Scattered Graves

‘‘Ask it what it wants,’’ said Diane.

Frank laughed. ‘‘Do you know how that sounds?’’

‘‘Yeah,’’ said Diane, ‘‘I do.’’

David typed in the question. What do you want?

‘‘I want to give Diane Fallon my information. I know you must have been looking for it if you got this far,’’ said the voice.

‘‘Jin is going to kick himself for not being here,’’ said Neva.

Frank got up and went to his laptop, which was sitting on the coffee table. He started typing.

‘‘What information?’’ asked Diane.

‘‘Do you want to type?’’ said David getting up. ‘‘It wants to talk with you anyway.’’

Diane sat down in David’s place at the keyboard.

What information do you have? she typed.

‘‘Ah . . . that is the question, isn’t it?’’ it said—which sounded really strange in the synthesized voice.

‘‘I have two sets of information for you. The first is a list of names and businesses. I think you know what I’m talking about. Please be kind. Not everyone is a willing participant,’’ it said.

Computer people? typed in Diane.

‘‘Yes, I think,’’ said the voice. ‘‘But it would be easier if you would write a complete sentence.’’

Is this a list of hackers? typed in Diane.

‘‘Some of them are hackers,’’ it said.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country, Diane typed.

‘‘I don’t understand,’’ said the voice. ‘‘Please ex plain.’’

‘‘What was that about?’’ asked David.

‘‘It seems awfully smart,’’ said Diane. ‘‘I just wanted to type in a non sequitur and see what happened.’’

Give me the list, please, typed Diane.

‘‘Look me in the eye,’’ said the voice.

Diane looked at the camera.

A list of names scrolled by quickly. She started to say that it was too fast when she heard the sound of her printer on her desk in the adjoining room start to print.

‘‘How are you doing that?’’ she typed and said aloud.

David laughed. ‘‘You notice she didn’t ask us,’’ he said to Frank.

Frank looked up from his keyboard and smiled. ‘‘I noticed.’’

‘‘You have a local area network. I just tapped into it,’’ it said. ‘‘It’s nothing to be alarmed about.’’

Frank got up and went to the printer in the other room. He came back with several single-spaced pages of print.

He flipped through the pages. ‘‘I know some of these names,’’ he said, shaking his head. ‘‘There are a lot of names here, and they’re working in very datasensitive places. No wonder identity thefts and cyber crimes are up around here. They will be up all over the country. If the people are good—and I know many of them are—they can get at information all over the world through these businesses and institutions alone.’’

David looked over his shoulder at the printout.

‘‘Wow, there’s your case right there.’’ He looked at the computer. ‘‘Way to go... cyberguy,’’ he said.

Why are you doing this? typed Diane.

‘‘To keep people from getting their life savings sto len,’’ said the computer. ‘‘People can lose their home and not even know what happened.’’

‘‘You notice how comfortable Diane is talking to a com puter,’’ said David. ‘‘She probably thinks it’s an alien.’’

Diane ignored him.

‘‘Well, I think it’s fascinating,’’ said Neva. ‘‘I want to know if there’s a real person on the other end of this. You know, like instant mail.’’

‘‘That’s a good idea,’’ said Diane.

Neva wants to know if you are a real person on another computer talking to us, she typed.

She made it a more complex sentence on purpose to see what kind of answer she would get.

‘‘Hello, Neva,’’ said the voice.