Part 3: May 22 - Coleman Tower
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Veer woke with a start, his dreams plagued by scenes of children chasing him with knives and axes. He lifted his face up from the table he had fallen asleep on, half sprawled across the components of one of the computers he had carefully dissected. He stiffly rose to his feet and shuffled across the hallway to the men’s room to relieve himself. He almost jumped back at the view of his face in the mirror. When had he last washed his face or shaved? The dark circles under his eyes made him look like a corpse. He needed to eat and take care of himself or he’d get sick, and then he’d never be able to help those kids. He had a change of clothes in his locker, and there was an employee shower in the locker room.
He looked in the mirror after his shower and thought the beard didn’t look too bad. He hastily ran his comb through his black wavy hair and decided that food was the next thing he needed. The employee cafeteria was on the first basement level, and he needed to get something healthy in his system. The junk food that Coleman had thrown at him yesterday hadn’t agreed with his digestive system, and indigestion had plagued his sleep along with the nightmares.
As he stepped out of the locker room, he ran right into Coleman. Veer cringed inside. Not this gaandu first thing in the morning. He instantly berated himself for using the Hindi swear word, and yet the word reminded him of his beloved grandmother—it had been one of her favorites. He smiled to himself. That old woman had a vast vocabulary of swear words.
Coleman looked Veer up and down. “Well, you look well rested. Where’s the employee cafeteria?” he demanded.
“I was on my way there right now. Follow me,” he answered. He had to step around Coleman, who belligerently blocked the doorway, then led the way up the hallway.
They walked up the two flights of stairs to reach the first basement level, and Veer introduced his boss to the employee lunchroom. They stepped around the bodies to serve themselves food. The backup system had kept the warming tables and refrigeration units running.
Coleman scowled at the selection of foods offered, commenting about the cheap quality of the choices. Veer wanted to point out that the menu had been Coleman’s approved list for his employees, but he did his best to ignore the man’s shallow complaints and served himself. Coleman watched him and finally picked up a tray, then picked through the selections for himself.
Veer took his tray out to the dining area and found a table away from the bodies. The sight of his fellow workers put a damper on his appetite, but he knew he had to eat this meal. The food would not last for long, and he needed to have the energy to work as fast as he could if he was going to fix this.
Coleman dropped his tray on the other side of the table, sat down on the hard-molded plastic chair, and started to eat. Veer ate slowly, not wanting to upset his stomach by eating too fast. He was running through computer codes and circuits in his mind as he chewed.
“So how long do you think it will take for you to fix this?” Coleman intruded.
Veer looked up and sighed. “I can’t even tell you what went wrong. I’ve checked and rechecked every circuit and reviewed all my code. I can’t find anything that could have started this kind of cascade failure.” He stared at the food he was trying to eat, hoping the annoying man would let him eat in peace.
“Well, something went wrong, and it all happened when you turned on your program.” He glared at Veer while chewing a mouthful of food. “Can’t you just shut the damned thing off?”
“I tried, but whatever happened has taken on a life of its own.”
“How can that be possible?” Coleman snapped. “If you turn the machine off, it should be off!”
“First, I must find the problem. Then I can hopefully answer your question. If the problem is external, I must find where that problem is coming from. There is absolutely no way I can solve a problem until I can find the problem.”
“Fucking great! Meanwhile, my building is full of bodies that will start to stink pretty soon!” he yelled. “Meanwhile you’re down here playing tinker toys with the guts of your computers.” Coleman glared across the table at the computer tech.
Veer closed his eyes. None of this made sense, and he could see that this man was not going to let him eat in peace. Veer decided not to answer. Maybe he’d leave if Veer didn’t respond to his questions.
“Isn’t there a plug you can pull? I mean, come on—if you turn off the power to the damned thing, won’t it stop?” Coleman repeated the already answered question.
Suddenly something clicked. Why didn’t pulling the plug work? He went into his mental step-by-step analysis mode. My program was designed to connect with another signal and alter the emotional state of a person receiving that signal—to increase empathy. The program was designed to alter a person’s emotional state by increasing that person’s empathy toward others. So why did it make the gamers MORE violent? Instead, the signal increased the violence level of the game—to attack and apparently kill. The game program is not a person.
Veer gasped at this insight. What if my signal fused with another signal and mutated that signal? No matter what I do, if I can’t find the other signal, I cannot do a thing. I must find the other signal.
The revelation shook Veer out of his mental absorption and back to the moment. Suddenly, he realized that Coleman was yelling at him.
“Excuse me, sir,” Veer mumbled robotically as he suddenly stood up, took his tray, and walked quickly out of the dining area, grabbing some yogurts and vegetable plates on his way.
Coleman sat back, stammering as the scientist raced away from him. How dare he! He threw his tray of food across the room. He glared accusingly at the food spattered across the floor. The food was crap anyway.
