Rudy Rucker - The hacker and the ants

“For the trial?”

“Ida and me are going to be there,” said Tom. “Mommy said she’ll get us excused from school.”

“Carol’s coming to the trial too? Ma?”

“Yes,” said Ida in her calm, deep voice. “We all love you, Da. Maybe if the jury sees you have a family, they’ll feel sorry for you.”

“Aw. That’s wonderful. You’re so sweet to stand behind me. I’m deeply touched. I love you.” I put my arms around them.

All of San Jose lay spread out before us, and beyond San Jose, Silicon Valley stretched north like a chip-laden motherboard. The great old concrete blimp hangers of Moffat Field stuck up like heavy-duty capacitors. It was such a clear day that, looking farther, we could see all the way up the Bay to the tiny smudges of Oakland and San Francisco. A strong, steady breeze swept down the Bay, across Silicon Valley, and over the crest of our hill.

“The Lord hates Daddy’s ants,” said Tom presently, and poked me high up under my ribs.

“Suckling pigs on Daddy style,” intoned Ida, and poked my other side. We laughed and wrestled for a minute, and then the kids let me be.

“I’m getting to hate the ants, too,” I said when I caught my breath. “If I could find a way to kill them all, I’d do it. They’ve made so much trouble already, and now it might get worse.”

“Are they going to break TV some more?”

“Maybe, but what I’m most worried about today is that the ants might infect the software for those new robots I worked on for West West. Whatever you do in the near future, don’t go close to any of those robots.”

“Is Studly in jail?” asked Ida.

“Sort of. The police are keeping him for an exhibit in the trial.”

“Do you think he might go hyper and kill everyone in the courtroom if they turn him on at the trial?” asked Tom, arching his high eyebrows.

“It might be a good idea not to come for that day of the trial, actually,” I said. “If they don’t stop the trial first.”

“Why would they stop the trial?” asked Tom.

“Well… maybe if some of the main people stopped coming. The judge or the lawyer or somebody.” I gave him a long look, and he got the picture.

“I’m flying,” said Ida, holding out her arms and letting the breeze beat at her sleeves. “I’m flying away!” Tom and I held out our arms to fly too, and then we ran off, flying, down the zigzags of the rest of the loop trail.

Carol was home when I brought the kids back to the apartment. I didn’t really want to go in, but before I knew it, Carol had me sitting on the couch with a cup of hot tea.

“I can’t stay long,” I said. These tete-a-tetes with Carol made me acutely uncomfortable. After all the pain of our separation, I didn’t want to contemplate getting back together with her.

“Okay, but what should I tell Sorrel about the trial? Why don’t you call her? She’s upset.”

“Good idea.”

I dialed Sorrel’s number on Carol’s phone. Someone on her dorm hall answered and trudged off in search of Sorrel. Then my firstborn’s bright voice came through the receiver.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Sorrel, it’s Da.”

“Da, I have a problem. I want to be there for your trial, but I have finals all next week.”

“When were you originally planning to come home?”

“June fifth,” put in Carol, who was sitting on a chair next to the couch. “The ticket she has is for next Friday.”

“Well, don’t change your ticket, Sorrel, it’ll cost a lot more. And there’s no point missing your exams. I’ll just be sitting on a chair in a room with a judge.”

“But what if you go to jail? I want to take a last walk with you, Da.”

“I do, too, honey. Actually, they’re revoking my bail on Tuesday, so I might be in jail from then on.” My voice cracked in despair and self-pity. “I’ve got an idea-why don’t you come home just for a day. Fly out here tomorrow morning, spend tomorrow night and all day Friday here, and fly back to school on Saturday. Then you can still study on Sunday and be ready for your tests.”

“Should I really?”

“I’ll pay. Get a direct flight into San Francisco and rent a car.”

“I don’t have to rent a car. Tom or Ida can pick me up.”

“It’ll be easier all around if you drive.” I was thinking of uses for that rental car. “Just write checks or charge it and I’ll pay you back in cash.”

“Great! I’ll do it!”

“And Friday afternoon we’ll go off together. I already took Tom and Ida for a walk today.”

We wound up the conversation. Carol got on the phone with Sorrel for a minute and talked about details. It was like old times, thinking and planning together as a family.

Of course Hiroshi came home then, so I finished my tea and cleared out. Carol saw me to the door.

“The trial is at the Hall of Justice on West Hedding between San Pedro and Guadelupe,” I told her. “It’s with Judge Carrig on the fifth floor, courtroom 33. I’m supposed to be there at eight-thirty, but it probably doesn’t start till later.”

“Where’s West Hedding?”

“Up near First Street and 880.”

“What was that I heard you tell Sorrel about your bail being revoked?”

“West West fired me.”

“Oh, Jerzy. I’m sorry. But if Sorrel will be here with a rental car on Friday, I might work that day. I can’t miss too many days. It’s only Tom and Ida who insist they see every day of the trial.”

“That’s fine. And thanks for all the support. Bye, kids!”

Carol closed the door. I drove home to Queue’s and called Gretchen to tell her I was too tired to get together. I went to bed early.

The courtroom was much smaller than I’d expected; it was just one of thirty or forty courtrooms in the Hall of Justice. In the back were five rows of seats for onlookers, and then a waist-high partition-the bar-with a sign on it that said:

ALL COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE PRISONERS VERBAL, WRITTEN OR SIGNED IS UNLAWFUL WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF THE DEPUTIES.

Carol, Tom, and Ida were there. On my side of the bar were, from left to right, a desk with a Santa Clara County sheriff with a gun and a computer, a desk with a DEFENDANT sign where I sat next to Stu, a desk with a PEOPLE sign where the District Attorney sat, and, against the right wall, two rows of comfortable chairs for the jury. There was also a desk for the court clerk, and the judge sat behind a big raised pulpit-the bench. The witness stand was squeezed in between the bench and the jury. The judge’s name was on his bench: Francis J. Carrig.

The first part of Thursday was spent in dealing with the people who wanted to get out of jury duty. Beefy Judge Carrig spoke very slowly and clearly in a slightly overbearing way. He didn’t seem like a guy you’d want to interrupt or argue with. Out of boredom I jotted down some of his more judicious-sounding phrases, and came up with these:

“Let me finish. I’m asking for your cooperation. I don’t want to have to repeat this. I have the utmost confidence that this case will be completed by June fifth. Let me help you out. I will ask you the same question collectively. Can you be a fair impartial fact finder? Counsel approach the bench.”

That’s what the judge sounded like. Once he’d found twelve willing jurors, he asked the prosecutor and the defense to introduce themselves. The prosecutor’s name was Eddie Machotka-he was wiry and intense, with a bald pate and big puffs of curly clown hair on the sides of his head. Then the judge read out my name and the charges against me: criminal trespass, computer intrusion, and extreme cruelty to animals.

“Are any of you jurors familiar with this case?” asked Judge Carrig. Of course they all were-prior questioning had already revealed that everyone on the jury had a TV. So then the judge went into finding out if anyone on the jury was already convinced I was guilty. Could they be objective? As Judge Carrig put it, “We’re not asking you to decide complex technical issues. Just things like: was it up or was it down, was it left or was it right, was it hot or was it cold?” Two jurors got weeded out here, and the judge replaced them with two of the alternates who were waiting in the onlookers’ seats. I turned around and looked at my family every now and then.