to showing me some stunts, and I started giving him pointers, and before I knew it, it was late afternoon and I still had to fix that engine on Mr. Blade's cyberbike." Slider gave Inez a sheepish look. "I shouldn't have gotten so busy with Riptide, but it was fun, you know."
Inez smiled back. "I'm glad you spent time with that kid and talking about skateboards."
Ding!
Inez and Slider looked down at the new suggested item: a child's skateboard. "It says it was recommended based on a purchase made earlier today?" Slider turned the disc towards him. "I would have thought it would have made the suggestion based on our current conversation." Slider looked up at his wife's red face and he grinned mischievously. "So what did you buy today?"
"Here's your drink," announced the waitress, returning to their table, holding a coconut with a straw in it out to Inez. "Are you two ready to order?"
Swish! Ding!
Inez frowned at the cookie sitting on the table, but this time it was a different sphere, this one hovering behind the waitress. The annoyed cyborg grabbed the disc and tilted it so that both Slider and Inez could see that the cookie wanted to know if the waitress wanted to re-order grocery items she had purchased in the past.
"I actually do like this shopping feature for the cafe," she admitted. She pressed a button on the screen that read "Place Order." "Now, hopefully it will quit following me around for the rest of the day." And just like that, the little drone zipped away. "Until the next time it thinks I will want something," she moaned.
She took Slider's and Inez's meal orders and left the two alone again.
"Now, c'mon, Nezzie, quit keeping secrets," Slider prodded, leaning over the table towards her.
Inez put on a face of mock indignation. "Don't call me Nezzie!"
o.0.o
Jackie and Shari scanned the droves of shoppers at the busy Amazin' shopping center. It did not take them long to spy Allen Gorinthm. The smiling cyborg was giving a sales pitch to the three little pigs about carpentry tools.
"Hey Al," Shari called to get his attention.
Al turned his smiling face towards the two women. "Twice in one day, ladies? This is a surprise! What can I help you with?"
Jackie glanced at the pigs. "Could we talk to you privately?" she suggested.
Surprised, the silvery cyborg agreed and led them to his office. "Is it Motherboard? What can I do to help? I can supply everything!"
"Don't worry, this is not a major problem," Jackie assured. She did not blame the cybercitizen for mistaking their request for something drastic. How many times had she gone to a cybersite just to enjoy herself only to find the residents giving her nervous glances, wondering if she was on a mission from Motherboard? It seemed like there was always at least one. "We only had a concern about this." And Jackie removed the cookie from her purse.
"What about it?" Al asked, taking the drone into his hands and starting to examine it.
"It followed us to other cybersites," Shari explained.
"Yes, that's our newest offering," Al admitted happily. "The cookie can now read your preferences and interests on other sites to help you make better and informed shopping decisions back here at Amazin'."
"But won't that get annoying, having a drone following you around and showing pop-up advertisements all the time?" Jackie questioned.
"Not only that," Shari went on, "but what information is it really obtaining on other sites? And what if that information falls into the wrong hands?"
Al shook his head. "They are perfectly safe. The information travels back to this site electronically through a secure system. Here I'll show you." Al directed the women to a large flat screen. After he typed something into the keypad, the screen displayed an elaborate tracking system that was recording many purchases all at once. "This allows us to make sure that all personaly information and currency are being sent to the appropriate places, whether to the departments from where the purchases were made or that snelfus are returned to consumers if items were returned."
Jackie nodded her approval of the system. "Well, that's a relief."
"Still," Shari grumbled, "I would prefer to not have a cookie floating around behind me wherever I go."
"I see." Al rubbed his chin. "Maybe we should integrate an unsubscribe option?"
Just then, words in large red letters flashed on the screen. "LINK BROKEN"
"What does that mean?" Jackie exclaimed.
Al's face was purple with alarm. "It means that a transaction link was damaged. I'll have my tech team on it at once. This has never happened before. More than likely," he added, trying to regain his composure, "it's just a gylch in the server being used. Once it's restored, the snelfus will continue on their way to the correct destination."
Al pressed a button and a cybercitizen, who looked something like a pink dodo bird, appeared on the smaller screen on Al's desk.
"Megabyte," Al addressed, "what can you tell us about the break in the link?"
Jackie continued to stare at the large screen. Another transaction appeared to have gone awry. Then another one.
Megabyte shook her head in absolute confusion. "It doesn't appear to be a gylch. It looks like the transactions are being rerouted!"
"To where?" Al was turning purple again.
Shari could hear Megabyte typing hastily on the other side of the screen. "It's encrypted. I can't track it."
Al leaned back in his chair in a state of shock. "We've been hacked!"