Gotta Catch The Pretty Ones
© 2011-2014 by Mr. David R. Dorrycott
Chapter Fifty Five
Weeks passed after the kitchen confrontation as Penny called it. Their two Guild Investigators had left two days later, but it was another two weeks before the needed boards arrived, not that Sara had waited. She had quickly rebuilt one of the ancient systems with her own hidden boards, then started working every night after supper. Penny complained at first, then when Sara agreed to ‘no later than midnight’ she had stepped back. They both knew that Gidget was going to be a problem, just not quite what kind of problem. They discovered what kind when the boards arrived.
One board had additional systems soldered to it, it turned out that Patty, their seventh capture, understood computers very well.
“Transmitter” the light brown haired teenager announced, holding the larger, most complex board still in its green anti-static bag. “Maybe two hundred feet if it was in the kitchen, three at the very outside. In your secure office my love, maybe fifty feet at best. Unless there is a repeater somewhere.”
“Repeater?” Penny asked, ignoring the ‘my love.’ Like Sara she had grown to despise whomever had originally programmed this code, had she the ability she would have gone back in time hand gutted him or her.
“It’s a device that takes a signal, amplifies it, then retransmits it” Patty explained, her dark brown eyes flashing in amusement. “I would install it as far away as I dared and still get electrical power, batteries wouldn’t last long. If it has an omni-directional antenna it could reach as much as a mile, if it is directional, three or four with the right receiving antenna”
“Then we search” Sara announced, “But we do not destroy, we’ll use the second machine to send false data, and you will be doing that Patty.”
“Me?” the younger woman asked, a squeak in her voice. “Mistress, why me?”
“That should be simple to understand” Sara explained. “Penny can’t code, she’s a librarian, she never need to learn YCELL. From what we learned from you just today, you were taking programing classes before you ran away, so you’ve a bit of knowledge at least. Poor Penny barely knows how to format a disk.”
“Hey” the brunette snapped. “I can to format a disc, I can even change the things name.” She glared at her wife, then giggled. “But your right, other than simple user commands I’m lost, you two are on your own with this one.”
Sara thought about it, then turned to Patty and kissed the young woman gently on her lips, eliciting a sigh of pleasure from her. “Patty, tomorrow I want you to set up the second system up in the basement, there isn’t room for two computer tables and active people in the secure room. You will work only when I am working and you will keep a log of everything you do. Program a game if you want, anything to confuse whomever is watching us.”
“Ginger” Penny and Patty announced together, then they looked at each other and laughed.
“For now, we believe it was Ginger” Sara agreed, “But it could have been Dell for all we know. I don’t think so, but I won’t trust either until we are certain. Now Patty, this means that you will be out of your ball at least an hour before you work, and half an hour after we finish, at most. So get used to being outside, everyone else is going to be asking you a lot of questions.” She looked out the window at the darkness beginning to fall. “Penny, her ball please.”
“I have it” Patty announced, gently setting it on the table between her and Sara. Smiling to the young girl Ginger, Sara picked up the ball, triggering it as she did so. When the ball closed she returned it to her wife, “This weekend, you get to stay in your ball as well” she explained, seeing a smile come to her wife’s face. “But only at night, you earned this.”
“Thank you love, I really miss being in my ball” the black haired librarian whispered. “Short of a child, it’s the best present that you can give me.”
Sara nodded in agreement, then stood. “I need to code for a bit, I’ll be entering passwords as soon as Patty has the other system up and running. With good luck I will ruin only a dozen or so balls before I’m in.” She leaned down to kiss her wife, then headed down the stone stairs that led from kitchen to their basement. Behind her Penny watched as her love departed, then gently kissed the ball in her hand before standing herself to put it on the display shelf in their bedroom.