Prelude...

Just to explain the styling of this one a bit. First off, I wrote it during class, while listening. Which, of course, means I didn't really give any attention to either, and it shows. And on the same note, I rather like the way it turned out; quite dull. Even though it's supposed to be about some matrix cowboy; it drones on, like another uneventful day. Anyways, enough of this rambling.


Another Day

Knowing the task that he had recently agreed to, he sat down to begin the construction of the partial AIs that would do the dirty work. His hardware setup had a strange futuristic look to it. The monitor was a group of flat screens, arranged so that facing the front center, his entire field of view had a screen in front of it. Floating on an adjustable arm, sat a dovark keyboard with an eraser head joystick next to the 'J' key. Similarly floating to the right was the ten-keypad, and to the left was the page-keypad. Finishing it all off, was a chair that was as equally adjustable. The whole contraption being ergonomically perfect to the point of forgetting that were sitting there.

The actual computers were unseen, but a dull hum from the nearby closet gave way to their hiding place. Opening the closet quickly reminded one why it was in there to begin with. Looking past the noise, the homemade cluster of cheap computers and the threading knots of wires lacked the profissionalism of the main terminal. But those that could understand the rat's nest of equipment, were set back in awe when they figured out the amount computing power that was set into this closet.

Lightly tapping the space key to wake the terminal, he set up a few searchbots to pick out any information about others that may have previously targeted what he was now after. With the searchbots off, he began to construct a simple AI to scan the parameter of the target to get a better idea on how to design the attack AIs. Having done this enough times before to have constructed a massive library of subroutines, he quickly pieced together a scout AI. Then prepped a delivery system to have the scout run its code from some other random machine on the net, for only a fool would run something like this form their own place. Letting out a deep sigh, he got up and started to make himself a meal.

Interrupting his eating with a few beeps, his searchbots proudly showed their finds onto his display. After looking over the finds, he began to create another scout. The finds had been sparse, but those that were found contained wonderful detail. After finishing and delivering the second scout, he returned to his now cold meal. It could be a few days before the scouts returned.

Normally he would have a few other runs that he was working on at the same time. One of the few advantages of not being able to do the work himself, was being able to manage more than one run at a time, the other was being free from the fear of getting iced. But not now, runs had been sparse the last few months, giving him time to work on other things and worry about money at the same time. After spending a few hours trying to optimize some of the routines in his AI library, he crashed for the night hopping that the scouts would have returned by the time he would awake.

Crawling out of bed late in the morning, he found that, as he expected, the scouts were still out. Knowing this meant he would be sending the attack AI up against a quite formidable foe, he instinctively set the coffee maker to brew darker than what he normally pored down his throat. While surging his body with the black liquid, he scanned some the of the usual `hang-outs' to see if anyone was asking for his services. Sighing when he didn't find any, he began to dress himself for one of the real hang-outs. Maybe he could find some work there, hopefully he wouldn't get shot.