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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 153: Takano 132
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 336
Keller took them to lunch again that Wednesday. He asked them what was new, and they told him of their relocation to the manse in addition to discussing what little progress they had made on computer circuit design.
“Jonas Cutter is throwing a party,” Keller said. “It’s not at all my kind of thing, and I’m wondering whether I can get out of it. On the other hand, if he gets that many wealthy and well-connected people together in one place, it’s bound to attract trouble. I might have to go just to keep an eye on things. Maybe you should be ready just in case.”
That reminded Tommy of her conversations with Robbie. She certainly couldn’t say that Robinette was trying to decide whether to rob the party or to burgle the homes of the guests. On the other hand, there was something she should mention. “I picked up some news,” she said. “Remember those superconducting crystals that were stolen? I learned that Doctor Mordenslice was trying to hire someone to steal them, and reportedly was offering a lot of money for them.”
“Really?” Keller said. “Why would he want them?”
Brian said, “In this world the best guess is he wants to build a supercomputer before anyone else does. Superconduction would certainly help overcome the problems of having to use transistors instead of integrated circuits. Of course, he would need a lot more than superconductive crystals–transistors, mainly, but also circuit designs, software, input/output interfaces. And then all of this only gives them a big machine for rapidly processing information. It doesn’t answer the question of what he intends to do with such a machine.”
“But at least we know who wants it,” Keller said. “That’s a step in the right direction.”
Yes, Tommy thought, but it doesn’t really get us very close to catching him, does it? Still, they were right; knowing that Doctor Mordenslice was trying to build a supercomputer gave them something to pursue, even though they had no idea who Mordenslice was, where to find him, or what he was actually trying to do.
Being a superheroine, she thought, was not always fights and rescues. Those were, in a sense, the easy part. Figuring out the plans of superintelligent supervillains was much more difficult.
“We should ask Gorillaxe,” she said.
“What?” both men said together.
“He thinks he’s brilliant; Sockajawea thinks he’s brilliant. Is there a better way to figure out what one superintelligent supervillain is planning than to get another superintelligent supervillain working on the question?”
Their stunned silence told her they couldn’t argue with that.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
