Chapter
Fifteen
Inside Out
The next week seemed to last an eternity for Rosa, Cameron, and Meagan Fletcher.
For the two teens, their minds were far from their jobs. The anticipation had been building steadily since they submitted their video, the script, and all of their production materials to the Academy for consideration.
On Monday, scattered reports were starting to appear in the media of students from around the world being accepted into the Academy. On Wednesday, there was a story on the X-Boy site about the first American to be accepted. Unfortunately, the girl and her mother lived in a school district that had banned the IHT. However, her mother was determined to give her daughter the “chance of a lifetime,” so she promptly made arrangements for the girl to go live with her aunt in another state, where she could go to school and participate in the Academy. The report went on to say her mother would follow as soon as she secured a job in the new location. The American news media was scrambling to confirm this story.
Anxious to keep up with the latest news about the Academy, Cameron instructed Sam to keep an eye on the X-Boy site, which seemed to have the news before most of the other media. Sam was to inform Cameron and Vee if, and when, his and Rosa’s name appeared on the site. As the list of accepted students grew, so did Rosa’s and Cameron’s despair.
“Look at the map,” Rosa was saying on Thursday night. Cameron had taken a world map graphic and plotted all the confirmed students on it. The map clearly defined all the time zones around the world. “I don’t know how they’ll group the classes, but all our time zones have four or five students already.”
Cameron’s eyes scanned the numerous dots on the map, ranging from Canada down to Chile. “Well, at least we tried, didn’t we? Next year we’ll know what to expect.”
“Yeah,” Rosa said with no attempt to hide her dejection. “Next year.”
Meagan Fletcher also sounded dejected. While Rosa and Cameron were contemplating their fate, Meagan was reviewing the progress of her investigation. “We’ve come up empty, Jason. We’ve searched everywhere for information on the IHT and its inventor and haven’t been able to turn up anything new. Just the same-old, same-old.”
“May I make an observation?” asked Jason.
“Please do.”
“I compared the posting dates of the various bits of information we retrieved as I entered them in the database. I also keyed the entries as VERIFIED, DISPROVED, and UNCONFIRMED. While performing this task I noticed that one information source consistently had relevant data before the others.”
“And what source was that?” Jason had piqued Meagan’s curiosity.
“I am hesitant to say… It is one of the rumor sites.”
“Which one?”
Jason’s reply was succinct. “X-Boy.”
Meagan raised an eyebrow as she mulled the information over. She had gone to the X-Boy site almost daily since her first visit. It was an unusual blend of rumor reporting mixed with stories, poetry, art, and links to scientific articles. There was no advertising on the site and no mail links back to X-Boy. “Jason, can you please give me any further analysis of the X-Boy site?”
“Well, his writing and art has matured greatly since the site first appeared, right after the introduction of the multiCom. The predominant themes seem to be loneliness and isola…”
“No, Jason, I mean analyze the data in X-Boy’s rumor articles. Any interesting trends or statistics?”
“Just one.”
“What’s that?”
“He’s never been wrong.”
Meagan was shocked. “What did you say?”
“Every rumor he has reported was eventually verified.”
“How can that be?” asked the reporter, hoping that Jason had reached the same conclusion as she.
“He has a connection inside GundTech.”
“Or… Jason, bring up the message from last Saturday night, please. You know, the one we couldn’t trace.” Meagan was no longer irritated by having to say please or thank you to a computer, for suddenly, Jason was no longer just a machine in her mind, but a co-worker — perhaps even a friend. Instantly, the message appeared on the screen.
Dear Ms. Fletcher,
Your comments about the fear and controversy surrounding the IHT were well made. GundTech does bear much of the responsibility by not being forthcoming with information. Perhaps I can help.
On your next visit, I will give you some useful information, if you know where to look.
Yours truly,
Inside Out
“Or perhaps, X-Boy is the insider,” said Meagan.
“You think he is Inside Out?”
“Could be.”
“Meagan, my probability analysis is low on that assumption. Based on that, I should disagree with you, but something makes me think you are correct. I do not know why I think this.”
“That’s what we humans call a gut feeling, Jason.”
“I, however, have no gut.”
“Then call it intuition.” For the first time in a week, Meagan Fletcher was filled with hope and anticipation. “What do you say we see what we can find out about X-Boy?”
“I will have a report for you in the morning.”
“Thanks. Good night, Jason.”
“Good night, Meagan.”
At 4:00 AM on Friday morning, Sam tried to rouse Cameron from his slumber. “Cameron, wake up,” said Sam softly. Cameron grunted and rolled over. “Cameron.” Sam’s volume had raised a notch or two.
“Hmm?” mumbled Cameron in his sleep.
“Cameron,” repeated Sam, another level louder while flashing pulses of bright colored lights from the view screen. Cameron didn’t move. Sam considered how to wake Cameron without disturbing the rest of the Rush household. The answer seemed to lie with a low-volume, yet annoying sound. Sam quickly searched the net for the proper sound sample and loaded it. Sam captured an image of the bedroom into his memory then performed some calculations. Cameron was lying on his right side. Sam’s target was about three inches above Cameron’s left ear. Sam adjusted the surround sound output to be centered on the target coordinates and played the sound sample at a very low volume. Sam then carefully modulated the speakers to give the sound a sense of movement. The multiCom observed Cameron reacting to the sound near his ear. His hand came from beneath the sheets and waved reflexively above his ear, trying to silence the sound. Sam raised the volume slightly and moved the sound target to within an inch of Cameron’s ear. Cameron’s hand swatted hard against his head, waking him abruptly.
“Dang mosquitoes!” said Cameron groggily as he flailed the air around his head with both hands.
Sam illuminated the room with a soft glow from the view screen.
“There are no mosquitoes, Cameron. I was at a loss on how to wake you without rousing the rest of the family.”
“What is it?” asked Cameron as he rubbed sleep from his eyes. Then, he realized what it must be. “Did the X-Boy site list Rosa and me? Did you notify Vee?”
“By answering the second question first, I will be answering the first. I have not alerted Vee because your names have not appeared on the X-Boy site.”
Cameron was more than a little perturbed. “Then why did you wake me at this hour, Sam?”
“This note was posted on the site at 3:59 this morning.” Sam displayed the note on the screen.
The last two students to be accepted to the IHT Academy will be announced sometime this weekend. Rumor has it that this team of fifteen-year-olds from the states scored the highest total in the recent IHT Academy evaluation competition. What is most odd about this team is the fact that they have never met and live across the country from each other.
X-Boy wishes all the IHT Academy students the best of luck.
“Contact Vee, please!” Cameron was fully awake now. His mind was racing with excitement as he hurriedly pulled on yesterday’s clothes. “It’s time to wake Rosa.”
Meagan Fletcher came in early that Friday morning. She had hardly slept as she tried to sort through all the questions that filled her mind. “Good morning, Jason,” she said as she entered her office. Meagan had gotten in the habit of leaving Jason’s view screen on and the sliding wall-panel open all the time. She now felt closing the panel and turning off Jason’s “eyes” was akin to locking someone in a dark closet.
“You’re in early, Meagan.”
“Is that a surprise?”
“No. I anticipated your early arrival. You will find a hard copy of my report on the printScan.”
“Summary, please.”
“There is no way to trace the owner of the X-Boy site. All normal routes, such as site registration, etc., lead to dead ends. The site was extremely clean. However, it was not quite as tidy as the message.”
Meagan was overcome with anticipation. “Then you found something?”
“It’s something small.”
“Go on,” said Meagan. “We can use any lead we can get at the moment.”
“As you know, all postings are time-stamped,” Jason continued. Meagan nodded. “I decided to monitor the site continuously until X-Boy made his next post — for two reasons. First, there would be an outside chance that I could lock in a trace of the posting as it was being made. Early this morning, at approximately 1:59 local time, X-Boy posted this message.” Jason displayed the message Cameron and Rosa had viewed several hours earlier.
“Did you get a trace?”
“No.”
Meagan didn’t dwell on this further disappointment. “And what was your second reason?”
“Observe the time stamp on the posting.”
Meagan located the string of letters and numbers that indicated exactly when the message was posted to the net. It indicated that the message had been posted at 9:59 AM. “But I thought you said it was posted at 1:59?”
“I did. 1:59 AM — local time.” Jason waited for Meagan to put it together.
“That’s Phoenix time,” said Meagan. “Which means X-Boy is eight hours ahead of us.” She became excited at what the time difference meant. “Tell me that puts him in the same time zone as Oslo!”
“That puts him in the same time zone as Oslo,” said Jason.
“Gottcha, X-Boy!” declared Meagan confidently. “You’re the insider. You’re Inside Out.”
– End Chapter Fifteen –
