Next, he reaches Hanks’ dossier and makes a slight travel change so he won’t miss his mother’s passing. No longer blaming himself for missing her death, James reasons, Hank won’t get addicted to mind-altering drugs. Instead, a mid-life crisis will be Hank’s big test – a path that may lead him to leave the corporate world behind and jump back into writing. James looks forward to reading the books, if he chooses that path.
Tom Simmons is the tricky one.
Whatever happens, he always ends up as Fall Water Lake’s CTO. James carefully goes through his logs and identifies a point that needs to be changed. Tom always sought the appreciation and support of his mentor, Jonathan Burrow, but never received it. It feels wrong opening Alice’s father’s file, but James knows what needs to be done. At the first corporate party, Johnathan will break his no-alcohol rule. A night of drinking with Tom will lead to a sentimental conversation. This simple action will form a lifelong friendship between the CEO and CTO of Fall Water Lake, a solid bond that will allow both to consolidate against the board in a critical period for FWL to preserve its independence and keep its core values intact. FWL doesn’t need to take military contracts to succeed.
While working on Simmons’ file, James naturally thinks of Tom’s bitter rivaclass="underline" ‘Tor’. James makes some quick changes to Alex’s file. Instead of applying to FWL and encountering Tom Simmons, Alex will enroll as a Technical Director in an LA startup. Ironically, the revolutionary will continue to work on an online project called ‘The Deep.’ He hopes Alex won’t go too far down that road – but certain things cannot be changed about some people.
Donovan is last, and James is surprised to find Craze’s turning point. As a child, his father always instilled in him the values of business. Despite the good intentions, the seed planted in Donovan was to be The Best, and the need to have money and power superseded everything else.
That is, until James makes a slight, but crucial, alteration.
In college, Donovan had never had the courage to ask his classroom crush out – but with a few keystrokes, James gives Donovan the push he will eventually need. With the girl spending time as an activist, Donovan’s views quickly change from those of the business world to those of the political sphere. As a politician, Donovan still behaves like an asshole – but his rise allows him to stop the insider deals of several big tech companies. The ones that matter.
Lines of code, logs, symbols, and numbers are all James sees, and he takes a minute to crack his knuckles and rest his eyes. There are only a few details left, but the amount of data he’s processing is becoming too much.
Finally, he moves to her file.
Even before opening it, he knows exactly what to do. Alice Burrow. He goes to October 17th, 2016 and makes Alice miss the party with her friend. She stays home and spends time with her dad instead, helping him recover from a hangover he has from a company party. In their quiet moment together, the two open up, talking about her mother’s passing and his love for her. There’s a bright future in front of her, and it’s up to her to decide where to go and what to become.
Lastly, he reaches his own files.
For several minutes, he stares blankly at the computer screen. He’ll have no issues with forgetting what he’s done in the Cyberside, but how does he move forward? The first part is the hardest. He thinks of those he’ll spend his second chance with. Knowing what he did to his family, his hands shake as he types in commands. He scrolls back through the memory backups of those who’ve died in the Cyberside and finds the two names that have haunted him since he’s been here. Sarah and Timothy Reynolds. Happy to see their faces, he tries not to think about the anomalies they became when they Transferred, or what he had to do that started him on the path of the Taciturn. Restoring the lost segments, he smiles.
The next part comes easier; he creates an email filter malfunction to never accept any job emails from Fall Water Lake. He’ll stay with his family in Boston, and he’ll have to be content working in video games. They won’t be as well-off as they were before, but he already knows where that road takes him. James will still have long nights and crunches – but this time, he’ll learn to enjoy life with his family.
He is about to close the file when he decides to add one more thing. When they decide to have another kid, he wants to make sure that it’s a daughter. And that they decide on naming her Matilda.
Remember me rings in his ears.
He enters the final commands into the console and saves everything just as the sun clears the horizon. Yawning, he stretches his arms and looks at the small titanium dog tag in his hand. As his weary eyes begin to close, James grins.
“Well kiddo, I think we did it.”
He opens his eyes to a Bostonian morning.
James rubs the marks on his face from where he slept on the keyboard. His cell phone vibrates, indicating he has several messages. His coworker Stephen walks in with a cup of coffee and places it on James’ desk.
“Did you sleep here all night, Jim? You seriously got to stop doing this to yourself. Well, there’s a team meeting and donuts in the break room.”
James nods and rubs his tired eyes.
“Yeah, sure. I’ll be right there.”
As they discuss the client’s new feedback, all James can think about is the strangest dream he had. A dream with details that elude him, their numbers fading with each passing moment. As the meeting ends and he approaches his producer, James tries to think of the right words to say. All he can come up with is that he pulled an all-nighter and needs to go home and catch up on some real sleep.
As James leaves the meeting to head home, he decides to spend time with his son instead of just going straight to bed – a decision that he knows is for the best. It’s a decision like any of the countless others being made every moment, small choices that dictate the rest of one’s existence. Choices and outcomes. Actions and consequences.
Stopping by his office to grab a few things, he glances at the message staring back at him on the computer.
The message reads Hello, World.
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Author Aleksey Savchenko and Bert Jennings
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 9781723753596