LevelUP: an 8-bit novel by Micah Joel. Author's definitive online edition.

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Chapter Twenty-Six

2-2: Circuit Bending

“Help?” Max says. A single word. A request? Is someone, say, Max’s dad, calling for help? Or is it an offer of assistance? Maybe a command.

“Help what?”

Molly can’t see the HUD, so her confusion is warranted. “I’m getting a message. One word: help. But I don’t know what it means. What are we supposed to do with that?”

“We get out,” Molly says.

Given her penchant for noticing trouble before anyone else does, Max takes her warning to heart. He sweeps all the garbage off the desk and lays the picture frame down. The router circuit board is attached by little blobs of glue. “We’re taking this with us. Find a knife or something,” he says.

Molly disappears from the room, taking the green light with her. The only light left in the office is the blinking LED on the router. Where is the power coming from? Another set of wires leads into a cylinder about the size of a small candy bar. That must be the “battery.” It too is glued to the back of the picture with a glob of something. It yields when Max pushes his fingernail against it. It feels waxy. Max presses harder and it gives way entirely.

An infinite battery in his hand. This had to be pre-Damage technology. Why was it kept a secret? Why didn’t every iPod and cellphone and laptop computer have one of these installed?

Maybe they were dangerous. Full of toxic materials that might leak out. Or maybe just dangerous electrically. What would happen if the terminals shorted together? An unlimited amount of energy could be released in a short time. That sounded more like a bomb than a battery.

A green glow announces Molly’s return. She found a scalpel somewhere. The blade is dull and rusty, but it works well enough against the soft glue. Max carefully frees the circuit board, leaving only the antennae wires. They’re securely bonded to the metal frame. Welded maybe. He tugs on the wires as hard as he dares, but they don’t break away.

“Is it OK to cut the antenna wires?” Max asks.

“That’ll reduce the broadcast range quite a bit,” Molly says. “If it’s a tuned antenna, it might even throw off the broadcast frequency.”

“Not worried about range, as long as we keep it with us. But the Muses said that these nodes were pretty particular about frequencies. Hmm.” There’s no way they can carry a huge picture around town. Too conspicuous. Max reaches the scalpel toward the wires.

“Does the frame come apart?” Molly asks?

Ahh. The idea hadn’t occurred to Max. He runs his fingers along the metal and discovers tiny screws holding it in place. “Got a screwdriver?”

Molly hands Max her pen. He’s confused for a moment, but she reaches over and pulls off the clicker. Underneath is a tiny screwdriver.

“Of course,” Max says, and works free the metal frame. It comes apart into two L-shaped pieces, each of which is barely-manageable when slung over a shoulder.

“What’s that thing?” Molly asks.

It takes Max a second to realize she’s talking about the circuit board. The main component is a rectangular chip with many dozens of wires crowded around its four edges.

“Obviously, that’s a CPU chip,” Molly says. “Pre-crash vintage—and it’s got a communication driver. But there’s another chip in between the two that I don’t recognize. Does it have a part number?”

Max leans in to look closer. “Nothing I can see.” While leaning, the two antenna pieces of frame glance off each other, lighting a spark in the darkness.

“Don’t let those two touch,” Molly cautions. “I don’t know how much abuse the RF drivers on that router can take. They need to be working perfectly, in order to be ready for the next time a key exchange window opens.”

“Any idea when that might be?” Max asks.

“I don’t,” Molly says. “But there’s no reason to think that it has to be a long time after the previous window.”

“And then what?” Max asks. “Every node we’ve been in so far has been like a playable video game. What’s this one going to be? Something catches Max’s attention out of the corner of his eye. Something blinking rapidly on the circuit board. Another window is opening.

Max reaches out to the spiral circuit trace, the “button,” and mashes his thumb over it.

Abruptly, Max is weightless—less than weightless—rushing upward into an empty sky. The world around him fades to a soft robin egg blue, intensifying to faded denim, then all the way to the electric hue of butterflies Max had only seen on a screen, never quite sure whether the display was capable of displaying a color as intense as nature could provide.

Everything else got left behind, even Molly.

Molly!

Max, alone and unprepared for whatever challenge this node is about to put him through, takes a deep breath.

The HUD lights up:

*** THE REALTIME OPERATING NODE 8-BIT RISCLISP V2 ***

64K RAM SYSTEM. 38911 LISP BYTES FREE

READY.

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Copyright 2018, 2019 Micah Joel. All rights reserved.