Tangled Yarns: Monday's Child

But wondering was the only thing people in the Day Cities could do. It was against the rules to enquire after family. The Great System, as it was called, had strict rules about that. Anyone who tried to trace their family was punished, either by isolation, or 're-education'. No mercy was shown to those who offended, whether they were old or young.

So Chally wondered, and as he thought about these things, he risked detection by tapping into the main city system. Hacking it was called. And Chally was good at it because he knew the System had Watchers. But first he tried simple ventures. The child-care centre, the community hall, the transport bureau. Innocent enquiries. They would not alert the Watchers. He used an assumed name and number and got thousands of lines of useless information about hundreds of other people.

He learned quickly. He practiced. He designed his own code. He tried harder systems and dug deeper. The telephone exchange took him three weeks to get into. He had a look at files which made little sense to him, and he got out again before the security software tracked him to the terminal he was using. It had been a minor triumph. His multiple identity program wasted the Watcher's time.

When he had a go at the DNA banks, he hit wall after wall of code words and encryption. He designed another program and left it running for a few weeks. It was never discovered because he had covered it with the System's own code. When he came back, he had only one wall left to break down. Then he was in.

The DNA files were huge. Chally tried an alphabetical search. No useful result. He tried a number search. Nothing. He tried a pattern-match and got two names: Alicia and Terrag. Now all he needed was an address and he could hack his way through the communications system and see his parents on the vid-phone. If they were there. If they answered.

But security was alerted and two men arrived at his door just as he was leaving the university library.

"1604. 52?"

"Yes?"

"Under section 49 we are authorized to detain you for questioning."

"What for? What have I done?"

"That's what we're here to find out."