Cloud to Cloud

Episode 35: Grid Teams from Years Past

Following the creation of the Earth, Wind, and Firewall, as Fred had taken to calling it, the pair worked to create a similar barrier within the confines of their ITower cubicles.

Evan focused intensely on his work, as he fought to avoid staring at calendars, Post-its, and various otherwise benign cubicle decor doubling as symbolic boundaries. This included the plethora of other meaningless wall hangings intended to obscure the strangeness of their cubicle adornment.

"Next thing you know we'll be setting up crop circles in the lobby." He grumbled.

A familiar voice pierced the earphones of his headset causing his head to jerk back. "We need to get you up to speed with your uncle and this Hannah chick." Linc's face appeared at the corner of the monitor.

"Man. You gotta give me some sort of warning before you do that." Evan leaned away from the keyboard.

"What motivates you these days?" Linc avoided Evan's concerns.

"Motivation." Evan snickered. "The usual, I suppose. Sex, money, food." Evan counted the vices on his fingers.

"You haven't changed at all, man." Linc sighed.

"At least I'm honest about my vices." Evan shrugged. "Hanging in that crazy shop with all those lights and brights makes me nauseous. No one can be that pure."

"They're at least trying." Linc quirked a half smile. "Better than your failing to hook up with a tech witch."

"What?" Evan shook his head and averted his attention to another monitor. "Yeah. Whatever. Also, I'm not sure she would be too keen on that nickname."

As Evan tapped at the keys, Linc surveyed his friend.

"Seriously. What do you think will happen if this works?"

"Works? I think we should be plotting to tear the whole deal down instead of open-source it." Evan scowled.

Evan continued to work through the project Fred laid on his shoulders.

"I mean, look at this." Evan tilted the monitor to face Linc, though he knew the man could see it regardless of the angle.

"Fred has me poking around on the Wave7 creeps, but meanwhile I can peer into more than the big data trail they left."

"And this is from my side of the Cloud." Linc confirmed.

"Yeah." Evan stared at the files open on the screen. "Past, present, and.... Wait a minute."

Evan straightened. His fingers flew across the keys. A renewed interest sparked his search.

"Future." Linc nodded. "Yep!"

"Yeah. But not theirs. Not yet," Evan whispered.

Linc watched with concern and curiosity as Evan typed into the search fields.

"I know he showed me game stats, Fred did. The other day. They were for the entire year." Evan's heart raced. "Think we can peek at next week's stocks?"

Linc was caught up in the excitement in Evan's voice. "Pish. Next week. How about until it completely crashes in..." Linc laughed, then paused. "No. I mean. Don't do anything too obvious."

"I knew it." Evan raised his hand to catch a virtual high five from his partner. He immediately dropped it back to the keyboard. "Right. Okay. So how do I do this?"

Worry crossed Linc's face.

"Well, Coach did say to light a fire under you though." He mumbled.

"Okay." Evan scowled at the screen, leaning in to study the data. "Now. How did the old man manage access."