My Novel: Time Gate

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Time Gate
By Corey White


Stepping out of a limousine, Rez walked along the red
carpet into the club. She was surrounded by paparazzi
everywhere she went, and a parade of close acquaintances
followed right behind. This was a fact of life whenever
she was in public. In the flashing lights she looked like
an angel on her phone, texting something up to heaven.

She made fortunes through computer software. Every magazine
wanted her on their cover. I admired how a woman so
beautiful could be so powerful. In her presence I had to
fight the urge not to drop dead and die. Fortunately, I
was working for a real magazine, so I knew how to conduct
myself. However, I would still need to get inside the club
if there was going to be an interview. Around the back of
the building I found another door but it wouldn't budge.
All I could hear on the other side was music pounding. I
propped myself up against the wall of the building waiting
for someone to come outside. After a few minuets a man who
was covered in tattoos fell out of the door.

I pressed a roll of twenties into his sweaty palm, and I
shook his drunken hand. "I'm here with the band" I said,
patting him on the back. While he flipped through the roll
of twenties, I slipped through the open door and went
inside without waiting for him to finish. Even if he
didn't believe my story, the money distracted him long
enough for me to get inside. This was journalism, and I
had it down to an art.

Reporters were not allowed inside, so I tucked my press
badge away into my jacket. I looked around, checking to
make sure no one had spotted me. Trying not to appear
nervous I made my way down the back stage corridor. It
felt like the people inside the club were staring at me,
which was something I didn't want while trespassing. The
fast music and pounding bass changed the way people talked
to each other and with the music pounding this loud, no
said anything to me at all.

I noticed that when Rez entered the club she seemed to
enjoy all of the attention. Catching her inside the club
would be like flattery. Yet, there was one catch. Rez
never, ever, did interviews. But that's why Wired magazine
sent me to cover the story. I had a way with people, call
it charisma. Whatever it was, they knew that I would
manage to get the story. They also knew that if I was
going to meet Rez, it would happen here, and it would
happen tonight.

I found the door marked "VIP" and waited, ready to make my
move. I watched as someone with a key came to the door,
and once he disappeared inside I sprang into action. I
caught the door just before the latch clicked shut.
Pushing my way into the room, I provoked no reaction.

"I'm here to see Rez." I yelled loudly over the music. She
was sitting by the window, drinking an espresso. "I'm with
Wired magazine, can I speak with you?" Taking out my press
badge, I showed it to everyone in the room.

There were laptops and cell phones scattered all over. One
bright pink phone stood out from the rest. I assumed it
was hers, but the expression on her face could have thrown
me outside.

"It would be nice," She said, visibly resiting an outburst,
"If you photographers knew how to take no for an answer!"
While she spoke, a little spit shot out of her mouth and
hit me in the face. She looked right into my eyes, and
chills ran up my spine.

"But since you're here, you can stay for a while." she
said, taking a tiny pink device out of a case and plugged
it into her ear. I had no idea what it was.

"What is that?" I asked her.

Rez took a deep breath before answering. "It is called
Logos", she said. "It acts to balance the noise levels in
the room so I can hear you over the music"

"I have never heard of it before." I said.

"We aren't putting them in stores for another decade." She
said.

This was a PR game for our magazine. Wired wanted to know
more about what was already on the market. Something
people could find in the stores in time for Christmas.
But even with all my experience at Wired this would be
going easier if it wasn't in this noisy club.

"What is the next big thing coming out of Rez Inc.?" I
asked her.

"Computing power has become obsolete to cellular services."
She said. "The latest cards double the speed of existing
wireless. We don't even need computers anymore."

By the time we finished the interview I had glimpsed the
future and was certain that she ran the coolest company in
the world.

Rez went into her pocket and came out with a business card.

"Don't be afraid to call," she said.

"Thanks" I said, feeling delighted.

Farther from the club I realized that I recognized Rez. Not
from the magazine covers. I remembered her from somewhere
else. I thought about the interview, replaying it over in
my mind until all the pieces fit together. She looked like
a portrait of Cleopatra I had seen before in a museum.

Once I made it back home, I immediately powered on my
computer. The screen froze before it finished loading
Windows. Worried I wouldn't be ready for work, I raised my
hands helplessly in the air. Then something happened. The
computer came to life, all by itself.

I was flooded with data from nowhere, and there was no end
in sight. My screen flashed by me like a strobe light. I
only saw the occasional frame of information in the chaos
of the download. I checked my apartment, paranoid someone
could have broken in. The back door was locked, and
nothing was out of place.

I went back to the computer, punching every key and jerking
the mouse. Nothing. Starting to feel panicked, I pushed
the power button. The stream of information kept coming.
As a last result I tore the power cord out from the wall.
My screen went dark. I waited in silence until the phone
rang, turning on by itself. Something told me not to
answer, but I did it anyway.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Corey, this is Rez" She said. "I've been thinking about
you and decided to drop by"

I couldn't tell if she was joking, but looked out the
window for her anyway. I saw her in the street, waving up
to me.

"Hello" she said. "Could you let me in?"

"OK, sure." I said, happy my phone was working.

Watching as she walked to the front door, I ran downstairs
to let her in. When I opened the door she was waiting in
the snow wearing a heavy winter jacket and a white hat.
She certainly knew how to make an entrance.

"Bonjour, Corey."He french accent was combined with her
perfect English.

I gathered my wits, looking at the the most beautiful
programmer in the world.

"Hello," I said.

"I'm here to ask you if you want a job" she said.

Suspicious, I squinted hard enough to give myself a headache.
"What kind of job?"

"Someone with your expertise is hard to find," she said.

I knew there was more to this than the glossy cover my boss
was after. It would be a disgrace to my journalistic
integrity not to get the whole story. It also meant that I
might not have a job tomorrow.

"We can take my car" Rez said, tossing me her keys. "You
drive."

We got in the car and I started the engine. As we pulled
out of the parking lot, the car came to life. Optics
inside the windshield were highlighting the road in white
light. Following the directions on the screen, I got onto the
freeway.

"You said you have a job for me?" I asked.

"Just drive," she said.

I nodded and asked, "What else can your car do?"

Rez spoke, "View city map!"

Lights shot through the fiber optic matrix that had formed
on the windshield. Stunned, I lost control, swerving into the
oncoming lane. Then the wheel spun around by itself,
narrowly avoiding traffic.

We moved out of the worst part of the city into the lights
of the downtown skyline. The car's auto pilot was still in
control as we pulled into the parking garage. It could
park better than me, and we were surrounded by cars.

Getting out of the car I wondered how we were still alive.
Rez raised her hand into the air, and I heard the familiar
chirping of car doors locking automatically.

When we got onto the elevator she smiled at me, and I
stopped wondering if this was a good idea. Tonight would
be the best night of my life.

"How did you program the car?" I asked.

"Everything here is programmed." She said smiling. "Every
door, every room, every telephone."

"Even me?" I asked.

We both started laughing. Once inside the elevator we went
to the very top of the tower before I could blink. In an
instant we were in an open cafe, bustling with people.
Huge windows were overlooking the entire city, and all of
it was giving me a sudden sense of vertigo.

This was like entering a new world where Rez was in total
control.

She lifted her arms and shouted, "Welcome to Rez, Inc.!"

"So this whole tower is writing computer programs?" I
asked.

"At Rez, Inc. We make computers faster," she said.

Walking away from the elevator, she led me to a table. "Are
you hungry?"

"Yes" I said.

"Do you know how long it takes a computer to process one
instruction?" she asked me.

Pausing to order something from the cafe she said, "It is a
lot faster than you can flip a switch."

"Imagine a grid of X and Y values. You provide the X, and
you give it the Y. The computer just has to find where
every X and Y meet up."

"So why are computers so much faster today than they were a
decade ago?" I asked.

"Why are two CPU"s better than one?" she was asking a
rhetorical question.

"I don't know, why?" I asked again.

"Technically they aren't any faster unless they are
programmed to run in parallel with each other."

"I see" I said.

Sounding impressed with herself she said, "I am the one who
wrote the code to do that, by the way."

"I didn't even know that was possible." I said.

"A chess playing computer can beat anyone because it thinks
ahead." she said.

"It calculates the number of favorable endings it has for
every move. The only problem is that it can take too long
for the computer to think of the best move, unless you are
playing a supercomputer. Here at Rez, Inc. we connect
people to supercomputers so they can work faster."

"This building is a giant supercomputer," She said. "Most
of our clients work in the intel business. The NSA and the
CIA both outsource some of their data here. Just don't
tell them I told you that."

Walking across the cafeteria, I imagined what my boss would
say if I put any of this into the story. Taking the
elevator down a floor, I looked on. "Super computer"
wasn't enough to describe this kind of chaos. There were
rows and rows of people on computers who were all talking
on the phone shouting at each other, running around like
they were on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

"This is the backbone of Rez, Inc." She said.

"We call it the switch board. If everyone here suddenly
stopped working there would be a nuclear meltdown
somewhere."

"How exactly does the switchboard work?" I asked her.

"The switchboard breaks all of the work for the
supercomputers into parts" She said. "It's called parallel
processing. The work gets divided up over multiple
machines."

"The only problem our computer can't solve is connecting to
our clients," she said. "That's where you come in."

"Me?" I asked. "This sounds like science fiction, Rez."
They would never let me put this in Wired.

"You are a journalist and I need an insider" She said.

"What we are talking about has nothing to do with science
fiction. We already have desktop computers running over
cellular providers."

"A wireless operating system?" I asked.

"Yes" She said. "Although there is a holdup."

"Oh"? I asked curiously.

"What we are doing isn't legal yet." She said. "We need to
get the government to pass new legislature. Believe me; I
don't have any more strings to pull."

"So what can I do for you, Rez?" I said.

"When you tell your readers we are bringing supercomputers
to their desktop, they will force the legislature through"
she said.

Rez thought for a minute. "I'll let you beta test our
computers. If they aren't perfect, just forget about the
article.

"I'll need to think about it." I told her.

"That's fine." She said.

"Do you need a ride back to your apartment?"

"I'll just take a cab."

I took the elevator back down to the ground floor and left
Rez Inc. Back home a package was already waiting for me,
as well as a white van parked across the street. Its
antenna stretched up just as tall as the channel 4 news
crew. Inside I went to my computer and flipped on the
power switch before doing anything else. I lived alone,
except for the howling police sirens and occasional phone
calls that kept me sane. As I looked around in the dark I
could tell something was wrong. Switching the overhead
lights on, I looked around the room. I couldn't find
anything out of the ordinary so I decided to open the
package.

Inside the box there was a chrome net book. I took it out
of the box and turned it on. As I watched the BIOS scroll
by, the operating system loaded a screen I had never seen
before. Instead of loading windows it loaded up a list of
servers. I clicked on the button for one of the servers,
and after doing this the screen changed abruptly. It
looked like a map of the city, complete with flags
pinpointing wireless networks. I clicked on one of the
flags, and a string of binary information danced over the
screen. A blinking timer began counting down from five
minuets.

When the clock finished its dramatic count down, the green
flag turned to red. Nothing else seemed to happen until I
clicked on it again. The screen was flooded with data. I
leaned over the keyboard, preparing to play this game out
to its end. Clicking on buttons, not knowing what would
happen. Adrenaline pumping through my veins.

I could hear a mans voice speaking in another language.
Could I be spying on cell phones already? To a journalist
this was like the Holy Grail. I could see that the van was
still outside, so I zoomed in on the map around my
apartment. I saw a green flag in the parking lot and I
clicked on it. A timer showed 59 minuets.

That meant I had time to dig out the manual from the box.
Turning to the table of contents I was hoping to get some
answers. The first page read, "Portable Cray
Supercomputer". I took the manual and walked with it into
my office. That's where I went to read anything offline.
But it didn't take much time to read instructions shipped
with most computers. This one however felt like I should
have a PhD.

Forgetting all about the timer, the flag was still waiting
for me when I returned. Part of me wanted to spy on the
white van, but I was also a little afraid of getting
caught. Ruling out the idea of using anything I uncovered
I decided it would be a worthwhile experiment. Now,
clicking on the red flag, a number popped up on the
screen. It was a phone number I didn't recognize, but had
my area code.

I pulled out my phone and dialed the number. I wondered if
they were watching me, watching them. After a few rings
they answered, "Hello, who is speaking?". It was after
midnight, and it felt odd to even get an answer. "Who is
this?" I asked. The mistake I made was using my cell
phone. Whoever this was had instantly recognized my caller
I.D.

"This is a private number!" the voice shouted at me.

I hung up my phone, but after a few minuets I sat back down
on the supercomputer. I waited for what seemed an
eternity while I brewed a pot of coffee. Then stayed up
all night reading the manual. By morning I was ready to
crash, and still had only scratched the surface of the
machine. It seemed like it would be possible to crack
almost anyone's passwords with this computer. That night
I had connected to networks that should be virtually
impossible to break into. I had the location of wireless
networks all over the city, and was tracking them on a
live satellite map.

I wondered what would happen if I took a ride off
satellites on top of Rez Tower. Scratching my chin and
gazing into the screen. I sat there trying different
combinations of user names and passwords, in order to
access it. I didn't expect anything to happen, but in
spite of that a window opened and Rez was in front of me.

She said, "So sorry, I didn't realize you were even
online."

"I didn't either."

"Don't tell me that you have been hacking wifii
connections?"

"Actually I'm not sure. The channel 4 news crew was here
and...."

"News crew?"

"Yes, they were parked outside with a radio tower. Then
they just drove off."

"Listen, you need to get out of there."

"What?"

"You know the bus stop around the corner?"

"Yes."

"Meet me there. We need to go."

In the blink of an eye I had left my apartment and was
outside on the street corner. My thoughts raced out of
control. This story was taking me somewhere where I hadn't
been before. Was I afraid, or was I just in love with Rez?
Walking under the street lights to the bus stop, I felt
like I was in a mystery novel. The bus pulled up just as I
arrived, but Rez wasn't anywhere nearby. Then, once I had
given up hope, Rez emerged from the bus. She greeted me
with hugs and kisses. We got on the bus, riding it back to
Rez Tower.

Sitting next to each other, we started talking. Rez was
easy to talk with, both kind and warm. I didn't hesitate to
ask her, "You know you're going to change the world with
all of this right?"

I could tell looking into her eyes that she had heard it
all before.

"I can't help but change the world. I just want to do a
good job of it" she laughed.

"Wouldn't you?" She said.

"Yes, for what it's worth" I said.

"I just wonder what the world would look like" I said.

She continued talking but I was distracted by how she could
fit into the dress she had on.

"You wonder why other reporters have gotten nowhere with
me?" she said.

"Why?" I said.

"Because you were the only one willing to break the rules"
she said.

"There is only one thing that could change my feelings
about you." She continued.

"And I think both you and I know that it can't happen. "
She said.

Whatever happened I could tell this was becoming a night to
remember. We made it too far together to deny it. I forgot
about the story. With Rez it felt like I had a partner.

Once we reached Rez Tower I looked up at it, but could see
no end. The clouds were moving quickly overhead through
the darkened sky. As I stared in wonder my phone vibrated
to life. Rez stood there, waiting in the darkness. Then taking
a final look back I answered the phone. It was my boss but I
didn't care.

"Corey, we need you to pull an extra shift tomorrow." He said.

I cut him off before he could finish, "I can't be in two places at
once Mel."

"Then maybe you shouldn't come in at all" He said.

"You know what Mel, screw you and your job!" I shouted.

I hung up my cell phone before he could finish. Then
without looking back, I followed Rez inside of her
company.

"So what kind of a job do you have for me?" I asked.

"Maybe you should be telling me that" she said.

I just stood there, watching her crack a smile.

As the elevator was taking us up to the top level, she
tried to have a conversation with me about her company. I
still know very little about what she did at Rez Inc.

"Our business is like an assembly line, but without the
factory." She said.

I nodded, still not understanding.

Then she said, "This tower picks up and broadcasts signals
across the world."

We chatted all the way to the top level. The doors opening,
as I took a deep breath. For a moment, finding myself at
the top of the world. The view of the city was to die for,
but then again so was Rez.

This was no place for business. The only sign of work I
could find was the spotless architecture. We stood by the
windows overlooking the city, and I forgot about Wired
Magazine completely. I looked at her and she smiled back.
I didn't know what she saw in me, but I knew what she was
going to say before she said it.

"I need you to continue working for wired." she said.

"I just quit." I said.

"That's okay, I can have it fixed by tomorrow" She said.

"Really?" I asked.

"You will be working on a new story." She said, handing me
a memory card.

"And you have another reason I'll be covering the story?" I
said.

"I need you to steal some data with your new computer."

"From who?" I asked.

"The President." She said.

"You want me to hack the President?" I asked.

"The White House" She said.

"I can't do that!" I said.

"You have to." She said.

"Without me, you will be without a job" She said.

"How much will you pay me?" I asked.

"Is $250,000 enough?" She asked.

"What do I need to do? I asked.

"You just need to take your laptop into the white house
and it will do all the work."

"The White House?"

"I need to gather passwords and user names. You're just
going to sniff them up with the laptop. The process is
totally passive, and you will be invisible."

"So you need my press badge to take over the world?"

"No, that's not it. We need you to change corrupt laws."
She said.

"You mean you want your supercomputers in the stores."
I said.

"Exactly" she said.

"I have to think about it", I said.

She wished me good luck and I took the elevator to the
ground floor. Clouds covered the sun and no sooner than I
left Rez Tower did it start to rain. I stood at a cross
walk surveying my situation. Now the hardest part would be
telling my boss what happened & getting my job back.

The next day I made it to work and people were already
sending my icy glares. I was just hoping the police
wouldn't be there waiting for me to clock in. I set the
super-laptop down on my desk then powered it on. My
cell phone rang while the laptop was booting up. I reached
into my pocket, pulling out my I-Phone. I could see her
smiling face on the screen.

"Are you ready to do this?" She asked.

"No, I'm not ready to do anything!" I said.

"Check your E-Mail." She said.

"You'll be going to Washington D.C. To cover some kind of
political rally" She said.

"A group named 'Anonymous', will be there." She continued.

"Hold on" I said.

I checked my e-mail, and there was a message from my
boss. More often than not this wouldn't be interesting,
but normally my work was on time. I read the email very
slowly, then read it again. It said that I turned in the
article I had been assigned before it was even due.
Stranger still, an expense account had been set up to
cover the cost of flying to Washington D.C. Wired had
decided they wanted an interview with the activist group
Anonymous. Just like Rez had said.

"So my boss wants me to cover some kind of hacker group,
gone political?", I asked.

"Yes" She said.

"And you want me to sneak into the white house and steal
all of their files?" I asked.

"It will be as easy as taking the tour. You already have a
press badge, right?" She asked.

"I guess, but how will that help you?" I asked.

"The White House has free wifii. You just need to sniff
passwords from the network. " She said.

I hadn't realized how powerful Rez was until now. She was
more than just another person. Rez was a corporation. I
opened my net-book and did a little digging into Rez Inc.
Zooming through servers at the New York Stock Exchange, I
discovered share holders of Rez Inc. had been buying up
Wired's company's stock. This seemed to explain why I was
fired yesterday and given a new assignment today.

To do this kind of work would usually requires the services
of a hacker. This laptop however, could get inside computer
networks with the click of a mouse. I picked up my phone
securing it's cord into the laptop, and made a discovery.
The laptop hadn't lost any power, and I couldn't remember
it even having a charger. As strange as it was, my laptop
was gobbling up energy from nowhere.

I scanned the room, noticing how the wires tethered
everything to the walls. Everything except for my net
-book. The net-book was free to access anything, anywhere.
Taking another look at the manual I found a section on
charging the battery. It implied that the net-book
recharged itself wirelessly through electricity from the
environment it was in. I could even control the battery
settings. I turned the battery charger up to max, and all
of the lights in my office went suddenly dark. Then
after switching the recharger off, the lights flickered
back on.

Without wasting any time I went home and took care of
everything I would need for the trip. I put the laptop into
a briefcase and packed some luggage. This took care of
almost everything. I took a cab to the airport, buying a
plane ticket at the gate. I did all of this with the company
expense account. That was one of the best things about
working for wired. That, and I always flew first class.

On the plane I sat next to a woman who was wearing those
dark sun glasses people take with them on vacation. The
ones that are always way too big for their face. I couldn't
sit by the window either because I had bought a last minuet
ticket, but I still watched out the window as the plane took
off soaring above the clouds.

Once they gave the O.K. Signal I pulled out my laptop.
Turning it on it began recharging automatically. An instant
later the cabin lights flickered and the plane hit some
turbulence. The captain spoke over the intercom, "We are
reporting problems with our computers, please stand by".
I turned the laptop off and the cabin lights came back on
without trouble.

After a few hours we began the gradual descent over DC. The
woman next to me took off her glasses to look out the
window. Peering over her shoulders I could get a clear
view of the capital. Then after a smooth landing, we
finally made it to the Washington DC airport.

Outside the airport it was a cold, cloudy, winter day. I
stopped to breath in the icy air and watch the other people
around me. After a long flight most of them were busy
recovering from the withdrawal that cigarettes had to offer.

I got into a taxi and asked the driver to take me downtown,
to the Hilton. I paid him for the ride and tipped him
before going into the hotel. I took the elevator up to the
11th floor, and quickly found my room. Opening the door of
the room I walked inside, looking out the windows to the
balcony. It was a perfect view of the city. On the inside
there was a king size bed, closet, bathroom, and mirror.
Otherwise the room was empty. I fell into the bed and went
to sleep, happy to make it to the capital.

In the morning it dawned on me that I was already guilty of
conspiracy, and maybe even treason. One of the things
about that however, was I couldn't decide if working for her
was business or terrorism. Just look at Phillip Morris, they
kill without impunity. Terrorists get hunted down like dogs.

After getting dressed I grabbed the keys to my rental and
headed out the door. Then, reaching behind me I could feel
that I didn't have my wallet. Thinking I must have left it in
the car I searched in between the seats until I found it. I
shut the car door and turned around. Someone was standing
there, directly behind me. I hadn't even heard them
coming. I had only been in Washington for a day, and
another spy had found me.

Stretching out his hand he said, "Anonymous."

My job was to find 'Anonymous', but they found me first. I
wondered how they even knew where to begin looking for me.

As if reading my mind he said, "Your boss told me you were
staying at the Hilton."

Getting an interview could never be so easy, but that
didn't stop me from screwing it up. Before shaking his
hand I set my laptop case down on the hood of the car.
That's when he took the laptop, sprinting around the
corner. I gave chase, but I didn't catch up to him until he
was already on his motorcycle. I felt my insides turning
around. If I didn't get that laptop back I would lose more
than just my job. In a very real sense, my life was on the
line. That meant finding out where the laptop was headed.
As a journalist, this was just another part of my job. I was
going to track that laptop down. All I had to do was make
one phone call to Rez, so I dialed her number and listened
to the phone ring nervously. But it only rang once.

"Hello, this is Rez." She said.

"I lost the laptop. Someone from Anonymous stole it." I said.

"What? Are you sure?" She asked.

"Yes, can you trace it for me?" I asked.

"It is on the freeway already, you better get into your
car." She said.

"Which way did he go?" I asked.

"I'll give you directions. Just make sure the police don't
get there first." She said.

The heist was conveniently timed with morning rush hour.
But without any other options I got into my rental,
driving through the traffic onto the busy freeway,

"Why can't I be driving your car right now?" I shouted into
the cell phone.

"Just jeep driving, I have his location." She said.

So I followed her directions through traffic until coming
to the next exit .

"Turn here!" She shouted at me.

I could see the kids motorcycle from here. He was stuck at
the light, and I pulled up behind him.

"How am I going to stop him now Rez?", I choked.

"Just follow him home, he doesn't even know your behind
him.", she said.

"Gotcha" I said.

Rez had tracked him down. All I needed to do was keep
enough distance between his Suzuki and my rental so that
he couldn't see me. Following him off the freeway and along
a winding maze of city streets he finally came to a stop,
pulling off at a Motel 8. I watched as he went into his
room while I parked at the Waffle House adjacent to the
motel and across the street. I was a ghost. There was
however a chance that he would be waiting for me, but I
knew the laptop would be in there somewhere.

Approaching the motel parking lot I didn't see any other
life. I stopped, looking at his Suzuki. It was a nice
bike, but it wasn't my style. I knocked loudly on his
motel door, letting him take his time to answer. He
opened it halfway, and I could look at him square in the
eye. Then he tried to shut the door, but I stuck my foot
into the door. Stopping it from closing. He shouted at
me, trying to force the door shut. But I busted the gold
chain lock and the door swung wide open. Now the only
thing between me and my laptop was this scared college
dropout.

"How did you find out I had the laptop?" I asked.

"What laptop?.", he said.

"How did you find out I was in D.C.?", I asked.

"I'll call the police!" He replied.

I slammed the door shut, and threw him down on to the bed.

"Where is it!?" I yelled.

"We found out you were working for Rez, and I followed you
back to Wired.", he said.

"And my boss gave me up that easily?" I said.

He reached under the bed pulling out the laptop.

"Your probably wondering what went wrong." I said.

He sat there, eerily quiet.

"Somehow you managed to find me, before I could find you. "
I said.

Then flipping open the laptop, I quickly found out that it
was unable to connect to anything. Somehow he had managed
to disable the wireless card. All I could do now was call
Rez. I turned on my cell and gave it her number.

"Hello?" She said.

"Hi, I got the laptop. But this kid jammed the wireless
card somehow."

"That's not good."

"Can you fix it?"

"Not from here."

"What should I do?" I asked.

"Get the kid to fix it. Maybe he will be a good target for
an interview." she said.

"And if that doesn't work?" I asked.

"You will have to improvise." she said.

"What?" I said.

"There's nothing else I can do from here." She said,
turning off her cell phone.

The kid didn't seem to know what to do. He turned the net
book on and went through the boot process, but that didn't
seem to work. So he brought out a disk, loading it into
the DVD tray.

"We will try a boot disk."

He waited a moment as the net book booted up some variant
of Unix. Then he started configuring things that I didn't
understand. Once he had finished we were online again.
This was all so advanced that I had to re-evaluated the
situation. I leaned in to look at the computer screen.

"You didn't do anything to the computer did you?"

"No, I didn't even turn it on!"

"The computer must have automatically locked."

Rez must have disabled the laptop once she found out it was
stolen. But that wouldn't work if a hacker got it, so she
sent me after it. I waited a moment before turning back
to the hacker.

"What's your real name?"

"Eric Ruel" he said.

Finally, a name to the face. No longer anonymous he didn't
seem to be a threat. He turned away to the computer. For
a little while I watched in awe as he cracked the codes to
government computer systems all over DC. Once he had
finished he lit a cigarette and blew smoke rings in front
of the computer screen. Something had changed now. I
felt a real connection with Eric. He wasn't after money,
or anything else. He was hacking because he believed it
was right. He was trying to change the world for good.

"We should go", he said.

The rain came down suddenly while we were in the parking
lot. I ran across the lot to the Waffle House and got
into the rental. Eric followed me, right behind. After
all this time chasing him down he turned out to be an
alright guy. Now that I was in Washington D.C. on a
mission to hack the white house, it helped to have a real
hacker who knew the ropes in the capital city.

"How long have you been in Anonymous?" I asked.

"Ever since 9/11" He said.

"How does 9/11 have to do with hacking?" I asked.

"Since 9/11 the political sphere has changed. Now they
don't even have to define computer crimes, and hackers are
being wound up right and left. It has become something of
a witch hunt." He said.

"How did you become a hacker?" I asked.

Around this time we got stopped at a road block nearing an
overpass. We could see the lights ahead, and some of the
people in the cars were being questioned.

"Come on." He said, getting out of the car.

"Wait!" I cried.

"Forget about the car!" He shouted back to me.

His voice sent me into a panic so I hopped out of the car.
But there was no where to run to. The thought of secret
service agents arresting me drained all of the blood from
my face.

"Anything but this." I whispered to myself like it was a
prayer.

From outside the car I could see the goons coming, and some
of them had dogs. As I watched them coming I could also
see we were only a mile or so from the Capital.

"Follow me, I know a safe place to hide."

I followed him into a wooded area, scared more of him than
the police. Running through the woods, I heard the dogs
barking in the distance. I wasn't prepared for a life on
the run. Even so, to get out of here alive I would have
following Eric through the woods.

Suddenly he stopped, looking at the trees around us. He
found one he could climb and created kind of antenna with
his body.

"Pass me the laptop" He said.

Up to now this diversion had made no sense to me. But now
I knew exactly what he was thinking. He could look all of
their computers up on the net book. Carefully reaching up
the tree I gave him the computer. It was a long way from
here to the checkpoint. Anticipating this he continued
climbing up the tree as far as possible. It was a long
way from the checkpoint, but he yelled down to me after a
moment.

"I can see them from here!".

He had caught sight of the checkpoint, and I knew what that
meant already. He was about to hack into the secret
service. Then a few minuets later as he came down from the
tree, he had the biggest grin on his face.

"They aren't looking for us anymore. Now they're after
Cheech Maron, and Tommy Chong.", he chuckled.

"So did you get their passwords?"

"Yes!" he said, full of enthusiasm.

Acting like I wasn't excited I crossed my arms and asked
him, "What's next?"

And just when I thought I would never get out of D.C.
alive, he threw a leather wallet at me. Inside there were
3 ID's. None of them looked anything like me. In the
moments it took to grasp my status as a fugitive he
reassured me.

"Identities are just papers. You can live without them." he
said.

Inside I knew that he was right, but it felt as though I
had died.

"You are Anonymous now." he said.

I got on my cell phone one last time to call Rez.

"I have the laptop, but the police are after me." I said.

I heard her choke on the other end.

"We cracked the network, but they know who I am." I said.

"You are going to have to do better than that!" She yelled.

I hung up without saying good bye.

I wanted to get as far as possible from D.C. Right now
however, the police were behind me. And they had dogs. We
ran through the forest, and hit a clearing. I could see a
helicopter flying low over the highway. Across the
clearing was another tree line obscuring part of downtown.
I wondered what our chances of making it were if we could
just get away for right now.

By the time we made it into the city, I had prayed my own
last rights. We stopped at a motel in what looked like
the worst side of town. Following Eric inside, I took a a
few step toward the counter and asked, "How much for a
room?"

"It will be $50 for a night." She said. The woman was
unusually beautiful.

I took $50 out of my pocket and it seemed like everything
took care of itself after that. While looking at my fake
ID, the woman didn't even blink. Taking the room key we
briefly looked around once inside the motel. The door to
the room didn't want to close, and it got stuck when I tried to
lock it. All of this was turning out to be quite an
adventure. Still, the motel still seemed like the best place
to hide.

Eric had the computer monitoring our new identities. If any
warrants had been put out, he would see it. I decided
that he was a good guy, even though he wouldn't tell me his
real name. After talking half the night away I just came to
the conclusion that he had been on run for far too long
already. He was still hacking away at the computer once I
turned out the lights.

At night I dreamed of Rez. She was there reminding me that
nothing would prevent the project from moving forward.
Not even me. She had never seemed so beautiful as she
did that night. Early the next morning Eric had woken me
up.

"Rez wants to talk with you, Corey." He said, waving me
over to the computer screen.

"O.K" I said, taking the net book

"We will move forward as planned." She said.

"The trouble is that now I'm running from the secret
service." I said.

"I couldn't of anticipate that" She said.

"There is another way for you two to get into the white
house without a press badge."

I assumed that it must have been with a tour. They offered
them every so often to the general public, but the secret
service would already know what I looked like.

"You're going to have to get up higher." she sad.

"Like with a helicopter?" I said.

"No, the airspace is restricted." she said.

"A cell phone tower?" I guessed.

"The highest point I know of is the Washington Monument."
She said.

"How could we get up there?" I asked.

"It sounds more difficult than it is." she said.

"How?" I pressed her.

"Tours take people up the monument every day. There is an
elevator that takes people 500 feet up to the top."

"Just get it to the top, and you'll have the best reception
in DC."

"OK" I said, but something still bothered me. I could
never get my old life back. The secret service was after
me, and I had to do something before the clock ran out.
Part of me wanted to talk my way out of this. Then the
smarter part of me just wanted to run. Run as far away as
I could.

I was amazed to find Eric looking on all of this, reading
my emotion. "I'm game." He said, smiling.

"Who are you really Eric?" I asked.

"I'm originally from Silicon Valley, and was a computer
programmer. I've been on the run for 3 years. " He said.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I had some misgivings with the credit card companies." he
said.

"So are you going to run forever?", I asked.

"It's not a bad life. At least its better than the
alternative." he said.

"Checking into motels with fake identities, digging through
dumpsters. That's 'OK' with you?"

"I never would have met you if I had turned myself in." he
said, holding up my laptop.

"With this we can stay so far ahead of them. They can't
begin to track us. Not now."

"So what do you suggest?"

"We give it some time, to see how far this laptop can go.
If we can shut down the DC Police and start a
demonstration it would be the perfect cover to hack the
white house."

Ideas always seemed worse before they became things. I
thought he was crazy, and the truth is he probably was. I
watched as his fingers raced over the keyboard, his eyes
open but moving almost in a state of REM sleep. What must
have been an idea dreamed up in some garage was now
becoming a movement.

Eric was sending out cyphers to everyone in Anonymous.
Person by person, filling in where one was needed. In
minuets they were converging through the streets. Behind
me I heard the chanting, the roar of the mob. Caught in
the moment I joined in, marching with them through the
streets of D.C. Eric put one arm around my shoulders, the
laptop shoved into his backpack.

We were marching a short distance from the capital. The
Washington Monument towered above the urban sprawl around
us. Eric told me that it was the tallest structure in the world.
Directly in front of us were hundreds of demonstrators that
seemed to have mobilized out of thin air.

"This will be the perfect distraction to get us inside the
Washington monument." Eric said.

"No one will even notice us!" He said.

We followed the mob until it passed by the monument. By
then a police escort was driving in front of the demonstrators.
I was more afraid of what would happen if we went through
with the plan than if we got caught. We walked up to the
entrance area of the monument without anyone noticing us.
Inside there was an elevator. It took us up to the observation
deck. We had a clear view of the entire city.

Eric leaned against the glass and said, "You know, I have
never been up here before."

High above the city, I could measure the distance between
the White House and the monument on one hand. "I hope we
aren't beyond range" I said.

Eric slid out the laptop from his backpack. Despite my
doubts the laptop showed wireless access points over the
entire city. He typed something into the console. We
watched all the network traffic in the city dance over the
map, from one point to the next while Eric recorded.

I waited patiently for a few minuets but recording all of the
traffic was taking forever. My heart was racing and my palms
were sweaty. At least the police man standing guard in the
observation deck seemed to be ignoring us. I expected him to
stop me if I even breathed funny. My job was to crack
the White House's wireless network and steal their data.
Somehow I had thought that it would be a lot easier than it
actually was.

"Do you think we have enough traffic?" I asked Eric.

"Yes. Just another few minuets."

After an elevator full of tourists unloaded at the top he gave
me the OK.

"Alright, lets go!" He said.

We made it down to the base of the Washington Monument.
Two policemen were walking laps around the park. But after
hopping into a cab we made a smooth exit. As we drove
back to the hotel I could see the activists still marching
through the streets.

A jolt of reality came when we made it back to our motel.
Three police cruiser were in the parking lot with their
lights on. I certainly hadn't anticipated this. We could
still make it back to the airport, I hoped. I sent Rez a text
message telling her our situation.

She texted back, "Just find a place to stop and wait. I'll send
someone out to pick you up."

"Thanks." I responded.

After the conversation, we stopped at a Steak and Shake and
ate for the first time all day. We waited as though we
didn't have any time left on earth. But after three hours
two suits came into the restaurant waving at us.

"This must be them." I said to Eric.

"Let's hope so." He said.

We drove all the way back to Rez Tower from DC. I could
not believe it when I saw Rez at the entrance way. She
embraced me as if nothing had ever happened. "And who
is this?" she asked.

"This is my friend Eric, he is with Anonymous." I said.

"It's a pleasure." She said.

"Thank you." Eric responded.

I thought that I would never make it back, but now that I
was safe again that feeling was gone. It had been
replaced with a sense of pride. I couldn't even imagine
what would happen next. Just when I thought that
everything was returning to normal, Rez leaned in and
kissed me. It was a passionate kiss, lasting too long for us
to deny it. Eric cleared his throat. I always had feelings
for her but hadn't anticipated this. She probably hadn't
either. And then it was gone.

"You can stay here in the tower. Someone will show you to
your rooms." she said.

"Thank you." I said.

"I'll see you in the morning" She said.

I tried to get myself together but in all of the rush I
never realized that Rez was playing with my emotions.
Still, I had no trouble sleeping in the designer bedroom
that she provided. When I woke up I found a visa gift
card on my night stand. My head started spinning. The
note had a price tag printed on it. One million dollars.
I knew there must be some catch to this, and Rez was no
where to be found. I texted her on my I-Phone, and she
immediately responded.

"I'm sorry Corey, I'm in Paris right now. I don't have
time to chat."

I paused, uncertain what to text back.

"You shouldn't have any trouble getting back home."

Despite kissing her last night she was sending me on my
way. I could feel my heart collapsing in on itself. I
left heartbroken, and drove to my apartment. This was
exactly where my adventure had begun. I was going to
return to my job as a journalist. Just a million dollars
richer. I told myself that going back to wired would be
easy, and I wrote all of my article that night. That
however was not going to be the end of this story.

When I got back home I hid the visa card away inside a
kitchen cabinet. For a brief moment I thought about
depositing it in my bank, but then decided it would be
safer to hold on to it. I put the net book away and told
myself I wouldn't ever turn it back on. It felt awfully
hard to say good bye to such a sweet machine.

As I got into bed and turned out my lights, there was a
knock on my door. It was too late to be anyone other than
Rez. It was almost as if she had a knack for being in two
places at once. I still had to be certain, and cracked
open the door.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"It's me Rez, open up!" she responded.

I opened the door letting her inside. She walked in as
though she owned the place.

"Something has come up." She said.

"So?" I said.

"We have managed to attract some unneeded attention.", She
said.

"What kind of attention?" I asked.

"Eric has been apprehended by the authorities." She said.

"Sucks for him" I said.

"We think that he has been talking." She said.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that it's not safe for you here anymore." She
said.

Rather than argue with her I began packing my things. A
moment later we were out the door. In the parking lot she
grabbed hold of me and we embraced. With my arms wrapped
tightly around her nothing else seemed to matter. It had
been just a few days since we were last together and yet it
felt like forever.

"Check the news on your phone." She said.

"O.K." I said, pulling my phone out.

The last thing we needed was to be on the news. I shouldn't have
left Eric back in D.C. As the news was loading, I felt a shock wave of
electronic emotion. We were at the top of the Google News headlines.

"What?" I exclaimed.

The headline read, "Anonymous member Eric Ruel, on the run.
Believed to have stolen hundreds of passwords from White
House computer systems with as yet unnamed accomplices"

"Yeah, it looks like were fucked." Rez said.

"So what's the plan?" I asked.

"My plan is to take a jet to China, and sell the data we've
been gathering. Do you want to come with?" She said.

"Do you even speak Chinese?" I asked.

"Mushi Mushi." She joked.

"Do you still have your card?" she asked.

"Yes." I said.

"Then you can just disappear." She said.

"I want to be with you." I said.

"Good, then let's get out of here before the FBI shows up." she
said.

This was going to be a rough ride, but we were at least
doing it in style. Speeding in in her hot pink Lamborghini
and stopping at a private airport, we boarded a private
passenger jet. I wondered what exactly the information we
stole was. It must be some kind of state secrets, I
thought. There was really no way of knowing unless I
asked Rez what she found with the access codes.

The flight to China now seemed secondary. The situation
with Eric seemed far away. We were flying just above the
clouds and I watched as cities passed by us below.
Looking out the windows I contemplated how small I was
compared to the entire universe.

A hundred feet below us I could see the Great Wall of
China. After a few minuets the pilot let us know we were
coming in for a landing. As we were landing I locked
eyes with her, and could feel our hearts beating together
with the same uncomfortable uncertainty.

When we landed at the airport we were greeted by the
Chinese military. We underwent a quick search, and were
transported away from the airport to a Beijing government
building. Finally we came to a meeting room. Rez bowed
to the people in the room and motioned me to sit next to
her at a large table. For reasons beyond my understanding
everyone in the room was looking at me. One of the
Chinese, who had a scar across his face, spoke to me in
English.

"Do you know why your here?"

"No." I said.

"Rez has asked me to look after you." He said.

I sensed that he was being genuine, and wanted to help me.
I was not sure what to say to him, but felt like everything
would be okay. I smiled at him, and he took it to mean that
I understood.

"Show him to his room" He said.

We walked out of the meeting room, and down the hallway way
to a flight of stairs. Walking up three floors I found my
new room. It looked like a high end hotel room, in
perfect condition. They left me there, and I settled into
bed. Exhausted, I fell asleep.

I woke up in the first few moments of sunrise and Rez was
standing by the door to my room.

"Do you want to know what it is you stole?" She asked me.

"Of course!" I said, still yawning.

"I told you that I was in the business of making computers
faster."

I nodded.

Do you remember the switchboard?" She asked.

"I think so." I said.

"The switchboard picks up signals that are traveling back in
time." She said.

"What?" I asked her.

"When your computer runs a program, it sends instructions
back in time where the switchboard picks up the transmission."
she said.

"Then the result is sent back into the future where your computer
picks up the signal an instant later. All of the physics happen
inside the microprocessor" She said.

"Our technology only works inside of computer chips, but
the DOD was trying to open up a gateway to send people
back in time. The data you stole is their schematic for the
time gate" She said.

It sounded like I had slipped completely into a fantasy
world. Somehow I thought, I had managed to lose my mind.
Rez just leaned against the door frame looking at me with
those beautiful eyes of hers, which was more intimidating
to me than anything else.

"When do we talk to the Chinese?" I asked her.

"They are ready for us in the boardroom. We can go now if
you want."

We marched down a corridor stopping at two huge doors.
There was a camera looking right at us. It was clear to
me that there was more on the line than I understood.
Which wasn't saying much. Rez opened the doors. A dozen
men in business suits were waiting for us on the other
side. All of them looked up as if startled by our
entrance. Then they motioned for us to sit down, and I
found a chair I thought seemed to be out of the way. Rez
began chatting in Chinese and shaking hands with the men.
I was pretty sure she knew them all by name.

Rez turned to me and said, "Everything is okay now. They
are already manufacturing the schematic for the time
gate!"

I tried to play it cool by nodding my head, but my palms were
sweaty and my mind was racing. At least I felt I managed to
give the appearance that I understood, but everything that
happened during the meeting was in Chinese. One of the
business men seemed to take an interest in me during the
meeting. He kept waving his hand in my direction while he
was talking to Rez.

After the meeting she told me what it was about. "They
want you to go through the time gate" she said.

"Why me?" I exclaimed.

"Well it was either me or you." she said.

I stared at her, assaulting her with my eyes.

"I'll show you to the time gate. They are already putting
it together. This is something of an honor." she said.

We entered the laboratory, and I stood silent. Spread out
across the room were wires meshed with machines. I
understood none of what I saw, but there was something
resembling a chair in the center of the room.

Then, a Chinese man with a clipboard noticed me, "Please,
come sit down." he said. I didn't have the words to
express my feelings, and I followed him to the chair as if
under his spell. A ring came down from the ceiling
surrounding my head like a halo.

"Ready?" He said.

"I hope so." I said.

Then Rez spoke, with almost no emotion. "Make sure you
bring us back some evidence."

I closed my eyes, and then I felt everything dissapear in a
singal instant. I saw myself get out of the chair and begin
talking with Rez as if from the third person. I couldn't do
anything while all of this was happening. She gave me a
series of numbers to remember, and then I felt my
consciousness stretch back across time and space and I
woke up gasping for air.

I looked into Rez's eyes and told her the numbers. She smiled,
and all of the Chinese scientists started clapping.

"So it works then." I said.

"Yes, tell us what it was like." The Chinese man holding
the clipboard asked me.

"I just remembered seeing the future like it was a movie."

"How so?" He said.

"I couldn't control anything, it what was just happening like a
dream." I said.

"Interesting." He said.

All of the scientists began to celebrate. I struggled to my
feet and looked at Rez. She gave me a hug filled with
emotion and said, "You did it Corey!"

I couldn't resist the desire, and found myself moving in
for a kiss. I felt something then that I had never felt
before. Rez excited me so much I lost track of everything
else, but she stopped me.

"Did you see this in the time gate?" she asked.

"No.", I had to tell her the truth.

"Good" she said, and then came back in to kiss me.

Then I stopped her and said, "Don't you want to try the
time gate?"

"Yes." she said. "What's it like."

"Well I said. "It's like going through a cat scan while
you're asleep."

Her face lit up and she sat down in the chair.
"Let's do this!" she said.

The technician flipped the switch but nothing seemed to be
happening. Rez sat there motionless by all appearances
asleep.

"How long are you going to leave her like this?" I asked.

Without saying a word the technician flipped the switch
back off and Rez fell out of the chair like a doll.

"Rez, are you alright?" I asked.

She looked up at me batting her beautiful eyes. Her gaze
locked into mine.

"Better than okay." she said.

"Corey, what is happening here is no accident. This is all
going to be worth it." She said.

She took out her I-Phone, and looked intent on whatever
she was doing.

The scientists leaned forward interested.

"I'm buying shares of a company on the NYSE. It is going
to go up over 100 percent." she said.

"You saw it in the time gate?" I said.

"Yes!" he said.

In the distance I could hear phones ringing. The
scientists in the room were talking Chinese and beginning
to leave the lab.

"What's happening, Rez?" I said.

"The Emperor of China is coming to see all of this for himself!"
she said.

I had stopped questioning Rez as soon as I went through the
time gate. Every country on earth would pay anything for
this technology, and that is exactly what I was afraid of. As
we were waiting for the emperor I had a sudden flashback to
my experience in the Time Gate.

I saw the Emperor enter into the lab. The Chinese technicians
talked with him and showed him the equipment. He sat down
inside the machine. The halo lowered over his head, and the
time gate began warming up. His expression changed from
being cheerful to full of hatred while he was inside the machine.
Then the trip was over, and he got up out of the chair.

Speaking in Chinese to his men he had clearly made his mind up.
About what I couldn't tell. I turned to Rez to ask her what was
being discussed, and for a moment she was speechless.

Looking straight into my eyes she said, "He is initiating a
nuclear war!". But before I could respond I was being pulled
back into the present time.

I looked at the clock as soon as I was back. There was still
an hour before any of this would happen. The only thing I
could think to do was sabotage the time gate. In the back
of my mind I knew this was suicide, but that would be better
than starting a war.

As though nothing had happened, I walked up to one of the
men who was holding a gun and punched him across the face.
He fell backwards and I grabbed his automatic rifle. I began
shooting at the computer terminals, careful not to hit anyone
in the lab. The other military men all raised their weapons to
return fire. I ran into the time gate and ripped all of the wires
out from the machine.

When everything was finished I looked down and could see
blood was soaking into my shirt. I had been hit several
times. The only thing I could do now was die, but that
didn't go quite as I planned either. I collapsed onto the
floor, and couldn't remember anything else until I woke up
in a Chinese hospital, and an armed guard was standing
over me.

He spoke something in Chinese over his radio and turned to
me.

"You are lucky to be alive." He said.

In a few minuets Rez burst through the door, running
towards me with tears in her eyes. The guard clambered to
his feet, shouting something at her. I tried to speak,
but couldn't even make a sound.

Rez shouted at the guard who stood there silently
intimidated, then walked outside the room.

"You're lucky I am friends with the Emperor. That is, if you
even live!" she said.

"Why did you do that?" She sobbed.

My eyes rolled back into my head, and consciousness left me
suddenly. They had me plugged into morphine without even
asking me. I dreamed for days before I even had strength
to sit up in bed. When I did wake up she was still there
beside me.

"You had a violent reaction from the time gate, so they are
scrapping the project." She said to me bitterly.

Despite her disappointment, I felt like I had gotten my
point across.

"They have decided that it is just too dangerous to use
right now." She said.

I muttered back to her, "They were going to launch a
nuke."

She ran her fingers through my hair and whispered to me,
"Not anymore."

I tried not to think of the bullet holes, the blood. It
was all I could do not to cry out in terror. But then
something took me over, and in a flash I was standing
on top of the roof of the hospital watching a helicopter
land. I couldn't control anything, but a Chinese guard
was pointing his weapon at me, and my only plan was to
hijack the helicopter. And then in a flash I was back with
Rez inside of my hospital room.

"Where are the guards?" I asked.

"Just outside the door." She said.

"I had a vision." I told her.

"I've been having them too." She said.

I began to get out of bed, determined to escape from the
hospital. It took a moment for me to stand up on my own,
but I took a step toward the door. I grabbed onto Rez for
support. She clutched my arms and steadied me. Then, I
began walking very slowly on my own. Right out the door.

I saw the guard sitting in a chair by the doorway. He didn't
notice me, and I went back inside the room. Then I saw the
window where there was a fire escape going up to the roof.
Rez blinked in silent disbelief as I climbed out the window
and scurried up the staircase toward the roof.

"Are you coming with me?" I asked.

Every muscle ached from the gunshots, despite the
morphine drip. As I climbed up I heard the blades of the
helicopter I had just seen in my vision. Then as I made it
to the roof. I could see the paramedics. They were taking
someone off of the helicopter on a stretcher. I limped as
fast as I could towards the helicopter. When the pilot saw
me, he had a look of total shock on his face. The helicopter
didn't have doors, just open hatches for the pilot and medical
personnel. I pulled myself up into the cockpit, flush with
adrenaline.

I grabbed the pilot by his shirt and threw him out of the
cockpit. I had no idea how to fly it, but something inside
me was changing. I closed my eyes and could see a vision
in my minds eyes. The vision gripped me, and somehow I
saw how to pilot the helicopter. Just like the visions I had
of the future. But then I saw Rez climbing to the top of the
roof. So I wated there for her in the helecopter until she
climbed on board.

"I'm glad you decided to join me!" I shouted over the
helicopter blades.

Then I took control, and flew the helicopter off of the
building. I had no idea where to fly, but the vision I saw
was guiding me. Hopefully to safety. I needed answers,
but my vision only stretched so far into the future. I
closed my eyes, letting the helicopter fly itself. I could
see another vision. I was flying over the Himalayas, and
into Nepal. I had never been there before, but I saw the
Chinese resistance was already there, waiting for me.

Using my new found precognition I piloted the chopper over
the mountain range and into Nepal. I didn't know where I was
going but I followed my sense of direction and my instincts.
It had got me this far already, and I had begun to trust in it.

Over Nepal, I brought the helicopter in for a landing. As I
came down, flocks of people came running towards me. I
switched the helicopter off, and all I could hear was shouting
in another language. My 6th sense wasn't helping me
understand them. I needed to find someone who spoke English.

I yelled into the mass of people saying, "I am an American, does
anyone here speak English?"

"Yes!" cried one young person who was no more than eighteen.

I climbed down from the helicopter and surveyed my surroundings.
Further out beyond the group of people surrounding me were pickup
trucks driving towards the chopper.

"Who are they?" I asked the young man as I pointed toward the trucks.

"Those are the police!" He said.

"We need to get out of here, can you help us?" I asked.

"Yes, yes!" He said.

I closed my eyes and focused, trying to have another vision.
This time however nothing happened. All at once I had lost all of my
new found ability. The effects I had been experiencing were the
aftershock of the original exposure to the time gate. Still, I was quick
to follow my new guide away from the helicopter and into a tent about
five minuets away. I had the feeling we barely made it away from my
landing site in time.

He took us into a small tent about five minuets away from where
I had landed the chopper. There was a woman inside, who was
brewing some tea.

"Please." The boy said, pouring a cup of tea and handing it to me.

"Thank you." I said.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"We are on the run from the Chinese." I said.

The boy laughed then said, "So are most of us."

"This camp is filled with Tibetan exiles." he said.

I had no idea where I was going to go next, but I knew I
needed to rest. That's when Rez asked him,"Do you have
a place where we could stay?"

The boy smiled back at me, "Yes, of course."

He led us to another tent, not far from the one we were at.
Inside there was an old man, and two hammocks hanging by
ropes. My guide spoke to the man in his native language.
The old man nodded and smiled at us, but didn't speak any
English. Tired from the trip, I climbed into one of the
hammocks and tried to get some sleep. Rez climbed into the
other hamock, and tried to start a conversation. With my eyes
closed I saw flashes of things I couldn't understand. And quickly
fell into a sleep without remembering anything that she said.


It somehow felt that I slept forever, and when I awoke I was
alone inside the tent. It took me a few minuets to come to the
realization that I wasn't dreaming. It felt as if I could wake up
from this whole adventure and return to my life. Trying to come
to an acceptance of my surroundings, I went outside and was
surrounded by a parade of people dressed in many colors. Flags
hung up outside of every tent. Wondering what I was going to do
without my guide, I stopped the first person who noticed me.

"Do you speak English?" I asked.

"No." The man said, but then he shook my hand and smiled.

"Does anyone here speak English?" I asked.

He nodded smiling again, and pulled me into the crowed.
Following him through the parade of people he took me
into a large open-air tent. There were people worshiping
some paintings of what I thought must have been Buddha.
One man sat in front of them, chanting a mantra and waving
his hand. He saw me approach and stopped chanting his
incantation. Everyone else also quieted.

"Are you American?" He spoke.

"Yes, I am." I said.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"I'm escaping from Beijing" I said to him.

"So are we he said." Then began to laugh.

I felt a little confused but then he spoke again.

"We are Tibetans!" He said.

I began to introduce myself and tell him my name, but
before I could finish he said, "I know who you are, Corey."

"We have been expecting you." He continued.

This didn't seem to strange considering the circumstances.
At least that's what I told myself.

"I have been hurt. The Chinese shot me back in Beijing." I said.

"We have doctors here. They will help you" He said.

I collapsed onto the ground, almost losing consciousness. Two
Tibetans helped me to my feet. They walked with me out of the
tent and across the crowded street to another tent. A bed was
waiting for me there, and incense had been lit. An American flag
had been hung inside of this tent, and I realized they must have
prepared this place for me in advance, because everyone here
was speaking English.

"How many times were you shot?" One of them asked me.

"I don't know." I said.

"Well let's have a look then, okay?" He lied me down on the bed
and cut off my clothes with a pair of scissors.

"This doesn't look to bad. You are going to live" He said.

"That's great news Doc." I said, sarcastically.

"I hear you know, the Chinese?"

"Yes." I said.

"Are you sure no one has followed you here?" He said.

"No one followed me." I said.

"Sometimes they send us their spies." He said.

"I crashed that Chinese helicopter outside of the camp."

Then a moment later, the man who knew my name walked into
the tent. He tossed me my wallet and asked, "Have you got
enough rest?"

I realized that he must have got my name off of my I.D. that was
in my wallet, which had been in my back pocket since the start
of this trip. I checked my wallet for my bankcard I had got from
Rez. Remarkably it was still in there. I began laughing.

"Do you take credit?" I asked the Tibetan, and gave him my card.

"Please." He said, handing it back to me.

I could see that he didn't seem to understand, and it hardly
seemed fair to be a guest in his village without paying for the
service.

"Money. You understand, Money?" I said, pushing the card back
to him.

"Yes." He said, smiling.

"You have money?" He asked.

"Yes. Lot's of money!" I said.

He turned to the others in the tent giving the impression to me he
was giving orders. One of them took the card and ran out of the
tent.

"How did you get here?" He asked.

"It is a long story." I said.

"We need to know." He said.

"I was working on top secret technology, and then they sold
it to the Chinese. When I find out what it was going to do,
I destroyed all of the work. Now I'm trying to escape from the
Chinese Army."

"What was the project." he asked.

"It's called Time Gate" I said.

"What?" He asked.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." I said.

"Try me." he said.

"It was a time travel project that went wrong." I said.

"Show me." the man said.

"I can't, we destroyed everything. But that card I have, that I gave
you. It has a million dollars on it." I told him.

He looked me in the eye and smiled.

"We could really use your help." He said.

"Then can I stay with you?" I asked.

"Yes, of course. You need a lot of rest. It will take
time to recover from those bullet holes." He said,
and then he turned away and walked out of the tent.

After several hours alone in the tent I began to worry
what had happened to Rez. The time gate had led me
here, and now I was left wondering why. I called out
to anyone, just to see if someone could hear me. And
then the young boy who I had first met came into the
tent.

"I'm in pain." I said.

"Can you move?" he asked.

"No, I don't think so." I said.

Still I tried to stand up, and collapsed back onto the bed.
I didn't know how I had got this far after being shot so
many times. I looked down at myself. My chest was
wrapped with surgical bandages, and stained with blood.

"They aren't sure if you are going to live." The boy said.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." I said.

"Do you want some medicine?" He asked me.

"Yes, I'm in pain." I said.

He went into a box by the side of the bed and pulled out
a bottle of pills. I sat myself back up in the bed, and he
handed me a glass of water. I took his pills and
swallowed them. Then, gulped down the rest of the
water.

"Could I have another glass?" I asked.

"Of course." he said.

He opened a small refrigerator and took out a glass
pitcher of water, then he refilled my cup. In that
moment I felt more at peace than I had in a very long
time. The Chinese would never find me here, and if I
didn't die I felt like I could start again in Nepal. The
people here were so much nicer, and Rez was here
with me. I spent the night in the tent and dreamed of
Wired magazine until the sun came up.

When I finally awoke in a pool of my own blood, I knew
I couldn't keep bleeding forever, unless some kind of
miracle saved me before my heart stopped pumping.
I came to the realization that I wasn't going to see
another day. That's when a Tibetan came into the tent.
He walked slowly over to my bedside and took my hand,
which somehow made me feel at peace.

"Am I going to die?" I asked.

"It will be okay." he said to me.

I was never a person who prayed, but after everything that
happened it seemed to be my only option. I squeezed the
man's hand tight, and said the lords prayer.

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your
kingdom come, your will be done, on earth, as it is in
heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive
us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil."

Tears began streaming down my face, as the Tibetan
released my hands. We waited in silence with each
other, but just as I thought there wasn't an answer
something changed. The room was being filled with a
dense fog. It grew steadily harder to see, until light
formed in the center of the room. Rays shot out of the
center of the light, and there was a sudden sound like a
thunderclap. The light dissapeared and I could see
someone was standing there. They appeared to me like
an angel, and I thought that I was already dead.

"No, you are not dead." The figures voice was powerful,
masculine.

I had no idea what to say to him, and wondered whether
or not he might be Chinese. Even if he was, I wanted
to know how he had appeared.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm you Corey, from the future." he said.

"You are me?" I asked him.

"The time gate you were working on, turned into something
more." he said.

"Where is Rez?" I asked him.

"She is close by. Don't worry about here, she is fine."
he said.

"How did you come back through the time gate?" I asked.

"In aproximately two days the Chinese are going to drop a
nuclear bomb on America. I've come back in time to stop
them."

"Wait. How are you going to stop them?" I asked.

"With your help." he said.

As the fog cleared I looked at the man who said he
was a future version of me. It was like looking into
a mirror. He knew what it was like to be me, lying
in a pool of blood waiting to die.

"Can you help me?" I asked.

"Yes." He said, and walked over to my bedside. He laid
his hands on my bullet wounds and I felt intense pain
running through my spine. I cried out in pain.

Looking down at my body as he lifted his hands away
from me I could see the wounds had healed shut, and
I could not have felt any better. I stood up from my bed,
and he looked at me without any explanation. The
Tibetan shouted something I couldn't understand and
ran out of the tent As my future self and I walked
outside behind him the rain came down without
warning.

"We have to go" He said.

"Where?" I asked.

He took a moment to look at me before walking out
of the tent, then said, "Are you coming or not?"

I followed him out of the tent and into the crowded
street. Everyone turned their heads to look at us,
and I realized this was because we looked like twins.
The worst of the rain was coming down on us now.
It was fall, and in Nepal that meant it was cold out
anyway. I wondered where Rez was, even if my
future self didn't seem to care.

We came upon a black jeep parked on the side of the
road. Although there were some people around, they
didn't even seem to notice as we jumped into the front
seats.

"Here." He said, pointing to the keys still in the ignition.
He turned the key, and the jeep came to life. We slowly
drove down the dirt road, as the people in the street
moved around us. I saw Rez outside of one of their tents,
and she jumped into the jeep.

"So it did work!" She exclaimed.

"Yes." My future self said.

"And you are from the future?" She asked him.

"Yes!" He said smiling.

We reached the outside of the village, where the road began
to creep up into the mountains.

"We are driving right back into China." Rez said.

I looked in the back of the jeep and saw that there was
a box full of guns and ammunition.

"So that's the plan? Just go into China like Rambo?" I
shouted at my future self.

Absurd as it was, it sounded like the best idea I any of us
could think of. The trouble was that the entire Chinese
military would be trying to stop us.

"There is too much at stake. It is our only option." he said.

"What are the chances that all three of us will die, and we won't
be able to stop anything from happening?" I asked

"99 percent" He said.

He looked back at the guns and said, "Pass me one of the guns."

As I scanned through the weapons in the back of the jeep, I
realized that what he was asking for could include an assault
rifle or a rocket launcher. I wondered what the Tibetans were
going to do with these. They were all supposed to be peace
activists.

"Which one?" I asked him.

"Pass me one of the AK-47's." He said.

I did as he asked, searching through the cache of weapons
for what I couldn't mistake as anything other than an AK-47.
I passed it to him, and he pointed it up in the air, firing off a
few rounds.

"You say you are me from the future?" Rez asked him.

"Yes, two days in the future." He said.

"But I have never fired a weapon in my life!" I shouted.

"You want to know how you learned?" He asked me.

My mouth was drooping open, and I was at a loss for words.
But after a moment he spoke again saying, "I had no other
choice. The time gate has some unpredictable problems.
Whenever the past changed from its original state, it
actually caused the time space continuum to bend. When
the Chinese dropped the first nuke, they tore a hole in the
very fabric of reality. When that happened I came flying
back in time through something like a worm hole."

We drove into the night, over the mountains and into the
city lights of China. When we reached the border, we
were the only car on a dirt road. There weren't any Chinese
at the checkpoint, and we drove straight through it without
any problems.

"That was lucky." I said.

"The universe is trying to pull itself back together with
synchronicity. It is using us to prevent the bomb from
dropping." He said.

"So nothing can stop us?" I asked.

Staring quietly into the night, my future self said nothing,
Then after a little while I went to sleep, listening to the
Chinese music coming over the Jeep's radio. I dreamed of
Rez. She was standing on top of a mountain yelling out
for me to save her, but then abruptly she jumped and I
couldn't catch her. I woke up in a sweat, just as we were
reaching the outside perimeter of Beijing

"We're here." He said.

"Let's raise hell!" I said.

We drove along the highway past the capital. No one spoke for
a long time and then my future self said, "Were going to the
nuclear launch facility".

"They are going to drop the bomb?" Rez said.

"Yes in proximately 28 hours" He said.

I had no desire to storm into a Chinese military base by force,
but I wondered what his plan was. We could conceivably just
alert the American government in time to prevent the disaster,
but I had a feeling that's not what was on his mind. The air
became very still and we waited for him to tell us what we were
going to do next.

"We have to hack their computer system." He said,

"How are we going to do that?" I asked.

"That's why we need Rez. She can crack the Chinese base in
seconds, or maybe faster." He said

"It's true, but we will need to get a connection to Rez Inc. from
inside the base." Rez said.

"How are we going to possibly get inside of it? It is surrounded
in miles of defense. This sounds like a suicide mission" I said.

"We will have to sneak in with a Chinese truck." He said.

"Your saying we steal one?" I asked.

"No, we just rent one." He said.

"That's not a bad idea. Corey do you still have your bank card?"
Rez asked.

"No. I gave it to someone back in Tibet" I said.

"But I do!" My future self said, pulling out his wallet. He had an
identical card to mine.

"So let's go to an ATM" Rez said.

We drove back to the city, and stopped at a Chinese ATM machine.
Future Corey swiped his card, and withdrew as much money as the
ATM had in it, emptying it out. Then we stopped at a few more ATM's
and did the same thing. In the end we had half a million dollars in
cash, all in Chinese NuYen.

We drove as close as we could get to the military base and stopped
in the middle of the road. We waited there for the next truck to
drive inside the base about a mile down the road. Once one came
Rez ran up to the driver side window with the cash. I watched as
the money was exchanged quickly, and she waved for us to come
out of the jeep. The three of us climbed into the back of the Chinese
supply truck, hiding among wooden crates.

"Were going right into the supply yard, and then we will sneak
inside the base" My future self said.

Rez cracked open one of the crates and pulled out a uniform.
"It couldn't get better than this", She said. Then she tossed
two uniforms to my future self and I. We made a quick change.
It seemed all of this was turning out to go much better than we
had planned.

The truck pulled into the supply yard, and we quickly hopped
out and my future self started sprinting towards a building. Rez
and I followed him up to a steel door where a guard was smoking
a cigarette. He saluted us as we approached. Rez took the
initiative speaking Chinese, and he let us through into the building.

We took a flight of stairs up to the third floor, and busted through
another set of doors into a computer command center. Inside the
Chinese were in front of their computers, and three large screens
mounted on the wall were all showing pictures that looked something
like radar. Rez moved to one of the unoccupied terminals, as we
watched on from a distance. I was amazed she was even able to log
on to the system. The Chinese all stood up out of the chairs as each
of their computers crashed. Rez looked back at me smiling as the
Chinese swarmed around all us. It was clear to them that we were
the cause of the disturbance. With guns drawn they marched us into
a holding cell, where we waited until someone fluent in English could
come in to question us.

With our hands cuffed behind our backs, the man that came into
question us immediately began throwing things around the room.
He slapped my future self across the face, and yelled into his ear.

"Who do you think you are playing with here?" he shouted.

"Our mission is to stop you from dropping the bomb." He said.

Then Rez piped up telling the interrogator, "The U.S. has a back door
into your whole network now, they are ready to launch a counter
strike if you move forward with the attack."

He pulled out his gun and pointed it directly at my head and said,
"I should kill you all right now."

But then he walked out of the room leaving us to sit. As I looked
around the room at the cold emptiness I realized that this was it.
The U.S. would never trade us for anything. We were the reason
the Chinese had the time gate to begin with.

"What's your plan Rez?" I asked.

She started sobbing, and said, "That was it. I don't have any other
ideas Corey."

"When you sent a message out to Rez Tower, you must have given
them our location, right?" My future self asked.

"Yes" she said.

"Then we wait for our rescue" He said.

A few hours later the same interrogator came into the room. He
looked stressed, and angry.

"We can't get the virus out of our computers." He said.

I started to laugh, and he looked over in my direction with eyes
like ice scicles.

"China is defensless right now, unless you remove it."
he said.

"Why would we do that?" Rez said more than she asked.

"We are willing to cut you a deal. You undo whatever you did,
and we send you back to America in one piece. Otherwise you
are all dead, got it?" He said.

"I'm friends with the emperor. You may have heard of me." she
told him.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"I'm Rez, the owner of Rez Inc." She smiled at him now, with total
confidence.

"We have the Emperor on the line." he said, as he dialed an
extension to the phone which had been sitting on the table. Then
speaking in Chinese for a few minuets he gave the phone to
Rez. Despite the handcuffs she spoke into it while the interagator
held it up to her ear.

"You can't launch the nuke, not now not ever." she said.

"If you want us to remove the virus you are going to have to
dismantle your nuclear program! The virus will be infecting every
military computer that is capable of launching nuclear weapons.
The U.S., Europe, anywhere. If you don't believe me call the
President." She said into the phone.

The interrogator was furious, and he took the phone from Rez.
Again speaking in Chinese, and then hanging up the phone.

"He will be here to talk to you in person." said the interrogator

We only waited for the emperor for thirty minuets before he
granted us his audience.

"The American's have already spoken with me, and all
of their computers are down. The German's too, and the
U.K. I'm assuming your virus has spread around the world.
How did you do it?" the Emperor asked.

"I invented the Time Gate, remember?" Rez said.

"Yes, I do. And I remember you selling it to us in the
neighborhood of several billion American dollars."
He said.

Rez laughed then said, "I also remember you granting
me asylum here in China."

"We can't just destroy our nuclear arsenal, Rez. What
if other countries refuse?", said the emperor.

"Then the internet will be down until you can work
something out." Rez crossed her arms in defiance.

"I have heard enough." He said.

"What should we do with them?" Asked the interrogator

"Release them." He said.

The interrogator looked as shocked as I was. Rez however
still maintained her cool composure. After the Emperor
left she looked at our interrogator and said, "Get me the
American President on the phone."

"Do you know his number?" He asked.

"Yes, hand me the phone." She said then dialed a number.

It only rang once, and the president was on the line.

"Mr. President, as you must know the internet is down
around the world. Your weapons systems have been
disabled, and you are defenseless." She said into the phone.

"We have decided that all the nuclear powers must come to
an agreement and dismantle their weapons before we bring
the internet back online." She said.

"Yes, I can wait." she said.

"Right." she said.

She looked at me and said, "He wants to know how he can
trust us."

My future self spoke up and said, "Tell him we will give him a
grace period to turn all the computers back on while an
agreement is worked out."

"Good idea." I thought out loud.

She spoke to the president for five more minuets, and he agreed
to our terms, but made no promises. The president called the
Chinese, and they called some other countries and we agreed to
turn internet turned back on immediately.

We got a private ride back to Washington D.C. All the airports
were grounded, so we flew into an air force base. When we got
off the plane the secret service escorted us into yet another
interrogation room.

One of the goons asked us, "Do you realize this is being viewed as
an act of war?"

My future self said, "We are trying to end war, all wars."

"We already know how to operate the Time Gate" the agent said.

"Yes and so do the Chinese." Rez said.

"What happens when you bend time too far?" My future self said.

"Spare me the pseudo science." the agent barked.

"The Chinese were ready to drop a nuclear bomb on America!" I said.

"Our intelligence doesn't indicate this. What proof do you have?"
He asked.

"I am from the future. When the Chinese dropped the bomb, I was sent
back to correct the time line" My future self said.

"It's true, you must listen to us!" I shouted.

"It doesn't matter what the reason is, the President already has agreed
to our terms. If the nukes don't disappear then all of your networks go
back down." Rez said.

"CNN is still trying to figure out what happened. How are we going to
explain this to the American people?" the agent asked.

"CNN isn't even on TV right now." Rez said.

The agent stormed out of the room, leaving us alone. It seemed Rez had
found a way out of this situation, and we were finally in the clear.

"Maybe dismantling the nuclear bombs is asking a little too much?"
I asked.

"No, it is necessary." My future self said.

"But what if we just asked for our freedom?" I said.

"Then the bombs drop tomorrow." He said.

"They will come around, now that the entire grid has crashed, and
none of their computers can count to two. People will be without
power, without food, without water. They have to surrender" Rez said.

Finally the president came into the room and was flanked by four
secret service agents who moved as though they were made of stone.
The president looked calm, and collected.

"We will agree to your terms provided that you turn everything
back on immediately." The President said.

"Okay, just give me a phone." Rez said.

The president handed her his personal cell phone, and she dialed
into Rez Inc.

"Turn off the virus, now." She said, then hung up the phone.

The President crossed his arms and looked at the three of us,
"Is it done?" He asked.

"Yes, everything is coming back online now. Like nothing happened."
Rez said.

"Good." The president said.

"I'll give you as much time to dismantle the nukes as you need.
In the mean time, the three of us will be going back to our normal
lives. Is that understood?" Rez said.

"Yes of course, you are free to go." The president said.

"We will need to take one of your planes, to get back home."
Rez said.

The president agreed, and we walked out of the base and onto a plane.
I fell asleep on the plane ride back, completely exhausted from our
adventure. When we got to Rez Tower the three of us turned on the
news. The satelite dish was picking up CNN. All they were covering
was the global power outage that was causing all of the internet to crash.
They had footage of people in the streets in all major cities, just marching
on the freeways. In some places there was rioting. Then the president
came on to explain what had happened.

"A virus has taken down the entire network. The people responsible
have turned it back on, provided that we agree to dismantle our
nuclear program. If we don't comply they will turn the virus back on.
Unfortunately, we have no way of stopping them. We are having an
emergency meeting of the nations to come to some agreement, as we
are defenseless from this attack. Today America is surrendering." The
President said over the television.

We didn't leave the tower until after they came to an agreement.
China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States all
agreed to dismantle their bombs. The demilitarization pact took three
weeks to form. In the end even North Korea agreed to the terms of our
conditions. Research into the Time Gate is still moving forward, and no
one knows where it will take us next.