to do--places to go, things to look for--and it was easier to use this
than to create a new ersatz, so he cruised past the Spanish moss and
the alligator and right on up to the Dewdrop Inn.
That name was worth another smile.
Carrying a small satchel, Jay approached the front door.
There was a raggy, bearded ye haw kinda guy in nothing but overalls
leaning against the door, and Jay walked right up to him, smiling.
Yehaw, so the joke went, was the kinda guy whose father might also be
his brother or his uncle.
'Ain't open,' the man said.
'I know. I just wanted to let you know that somebody is around back
trying to break in.'
It took a second or three for it to register--probably because Yehaw
had some kind of dinosaur-like sub-brain down in his nether regions
that had to relay the thought back and forth a few times before he got
it.
Yehaw frowned, pushed off the wall, and lumbered away, heading for the
back door.
Jay waited until he was out of sight, then slipped the lock on the
front door with a thin piece of steel, stepped inside, and relocked the
door behind him.
The door guard--in reality a fire wall program for the HAARP computer
system to stop outside access--was strong, but not very bright. The
guard would amble around back, not see anybody trying to break in, then
return to his post in the front. He'd remember that Jay had
approached, if anybody asked, but since Jay wouldn't be visible, the
guard wouldn't worry about him. He'd never think to look inside; that
would be beyond his capabilities.
That was the problem with software. Hardware, too.
People didn't upgrade for all kinds of different reasons, and it always
cost them something. Shoot, the military arm of Net Force still
had--and still used--some sub- gigabyte-RAM tactical computers when
there were systems with ten or fifteen times that much power you could
buy off a department store shelf! Might as well be steam-powered. The
honchos-military would mumble, and say that was all they needed to run
their tried-and-true programs;
they were dependable, and shockproof, why bother going for more power
with some untested unit or software that might crap out when they
really couldn't afford that?
Shortsighted of them. Jay thought, but then he wasn't interested in
being anywhere except on the cutting edge. A lot of people still
thought slow and steady won the race, when fast and steady was much
better.
Well, that was not his problem at the moment.
Jay found the lockbox under the bar that the boss's report had
mentioned. He removed a pair of latex gloves from his satchel, slipped
them on, and bent to examine the box. He saw the scratches showing
that the padlock had been tampered with. Humming to himself. Jay
removed a small aerosol container from the satchel, aimed it at the
