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REALLY GOOD NOODLES
* 4B *
"Who's Katie?" Tom yelled to his skinny host above the overpowering sound of grunge. They sat on the corner couch nearest the beer keg, while two more couches completed the misshapen arc. At the other end of the low-ceilinged wood-panelled basement, an impressive bank of three computers sat under wall-mounted shelves housing stacks-upon-stacks of 5.25-inch floppies and 3.5-inch diskettes, as well as piles-upon-piles of programming books, high-tech magazines, and computer manuals. A screen-saving marquee scrolled and bounced across each of the three monitors. The first banner read: "The world of the electron." The center read: "The beauty of the baud." And the last read: "My crime is that of curiosity."
Besides his host, Tom recognized five other PNP colleagues and counted three unfamiliar girls. A party of nine, all of whom seemed to be in their early-to-mid twenties. Tom was the tenth and clearly the oldest of the bunch.
It figures. It's always me.
Perched on the arm of the couch, Levi took another gulp of his beer, and pointed to the slim attractive girl leaning against the far column. Chatting with a couple of PNP colleagues, the girl filled her black tank top and blood-red mini-skirt quite nicely. And restraining her long velvet black hair, a plastic headband boasted two horns of bright-red foam.
Tom raised a dark eyebrow. Cute for a devil.
As she turned slightly towards him, he could make out her features more clearly. Ironically, she held that fascinating Asian quality about her that seemed to obscure her age. She could be 16 or 36, and she would still look the same.
Levi yelled back into his guest's ear, "Katie's a programmer at MCT!"
Tom didn't recognize the name. "Where?"
"MCT! MetaCortex! One of PNP's newest competitors!"
"Really?" He glanced back at Katie.
"Yeah! So are her friends!" The ponytailed programmer gestured to the other two girls.
Confusion revisited Tom's thoughts. "I thought you said KT wasn't a who!"
The Cheshire cat returned to Levi's lips. He shook his head, "No! KT isn't Katie! KT is an abbreviation!"
"For what?"
Suddenly, the grunge began to die down, and another track would soon take its place. Despite the disturbing buzz in his ears, Tom fought to comprehend his colleague's words.
"Ever heard of the Knights Technoir?"
The older programmer thought he heard something else, "Knights Templar?"
Levi shook his head, "No, the Knights Technoir."
"Oh, Technoir," Tom nodded, "Yeah, I've read about them on a few BBSs. They're a hacker group. They cracked the Mulpha d-base a while back. They exposed the salaries of the entire--" And finally, the full realization slammed into his slow wit like a bulldozer. Holy shit!
Just as suddenly, the volume began to pump, the bass began to blast, and the grunge began to grind once more.
"Holy shit!" Tom shouted over the deafening roar of the speaker system. "Are you telling me you're a hacker?"
Levi nodded amusedly and shouted back into his guest's ear, "By George, I think you've got it!" He tossed his thin arm in a sweeping gesture, "Everyone here is a bonafide hacker! Surprised?"
With his brown eyes wide, the older programmer nodded dumbfoundedly. The lair of the Knights Technoir!
Levi grinned and leaned closer. "Katie is our First Knight. Wanna meet her?"
Tom instantly felt awkward, even more self-conscious than he already was, an old-timer among kids, a straight lace among radicals. Maintaining his fragile composure, he watched as the ponytailed host stuck two fingers in his mouth, and blasted a high-pitched whistle across the room. Everyone looked up, but Levi pointed to Katie, and signalled her to join him. He then pointed to someone by the stereo system, and signalled him to lower it a few notches. Apologizing to her two attentive listeners, the girl in the red skirt and horns found a path over the half-filled cups and cans, around the wooden crates and tables, and finally between the nearest couches. Tom couldn't help but stare at her.
"Like what you see?" she smiled.
Like having a wandering daydream during a long drive, Tom didn't see the red until it flashed right in front of his face. Katie had said something to him. He blinked and stuttered, "Um, no... uh, I mean, yeah..."
Katie laughed without breaking her searching gaze. Easing herself down on one of the crates opposite the couch, she crossed her slim legs and let her slender dark eyes scan him, from his weathered innocence down to his scuffed white sneakers, "So, you're our neophyte tonight. You seem a little old, don't you think?"
He began to fidget in his seat.
"My name's DeVille, Katie DeVille. First Knight." She extended her hand, and in exquisite French, added, "Chevalier Premier."
"Uh, Tom. Tom Anderson." He took her hand gingerly, and shook it awkwardly. "You... you cracked the Mulpha database?"
"Yeah," Katie smiled. "Well, not just me. Everyone." She glanced at the Cheshire cat, "Levi, my left hand of darkness." She gestured beyond the couches to the short-haired platinum blonde in black fishnet stockings, "Melissa, my right hand of shame." She returned her relaxed gaze to the uneasy PNP employee sitting before her. "And most of the others here, they watched us and cheered us on."
"Wow," he mouthed silently.
"The West City chapter coordinated the diversions and defenses. My chapter, the East City chapter, executed the actual penetration, data extraction, and distribution."
"Chapter?" he repeated. "You mean, like a chapter of a fraternity?"
The ponytailed hacker laughed, "No, a chapter in a book! Of course, like a fraternity! With some obvious female exceptions."
"Tom," the attractive she-devil crinkled her brows, "you've never been in a frat, have you?"
The self-taught programmer shook his head. Never been to college either.
She studied his expression thoughtfully and asked delicately, "Ever been to college? Gotten a degree?"
He hesitated in obvious embarrassment, and once again, shook his head, "Just night classes."
Levi almost spilled over the edge of the couch. "Man, you've really been living in a cave!"
"Fuck off, Levi!" Katie's dark eyes blazed then cooled, "I'm even more impressed by a man who can pave his own way, instead of his parents paving it for him."
Tom was too uncomfortable to correct her and tell her the truth. He had lived with his own parents till he was 25, and even then, he considered moving not because there were apartments conveniently closer to both his new computer job and night classes, but because his best friend Willie was kicked out of his older brother's apartment and needed a place to stay. On top of that, he had no money, no time, and no choice but to accept his dad's old Celica for transportation. Fact after embarrassing fact. The painfully embarrassing truth.
Yeah, that's me.
At least, for the moment, he could live with the wondrous illusion, as Katie gazed too deeply into his eyes.
"What if I told you we're hacking into MetaCortex?" the she-devil smiled seductively. "What if I told you I'm going to..." She pointed to him, "let you..." Then she pointed to herself, "watch me do it?"
Once more, the bulldozer smashed his boxed expectations to bits.
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