Part 123 (1/2)
”Yes With Scott it botheredGame All expense paid date” Sonja knew exactly what Stephanie meant Deep inside she had known that at one point or another she would have to s straight on and deal with it
She had not suspected that it would be for passion, nor because of one of her 'dates'
”Besides,” Sonja added, ”I didn't need to push hi on this story that it's aluess,” Stephanie said vacantly until her thoughts took forether sometime I'm sure the boys have a lot in common”
”Scott should be down tonight”
”That should be fine We were going to dinner anyway Maybe we can put this behind us”
New York City
The traffic engineers frantically searched for the reason that the signals had all turned green They reinitialized the switch- es and hts flashed red and yellow, but there was no relief froridlock Computer technicians rapidly deter', as they so eloquently described the current disaster A global error, they adineers isolated the switching zones and began ion's switches in the hope of piecing together the grid
At noon the engineers and technicians had tied together the dozens of local switches into the network and watched as they synchronized with each other The computers compare the date, the time, anticipated traffic floeather conditions and adjust the light patterns and sequences accordingly Twenty minutes later, just as systereen again It was then that the engineers knew that it was only the priram which was corrupted
The Mayor publicly co the entire traffic light system back in operation by 2:00 PM
The official explanation was a massive coh, Gracie Mansion instructed the police to find out as responsible for the dangerous software and they in turn called the Secret Service The ratulated the NYPD, and the population of the City in coping with the crisis To everyone's relief there were no deaths from the endless stream of traffic accidents, but alh to be taken to the hospital
Whoever was responsible would be charged with atte other assorted crimes All they had to do was find hi to another day is about as close to time travel as ill see for a century, but that's how Scott felt when he called OSO Industries in Tokyo Was he calling 17 hours into the next day, or was he 7 hours and one day behind? All he kneas that he needed an international clock to figure out when to call japan during their business hours Once he was connected to the OSO switchboard, he had to pass scrutiny by three different opera- tors, one of thelish language He told ho- lish was acceptable, that he was doing a story on dGraph and needed a few quotes It h almost immediately
”Yes?”
”Mr homosoto?”
”Yes”
”This is Scott Mason, fro from New York How are you today?”
”Fine, Mr Mason How ratuitous sort when it ca to run a story in which Pierre Troubleaux accuses you ofhis partner Max Jones He also says that dGraph software is infected with destructive programs
Would you like to comment, sir?” Scott asked as innocently as possible under the circumstances
No answer
”Sir? Mr homosoto?”
”Yes?”
”We are also interested in your relationshi+p with Miles Foster
Mr ho to say”