Laurel reflected on the past few weeks as her walk from the supermarket drew her closer to the apartment building where she now lived. It only had been a couple of weeks since her move to the big city and a world of difference from life with mom and dad to being on her own. Recently graduated from college as a production line specialist, her new job at Spanner Industries was the biggest change in all her twenty one years. She thought how especially her mom didn't want her moving there with all the crime and corruption of city life and how she had to reassure them she would be fine and even how the neighborhood she was going to be living in was really much safer than she believed it was herself. She felt the weight of her grocery bags getting heavier with each step. Laurel was a looker by anyone's standards. Hers was the beauty of the classic small town cutie whose smile could capture anyone's heart. She had curves where any man would want them and a bosom that could drive them wild if she ever chose to showcase her cleavage, which she didn't. If she was ever the center spread in a Playboy magazine, men would be wondering how they got someone as wholesome as her to pose while they closely studied each well thumbed page.
Coming within sight of the five story apartment she now called home she gave her head a shake that gently tossed her long honey brown hair about as she again thought of her computer frustrations back in her unit. She had no idea what the problem was. Yesterday she had no link to the Internet just a static filled screen and she promised her mom she'd be in touch every day through e-mail to reassure her that all was ok. She called the internet company, but of course they insisted that there were no faults in their system and the trouble really was with her computer. She highly doubted that but what was she to do?
It was fate that at the moment she neared the entrance to the complex, she spotted the parked van with the big bold advertising on the side. "Reggie The Home Computer Specialist! Most Fixes $30! Ph:555-771-0236" Taking her computer anywhere else for someone to look at it could probably cost 50 dollars or more, so while it was on her mind she put down her bags and using her cell phone called the number. Prepared to leave a message, she was mildly startled when Reggie himself picked up after the second ring and was abrupt and to the point.
"Reggie here, what can I do for you?"
"...Oh, hello, I saw your van sitting outside my apartment and I'm having a bit of trouble with my Internet connection. Do you think you might have some time to take a look before you go?"
"Yeah...Ok" his reply seemed as if it were an inconvenience, "Just finishing up a job in the next few minutes...your apartment number?"
"317" Laurel said a little surprised at how fast this was all happening but guessing that was a good thing.
"Ok, see you then." and with a click he hung up. Laurel waited a few seconds making sure the conversation was over before finally putting her phone away and picking up her bags for the walk upstairs. I'll have to hurry she thought.
Entering her apartment she quickly kicked off her shoes and quickly set her groceries down on her table next to her computer desk causing a couple of oranges and a bunch of bananas to tumble out such was her haste. I'll get to that later she thought and quickly put her coat away. Barely had she time to turn on the computer to get it ready before a knock on her door told her he had come over more quickly than she expected. Opening the door she couldn't help but make a quick judgment of the man. In front of her holding his bag of gear, Reggie was a medium height white male she figured to be in his late 20's or very early 30's. He looked like he was losing his youthful appearance sooner than he should have. His hair was starting to thin, and while not excessively overweight you could see where he was going over the next few years. But it was that smiling face that caught her most. It reminded her of that last mistake of a boyfriend she had whom her parents practically forced upon her. Smug, cocksure, the kind of ex jock that thinks they're God's gift to women. Brad was one bad experience she was glad was over. He had pulled the wool over her parents' eyes with his snake oil charm, but they never saw his selfish, degrading inner core as she had. Other boys would have loved to have a chance with her, but for the longest time even before he wormed his way in, Brad made sure no one else even came close. He was her only sexual partner and he had not made it pretty. And of course, how could she ever forget his two asshole sidekicks with all their lewd comments towards her. Whenever she talked to Brad about them, he would only laugh tell her to loosen up and accuse her of being too thin skinned. The old memory was gone in a flash as Reggie asked for a second time to be let in. "Oh sure." she said with a quick smile and stepped back hoping this wouldn't take long. Unguided, he walked directly over to her computer desk where he instantly sat down and took over. Just as arrogant as Brad too she thought.
He saw the jumping, pulsing, static like image, did the customary glance at the cable connections and looked over the modem box. He then opened up a few windows on her computer and started typing in DOS commands. It wasn't long before she had no idea what he was doing and after several minutes he turned to look her straight in the eyes and almost with an imperceptible smirk tightening his mouth said "It looks like you got the ...Dildock Virus." and waited for her reaction. How was she to respond? She said she had never heard of it.
"Oh you don't want it! It invades all your programming code, rewriting it, destroying all your old documents and images on a sub-partechian level, and it'll spread to other computers on the web. I can save your stuff, but I've got to it now before this thing does more damage." When Laurel asked how much it would cost, he coyly said that while it did take a bit of effort and programming time he survived on word of mouth and she since seemed nice so he'd try to keep it down to $30 and smiled sweetly. "It can take a while so if you want to do some things around the place it's ok. I have to get some gear out." And on he went, just assuming the job without her say so.
"That's fine," she said, "I do have a few things to do." making an excuse to get away. She wasn't comfortable with the situation, it didn't seem right, but what could she do? And who could she get that would be as cheap that would actually come to her? I guess I have to put more faith in people she thought. This big city life is really beginning to get to me.
About 20 minutes later Reggie came to find her as she was folding laundry. She was noticeably startled when he spoke and she briefly wondered how long he had stood there watching her before he said anything.
"I've installed a special program that will fix the virus, it's incredibly hard to kill and the software has a unique way of going about it. By the way, before I finished up I noticed you don't have a webcam and took the liberty to install one. I'm offering them at a special discount. I got a whole case of these cams from a store that was going bankrupt. Incredibly high-tech with audio, I'm letting them go for a steal at thirty bucks. Now she was pissed. Why would he even thing to install something like that before asking her? But on second thought it sounded like excellent value and she thought how happy her mom would be if she could see and hear her daughter instead of just get email. She wasn't exactly flush with extra cash and because of Reggie's ballsy attitude she started to say no thanks, but was interrupted before she even began. "Tell you what; you pass my name on to three friends and it's yours for $10." How could she pass that up?
"Ok," she finally agreed.
"Fine, forty bucks. Before I go." He said with outstretched palm.
She just barely scraped enough cash together from her purse and a pocket or two and gave it to him the total amount. He then directed her to sit down at her computer. "It's all done except for what you have to do." He briefly changed the subject and excitedly pointed to the new space age camera mounted above her monitor. "Pretty nifty huh? Auto tracking, hi res, low light sensitivity, zoom and pan control and recognition features." Unseen by Laurel a disgusting smirk spread across his face as he said, "You're gonna love it!"
Then he got serious again. "This program is going to have to run off and on over the next few days. I don't have time to seek out all instances of the virus as it writes new code. What you have to do is sit here and watch the screen. You're going to see all sorts of colors and shapes and stuff flash up on the monitor as its working." He leaned closely over her shoulder, giving her the creeps and almost tried to talk sexily into her ear the next few instructions. "What you want to do is pay attention and when you see colors show up only in the sequence of blue, red, green, green and then blue... click your left mouse button right away or you'll have to start the program all over again. Now it can take some time so be patient and only hit the button when you get that sequence no others okay? Reaching around her, he clicked her mouse on a program he installed and almost immediately her screen was filled with a flashing, pulsing kaleidoscope of data, patterns and odd random colors. The speed and intensity took her mind a moment to adjust. She knew she'd have to focus and so settled in to the task at hand.
