"You're stalling!" shouted the brown suit. This was the one Sarah had come to think of as the bad guy brown suit. Actually, she knew full and well they were both bad. This one just seemed to have more natural ability.
She couldn't see them, of course. She was in the same dark place as when this whole mess started. If she could have seen, she would have noticed the other brown suit sitting on the control panel next to her, currently studying the Doctor with an expression not unlike that of his associate. Occasionally, when he was certain that neither the Doctor nor his associate were watching, he would chance to glance appreciatively down the front of Sarah's blouse.
"It isn't that simple!" Doctor Kwibee shouted back.
Prior to making this rebuttal, the Doctor had complied without resistance. Sarah simply figured everyone must have a breaking point. In fact, she wasn't that far from her own. When she heard the Doctor match the Suit's tone, she wanted to stand up and cheer, and would have, if only she had legs. She knew they were still there, somewhere. She just couldn't feel them, or any thing else for that matter.
"Looked pretty simple from the make-shift job you did at the Hoffman residence."
"That was before you people tripped every alarm the program has to trip!" Orval shot back. Actually, he had a sneaking suspicion that IBOT's security might have become alerted when he advanced the gain on Mrs. Hoffman's filter. He had known at the time it posed a risk. Of course, there was no way to be certain, but the maneuver had been just prior to their connection loss. Nevertheless, there was no reason this goon had to know about it.
[Can we just do this already?]
"Take a look for yourself. No, not that. This," Kwibee said, pointing at the monitor, thus drawing the Suit's attention away from the lag flow meter.
"What?" inquired the Suit, being incapable of distinguishing those squiggles from the others.
"This is the original configuration," Kwibee continued, pointing to an area highlighted in green. "And this is what appears to be a new partition," he concluded, pointing at the yet growing area in blue.
"All right, I'll bite. What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means IBOT has setup a new security parameter, and then quarantined it to elude your ... I mean, our influence," the Doctor explained, careful to include himself as a part of their association.
[Hello? It's me again. You remember me, don't you? The guinea pig. Yeah, just thought I'd pass on a helpful tip. IT'S DARK IN HERE!]
"Then set her down in the blue stuff."
"We don't know anything about it. There's no way of knowing how the system will react to the filter in a partition we know was probably designed as a counter-measure to that filter. There are tests that must be..."
"Do it!"
Aside from a small bout of nausea at having just found herself on the same side of the argument as one of the Suit twins, Sarah was glad to be returning. The sooner she got back, the sooner this mess would be over with.
"All right!" Doctor Kwibee shouted with enough shift in tone to suggest he was being offered some not so subtle incentive.
"All you have to do is find two missing people," said the bad Suit. "Colonel Hereford, and Agent Dolen."
"And remember, Kwibee," added the Good Suit. "We're watching you," he intoned gravely while chancing another glance.
)
