Su feels so uncomfortable right now as she couldn't see anything, despite feeling like her eyes are open. She can feel like she's breathing, but it feels like she's being asphyxiated. Like a rope or a pair of hands, is strangling her neck. It hurts so much. She's unable to move her arms or any part of her body like she's trapped in a small box. Having no control over her body while being strangled makes her feel utterly helpless, so pathetically helpless.
Whispers started to mock her for being in such a pathetic state. She would have screamed back at those nasty whispers, but she can't even breathe right now. The whispers grew louder and louder until they filled her ears with jeering tones. She was powerless to hush the ceaseless shouting jeers that were reverberating in her ears. 'Please, just let me move.' The jeers stop making any sense as it just become an incessant sound of ringing. Her heart is pounding with such force that it could burst out of her chest at any moment.
Su felt a strong and sudden pressure on her left shoulder that sent an electrical shock throughout her entire body. She experienced a surge of energy, which gave her a newfound sense of control over her body. Her body is moving on pure instinct as her right hand grips the source of the pressure she felt on her left shoulder and her left hand went towards the back of her trousers where one of her Karambit knife is in its sheath. She stops her action to grab the knife when she suddenly regains her vision, but her ears are still ringing, blocking any external sounds.
A middle-aged man in a white shirt with an epaulet and a black tie is standing over her, looking shocked. Su moves her eyes to look at her shoulder and sees she's gripping the man's arm. Who is this man? Where is she? With her nerves still frayed, she surveys her surroundings to assess the circumstances. She's on a soft comfortable pastel colored bed with an accompanying plushy pillow and most of her body underneath a soft, thick blanket that matches the rest of the bed's set color. The narrow room she finds herself in is brightly lit by several small oval shape windows and lights. She finds the color of the room to be comforting, as it has a pretty shade of pinkish white walls and ceiling. The shape of the room gave her pause. It's narrow with curved shape walls and ceilings, making the entire room one big oval shape. She's on a plane?
Then she felt like she's being knocked in the head with a brick of information. She's on a plane, her own private plane. A brand-new Gulfstream V with a custom interior that she got not too long ago. This man must be the pilot or, more likely, the co-pilot for her flight back to the States. Looking at the bars on epaulets, the man is a co-pilot. How embarrassing of her to be caught off guard by a random man. She let go of the man's arm as she closes her eyes and regulates her breathing to calm her thumping heart.
With her eyes open again, she felt more cognizant of her surroundings. She sees the man open his mouth to talk to her, but she couldn't hear anything with the dang ringing in her ears. She held a hand, telling him to stop and give her some time. She rose from her sleeping position to take a sit on the bed, but felt her hip constricted as she settled down. With her left hand, she felt the thing that's constricting her movement and it's the seat 'bed?' belt that the bed came with. Was that 'nightmare' triggered by her wearing a belt? Couldn't possibly be that. She doesn't do nightmares. Must be the void screwing with her brain again. Yeah, that must be it.
After a moment to recompose herself, she looked back at the man standing by her bedside as he tries to not stare at her, in a cute attempt to give her privacy. The ringing in her ears has died down to a point where she can hear things again, and if she wasn't convinced that she's in a plane before this, the telltale sound of two Rolls-Royce turbofan sure as heck burry any doubts in the grave. She was certain that she talked to this man before the plane took off from London, and the number of times she had flown with him. Yet she couldn't remember his name at all. Why does she have such a massive brain fog? This is so annoying. Ugh, who cares? Maybe the name would come back to her later.
"Yes?" Su said, sounding croakier than she would have liked. The void really threw her off kilter then usual today.
"We should be landing soon, ma'am. You asked me to wake you up 40 minutes before landing." The co-pilot said with a frown on his face.
Did she? Su had no recollection of doing such a thing, but it was something she would do. So better go with the flow. "I did, didn't I? Thank you for waking me up." Su said with a smile as she tries to put up a cheery appearance. Her face must look horrible right now.
"I don't want to be out of line, but are you alright, ma'am? You seemed to be restless when I tried to wake you up." said the co-pilot in a worried tone.
Well, at least this man has some tact to not ask her directly. Otherwise, she might get a little ticked off since there's nothing wrong with her. "Thanks for the concern, but I'm alright. Just a bit of a jitter, that's all. By the way, what time is it?"
The man looked at his watched and spoke. "It's 7am New York time. We're ahead of schedule."
Su nodded in content by the information. Oh, she forgot something and asked. "Did you get the local weather forecast?"
The man nodded and smiled as he answered. "Well, you know lousy it gets, ma'am. It's the typical New York beginning of summer weather."
She let out an undignified snort at how true that statement was. Despite spending 14 years in Texas, somehow, she wasn't ready to face the bad apple's terrible summers again and this time she's a meatbag. She feels terrible right now, it's better if she wash up before the plane lands. She gave the co-pilot a nod to dismiss him.
"Do you need anything from the galley, ma'am? Perhaps something hot?" asked the co-pilot just as he was about to exit from her room.
That does sound enticing, so she said. "Hot water and a green tea bag would be great, if you don't mind."
"It's no problem, ma'am." The co-pilot said with a smile as he exits the room and closes the door behind him.
With a deep breath, she unbuckled her belt and got up from the bed, causing her to feel vertigo for a moment. This is such a nuisance, it only started a few months ago. She can feel in her gut that the void is gearing up to take away something else again. Not wanting to dwell on such a dreary topic, she crossed the small aisle in her room to the chair and desk where her IBM ThinkPad 765D sat. Grabbing her toiletries from her travel bag, she then made sluggishly made her way to the lavatory at the back of her room.
The lavatory was lit up when she locked the door behind her, revealing a full-size bathroom that color matched with her bedroom. Towards the back of the bathroom, there's a full-size walk-in shower with plush towels hanging on the racks just outside of the shower. She really wasn't stingy when she placed the order for this plane. Does she need a shower now? Giving herself a small sniff. Nah, it's still fine. She went to the vanity where a large ceramic sink was situated and switched on the hot water.
Just as she was about the splash her face with water, she just realized something. Su totally forgot she still has her glasses on. She must have gone to bed with them still on her. Grabbing the glasses, she placed it off to the side of the vanity. The hot water on her face brings back life to her after that life sapping experience. After what it felt like an hour of washing her face, she stopped and wiped her face with the plushy hand towel that's on the side of the vanity. Looking at herself in the mirror, she sees a face that's awfully pale, with dark circles under her eyes. Since her body is now 20 years old now, she doesn't need to constantly employ makeup to fool people into thinking she's older than she looks, but holy cow, she looks awful without makeup on her right now. No wonder why that man thought there was something wrong with her. She has no idea how she's paler now than she was back in Bishop. She's certain that she gets a healthy amount of sunlight. The only thing she can think of that's causing this must be the void or that asshat. Her face is a little bit on a thinner side, but it's not gaunt. She just chuck that on her, losing her baby fat that's on her cheeks.
Grabbing the comb that's on the side of the vanity, she starts combing her messed up light brunette hair. Should she dye her hair back to blonde when she's back in the safe house? She only planned on using this hair color when she was undercover in those companies in Europe, but somehow, she had grown attached to the color. It felt somewhat comforting, and the only thing that was missing was a blonde by her side. Was there a good reason for her to continue to dye her hair? There really wasn't a good reason for her to have a different hair color, since she's certain that no one was looking for Hanna Frey anymore. Not even Sam, if the death of her 'kidnapper' a few of years ago says anything. Sure, the newspaper said it was a random drug killing from gangs over the border, but Su knew better. Sam might not have pulled the trigger herself, but still it's such a heartwarming and sweet thing for Sam to do. The feeling of nausea, plus her overall poor state, stopped her train of thought. Better get back on topic and not on her dearly missed friend.
'Twas such an annoying chore for her to do whenever her roots color doesn't match the rest of her hair. Well, that settles it then, no more dying her hair unless it's for work. She continues on with her daily morning routine, then left the bathroom after feeling satisfied and much more refreshed.
As she returned to her ThinkPad, she saw that the co-pilot had laid out a tea set for her to prepare her favorite green tea. How nice of him to remember which green tea she prefers. Su sat down on her plush seat and started to make her tea, only to pause at a stray thought that went through her brain. Wait… That means they have interacted long enough for that man to learn what she preference. This is dangerous and just bad conduct on her part to allow some random person to know of her unconscious patterns. Well, it's something to add to her to do list whenever she has the time to clean this mess.
She turns on her ThinkPad while she waits for her green tea infuse with the hot water in her cup. The screen greeted her with a command-line interface of her custom GNU/Linux that's derived from Debian 1.3. There wasn't much changed from the original Debian build, but she had to add a few things here and there for her peculiar needs. Su types in the command to open a notepad program she wrote herself that's based on vim and is able to sync documents with her servers whenever she has an internet connection. She starts drinking her green tea as she stares at the monitor in contemplation of her next steps.
Three years of effort in infiltrating EDA software companies in various positions all over the world and corrupting their software with a version of her malware has come to an end with this trip back to the states. Her original plan was to start creating that personal AI of hers in conjunction when she infiltrated those companies, but progress on that front hasn't moved a single bit. Not surprising, since she put all of her energy into the infiltration and her other activities. With her lack of availability, she just could not take the time to sit down and go into greater detail about what she wanted out of the AI system. Well, better late than never. Su put downs the empty cup of tea and start typing in the notepad.
Let's start with the basic. Should she start from absolute zero or take advantage of one of her software codebases as a springboard? Both have its advantages and disadvantages. Like blank slate would be less bloated with a cleaner vision of what she wants to write as well as using 'newer' programming language that could be easier for her to write in such as C++, ANSI LISP, and heck even those newfangled language called R and Java but that would significantly take more time. However, starting from a known codebase would significantly make up for lost time, but all of her program up to this point have been using C and creating something like an AI using C would be a challenge which itself might add additional time. Su shuts her eyelids and leans back into her plush seat to contemplate her choice.
Ah, screw it, she isn't one to back down from a challenge. Might as well create it from something she's familiar with, even if it would take a bit more time. Not that she doesn't know those other languages, but C is where she's most proficient and there's nothing C can't do.
Now which of her software should be selected as a codebase? Well, that choice is kinda of a no brainer for her. SNEAKY CORN is her most frequently updated software, and SNEAKY CORN already has most of the features that she envisioned her AI would need. Also, the thought of creating an AI from a malware is very amusing, especially if it gains sentience. The amount of fun scenario where the AI could go rogue and rampage with the abilities she's going to give the AI just put a smile on her face.
Thinking of abilities and features, she should start putting text to the ideas that's been floating around her brain for years now. Since she's going to use her malware rootkit as a base, that already covers some of the basic features or modules her new synthetic assistant would need. However, would it be wise for her to keep the metamorphic engine? Going back to her earlier polymorphic engine would be a smarter thing for the AI, just have to find where she kept that code since it's been ages since she changed the malware to metamorphic. Meaning she has to put back the older anti-debugging module that has the obfuscation methods. Hopefully, it would just be a plug and play thing because it would suck if isn't.
The backdoor exploit module is a given for what the AI would be responsible for and especially since she will gain hardware access from her exploits in those EDA companies. The same goes with the spyware module, update module, self-destruct module, wiper module, encryption module, worm module, and dropper module. With that out of the way, she better outline what new things she needs to create.
Why not start with something basic like the name?
…
…
…
Huh, naming it is harder than she thought. Su grabs the cookie that's on the tea sat tray and munches on it as she ponders on the number of ideas in her head. How about Cornucopia? It calls back to its lineage of Sneaky Corn.
Nah, that's too boring, it needs to be something cool or amusing.
…
…
How about SUE?
Heh.
The thought of a conversation between Su and Sue would be entertaining. Yeah, SUE it is. She just need to think of a cool acronym later. Since she's going to give the AI a humanlike name might as well give it she/her pronouns as well.
Sue's primary task is to be her own personal assistant, meaning it has to understand her intent and context, as well as provide relevant information or feedback. It needs to learn from her preference and behavior so it could adapt accordingly. Also, she really doesn't want to just type and receive text back but to have a voice conversation with Sue. Meaning she needs to make modules for natural language processing (NLP) and natural language generation (NLG). That does give Sue the added benefit of doing realistic text and messages for phishing or social engineering idiotic humans.
Designing a machine learning (ML) algorithm would be a sensible move, since it would give Sue the power to perpetually refine its hacking capabilities and performance over time. On this point, she might as well add a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm into the mix as well to give Sue the ability to learn from her own actions and outcomes so she could optimize her strategies and tactics. Using ML Sue can analyze data from all sources that's connected to the internet, such as web pages, databases, and network traffic. That would significantly improve the spyware module capabilities since Sue would be able to extract useful insights and patterns of individuals she wants to target.
Su needs to create a deep neural network for Sue so she could do NLP & NLG as well so she could perform complex task such as image recognition, face detection and speech synthesis/recognition. Putting a convolutional neural network module into Sue could give her the ability to detect anomalies and vulnerabilities in systems or networks she's connected to. Best if she creates a machine learning framework where two neural networks contest with each other in a zero-sum game where one only one network would be victorious, a type of adversarial neural network. Thinking of such things, it would give Sue the ability to create a realistic image or videos, and such things are quite unheard of in this world.
The world is a complex and chaotic system with too many probabilities. Sue can't just base her logic on ones and zeros. She has to use fuzzy logic to be able to deal with uncertainties and ambiguity in the data set or situation. She could employ the use of linguistic variables from her NLP and rules to express and reason with imprecise or incomplete information. So, Sue can make fuzzy inference to draw conclusions or make decisions based on fuzzy logic.
The world around her seemed to black out with a low buzzing sound in her ears as she types out all the necessary details and design points for the creation of Sue. A voice that sounded muffled and seemed to be calling her by one of her alias suddenly interrupted her trance-like state, causing her to look up from her ThinkPad screen.
When she looked at the flight captain, it was like a switch was flipped and sound seemed to be restored to her. Huh… normally it's to co-pilot that talks to her and not this man. Well, he better have a good explanation for bothering her.
"Miss Boole?" said the captain with an odd look on him, whose name escapes her at this moment.
"Is there something wrong?" Asked Su as she tries to figure out what does this interloper wants.
"We've landed at LaGuardia Airport ten minutes ago, ma'am." The captain said in a puzzled tone.
Su turns her head to the right to look out her window and saw the tarmac. By golly, how did she completely miss that the plane descending and landed? She must have zoned out hard this time. At least this man had a good explanation to bother her. Su saves her progress and starts packing her ThinkPad into her travel bag.
"Has the car arrived yet?" Su asked as she stands up with her bag and walks forward.
"Yes, ma'am. The car is waiting outside." Said the captain as he turns around and both of them made way towards the front of the plane. Revealing the rest of her plane in the same shade of color as her room.
"I hope you had a pleasant flight, ma'am." The captain said with a smile and nodded as he stands near the exit.
"I did, great flighting as always." Su said with a fake smile on her face as she made her way down the steps towards the fancy black car that's idling just by the plane.
There's a man standing outside of the car. He must be her chauffer to drive her to the private terminal. He must have spotted her as he made her way towards her and said. "Let me get that bag for you, miss."
Su put her hand up to stop this man getting closer to her and said. "It's fine. I got it handled."
The chauffer nodded and rushed to open the rear door for her, which she quickly entered the car.
"First time in New York, miss?" said the chauffer looking at her through the rear-view mirror as he drives away from her plane.
Why does every insufferable pest want to make small talk, especially drivers? Su purposefully look out the window and said in a deadpan voice. "It's not."
"I guess. Welcome back." Said the pest, sounding a little nervous and not continuing this useless chatter.
Her minds wonder back towards the creation of Sue as she look out of the car window, seeing many planes passing her by. Now that the basic concept and design been sort out, there's the question of how to power such a system. There aren't any commercially available parallel computing processor available for mass in the market, which was such a disappointment. There are some companies that do custom orders for parallel computing, such as IFT that's based here in New York, but she's going to need a large amount of processing power and such thing would raise suspicion. It's a good thing that this is something that she had time thinking about the past three years while working in those EDA companies. She can just create her own parallel processor using FPGA. It shouldn't be that hard to code for, as she already had experience with using FPGA in her duties over the past three years.
With the FPGA industry been booming the past decade, she could easily order a ton of FPGA through her hundreds of shell companies and it wouldn't raise a single eyebrow. She could even buy FPGA from IFT since they're quite the market leader right now, but she's less familiar with their products since they do a lot of their software in house. Then she could just contract out the programming of her code to the FPGA and send the cards to those contractors, so she doesn't need to individually do each card on her own. It's not the best solution since it would expose what she does to a lot of people, but it's the only solution she can think of that's quick and she could easily remove those witnesses in the future. She might need to design a custom program that she can give to the contractor. The program would keep and secure the HSL code and only be activated when programming an FPGA.
The abrupt opening of her door pulled her out from her deep thought, causing her senses to rise so she could intercept any attack that comes her way, but nothing came. Calming down a little bit, she looked out and saw that she had reached the private terminal building. She let out a sigh and exits the car with her bag.
"Have a nice day, miss." The pest said as he closes the door behind her.
She gave the pest a curt nod and quickly made her way into the terminal so she could get through immigration as fast as possible. Once again, her mind went adrift on what she needed to do next.
If she's going through with this plan to create Sue, she basically going to live like a hermit for at least a year and unable to do any other work while she focuses on coding. Doing so would severely affect Milk Consultancy Services' reputation as well as her network, and that's something she would like to avoid. That means she has to find someone to do her job, someone to essentially be her secretary while she's busy, but who can she choose?
Sam was the first person who popped into her head as she's the only person that Su would trust with her life, but her own problem hasn't be fix so she can't choose her. She does not trust any of the contacts that she has met in the past six years. Su needs someone that she could mold, a person who would be undyingly loyal to her, someone who is desperate enough to do whatever she tells them to. Maybe she could cast a hook into the sea and see what would bite?
Su's train of thought ceases as she walked up to the opened two immigration desks that's open in this private terminal. With a fake smile on her face, she pulls out her passport from the travel bag and gives it to the whale of a female immigration officer. Best be courteous with these troglodytes.
"Miss Oleander Boole?" said the officer, who's beady eyes keep darting between the passport and Su's face.
Su puts on a cheery voice and said. "That's me."
"What country did you fly from?"
"London, England."
"22 and you're flying on private planes? Aren't you kinda young for that?" the officer said, with a raised eyebrow at the very notion of her existence.
It took a lot of her willpower not to roll her eyes that this troglodyte. Why is she even asking this question? It's not like she can deny her entry into the country. Nosy immigration officers are the bane of her existence when flying private.
Without breaking the false smile on her face, she said. "Well, what can I say? There's lots of money to be made on the internet. My company is making a killing the past few years."
An idea struck her the moment she stopped talking, an idea that was inspired by what she heard from in her last life that would help her with finding an assistant.
The troglodyte nodded with a swift motion of her hand stamped Su's passport and spoke. "Welcome back home."
"Thank you!" Su said with a smile that's no longer false as she grabs her passport and walk towards the exit of this terminal.
If she remembers properly, there was a game, well more like puzzles, that went around the net in her previous life, whose aim is to recruit highly talented individuals. Yeah, she could just copy that concept and bring it to this world. It needs to be tweak a little like making it both on the web and in real life, because those puzzles were exclusively on the net. Creating a vague post that would attract the people she wants wouldn't be hard at all, with the wide adoption of the internet the past few years and with that large pool humans online there's going to be someone desperate enough to do what she has in store.
All she has to do is to create the game and the puzzles, which wouldn't take too long, one-week tops. Too bad she doesn't have the resources to make this a worldwide thing and has to just rely on putting the puzzles on the east coast and primarily here in New York. She easily automate this entire game so she could do this and make preparations for her to create Sue concurrently. Plus a few weeks of orientation for the new assistant before Su can go full hermit.
That leaves Milk Consultancy Services'. If she's going to recruit someone, that means they need to see her in person because people rarely attach loyalty to a voice on a phone, but she would like the Milk identity to remain anonymous. Maybe she could create a new entity that would 'acquire' Milk Consultancy Services' and have Milk 'join' the new entity as one of its 'employees' while Su is the 'administrator' of the new entity, and her new assistant does assistant things? Yeah, that sounds like an amazing plan. Surely her idiots of a client and contacts would understand the concept of M&A.
She really feeling so much more upbeat compared to when she woke up earlier as she exits the terminal. She raised her hand to call a taxi.
FRANCINE SHEPARD POV
The sounds of cars honking their horns, sounds of people talking in their quirky accent, the sounds of people yelling, the sounds of people yelling at each other really give off an electrifying happy energy that Francine has never felt before in Pittsburgh or the other towns and cities she went to in the past three months.
As she walks down the street to her destination, she couldn't help but think that It's such a clear and bright fall day here in New York City, which sadly she couldn't have appreciated yesterday since she came into the city at night. Combine it with the hustle and bustle of the city, making it a great day.
She really couldn't help but feel cheerful when she woke up early this morning to unearth the next clue to the puzzle that started this whole joyous journey that might end soon. Not that she has a clue that it might end soon, but she has a feeling, a feeling that's deep inside her that's telling her it's going to end soon and she couldn't help but believe it!
Francine really doesn't know how to feel when this puzzle ends since it's been so fun. On one hand, she haven't had this much enjoyment in her entire life as well as it's been such a pleasant escape from home, but on the other hand she almost died multiple times in the past three months. Also, she really, really wants to know what's at the end of the puzzle looks like! There must be a meaning to all the things she has done to get here.
Ah, what three months it has been. It all started out in the middle of summer when she was alone in her empty and lonely home where she was browsing through a mathematics forum she enjoys when she spots a curious post by an anonymous user. She didn't even know people could have an anonymous account in those forums! When she first saw the post, she didn't really think much of it; it was just a post of a pretty white sunflower on a black background with white fractal patterns and texts that said 'The light persists despite the darkness, venture into the darkness for the light.' Then at the bottom left of the image it says 'Have fun.'
She really didn't know why it didn't spark interest in her the first time, - Well, that's a lie. I know why and it's just sad to think about it. -but she downloaded the image just for posterity. But over the next few days, she keeps seeing that same post by an anonymous account in multitude of forums she usually visits, be it the English, mathematics, physics, cryptology, computer science or general interest forums. Even some IRC channels she's in received the same post from an anonymous account.
Everywhere people had a different reaction to it, some of them the admin just deletes the post for spam, some of the forum caused debates about what does the post meant, some say that it's a paraphrase of a bible verse, the math forum said something about the fractals in the background but the thing that spark something in her is people in the cryptology and computer science forums. Both forums said that this image/message is steganography, containing a hidden message hidden within the image's file. What's more mysterious is that in those forums, no one said what was the hidden message and those who said they were on to something stopped posting.
Be it out of bored loneliness or curiosity, she started messing around with the png file. It took her a while to figure out the hidden message, but when she changed some values here and there, as well as looking into the binary of the file for anomalous things. Then she found a message; 'If you hope to reach the light, find and extract the key.' With a string of IP addresses that lead to a secure network and a directory to a file. She felt triumphant in that moment, then in a flash, a fire was lit deep inside her. She just had to see it through to the end, and it's not like she has anything better left to do. Armed only with her home computer and the information from the image, she starts hacking into that secure network to find the key.
After hacking into that network, she easily found the key that she's looking for and downloaded it. Another message accompanied the key, consisting of a sequence of numbers. At first, she couldn't make heads or tails of the numbers until she saw a map in her parents' room. Then it all made sense, they were geographic coordinates system! Punching the numbers into a map website revealed the next place she had to go: Baltimore.
She didn't even stop to think for a second before she pack whatever she needed into her backpack and left the empty home with what money she had left on her for her journey. She never left Pittsburgh before this, and it was such an exciting experience, even if she had to do it alone. Finding the next clue wasn't hard, she just have to stand exactly where the coordinates said she had to stand and she saw an image of a sunflower by a window with a hilarious poem written on the wall next to it. Despite the poem being funny, it did not give any information for the next clue for her to find the light, meaning the poem itself is hiding a message. The message wasn't hard to decode if one takes into the account of the previous clue which literally was the key to the cipher and the decoded message points to her next destination, which was the nation's capital, Washington D.C.
Inside a secure government building, to be exact. Francine wasn't one to be deterred by doing something she has never done before. In that case, was breaking and entering. After many brushes of nearly getting caught by security, she reached the place where the next clue was, which was a picture on a sunflower themed bulletin board in said office. Unlike the previous clue, this clue was patterns behind the subject of the picture. Jotting down the pattern she sees, she quickly left to decipher what the pattern meant in peace, and it took her a few days to figure it out. A vague description of an object or structure that she assumes is in the city itself.
With the new information, she starts searching for the next clue location. So, for the next two plus months, she has been going from town to town, city to city, following wherever the clue points her to and trusting that the puzzle won't harm her. Every town and every city she went to has different challenges for her to solve, some require her to go to death defying places to find out, some requires her to break into secure locations, some require her to steal from someone 'not that she hasn't stolen since she didn't have enough money for this journey', she even had to steal a gun for her protection and having to mess with organized crime to find the clues. Despite all the perilous things she had to go through, she couldn't help but feel more upbeat the more she does this compared to when she first started doing this. She felt like she's in an episode of Young Indiana Jones with how she has to uncover secrets and figure things out.
The exciting part is that she isn't alone! She's pretty sure there are other people doing exactly what she's doing. Not that she ever seen them, but she was pretty sure she's ahead of any of them. Really felt like this was a race to see who's going to find the light!
A sudden hit on her right shoulder brought her out of her musing, causing her to spin around to look at the person who accidentally bumped into her.
"Hey! Couldn't you see I'm walking here, kid?" a tall man in a nice suit said angrily in a thick New York accent.
Oh my god! He actually said the line from that cowboy movie she watched when she was a kid! Does that mean every New Yorker says this? She can't wait to meet more of them!
"I'm sorry, mister! I was thinking of something." Francine said cheerily as she wave at the tall man.
"Tch. Better look where you're going before you walk into a car, kid." said the tall man as he turns around to continue his walk.
What a nice and thoughtful man! That's such a good advice to give to someone who's new to the city!
"Thanks for the advice, mister!" Francine said happily that the retreating figure of that man before she continue walking to her destination.
Standing in front of a store that New Yorkers called a bodega, Francine spots her next clue. Sticking on the lamppost was a missing dog poster, but that's not the clue! There's pull tabs that have a 'phone number' with sunflower behind the numbers.
"Bingo!" Francine said to no one in particular or maybe there is someone.
After three months of this, she knows better than to think that this is just a phone number. She took one of the numbers with her and walk towards a diner near her location to decipher what it meant. Well, not to just decipher the number, but to eat as well! She didn't get breakfast after waking up this morning.
After settling into the booth and ordering her breakfast, she starts figuring out what the numbers meant. Maybe math is a way to solve this clue? It's been a while since she had to use math to solve a clue.
Hmm… The way that the numbers were typed must be a hint. Rather than a bracket at the first three digits, there's a dot that separates the two three digits and one four digits. What if she multiple these three numbers together?
Drum roll, please! The answer is… 4077997673971081
Well, that answered nothing…
Francine continues to look at the numbers she got but she did not ignore her surrounding as well as the waiter that gave brought her toast with eggs and said thanks to the lovely waiter.
Wait… What if she manipulates how the spacing of the digits?
40779976 73971081
Now she's getting somewhere! These numbers now seem familiar and make sense. All she has to do now is to add some things in it.
40.779976, -73.971081
Coordinates! Felling satisfied with the answer, she eats her breakfast vigorously as she feels that this morning could not get even better. All she has to do now is to find a library to use their computer, which shouldn't be a problem since everyone here in this city is so nice and helpful! No wonder people all over the country flock to such an amazing place.
With her breakfast done and paid for, she asked the nice cashier where is the nearest library was, only to find out that it's 6 blocks away! Luck must really be on her side today.
She quickly sprint towards the direction the nice cashier said, not wanting to waste any time and ignoring the protest of her full stomach, but all she can think of is that it's such a delightful morning for an exercise, especially running. Her heart is pumping hard as she stops at a clearing with trees. This must be the park that the lady describes. She turns to look at the library and was speechless at the sight.
Woah! That's a big library! Well, it isn't as big as the Congress library or the Smithsonian library, but it's still a big library! If only she had one as big as this near to her home.
'I wonder if they have those old or even new gun catalogues in the library.'
Looks like she's at the back of the building, so she sprints towards the front of the building, swerving through the crowd of people at the sidewalk.
There! It's an enormous staircase. That must go towards the entrance of the building. Francine dash up the stairs, passing by the lions.
'Hi lions!'
There's a ton of people here! This must be a popular library. She spots the information desk and made a beeline towards the desk.
"Hey there! Does the computer in the library connected to the internet?" Francine said with a beaming smile as she could not contain the lively energy this place exudes.
The receptionist briefly look up from her computer screen, then looked back at it and said. "Yes, the computers are connected to the internet. Every reading room has computers, but the main reading on the third floor has the most. Try that room first, since it's a busy day, most computers would be occupied right now."
Francine nods at everything the helpful receptionist said until the end where she said with much enthusiasm. "Thank you very much, ma'am!"
Not wanting to break the library rules that would cause her to be kicked out, she walks at a face pace upstairs and enters the huge reading room.
This place is so cool! She could spend hours just reading things in this room. It's so big and comfortable. Francine walked from the entryway at the same fast pace to look around to see where the computers were.
Ah, there they are, but it's all occupied like what that helpful lady said. Well shucks, might as well look at what awesome things this place has while she waits for someone to leave.
As she looks through the bookshelf that has books on the history of firearms, a figure at the edge of her eyesight caught her attention. She turns her head to get a better look at the figure of interest. It's a man standing by the entrance of the reading room looking around. Is this one of the other contestants?
No… the man is too well dressed to be one of the contestants. Well, not like she has seen any of them, but a well-dressed man in a suit just doesn't match her imagination. Hang on a minute…
Oh no! It must be one of those angry mobsters she had to mess with back in Philadelphia! How would they even know she's here? She's pretty sure that she gave them the slipped back in Allentown. She doubts that the man knows what she looks like since she covered her face at that time, but it's no time to dillydally if she doesn't want to be sleep with the fishes!
Francine walked towards one of the occupied computers near to where she was standing.
"Hi! Would you mind if I take a moment to use your computer just for a little bit? You see, I'm in a bit of a pickle right now, since that man in the suit by the entrance will kidnap, probably torture me, then kill me if he spots me." Francine said to the college student. Well, she assumes he's a college student. He fits the image of one!
The college students look at her and towards the man she's pointing at with wide eyes. He then slowly nods and gave her his seat.
"Thank you so much!" Francine said that the kind college student as she sits down and opens the internet browser to check the coordinates.
The map website spat out a location somewhere in the middle of central park. She always wanted to go to central park! Now she just has to figure out how to get there. Walking seems far, maybe use a cab? She could call one by standing on the street and smack the cab, then say 'Hey! I'm walking here!' just like the movies.
"That's the car tunnel near the Natural History Museum. You could go there by using the subway."
Her eyes widened at that suggestion.
The subway?! She totally forgot about the famous New York Subway!
"Really?" Francine turned her head at the college student in surprised delight.
"Yeah. When you exit the library, take left till u reached 42nd, then take a left and walk down 42nd till you reach the port authority. Then you can take the A train from the port authority to the natural history museum station. It's only a few stops. You'll reach there in like 20 minutes." The college student answered in his hush tone and points towards a door on the other side of the reading room.
That must be another exit! She is ready to hug and kiss this kindly college student in appreciation, but she doesn't think he would like it that much. So, she smiles brightly and said. "Thanks a million!"
She casually walk out of the building, avoiding any movement that would cause suspicion, in case that well-dressed man brought friends with him. When she's clear away from the library, she started sprinting again towards the port authority building.
Francine followed that college student direction to the tee. The subway was sure an experience she won't forget. There were so many diverse and interesting people on such a small train! People in suits, old people, people in dresses she has never seen before and a smelly person!
Standing on the sidewalk by the entrance of the tunnel where cars are zooming by, she sees there's a painted sunflower on the sides of the tunnel entrance. This must be the spot. Now she has to find what is the clue.
There's a mural painted on the entire length of the tunnel, there must be some kind of coded message embedded in the mural if past experience has thought her anything. As she continue to walk back and forth in the tunnel, something seemed to click in her as she start seeing patterns in the murals. There're solid black dots and there's circles with white in them. That must be it!
There's a blooming sunflower, and beside it is a black dot. This must be the beginning of the message. She took out her book she's been using for months from her backpack and start taking notes of the dots and circles. She follows the path of the dots and circles no matter where it goes as she ignores the honking cars while she walks.
At the end of the pattern, there's an unbloomed sunflower telling her that this is the end of the message. Looking down at the book where she jotted down the message, she analyzes the of dots and circles.
Is it a morse code? No, it can't be. There's not enough dots if the circles are dashes.
What if she makes the dots into ones and the circles into zeros?
01000011 01000101 01001110 01010100 01010010 01000001 01001100 00100000 01001000 01000001 01010010 01001100 01000101 01001101 00100000 01000010 01001001 01001011 01000101 01010010 00100000 01000010 01000001 01010010
It is binary! Now if she remembers her binary correctly, it says…
CENTRAL HARLEM BIKER BAR
That must be her next destination! She took out the map she took from her hotel to see where Central Harlem was and it isn't that far from her location. With all of her things securely back in her backpack, start walking back towards the Museum in the hopes of getting a taxi. However, she stops walking as soon as she spots a well-dressed man not a hundred yards from her.
Geez Louise, how did he even find her? These people really won't stop, huh? She didn't even do that much damage to their business! This is way too hard of a response to that. She could just pull out her gun and shoot him, but she really doesn't want to shoot that man. There's just way too many witnesses now and the police detain her, making her lag behind the other contestants! Let's try to lose them like she did before in Allentown. Time to be sneaky until she reach that bar.
The sun has gone down by the time she finds the biker bar. Not wanting to waste any more time than she has, Francine walks straight into the bar, trying to look for her next clue. She weaved through the crowded bar to look for anything notable.
Her search stopped at the board filled with cool looking patches with skulls and what not but the most interesting skull was a skull with sunflowers for eyes. There's a ribbon with letters around the skull. Some are capitalized and some are not. This must be it! She quickly jot down the letters and as she turns around to exit the bar, someone is blocking her path. 'I wonder what does he wants?'
"Are you old enough to be in here, kid?" the man said, sounding gruff.
He really should check why he sounds like that it isn't healthy for such a thoughtful man.
"No, but I'm leaving now! Thanks for the concern!" Francine said as she sidesteps the man to make her way back to her hotel. Better use a taxi for this since it's so far.
Back in her hotel room, sitting on her bed, she stares at her notebook of what she wrote down. She seems to recall there was a coded message similar to this in an earlier clue, but none of the clues have ever been repeated before. However, that used the capital letters, so this must use the lower-case letters!
uwz sw uhv xwbpu. crzoo uip.
Huh… it's a Vigenère cipher? That's such a simple thing. None of the previous ciphers were this easy, but what is the key? She didn't recall anything on that board that would have hinted that it's the key. Unless…
BIKERBARBIKERBAR…
She slowly breaking down the cipher using that key and got an answer.
Top of the world. Bring key.
Top of the world? Why does that sound familiar? Like she has seen it somewhere before.
Oh! Because she saw it! She quickly grabbed her backpack and took out the brochures she's been getting from people and the ones that she took from the hotel. With the brochures scattered on the bed, she quickly sort through them to find the one.
There it is! She grabs the brochure that has a big bold text saying, "COME VISIT THE TOP OF THE WORLD!"
It's the observation deck of the World Trade Center. She can't wait to go there! It would be the tallest place she can visit. Also, the message says to bring a key. Did it mean the key from when she first started this journey? Must be it. It's the only 'physical' thing she has from this entire thing, and it's stored in her laptop. Better get to sleep since the observation deck won't even be open at this hour.
When she exited her hotel in the morning, she spot several men in well-dressed suits. Somehow, they found out where she's staying, which was such a bummer. Her clothes are still upstairs! Now she has abandoned it. How did they even found out where she's staying? Mama did say the world works in mysterious ways. Francine quietly snuck past every one of those well-dressed men and made her way towards the World Trade Center.
A gush of wind hit her face as she entered the opened air observation deck of the World Trade Center and it almost cause her glasses to fly off. It's so windy up here! She feels like if she's any lighter, she's going to be swept away by the wind. Francine would have giggled uncontrollably at the image of her fly off if she wasn't on the clock.
She can feel her low hair bun slowly coming loose from the wind as she was walking throughout the observation deck to find her next clue. Then she spots a black sunflower like it's been burned on the floor by the railing and a coin-operated binocular. Just above the sunflower there's a series of numbers.
These numbers must have something to do with the key. Francine got down on the floor and took out her laptop. After inserting the floppy that contained the key, she does a search using the series of number as a search key.
It took her laptop some time to process her command, but it eventually did it and it spat out a new cryptic message for her.
FIND THE SQUARE IN THE CIRCLE GLASS
Circle glass? What circle glass? The only place that has glass up here is the enclosed observation deck. Puzzled by this, she looks up from her computer to see if there's any clues. Looking around her, she just couldn't see a circle glass. Francine then looks at the thing beside her.
Oh! Circle glass! It's the Binoculars! She just has to find one with a sunflower and look through it. She quickly packs her laptop and goes to each binoculars to find the one that she need.
She found her binoculars at one end of the observation deck that has the view of the two rivers connecting. Without a single thought, she inserts a coin into the binoculars to look through it. She instinctively tries to move the binoculars so she could find the square, only to find out that it's bolted in position. Looking through with more focus where the binocular is pointing at is a lone warehouse, a square warehouse. That must be it!
She backs out from the binoculars to look at where that warehouse is in general and figures it's in Brooklyn if her learning the map yesterday thought her anything. She better make her way there before those well-dressed men catch up with her like yesterday.
Took her until midday to reach that warehouse because she had to dodge those men when she exited the World Trade Center, but it doesn't matter anymore since she's here now. She stands in front of what looks like the office for this warehouse, and it looks completely abandoned.
Will she finally find the meaning of all of this if she enters, or would the puzzle continue? Well, there's only one way to find out. The moment she entered the office, she spots a sunflower painted on the door close to her. She just keep following the sunflower marked doors, trusting where it would lead her, then the markers on the floor lead her to the middle of the abandoned warehouse..
Huh… it stops here. Where's the next clue or marker for her to follow? She looks around the desolate warehouse and spots a metal box that's hung on the wall with a sunflower marked on it. She skips towards the box and opens it, only to find that it's empty. Did someone else came here before her and whatever that was inside?
Unless it's always been empty. Meaningless. She felt something she hasn't felt in three months and it's something she really doesn't want to feel right now.
"Hands up and turn around!" said a voice of a man with a Philly accent from behind her.
Philly accent? That means it's those mobsters that's been chasing her the entire time she's been in this city. How on god's green earth did they keep finding her? It's like a game of whack-a-mole. She would lose them, and they keep popping up. Might as well follow what he says.
Francine hold up her hands and turned around to see there's three men in those suits with pistols pointing at her. She wonders if they all go to the same tailor.
"You're a hard girl to find. Now come forward towards me. The boss wants to chat with you." Said the lead man.
Is this part of the puzzle? Part of the plan?
"Are you going to kill me?" Francine asked sincerely while looking directly at the lead man, who was balding. He really should try wearing a hat.
"If I say no, would you come forward?" The lead man retort back at her.
This must be part of the puzzle. If not, how the in blue blazes do they keep finding her? So, this must be part of the plan or puzzle and she trusts it.
"Okay!" Francine replied.
The lead man looked at her with a frown as he cocked his head and asked. "How old are you, kid?"
Francine smiled at that kind question and asked. "Does it matter?"
"No, it doesn't." The lead man said, shaking his head.
Francine slowly moved forward from her position towards the man, but then a muted cracked filled in the warehouse, followed by the lead man's bursting with blood and collapsing. The other well-dressed men tried to turn around but both of them didn't get the chance when a two following sounds of muted cracked causing them to collapse like the lead man.
Her eyes widened in shocked and her green iris dilates by the scene that played in front of her to a point that she forgot to continue to hold her hands up. The sound of heels clicking echoes in the warehouse coming closer to her.
Is this it? Is this the end of the puzzle?
A figure walked out from the shadows and talked towards her. It's a beautiful but very pale woman with light brown hair and glasses in a very pretty purplish pink dress suit with a really pretty matching color purse slung on her shoulder while holding a suppressed pistol in her right hand. Ohhh… it's a H&K USP45! No wonder those guys head exploded like that. Gosh, she loves purple so much! Seeing someone killing it with that color makes her so want to only wear purple from now on.
The woman cross over the dead body of the lead man like it was nothing and stopped in front of her. Up close she can see there were dark marks under the woman's amber-colored eyes 'She really should sleep more!' and wearing minimal makeup.
Woah… She's so cool.
This must be the person who set up the puzzle. She must be super smart to create and organize all of those puzzles. Francine felt rude to not introduce herself first. Should she shake the lady's hand? The lady might not be able to shake her hand since she's still holding the pistol!
"Hi! My nam…"
"I know who you are, Miss Francine Shepard, age 14 and currently no parents." The woman cut her off in an even tone, but still nice to listen to.
Francine ignored the part with her parents and said. "I'm turning 15 this year!"
The woman raised a single eyebrow at the response, and continue on saying. "In December. However, I've been observing you for a while now and find that you are capable enough." She then turns around and walks away. "Come."
She took that cue and follow the woman as they walk over the dead bodies. Francine couldn't help but be curious of this woman as they walk away from the center of the warehouse towards the back.
"Excuse me, pretty lady, but what's your name?" Francine asked the woman as they walk side by side in the hallway.
The woman gave her a sidle glance and said. "You can call me administrator if you accept the job."
"Job? Is the meaning of the puzzles to find someone for the job? This is an interview?" Francine asked the administrator.
They came to a stop in front of a steel door and the administrator turns to her to say. "Yes, I'm trying to find an assistant, and you are the only promising contender."
Francine nodded her head vigorously, taking it all in everything she did the past three months, the meaning for all of it. She had never been to an interview before. Is this how interviews are normally done? Mama would have known since she went to a lot of them!
"Did you have fun?" The administrator asked with a blank face.
Francine couldn't help but smile at that question because, beyond any doubt, she had fun. "Yes, it's the best and funnest thing I've ever done!" Francine exclaimed in excitement.
A smirk broke on the administrator's lips as she said. "Good. Now, take that gun of yours from your backpack and put to sleep the two people in that room." The administrator points at the door with her pistol.
Well, that's something Francine didn't expect this puzzle/interview would turn towards. None of the previous puzzles involved killing someone. Well, she probably crippled that guy a month ago, but she hasn't killed before!
"Who are they?" Francine asked, out of curiosity.
The administrator's smirk morphed into a grin and said. "One is someone who got too curious, and the other is the other candidate of this game, but he came in second behind you. This is your last task for the game. Do it and you accept the job."
Well, that's kinda scary to think that if she was slower, she would have been in there. Also, is the administrator subtly implying that Francine is disposable and a warning to not get too curious? But she's had a lot of questions!
Francine been placing her trust in the puzzle this entire time. So why not place her trust in its creator? There has to be meaning to all of this. The administrator must have a reason and plan for all of this! Francine is going to show the administrator that she's undesposible! Wait, is that even a word? No, no… it's indispensable! Yeah, she would be indispensable! She's going to trust the administrator and follow her.
With a smile on her lips, Francine said. "Okay!"
The administrator look at her with her eyebrow raised and said. "Go on then and don't disappoint."
That's something she will never plans to do! Francine took out her pistol that she stole a few months ago and opens the steel door.
Inside, she sees two men, each tied to a column. One looks older than the other, both look at her with wide eyes. She wonders which one is the 2nd place holder as she enters the room and walks towards the older one.
"Wait, wait. Plea…" The older man exclaimed but stopped talking after Francine put a bullet in his head.
She didn't linger on the dead man's body for too long, then she turns towards the other man who has been screaming in the background.
"NO. NO. NO. no. n…" The young man's screaming stops after the loud bang of her pistol echoes in the room, with his blood and brain matter splatter onto the column he's tied to. Francine continues to look at the body with complex feelings.
Doesn't feel right doing that. It really doesn't feel good to kill these people that she doesn't even know. However, if the administrator wants this, then by golly she will do it! Still doesn't change that it feels sucky.
When the clicking of heels stopped next to her, she glanced at the administrator standing beside her with a flask in her right hand, replacing her pistol. Oh, how kind of the administrator to offer her a drink after all of that. How did the administrator know she's thirsty? Francine was beaming with joy at the kind offer, but…
"Daddy said that I shouldn't drink alcohol." Francine said, remorsefully declining the drink.
The administrator gave her a bland look and replied. "Good advice. You should follow it, but this isn't the demon's drink. It's tea."
Oh… That makes more sense! She shouldn't have doubted.
"Thank you!"
Francine put away her pistol then grabs the flask and drank the water, feeling the sweet taste of something she has never tasted before.
"This is delicious. What is it?!" Francine asked after she finished drinking the flask and giving it back to the administrator, who puts it back in an inner pocket of her dress suit.
'I wonder how many pockets she has.'
"It's wild daisy tea." answered the administrator as she grabbing something from her purse.
She didn't know daisy tea is a thing. Francine wonders why people don't drink daisies more if it's this delicious as she waits for the administrator to find what she's looking for.
The administrator pulls out a small book as well as a few cards with Francine's face on it and said. "If you take this, it means you officially accept the job and going forward you will no longer be Francine Shepard. Your new name will be Miss Pauling. Keep your birth name if you wish."
Francine took the things from the administrator without a second thought and look at the card in particular. It's a driving license, with her face on it and the name Francine Pauling. That's very nice of the administrator to let her keep her first name. She never drove a car before, and this look so real! But she isn't 18 yet… She's sure the administrator has a plan for that as well!
"Thank you, ma'am." Francine said as she continued to look at the other things the administrator gave her.
"Welcome to Collective Service Solutions, employee number 1. Follow me and we can start the orientation." The administrator said as she turns around and exits the room.
Wait a minute… She's the first employee? She had never had a job before, and she has no idea what Collective Service Solutions even mean, but it sounds awesome!
Mama always said that one should always ask if the job has medical benefits, but Francine is certain that this job would have it. Not that she knows what medical benefit means in a job, but it sounds serious. So, it wouldn't harm her to ask.
Francine quickly caught up with the administrator and asked. "Does the job have medical?"
The administrator snorted at that and replied. "Sure, we have optical and dental benefits as well."
Francine nods at the satisfying answer and asked a question she's been wondering since learning the meaning of the puzzle. "What does an assistant do?"
SU POV
The city was engulfed in coldness as December temperatures descended. She let an involuntary shiver as she walked through the empty part of the renovated warehouse building that she had purchased in SOHO during the early months summer. She really should have put more thought into insulating the building more, because her nose would really appreciate it. Not that it's an option anymore. She can't have people see what's inside this building.
She opens the door to the part of the building that she's possibly going to stay for the next year without leaving if she can help it. Well, hopefully she doesn't need to leave at all with food scheduled to be delivered here routinely through intermediaries and with Pauling taking everything Su given during her orientation like a duck to water.
If there's any problem, the kid can either call her or come here, but she did explicitly say that contact only for emergencies during this time period. Conversely, if Su needs anything, she could always tell Pauling to bring it to her. So far, she really likes Miss Pauling's work attitude and her overall disposition. It would be a shame if Su have to kill her later if she screws up big time or if Su suspects there's treachery afoot.
As she walks through the rows and rows of server cabinets with some being populated with servers that have her FPGA in it and some cabinets that are empty for future expansion. She couldn't help but feel satisfied with the months of preparation she's done to get to this point. Now, if only there's a way to resolve her cold issue, but it shouldn't matter for too long as soon as the servers start doing its thing and are kicking out a ton of heat, then she has to turn on the air conditioning.
Reaching the desk with her workstation/terminal located in the area where she designated as her living space in this entire room, with her bed off to the side as well as some cabinets filled with food and water.
Sitting down on her Aeron chair, she turns on her IBM IntelliStation Z Pro 6899 and sees that it's booting up her custom Debian 1.3 GNU/Linux build. She couldn't help but smirk at the anticipation of starting this as she stares and types into the black command-line interface.
\$ vim Sue.c