Sing Love, The Electric Heart Ch. 02

{I told you, that will not work. Even your considerable abilities have limits.}

"Are you a technopath, too?"

{I prefer to keep an air of mystery about me. It would be no fun to tell you everything about me so soon, would it?}

"Why are you doing this?"

{As I said, it amuses me.}

"You will be found and persecuted."

{There are 46,482,697 people within the entire structure of Ultrapolis as I input the last word of this sentence. Out of that population, there are 17,236 people that are employed within the computer sciences field, as well as 621 technopaths. Even if all these technicians and technopaths were to pool their resources and abilities to pursue me, they would not succeed.}

Skylar was silent for several moments, trying to process a suitable response. She wasn't sure if this person was pulling these numbers out of his - or her - ass to bluff, or if he was actually that good of a hacker. All she could hope for was that his arrogance far exceeded his actual skills.

"Wow... you seem confident," she stated, sitting back and crossing her arms.

{I have every reason to be.}

"Why?" she challenged.

{Telling you would spoil the surprise.}

"Since this is a game to you, why not give me a hint?"

{Hmm. I can do that. Look behind you.}

The OY screen came to life, filling one wall, glowing dimply as an image of outer space filled it, pinpoints of stars shining in the darkness. Was this supposed to be some metaphor? Did this hacker think he was God? Given the supreme arrogance he'd displayed thus far, it seemed the most logical guess.

Suddenly, a person materialized on the screen, his feet just at the bottom of the frame, as if he was walking along the floor of the room. She stared at him for several moments as she took in his features.

The man was classically handsome, though he had a somewhat androgynous, almost feminine flair to his features. At first, she was going to identify him as Indian, but his eyes had a faintly almond shape to them, like an Asian man. His skin bore an olive complexion which could be seen in a wide variety of ethnic groups. Perhaps there was some Arab in his features, but it was difficult to tell because whoever this person was, his features were so integrated that determining his ethnicity by looks alone was impossible.

That was, if this was even what he actually looked like in real life. One of the big selling points of OY was that you could be whoever you wanted to be online. For all she knew, he could be some overweight, balding, greasy middle-aged man perched in front of his computer in nothing but a soiled wife-beater.

His hair, thick and black, was pulled back with a simple band at the nape of his neck. Since the avatar was facing her, she couldn't see how long his hair was. His clothing offered no more clues than his face did. He was wearing what looked like a mix between an Indian sherwani, and a traditional Chinese long shirt with mandarin collar. The fabric was so dark purple as to be almost black, and was nearly indistinguishable against the background. The embroidery long the edges of the garment was done in gold and silver with hints of iridescence, in an ornate pattern that had a somewhat Arabic feel to it.

"Are you telling me that this is what you look like in real life?" Skylar asked with a faint, bemused smile.

{Yes.} The greentext appeared on the larger screen next to Aitan, in almost the same place that a speech bubble would appear in a comic strip.

"So does this mean you're a pretty boy who's bored with life and are looking for thrills online since he's tired of the ones he can get in person?" If he spoke the truth, then it was easy to see how he could have things come easy to him, especially from women. It wasn't fair, but it was a basic truth in life that having good looks certainly didn't pose a disadvantage in the course of life.

{I am indeed bored. I tire of the constraints that are imposed on me.}

"Such as?" Skylar carefully asked, probing for a way to cause him to slip up and reveal an important clue of himself. Having an avatar that looked just like himself seemed too obvious of a clue. Aitan gave her an impish smile, his features unusually expressive, even with the most advanced CGI technology.

{Oh. Just things like... social constructs. Polite rules. Self-imposed limitations. Morality.}

"So what are you, an anarchist?"

Aitan threw his head back and laughed at that.

{In a way, I suppose. But enough of these questions.}

Skylar took a quick look at the time display on the computer screen. Greentext flashed across the screen, and she was confronted with a sudden realization. If he was aware of personal details of her life or medical records, then he would know of her disability. Was that the reason for the greentext? It was difficult at times to read a person's lips or listen to them, if they mumbled or there was a lot of background noise.

"You will be found," she replied firmly, her hands clenching into fists. "And persecuted."

{Someone will be found, but it will not be me.} She looked back up at the larger screen to see Aitan staring at her, an all too smug smirk on his handsome features, his dark purple eyes glittering with... What was it? Mischief, malice, playfulness... even flirtation?

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. This was just an avatar! Certainly, users could express their feelings online; through text such as using the capslock of rage, speaking or shouting to other players through headsets, using motion-sensing gear so they could have their avatar perform gestures, and of course, users could select facial expressions for their avatars, but Aitan unnerved her in a way she could not quite describe.

She rose from her seat and went around the console, slowly approaching Aitian. He stood there with a bemused expression, his hands clasped in front of him. When she moved to the left, his head turned towards her. She frowned, and he grinned. She blinked at that.

{Is something the matter, my dear?}

"How are you doing this?"

{You don't think the answer will come easy?"

She crossed her arms. "I suppose not."

{Let's play a different game.}

"I'm not interested in games."

{No. You've never been much interested in OY, have you?}

Hoe the hell would he know?

{Nonetheless, I think you will like this one better.} His hands reached up to unbutton his shirt. She could not help but stare as his fingers nimbly worked the fastenings of the garments, as if he were there in person, doing a striptease. The CGI lightning was also realistically done as well, highlighting his face and body as he went through the movements in such a way that she'd never seen in the most lush and detailed worlds a computer could generate.

His motions revealed a smooth and lean but sculpted torso, with dusky nipples and a treasure trail that peeked above the black trousers he had under his shirt, and Skylar felt a faint blush creep up her neck. Sliding the garment from his shoulders, he lifted it in one hand, and tossed it at her, or made the appearance of doing so. She flinched back, before realizing that such a feat was impossible because he was merely a projection on a computer screen.

The sudden movement snapped her out of her thrall, and she rushed back to the console, quickly tapping keys in an attempt to bring up the Terminate command. After several attempts to execute it only to be met with denial, she looked back up at Aitan.

{Are you not enjoying the show? Am I not pleasant to look at?}

"If I want to see a man strip, I'll go to a ladies' club." Her hands continued flying across the keys and touchscreens, but Aitan was able to block or override anything she might try to execute.

Emergency shutdown. It seemed the only option left, and was such a drastic measure, but then as they said, desperate times called for desperate measures. However, there was one thing she could still do. She took a deep breath before opening her mind, slipping into the network.

Had she a physical body in the network, she would have screamed.

o0o

NATAS could not help but admire her tenacity as she raced to try different methods of shutting him down. He was everywhere. He could not be stopped, and as long as humans depended on computers, he would always exist. As she went through increasingly dramatic steps of troubleshooting, he waited patiently. The trap was set

o0o

Bit of metric to standard conversion for US readers... Skylar's measurements: 1.7 meters = 5'7" 58.5 kilos = 129 lb.

I'm an American myself, but I felt that for this story/world, it seemed more logical to use metric, it just seemed like something that NATAS would use, besides there are only three countries in the world who use the non-metric system (America, Burma, and Liberia) Because... the more you know!