dotmeme by Mike A. Lancaster

Author:Mike A. Lancaster
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510708082
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Published: 2018-02-12T05:00:00+00:00

It took fifteen minutes of trial and error, question and answer, urging and pleading, calming and reassuring, but when the breakthrough occurred, it was pretty obvious it had happened.

The sleepy hesitancy of Brian’s responses dissipated and, although his eyes remained firmly closed and his body was still relaxed, he seemed more awake, more open to Dr. Ghoti’s questions.

As far as Ani could tell, the patient probing and questioning had been shots fired at an invisible target. Words had been chosen, fired at Brian’s sleeping mind, and their effects upon him were gauged, analyzed, and either included in, or excluded from, the next salvo. Dr. Ghoti was searching for a way in, but a way into what, Ani wasn’t completely sure. Still, it was fascinating to watch.

Ani had taken two YETI courses on cold reading—the human ability to appear to know what someone was thinking just by judging an individual’s responses to general questions and making educated guesses. It was the same trick that psychics and spiritualists used to convince their vulnerable victims that they had supernatural powers, while only possessing a reasonable grasp of human psychology and the fact that human minds remembered “hits” and forgot about “misses.”

Dr. Ghoti was doing something similar, but Brian’s sleepy replies made it hard to focus on anything with any authority. Some hacker-specific computer phrases seemed to get better results than anything else, but it was still like trying to see something through a thick fog. Just as you thought you got a glimpse of what you were looking for, the fog swirled and the image was lost.

But there had to be a trigger somewhere, a key that would unlock the files they wanted.

Files, Ani thought. What was it Dr. Ghoti had said? That the chemical was a biological filing manager?

Files.

The file.

“Can I try?” Ani asked, and when Dr. Ghoti nodded, she took a deep breath, played her hunch, and said, “victorious.meme.”

There was a moment where nothing happened. Ani thought that the long shot had been just that. She was far from being the expert here, and she didn’t know why she’d thought that she would be the one to make a breakthrough. But then she noticed that Brian’s eyeballs were rolling around under his eyelids—rapid eye movements.

And then Brian said, “Open file.” It was a good thing that Dr. Ghoti had remembered to set up the voice recorder, and turn it on, because a torrent of words followed.

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