April, 2010

Connie smiled. Her daughter, Aya, continued to work in spite of how she entered the room.

"Mom, I'll stop once this last connection is complete. There. What's up?" Aya, still ten years old, looked at the circuit she just finished and nodded. "Clean. I must get granddad to get me that microscope for this stuff. That was hard on the eyes. Maybe...yeah, I'll build a digital one."

"Actually, it was what your grandfather mentioned that brought me into your workshop. He said there seems to be a few glitches in the system you built him." Aya frowned at her words.

"Glitches? Hm, I'll go right over. Did he send George?" Aya asked, though the look was from the corner of her eyes.

"Yes, he did. How did you know?" Connie asked her. Aya sighed.

"I suspected. My system is designed to suppress hackers, and counter attempts to hijack the system. If he's experiencing glitches, someone is trying to get into his system, and they aren't giving up." Connie pursed her lips.

"Don't get involved in the dark side of his business, baby. You're still far too young to be working in weapons and security." Connie said. Aya grinned.

"Mom, if you think that is what granddad is involved in, then you only have a basic impression. You should have a long talk with granddad, and get a more accurate picture."

* * *

"Persistent bugs." Aya said, and quickly typed out a few lines of code. She didn't block the access of the hackers, but set up a separate block for them to fumble through, while making it appear as though it was attached to the main system. Even her grandfather assumed he had access to the main computer system.

"What can we do?" George asked.

"I've set up a trace on the dummy system. They will only get the front data that grandfather provided, while the main system tracks them down. They bounced their signals off of other servers in order to hide their tracks, but I can cut through that nonsense easily." She showed a map. Addresses of the servers popped up.

"The ones in yellow are the dummies they use to hide their origin. The one in red is the trap for us to fall into. The green is their home base, where the computer that sends the original signal is sent from." Aya had the information sent to his offline device.

"What if they piggybacked on top of another computer, and set up another series of dummies?" George asked. He saw that once in a movie.

"That's the red location. They expect us to find that computer, and have set up some remote detonation devices there." George's eyes narrowed.

"They want us to waste manpower."

"Most likely. Or a way to show off. Or even a message that says they can mess with you, but they are too smart. Kind of childish if you ask me." Aya pursed her lips. "I took the main system off the net, and only linked dummies. Grandfather can work unhindered until there is an attack. When there is a remote attack, the links are disengaged, and even grandfather doesn't know that his system is offline." George had a little bit of a smile on his lips.

"You should tell him. He's a bit worried that his organization was compromised."

"He should have worried about it before. He had so many bugs on his system before I got to it, I have no idea how your guys didn't end up as corpses." She clicked on a folder, and sent it to him. "There is the data you need to find all the pieces he's connected to."

"Thanks. Like I said, tell your grandfather. His old heart can't take these kinds of stress where he's worried they will get to you and your sister." After George left, Aya blinked.

"Sister. I didn't think of that."

* * *

May, 2010

"Aya, you need to rest." Tandy, the batty doctor hired by her grandfather to extract information, came up behind her. "You've worked on the interface for two days straight. You need to sleep or your brain can't function at the highest level you need for this kind of thing."

"I know." She said and lifted her eyes away from her computer screen. The intricate connections to the interface were magnified and enhanced so that she could see it in microscopic detail, and fix any problems.

"I sense the 'but', however, without your brain at peak efficiency, you'll never be able to get the information you desire. She's home, and safe again. George has acquired the specimens you need." Aya listened to the doctor and closed her eyes.

"I missed it, doctor. I missed that so obvious piece of the puzzle, and let my sister be kidnapped." Her eyes snapped open. Her sister had been kidnapped from her own bed, and held for nearly a week before they found her. Connie never blamed Aya, but she blamed herself.

She missed the nuances. The reason they might look for family information. Who they might kidnap. Who meant the most to her adoptive family. Who would make her grandfather back away in case something were to happen to his granddaughter.

"I will find them all." Tandy nodded, and lightly rubbed the back of her head.

"Don't make me knock you out, baby. Sleep. Ten hours minimum. Once you've slept, you can go back to work on the interface. I will help you the entire way. I find it fascinating how you've come up with a device that can access the human brain, and treat the memories as digital data. I even wonder if you can make the interface an internal device so that it can be used to enhance human existence." Aya turned towards her in surprise.

"You saw the potential?" Aya asked. Tandy smiled and nodded.

"Of course. I'm a little bit batty, due to certain traumas, but I can still imagine it. A computerized interface that can not only access memory, and digitize it, but maybe you can take digital information and upload it. Reading, math, information analysis, digitally enhanced control mechanisms for combat, even enhanced physical abilities. The possibilities are incredible, and far reaching." Tandy sighed, walked behind her and hugged her gently.

"Baby, you need to rest, and so do I. I will chase away the dreams, while you sleep and recover." Aya finally nodded. Tandy smiled gently.

"Good. I'm glad you didn't make me knock you out again."