Rood | Page 7

after, Tony?" he asked.
"Tonx, Fed. And I'm just asking if you're really enjoying what you're
doing, where you're going."
Fed picked up a rumpled but clean napkin from the little bamboo
basket on the table next to him and wiped off his elbow.
"Of course I am. I'm even getting into some of the undergrounds at the
big schools. If I can finish reversing this virus I've got a contact that'll
sponsor a full nym for me. I can start posting some of my questions
without being marked as a noob."
"Huh" said Tonx. A group of asian schoolgirls in uniforms from a
corporate-sponsored school swirled by, giggles and yells and the rapid
pattern of their talk rising then dimming in the empty air of the shop.
Suddenly Tonx stood up and flashed a paycard over the reader
embedded in the table. "It's on me," he said.

They walked out of the shop through battered translucent plastic slats
hanging from the doorway, out into the twilight. The sky was a rich,
dark blue in the gaps between buildings, and a couple of lone clouds
overhead took up the yellowed color from the city lights below.
Tonx stepped down onto the street and waved a hand. "Come on, I got
to get back to the shop."
Fed zipped up his jacket and followed, his eyebrows pulling together as
he watched the heels of Tonx's black converse knock-offs rise and fall
in front of him. After a moment he jogged forward and caught up,
dodging past a pair of old ladies carrying some dead leafy thing to walk
next to his brother.
"Why'd you leave?" he asked again. "Why'd you leave MIT?"
Tonx unsealed a flap on the hem of his hoody and stroked the controls
for a moment. Fiber optic threads started glowing around the inside of
his hood, illuminating his face in a dim red light. He pushed back an
errant lock of dark hair and leaned towards Fed as they walked. "Why'd
I leave MIT?
"I left because great people aren't great because to their education, or
the school they went to or the toys their parents or companies or
curriculum buys them. I left because people become great by doing
what they love to do."
He leaned away from Fed, the red light fading as the heating elements
in his hoody ramped up to full capacity.
"I love biotech, man, not school."
Fed snorted, loudly. "That's fucking stupid," he said. "You couldn't get
better access to biotech than at MIT."
Tonx stopped and placed his hand on an aluminum push panel set into
a door on the side of a building. The soft hum of machinery cut through
the street noise and the door clicked, then shuddered.

"Okay" he said. He looked thoughtful for a moment. "How's this then: I
left because I didn't need to be there anymore to do what I wanted. To
achieve what I wanted to achieve."
He looked away from Fed, off down the street, his face hidden in the
shadow of his hoody.
"My goals changed," he said.
He pushed into the crumbling hallway beyond, yellowed fluorescents
flickering to life through metal gratings overhead.
"You coming?" he asked.

Chapter #4
Fed followed Tonx inside the hallway. The walls were a cheap
poly-plyboard coated with a peeling latex. The composite they had
used had fat chunks of plastic that didn't hold the paint well, leaving
sagging, discolored pockets over its surface. The lights overhead
flickered as they went, the growling hum of old transformers shuttling
electrons through grime-coated wires.
"Listen, Fed" said Tonx, "I got practice tonight. You're welcome to stay,
and you're welcome not to, but I don't want Mom riding down here on
her broomstick either way."
"Don't worry about it" mumbled Fed. There was a blackness growing in
his belly, an anger spreading over the tofu and fried vegetables and up
through his throat. Tonx had been gone for two years, and in those two
years Fed had spent almost every waking moment goggled in, sweating
blood over prefabbed lessons and newsgroup HOWTOs. He'd lived and
breathed code, and Tonx had been out... here.
"Fed." Tonx had stopped at a doorway set into the end of the hall. "I'm
sorry."

"I always meant to come back and explain things to you, but whenever
I talked to Mom she made it sound like you didn't want to see me. I
don't know what changed, or why you decided to show up, but... I'm
glad you're here."
Tonx had his hood pushed back, tucked a strand of hair behind his ear.
He looked at his dirty shoes, at Fed. "Listen, why don't you come in
and after practice we'll talk some more?"
"What practice?" asked Fed.
"Aikido" said Tonx with a sudden smile.