Chapter 3

When Cynthia got back to the apartment after basketball practice late that afternoon, she discovered Tom and Roger hard at work sifting through the Program website forum posts, categorizing the kinds of descriptions of kids’ reported adverse effects and copying the results to their own database files on the Polytech server.

“Wow, why all that frantic activity? That stuff’ll be there; there’s no need to get it copied off...” she began.

Roger looked up. “We’ve got a possible problem and maybe a change of plans. Tom heard that the feds found the server and will have this site shut down before Monday. So we’re trying to find the hottest stuff and get it saved before the site goes away.”

“Maybe the TV news’ll have something,” Tom said as he got up and embraced and kissed her. “Hi, lover, missed you lots today.”

While they ate, the news came on and the three kids turned their attention to the report when they heard the word “Program” mentioned.

“ ... Program, which you’ve heard about unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past two or three years. Don has this tidbit of titillating national news.”

“Thanks, Jean, but for once this news about the Program isn’t titillating. The Office of Social Awareness, the federal agency which runs the Naked in School Program, announced this afternoon that they have become aware of what they term an ‘illegal pirate website’ which is providing inaccurate, false, misleading, and sensational information about the Program’s operation in schools around the country. Our network sources report that the Social Awareness office has contacted every high school, asking that each school administration inform its students that if the student accesses what they refer to as that ‘illegal’ website, they are committing a federal crime and they promise to arrest and prosecute all students who visit it. They have also assured school officials that the site will be shut down before Monday, and all contributors to the site will be identified and punished.

“The tech people at our studio have been trying to find the site for the past four days, when we first heard about it, and we still can’t locate it, Jean, so it’s unclear if the feds have been any more successful than our tech people.”

“Don, do we know if the government can carry out those threats, then?”

“We asked that question of Dr Morris Johnson, chair of the Department of Information Technology at Georgia Polytechnic. Here’s what he had to say in an interview this afternoon.”

“Dr Johnson, I’m Don Ferris of WAPM News, thanks for speaking with us. You heard about the government’s claim about the Program website they refer to as a ‘pirate’ site. We can’t locate where it is physically—geographically—located.”

“Don, that’s right. The site operators have used technological tools to mask the site’s location; it’s quite sophisticated, really, and implies that the resources of a large technical organization were used to set that operation up.”

“How is that even possible? Doesn’t the user of every website have to register—it’s with ICANN, right? Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers?”

“True, Don, for all private-sector websites. And this is one of those. But to register the site, the operator’s used shell corporation names and addresses. There are actually physical offices at the registered addresses but it seems that no one is physically present at those locations, but it’s been set up following all the rules despite that. I’m aware of some internet security firms who are very interested in talking with the people who set up that operation.”

“Then, sir, do you think that the government can make good on its promise to shut the site down?”

“Well, I don’t see how. The server’s certainly not in the U.S. But that leaves the rest of the world for the feds to search; even if they found the country where the server is located, they’d have to bring diplomatic pressure to bear—but I’d bet that with an operation this sophisticated, they’ve got it mirrored—that means a duplicate server—elsewhere, in another country, as a backup, and the sophistication of this operation implies that they could move their servers around at will. So, no, I believe that shutting them down is a hollow threat.”

“Thank you for those fascinating details, Dr Johnson.”

“Glad I could help, Don.”

“So you see, Jean, that this website is probably immune from government interference, and now if you would like some real titillation, and have a strong stomach to boot, you too can see what the government is all in a snit about. Just visit the site and begin reading, but you’ve been warned. Don’t blame WAPM if what you read horrifies you. Here’s a screen-shot of the home page, it’s in a blog format, and the current blog article is about this very government shut-down threat. And that’s our national news.”

“Holy shit,” Tom breathed. “I guess we can stand down, right? Wow, that’s so cool! Stick it in the eye, you feds! Crap, the more I work on these damned stories of what’s happened to these kids, the sicker I get. I owe the two of you big time for what you kept out of our school, guys.”

“Yes, I do too,” Ayame said; she had come in when the news program was almost over. “Hello, darling,” she greeted Roger with a hug and kiss. “Hee, hee, cute how you all huddle over TV.”

“Well, look, Ayame,” Tom groused. “See how little space there is here? Can’t turn around without banging into someone. Lucky we’re such great friends.”

“Yeah, we really need to find a larger place,” Cynthia sighed. “But we’re stuck here till the summer when the lease is up. Oh, well. Yeah, there’s no rush to copy all that stuff now, so relax.”

“Well, that gives us a little time to play this weekend, right?” Tom asked with a twinkle in his eye.

“Uh, oh,” Cynthia said as she looked at him. “I know he’s got something up his sleeve when he gets that look...”

“I was just thinking, while it’s still warm, and while our class load is still reasonable, we could go somewhere and catch a few rays of sunlight,” Tom went on.

“You mean at a nudist place,” Cynthia finished for him.

“Well, why not? You enjoyed it the last few times when we squeezed in those last visits during this summer.”

“Where did you find a place?” Roger asked.

“Only about an hour-and-a-half away, actually. And the daily grounds fees are great for college students; we just need our student IDs. We can even stay overnight. It’s free if we bring our own tents but there are rentals on site that are pretty cheap too.”

“Did you meet someone who told you about the place?” Cynthia asked. “Some cute girl?” she asked, with an evil expression.

“Yeah, this naked girl came up to me in the cafeteria and told me that I looked like I was a nudist and she had just the camp for me,” he joked. “You’re the one who gets to fraternize with all those naked kids all the time now, not me. I’m getting lonely for some nice nude flesh.”

“So I’m not good enough for you every night anymore, bub?” Cynthia mock-scowled.

“Oh, my god. You damn near wear it out every night and you know it, Cyn,” Tom gasped.

Ayame giggled, “Yes, and you keep us up too. You must learn to keep quiet.”

Cynthia looked at her and laughed. “Sweetie, Tom and I get off just listening to you gasp and moan and cry. Listening to the two of you making love is the fuckin’ sexiest thing I’ve ever heard,” she snickered, while Ayame blushed and hid her face in her hands.

Their visit to the local resort that weekend was memorable and they met two other student couples who were enrolled at Avery.

Monday began the new basketball and swimming intensified training regimen and the twins had to be at the athletic complex early each morning for talks, exercise, and meals with their teams. They would have limited time each day during the season, and they would receive their assignments and course work through their academic liaisons when games took them away from campus for more than a day.

Monday afternoon, as Cynthia was getting ready to leave Merritt High after observing another class where the Program had again played a prominent part of the lesson, she was musing about her discussion with the teacher after the class about the validity of an educational objective that expected a girl to allow a classroom full of boys to feel the texture of the inside her vagina and to try to locate her G-spot. She had to intervene in that lesson, pointing out to an incredibly grateful girl and a highly annoyed teacher that, according to the Program rules, any penetration of the body had to be completely voluntary. She pointed out that a boy’s finger was just as improper of a penetrating object as a pencil or even a boy’s penis.