“Yeah, sure. Who is it then? The tower is linked to your signature. It won’t accept anyone else’s inputs as long as you’re synched in.” As he spoke a different section of code flickered and started to fade. By the time he finished it was gone. “And look, it’s writing just the sort of set you wanted. That new code looks an awful lot like the lines you had in there a few minutes ago, and that chunk you blew away is the one you hated most.” It laid a few more lines as replacements. They appeared as if by magic.

“I’m telling you, it isn’t ME!” Rauch protested. A second block of text flickered and faded to nothing. It was too large to fully interpret before it went, but it looked like another loop that Rauch would have considered unnecessary. “I may have wanted to, but you know we’re not that reckless here. We always ref out blocks that big before we delete them.” And then, in a softer voice, “even if they are shit.”

Miller passed on the jab, choosing instead to study the screen. A third section vanished as they watched, then a fourth and fifth. After that the cursor climbed to the top of the screen and inserted a lookup to another part of the set, then dropped a few lines and filled out one of the logical tests that had been only halfway written, and adjusted the first half in several places. It settled in one of the voids left by the disappearing blocks of texts.

“That’s funny,” Rauch mused. “I was just thinking that test was a weak point, and that a lookup might help shore it up. But I was just turning it over in my head, I swear! I never sent anything up!”

“Not really helping your case there, hombre. Maybe it’d be best if I took the reigns…”

Why won’t…

The cursor started to pick out one more line of text. But this time, instead of dropping it in with the usual whoosh! it laid it out slowly, one letter at a time, as if it wasn’t quite sure of itself or the signals it was getting. It backtracked more than once, deleting half a word and starting over with something different, or fixing an error of some sort. “I mean, we talked about it, sure, but you didn’t think we should go that way. I may not have been too keen on your approach, but I would never try to sneak one through when I know you’re not on board.”

…this god- damned…

Miller and the girl drifted closer to the screen, as if drawn by unseen forces, and read with growing fascination.

…jagoff…

”Disengage,” Miller ordered. “Synch out and walk away. This is getting weird.”

But Rauch was having none of it. Whether he couldn’t, or was too absorbed to hear, or just plain didn’t want to do it, he ignored Miller’s command. “I would never…ah…never…”

…shut his hole…

He trailed off as the cursor finished its message. Miller, Rauch, and the girl read the last few words in unison:

…and…let…me…WORK! ?

The cursor stopped moving and blinked impishly from the end of the line. “You know what?” Miller shot Rauch a sidelong look. “I think I’m starting to believe you.”