"Anyway, after I retired, I went back to school — at least inside my head. There's a whole different way of looking at problem solving if you want to solve large problems fast . It's like learning to use power tools, except that nowadays your tools aren't just Google and symbolic math packages, they're also the idea boards and future speculations and — "
"And dealing with people?"
"Yup. People were never part of my equations — but that doesn't matter anymore. There are design bureaus that specialize in handling the nicey-nice." Tommie leaned forward, confiding. "Since I started working on this project, everything has come together! Getting into the tunnels would be useless if the staff were still in the labs. So I've turned the political maneuvering between the Hacekeans and the Scoochis into the most spectacular media distraction — a clash of belief circles. It'll be so cool! I've found a design coordinator who understands what I'm after. I make the overall concept and he farms it out all over the planet. The detailed plans just grow into place!"
Tommie sat back, his frustration swept away by this vision of his new powers. "And look at my computer!" His hand passed lovingly across the device. The cabinet was nicked and scratched. It looked like it had hosted generations of burglars. The LEDs along the top were set in little pits hacked into the metal. OF Tommie didn't believe in "no user-serviceable parts within."
"Over the years, I've replaced everything inside. Too often the changes were to satisfy new standards and the damned SHE. But now in the last couple of months, I've put a revolution inside this box. It subverts nontrivial parts of the Secure Hardware Environment. I swear, Robert, I'm hotter than DARPA and CIA ever were in the twentieth century."
Robert was silent for a moment. Then he said, "I'll bet you will figure some way to get Sharif in."
"Ha. That would be the frosting on the cake. The obvious trick is straight out of the twentieth century: We just lay our own cable. That would support decent data rates — enough for Sharif, anyway — and we'd still be all dark and quiet." He glanced at Robert and apparently took his silence for incredulity. "I know, it's a long walk, and the tunnel security will be mostly live. But there's a kind of slimclad optical fiber… or there will be after I get done with my design coordinator."
"Yes. Your design coordinator."
"I am everywhere, and I appear however I wish, to produce the results that I wish ." The new world was a magical place, but there was a hierarchy of miracles. There was what Juan and Robert could do. There was what Louise Chumlig was trying to teach. There was what Tommie had taught himself. And somewhere above it all, there was what the Mysterious Stranger could do.
19
Failure Is an Option
At Fairmont High, final exams were spread across several days. There were some similarities with what he remembered of childhood. The kids were distracted by the upcoming holidays. Worse, the Christmas movie season was something that was beginning to pervade the various shared worlds they lived in.
But finals were different in one profound way from his experience in high school. For Robert Gu, these new exams were hard . It was not a foregone conclusion that he would max the tests and outdo everyone around him. The only similar situation from his past was in undergraduate school, when he had briefly been forced into real science courses. In those classes, he had finally met students who were not automatically his inferiors — and he had also met teachers who were not impressed by his genius. Once past the mandatory science curriculum, Robert had avoided such humiliation.
Until now.
Math and formal common sense. Statistics and data mechanics. Search and analysis. Even the S&A exam limited one's opportunity to go out on the net and use the intelligence of others. Though she taught collaboration, Chumlig had always droned about the importance of core competencies. Now all her mismatched platitudes were coming together in one hellweek of testing.
Right after the "common sense" exam, the Mysterious Stranger manifested himself. He was just a voice and a greenish glow. "Having trouble with the exams, my man?"
"I'll get by." In fact, the math had actually been interesting.
Miri — > Juan, Xiu: <sm>He's talking to someone again.</sm>
Xiu — > Juan, Miri: <sm>What is he saying?</sm>
Miri — > Juan, Xiu: <sm>I don't know. Local audio has gone private. Juan! Get out there.</sm>
Juan — > Miri, Xiu: <sm>You're not the boss of me. I was going to talk to Robert now anyway.</sm>
The Stranger chuckled. "At Fairmont High, they don't give automatic A grades, or even automatic passing grades. Failure is an option, but you — "
Relief was in sight. He saw Juan Orozco coming out of the class building, heading his way. The stranger continued," — and Juan Orozco are not certain F's. You're on a simplified curriculum. You should see the exams they're planning for your granddaughter."
"What about my granddaughter?" If the slimeball brought her into this —
But the voice did not reply.
Juan looked around questioningly. "Were you talking to someone, Robert?"
"Not about school things."
"Because I didn't see anybody." He hesitated, and letters coursed across Robert's view. Juan — > Robert: <sm>It's really important not to collaborate outside of the rules.</sm>
"I understand," Robert replied out loud.
"Okay." Clearly Juan didn't think Robert could pass all the tests. Sometimes it seemed like the poor kid was trying to protect him . "See," Juan continued, "the school uses a real good proctor service. Maybe there are some kids who can fool it, but there's a lot more who only think they can."
And then there's the Mysterious Stranger, who seems to have no trouble at all with security . The Stranger was so powerful, yet he still got pleasure from taunting Robert. Could it be some old enemy — someone a good deal brighter than Winnie Blount?
"Anyway, I think we have a chance for an A in our semester demo, Robert." The boy launched into the latest plans for using his writing together with manual music and Robert's network algorithms. It was the blind leading the blind, but after a few moments Robert was absorbed in it.
Things were very tense around the house, and it had nothing to do with final exams. In point of fact, Robert's midnight fracas at the front bathroom amounted to a physical assault. Never mind that he'd been trying to protect Alice — that was scarcely something he could claim. This time there were no threats, no showdowns. But Robert could see an uneasiness in Bob's eyes that hadn't been there before. It was the look of a fellow who begins to wonder if the snake he's been keeping might actually be a black mamba. That conclusion would get Robert shipped to Rainbows End faster than any mere boorishness.
Miri gave him a clue as to why this hadn't happened. She caught up with him one afternoon as he wandered around West Fallbrook hoping for contact with some friendly form of Sharif.
Miri rode her old bike along beside him for a few paces, matching his speed, and wobbling wildly. Finally she hopped off and walked the bike. As usual, her posture was schoolmarm straight. She looked at him sideways for a moment. "How are your finals going, Robert?"
"Hi Miri. How are your finals going?"
"I asked first! Besides, you know my finals don't start till after the break." Her ebullient bossiness seemed to collide with diplomacy. "So how are you doing?"