doubleZero | Page 9

would never have been able to do what we did."
"If you do say so yourself."
"Am I right?" Fix asked, cocking his head coyly.
"You're right. But you were almost very wrong, fucker! Get going on
your stupid bubble."
Lloyd turned the corner, coming from the Control Room. Looking up
to find Julie and Fix, he jumped slightly. "Hi, guys," he said,
composing himself, "what are you doing?"
Julie quickly jumped in, "Fix was just getting his personal stuff." The
excuse fell flat the moment it left her lips: they all simultaneously
looked at Fix's graph paper drawings and napkin notes. Neither Julie
nor Lloyd had ever seen anything of Fix's that could be described as
'personal'.
"I don't think you should be here, Felix. And I'm kinda surprised that
you let him in, Julie."
"It's my fault," Fix said, looking over his shoulder, still half-working.
"There's a bit of a hitch in our date solution. I wanted to come in and
see if I could work it out, 'cause I felt responsible. If you just give me a
few more minutes."
"I was the lead programmer on that project, so I should implement any
fixes to the system, particularly now that it's live!"
"Shit!" said Fix, looking at his screen, "I can't find it. Okay, Lloyd,
remember that bubble experiment I told you about when we were in
trials with the project? Well," he pointed at the screen, "it's in there.
Much as I don't want to, I think we have to tell Carol."

"You can't do that," Lloyd said, visibly nervous.
"She already hates me, and it is my fault. What's she going to do, fire
me?"
Lloyd picked up the phone on Fix's desk, dialled a short number, and
spoke into the receiver, "Hello, security?"
"What are you doing?!" Fix screamed.
"...you'd better come up to Programming."
Fix jumped up from his chair. "Why the fuck'd'ya do that?"
"'Cause I can't have Carol looking around at my code."
"Why shouldn't she look at it?" asked Julie. Lloyd's expression was too
complicated an answer to such a simple question. He refused to look
her in the eyes. "Is there something wrong with the code? What's wrong
with your code?" Lloyd's eyes darted around as if they wanted to hide
in the back of his head. Julie scowled. "You messed with it, too, didn't
you?" she hissed at him, "Can't you guys just do what you're supposed
to without adding your own special touches? Fuck!" She stomped her
engineer boot. Then she threw herself at Lloyd, grabbing him and
pushing him against the wall, her forearm across his neck. "What did
you do to it? And why haven't we seen it yet?"
"Leap year," said Lloyd, shaken, just as the security guards appeared
down the hall.
Julie let go of Lloyd and grabbed Fix. "C'mon." Fix started to go with
her down the opposite hallway, then turned back, grabbed his picture,
and ran.
4
Julie squatted beside Fix. Their bikes lay on the ground next to them,
hidden behind a station wagon. She popped her head up and looked
through the car's windows. "The light's on in my apartment," she

reported to Fix.
"God knows what Lloyd told the police," Fix wondered aloud.
"Nothing. He knows better than that. Whatever he told the bank, it
won't implicate him. And the bank won't want any announcements
about security breaches in their computer equipment. No, I don't think
the police know exactly why they're after us."
"It seems pretty serious if they're at my place, and here, too. Whatever
they think it was, they think we did something, and they seem pretty
determined to find us."
"We've gotta get out of here," Julie said. "If only we could get to my
car." She looked over at her little black Golf, glistening in the light of
the streetlamps. She longed to be in it, shifting gears away from here,
only it was directly below her lit windows, parked in front of the old
red brick warehouse. Police cruisers were parked at angles on either
side of the front door.
"There's no way. They're not going anywhere soon, and we can't stay
around. C'mon," Fix said, righting his bike.
Julie lifted her sleek blue mountain bike. She found herself trusting him,
needing him in this moment, and she was willing to follow wherever he
was cycling off to in the dark.
Julie's hands were stiff from the cold by the time they reached the train
station. Her face was numb, and she had trouble mouthing her words to
him. "A train?"
"Sure. We'd never get through at an airport, but how much security is
there on a train? And there are trains out of here all the time." Fix's face
was pale, except for