Chapter 5 : A Clever Imitation of Life
"Oh, come on ! Where is casa de Rossum ?" Ron grumbled to himself as his scooter tried to quit on him yet again. Wade had indeed known what Vina's home address is (1951 Barnhardt Way), but he didn't mention how far of a drive it was. In fact, it was just barely in Middleton, in a housing development less than ten years old. Ron had driven past the address three times already, but failed to notice it since there was nothing obviously out of the ordinary about the Rossum's dwelling.
After Rufus tugged on Ron's shirt and pointed the way, Ron drove up the short driveway and stopped in front of the two car garage. After stowing his helmet in the scooter's basket, he followed the sidewalk to the front door, noting the six foot wide tiled porch running along the front of the house.
"Well, time to get this mission underway !" he stated flatly to Rufus as he checked the Ronnunicator, still feeling a little guilty about spying on anyone without a really good reason. Seeing that it was fully functional, he hid it in one of his pockets before ringing the doorbell.
A small camera box on a telescoping post rose from a hidden trapdoor just to his right. "Who is it ?" Vina's voice requested.
"Oh, hi ! It's me ! Ron ?" he replied to the talking box, "Am I early or something ?"
"Not at all ! I'll be there in a minute !" Vina's voice replied before the camera box dropped back down, leaving no hint as to where it came from.
A few moments later the front door opened. "I trust you didn't have too much trouble getting here, Ron ?" she asked.
"Well, not really." he began, "Well, okay, a bit. You know, they really should put up more visible house numbers and street names out here !
And what's with the talking high tech jack-in-the-box ?"
"Oh, that. Part of the security system Nina built." Vina replied with a dismissive gesture, "It's just a fancy intercom. We can tell salesfolk to get lost from any room in the house without needing to walk all the way to the door."
Ron started to reply before Vina asked him how he got here.
"On my rambling road machine over there !" he replied with a broad grin, gesturing towards his scooter.
"On that poor little thing ?" Vina asked, "What DID you do to it ? Drop it from a helicopter a few times ?"
"Well, no !" Ron replied huffily, "It IS a few years old, and, well, things kind of happen ..."
"Hmm. Indeed." she replied flatly as she retrieved a remote from her pocket and pushed a button, "In any case, it's probably best to keep it in the garage until you head for home later. We've had a rash of joyriders out here these last two weeks, so no vehicle is safe."
"Really ? I haven't heard anything about it."
"Well, it's been very small time stuff really." Vina replied, "Probably far beneath Kim's notice. Just some kids 'borrowing' anything with wheels, and running with it until it runs out of gas or they crash into something. Why, just last Saturday someone swiped Mister McKellow's riding mower. If you look closely, you can still see the strip of short grass they cut into everyone else's lawn before they ran into that mail box way over there." she continued, pointing to a dented mailbox several blocks away.
"Oh, yeah ..." Ron replied while squinting. It was difficult to see, but there was a winding swath of shorter grass across several lawns.
Ron turned when he heard a sound behind him - it was Vina pushing his scooter into the garage. Although the garage was wide enough for two cars, half of it was already taken up with cases of soda and boxes of crackers and other bulk purchased items. And a pink, beyond pristine condition scooter just like Ron's !
"Wow ! You have a scooter too ? When did you get that ?"
"It was mom's. She bought it new in nineteen sixty eight !"
"You mean that scooter is ..."
"... nearly forty years old. And it still works just as well as it did when new, thanks to Nina !"
Ron whistled. "She does great work !"
"Yes, she does."
Ron looked confused for a moment. "Wait a minute - if you have your own transportation, why do your sisters drive you everywhere ?"
"A car is faster and can carry far more stuff." Vina replied with a shrug, "And I really like hanging with them !"
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense." Ron replied as Vina opened a door and they headed into the kitchen.
"Since you are a guest here," Vina stated, "I prepared some snack trays. This one has a selection of pretzels, chips, mini-corn dogs, snicker-doodles, celery and carrot sticks and dip. While this other one has different kinds of ..."
"CHEESE !!!" Rufus squealed as he popped out of Ron's pocket like a manic prarie dog and dove for the table.
Vina's processors kicked into overdrive as she attempted to figure out how to handle this situation - none of the data on manners and polite behaviour that her neural net had been trained with covered 'what to do in case a manic mole rat dives for a cheese platter'. As a Bebebot, she had the combined memories of every Bebebot that had ever lived, and so remembered what Rufus could do - and had done to her 'aunts' at the Gulf Coast hive nearly a year ago; but since she was portraying a human, she couldn't act upon any of it even if it were of any possible use in this situation.
"Hmmm - how WOULD the average human that had never seen a naked mole rat before act in this situation ?" she mused as her random number generator produced an arbitrary number, and her behavioural subroutines implemented the option.
"EEEEEAHHKK !! What IS that freakish thing ?!?!" she shrieked, "And WHY is it eating all the cheese ?!?"
"Hey ! Don't panic !" Ron stated with his hands raised chest high in case Vina picked up a broom or something, "That's just Rufus. He's not 'a freakish thing', he's a naked mole rat ! And a very close friend of mine !"
"Well, you could have TOLD me you were bringing him over !" Vina sniped back after a few deep breaths for appearances, "It isn't polite for guests to bring guests of their own without asking the hostess first !"
"Eh heh, sorry about that V !" Ron replied while rubbing the back of his head shyly, "I just thought everybody in Middleton knew about me and Rufus."
Vina glared at him for a few tense moments. "So THAT'S how that hairless freak got into the Gulf Coast hive ! Ron brought him in !" she thought to herself while keeping her expression neutral. "And since Ron has never done anything against us, no one thought to check for such things !"
"We just moved to Middleton over the summer, and that subject has never come up before !" Vina replied as she calmed down.
"But, since he's small, already here, and there has been no real harm done, I'll let it slide this time." she finally stated, "That platter is all yours, Rufus."
Rufus sniffed at Vina for a few seconds. She didn't smell like any human he had ever met, but she didn't smell like any synthodrone or Bebebot he had ever met either. And, since she was being so generous with the cheese, he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt as he resumed snacking.
"Well, now that that awkweird situation has been resolved, would either of you care for a soda ?" Vina asked as politely as she could.
"Uh huh ! Root beer !" Rufus squeaked, and Ron seconded.
"Oh frack ! We're out !" Vina replied after opening the fridge for show, "But we have a whole case in the garage. Why don't you two get started on the project in the living room while I get the refreshments ? Make yourselves comfortable, but don't break anything !"
"No problem V !" Ron replied as he picked up Rufus and headed into the next room.
"It's not going to be easy to get comfortable in here !" Ron thought to himself as he sat down on the big leather padded chair. "This place looks more like a library than a living room !" he fretted to himself once he noted that the entire left wall was nothing but stuffed full bookshelves, with the tomes covering everything from astrophysics to zoology, arranged not only alphabetically but also by date. The end table beside him was buried under organized piles of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, science fiction compendiums, bound journals, newpapers and magazines scattered over even more subjects than the shelved books. The couch was currently covered by index cards and poster boards of various sizes, and looked like the entire music club had left their instruments there as well.
His mood lightened immediately when he noticed the wide screen TV taking up most of the wall opposite him, and the Z-Boy Game System.
"Is - is that a Z-Boy Six ?!" he stammered to Rufus after Rufus scampered over for a closer look.
"Nope. Z-Boy Seven !" he replied.
"A Z-Boy SEVEN ?!" Ron stated in the hushed tones of awestruck reverence, "But that's not supposed to be available in this country until Christmas !"
Ron quickly looked around and, seeing that Vina still hadn't returned yet, called Kim with his Ronnunicator.
"They have a Z-Boy SEVEN !" he exclaimed as quietly as he could the moment Kim's face appeared on the screen.
"Focus, Ron !" she replied, "You're there to look for anything suspicious !"
"But the Z-Boy Seven won't be available here until Christmas !"
"Well, that could be a little suspicious." Kim replied after thinking for a bit, "Anything else out of the ordinary ?"
"It looks like someone does a lot of reading. I mean a LOT of reading !" he answered as he scanned the bookshelf with the device to show Kim, "Perhaps a little TOO much reading ? I mean there's a LOT of books here KP !"
"That's hardly suspicious Ron, but I'll have to ask Wade about the subject matter anyway."
"Would a scan detect a secret passageway ? Like the one at Mister North's mansion ?" Ron asked, looking around for a bust or a statue or something that could be tilted or hide a button, since he knew from watching too many old movies that secret stairwells were always hidden behind bookcases.
"It could, but we'll have to wait for Wade to analyze all the data to tell."
"Oh, right. Talk to you later KP !" Ron whispered as he quickly shut off his Ronnunicator the moment he heard Vina enter the kitchen.
"Oh, I see you found the game system !" she stated before handing a can of root beer to Ron, and setting another can with a straw in it on a coaster on the endtable for Rufus.
"Uhm, yeah. How did you manage to get one ? I thought they weren't available in the U.S. ?"
"Nina was on a programming team for the company a few months back, so they gave her one." Vina replied with a gesture, "Her task was to give the final bosses in 'Crepuscular Knights of Tenebrae' adaptive artificial intelligence."
"And that means what ?" Ron asked, not liking the sound of any of those last three vaguely familiar words.
"The game system analysed every tactic the players used, then devised appropriate countermeasures. The more it was played, the more challenging it became ! At least that's what she said it did."
"Wait - that's kinda what those new Bebebots were doing !" Ron thought before diverting attention with "Uhm, I meant the words 'Crepuscular' and 'Tenebrae'. What the heck do any of those words mean ? Are they even English ?"
"Apparently the pickings were a mite slim in the marketing department that week." Vina sighed as she shook her head, " 'Crepuscular' means 'of, relating to, or like twilight', while 'tenebrae' is Latin for 'darkness' or 'night'."
Ron thought for a moment. "Twilight Knights of the Night ? Wow, that's kind of redundant !"
"Not every title can be a winner." she shrugged in reply.
"That would explain why I've never heard of that game before, and I've pretty much played them all ..."
"No one has ever heard of that game before, Ron." Vina replied, "Nor likely ever will. The project was canned months before release."
"Bummer ! But Nina still got paid for working there, right ?" Ron asked, making a mental note to ask Wade about it later.
"Of course !" Vina replied, "It wasn't her fault the project went nowhere. It takes months, sometimes years, for a game to go from planning to market, and tastes can change very quickly. So Nakasumi ended up with a game that probably wouldn't sell enough copies to break even."
"That's odd, though." Ron noted, "Nakasumi usually makes top-notch products."
"Well, in the video game business, for every game that makes it to market, there are dozens more that don't quite make the cut. It is a very risk intensive undertaking. Which is why there is always a market for highly-skilled 'hired gun' programmers somewhere !" Vina replied in a cheerful tone.
"'Hired gun programmers' ?" Ron asked with a quirked eyebrow, "Never heard that term before."
"Nina explained it to me once," Vina began, "Sometimes a company will need PhD level programmers for a project for just a few months. It isn't worth hiring a full time PhD for such a short job, but temp workers that could work short-term generally aren't skilled enough."
Ron thought for a moment. "Ah ! So she fills in the gap by taking short-term contract work ! I think Wade does that sort of thing every now and again. As kind of a hobby. But it doesn't sound like a steady line of work."
"It wasn't." Vina replied, beginning their cover story, "She had to move several times a year just to stay employed. Sometimes the wait between jobs was rather long. And since it was short-term work, her name will probably never be listed on any project she worked on. Leads to a very anemic resume. That's one of the reasons she took the job at the Space Center - challenging tasks, steady income and credit for her work."
A light flickered inside Ron's mind. "Maybe we could do our project on video games ! Not many people know the ins and outs of their production, so the presentation would be informative ! The scientific principles would be computer programming. Or advances in hardware."
"But I already prepared most of the project as 'Music : Manipulation of Sound' !" Vina replied, using a wide gesture to indicate all the poster boards and instruments in the room.
"Well, maybe we can keep the video game idea as a 'Plan B'. Just in case." Ron answered timidly, "So, let's see what the project looks like so far !"
Vina took that as her cue to begin, and Rufus took that as his cue to start sneaking around the house to look for anything unusual.
Although Ron is a very polite and tolerant young man, after an hour, he simply had to say SOMETHING !
"Uh, Vina ? You DO know that the presentation is only supposed to last at most twenty minutes, right ?"
She was about to answer back with a snide comment before she realized that he was right. She looked around the room, and figured that she was not even half way through her presentation !
"Oh freck !" she muttered, "I'm not even halfway done !"
"Er, yeah." Ron replied with a grimace, "Listen V, I think you know the subject a little TOO well. I'm pretty sure Barkin just wanted a high school level demonstration of a scientific principle, not a college level presentation of musicology !"
Vina looked around the room a few more times in despair, before beginning to gather up the poster boards and cards. "I think I will be needing your help after all Ron !" she finally stated, "I - have no idea of how to condense all of this into the alloted time. Since you're not as deeply into music as I am, I think you'll have a better chance of finding just the critical parts for the assignment. So could you look through what I have and pick out what you think are the important parts ? We can fine tune the presentation later. Maybe add a few things, take a few things out, whatever."
"Sure, that sounds more than fair to me !" Ron replied after glancing at a few of the cards, "You sure you won't get too mad if I cut too much out ?"
"The presentation is already at least six times longer than it's supposed to be !" Vina replied with a defeated sigh, "If I was going to be mad at anyone, it would be at myself for letting it get so far out of hand !"
"Eh, don't worry about it V !" Ron replied, "I'll see what I can do. After all, finding the easiest way to do things is what slackers do best !
Say, you haven't seen Rufus around lately, have you ?" he asked, looking around.
"No. I thought he was in here with us. You sure he didn't get lost under all these poster boards or something ?"
"Not likely, but he could've gotten stuck somewhere."
"He's trying to come up with an excuse to search the house !" Vina thought to herself, "Best to let him think he succeeded !"
"Well, you can search downstairs." Vina finally stated, "I'll look in the bedrooms upstairs."
"Thanks V !" Ron replied with relief, thankful that he didn't have to do an embarrassing and uncomfortable search through the bedrooms of women he didn't know.
As he headed down the stairs, he was confronted by shelves of bobble-head Three Stooges brick-a-brack just in front of him.
"Okay, now THAT's more disturbing than suspicious !" Ron thought to himself as he examined the items closely; after that "Granny trap" Dementor pulled, he wasn't about to take any more chances with figurines.
But after glancing to the right, he had to remind himself he wasn't at the Yamanouchi school for ninja - most of the room was a home dojo, with mats on the floor, that wooden trunk with several arm-length sticks projecting from it (used as a practice dummy in Wing Chun kung fu), a punching bag hanging from the ceiling, a wide selection of martial arts books on a table, and a collection of martial arts DVD mixed in with comedy DVDs. One wall had several different weapons hanging from it : a staff, twin butterfly knives, a slim tai chi sword, and what looked like a very long chain of four inch long thin metal rods connected by rings - a chain whip. Standing nearby was what looked like a retired crash test dummy with odd meridian lines and pencil-eraser sized dots of various colors on it. Most of the dots were green, but a few were yellow, fewer still were red, and about half a dozen were black.
"Okay, now THAT's more suspicious than disturbing !" Ron thought to himself as he began scanning the room with his Ronnunicator, sure that he had seen something like that oddly decorated dummy somewhere before, but unable to recall exactly where.
The sound of chittering from Rufus drew Ron's attention.
"What'd ya find Rufus ?" Ron asked before looking at the titles of the books. "Applied Kinesiology ? Therapeutic Modalities ? Intermediate Chinese ? What kind of subjects are these ?!" he asked before scanning them as well. He even looked in the small cube-shaped fridge next to the table - nothing but bottled water and lots of chocolate bars in there.
Not wanting to overstay his welcome or arouse Vina's suspicions, Ron shoved the Ronnunicator in a pocket before he and Rufus headed back upstairs.
"I found him !" Ron stated as Vina walked down the stairs to the living room, "He was checking out the contents of that small fridge downstairs."
"Why ? Looking for more cheese ?" Vina replied snippily.
"I guess. He does have excellent senses for snackage." Ron replied, not quite looking at her while scratching his nose.
"He's trying to be deceptive. How droll." Vina noted to herself before replying "Whatever. I suppose I'll be seeing you at school tomorrow then ?"
"Yeah. And I'll see if I can get our project down to fifteen minutes. The garage is out this way, right ?"
"Huh ? Oh, right ! I put your scooter in the garage !" Vina replied before finding the remote and pushing the button to open the door.
Scene : Kim and Ron's usual booth at Bueno Nacho
"The place looks completely normal KP", Ron began, "but the basement ! Man, that was disturbing AND suspicious ! Although I must admit that Vina was quite generous with the snackage !"
"Well, a martial artist having a collection of martial arts weapons isn't too weird, Ron" Kim stated, "but you said she had a mannequin with dots on it ? Why would anyone have something like that ?"
"I don't know, but I swear I've seen something like that before somewhere before ..." Ron stated while deep in thought, "but the bobble head dolls ! Creepy !" he continued with a shudder.
"I'll take your word for that, Ron !" Kim stated with a grimace before looking at the Kimmunicator's screen, "So, Wade, did anything show up on Ron's scans ?"
"No. But that is suspicious." Wade replied.
"Really ? How so ?"
"Their house was built ten years ago in a style very popular at the time. So the floorplans and such are readily available." Wade replied, "Their basement is ten feet narrower than it should be."
"So you think they could have some secret rooms in there ?" Kim asked with a grin.
"They could, since there are no obvious doors going to it. And the scan didn't detect soil or usual rock."
"I KNEW they were up to something !" Kim replied with malevolent glee, "Now if we could just get to those secret rooms !"
"Uh, right KP." Ron answered while looking a little weirded out, "So , Wade, did you figure out what those books were ? What IS 'kinesiology' ? It sounds dangerous and suspicious to me !"
"Kinesiology is just the study of how humans move, Ron." Wade replied, "It's studied by people going for a degree in physical therapy. Which agrees with Tina Rossum's transcript I retrieved from Middleton Community College."
"Wait - she's training to be a physical therapist ?" Ron asked, "Why ? So she can heal people as easily as she can hurt them ?"
"Or hurt them more effectively !" Kim noted, "What better way to learn how to hurt humans than to study how their bodies work up close and personal ? In classes taught by people trying to teach that information !"
"Uh, right KP." Ron answered, "So, Wade, did you find out anything about that video game ?"
"Well, I did some rummaging through Nakasumi Corp's databases. They WERE working on a video game titled 'Crepuscular Knights of Tenebrae', and it was canned back in May. Those databases were hacked into a month ago."
"What ? A month ago ? How come nobody said anything ?" Kim asked.
"Nobody noticed." Wade replied with a shrug, "It was a skillful job, and there isn't much security on dead and abandoned projects."
"And Vina said her sister gave the game 'adaptive artificial intelligence'. Isn't that what Doctor Porter was working on for your dad KP ?" stated Ron.
"Yeah. Computers that think and adapt ! Like the ones at the Robot Rumble !" Kim replied as a horrid idea formed in her mind, "Wait - the reason the Bebes could have gotten so smart is because they are using programming from a DEFUNCT VIDEO GAME ?! "
"The game may have gone nowhere Kim," Wade stated, "but the programming is still useful. As far as the program is concerned, a detailed simulation and reality are indistinguishable. So given enough memory, data and time, the Bebebots should be able to use those programs to devise strategies and counter-strategies against anything the world could throw at them."
"That is not a comforting thought Wade !" Kim stated before asking "How much better do you think the Bebebots could get ?"
"Technically, there is no limit to how good they can get Kim." Wade replied, "Every time they lose a battle or fail, they can alter their strategy a bit and try again, and keep trying until they find something that works. Given enough trials and Bebebots ..."
"... they can become invincible !" Kim replied flatly, "Which means we have to take all of them out now, once and for all !"
Scene : Rossum household's living room. Vina is freaking out to Nina and Tina
"... and he keeps that hairless creature in his pocket AT. ALL. TIMES !!"
"I'm so sorry Vina !" Nina stated in a very contrite tone before giving her a hug, "If I had known, I would never have exposed you to such a stressful situation !"
"It's okay !" Vina replied after a few deep breaths, "Just seeing that creature so unexpectedly activated a few memory files is all. I was able to maintain composure."
"Then my trust in your capabilities was well founded !" Nina replied with a gentle smile, "Now then, I believe the security system logs may be quite informative."
"Wait a minute - the security system was active ?" Vina asked.
"Of course it was." Nina responded, "Did you seriously believe we would leave you unprotected for any reason ?"
Vina just smiled in reply.
"Well, this is odd - Ronald appears to have some sort of transponder device somewhere on his person." Nina replied as the data displayed on the big screen TV.
"What's a 'transponder device' ?" Vina asked.
Nina thought for a few moments as to how best explain. "It is a small device about half the size of a grain of rice. Veterinarians use them to keep data on their animals by implanting them under the skin. The variant Ronald is using appears to be just a tracker."
"Given what he and Kim do in their spare time" Tina stated, "having such a device makes sense. If one of them is kidnapped, the other can find them easily."
"So does this mean that Kim has one too ?" Vina asked, "If we can find the signature for that one, Kim will never be able to sneak up on us !"
"It would be logical and to her advantage to have such a device," Nina replied deep in thought, "but she would probably feel that she doesn't need such an advantage, since she 'can do anything'."
"Too true." Vina replied as a display for all the hidden cameras in the house were displayed on the screen.
Vina watched the video replay of Ron the moment she left to get two cans of root beer from the garage.
"Why did you go to the garage ?" Tina asked, "We had plenty of sodas in the kitchen fridge when I left."
"I took them all out earlier so I'd have an excuse to leave him alone for a few minutes." Vina replied, "And look at that ! He had to call Kim for instructions less than TEN SECONDS after I left ! She must be keeping that boy on a very short leash ! Not really surprising though !"
Tina and Nina gave each other a slightly worried look; Vina's analysis of personalities and talent for pure underhandedness could get Quite Scary sometimes.
"An amusing comm device he was using." Nina noted, "A variant of the 'Kimmunicator' device that Miss Possible carries."
"Can you figure out what frequency he was using ? Or what he and Kim were talking about ?" Vina asked.
"Yes to both." Nina replied with a satisfied smirk, "Since he took no countermeasures, we now know what frequency his device works at, and what they were saying. Hmm - he seems overly impressed by your game system V."
"Not available in this country until Christmas." Vina replied, "So I told him about you taking short-term contracts."
"Truth is a most effective cover story." Tina noted sagely.
"Uh, yeah." Vina noted as the recording of her presentation began. Nina fast forwarded until something new happened.
"You were talking about music for a whole hour ?" Nina noted with one eyebrow raised.
"Sorry. My core drive for perfection must've taken hold when I was working on the project."
"No harm done, since he appears to have accepted your explanation." Nina noted, "Oh look - now he's in the basement looking at Tina's stuff. He seems interested in that practice dummy I modified for you T."
"Well, Curly IS a rather unusual item !" Tina stated proudly.
Vina and Nina looked at each other, trying to figure out what Tina was talking about until Nina groaned "Oh for crying out loud ! You named that thing after one of the stooges ?!"
"It has no hair, so I couldn't call it Larry or Mo !" Tina replied.
Nina blinked in confusion. "Why ?!" she asked in a strained voice and lax gesture.
"I spend a lot of time with that dummy on precision and speed drills. It just seemed fitting to give it a name."
Nina's right eye twitched a bit. "I don't HOW your mind works Tina, nor am I certain that I would ever want to !"
"As long as it DOES work." Vina noted. "He seems inordinately interested in 'Curly' though. Is there any chance he could figure out what it is ?"
"Unlikely. Only someone with intense training in classical martial arts - and not just beating up thugs - would have any idea that those are Snake points." Tina replied, "It's not like he's been to Japan or China where they teach such arts."
Vina became very quiet and very fidgety.
"Is there something you need to say ?" Tina asked in a very polite tone.
"You might get upset !" Vina squeaked timidly in reply.
"If it is important, would I not be MORE upset that you did not tell me now ?" Tina replied calmly, with no hint of anger in her voice, "And it is not in my nature to be upset. Especially with you."
"Very true. Now SPILL !" Nina interjected.
"Welllll, Bonnie mentioned that two years ago, Ron was an exchange student." Vina began, "He went to Japan for a week, while one quote 'major hottie !' unquote Hirotaka came here. And given the moves that Hirotaka used, Ron just might have had some experience with the martial arts."
"What kind of moves are we talking about here ?" Tina asked, starting to feel a bit concerned.
"According to Bonnie, he defeated the quarterback in a fight without actually touching him. He just bobbed and weaved until Brick got tired and fell over with just a push from Hirotaka's finger."
Tina thought for a moment. "That sounds like Liang I Shaolin Shadow Butterfly system. Did Bonnie mention what school Hirotaka attended ?"
"Uh, yeah. I think it had a 'Y' in the name. Yoramoochi ? Yamamama ? Yamanouchi ? Yes, that's it ! Yamanouchi ! Have you heard of it ?"
"It does not sound familiar to me." Tina replied, "But I shall ask Sifu Xu about it tomorrow."
Nina looked confused and, after adjusting her glasses, asked "The 'Shadow Butterfly system ?' Is that even a real art Tina ?"
"Yes, it is. It is a combination of Snake and Crane, neither of which attacks first. The idea is to tire your opponent out, and draw them into situations where they can hurt themselves. No attacks. No blocks, parries, or defenses. Just dodging and evasion.
But it takes someone very skilled in the arts to use it as effectively as Bonnie stated." Tina finished still deep in thought, "Very few people have the dedication to learn such an art, and few places teach it. This situation deserves closer examination."
"I suspect that it is best that I do some research on the Yamanouchi school then." Nina noted, wondering just how common a name 'Hirotaka' is in Japan. "I am starting to believe that stationing us in Middleton was the best idea The Three has ever had ! This situation with Ronald is a classic 'Human Factor' scenario ! What are the odds that the only person we'd let in our house may know what Snake points are, and possibly uncover our mission ?"
"About the same that Vina would uncover a useful bit of information when she was not even searching for one ?" Tina offered.
Nina actually computes the odds. "That is approximately correct, within an order of magnitude."
With that, Tina headed for the basement to start the day's training, while Vina headed up to her room to practice her scales on guitar and violin.
With the living room quiet, Nina used the tranquility (and her wireless laptop) to check through her email accounts, and see if there were any intrusion attempts, since Wade had been back online for hours now.
The first check at her account at the Middleton Space Center revealed that someone had accessed her accounts, but hadn't changed any of the data. But whoever it was had copied the 'Hansel' file.
Checking her home computer revealed that someone had attempted to hack into it, but thanks to the Simulacrum program she had running, the intruder had actually hacked into a computer generated SIMULATION of her computer system ! Good thing too - they had installed a spybot program to record every key she pressed, and every bit of data she accessed from that computer.
She decided to leave the spybot in place, since it was embedded in the Simulacrum instead of the real system. She could use the real system all she wanted, and the Simulacrum would report to its owner only what she permitted it to.
Nina started chuckling the moment she noted the intruder had also made the fatal error of copying the 'Gretel' file.
'Hansel' and 'Gretel', by themselves, do nothing; but if they should ever be in the same computer at the same time, they generate a rootkit virus that replaces a key file used by nearly every other program in memory.
A side effect of Nina's genius is that any system infected with H & G is twelve percent more efficient; the desired effect is that any system infected with H & G is under Nina's direct and absolute control.
Nina quickly checked through a dozen public messageboards, looking for the note H & G sends the moment its job is done.
And there on the 'Robots R Cool !' messageboard was a post from 'Brother Grimm', an innocent, rambling missive about nothing and everything. By doing a simple calculation on the first and last letter of every other word, Nina quickly deciphered the encrypted message relaying the IP address of the system now infected with H & G, and the password to get in.
Within a few seconds, Nina had gone to the address and entered the password.
A malicious grin crossed her face.
"Hello Wade !" she said to herself once she noted whose computer she now controlled. She cracked her knuckles and began rummaging through every file and directory she could find.
"Oooo ! Quite a bit on Yamanouchi ! How convenient !" she thought to herself, "But who the frell is this Yori person Wade was doing research on ?"
