corrected.
‘That must be a pretty massive farm, then?’
HP was trying to sound impressed. Evidently it worked, because Erman suddenly looked a bit happier.
‘I was pretty much given a free hand. A hefty bank account and a few basic specs, then I was left to get on with it. Almost six months’ work, sixty hours a week. All the latest technology, as well as a few things that still haven’t hit the market, and maybe never will. NASA stuff, yeah? The Game could get hold of anything, and I mean anything! I just had to say what I needed and they sorted it.’
He sighed happily.
‘Sounds pretty sweet!’ HP flattered. ‘But how did they find you? I mean … why you in particular?’
‘Because I was the best, wasn’t I?’ Erman gave him another condescending stare but HP let it pass.
‘Didn’t you get what I told you just now? The Game does its homework, they’ve got informants everywhere and it didn’t take them long to put together a shortlist of people who could do what they wanted to get done.’
He waved two fingers at HP, and HP quickly finished his cigarette, pulled out the packet and lit two new Marlboros for himself and his host.
‘First an anonymous email to see if I was interested, spiced with just enough questions and challenges to get me going. Pretty much like you and your first assignments.
‘It took a while before I realized that they were weren’t just talking theoretically, they really were planning to put together an installation like that up here. When I finally realized it was serious, I couldn’t say no. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the sort of thing most people in my line of work could only dream of. The only problem was the suits made sure that I never got any sort of credit for it.’
He cleared his throat and spat a gob of saliva towards the nettles.
‘I had to sign loads of documents, but they were basically all variations on rule number one: Never talk about the Game! When it was all done the suits came back and checked and once they’d approved everything I had to hand over my keys, passcard and everything. Thanks a lot, we’ll take it from here. I offered to carry on, become the system administrator for the farm. I’d almost have done it for nothing, just to keep working at the farm. And what I’d seen of the Game itself, it all seemed pretty appealing …’
‘But …?’
‘Thanks, but no thanks, we’ve got our own people. And that was that! Paid off, just like that, after all my hard work. The passcard I handed in had probably been cancelled before I even left the building, and then I was out in the cold. I tried to get remote access to the system a couple of times but all the backdoors had been closed. Then I got a little warning message from the Game Master, and just like you, sadly I wasn’t smart enough to believe it …’
He took a couple of deep drags and slowly let the smoke out as he shook his head.
‘I was having serious trouble letting go of it all, it was my magnum opus. The best work I’d ever done, the sort of thing only a very few people in the world could have managed on their own and in such a short space of time. But I didn’t get any recognition at all for it, just thanks for the coffee and goodbye. I was so stupid that I kept on trying to find a way into the system. Maybe I was thinking that if I found some sort of problem, something that had gone wrong that I could fix, making it all work even better, then they’d realize that they needed me and let me back in again. That I was a force to be reckoned with! But there are never any comebacks. Once you’re out in the cold, they never let you back in!’
HP gulped.
That wasn’t the message he’d been hoping to hear.
‘So what happened?’ he asked, even though he’d already guessed the answer.
‘Suddenly I started to get problems. Installations I’d done elsewhere crashed, programs turned out to be riddled with viruses, and my customers went mad.
‘Then my bank account was blocked, and my phone and internet connections were cut off without any warning, as well as a load of other problems. I worked day and night to put everything right, but after a year or so my business was ruined. The same thing went for me, it was about then that I got ill.’
Erman was suddenly sounding tired.
‘So I left it all behind and vanished from the map. You won’t find me in any databases anywhere,’ he added happily. ‘I don’t really exist. No personal ID number, no bank account, loyalty cards or phone, electricity and water accounts. Completely out of sight of Big Brother!’
‘But how do you get it all to work, I mean, you must still need cash?’
‘You can sort anything if you really want to. It takes planning and work, but it’s possible. Don’t forget, it’s not that long since the internet was pure science fiction! I just do everything old-school, cash only and low tech. It works a lot better than you might think!’
HP shook his head doubtfully. He’d rather take a few deep breaths from the moped’s exhaust than live the rest of his life like this. No TV, no internet, not even electricity! All alone in the dark in the middle of nowhere. On top of what the Game had done to him, it wasn’t so strange that the poor geek seemed to be teetering on the edge.
‘This farm,’ he said cautiously. ‘Where exactly is it?’
Erman snorted.
‘Where the fuck do you think? Where do you put a server-farm of that size? Where are the best connections, the most stable transfers, and the best environment for computer traffic? Think! Where are all the big players up here? Northern Europe’s very own Silicon Valley!’
It took a few seconds before HP made the connection.
‘Kista,’ he whispered, almost devoutly.
‘Bingo!’ Erman replied with a smile. ‘You’re not completely thick after all!’
‘Nilla, there’s something I’d like to sort out with you, something important and I’d really appreciate it if you had a couple of minutes to talk.’
Good speech, entirely in line with her pre-prepared script.
Still silence, but at least Nilla hadn’t hung up. She could hear the other woman breathing down the line. Heavy breaths, as if she’d been running to answer the phone in time. Rebecca interpreted the silence as a sort of encouragement.
‘I’d like to explain to you what happened that evening, and why. How everything ended up the way it did. But I’d rather not do it over the phone. Is there any chance we could meet for a chat somewhere?’
She was trying her level best to sound calm and collected. As if what she was asking was no big deal, just a conversation between two adults to sort a few things out.
‘I thought I’d made myself clear in my email, Rebecca.’
Nilla’s voice was ice-cold.
‘Neither I nor anyone else in my family has anything to say to you. Please don’t call me again!’
‘B-but
