Episode II – Session I - Information
Episode II – Session I - Information
Joseph was leaning over Crystal’s shoulder, reading the string of symbols and system commands on her laptop’s glowing screen. Brother Cooper fully expected Joseph to make a blue comment of some type about the proximity of Crystal’s body to his face or something of that sort, or for Crystal to curse at Joe like a sailor, telling him to back off from her, but for once the both of them seemed too caught up in what they were doing to badger each other. Guyzell decided to wander over and peek at the screen for himself.
Joseph muttered something to Crystal about a packet of some kind that made no sense to Guyzell, but before he could ask what they were doing, Crystal shook her head and said something else about a male server having a patch of some kind so he was more secure now. Guyzell peered at the screen of the laptop, but it was filled with nothing but garbled letters and numbers that meant nothing to the preacher. To be honest, Guyzell’s knowledge of computers was limited to checking his email, but judging from the intensity with which Joseph and Crystal were working over the laptop’s screen, the preacher judged there must be something important contained within those numbers. He cleared his throat and interrupted their exchange with a smile, “What’s this you’ve got here, Crystal? Checking your email?”
Crystal looked up in a daze, caught up in some other train of thought. After a moment she shook her head, “Um…no, Brother…we’re…researching RGI…looking for any more information…”
Joe snorted derisively, “Researching? Jeez, Crystal, don’t lie to the man…Preacher, we’re trying to hack into their email server…and not doing a good job of it either.”
Brother Cooper frowned, “I’m not completely sure what that means, but I’m pretty sure it’s not something that we should be doing…”
Crystal rubbed her temples, “Well, it doesn’t matter anyway, because we can’t get in…Maybe if we do some dumpster diving this weekend…”
Brother Cooper frowned even more strongly, “I don’t know what that is either, but I’m almost
positive that’s not something we should doing…”
Joe chewed his bottom lip for a second, shook his head, then decided “I hate to take that long…let’s go back to their IIS server.”
Crystal pulled up the web browser on her laptop and keyed in
http://www.rgi.net. At least Guyzell could recognize a web page when he saw one. The web site was a pretty flashy marketing site, describing RGI as a high-tech company engaged in a wide variety of genetic research, while offering almost no real details about their goals or methods of research. Crystal scanned a few pages, then sighed, “Nothing useful…it’s all just flat files. Nothing interactive. If I had an unprotected form to work with, maybe I could get a buffer overrun going…”
Guyzell raised an eyebrow, “Are you two just making up words now?”
Joseph ignore him, “Can you browse the directory contents?”
Crystal slapped her forehead. “I completely forgot to check for that!”
She keyed in a variation on the site address:
http://www.rgi.net/images/. Instead of a web page coming up, the browser displayed a list of file names. Guyzell was fairly familiar with browsing through the worldwide web thing, and did not recall ever seeing a web site suddenly change to display a list of files like that. He leaned in a little closer, “Did you just hack their web site? Is this what hacking is?”
Crystal turned around to look at Guyzell directly before rolling her eyes. She turned back around to the keyboard. Joseph was nodding excitedly, “Cool…start looking for---”
“Development folders…yeah, I know…” Crystal was rapidly typing new variant addresses into the browser and Guyzell could feel the tension building for both of them.
http://www.rgi.net/test/ …File not found.
http://www.rgi.net/dev/ …File not found.
http://www.rgi.net/new/ …File not found.
http://www.rgi.net/private/ …File not found.
Guyzell watched about ten more attempts before his shoulders slumped. He turned again to Joseph, who was still looking over Crystal’s shoulder. “I thought there was supposed to be like a skull and crossbones or something…and that it would beep and say ‘Access Denied’.”
Before Joseph could answer him, though, Crystal yelped, “Got something!” Guyzell looked back at the screen. Crystal had apparently found success with
http://www.rgi.net/drafts/ . There was another short list of files there. Crystal clicked on a file named “pressrel.html”.
A web page appeared. The graphics around the header area were missing, but the text of the page was there. The page was apparently a rough draft of an article, minus a date of publication. Judging from the format and content of the page, it was an official company press release that Dr. Hudson had written before he had disappeared…a press release that was never actually released.
Willie and Taylor looked up from a huge book they were both studying at the next table. Willie looked over with suspicion, “What y’all got over there, Joe?”
Joseph and Crystal both sped through reading the article, paging down much faster than Guyzell could keep up. Joe responded while continuing to read, “You want the long version or the short version?”
Willie considered for a second, “Short version.”
“Crazy white people.”
Willie waited, and sensing nothing more coming, finally gave up. “Okay, long version.”
Crystal answered before Joseph could. “RGI had a new project they were working on, led by the now-missing Dr. Hudson. You ever heard of Bio-steel?”
Willie nodded. “Yeah…they make bullet-proof vests out of it. Why?”
Crystal continued, “You know what it’s made out of?”
Willie shrugged, “I’m assuming the answer is not steel?”
Joseph interrupted before Crystal could continue, “Spider web. They make it out of spider web!”
Taylor raised an eyebrow, “Well that’s a neat trick, i’n’t it? ‘ow do they go ‘bout collectin’ ‘nuff o’ the stuff to be makin’ an undercoat out of it?”
Willie turned to look at Taylor, then scowled and turned back to Joseph and the others, “Okay…does anybody else feel like we’re hanging out with Ringo Starr?”
Joseph shook his head very seriously, “No, dude, he’s Scotty, from Star Trek. Don’t worry. We’ll just shove him back into Engineering. You’ll forget all about him.”
Guyzell frowned, “Could we get back to business, gentlemen?”
Crystal continued unfazed, “They don’t collect the spider silk from spiders. They’ve genetically engineered goats with spider silk-producing genes. ”
Taylor uttered a profanity that Guyzell pretended not to hear.
Crystal went on, “So…now they have genetically modified goats. They milk the goats, and the milk contains spider silk enzymes. They chemically remove the enzymes from the milk, and presto, gallons of spider silk---”
“Which is, like, a hundred times stronger and lighter than steel,” Joe interrupted.
Willie was apparently just as lost as Guyzell was, “Okay, wait…so this is what RGI was working on? But Bio-steel had been around for, like, years now.”
“No…no…you’re right. Bio-steel has been around for years. And I don’t think RGI had anything to do with that. That’s some other company that does that. What RGI was working on was apparently a new improved, competing version of Bio-steel. Apparently stronger and lighter, and cheaper and faster to produce, too. At least, according to this press release. ”
Taylor considered for a moment, then wondered aloud, “So…they’ll be havin’ better bullet-proof undercoats than the other chaps?”
Crystal shook her head and rolled her eyes, “Not just bullet-proof vests. Anything you can think of that’s made out of steel or other high-strength metals like aluminum or titanium. Like cars, construction materials, bicycles, tractors…”
Willie nodded, “So in other words, worth a lot of money? The type of new product that people would kill for? Well, that gives me a place to start looking for what happened to Hudson. There are plenty of steel industry companies in the area that would probably not like that kind of change in the marketplace---”
Joe smiled and nodded along, “And let’s not forget about that handy side effect of…what was it again? Oh yeah, mind control!”
“And Susstinako,” Crystal reminded everyone.
Willie sighed, “Okay…I admit it’s interesting that Joe’s pen pal emailed him from RGI on the same day as all of this, but this is looking a lot more to me like a corporate espionage kind of situation here, instead of something like all that.”
Joseph sighed, “Fine, fine. You keep believing that. Meanwhile they’re building up an army of goats under their mind control.”
Willie shrugged, “Look, Joe…”
Joseph ignored him, “No, that’s fine. I see what’s going on…I’m going to RGI.” Joseph closed the laptop and started packing his things into his backpack.
Willie shook his head. “Joe, come on now, even if you go over there, you think they’re just gonna let you in?”
Joseph held up a handful of comic books. “They have to let me in. I have to make a delivery to one of my customers.”
Willie shook his head again, then stopped as he considered, “Joe…well…hell, Joe that might work.”
Guyzell didn’t like the sound of any of this, but he couldn’t let Joseph go off and do something foolish on his own. “Well, if you’re going in there, Joseph, I think I’ll go accompany you...the Lord
is supposed to watch over fools...”
Crystal started packing up her things as well, “Well, hell, I gotta see this.”
If Willie was surprised by the sudden enthusiasm about going to see RGI in the middle of the night, he played it off well. He shrugged and pulled his jacket off the back of a nearby chair and slipped it back on over his exposed shoulder holster. “Well, okay then. I’ll follow you and keep an eye out on the area.” He turned to look over his shoulder at Taylor behind him, and Kumars, who was still quietly reading in the corner. “You two interested in coming along?”
Kumars finally looked up, apparently surprised to find that there was anyone there at all, much less someone talking to him. “I am most sorry! I was reading the wonderful and most confusing books you are having here in your library of much interest! I am very much wanting to borrow these books and to be reading them and returning them in near mint condition!”
Kumars was looking expectantly at Taylor. Taylor turned to look back at Guyzell and the others, and seeing them all looking at him, his face grew confused and he turned back to Kumars. “I’m sorry. I ken nary a word of what ya just said. Was tha’ a question?”
Kumars happily stared back at Taylor, then at the rest of the group with a confused look on his face, “I am most apologizing. I am hoping to be perusing these books in my home for a limited time until I am understanding what they are referring to. I am hoping you are understanding in your ventures that I am most welcome to be offering you assistance in future endeavors, of course, but I am wanting very much to be getting started on the reading of these collections.”
Taylor turned back to Guyzell, a completely blank look on his face, “Any of you lot got the first clue what ‘e’s pratterin’ on ‘bout?”
Guyzell closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. The new “teammates” were not going to make things any easier for him. Guyzell tried to keep the strain from his voice, “He wants to go home and read. He wants to borrow those books. He is asking for permission to borrow them.”
“Oh, right!” Taylor nodded enthusiastically to Kumars. “Sure, gent, knock yourself out!”
Kumars happily packed his bag while everyone else headed over to the ladder. Willie stopped at the ladder and sized Taylor up for a second. “You coming, Taylor?”
Taylor had been standing in the back of the group. He paused to consider for a second. “Go with you lot? A bunch of bloody lunatics who I’ve been ‘aving dreams about for a month, telling me ‘bout magic and mind-controlled goats, wantin’ me to come along for a joyride through the city?”
Before anyone could withdraw the invitation, he decided.
“Sure, what the hell.”
