To: 
From: "Jay  P Hailey" 
Reply-To: trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com



Title:Water Dictatorship
Author: Jay P. Hailey (JayPHailey{at}tic1.net) Series: Vista City
Part: 05/11
Rating [PG]

La Maison was not one of Angelo's regular hangouts, but he'd been there a
couple of times.  He
associated it with his parents and the older generation of wealthy people
in Los Angeles.

Shane Chee's decision to eat there seemed at first like an adolescent
prank. Chee asked for his
usual table and greeted the matre'd by name.  Only the most self
consciously rich people took the
pains to do that.

Angelo grimaced inwardly.  A meal at La Maison would wreck his monthly
budget.  Once again
he'd have to turn to his parents for help.  He didn't like to do this, but
it was an investigation, and
the VCPD expense accounts would choke and die at the thought of La Maison,
even if they
applied.

Outwardly Angelo stayed bland.  "What do you do at Los Angeles
Business Network?"

Chee stopped wolfing an expensive french dinner roll and glared at Angelo.
"You're kidding
right?"

Angelo stayed bland.  "No, I'm not kidding.  Tell me."

Chee rolled his eyes.  "I'm the senior systems architect and software
designer."

Angelo hid his surprise.  He'd would have bet money that Chee worked in the
mail room.
"Really?  You seem awfully young for that."

"Why are you old folks always saying that?  The mental faculties are
at their height early.  I'm
not too young, you're just too old." Chee said.

Angelo sighed.  He was approaching his thirty seventh birthday and it made
him a little sensitive.
"Really?"  He said.

"Yeah.  I'm a savant.  A genius.  I'm at the peak of my creative
abilities. With my work, me and
Marlowe are going to be worth billions."  Chee bragged.

"What work is that?"  Angelo asked.

"Duh!  Think I'm stupid or something?  You'll find out when everyone
else does, the day we
release it on the open market."  Chee sneered.

"What do you know about GeosNetwork?"  Angelo asked.

"What is this deep background?"  Chee sneered even more. 
"Geos and the GeosNetwork is crap
pure and simple.  Every dork with his daddy's computer and an issue of
Popular Science can
hack it.  MY system is bulletproof."

"You have a system?"  Angelo asked.

"Did they actually tell you who it was that you'd be interviewing
before they sent you?"  Chee
gaped.

"Not really.  You had it right when you said deep background.  That's
what I'm asking for."
Angelo.

"I get paid $512 dollars an hour.  I am way too heavy to teach a
technically illiterate hack the
basics of the computer industry."  Chee said.

"Okay, granted,"  Angelo said mildly.  "Think about it. 
Could it hurt to choke out some back
ground information while you stuff your face on my expense account?" 
He thought carefully
about how to shoot Chee and ditch the body.

Chee turned it over.  "True.  If Wired wants to buy me lunch while I
educate you, then it's their
dime.  What do you know?"

"Actually,  I'm new to the field."  Angelo said.  "I know
next to nothing about the high powered
hacker's world."

Chee sighed.  "Oh God.  All right.  I graduated two years ago from
UCLA's Computer Science
Program.  I was snatched up by John Marlowe as soon as I reached the age of
consent, because
of my natural genius, excellent technical training, and because his
network's previous operating
system was too lame to live."

"How did Marlowe hear of you?"  Angelo asked.

"He's got his ears to the ground in our industry and I hacked his
system and told him so."  Chee
smirked at his own cleverness.

"So he hired you."  Angelo said.

"Do you want to try to explain equipment based interlaced digital
binary interrupts as opposed to
software configurable addressable interrupts?"  Chee explained. 
"No lawyer in his right mind
wants to try me.  No judge or jury could even understand what it was
exactly that I did.
Marlowe figured that if he couldn't beat me, then he'd join me.  He's a
very astute businessman."

"I suppose so." Angelo said.  "What was this about your system?"

"My thesis was to create a new operating system for computers.  It's a
fully modern system that
can kick ass all over any system currently in widespread use.  That's what
we use at LABN."
Chee said.

"Is that why Marlowe bought so many new computers?"  Angelo asked.

"Yeah.  My new operating system is so advanced that state of the art
systems are maxed out
using it.  The old iron we had was too dusty to keep up."  Chee said proudly.

"Is your system what's going to make you and Marlowe
billionaires?"  Angelo asked.

Chee started and then got a crafty look.  "Possibly."

"Your system is technically advanced, right?"  Angelo asked.

"The best anywhere currently, and I'm working on keeping it cutting
edge." Chee boasted.
"Nothing can touch it."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't OS/4 considered better
technically than Geos?"  Angelo
probed.

"Yeah.  For its day it was a beautiful piece of code.  Man, it was
elegant. It should have
eliminated Geos."  Chee said, wistfully.

"I have a friend who swears by CP/M."  Angelo said.

"Yeah, that's okay.  I mean it's old.  The original was written back
in the sixties, okay, but it's
robust.  You have to be either a total idiot or a total genius to crash
CP/M."  Chee sounded
wistful again.

"But every one uses Geos, now."  Angelo pointed out.

"Ahhh,"  Chee dismissed  "That was just marketing.  Wild
Bill Dornan can't code his way out of
a paper bag, never could, but he knows more about underhanded business
tricks and marketing
to the great unwashed than any man alive."

"Underhanded business tricks?"  Angelo asked.

"Oh, you know.  Scuzzy shit like not giving us the source code for
Geos-95. We couldn't write
our network interface for it until I personally hacked the code and even
then we had to pay a
royalty.  He has refused to license Geos-95 to certain vendors who prefer
our system.  He's
practically giving away access to GeosNetwork to undercut our business.  If
LABN were to go
under, then he'd ratchet the rates right up into the sky like he did in New
York."

"And this is underhanded?"  Angelo asked.

"He's giving away product in our market and subsidizing it with the
profits from other markets.
The whole purpose is to drive us out of business.  I looked it up,  that's
the whole definition of
unfair business practices.  But Wild Bill also uses his huge profits to
subsidize a large crew of
very evil lawyers, so there's not much we can do."  Chee said.

"You're certain that your new system can succeed where others have
failed?" Angelo asked.

"Exactly."  Chee said confidently.  "People are getting
tired of all the problems that go with the
Geos system.  They're tired of Wild Bill Dornan telling them what to think
and what to buy and
all the rest of it.  As soon as there's a better alternative, they'll flock
to our door with checks in
their hot little hands."

"Well good luck with it."  Angelo said.  He didn't know exactly
what problems with the Geos
system that Chee was referring to.  His computer on his desk in Vista City
worked fine.  "You
know, I used to know someone who went to UCLA in the Computer Science
department."

"Oh?"  Chee failed to see why this should concern him.

"Yeah, It was a little before your time, but maybe you heard of
her." Angelo speculated.

"What's her name?" Chee asked.

"Randi Aiken."

"Some newsman.  Don't you know she's dead?"  Chee asked.

"Yes, I know."  Angelo said.   He figured that a shallow grave out in the
desert would suit the
young hacker nicely.  In a couple of years there would be nothing left but
a desiccated skeleton.

"She was Marlowe's wife.  She was pretty.  You know that we had some
tension, a little bit of
attraction there, but nothing ever really came of it."  Chee said. 
"Too bad."

"Did she work at LABN?  Is that where she met Marlowe?"

"No."  Chee snickered.  "He met her at a trade show.  She
worked for Wild Bill at GeosWorks."

"Oh.  That must have been an interesting courtship.  Did she work for
Marlowe after they were
married?"  Angelo asked.

"No.  She was way past her prime.  Thirty five, sheesh.  Besides, she
wasn't interested in working
for a living once she bagged a billionaire, right?"  Chee said.

"Right."  Angelo growled.

"Gentlemen, hello."  Marlowe said.

Angelo turned to find the entrepreneur standing over his shoulder. 
"Mr. Marlowe."

"Detective Mancuso, how nice that you've taken an interest in my
business affairs."  Marlowe
said acidly.

"Oh, uh, hi Boss!"  Shane Chee grinned.


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