Crazy Seduction(erotica)

One of the scientists pushed his way through the arguing crowds to get to Henry. He came rushing up to stop before Henry with an excited expression on his face.

“You must show us how to build arrays of quantum tunneling processors so we can create a probability/potentiality determination engine!” the older scientist exclaimed.

Henry gave him a hesitant look. “Why the hell would you want that?”

“What’s it do?” Wallace asked first.

“It can be used to predict things with great accuracy! Even social patterns,” the scientist exclaimed excitedly.

Wallace suddenly looked very interested.

“You’d have to enter so much data just to get the simplest responses, and you’d still have very low accuracy. It couldn’t pay for itself.” Henry looked to the scientist. “Sometimes doing something just because you can do it is a very bad idea.” He didn’t share that he was working on a more straightforward market trend prediction utility for Camila. His tool wouldn’t target individuals.

He looked at the agitated crowd. “I think I’ve done enough today.”

Robert stepped closer to Henry. “How did you even know it was there?”

“What? The tunneling?” he asked, and Robert nodded. Henry shrugged. “I didn’t, but I was curious about the energy discrepancy, so I just looked for a reason to explain it.”

“My predecessor reported it was your brother who invented this firewall method,” Wallace said with a confused expression. “Did he leave you notes on it after all?”

Henry froze. Shit. Was he contradicting what he told Director Yosman? He wasn’t a very good liar, so he’d have to use as much truth as he could.

“He did invent it, but he left no notes. When we were both in Ireland, we talked about things we loved and what excited us. Network security is-was a shared passion. It must have been something he said that made me look where he looked. I got a glimmer into what he saw and was able to finally replicate it.” He glanced at the Director and saw the man seemed to be buying it. That was a relief! Hall just looked resentful, but Dawes was watching him silently with a thoughtful expression. Henry was most concerned about him.

He gave Mahati a pleading look, and she nodded. She moved to speak to Director Wallace.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Thank you for an interesting visit. Could we get a lift to the National Mall? Henry would like to see the monuments.”

“I was hoping to take you both to lunch. I have a table at a very nice steakhouse close to the mall,” Wallace said hopefully.

Henry nodded. “I could eat.”

Wallace looked to his Tech Lead. “Richard. I’d like you to join us.” The man was staring at Henry and twitched when he heard his name. He nodded, earning a small frown from his boss.

“Granger, can you make arrangements to get the private room. I would very much like to join you,” Dawes said.

Wallace didn’t look pleased, but he couldn’t refuse gracefully. “I’ve already reserved that room. They can add a seat.”

“Make it two. I want Billy to join us,” Dawes added.

“Fine. Let’s go,” Wallace grumbled.

The volume of the battle behind them increased as they saw Henry leaving.

Once outside, Dawes and Ms. James peeled off the group to go to their car. The rest headed to the convoy they’d arrived in.

Before they reached the limo, Wallace looked to Richard. “What on Earth has gotten into them? How big a deal is this Quantum Tunneling thing, anyway?”

Richard was vibrating with excitement. “No other commercial applications are utilizing Quantum Tunneling. To my knowledge, it’s only theoretical, stuff for scientists and mathematicians to argue about. If the firewall utilizes it, and I can’t see how it could work any other way, it’s far more advanced than any other technology available. The potential impact on all aspects of computing is unmeasurable.”

They got into their limo, and Henry grinned. “Yeah, I’m working with it on several new applications. It’s fascinating stuff!”

“All of which are sealed under a non-disclosure agreement, of course,” Mahati said boldly, and Henry looked to her then nodded thoughtfully.

A second black limousine slipped into their convoy, and they were off.

Once more, Henry wanted to enjoy the scenery, but the two NSA men were keen on discussing what could be done with Henry’s advanced tech. Mahati shut down questions regarding specific usage as this might impinge on VRL’s proprietary information. They were left discussing hypotheticals, and Henry would agree or disagree about the possibility and feasibility of their suggestions. By the time they reached the restaurant, Wallace was equally excited as his Tech Lead. Their area of interest tended to give Henry pause as they strayed into violating personal privacy.

He was relieved to get out of the limo and stretched after he helped Mahati out.

“Are you well?” she asked.

He shrugged with a self-conscious smile. “I guess I didn’t think through how excited people might get about the new tech.”

Mahati nodded. “We should discuss this with Camila when we return. We may need to set up a new division to separate it from the investment business.” She moved close and looked him in the eye. “Make no promises and offer no solutions outside of the application that has already been delivered,” she said quietly.

Henry nodded and marveled at how lovely her eyes were. So intense.

“What is it?” she asked as she noted he was staring.

He broke his gaze and shook his head. He went to turn away, but she touched his arm.

“Henry, speak to me.”

“It’s nothing.” He glanced at her again. “You-you have really lovely eyes,” he said quietly to her.

Those eyes flared, and she looked away as her cheeks heated up.

Dawes and his Tech Lead joined them on the sidewalk and looked curiously at their red faces.

Granger led them into the restaurant, and the group was met with smiles by the manager. He did a quick count and sent some of his staff ahead to adjust the tables for the extra guests.

Soon they were seated and looking at menus.

“Feel free to order anything you like. Would you like a drink first?” Wallace asked and gestured for the waiter.

Henry cast a quick glance at Mahati, who was giving him a stern look. “No, I’d better not. I’m a real lightweight when it comes to alcohol. Just water, please,” he said to the waiter.

“So we get a few beers into you, and you spill the secret of the firewall tech?” Stephen asked with a sly smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Wallace wasn’t amused. “Way to sound like one of Maurice’s black ops goons, Stephen.”

“It was a joke, Wallace. Lighten up!”

The others gave their drink orders as Henry concentrated on the menu to avoid their bickering. He saw what he wanted. He was going to eat light as he knew they’d be doing a lot of walking, and he didn’t want that heavy feeling.

“After lunch, could we get a lift to the Capitol Building?” Henry asked Wallace.

“Interested in learning how the legislative branch of your government works?” Dawes asked. “We could get you an insider’s tour.”

Henry paused as that did sound intriguing, but what he really had his heart set on was something else.

“Maybe next time? Today, I’m more interested in walking the length of the National Mall and seeing the buildings and monuments,” he said. “I want to start at the Capitol Building and finish at the Lincoln Memorial.”

Dawes shrugged.

The waiter returned with the drinks and began to take their orders. The moment he left, Wallace’s pitch began. He really wanted Henry on his team.

From the potshots Dawes fired at Wallace and the pitch he made, it sounded like Homeland Security wanted him too.

Henry shared a weary glance with Mahati. It was going to be a long lunch.

Sam, Jeannie, Jake, and Brenda ran along the old abandoned country road in northern Mississippi, almost at Tennessee’s border. They were heading to a hideout they’d found for themselves. While they usually restricted their movements to night time when their silver skin’s reflectivity was far less visible, they weren’t particularly worried about discovery. When they ran full out as they were now, they were moving so fast, the human eye had difficulty registering them.

Additionally, they hadn’t seen any sign of the army men since that first night. So, they were all feeling pretty good that they’d seen the last of them.

Taking a sharp left, they raced up a narrow path to an old abandoned shack they’d found in the woods. A short distance from the hut was a run-down barn, which they headed to first.

Since that first night, they’d been storm chasing all across the prairies. They’d discovered they fed off the release of energy from the new clouds. Their lightning strikes were particularly satisfying, and taking a direct hit would give them enough power to run for a week.

Then came the dream. A few days into their new lives, they woke with a new mission. They’d all shared a disturbing dream. An ancient voice spoke to them from the darkness and whispered to them to make preparations. When they woke, they all felt compelled to begin collecting the products of the new cloud domination battles and stockpiled the items. They weren’t sure who that voice belonged to or why they needed to hoard this stuff, but it didn’t interfere with their cloud chasing and gave them a sense of purpose, so they did it.

Today, they returned from another successful storm chasing day and had a few more items they’d collected to pack away. The barn was now their storehouse for dozens of strips of the silver foil, thirty-six of those wire mesh and lit amber squares sections and roughly twenty gallons of cloud blood. That last item had been the most difficult to save. Collecting it was easy. The battling pseudo-clouds were constantly goring each other, and the stuff just fell from the heavens. They figured out how to catch it in a large tarp, which fed into gallon jugs. The tricky part was running while carrying the heavy containers. It really threw their balance off.