Chapter 13

"I've been thinking," Cynthia said. They were holding hands as they walked down the hall to the Computer Lab.

"Careful, you could hurt yourself."

"I know, and I promise not to do it very often in the future. No, what I was thinking was how people are consciously making Claiborne like other schools, socially speaking of course, despite the programming."

"Oh? How so?"

"We're pairing up, just like at other schools. We hold hands, we eat lunch together, and we hang out together."

"The only difference is what we do when we're not together."

"Well, yeah, there is that, but that's the programming. Other than that, though, we're typical high school students."

"More or less typical," he said. "We're both getting good grades, and—"

"And mine are due to go down a bit because my cousins are about to come visit me," she said, cutting him off. "My aunt and uncle love visiting the Oregon Coast and they're dragging their brood along with them."

"I couldn't believe it when I found out you weren't from Phoenix. I'd even spent some time researching what it was like in Arizona, and was trying to find some way to get out there."

"That was my parents fault. For whatever reason they're both paranoid about their former friends knowing where we live. They haven't told me why, either, but I think it has to do with when they were in college."

"Our parents have all these secrets," Jared said. "And they're still dealing with things that happened before we were born."

"It's like what a friend of mine told me once," Cynthia said. "You know your parents had sex, you wouldn't be here if they hadn't, but somehow you can't picture it. Your parents have to be asexual."

"I know. So where does this great idea of yours lead?"

She paused at the top of the stairs in the library. "We've been looking for the core programming, the one that drives all of the sexual activity. And we all know that it isn't where we've looked. So..."

"You think it's somewhere else?" He started down the steps slowly, listening intently. "Some place we haven't looked?"

Cynthia nodded. "I spent some time reviewing the tapes of the earlier times at Claiborne, back three and four years ago."

"Hard to realize this has been going on for seven years."

"Isn't it? Anyway, I saw a lot less hand-holding and other non-sexual interactions. The earliest tapes were completely different. Kids had sex after nearly every class and orgies in the showers after P.E. It was a non-stop sexual romp."

"And now it's a little more muted. There are still some who do it five and six times a day."

"Guilty ... once in a while," Cynthia laughed. "It's mostly around the time of my period in the outside world, though. All of the hormones that are released during my cycle make me hornier than you'd believe—"

"Oh, I don't know. I've experienced a few of those days."

She laughed again. "True. In the outside world I'd suffer. After all, nice girls don't touch themselves down there. But here at Claiborne it's different. Horny? Find a guy and take care of it."

"And since us guys are horny most of the time, it works out."

"Of course that just leaves the doing it three or four times a day. That's average around here."

"Huh. That still seems a lot. I guess I hadn't noticed."

"Everyone does it when they get here," she said, ticking a point off on her fingers, "that's one. Then about mid-morning, though not everyone does. I'd say about half the students do, though. Lunch, maybe, well, usually. Then some do it in the middle of the afternoon. But nearly everyone does it before going home."

"That's five times."

"I know. In real life that'd be way too much. I was reading something here in the library—have you looked at the books and tapes here? They're mostly sex related.

"Anyway, I was reading the diary of this housewife who's a swinger. She averaged six men a night at a party, and she and her husband would go to these three-day retreats."

"I read something about that," Jared said, "and I really felt for the guys. All of this pussy around you and you can only get it up three or four times."

"Yeah, a girl can go until she gets tired, or too sensitive down there." She giggled. "That doesn't happen very often around here."

"No, not really. I can recover a lot faster than I can outside."

"You've been screwing multiple girls in the outside world?"

It was his turn to laugh. "Not even close. No, I'll jerk off. Once is great, twice is pretty good, but after three times there's no gas in the tank. Here, though, a girl expresses interest, and bam!, it comes up."

"And it doesn't take much to attract a guy," Cynthia said. "Just look him in the eye and smile, and two minutes later you're on your back."

"And this is wrong in what way?"

"Silly! I didn't say it was wrong, I was just describing the process. Let me just say that there are some really talented tongues here at Claiborne."

By then they'd reached the Computer Lab. They were the first ones there, and as Jared keyed in the pass code and opened the door, Cynthia stopped.

"Back to what we were talking about," she said, "we need to follow the internal changes in the programming. Find out what's changed, or is in a constant state of change, and follow that."

"Then we'd just have to decide whether to make any changes at all."

"Well," she shrugged, "the programming conditions us to like walking around in a state of constant arousal, and I know we have to develop beyond that if we were to function in the real world, so..."

"You have some ideas."

"Let's just say we need to talk. All of us. I'd feel uncomfortable making major changes that would impact the whole school."

"At least not without checking and testing and getting permission, and..."

"And all of those other hoops to jump through."

"So, did you have an idea where this programming module might be?"

She sat at her station and began setting the controls. "Pretty much. Here, I'll show you."

He joined her in the interface and followed her as she moved through the lace work appearance of the programming. They finally stopped at a tightly interwoven net of white filaments.

"I've been monitoring the system induced changes," she said, "and this is the only one I can't account for."

Jared tagged it with 'Possible Core', and backed away. He could see subtle shifts of light in the interior. He'd learned through experience that those were small changes that were being made by the system. After a few minutes there were no overt changes visible like they'd seen with the test version, but he felt like there was a basic color change.

"I wonder what that was about?" he asked.

"Well, I had Alex isolate the clone's programming, and I thought we could load up the students and compare the results."

"Worth a try."

They did so, and inserted themselves in the clone, but only as invisible observers.

"See anything?" he asked.

"Nothing off the top of my head. Kids are still holding hands, and they're doing it on a regular basis."

"It's a small change," he said. "So that means it might be limited to just one or two people."

"Like another couple that are acting like a couple," she said, "and not playing the field."

Jared sped up the clone, but concentrated on just the girls. He soon had a list of couples by seeing who the girls consistently held hands with. Then he checked those girls in the school.

"Got it," he said at last. "Look at Rebecca Marley and Tom Prentiss." The two were chastely sharing a kiss before parting outside one of the classrooms.

"They make a nice couple," Cynthia said. "All right. That has to be the core."

"Let's talk it over with the others."

Alex and Irene were both in the Parental Version clone. When Jared let them know they needed to talk, Irene withdrew to meet them in the Lab.

"We found the core programming module," Cynthia said, and explained how they'd done it, and confirmed what it was.

"That presents some problems," Irene said. "Did you isolate it?"

"No, because that would be a change to the environment."

"Good. I was following up a hunch I had today. The versions have to talk to one another in some way. We know they share a few basic modules, the architecture one comes to mind."

"Most of the architecture," Cynthia said. "The restrooms and locker rooms aren't shared."

"But the rest of the building is," Irene said, nodding. "So I got to looking at how those changes percolate back and forth. I found that some of the minor changes we made in the Parent's Version have moved to the master as well."

"Such as?"

"Last week I added more spaces in the parking lot. There used to be eight, now there are twelve. This morning, on my way in to class, I made a point of counting them. There are twelve, though they show no sign of being used."

"What's Alex doing?"

"Changing a little of the landscaping outside. That's one of those non-consequential changes we agreed to make."

"And in a week they'd be in the master," Cynthia said.

"And my trace would be right there with them." Irene smiled. "That's how I was going to find the core programming. Or at least the links between versions."

"Which would be almost the same thing. Was he coming back here when he was done?"

Irene nodded. "Yes, and then we have some questions to ask and decisions to make."

"So what have you found?" Mr. Saunders asked.

"The core, and how it interacts with all of the versions," Cynthia said. They were using the videoconferencing hook-up in the lab. Mr. Saunders was in his office wearing a white shirt and tie. As a gesture toward whoever else might be watching, the four of them had donned the clothes they wore when visiting the Parent's Version, at least from the waist up. Cynthia had taken the time to close up her vest and wear a blouse under it.

"We've been documenting it," Alex added, "and we think we have a handle on how changes in the modules interact with each other."

"Good. Have you discussed this with Hanna?"

"Yesterday," Jared said.

"And you still think there are changes that need to be made?"

The four looked at each other. This was there chance. They'd talked it over, and listed the things they wanted done.

"Before we go into that," Jared said, "what of the one change we have requested."