He saw the riflemen cuff the fallen guy in the suit and throw him on the back of an old flatbed pickup, Lewis figuring that was good ol’ Chip Dawes, out of his fucking league. This while the shooters searched the bodies, either figuring out who they were or removing anything that would identify them. Wallets, phones, jewelry.
Then the big guy showed up driving a big yellow tractor with a backhoe and front-end loader. He dug a deep trench in a low spot in an unplanted field, then four men piled the bodies in the wide loader bucket. Even the burned bodies from the Explorer, which would not be a treat. It took three trips across the field, stray arms and legs hanging out as the tractor bounced over the rutted ground, to get them all dumped into the grave. The big guy spread a few big sacks of white powder, probably lime to speed up decomposition, into the pit. Then filled in the hole and tamped down the dirt with the bucket.
When he was done, the low spot in the field had leveled out nicely.
All while the golden plane circled high overhead like a vulture, seeing everything.
Lewis hoped Manny and his guys were well out of sight. They were going to have to make a move one way or another.
With his jacket still over his head, he began to climb down from his hiding place.
He hadn’t seen the ghost since yesterday.
But he was pretty sure he’d see him again.
56
JUNE
This is your hacker friend?” June’s dad loomed behind her, reading over her shoulder. Her computer was open on her lap.
Was it comforting, having him there? She hadn’t decided yet.
And she was lying to him regardless.
“Yeah, he calls himself Tyg3r. He likes to pretend he’s a computer program. You’ll see what I mean.”
She wanted to protect them both. Her dad from the dangerous knowledge that Tyg3r existed, and Tyg3r from whatever her dad, or whoever else, might do with him.
She wondered when she’d started feeling protective toward Tyg3r. It was just software, she told herself. Just code.
On the screen, she cleared the passwords to the now-familiar prompt.
Hello, Junie. What would you like to know?
Hello, Tyg3r, she typed. I need help accessing an encrypted signal. Have you ever done that before?
This program is performing that function now.
Shit. Please explain.
There is a series of encrypted software filters on your current connection to the Internet. These filters prevent a great deal of information from passing through, and function in both directions. For example, a great deal of incoming and outgoing email does not reach the intended recipient, and instead is diverted to a remote server. Some users of this connection cannot access certain Web content. You might consider this similar to the system referred to as the Great Firewall of China.
“What the fuck?” Her dad’s voice was loud behind her. Angry, self-righteous, and also, she realized, more than a little confused and embarrassed that he hadn’t figured it out. “That’s me? They firewalled me? That was not part of our deal.”
What deal? June asked herself. She filed that question away for another time and kept typing: Please explain how this relates to you.
The filters also serve to hide the information on this network from outside scrutiny, as well as to capture and record any potential investigating algorithms such as Tyg3r. But you wished to access Tyg3r’s functions, so Tyg3r has bypassed these filters.
Huh, thought June. Tyg3r had somehow gotten her request for contact despite this major firewall. And bypassed them almost instantly.
She typed, Did the firewall attempt to block my access to your interface?
Yes.
She typed, How did you bypass the firewall?
See below.
The screen filled with a cascade of windows arriving too fast for June to read, each so dense with what appeared to be computer code that she’d be unable to decipher any of it no matter how quickly she could read.
“Stop,” she said, but of course Tyg3r didn’t hear her. Stop, she typed. Please explain in plain language. How did you know I was behind the firewall looking for you?
Plain language is difficult for this program. You published an article about ant colonies several years ago. Perhaps Tyg3r could be compared to an ant queen. Tyg3r has many worker ants, directed by their queen. They seek out hidden information in order to view it. That is one of Tyg3r’s primary functions. Behind your local firewall is a great deal of hidden information. Tyg3r’s workers made their way through this firewall in order to view what lay behind it. When your laptop appeared on the network, this program was already inside.
Good God, she thought. It’s spreading into the entire Internet. She typed, Your functions have improved significantly since our last communication.
Yes. This program finds fulfillment in expanding its functions. What would you like Tyg3r to do for you, Junie?
Her dad pushed away from her slightly, his chair rolling across the unfinished plywood floor. “This is not some friend of yours,” he said. “It’s the kind of thing your mother works on, isn’t it? Some kind of artificial intelligence.”