CHAPTER 20 — THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

EARTH – WEEK 3 DAY 3

GIBBS RESIDENCY

Despite the cautionary advice from Walter to take things slowly, Dillinger couldn't care less about it. In his Fastrack career, the less he waited, the higher edge he got against his foes. And moreover, this time it's a do-or-die game for the successor of the ruthless, cunning and monopolistic ex-CEO of ENCOM. If Sam returned from his supposed "vacation", all he could do is to dream of the CEO chair his whole life, one that nobody sharing his desire for power wants. And that means playing every rule inside and outside of the book and get the chair, by hook or crook. That is what made him order Dr. Gibbs to rush the development of digitizers in a short span of time. Luckily for Walter, Ed supplied the older and deactivated digitizers within two days of his request.

Walter worked day and night in the reverse engineering of the now dysfunctional prototypic digitizers in his room. Gibbs' mind strolled down the memory lane when the computer was a revolutionary thing in the 80s, and that video games were a testament to the unrealized potential these mystery machines waited to get unboxed. The mere sight of these digitizers was enough to draw him back to the good old days of prototypic digitizing of 3d modelled objects. It was after ENCOM's foundation and gradual ascension into the video game industry back in the late 70s that encouraged Walter to discover the uncharted waters of digital conversion i.e., digitization. What started out as an algorithmic conversion mechanism of teleporting 2-dimensional solid objects into the then unexplored 3-dimensional digital realm of computers. One could only imagine how Walter would've felt when he saw his first successful digitization of an apple and lucky enough to see it on the grid-laced computer screen. This early digitization is what laid foundation to the modern Grid and also introduced Kevin to the hidden world inside his most famous game TRON. Irony here is that his baby was snatched away from him by a Dillinger and returned to him also by a Dillinger. The pressure on him mounted by Dillinger though, strung his neck like a tight rope, forcing him to leave the memory lane he had just set his foot upon.

Following his third day in work, he stumbled upon yet another connection from the same User ID inside the Grid and started the search party. This time using his newly built blueprint of the Grid, he compared the location coordinates of the ID and found the correct match. As this layout was formed using the information obtained by the worms, these worms themselves used the help of official records stored in each and every virtual system in the Grid possible completed by the visual drawing of the world, it failed to name the location in which the User resided, forcing Walter to use a different approach. He started pinning down the portals in the map and labelled them according to the cities or places they resided in. Calculating the result from those portals, he then conveyed the update to Ed, saying that his target might be somewhere in and around Argon City inside the Grid and that the nearest portal to that city could be located anywhere between 700-1000km away from it. Ed commended the scientist for helping out locating Sam and hurried him to complete his work asap.

Making his dream come true, the prototype version got ready within few days, much earlier than expected for the retired scientist. He then informed Dillinger about the result and suggested a few more days of trials and research to polish the sleek digitizer into a fully functional model. Turning a deaf ear to his suggestion, Ed ordered for immediate activation of the teleporter, and then he could further his research in detail if wanted. Gibbs could offer very less resistance to Ed, keeping his present predicament in mind, but had to bow down to the hunger for domination and relentless ambition Ed possessed and displayed with pride.

Preparing for the very first digitization of his newly built prototype, Walter secured his research in a secret compartment inside his study room for backup. A few weeks of house arrest left him with restlessness and anxiety that his legs ceased to cave in to rest. The mercs safeguarding his house locked the silent house from the inside and were instructed by Ed to keep an eye on the old man and take him down by force if he dares to foil the test at any moment. These big, burly muscles however weren't given much time to prepare themselves for any unexpected mishaps and had to rely on their twin handguns, pair of knives hidden in their socks, a few grenades, and finally their ingenuity, brain and brawns. Cursing their client at hand, the mercenaries had to risk their lives and future endeavors for this madman's obsession with some random lala land. Even their handler couldn't save them, because he alone is drowned in the pool of money Dillinger pushed him into.

Dragging their half-hearted arses inside the old man's room, the mercs planted their bags near the central teapoy of the living hall, leaving their ammo inside the duffel bag, except for the handguns they concealed behind their backs inside their trousers. They made a final recce of the house, from the entrance to the backdoor, from the main windows to the lawn behind the shelter. Everything remained untouched, except the kitchen where the boys made food for themselves and occasionally for the helpless scientist inside. As they followed the scientist to his study room, they inspected the digitizer with awe as Walter worked on its setup. This new device that Gibbs said is a digitizer, barring its routine stick handle, looked circular in shape, having multiple rings inside it, completed by a spherical mirror-like ball protruding towards the viewer. This eerie design of the digitizer resembled HAL 9000 from 2001, albeit the dark black color is starkly different from that of the creepy and outright evil AI in the classic. As Gibbs activated the digitizer and set the endpoint to Argon City, the two men wished Gibbs all the best for his experiment. It is perhaps like the only light at the end of the tunnel for the frail scientist, as they were the only ones who atleast acted decently at times, unlike their cruel and ruthless boss. Taking their best wishes into his heart, Gibbs turned on the digitizer and closed his eyes, his fingers crossed and praying for the best outcome, as the boys followed their instructions by turning on the video call in one of their phones and connected to Edward, placing it infront of the digitizer before stepping out of the room and positioning their firing stance at the entrance of the secret basement door. Ed exclaimed in excitement at the thought of meeting his rival inside the computer, a weird and unheard thing for anyone in the earth but a possibility waiting to unravel itself in front of him and Doc.

Little did he knew what is in store for him....

THE GRID–THIRD TRONCYCLE

EN ROUTE TO ARGON

The spiciest words Pavel faced from the General himself were like adding fuel to the fire of jealousy inside his heart. Although he's been accustomed to the routine swearing from the General every now and then, the comparison with that coy-looking, pretentious Paige rages him up every time. At such times he feels like derezzing himself as good riddance rather than live another Cycle being compared to her and getting put down. Peer pressure in the User world between siblings is a reality in this case, even though they both are not personally related by any means. This fire of jealousy woke up his otherwise sleeping self-esteem and strengthened his resolve to catch those bastards by himself, proving he was always superior than Paige and crush her under his feet.

Implementing curfew in his kingdom and leaving it under his second-in-command Derelus, Pavel warned him of any discrepancies and lenience in the rules and tempted him with a promotion to the Army General position on the other hand. He then prepared for his journey to meet the General, accompanied with two smaller Carrier Ships than his one. Despite his curses and insults, the ship couldn't move any faster, given the ships themselves haven't got any repairs or servicing for more than 900TronCycles. Adding to their woes is the fuel crisis in Purgos and the fact that all the fuel supplies their royal (not in meaning though) treasury are filled with smuggled shipments didn't help any better, which left them with only 500mTC days of fuel supplies. These supplies, though sounding adequate in number, are not suitable for even intercity travels on the ground level, let alone crossing the Outlands.

Ignoring the derelict ships, they're risking travelling in, Pavel ordered to speed up the ship, and the pilots obeyed accordingly after their arguments and hesitation proved worthless to Pavel's ears. Following which the ship rattled with big sounds and struggled to hold its composure amidst roaring thunderous clouds. Distressed by the sudden turn of events, Pavel shouted on his pilots:

- What's the matter?

- The gears are rusted since so long. The effects are coming out now, sir.

- Fix it right now!

- We're trying our best but its too late for that. And there's another problem as well.

- What now?

- If we continue this way till Argon, this ship may blow up any Cycle.

- Get it fixed and flying then.

- We need specific gears for our old model ship. Only top-notch mechanics know about them.

- And who are these "top end" people you say?

- There is a garage in Argon's outskirts. Even General's ships and vehicles get fixed over there.

- Steer the ship to that garage then. And if we crash land, your head is the one that will derezz first.