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| - Erin had never met Briana. "What makes sense? And who are you, anyway?" Anthony said, "This is my daughter, Briana. But do explain yourself, how does it make sense that the Lockback chips fried themselves?" Erin asked, "But who is 'they', how could they shut down the coolant system and over-ride the power controls on the Lockback modules?" I added, "And there is an over-ride instruction for the Lockback power down routines that will keep those chips at full power." I sighed. "Well, we've done all we can do. Its up to the resistance now to come through with production of the vaccine."
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| abstract
| - Erin had never met Briana. "What makes sense? And who are you, anyway?" Anthony said, "This is my daughter, Briana. But do explain yourself, how does it make sense that the Lockback chips fried themselves?" Briana went to the wet bar and picked up the alien communications device from where Anthony had set it. Briana explained, "Okay, I assume that someone planted this circuit board in our server array and they have been monitoring the entire VirileMail project. By now, they know as much about our system as we do. So when Chloe pulled out this board, they knew that their espionage had been discovered and they pulled the plug....they purposefully destroyed the Lockback modules, crippling our network." Erin asked, "But who is 'they', how could they shut down the coolant system and over-ride the power controls on the Lockback modules?" Brad said, "It might be possible. The coolant system is fully computer controllable. Its designed to automatically switch from the main lines to one of the two backups if there is a problem. All the valves of the coolant system can be controlled through the computer, which is part of our network." I added, "And there is an over-ride instruction for the Lockback power down routines that will keep those chips at full power." Anthony's cell phone rang. He opened the connection, "Geisler." He listened for twenty seconds, then turned and looked at Chloe. "She's right here in this room. Yes, my office. Are you sure? You've personally seen the tape? Okay." He put his phone away. "Well, my father's instincts were true, as usual. He insisted that we boost security and one of the new video cameras got images of the person who shut off the coolant system." He was still looking at Chloe. The head of security came into Anthony's office. When he saw Chloe he took out his handcuffs and tried to chain himself to Chloe. I jumped forward and threw a shoulder block into him. He tripped over Erin and they both tumbled on top of one of the antique tables, smashing it to bits. I grabbed for Chloe's arm and pulled her out the door, "Run!" We ran to a stair well, down to the first floor and out into the parking lot. By the time I got outside Chloe was already at her car. I raced a security guard to Chloe's car. She had the car running and was moving towards me. I got into her car just before the guard could grab for me. Ten seconds later we were out on the street in traffic. The hand cuff dangled from Chloe's arm. I caught my breath and said, "Sorry, I did not know about the new security cameras." Chloe laughed, giddy with the rush from adrenalin in her system. "I did not know that they had a camera on the liquid nitrogen tanks. But it does not matter. I would have crippled Janek even had I known I would get caught." I sighed. "Well, we've done all we can do. Its up to the resistance now to come through with production of the vaccine." We stopped at a bank and withdrew large amounts of cash. We caught a train out of town and reached the coast the next day. Chloe and I moved into a beach cottage and went on vacation. I did not allow myself to think about the possibility that we might be caught. I enjoyed our long walks on the beach. I was with Chloe all the time except when she went for her even longer runs on the beach. When she was out running, I would walk up the road from our cottage to a little General Store and do our shopping. I'd usually have dinner waiting when she got back from her run. After running seemed to be the only time when Chloe really ate much. I soon decided that I as very happy with nothing to do but study the little quirks and habits of Chloe. About a week after the start of our "vacation" I entered the General Store on my usual shopping trip. A small knot of shoppers was gathered around the owner's TV. I went over to see what the attraction was. It was hard for me to make sense of what I was seeing at first. Eventually I realized that the alien-resistance had flooded the internet and the conventional media with a warning about the alien nanobots. They announced that production of the vaccine was underway. There was a follow-up report about Antler Network Services and a claim from the alien-resistance that an alien artificial life form had been constructed in the Antler server array. "Dr. Meade" was described as an heroic employee who had crippled the alien AI. Her face was flashed on the news report. The owner of the store looked at me and I could tell that she recognized Chloe. I finished my shopping and approached the owner to pay. The owner said, "Your girl, she's the one they showed on the TV? She zapped the alien?" I admitted that it was true. The store owner would not let me pay. She said, "Dinner's on me. So are you trying to hide from, the aliens? Its not going to work, not with her running down the beach every day. Half the people on the coast are going to match her face to the picture they showed on the news. She's famous." That evening, Chloe got back from her run latter than usual. I sat there in our cottage, trying to keep dinner warm and trying not to worry. I was just walking out onto the beach, ready to start searching, when I saw her. She ran up to the steps at the back of the cottage and caught her breath in about thirty seconds. She said, "People have been stopping me on the beach. I guess the resistance broke the news about the aliens." I nodded. "And you were on TV. You're a celebrity, the girl who defeated the alien AI." During dinner we decided that our vacation was over, it was time to go home.
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