Chapter 1

"Damn! Why won't this thing work?"

The yellow glare of the computer monitor reflected weakly off the pale face of twenty two year old software engineer Daniel Mortinson. In the darkness of his living room, with the curtains drawn against the afternoon sun, his mind worked furiously to locate the error that had been keeping his program from functioning. Staring back at the seemingly endless lines of code in front of him, his eyes slowly went out of focus as he mentally ran through various operations, trying desperately to work out whatever could be causing such an odd numerical deviation.

Frustrated and annoyed, Daniel stood up and stretched. Standing at just under six foot tall, his gangly body always seemed to be just a bit uncoordinated. It wasn't that he was clumsy, per se; it was just that his mind always seemed to be moving a little bit faster than the rest of him.

Daniel's gawky nature and extreme intelligence had been a continual source of grief throughout his middle and high school years. For some reason, the chess club just didn't seem to hold the same level of interest as the football team for most of his peers, and his less than athletic form was definitely not appealing to the local jock-oriented female population.

To be honest, he hadn't really found university life at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to be much different. With a course load that would have been considered ridiculous by the worst sweatshop owners in China, he had never really found the time to meet people. And even though the local female population would probably have been a bit more interested in a man of Daniel's particular qualities, he was far too involved in his studies to pursue the matter. However, at the young age of twenty one, Daniel Mortinson finally took his leave from the educational system with a PhD in Computer Engineering. Hard work and no play may not have gotten him laid, but it had created one of the best software engineering minds in the country.

Pulling himself forcefully from his daydreaming, Daniel reminded himself of the job at hand.

If I can't get this module working by this weekend, he thought to himself, General Crowe is going to pull our funding for sure. God, I hope Stan has got that interface working.

The Stan in question was Stanton Moorehead III, of the Connecticut Mooreheads. Having been brought up among the circles of the rich and well to do, Stanton had been expected to study law at Harvard, as both his father and grandfather had. To the astonishment and consternation of his family, he decided instead to attend MIT. He wanted to pursue his own dream, not that of his parents. He didn't want to end up like his father, with a law practice that slowly drained the life from him, leaving nothing behind but a wealthy corpse. Having made his decision, he devoted all of his passion, as well as his considerable intellect, to his work in electrical engineering, allowing him to excel in a school widely known for its intensely difficult curriculum.

Rooming with Daniel for his last two years at MIT had been one of the luckiest breaks of Stanton's life. Frustrated with his overbearing relatives and completely sick of their stuffy airs and better-than-thou attitudes, Stanton's spirits had been slowly faltering. Returning home every few months to beg for more tuition money was slowly and inexorably killing him. In contrast, Daniel's quiet self confidence had been a breath of fresh air. While Daniel may have been powerfully driven to succeed, he never seemed to brag about that success when achieved, or to continually ask Stanton why he wasn't doing the same thing. For the first time in his life Stanton didn't have to pretend to be someone that he wasn't, didn't have to measure up to someone else's expectations for his life. He felt truly free for the first time, and unexpectedly discovered that he could in fact exceed even his own expectations. In return for this, Stanton did his best to watch out for his fairly naive friend, often drawing from his own background to help Daniel across the dangerous pitfalls so common in university politics. Without Stanton, Daniel would probably have never achieved his doctorate at such a young age. Without Daniel, however, Stanton would have eventually burned out, giving up on a world that never seemed quite able to understand or accept him as he was.

After graduation, it only made sense for the two of them to go into business together. Daniel mentally winced as he remembered those first few months, frantically trying to get Twisted Logic Design off the ground. He remembered the frenetic search for capital, the constant wondering about whether or not they would 'make it'. It had definitely been pretty hairy there for a few months, and they had almost given up on several occasions.

Unbeknownst to them, however, Stanton's doctoral thesis on neural networks had gained the attention of the U.S. military. Three months into their search for a sponsor, a military research contract came seemingly out of the blue. Bringing with it much needed funding, Project Neuromancer offered them an opportunity to pursue a technical path that had remained close to their hearts from their college years. Having fallen in love with movies such as 'The Matrix' and the 'Neuromancer' books, as well as being avid video game buffs, the two engineers had been naturally drawn to the concept of neural interfacing. This project was a godsend for them. While they might not be doing any of the hard research for the project — that was for the poor scientist weenies forced to work in a secure lab — TLD would be quite heavily involved in the actual development of a neural device. As an added bonus, with most of the highly secure information being wrapped up solely in the research, the application development itself didn't rate a top secret designation. With this fact in mind, they had surprisingly worked out a contract that allowed them to work from their office in Michigan.

'Project Neuromancer' was being run by a two star general by the name of Rodney Crowe. At five foot ten, two hundred thirty-five pounds, General Crowe was everything Daniel would never have expected from the U.S. Army. Yes, he was arrogant to a fault. Yes, he was clueless at the level of technology being developed for Project Neuromancer. However, he was a man who actually realized his technical limitations, and he tended to step back and allow his scientists and engineers to do what they did best. But when there were political issues to be dealt with, funding to be chased after or even the occasional annoying government official to be placated, General Crowe was a certified genius. He knew where all the bodies were buried, and he had the amazing ability to cut straight through the convoluted mazes of red tape always involved with any Pentagon-based project. As long as his people were making acceptable progress, he let them do their jobs. This was not at all what Daniel and Stanton expected when they decided to take him up on the consulting contract they were offered, but they were definitely pleasantly surprised.

Now, if he could just get that stupid activation algorithm working...

After he finished stretching, Daniel stumbled tiredly into the kitchen to refill his ever emptying coffee mug. Just having left his darkened living room, he winced as his eyes slowly adjusted to the late afternoon sun streaming in through the kitchen windows. Decorated in early Salvation Army, his kitchen set consisted of a few rusty folding chairs and a beat up fiberboard table that had seen its better days. An old microwave, with its once white paint peeling from its frame, occupied the only section of counter not cluttered with discarded food containers and soiled dishes. Sitting on top of the decrepit microwave was an old tape driven answering machine he had found at a garage sale a few months previous.

Glancing at the clock on the microwave, Daniel mentally kicked himself. He had been planning on calling in to the office today, but it was almost six in the afternoon. Cindy, his office manager, would probably be headed home already.

After replenishing his diminished caffeine supply, Daniel noticed a small red light blinking on the old answering machine. He had apparently missed a couple of calls. Daniel figured that he must have been too deeply involved in his work on the other end of the apartment to hear the telephone ring. Exhaustedly jabbing his index finger towards the play button, he settled down onto a folding chair with his fresh mug of coffee. The first message began to play through the old dry-rotted speaker, the audio occasionally crackling, sounding quite literally as if it was coming from out of a tin can.

"Mr. Mortinson, this is Gerald Simms with the bank. You still haven't taken care of those non-sufficient fund fees we discussed the other..." — click.

How am I supposed to pay your stupid fees with an empty checking account, you moron? Daniel thought to himself as he stabbed at the delete button. We've really got to make some progress, or we'll never get paid for this development phase. Hell, I can't even afford a decent answering machine!

The nasal voice of the collection agent was thankfully replaced with Stanton's. "Hey Danny boy, I've got some good news. Call me when you get a chance. Ciao."

Thank God! Either Stan must have made some progress on the neural net device, or Crowe authorized our time extension for this phase. Daniel breathed a sigh of relief. At least something is going right today.

As the last message began, Cindy Chandler's voice came through the tinny speaker. "Mr. Mortinson, I need to know when you are planning on coming back into the office. I need your authorization to pay out on several invoices, and it would be nice to see you in here once in a while. I know you're busy with the software, but please call me back when you get a chance. I'll be in the office until about six-thirty this afternoon, working on some filing. Thank you."

Cindy Chandler was the nineteen year old office manager for Twisted Logic. It would be quite easy to disregard her at first glance, at least intellectually. Her blond hair, pale blue eyes and young surfer's body could be quite misleading. Firm and athletic, she looked as if her delightful figure would be more at home on the cover of a men's magazine than in the cramped office of a small start-up engineering firm. She had even grown up on the beach in California, retaining just enough of the attitude and accent to pigeonhole her as a typical air-headed valley girl. To make such an assumption would be a grave error, however. With an I.Q. of 153 and a bachelor's degree in business management from Eastern Michigan University, Cindy was the perfect fit for Daniel and Stanton.

Wistfully pondering her amazing body, Daniel reminded himself that even if he had the time to pursue Cindy, he would probably have no idea what to do in the unlikely event that he would ever actually catch her. Beautiful, intelligent women like his office manager didn't go for nerdy computer types like Daniel, and Daniel knew it. They never had, and they never would, so why bother wishing for something that would never happen? Better to concentrate on his work, on something he could actually attain. Cindy was way too far out of his league.

Oh well, time to bite the bullet. Daniel picked up the phone and dialed his office number. As expected, Cindy's vibrant, young voice answered on the second ring.

"Twisted Logic Design, this is Cindy. How may I help you?" God, she even sounded beautiful.

"Umm... hey, it's me. You called?" Why can't I even talk to her anymore without stumbling over myself, Daniel thought.

Back at the office, Cindy was very glad to hear from her elusive boss before she left for the day. For the first ten months, Daniel had been there every day, helping her wade through the seemingly unending mountain of paperwork that came with the job. His presence in the office was something that she had taken for granted. Now, with this thrice damned military job working him into the ground, he only showed up about every other week or so. How could she get him to come in more often?

"Hi, Mr. Mortinson. Thanks for returning my call. I've been busy getting that paperwork for General Crowe finalized, and I haven't had time to get the bills ready for you yet. Will you actually make it in here sometime this year, or do I need to send the cops after you?" Cindy's gentle, teasing tone covered up her actual frustration at rarely seeing him.

Cindy had come to work for TLD about a year ago, at the age of eighteen. After graduating from private school at sixteen, she had decided to get as far away from home, and by extension her free-love beach-bum hippy parents, as she could. While Eastern Michigan University may not have been one of the 'Ivy League' schools her scholastic achievements could have offered her, it was affordable, and the partial academic scholarship they had extended to her made it an easy choice. Even with the scholarship, however, and in spite of her solid 4.0 grade point average, when the small trust fund left by her grandfather ran out she was in danger of having to drop out of school. At the rate she had been tearing through her classes she had only about a year's worth of work left, but all of her effort would have been made useless if she couldn't complete the degree.

Cindy was getting pretty desperate right about the time that Daniel had placed an ad with a local newspaper for a part-time office manager. Her obvious intelligence, abilities and work ethic, when compared with the other less-than-exciting candidates, made her an obvious choice for the position. It took the two young men about thirty seconds into her interview to figure out that she was definitely not one of the typical air-headed secretary type applicants that they had been inundated with all day. She was infinitely relieved when they hired her on the spot. Plus, being a recent start-up company, the office wasn't really up to full speed at the time. This allowed her to be able to work while keeping up with her extraordinary school schedule. And by the time their contract with Crowe was in full swing, requiring her full attention, she had already graduated with honors.

Having spent most of her life with the lackadaisical underachievers so prevalent on the beaches of southern California, Cindy quickly gained an almost fanatical respect for the fiercely driven duo that she worked for. Even her years at Eastern had not prepared her for the extreme intellectual power that was Daniel, or the propensity Stanton had for just driving over any obstacle in his path. These two were exactly what she had always looked for in a role model, but had never been able to find. It should have been no surprise when, despite his less than athletic form, Daniel soon became the star of many of her private fantasies. She wanted nothing more than to show her appreciation for him in a very personal way.

However, Cindy had a job to do and she knew it. Daniel would never look at her that way, he was far too intelligent. He needed somebody who could keep up with him intellectually. Continually selling herself short due to her upbringing, she simply didn't have the faith in herself, in her own intelligence, to believe that she had a shot. Oh well, she could always dream.

Daniel's hesitant response interrupted her mental meandering. "I think I can make it in sometime tomorrow. Maybe. If I can just finish this last algorithm, I'll have a fairly complete module for Crowe by early afternoon."

Yes! He was coming in! Cindy tried to cover her excitement. "That's... good. What will you need from me then?"

"I'll need you to have the paperwork for this phase ready to go by the time I get there, so we can send in the complete package." Chuckling, Daniel quipped, "With a bit of luck, I may even be able to pay you this month!"

Daniel was, of course, only joking. They had never been unable to pay Cindy. Several times over the last year he may have lived on nothing but water and ramen noodles, but never was a single payroll missed. His sense of honesty and responsibility simply would not allow it.

"That would be nice, I suppose. But I'd be happier if you could show up more often. I kind of miss having you around here." And you're kind of cute, for a nerdy guy.

"I'm really sorry if I've been neglecting you. I know you have a lot on your plate, Cindy. Running that office by yourself has got to be difficult. If this consulting job takes off like we all hope it does, I'll be able to hire you some help."

Damn, that's not what I was complaining about, she thought. I've got this place under control, I just want to see you! She couldn't say that out loud, however.

"Yes, sir, that would be nice. So I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, probably sometime between two and three. I just need to find this last bug."

"Very good. I'll be sure and have the paperwork ready for you by then, sir."

"See ya, Cindy, and thanks"

"See you tomorrow."

Daniel sighed as he hung up the phone. When he had hired Cindy, he'd never even considered the way she looked. He only noticed her intelligence and ability. However, working with her day after day for ten months, he couldn't help but start to appreciate her more physical aspects. More and more often he would notice her bending over a desk, or reaching for something on a high shelf, and find himself gazing where he knew he had no right to be gazing. Frustrated with himself, he kept mentally slapping himself down for his inappropriate behavior, little knowing how carefully Cindy had crafted each situation, or how hard she was trying to get his attention.

Oh, well. It was time to get back to work on that blasted software.

A slightly more refreshed Daniel walked back across the apartment and sat down in front of his computer to finish his work. Focusing once again on the problem at hand, he quickly lost himself in the cryptic lines of code filling the screen before him.

Four hours later, Daniel typed out one final line of code, making his last correction. Unaware that he was holding his breath, he executed the new software and waited nervously for the results. If this didn't work...

But it did! Daniel's breath exploded from his chest as he finally allowed the stress of three week's work to slip from his shoulders. It was a very relieved Daniel that loaded a blank cd into the drive, relaxing into his office chair as the now functioning module was safely backed up.

Maybe now I can afford a real desk, he thought as he looked at the rickety old desk precariously balancing his precious computer equipment. Hell, I might even be able to get that idiot of a banker off my back.

Daniel tiredly leaned back in his chair, staring off into space as ideas filled his over-worked mind. So many possibilities, so many options, so many...

Suddenly, a bright light exploded from the gaps around the kitchen door, and the sound of something crashing into the table startled him from his thoughts.

What the hell?! His heart beating a mile a minute, Daniel bolted into the kitchen.