ghost
2010-08-18 22:02:05 UTC
Back In Black
"You get the wire?" Mayhem hung her laptop bag from the coat hook and
slid into the central booth in The Kitchen, an old style twenty-four
hour diner. She pulled her safety orange hair back into a pony tail
and used a napkin to wipe her lipstick off - it was after office hours
after all.
"Which part?" Eric said pointing a french fry at her as he resettled
in the booth after she pushed him to the side. Eric had so many
newsfeeds going you had to be really specific with him.
"The part where SyneTech got trashed." She said while waving the
waitress over.
"Wait, when did this happen?" Daniel said from across the booth. Eric
had already pulled out his multi-pad and was pulling down feeds to
confirm.
"Trust me, I was an inhouse." She said to Eric, who had a bad habit
of not believing anything that wasn't in the newsstream.
"Was?" Daniel sipped his coffee.
The waitress arrived from her station at the end of the counter where
she was slowly refilling sugar jars. "Tuna sandwich and a coke."
Mayhem ordered then turned to Daniel. "They're in the process of
filing bankruptcy, I'd wager in an hour my contract vaporizes with
their assets."
"No hope of someone buying it up?" Eric asked as he filtered his
feed.
"Maybe." She shrugged, body bouncing slightly to the music being
piped through a tiny pair of speakers she had hung off the back of her
ears, constant background soundtrack to her life.
"What'd you do?" Daniel asked, it wasn't normally in their nature to
discuss the specifics of their contracts until the paper was burned.
Mayhem thought about it for a second, debating if it was worth
upholding the NDA at this point, "Anti-sales." She said.
Daniel narrowed his eyes, "You leaked Marky Tracks last album." Marky
Tracks used a competitor of SyneTech, the leak reportedly cost them
half their sales.
Eric reached across the small booth and smacked Daniel upside the
head, "No accusations." He warned.
Daniel waved him off, "So who liquidated ST?" He was curious.
"Dunno," Mayhem said, her coke arriving. "Outside job though, nine
cities. Wiped the assets of all the subsidiaries."
"SyneTech, distribution and PR for several publishers, mostly music
content, but some books and two magazines." Eric rattled off
information from several articles at once, "Immediately filed Chapter
Eleven as ten of its thirteen primary revenue streams reported total
losses today and temporarily shut down operations. SyneTech is expect
to be granted the request as in house reorganization to cover the
expected six month gap in revenue."
"That's a good start." Mayhem said.
"I'm going deeper."
"I bet a few of the musicians and at least one of the authors just
goes back to their day job." She shrugged, her sandwich arrived.
"You don't think they'll recover?" Eric asked as Daniel sat
thoughtfully drinking his coffee.
"Hard to say. They were a small middle man in a big ocean of sharks.
They could barely afford my contract. I kind of wondered why I was
even there."
"No direct competition?"
"Just a couple other guys in an office building across the street. My
contract was in their black drawer." She said and started to eat her
sandwich.
"One tiny competitor, hit ten different artists." Daniel mused.
"In nine cities, non-local." Eric added.
"A big company could afford that kind of hit, and a little
distributor with a dozen contracts barely registers as a competitor."
Daniel's brain went into a kind of overdrive as he went through the
possibilities and implications, "Who could pull that and who would
care?"
"Mr. Black." Eric said after a few moments, tapping his multipad
screen, "There was a message attached to the last hit." He passed the
small touch screen around the table.
"Please," Mayhem said, "I've been all through that, There is no such
guy. He's a rumor from the days of guns and runners." She said,
referring to a short period over two decades ago, before the 'net
splintered the distribution model completely. When corporate espionage
involved men in suits with guns as much as it did hackers.
"He's real." Eric said matter of factly, "Find the old boards,"
"I know, last of the independent contractors. No ties, no
affiliations, true cowboy." Mayhem rattled off the line, "No one
exists like that. Everyone works for someone, and someone always
reports to a Board Of Directors." She said with a sigh.
"Could you imagine though," Daniel spoke up, his voice quiet, "Being
indie, riding the net without a contract, answering to no one."
"No lawyers." Eric added.
"It'd be awesome." Daniel mused.
"You two are cracked." Mayhem said and stole a fry off Eric's plate.
"Be like the old legends," Daniel had a goofy smile on his face,
"Datarat, Syracuse,"
"Terminal Kid," Eric added.
"Frontwave, Trace," Daniel's grin had spread to Eric.
"Sasquatch, Johnny John."
"You two are seriously off it. Half those people probably didn't
exist."
"They were too good to leave records." Daniel said.
Mayhem laughed, "Are you kidding? No record is no rep, and we
wouldn't be talking about 'em."
Daniel fell silent again, Eric went back to his newsfeed, and Mayhem
ate her sandwich in peace.
"Can you do me a favor?" Eric looked at Mayhem.
"Maybe."
"You sure your contracts ash?"
"Even if it isn't, they can't afford to pay me a fee for any work.
Means I gotta find an alt to pay the rent." She shrugged.
"Find out if ST was involved in the LA Talks." He asked.
"This a favor or a job?"
Eric seemed to think this one over for a long minute, Mayhem
patiently ate her sandwich. He tapped out a message to one of his
message streams. It was another minute before he answered, "Gregory
will pay you." He said.
"I'll send her the invoice then." She said.
"I got an idea." Daniel reached into his pocket and pulled out his
swipe card, "I gotta run."
"Where you going?" Eric said as Daniel slid his card through the
booths autopay and added a tip.
"See Ace." Stood up.
"Man, she dumped you months ago. Let it drop." Mayhem said.
Daniel just gave her a face and left.
"He does know its oh three hundred?" Mayhem asked Eric.
"She better be awake or we may need a replacement video game
insider." Eric shrugged.
"Eh, I gotta run, Emily gets home from Tokyo today." Mayhem stood up,
"All yours. She pushed the other half of her sandwich at Eric, pulled
her card out and paid before leaving.
Eric sat, checking the newsfeed and eating in silence.
A pair of apartment towers sit on the south side of the park, outside
the downtown zone. The sit like a pair of columns amidst the houses,
and four story apartment buildings below thing. The top floor and
rooftop office of the east tower was converted to a single residence
several years ago.
An array of monitors, three high, four across, sat in a semi circle
near the center, facing southwards. Each one had a small ball, each a
different shade, bouncing patiently in the center.
A console situated in the center of the circle they would form sat
facing them, twelve keyboards arranged to match the monitors. One of
the monitors suddenly came to life, the little bouncing ball replaced
by a simple background, a falling series of polyhedrons. A window
opened.
'Incoming Call' A gentle female voice intoned into the room. Out on
the balcony opposite the array, a small figure stood leaning against
the railing, watching the el-train pass by two blocks south.
She reached up and touched the earpiece she had on, "origin." She
said in the same tone her voice always had.
'Syracuse' The computer responded.
"answer." She told the machine and flipped around to face the inside
of the apartment space. "hello." She said leaning back to look up at
the sky.
"Hey hey, didya hear?" The man on the other side sounded happy.
"i was busy." She replied, her voice never carried any level of
concern to it.
"Right well, at about seven hundred hours yesterday morning, Eastern,
The System went online."
Her eyes narrowed and she pushed away from the railing. "that wasn't
supposed to happen." She said, with no switch in intonation it was
impossible to gauge her mood.
"I know. I'm looking into it." He replied.
She started to walk slowly around the outside deck, "do we know how?"
"One of the trust." He said, as if shrugging, "Doesn't matter."
"send me a report." She rounded the corner and continued her walk,
"need me to do anything?"
"Fail safes." He said.
"i'll start." She stopped in front of another sliding door, it opened
when she touch a small black square on the glass, letting her into the
apartment. She turned and walked back the direction she came from as
the door slid shut behind her. Inside the apartment was little more
than a large open space around a massive central column paneled in a
dark wood, it held a single wide staircase that went up to the half
floor above.
She wandered to the console and sighed. The active monitor returned
to its bouncing ball state. "goodnight." she said to the computer.
'Goodnight Trace' The computers voice intoned back.
She walked up the steps to the bedroom above.
--
Copyright Gordon Feiner
Part 3 - coming
ghost
~Mercy Is All You Get
"You get the wire?" Mayhem hung her laptop bag from the coat hook and
slid into the central booth in The Kitchen, an old style twenty-four
hour diner. She pulled her safety orange hair back into a pony tail
and used a napkin to wipe her lipstick off - it was after office hours
after all.
"Which part?" Eric said pointing a french fry at her as he resettled
in the booth after she pushed him to the side. Eric had so many
newsfeeds going you had to be really specific with him.
"The part where SyneTech got trashed." She said while waving the
waitress over.
"Wait, when did this happen?" Daniel said from across the booth. Eric
had already pulled out his multi-pad and was pulling down feeds to
confirm.
"Trust me, I was an inhouse." She said to Eric, who had a bad habit
of not believing anything that wasn't in the newsstream.
"Was?" Daniel sipped his coffee.
The waitress arrived from her station at the end of the counter where
she was slowly refilling sugar jars. "Tuna sandwich and a coke."
Mayhem ordered then turned to Daniel. "They're in the process of
filing bankruptcy, I'd wager in an hour my contract vaporizes with
their assets."
"No hope of someone buying it up?" Eric asked as he filtered his
feed.
"Maybe." She shrugged, body bouncing slightly to the music being
piped through a tiny pair of speakers she had hung off the back of her
ears, constant background soundtrack to her life.
"What'd you do?" Daniel asked, it wasn't normally in their nature to
discuss the specifics of their contracts until the paper was burned.
Mayhem thought about it for a second, debating if it was worth
upholding the NDA at this point, "Anti-sales." She said.
Daniel narrowed his eyes, "You leaked Marky Tracks last album." Marky
Tracks used a competitor of SyneTech, the leak reportedly cost them
half their sales.
Eric reached across the small booth and smacked Daniel upside the
head, "No accusations." He warned.
Daniel waved him off, "So who liquidated ST?" He was curious.
"Dunno," Mayhem said, her coke arriving. "Outside job though, nine
cities. Wiped the assets of all the subsidiaries."
"SyneTech, distribution and PR for several publishers, mostly music
content, but some books and two magazines." Eric rattled off
information from several articles at once, "Immediately filed Chapter
Eleven as ten of its thirteen primary revenue streams reported total
losses today and temporarily shut down operations. SyneTech is expect
to be granted the request as in house reorganization to cover the
expected six month gap in revenue."
"That's a good start." Mayhem said.
"I'm going deeper."
"I bet a few of the musicians and at least one of the authors just
goes back to their day job." She shrugged, her sandwich arrived.
"You don't think they'll recover?" Eric asked as Daniel sat
thoughtfully drinking his coffee.
"Hard to say. They were a small middle man in a big ocean of sharks.
They could barely afford my contract. I kind of wondered why I was
even there."
"No direct competition?"
"Just a couple other guys in an office building across the street. My
contract was in their black drawer." She said and started to eat her
sandwich.
"One tiny competitor, hit ten different artists." Daniel mused.
"In nine cities, non-local." Eric added.
"A big company could afford that kind of hit, and a little
distributor with a dozen contracts barely registers as a competitor."
Daniel's brain went into a kind of overdrive as he went through the
possibilities and implications, "Who could pull that and who would
care?"
"Mr. Black." Eric said after a few moments, tapping his multipad
screen, "There was a message attached to the last hit." He passed the
small touch screen around the table.
"Please," Mayhem said, "I've been all through that, There is no such
guy. He's a rumor from the days of guns and runners." She said,
referring to a short period over two decades ago, before the 'net
splintered the distribution model completely. When corporate espionage
involved men in suits with guns as much as it did hackers.
"He's real." Eric said matter of factly, "Find the old boards,"
"I know, last of the independent contractors. No ties, no
affiliations, true cowboy." Mayhem rattled off the line, "No one
exists like that. Everyone works for someone, and someone always
reports to a Board Of Directors." She said with a sigh.
"Could you imagine though," Daniel spoke up, his voice quiet, "Being
indie, riding the net without a contract, answering to no one."
"No lawyers." Eric added.
"It'd be awesome." Daniel mused.
"You two are cracked." Mayhem said and stole a fry off Eric's plate.
"Be like the old legends," Daniel had a goofy smile on his face,
"Datarat, Syracuse,"
"Terminal Kid," Eric added.
"Frontwave, Trace," Daniel's grin had spread to Eric.
"Sasquatch, Johnny John."
"You two are seriously off it. Half those people probably didn't
exist."
"They were too good to leave records." Daniel said.
Mayhem laughed, "Are you kidding? No record is no rep, and we
wouldn't be talking about 'em."
Daniel fell silent again, Eric went back to his newsfeed, and Mayhem
ate her sandwich in peace.
"Can you do me a favor?" Eric looked at Mayhem.
"Maybe."
"You sure your contracts ash?"
"Even if it isn't, they can't afford to pay me a fee for any work.
Means I gotta find an alt to pay the rent." She shrugged.
"Find out if ST was involved in the LA Talks." He asked.
"This a favor or a job?"
Eric seemed to think this one over for a long minute, Mayhem
patiently ate her sandwich. He tapped out a message to one of his
message streams. It was another minute before he answered, "Gregory
will pay you." He said.
"I'll send her the invoice then." She said.
"I got an idea." Daniel reached into his pocket and pulled out his
swipe card, "I gotta run."
"Where you going?" Eric said as Daniel slid his card through the
booths autopay and added a tip.
"See Ace." Stood up.
"Man, she dumped you months ago. Let it drop." Mayhem said.
Daniel just gave her a face and left.
"He does know its oh three hundred?" Mayhem asked Eric.
"She better be awake or we may need a replacement video game
insider." Eric shrugged.
"Eh, I gotta run, Emily gets home from Tokyo today." Mayhem stood up,
"All yours. She pushed the other half of her sandwich at Eric, pulled
her card out and paid before leaving.
Eric sat, checking the newsfeed and eating in silence.
A pair of apartment towers sit on the south side of the park, outside
the downtown zone. The sit like a pair of columns amidst the houses,
and four story apartment buildings below thing. The top floor and
rooftop office of the east tower was converted to a single residence
several years ago.
An array of monitors, three high, four across, sat in a semi circle
near the center, facing southwards. Each one had a small ball, each a
different shade, bouncing patiently in the center.
A console situated in the center of the circle they would form sat
facing them, twelve keyboards arranged to match the monitors. One of
the monitors suddenly came to life, the little bouncing ball replaced
by a simple background, a falling series of polyhedrons. A window
opened.
'Incoming Call' A gentle female voice intoned into the room. Out on
the balcony opposite the array, a small figure stood leaning against
the railing, watching the el-train pass by two blocks south.
She reached up and touched the earpiece she had on, "origin." She
said in the same tone her voice always had.
'Syracuse' The computer responded.
"answer." She told the machine and flipped around to face the inside
of the apartment space. "hello." She said leaning back to look up at
the sky.
"Hey hey, didya hear?" The man on the other side sounded happy.
"i was busy." She replied, her voice never carried any level of
concern to it.
"Right well, at about seven hundred hours yesterday morning, Eastern,
The System went online."
Her eyes narrowed and she pushed away from the railing. "that wasn't
supposed to happen." She said, with no switch in intonation it was
impossible to gauge her mood.
"I know. I'm looking into it." He replied.
She started to walk slowly around the outside deck, "do we know how?"
"One of the trust." He said, as if shrugging, "Doesn't matter."
"send me a report." She rounded the corner and continued her walk,
"need me to do anything?"
"Fail safes." He said.
"i'll start." She stopped in front of another sliding door, it opened
when she touch a small black square on the glass, letting her into the
apartment. She turned and walked back the direction she came from as
the door slid shut behind her. Inside the apartment was little more
than a large open space around a massive central column paneled in a
dark wood, it held a single wide staircase that went up to the half
floor above.
She wandered to the console and sighed. The active monitor returned
to its bouncing ball state. "goodnight." she said to the computer.
'Goodnight Trace' The computers voice intoned back.
She walked up the steps to the bedroom above.
--
Copyright Gordon Feiner
Part 3 - coming
ghost
~Mercy Is All You Get