The Strangeness Within Pt. 07

In the end, Kat finished the program first, but it only confirmed what Esther was realizing. She'd transcribed a perfect copy of the data Kat had transferred. It was simply a test block of text. And now that she understood how simple the encoding was, the next time she could transcribe it that way rather than as a jumble of numbers.

Javier had gotten dressed, and Esther suddenly felt guilty. When she started to put her clothes on, Kat followed suit. The three of them sat on the couch together.

"So," said Kat. "That was a gigantic success."

"I'm not sure how it helps," said Esther. "All I did is copy something that was already moving through the wires. Any computer could have decoded it, right? This seems less interesting than the when I sensed executing code."

"True," said Kat. "But you're not thinking like a hacker. Think about how much data is flowing all the time across wires. Within a single computer, among computers in a room, or over the Internet. All that data is susceptible to being snooped on. Some of it is encrypted, of course, but plenty of it isn't. Suppose we dropped you near a major Internet switching room, the kind of place that no one but the backbone Internet providers have access to. Just think of the amount of information available. Though maybe it would be far too much."

"No," Esther said. "That's the kind of thing my brain is designed for, I think. All of it is so simple compared to the kinds of physical information I'm usually sifting through. Once I have practice it should be trivial to pick out specific information if I know what I'm searching for."

Kat nodded happily. And then she looked at Javier and frowned slightly.

"OK, I think maybe I should give you two some time together."

"No, no, it's fine," said Javier. "I'm not upset or anything. That was just a lot to take in."

"Yeah," Kat said. "I think it was great, though. No regrets. I'm going to take a shower now, but just holler if you need anything."

* * *

Javier watched Kat walk across the room. He'd never be able to look at her the same way, and he sure hoped that was all right. She disappeared into the bathroom, but she didn't close the door.

He turned and hugged Esther. "I'm so proud of you. Like Kat said, this could be a big deal."

Esther smiled. She was so gorgeous. Much prettier than Kat, even if Kat had those big boobs.

"Javier, you shouldn't pretend if you're uncomfortable about what we did."

He sighed. He wasn't trying to pretend, really.

"I don't really know what I feel. I mean, it was phenomenally exciting. Two naked women I like? But I keep expecting we screwed up somehow. Like we shouldn't have gotten away with that. And I'm embarrassed how much I liked looking at Kat. I've spent so long trying not to fantasize about her."

"Don't be embarrassed," said Esther. "I think she's pretty too. And you never got to have an orgasm. That must be uncomfortable."

His dick had softened, but with her touch his erection grew again.

"Javier," she said softly. "I think Kat is pretty worried too. Maybe you should go reassure her."

Javier looked back at the bathroom. The door was open. Just as it always had been.

Slowly he nodded. "OK," he breathed. "You want to come too?"

"No, I'll just listen from here and imagine. Well, maybe I'll do more than imagine. I keep spying on her accidentally anyway."

"What's she doing, then?" Javier said with a laugh.

"Why don't you go see?" Esther said. She kissed him and with surprising strength yanked down his pants until his dick sprang free. Javier stepped out, naked, and moved closer. But she gave him a little shove towards the bathroom.

Swallowing, he pulled off his shirt and walked in naked.

"Hey Kat," he said softly. Not that it mattered given Esther's hearing. "Just wanted to make sure the two of us are OK."

There was a little noise from the shower, and then Kat replied.

"Yeah, we're good. But we should talk, anyway." She stuck her head around the curtain and her mouth dropped open.

"Oh, hi there," she spluttered, squinting at him. She was pretty blind without her glasses, but she could obviously see enough. "Well, I guess we're better than I'd realized. You want to join me in here? What about Esther, for that matter? Christ, I'm horny."

Nervously he looked back, but Esther hadn't followed him in. He had to assume she was eavesdropping, but she was the one who'd pushed him in here.

"All right," he said. "I guess I'm doing this."

He pulled the curtain aside and crowded quickly against Kat. Flesh on flesh, the steam wrapping them, a distracting echo of his first time in the bath with Esther.

Maybe that was why he didn't move against her body the way she was inviting. He slid around the tub and perched on the side, feeling a little foolish.

Kat really was beautiful. She turned to face him, her mouth in a half-amazed smile.

"You want to take care of that before we talk? Or I could, if you like."

Her eyes flicked down to his straining erection.

Javier swallowed. "I'll do it," he said. "Though it might be less awkward if I had company."

"Oh, good," said Kat. "You interrupted me, anyway." She quickly squatted, grabbed the shower nozzle and began to play the stream over her clit.

There was an air of unreality to the situation. But Javier was so hard, and watching Kat masturbate was a fantasy come true. He gripped his dick and tried not to notice how Kat watched him.

In just a few minutes he came explosively, shooting cum across the tub almost to Kat. She jerked back in surprise and then grinned, watching him until he finally heaved to a halt.

Somehow she knew what he wanted. She hung up the sprayer and cautiously moved closer to Javier. Then she enfolded him in her arms, pressing her breasts against his chest, stroking his hip.

"You should finish," he mumbled.

"I am," she said. "It's not always about the orgasm, is it?"

Javier had to agree with that. Though he'd certainly needed the release tonight.

"So I guess we're OK?" Javier asked.

She kissed him very lightly on the cheek. Not exactly a romantic kiss, but not something just between friends.

"Yeah, we're definitely OK," said Kat.

They got out of the shower and dried, surprisingly at ease to be naked with each other. What a strange day.

When they left the bathroom, they found Esther sprawled naked and asleep, half under the covers. A vibrator was still buzzing gently.

"I guess we're sleeping here," Javier said, eyeing the queen-sized bed. It had been easily big enough for him and Kat. But Esther could take up a surprising amount of space on her own.

"I've had worse company by far," said Kat, crawling in on one side of Esther and retrieving the vibrator.

Javier spooned behind Esther, and when he put an arm over her he touched Kat. They were all friends here. Javier was as content as he could remember.

* * *

Esther's brow furrowed the way it often did in her dreams, and she moaned softly. Javier shifted and pressed against her comfortably. It was technically morning, but there was no reason to get up yet. Javier looked across at Kat, who was sprawled on her back in her usual way. Except this time she was naked, and he could look at her breasts while she slept. Javier was well into cataloging the delicious possibilities of the coming day when Esther sat bolt upright.

"No," she mumbled, still half-asleep. "They're gone. It's too late."

Javier struggled with his panic. "Who? Raj and Mark? What happened?"

"No, no, not them," Esther said, rubbing her eyes. "I didn't know them. Three weakly sensitive people, on an airplane from Orange County. They were so scared. The plane was going east, and then I lost them. And for some reason Mark's roaming far away from camp. Ugh, Javier, it's so noisy here."

Confused, Javier listened. But of course, he couldn't hear what she did. They were surrounded by a city and all its activity.

Esther got up and began pacing, something she only did when she was terribly nervous.

She was stark naked, of course, and she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Javier realized Kat had awoken and was watching Esther as well.

"Esther," Javier said. "Do we need to get home?"

Esther nodded unhappily.

Before they left, Kat handed Javier a hard drive.

"Copies of all the data I scored from InfoCorp," she said. "Feel free to try your hand at it, once you get your computer functioning up there. I included some of my cracking tools. Anyway, backups are always vital. I have to admit I'm getting a little paranoid after what happened to Raj."

* * *

When they were on the highway, Esther reached out as gently as she could to touch Mark's senses, mostly just to reassure both of them. By the time they returned, Mark was well on his way back to camp. Perhaps he'd come on his own, or perhaps Esther's touch had convinced him.

Raj met them when they got out of the truck.

"Mark's gone," he said, shaking his head. "I couldn't stop him. Or rather, I wasn't foolish enough to try."

"It's all right," Esther said. "He's on his way back. What was it that upset him?"

"I made a mistake," said Raj. "I asked him about Nicola's abilities. I hadn't understood how upset he was. He kept saying that she should be here with us, and then he ran off. I half thought he was going to look for her."

Esther wasn't so sure. She'd only sensed Nicola a few times, but it was always in the same place far to the east. And Mark hadn't headed that direction. He'd gone the way he sometimes did on his long retreats, when he needed to think. She suspected she'd overreacted to the situation.

When Mark returned a few hours later, he was right to the point.

"Did you make me come back?"

Esther shook her head, trying not to cry. "I didn't mean to," she said. "I was worried, because you'd gone so far. I thought all I did was touch you gently, to reassure you."

Mark nodded. "You don't know your strength, then. I found it impossible to ignore, though I didn't feel drawn in any particular direction. I could only assume you meant me to return. But perhaps it was for the best. It refocused my worries most effectively."

With that Mark headed to retrieve his axe. And soon enough he was chopping wood, for all appearances completely at peace. Esther suspected in this moment he was, and she had a flash of envy.

"Good news," Raj said. "I got the network running. Want to have a look?"

Esther still didn't know how she felt about the computer Raj and Javier had set up in a corner of the dining cabin. Apparently they'd splurged, and Javier had excitedly told her a lot of details that didn't mean much to her. But this connection to the Internet would make some things so much simpler. She crowded around the computer with the other two.

The actual network connection was a modem installed all the way down at a telephone pole near town. Raj had reassured them that it was unlikely to be discovered, and even if it was, the microwave relays were all well hidden in the woods. All in all it did not make for a very fast connection, but it was still an immense change in their relationship to the outside world.

Eventually Esther left the two of them chattering about the computer and headed to Abuela's cabin, passing Javier's neglected vegetable garden. She thought about the beautiful day they'd had sex there, and wondered why they'd never repeated it.

The camp was home, but it was starting to feel cluttered. She'd caught herself daydreaming about living in a truly isolated place, maybe out in Idaho or something. Or Alaska. Somewhere she could live, and think, and teach herself. Somewhere to have languorous sex with Javier out under the stars, without the constant vigilance.

It was a fantasy, of course. Abuela hadn't truly hidden herself away from the world. There were too many people's lives at stake, and Esther didn't have a choice. She lay down on the bed with one of Abuela's sculptures, and as she breathed and rubbed the smooth wood she gave herself one last moment of imagined peace, before her mind opened and all the familiar worries rushed in.

...*** Chapter 43 ***...

Lukas offered me a job, wrote Kat.

The three of them stared at the screen.

Apparently I've been more successful hacking InfoCorp than Lukas or Geoff or any of their other people. Or maybe Lukas just wants the data we stole on the Fresno raid. Anyway, of course I'm not planning to accept, but I told him I'd think about it. He gave me the address of a computer at the Unit that he believes I might be able to crack. I think it's some combination of a gift and a test. I wish I could decrypt the bigger password hash I stole in Fresno. People reuse passwords and I might get lucky. But it would take decades of computer time, even if I stole time from the university mainframes.

"What encryption is it?" Esther asked. Javier passed along her question.

RC4, replied Kat. I know you guys are smart, but I have more computer power here, and to be blunt, the cracking tools I have were also designed by smart people. There isn't anything more efficient out there, though maybe the NSA has something better. Bigger computers anyway.

Javier and Kat chatted some more, but Esther's mind was working.

"What are you thinking?" Raj asked her quietly. "Kat's right. That encryption is solid. Brute force is the only way to attack it if they set it up right."

"It's something in the back of my head," said Esther. "A feeling. That cryptography text you gave me had RC4 as an example, and I spent a long time thinking about it."

Raj gave her a sharp look. "No one's proven any of these cryptography problems are fundamentally difficult. And sometimes the implementations are not perfect either. Is there anything more you can say about this feeling?"

She shook her head. "I've felt it once or twice when I've been immersed in that abstract representation of the universe. I've been thinking I need to improve my mathematics to understand how all the connections work, but maybe it can go the other way. Maybe the universe can tell me about mathematics."

Javier had finished talking with Kat, and she took his hand. He blushed slightly when he saw the look in her eyes. Raj pretended not to notice anything and sat down at the computer.

It was a warm afternoon, the still air filled with the buzz of cicadas. Esther made a quick stop for a small bag in her dresser.

"Take me to that spot," Esther said. "The one with all the bedrock."

* * *

The creek was barely flowing, but as Javier hoped, Esther loved the spot.

"It reminds me of —"

They both smiled. Of course, it was different in many ways: pines instead of oak and maple, and much drier and open. A little too open for Javier's taste, but then he thought back to what Esther had been like when they'd fucked out in the garden. She didn't mind. And there was no one around.

Esther sat on a perfect, broad slab of rock. Javier moved to sit next to her, but she stopped him with a devilish smile, reaching for the snap of his pants.

She only pulled them just far enough down to get her mouth on his dick. He moaned and stroked her cheek, his dick rapidly hardening inside her mouth until she had to pull back slightly, stroking his balls and then adding a hand on his shaft.

"Not so fast," he whispered. "I want to take our time."

Esther pulled off him with a little slurp.

"We will," she said. "But you didn't get yourself off this morning, and I want you to last the next time."

It was weird that Esther knew whether he'd masturbated. She'd told him she tried to avoid intentionally spying on him, and that he deserved his own privacy. But she always knew anyway. Probably she could smell it on him.

In barely another minute, she had him on the brink, and then she gently touched his asshole at just the right moment. He exploded into her mouth, sighing her name while she swallowed every drop. Even afterwards she held his softening dick in her mouth, something he found incredibly intimate and comforting.

Some minutes later he was beginning to harden again, and Esther took a break to strip herself naked. In the sunlight her coloring was as bright as he could remember, and her nipples fully erect. She was phenomenally aroused.

"So," he finally said, stroking himself to a rock-hard erection as he devoured the sight of her. "What is it you have planned? Did you want to listen for Nicola again?"

"Maybe," said Esther. "But really, I wanted to do some mathematics."

She lay back on the slab and began to touch herself and rub her back on the rock. Javier moved to kneel between her legs, but she shook her head.

"I already came twice this morning, before you woke up," she said. "I want to do something different this time."

She pointed at the odd little bag she'd brought, and Javier picked it up eagerly. Maybe Kat had left her with a vibrator.

There was indeed a vibrator inside. There was also a big bottle of lube.

Esther took his hand, positioning it so as to remove any further doubts.

She wanted his fingers in her ass. Maybe she wanted even more than that.

They hadn't talked about it over the last few days. In retrospect, he was embarrassed by everything that had happened at Kat's place, and Esther had seemed preoccupied anyway. She was always so worried. But right now she was flushed, eager. Her tiny asshole quivered gently against his finger.

Plenty of lube, Kat had told him. Much more than you think. Better to have a giant mess than the alternative.

He squirted a giant glob on his finger. Esther jerked slightly when he touched her, spreading the lube carefully. On impulse, he put some on his other fingers and began to circle that hairless, colorful patch, then slipped his pinky into her shallow vagina. It was so much easier than usual that he felt foolish not to have tried lubrication before.

Esther moaned and shifted even closer. With a careful breath, he pushed his index finger against her asshole.

This wasn't entirely new for them, and she quickly bore down against him. But this time his finger slipped in nearly all the way in a single motion. Esther yelped, and Javier pulled it back out as quickly as he dared.

"Oh, God, Javier," Esther said. "Push it back in, please."

She leaned back further, pulling her legs to her chest to give him better access. Javier's dick throbbed and he pressed his finger all the way back inside her. The lube was getting everywhere, but he didn't care. Her sphincter muscles squeezed on his finger, so tightly that he still despaired of ever getting his cock inside.

"Yes," Esther murmured, rocking against the slab of granite, gently fucking his finger. Cautiously Javier began to help with the other finger in her pussy. Out and in, out and in, just a knuckle's worth, trying to touch everywhere on her sensitive inside. Then she gently pushed that hand away.

"Too much," she murmured, though she was smiling at him. "I want this to be slow. I think I'm ready for your penis now, if you want to try."

Javier hadn't expected that. He'd been working himself up to try another finger. But she would know better, he supposed. Maybe the thought of his cock trying to enter her incredible tightness was as big a turn-on for her as him.

He squirted lube on his dick, shivering at the strange sensation while he spread it. As though it was someone else's hand on his dick. Kat's hand. God, he'd wanted her to touch him that way.

Esther looked so nervous. He spread another giant bunch of lube on himself, until it was dripping somewhat unpleasantly down his thighs. Better too much than too little, Kat said.

He leaned over her, his dick bumping her thigh and trailing lube everywhere. Then he kissed her, and she practically bit his lip in her eagerness to kiss back. His dick slid between her legs, and before he knew it she was fucking him in their usual way, her small hole sliding along his length, only much more easily than usual. It was strange and wonderful, but Esther slowed, tilting until the head was near her rear entrance.