Colin F Barnes [Code Breakers Code Breakers Alpha (v5.0) (ep

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.Code Breakers: AlphabyColin F.BarnesColin F.Barnes’s Website: www.colinfbarnes.comNewsletter: http://eepurl.com/rFAtLAll Rights ReservedThis edition published in 2014 by Anachron PressThis is a work of fiction.All characters and events portrayed in this work are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.Any similarity is purely coincidental.All rights reserved.No part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the publisher.The rights of the authors of this work has been asserted by him/her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.Chapter 1City Earth, Northern MongoliaIn 2153 the lottery didn’t just change lives, it ended them.And Gerry Cardle’s numbers were up.Saturday morning and Gerry should have been at home with his family.Instead, in a mood that cast its own shadow, he walked through the ten-metre-high archway to Cemprom, the largest company in City Earth.Being at work on the weekend never seemed right.It still had a low-level hum of productivity as hundreds of drone men and women rode glass escalators and busied themselves with etiquette, but the ferocious capitalism of a weekday was stymied by the ephemeral qualities of a Saturday.They weren’t really trying.It was as if the day on the calendar signalled a different mind-set.Gave them a reason to divert from their usual routine, albeit in minuscule ways.One couldn’t divert too far from routine in City Earth.The calmness appealed to him.He tried to cling to it in a vain attempt at quelling the anxiety that slithered through his nerve centre.He approached the reception desk as usual, his suit neatly pressed by his wife, a fabric bangle around his left wrist that Marcy, his youngest daughter, made for him.Only today he was on edge.Those damned Death Lottery numbers haunted him.He shouldn’t be a winner.It was impossible.They were waiting for him in his inbox earlier that morning, flashing away in his internal mind-interface as if they were mocking him.The term ‘winner’ held a cruel irony that he could never get over.Still, it was just a mistake.It’d get fixed.He knew there would be some logical explanation.He just had to see his boss and sort it all out.It wasn’t right that someone like Gerry, one of the first on the exemption list, should be eligible for the D-Lottery.It must be something simple like a glitch or a bug in the system.That thought, however, was of little consolation.Gerry was the architect of the algorithm that was used to determine the ‘winners’, after all.If there was something wrong with the system, it was his responsibility.How a bug could have got into the system he couldn’t know.Only yesterday he and his colleagues performed a maintenance procedure on City Earth’s network.It was clean.Maybe the glitch was hidden? Someone fiddling with parts of the system on the inside.But who?Probably Jasper.A snot-nosed, privileged automaton sent down from the Family to report on efficiency and morale, which was redundant.Like anyone displayed anything other than perfect satisfaction.The Family provided a system to cater for every whim and desire, after all.His Artificial Intelligent Assistant dutifully noted the sarcasm.No doubt he would be receiving an internal psyche report later that evening.He’d just take the report and make a virtual paper plane out of it and throw it into the trash bin, where the AIA could choke on the misfiling.Approaching the security desk, Gerry swiped his right wrist over a small red box.Inside, a laser scanner interfaced with his ID wrist-chip and the identification routine of his AIA to generate a unique security code.Without looking at Gerry, the barely interested receptionist dictated the resulting random number to the computer.The computer bleeped twice.“I’m sorry, sir.You don’t have access.”Gerry was already making his way past the desk with his hand out for the gate when he stopped and turned.He thought he’d misheard.He’d been through this gate hundreds of times.He looked at the receptionist, trying to tell if he was being played for a fool.The receptionist simply pointed to the red flashing warning on the holoscreen.“Sir, you don’t have sufficient clearance.Please exit the building.”The AIA must have registered Gerry’s D-Lottery status with the network already.Gerry shook his head.Surely it had to be some kind of joke? He fully expected to see Jasper, or even his boss, giggling away in some corner.But the entrance area was empty apart from the well-groomed young man behind the desk.He sat bolt upright with perfect posture, black hair greased back in a slick, modern style.He arched a plucked eyebrow expectantly, as though he were someone important.All privilege, all class, but no skill or talent, just your typical City Earth oxygen thief—which made matters worse when oxygen was a managed resource.“Steven, isn’t it?” Gerry said.“You went to school with my eldest daughter, Caitlyn.Surely you recognise me?”“Your ID does not have the appropriate clearance,” he replied, still not engaging.“Please.Just try again?” Gerry tugged at the bangle on his wrist, tapping his foot on the floor.Anything to remain calm, pleasant.He had to give the benefit of the doubt.The kid was just doing his job… tap, tap, tap [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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