Wapsi Square Forum

Returning to the shop floor Al and his unwelcome guest walked in toward the machine shop – the section tucked in under the office. In doing so, they walked past the ambulance, placidly soiling the floor where it was parked.

“What’s that?”

“Old Land-Rover ambulance – the last of my collection. All my other classic cars were destroyed when my shop blew up. This one survived because it was with me at the time.”

“Why’s it got the winery logos on it?”

“It got loaned out for a photo shoot.”

With this, Camilla got suspicious. She’d known a few gearheads over the years, and not a one would have allowed a classic ANYTHING to be repainted for a photo shoot. She scribbled down a note.

Once they reached the machine shop Al went into excruciating detail on the machines there, their uses and the jobs they were presently set up for. After a half-hour of explanation of the history of the machines Camilla was about ready to pack it in, but hung in there doggedly – there was something here that just didn’t pass the smell test.

They walked toward the restoration bays, and the vehicles there in various conditions.

“Some of these are customer vehicles, some are jobs we’re doing for other resellers, and a few are cars I am redoing for resale.” He put his hand on the front fender of a 1954 Land-Rover. “This Series I came out of the Texas desert – lovely little car and in fine condition. It’s going to be joining the ambulance back there in my collection once its rubber and seals are renewed – by it’s not a priority job – the customer vehicles are.”

“And what’s back there?” She pointed at the wall splitting the facility in half.

BUGGER! Al thought. Oh, well – time to just go for the Big Lie.

“Nothing. This building has seen a lot of uses over the years, and that partition dates to AHI’s last use – I’m not sure what it was for. The section back there is currently unoccupied, and I use it for storage of customer vehicles in the off season, and tools, parts and supplies that are in long-term preservation. Now, if you’ll come this way…”

And they plodded onward.

Glytch's phone buzzed in his pocket while he was carefully soldering a circuit board for Legion's dampeners. Putting the solder gun in its stand, he fished the phone out and looked at the notification.
GLDNEYE plate ran - origin of request: Star-Tribune

Glytch immediately unplugged the solder gun and bolted for his office.

Tim, one of Glytch's coworkers and an absolute wizard with optics, watched as the hooded madboy sprinted through the lab, occasionally vaulting over the odd centrifuge or mass spectrometer, shrugged, and went back to work on his contact lens camera. "Nervous fellow, ain't he?" Tim muttered to no one in particular.

Glytch fired up his laptop and began to trace the origin of the plate request back to a Charles Jefferson. As with all too many companies, the technological infrastructure had been neglected in favor of saving money and time, which is money. Not only was the hardware rediculously outdated (they were using computers that shipped with Windows 98 for Pete's sake), the software was hopeless (Windows XP, and it wasn't even fully updated). Breaking in was a piece of cake, and assuming absolute control of the rest of the press company's intranet was the rest of the cake.
Mmm... Cake... Maybe I'll stop by Trefzger's on my way home...
It was no more than fifteen minutes when Glytch subtly copied a record of all phone traffic for the building as it was sent through the intranet, and only another minute to isolate Charles Jefferson's calls. From there, he traced all of the incoming cell phone calls and found three within the cellular range of Al, at Building 2. After that, it was a simple matter of ordering all nearby cell towers to ping those three numbers and triangulate the locations of each.

One number, belonging to Camilla Dustin, was currently being led around the building by Al himself.

Cracking a thoroughly wicked grin, Glytch called Camilla's phone number.

She answered on the third ring. "Camilla Dustin, Star-Tribune."
"Hi, could you pass the phone to Al?"
There was a very nervous silence on the other end of the line, followed by a muffled, but equally nervous "It's... It's for you."

GlytchMeister wrote:She answered on the third ring. "Camilla Dustin, Star-Tribune."
"Hi, could you pass the phone to Al?"
There was a very nervous silence on the other end of the line, followed by a muffled, but equally nervous "It's... It's for you."

That feels somewhere in between "A Romulan Warbird de-cloaking 100 metres off the starboard bow" and "Waving a red cape in front of a bull".

One of the prerequisites for having stealthy skillz, is being stealthy with their use.

I may have said this before, but I do hope that those mad hacking skills only belong to the fictional GlytchMeister, right?

[wimper]Right?[/wimper]

Dave wrote:

GlytchMeister wrote:She answered on the third ring. "Camilla Dustin, Star-Tribune."
"Hi, could you pass the phone to Al?"
There was a very nervous silence on the other end of the line, followed by a muffled, but equally nervous "It's... It's for you."

That feels somewhere in between "A Romulan Warbird de-cloaking 100 metres off the starboard bow" and "Waving a red cape in front of a bull".

So, scaring and egging on at the same time? Probably... Whatever happens next, something is sure to happen...

Dave wrote:One of the prerequisites for having stealthy skillz, is being stealthy with their use.

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do...

lake_wrangler wrote:So, scaring and egging on at the same time? Probably... Whatever happens next, something is sure to happen...

Yeah. Sorta like waving a Red Bull in front of a Klingon. Expect a loud bellowing of "What's this?!? I ordered a raktajino!"

Glytch, that was singularly unhelpful. She now knows that someone actually CARES enough to track down that she's standing next to Al Richer. Someone with the technical expertise and equipment to do so. That's a very interesting fact, and Al is trying to bore her into submission.

I was thinking the same, Warrl. All the background anomalies that have cropped up so far just snapped into the foreground.

Well, Al has been deemed the center of chaos...

A story without conflict... Isn't.

Besides, I ran it by Al-the-author first. He said ok. I don't know what he's planning.

Oh, I was talking to Glytch the character. Not Glytch the writer.

Imagine how boring and restricted fiction would be if nobody ever did anything that, had they a full knowledge of facts, would seem stupid.

Warrl wrote:Oh, I was talking to Glytch the character. Not Glytch the writer.

Imagine how boring and restricted fiction would be if nobody ever did anything that, had they a full knowledge of facts, would seem stupid.

Though of all the toons, Glytch is most likely to completely disintegrate the fourth wall...in style.

Warrl wrote:Oh, I was talking to Glytch the character. Not Glytch the writer.

Ah. It's unsettlingly easy to confuse the two. I still have to edit out first-person pronouns every now and then.

Warrl wrote:Imagine how boring and restricted fiction would be if nobody ever did anything that, had they a full knowledge of facts, would seem stupid.

No thank you. That would be far too boring.

DinkyInky wrote:Though of all the toons, Glytch is most likely to completely disintegrate the fourth wall...in style.

...well, that opens up some possibilities... Hmm...

[Deadpool]Why, Dinky, I'm sure I haven't the faintest clue as to what you're talking about![/Deadpool]
[White box]Oh boy. She's unleashed a monster...[/white box]
[yellow box]*chuckles dangerously* Oooh... It's been a while since they've let me come out to... plaaayyy...[/yellow box]

lake_wrangler wrote:I may have said this before, but I do hope that those mad hacking skills only belong to the fictional GlytchMeister, right?

[wimper]Right?[/wimper]

He's not the only geek here...and some of us have a few decades more practice....

Be afraid.

Be VERY afraid.

Just Old Al wrote:

lake_wrangler wrote:I may have said this before, but I do hope that those mad hacking skills only belong to the fictional GlytchMeister, right?

[wimper]Right?[/wimper]

He's not the only geek here...and some of us have a few decades more practice....

Be afraid.

Be VERY afraid.

DinkyInky wrote:

Just Old Al wrote:

lake_wrangler wrote:I may have said this before, but I do hope that those mad hacking skills only belong to the fictional GlytchMeister, right?

[wimper]Right?[/wimper]

He's not the only geek here...and some of us have a few decades more practice....

Be afraid.

Be VERY afraid.

Don't know nuthin' 'bout hacking 'putters... but I can make things blow up without a trail pointing anywhere...

Have I mentioned lately that a whole lot of people here are welcome to join my Apocalypse Team, should the need ever arise?

Aaaaaand...back to the story.

Al sighed. He took the phone from the noticeably-trembling hand of the young woman next to him, rubbed his forehead in a gesture of exasperation, and put the phone to his ear.

“Glytch me bucko – how are you doing?”

“How did you know it was me?”

“No one, repeat NO ONE else would have the spectacularly bad timing to do what you’ve just done. Yes, I know I was supposed to be on a call with you 15 minutes ago to deal with the cost breakdown on the restoration of your Nash Metropolitan. I realize that you think that you are my one and only customer, but really - is this necessary?”

“Look, Al - I know this is a little spooky, but I had to tell you – she had your plate run.”

“Yes, yes, I know. You do seem to love that awful old thing – I’ve never understood your love affair with Nash cars. I take it from your method of reaching me you’re still working for Verizon? Let me guess - you're spoofing some little old lady from Peoria's phone number again?”

“What the hell are you talking about? You know who I work for…and she's gonna be PISSED I made this phone call. Ohhhh...kill the number...got it.”

“Aye, Verizon. Why does this not surprise me. Someday your director of engineering is going to notice your little games…but until then – this is hilarious.”

“You’re playing your visitor, right?”

“You got it. Now was that grey or maroon leather you wanted? Actually, no – think on that – I’ll give you a call in a half-hour or so and we can talk the estimates through line item by line item. You still have GoToMeeting?”

“OK, I get it. I’m glad I did this – spook her and make it sound perfectly logical. Damn, you’re sneaky.” Glytch was grinning on the other end of the phone. He'd done what he wanted to do - warned Al - and he'd used it to mess with the head of his visitor. Score and score.

“You got it, me bucko. Now let me get back to this lovely lady, and let you get back to gouging your customers for cell service. Ta.”

Al hung up, and handed the phone back to his visitor.

“Don’t bother noting the number called from – I can guarantee you it’s false. That is one of my customers – I was supposed to be in a call with him about restoring some awful old crock of a Nash that’s in my storage area. Only reason I even thought about touching it is that it’s got English running gear.”

“How did he…?”

“He works for a major cell carrier at a senior engineering level. He’s done this to me before – I’m not sure how he does it but it’s a little game he likes to play just to get my attention. Little does he know every time he does I add another 5% on his bill just for my own amusement.”

“Now, let’s walk over here – you can see some of the antique machine tools that are in for restoration.”

Just Old Al wrote:

lake_wrangler wrote:I may have said this before, but I do hope that those mad hacking skills only belong to the fictional GlytchMeister, right?

[wimper]Right?[/wimper]

He's not the only geek here...and some of us have a few decades more practice....

Be afraid.

Be VERY afraid.

I'm sure that's true. I'm only referring to the in-story geek-ness being displayed by Glytch, while other characters have displayed other specialities, instead...

I have to admit that I am impressed with the different hacking solutions he comes up with. I have no idea how plausible they are, but they are plausible enough to make for a good story. And it's a scary thought. I won't even begin to consider whether they'd be feasible in real life or not.

lake_wrangler wrote:And it's a scary thought.

Isn't it though?

To be perfectly honest, I'm not nearly as good as my character. I'm still the go-to guy when it comes to tech in my family. Basically, I know just enough to make it seem like Glytch-the-character knows what he's doing.