Geek to Farm

I kept my own annoyance in check and explained what I had seen, what I had done and what had happened. She nodded and turned to Derek. "The server is off?" and he nodded.

"Is there another file available somewhere?"

"My main hard drive," I offered. "I used a mirror copy of my hard drive to run the experiment."

She looked over at Mike and Dick. "Will you bring the box please guys?" They left and she turned to me. "How did you make the mirror copy?"

I did not like her tone one little bit but decided to ride the bucket. We needed them. All I could do was hope they were good enough. I explained how I did everything and saw that she was looking out the window to the mountains far away. I stopped talking and she turned to me with that annoyed look. "I am listening Mr. Gough. Please don't waste my time. Can you explain the sequence of events after you identified the threat?"

I felt anger pushing up in my chest and nearly turned to walk away. Instead I took a deep breath and carried on. I was still speaking when the two geeks got back with the 'box'. Without even looking at me she asked Derek for an office with a large table. He mentioned the boardroom and she showed him to lead the way and started to walk away. Confused I kept quiet and she gave me an annoyed glance over her shoulder. "Do you need to be kick started every time Mr. Gough? Please carry on."

I was angry. Here was a woman playing the gender thing to its limit. She must know that if she had been a man she most likely would by now be looking at a fist moving towards her jaw. "Your last sentence was '..a reference code calling up a set of variables..'" she taunted my temper and I exploded.

"Miss Middleton!" I almost yelled, "Do you mind cutting me some slack here? I understand that you may be some whizz kid when it comes to these things but I do not appreciate your special kind of rudeness!"

She did not even miss a heartbeat. "Mr. Gough, I am here to do a job. I need the information required to start immediately. I suppose you understand that time is one thing we are in short supply of right now. If you feel yourself incompetent to answer my questions, please say so and I will delve into the system myself to find it but I hope you realize that it may take up precious time."

Somewhere in the back of my mind I saw Tom the cat turning red and a pressure valve opening above his head before attacking that mouse. The thought of waving my extended talons in front of her terrified face made me smile and I just shook my head. I decided to just keep on talking and ignore her bad manners. I thought that would work but in a minute she held up her hand to make me stop.

"Can you tell me why you ran that code?"

I shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

She rolled her eyes. "You live dangerously. Please carry on."

While I spoke I idly watched the geeks unpack the mother of all desktop computers from the 'box' and as expected the case was open with all the insides visible. Along with it were all kinds of little black boxes and a million miles of cabling. The geeks knew what they were doing and without so much as a single moment of wasted effort that monster was assembled and I idly watched it boot up. The operating system was something I had never seen before and I noticed Derek looking on with every neuron in his brain on full alert. I had stopped talking and it seemed as if miss Bad Manners had decided to ignore me until she held out her hand.

"Your hard drive Mr. Gough."

For a moment I wondered if she was my awful neighbor's daughter but again I bit down on my anger and walked to my office. I returned and placed it next to her on the table and as if she could read my mind she nodded to me. "I will not damage it Mr. Gough. Will you please bring me some coffee?"

Did she think I was in her employ? I just walked out and found Dick Strange following me. In the tearoom he tapped me on the shoulder and I turned to him. "Joey is an Asperger,' he stated and I stared at him. I pictured some little village somewhere in Germanic Europe but it did not make sense.

"Where's that?" I asked and Dick laughed at me. I felt stupid.

"It is a form of Autism."

"Oh." I had heard about Autism but had no idea what it meant.

Dick snickered. "When she is sound asleep, her brain operates at the level ours do when we are wide awake and struggling with a life threatening challenge. The downside is that she has difficulty in interacting with others."

I chuckled. "Her brain too busy for some basic good manners?"

Dick gave me a rueful smile. "You asked her to cut you some slack. May I ask you the same?"

I watched the coffee running into a mug and looked up at Dick. "You got it. You seem to know her. How does she take her coffee? I was a little scared to ask her."

"Sweet as an angel's song and black as midnight."

I dropped two teaspoons of sugar into her mug and Dick leaned over. "Add another three mister. Unless you want Joey to skin you alive."

My eyes shot up. "Five? Seriously?" and Dick nodded. "Just do it."

Walking back to the boardroom I hoped Dick was not a practical joker. Five teaspoons of sugar? Great Scott! It must leave crystals of sugar behind her ears! As it was she sipped at it when I put it next to her and simply carried on typing at a speed I wished I was capable of. Not a thank you or a nod of acknowledgement. Nothing.

Derek was transfixed. I caught his eye and he ogled his eyes mouthing "Wow!" I went to stand so that I could at least see what she was doing on the two large displays in front of her. It was evident I was watching a genius at work. If she had been working at half speed she would still have left me gasping in her dust. In the deathly silence I heard the main door open and I sprinted out to see Mr. Tremaine and Wilson, our MD, entering. I motioned them to my office and closed the door behind us.

"Good morning Gentlemen", I greeted and indicated the boardroom. "We have a team at work in there but before you enter I just want to brief you quickly." I explained who were here, where they were from and what my objective opinion of them were. I ended with, "The girl is called Joey. Please do not greet her or even speak in there." I decided to share my newfound knowledge. "She is an Ausberger."

Mr. Tremaine looked at me quizically. "Ausberger?"

"Some form of Autism," I smiled, very impressed with myself.

He chuckled and nodded. "Actually it is Asperger. Know the type. Are they getting somewhere?"

I swear I was blood red in the face. Thank God I did not say anything about it to anyone else outside these walls. "She is working at a speed I have never seen before but if you want to know how far she is, I suggest you ask from a distance. She has claws like a Grizzly and canines like a Sabre tooth cat. You may bleed."

"Ugly?" Mr. Wilson asked and I laughed. "Only if bothered."

Chapter 9

We trooped into the boardroom where everybody greeted the two bosses with smiling nods but not a word was spoken. If Joey had noticed anyone entering she gave no indication of it. After watching her work for a few minutes the bosses nodded to John and Reese and me to follow them.

In the tearoom Mr. Wilson turned to me with a worried expression. He nodded to John and Reese. "I spoke to your bosses this morning and we agreed to split the cost of these people between us. We don't know where this thing came from and spending a fortune to find blame is going to be more damaging than anything." He toyed with his pen. "I spoke to our lawyers last night. They are already preparing for a possible class action suit against us. Should that happen we may have to liquidate and close our doors."

I felt sick. I was ok. My particular capabilities were in short supply so finding another job would be fairly easy but there were others who would be hit hard. I made coffee for us and on the whim made one for Joey as well. Mr. Tremaine guffawed when he saw the amount of sugar going into Joey's mug. "She must be a sweet girl!"

I just looked at him and mumbled. "Yeah. Like honey surrounded by fire ants."

In the boardroom Derek was almost hanging over Joey with the two geeks on either side. All were staring at one of the monitors with rapt attention. I put the mug of coffee down and received an almost imperceptible thumbs-up from her but that was it. Lines of code were running down the screen and I glanced at it, knowing that I had missed the chance to be up to date on what was happening here.

I shrugged and went back to the tearoom. The mood was gloomy and conversations were stunted. At around twelve Mr. Wilson made me go and get one of the geeks.

"Does Joey eat while working?" he asked Dick and indicated me. "Johnathan tells that she has claws and I do not want to bother her."

Dick smiled apologetically. "She does not have claws Sir. It is just her way. And yes, I think she is starving. She usually gets very hungry when she operates at this level. May I ask for something easy to eat while she works?"

"Such as?"

"Something like chicken or fish nuggets. Little vegetable balls would also be great. Something she can just grab with one hand and pop it in her mouth. Grapes and the like? Even chocolate."

I found it funny to see the two bosses walking down the corridor to go and get take-outs for us. The tables had turned. They were doing us favors!

An hour later we were all eating what we had ordered with Joey popping a variety of food in bite size bits into her mouth while chewing furiously but never stopping her hammering at the keyboard. I felt bad. She must have been desperately hungry.

Time slipped and at around four Joey pulled a flash drive from that gigantic machine. She looked at Derek with a smile. "Shall we go and start your server?"

I felt excited. If she wanted to start the server she must be onto something! We almost ran to the server room where she inserted the flash drive and after giving Derek very clear and strict instructions, we fired it up. If I was expecting the normal opening screen I must have been as dense as rock. Lines of code ran. Sometimes slowly, sometimes fast and then after about five minutes it stopped with the curser blinking at the end of a line.

Joey leaned close to the screen, read some of the code and with an almost naughty smile, typed a few lines of code and hit enter.

Immediately a horde of code started running and Joey laughed as she slapped the table. It sounded so good! We all laughed but only she knew what we were laughing at.

"Gotcha!" she yelled and looked at Derek. "Pull the plug mister!"

As we all stood there staring at a blank monitor she rubbed her hands with glee. "Man, that was goood!"

Mr. Wilson approached her with his hand outstretched. "Tommy Wilson."

She grabbed his hand and shook it vigorously. "Joey Middleton," she said happily. "No relation to the Royal family though."

I was flabbergasted at the change in her. Her eyes were red and I could just imagine how tired she must have been but the joy in her face made it light up. Damn! She was pretty!

We trooped back to the boardroom with her in the lead. Inside she stood looking at a monitor filled with lines of stationary code as if thinking.

"May I ask something miss Middleton?" Mr. Wilson asked and she nodded almost absent mindedly. "Does this mean that we can get back to work?"

She just glanced up at him. "No, Mr. Wilson. If I may make a comparison. It is like a doctor diagnosing a particular ailment you have. Knowing what is going on simply points us in a particular direction so that the correct medication may be developed or administered."

He nodded. "Any idea how long?"

She looked over at me and there was a shadow of a smile. "Mr. Gough inadvertently fiddled where only the brave would have gone and it was like poking a cornered lion with a stick. If he had not done that we probably would not have known how dangerous this little rascal is. I do not even think the creator of this bug knew what he had done. It acts almost like artificial intelligence. It is dangerous on a new level."

"Meaning what?" I asked with a knot on my stomach.

This time she actually smiled. "Your computer being fried was an accidental combination of code. I have developed a code to identify the little pest on a computer. That means we can test all the computers here and at your friend's place. But that still takes us nowhere."

"You still have to make medicine?" I chuckled."

"Yes Mr. Gough. And for that I need time." She turned to the two directors. "Mr. Wilson, Tremaine? I am really tired. If you don't mind I would like to go home and rest. Tomorrow I will put in a Herculean effort to resolve this but I need peace and quiet around me. May I beg another day with no-one here?"

Mr. Wilson waved it away. "You can have whatever you like young lady. Will one day be enough though?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Usually there comes a time when you break through something and from there it becomes easy. At other times, not quite. I just need a day to get into a groove without some rubberneck coming in and asking me what I was doing at some impossible time."

I laughed. "Am I considered a rubberneck?"

She laughed and pointed at me in a playful way. "You make good coffee Mr. Gogh. Keep it up and I may just allow you the privilege of peeking once in a while." I liked her.

We went our respective ways and after playing with Grody I made myself a dinner of frozen junk. Once again I went to the basement to practice. The breathing was becoming almost second nature and I found I could hold a note for considerably longer than I was used to. That of course made me push even harder. By late night I was tired but very happy with myself.

Wednesday I was at the traffic light from early on but no little Ford I was so desperate to see again. At the office I saw Joey working hard with the geeks running live tests as she dished it out to them. I made coffee and generally kept out of the way. Derek was a man possessed. He never left Joey's side and watched every line of code generated. At around three I went home after making a last round of coffee.

Thursday, after the traffic light, I found some people at work but everybody kept their conversations to a very hushed level. The boardroom was treated almost like sacred ground. Nobody even tried to go in and not a word was spoken near that door. Just after lunch Reese came in, disappeared into the room and within twenty minutes came running out with a flash drive clutched in his hand. I idly watched him disappear down the passage before packing up to go home. With no computer at my disposal there was nothing I could do anyway.

When I walked into the office on Friday morning I found a bleary eyed Derek making coffee. He looked like the walking dead.

"Almost there," he greeted me and pushed coffee my way while motioning for me to follow him. In the boardroom three very tired people greeted me and accepted the coffee from me.

"Making progress?" I asked and Joey nodded.

"Reese ran a check on their systems yesterday afternoon and found a variety of this bug," she mused. "It confirmed my suspicion that it was multiplying itself but in a different cloak every time. It means I have to outthink it to stop it. Right now, I am too tired to think anymore. I had hoped I may be finished by today but there is no way. I think I can go for a few hours more but that will be it."

"You went through the night," I mused and Derek chuckled.

"We kind of lost track of time. The rising sun brought us back to reality, but we found something meaningful."

I looked at him and he almost giggled. "That bug is totally Windows dependent. We dropped it into four other operating systems and it just sat there taking up a little space. Nothing we did could entice that thing to wake up."

"Meaning?" I asked looking at Joey.

She beamed. "It means uncle Billy will want to know about it."

I laughed. "Have you let him know?"

Dick shook his head violently. "Not until we have found the 'cure'. They can be very bullying and they will simply push us to relinquish our files and then reap the rewards."

"So what are you planning?"

"Drink gallons of coffee and carry on working," Joey sighed. "I can't stop now."

I thought about their all-night ordeal and asked. "Breakfast?"

Joey sighed. "I think I can eat a whole cow right now. Thanks, it will be lovely."

Henry had to do the shopping as I was there with the bike and bags of take-out don't fare well in panniers.

For the rest of the morning I coasted around the office mostly making a nuisance of myself and supplying the team in the boardroom with coffee.

It was just after twelve while I was chatting to Jenny when a blood curdling scream accompanied by crashing furniture came from that boardroom. I upturned at least one chair on my way there and almost ripped the door from its hinges to get in. Inside an image from some movie about deranged people was playing out. Derek was jumping up and down with the poor Mike with his slight build being used as something like a pogo stick. Dick was slapping his palms against the wall while Joey was hammering her little fists on the table with so much force that everything on it jumped.

I was still trying to make out what had happened in there when she saw me. She ran at me and simply jumped onto me with her legs around my midriff and almost had us toppling over. As it was I had to take a few very fast backward steps to regain my balance and I quickly put my arms around her body to keep her from moving and upsetting our balance again. Her arms went around my neck and with her hands locked, started kissing me wherever she found space while laughing and crying at the same time.

At last she put her forehead against mine and yelled in my face. "We killed it!"

Behind us a roar rose from those present and I hugged that strange woman to me with enough force to make her grunt.

"How?" I laughingly asked and she struggled free. She almost ran to that monster desktop and showed me a few lines of code.

"Remember the coding you used to make it go mad?" she asked with shining eyes. I nodded and she giggled with glee. "I modified it slightly and fed it to the little pest. It simply keeled over and died! It was so simple! Almost like a poison apple."

I marveled at the way she regarded the bug as being alive but maybe that was what it was. Just on a different level.

"Are we ready to go back on line?" I asked but was met by two puppy dog eyes.

"I am going to the hotel and sleep forever," she almost squeaked. "Once we are rested we will come back and run exhaustive tests. Once that is done we will write a program that can be distributed. Then, and only then, will you go back on line. Sorry Johnathan."

I shrugged and hugged her to me. "Honestly I am glad I will not be able to work. We have the pop rock festival tomorrow and I need to be rested."

She pushed away to look up at me. "You attending?"

I chuckled. "Performing actually."

She nodded sadly. "I wish you luck. I will be working here and anyway, I am tone deaf."

"Meaning?"

She smiled. "To me music is just a rhythmic jumble of sounds. Sometimes I wish I could hear what others do but alas, I don't."

I grimaced. "Music defines my world. I cannot even imagine living without it."

She giggled and held up her hands formed into claws. "I eat bugs!" she said with her teeth bared and I hugged her to me again, laughing.

"Sleep well and I wish you strength for tomorrow. See you Sunday?"

She nodded against my chest and then pushed away. Minutes later I watched the little troop leave and silently wished them deep sleep as I got my own stuff together to leave.

Chapter 10

When I walked onto the stage on Saturday night I was rolling. Grody was with Dave and his wife so no worries there. I could not remember a time I had been more ready for anything and I could feel the energy pulsing through me. The shortened afternoon gig had only served to whet my appetite and I grabbed the mike and yelled into it like a madman. It was as if my lungs had an endless supply of air. I shook my head and felt my long hair curl around my head, still restrained by a tight sweatband.