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We rented a loft in Sunnyvale. You know what's the bad part? We can't talk about work anymore. We're competitors! The venture capitalists made us sign like 100 confidentiality forms.
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Outpost made me sign 1,000. 'Guess we'll find out what else we have to talk about. Life stuff.
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But these, like, White Supremacists trashed my office, last week.
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What?!
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They're in the neighborhood. They usually hassle Vietnamese grocers.
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Jesus, Teddy.
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I'm cool. They didn't touch the machine. Or my disks. Probably didn't know what they were. So, you a Moonie yet? Milo?
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I met this girl.
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What? Come on. Is it serious?
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I don't know.
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Did you tell Alice?
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No! I keep thinking it'll go away. But there's this connection. She's been hacking since she was little, she had to move around a lot. Plus I see her every day, we're working on the same program. She's beautiful.
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A beautiful geek? I don't wanna sound paranoid, or like a pig, but what're the chances?
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What d'you mean?
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I dunno. I guess Larry's got me totally suspicious of that place.
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What does that mean?
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Milo, geeks don't have two girlfriends. Most don't have one.
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I didn't plan this.
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Lisa.
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You know my name.
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You know mine.
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You're famous around here.
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I'm getting a teacher's pet rep.
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I wouldn't worry about it. You've gotta figure most people around here were their teachers' pets.
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...Were you?
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We moved around so much I barely knew my teachers.
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Me too! Were you an Army brat or something?
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...Something like that. Yeah.
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Didn't mean to pry. I just have this theory. Some of us who got to good at this? We were escaping something.
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Did I say something?
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No, I know what you mean. I used to spend my life wishing people could be like computers. Least they make sense. Sometimes you think they've betrayed you. Like a person would. But then you see, no, you just missed a step. You can go back and make it all work.
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What've you got there?
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Graphical interfaces. For Skywire? I'm s'posed to coordinate with you.
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Show me.
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Cool!
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Yeah? I ran it for lots of platforms, ranging from the narrowest bandwidth to
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Did you wanna be alone?
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No. Please.
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They just pushed up the schedule on Skywire apps. How fast are you going?
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"There is no second place." Plus every time I get jammedup, Gary has an inspiration. Is it like that with your counselor?
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Mine's not the CEO. He barely remembers to take a shower.
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Right, right. But does he ever just, like, hand you code?
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Maybe once. I rewrote it, anyway.
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You're compulsive.
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Mmmmore like I have a little trouble. Trusting people.
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Why's that?
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Long story. Not that interesting.
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So, when you were talking about wishing people were more like computers. Was that then? Or now?
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Then and now. But not right now.
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That's great. I didn't know.
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She saved my life.
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I snuck into #21.
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Why would you do a thing like
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You thought about it too. You've been suspicious for a while. But it's not happening in there. It's happening in the Day Care.
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The Day Care?
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It's easy to know who the smart geeks are, the schools tell 'em. They upload medical files, school records, pharmacy files. They'd be happy just to steal code forever. But when a program gets close to fruition. Like Teddy. He was almost there.
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But why would they ?
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You know. There is no second place. And what's the risk? The killings're undetectable, they're handtailored, they make "sense." I mean, they're in the information business. They have scenarios for all of us, too. In case we find out too much.
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I know why you're so secretive. Why you won't let anybody near you. I know what he did to you.
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Oh yeah?
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Is that my scenario? Tell me.
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They'd frame him.
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He's out of prison?
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They're already watching you. If they had to, they'd give him this drug that mimics an alcoholic blackout. He'd wake up not even remembering his "act of revenge."
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...Milo?
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Hmm?
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I always felt if a boy I liked ever found out he'd run. He'd think I was unclean.
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No, no. Never.
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What about the FBI?
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They've got this guy in the DOJ, maybe others. We tell the wrong person, it's over.
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Who can we trust?
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There's always a logical answer you just have to define the question.
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Do we post it on the Net?
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There're so many disinformation sites about Gary already. Where he has devil's horns or they crop him in with Saddam Hussein.
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The mainstream media. TV, or a newsmagazine.
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Right. But Gary's tiedin to a lot of media conglomerates. Have to be careful who we pick.
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We could crossreference a data base on media ownership. But not on our own computers. Not even at home.
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Certainly not at my happy home.
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He's buying up pretty much everything: cable companies, baby bells, picture libraries, museum rights, film archives... Getting ready for Skywire.
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What about "60 Minutes."
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Yeah, they dig stuff like this. "CBS News has partnered with Outpost Information Systems in a cable news network due to launch Fall of 2001."
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But still, you can't say CBS wouldn't love to break something like
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Say there's just one "mole" working there, like Barton at the DOJ. How do we know he's not the guy we've contacted? Or she? Or the guy she works for?
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Time?
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TimeWarner has a 40 per cent stake in Gary's settop device. That also takes out CNN. "GE joins Outpost in new venture," which means NBC is out. "Disney joins Outpost," ABC is out. "Outpost and Newscorp in new deal," Fox is out. Any of these places could have a mole. Or all of 'em. It's like a a continuous loop. We can go to some alternative press place that 1,000 people read, get them and us killed. But anything big enough for this is a parent of or a subsidiary to something Gary's got a finger in!
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How close are you?
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What?
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He's got 12 satellites up. He's got dishes on top of 21. He's building this meganetwork for Skywire. Let's use it.
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We can't just assume they're standing by to receive Skywire 12 months from launch. I'd have to write in an aglet.
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A what?
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It's how online services push logos they wanna sell you. You don't ask for 'em, they just appear. 'Have to work on it somewhere besides my office or my house. And then the quality of the broadcast wouldn't exactly be digital, that's 12 months away.
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But they'd still get the idea, right?
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You'd have to design a graphic interface to make the data pop. Maybe some audio, too. To tie it all in to Gary. How long would that take you?
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It's a standard GUI. Once I've got a concept, it's maybe three day's work.
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Gary knows I'm close on Skywire. We have to do this fast.
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Before they kill somebody else, too.
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Oh, man. I'd have to get into Gary's house. To get the satellite positions.
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You mean break in?
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I don't know
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And what if the broadcast dishes on top of 21 aren't hot yet? You said the place isn't finished.
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