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115 lines
3.2 KiB
Text
115 lines
3.2 KiB
Text
.LP
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.ce
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.ps 16
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.CW
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CU/FARLEY
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.R
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.ps 8
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.CW
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tags: 1960, margaret, tab1, tab2, the_chief
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.R
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.PP
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.ps 10
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1 October 1960 I loaded Tommy into the truck and took him to work
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with me.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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The boy perked up at the sight of the two\-story displays. A damn
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sight better than the consumer grade equipment his mother used to
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review her nude home shows. We had a spare terminal so I logged him in
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with basic access and let him handle analysis on some of the
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non\-essential traffic. No one would mind. With his orange cap he
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almost fit in.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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Perturbations in the mesh. We were bringing a new series of embassy
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clouds online and things were not going smoothly. I was asked to
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supervise a side\-switch.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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At 07:30 Tommy spoke up, something about overlap.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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"Pop, we've got incoming."
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.PP
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.ps 10
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Three embassies were competing for the same channel. Ping errors
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were filling up the logs. I asked Tommy if he had a solution.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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"Subnet them."
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.PP
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.ps 10
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My men went into action and the crisis was averted.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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Chief gave Tommy a lollipop.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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Tommy liked the snow but touching his hand to it produced tears. I
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growled at him a bit.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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I gassed up the truck and we cut across town back to the hovel. We
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had opened a new file on Tommy. CU/FARLEY would follow him for the
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rest of his life. He'd shown aptitude. All of that testing wasn't a
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waste after all. His mother would grumble but his interest was clear,
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honest. We assigned him TAB2 and that was that.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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Inside the house I prepared a plate of sandwiches and pickles and
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we settled in to monitor the logs. Again Tommy showed initiative and
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reorganized his own desktop for efficiency. I dozed off for a while
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and when I came to he'd routed the embassy logs through his login. He
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picked out some trouble spots and saved the boys back at HQ a few
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hours of grief. I considered pulling him out of school for a few
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months until the embassies were all up and running. Heh, not likely,
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not with
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.I
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his
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.R
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mother.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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Flipped on the telescreen. Presidential election. Iran.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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Can't escape it. Switched off the telescreen and back to Tommy's
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progress, trawling the logs. I showed him how to clean up a few
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streams and within a few minutes he was giving me advice on my own
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data structures. I wondered how long this could hold his attention.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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At 10:25 a page came over the wire, calling me back to HQ. I
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strapped Tommy into his seat and we were on our way.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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The truck spun through the slush and we got hung up in the parking
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lot. I left the vehicle and trudged towards the building with Tommy in
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tow; housekeeping would dig out the truck as time permitted.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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We made it up the stairs and Chief stopped us before we got to our
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terminals. CU/FARLEY was already twenty pages thick. They had decided
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to call in their investment early. I slicked down Tommy's eyebrows
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with my thumb and handed him over.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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My son and I locked eyes. Tommy full of comprehension.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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He reached up to his head and removed his orange toboggan. He
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glanced at the name I'd scrawled inside it,
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.I
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TAB2,
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.R
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and then passed it
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over to me, his three\-year\-old arms not quite bridging the gap between
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us.
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.PP
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.ps 10
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I nodded. I understood.
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