Terminal Connection Read Online Free PDF Page B

She slipped on the gloves and headgear and entered a dream world, but unlike her recurring nightmare, it was a dream she could control.

    Steve stepped out of the virtual hall, but instead of finding the Nexus lobby, he entered a temporary holding area, a twenty-foot by twenty-foot white-walled room with high ceilings. A single object broke up the room’s monotony. Embedded in the middle of the floor was a five-foot diameter circular mirror stenciled with the word Microsoft® .
    In an attempt to restore the lobby and erase the hacker’s handiwork, Ron had taken the lobby offline. It probably would not work. They needed to restore a backup copy of the lobby; but of course, Ron had not saved his work. Steve would have to repair the lobby by hand, and he would have to do that before anything else. He glanced at the time fixed in the upper left corner of his vision: 8:57. Great, she would be here any time.
    He was pacing. He stopped. He never should have confronted Austin. It was a bad idea, a very bad idea. Throwing Ron under the bus would not make it any better.
    Ron was just the CFO, a glorified accountant. Austin and Steve had stuck him with management of the internal network and servers and the title Chief Financial Officer. As always, Ron made the best of it. He had a good heart. Over the last year, Ron supported Steve as he consoled Brooke and mourned Tamera’s death. Ironically, they had met through Austin, the source of his ills.
    A metallic whine sounded in the hallway.
    Steve spun around to see a seven-foot-round, two-dimensional, black oval open up just a few feet away. It was a Portal, used to jump between different sites on the Internet. Bots in the background performed Google searches, based on the user’s request, and made the transfer, or presented options if the destination was not obvious. A woman stepped through the void and with a metallic clank the Portal disappeared behind her. She was Amerasian with a lean, athletic frame and long, black hair that contrasted with her green eyes.
    She’s beautiful , he thought. No , you’re just desperate after being alone for almost a year . Yet, he could not take his eyes off her. His neediness remained, gnawing at him.
    She turned her head from left to right and slowly scanned the room. He smiled. Her deliberate movements were the telltale signs of a Portal Sphere user. The images would jerk as the Portal Sphere panned.
    She smiled when she saw him. “You must be Steve.”
    He nodded and walked to her as she extended her hand. “Allison Hwang.”
    He shook it.
    “Where are we?” she asked, pushing her hair behind her ears.
    That was a mistake. Before Steve could say anything to stop her, she stumbled as she knocked her Portal Sphere’s headgear askew and turned her view of the room sideways.
    Her arms flailed as she fell. Steve caught her. “Close your eyes.”
    “What? Oh.” She closed her eyes and readjusted her headgear. After a second, she opened them, and Steve helped her to her feet. “Thank you. I guess I developed some bad habits with the Nexus.”
    Steve nodded.
    “Did Austin tell you that I was coming?”
    “You’re here on Austin’s behalf.”
    “That’s right.”
    “Are you an engineer?”
    “Not exactly.”
    “So, what exactly are you here to do?”
    “Uh, to help where I can, cut through the bureaucratic bullshit, stuff like that.”
    Steve sighed. “Do you know anything about the Nexus?”
    Before she could answer, the figure of another woman materialized in front of them. Allison shot him a questioning look.
    “That is my CFO’s idea; an advertisement before we enter the site. It’ll help pay for renovations.”
    The woman had just come out of a shower. Wrapped in a towel, she laid on a bed in front of a laptop computer. She spoke to her husband across the Internet through video conferencing software.
    “I miss you too, dear,” she said.
    A second image materialized in juxtaposition to the first. A man in a business suit