Vernor Vinge - Rainbows End

"Some sonograms we can't take in public. A microgram blood spot." The Mysterious Stranger pointed at a small box that lay on the seat between them. "Take a look."

Robert reached down… and his fingers touched something hard and cool. The box was real. That was a first for the Mysterious Stranger. He took a closer look. It was gray plastic without any openings or even virtual labels. Wait, there was the ubiquitous "no user-serviceable parts within."

"So?"

"So, leave that in your front bathroom this evening. It will do the rest."

"I won't do anything to hurt Alice."

The Stranger laughed. "Such paranoia. The point of all this is to pass unnoticed. Alice Gu is in public places several times a week. If ill were wished her, those would be the opportunities to take advantage of. But you and the cabal just need biometrics… Any other questions?"

"Not just now." Robert slipped the gray plastic box into his pocket. "I just can't imagine that twenty-first-century military security can be duped by something as simple as a drop of blood and some sonograms."

The Stranger laughed. "Oh, there's much more to it than that. Tommie Parker thinks he's covering the angles, but without my help you four would not even get into the steam tunnels." He looked at Robert's stiff expression and laughed again. "Think of your part as being the user interface." He gave a little bow. "And I am the user."

Robert made a point of taking the Stranger's gadget through the front hallway bug trap. The small box triggered no alarms he could see. So betrayal was as simple as walking into the first-floor bathroom and setting the box down among the bags and aerosols and squeeze tubes that were already piled on the side counter. Modern bed and bath products were a bastion of old-style physical advertising. After all, even the most modern folks had to take off their clothes and their contacts somewhere. But Alice and Bob had no style. They bought the cheapest commodity products they could find. The devil box fit right in.

Robert took a long shower. It would be nice to feel clean. He heard no strange sounds, saw nothing strange through the frosted glass. But when he came out of the shower, he noticed that there was no mysterious gray box either. Even when he pawed around the counter, touching every object there — there was no sign of the intrusion. The bathroom door had been shut the whole time.

Someone knocked on the door, happily following the family rules about not snooping through bathroom walls. "Robert, are you okay?" It was Miri. "Alice says it's dinnertime."

Dinner was a nightmare.

It was always tense when the four of them ate together. Usually, Robert could avoid such get-togethers, but Alice seemed determined to see him with the whole family at least once a week. Robert knew what she was up to. She was recalibrating, deciding if now she could lower the boom on her father-in-law.

Tonight she was steelier than ever, and it didn't help that Robert had serious things to hide. Maybe she had some special reason to be suspicious. He noticed that Bob and Miri were doing all the running back and forth to the kitchen. Usually Alice helped with that. Tonight she sat herself down in her usual place, and grilled Robert in her merciless, casual way: how was school going, what about the project with Juan. She even asked about his "old friends," for God's sake! And Robert explained and smiled and prayed he was passing the test. The old Robert never had trouble stringing people along !

Then Bob and Miri were sitting down to eat. Alice shifted her attention from her villainous father-in-law. She chatted with Miri in the same friendly, interested tones she had used with Robert. Miri replied with precision, a detailed summary of just who and what was good and bad at school.

For a while Robert almost relaxed. After all, they were here to eat. Surely that couldn't give him away.

But something was up, and it wasn't just his imagination. Bob and Alice got into a discussion of San Diego politics, a school-bond issue. But there was an edgy undercurrent; some couples really argue politics, but this was the first time Robert had ever heard that from these two. And every so often Alice's clothing flickered . Around the house in the real world, Alice Gu wore a dumpy hausfrau dress that wouldn't have been out of place in the 1950s. When she flickered, it was virtual imagery, nothing like Carlos's old-fashioned smart T-shirts. The first time it happened, Robert almost didn't notice — partly because neither Bob or Miri reacted. Half a minute later — as Alice gestured emphatically about some outstandingly trivial election issue — there was another flicker. For an instant she was dressed in something like naval whites, but the collar insignia said "PHS." PHS ? There were lots of different Google hits on the abbreviation. A minute or two passed, and she was briefly a USMC full colonel. That , Robert had seen before, since it was her true rank.

Bob said mildly, "You're emoting, dear."

"It doesn't matter," Alice said curtly. "You know that. The point is" — and she continued chewing on the school-bond issue. But her gaze wandered around the room, eventually riveting on Robert. It was not a friendly gaze, and even though her words were unrelated to Robert Gu there was a sharpness in her voice. Then, for almost two seconds, she was wearing a civilian business suit with an old-fashioned ID lanyard. The ID bore a familiar seal and the letters DHS. Robert knew what that meant. It was all he could do not to flinch back. She can't know everything ! He wondered if Alice and Bob were silently coordinating all the scary signs, conspiring to panic him into confession. Somehow, he didn't think Bob was that adept.

So Robert just nodded and glanced casually around. Miri had been quieter than usual. She was staring off into the distance, and looked as bored as a thirteen-year-old can look when she's trapped at home with her parents rattling on about Things Not Important. But this was Miri Gu, and this was not the twentieth century. Most likely she was surfing, though usually she disguised such absences when she was at the dinner table.

Alice slapped the table, and Robert's eyes jerked back to her. She was glaring at him. "Don't you agree, Robert?"

Even Louise Chumlig couldn't glare more aggressively than that.

"Sorry. My mind wandered, Alice."

She waved her hand abruptly. "It doesn't matter."

And then golden letters spread silently across the air. Miri — > Robert: Don't worry. She's not mad at you.

Miri was still gazing into nowhere. Her hands were in plain sight and motionless. She was that good with her clothes. Okay, but what in hell is going on here ? That was the message he wanted to send back, but short of finger tapping, the best he could do was give her a quizzical look.

Alice rattled on, interrupted occasionally by Bob, but now Robert was not living in stark terror. He waited another three or four minutes, and then excused himself.

Bob looked a little relieved. "We don't have to talk so much about the bond issue, Robert. There are other — "

"No, that's okay. I'm the fellow with homework these days." Robert pasted on a smile and retreated up the stairs. He felt Alice's rifled gaze following him every step. If not for Miri's silent message, he would have run up the stairs.

And so far, Alice hadn't ventured near the front bathroom.

He did have homework. Juan came over and distracted him for almost half an hour with his explanations of immersive outlines. Robert was supposed to have such an outline ready for tomorrow's progress report in Chumlig's class. Juan went away pleased. So was Robert; he had made up for several days of inattention. He fooled around with Juan's templates till he could implement everything. By God, we should be getting an A for cross-support . The kid's prose had become almost serviceable — and this immersive he had constructed, it was beautiful. He was aware of Miri helping to clean up after dinner and then coming up to her room. Bob and Alice were just sitting in the living room. He set an activity alarm on the first floor, and for a while he forgot himself in the making of more and better refinements to his graphics.