2
Approaching Lester, Harlan grabbed the Pringle container from his hands, and poured its remaining contents over Lester’s head. “Oh relax, Les. We made a pact, remember? Everyone is fair game. We’ll just have a little fun with this kid. Maybe make her Principal think she cheated on her last math test by downloading a copy of it to her computer screen." Harlan rubbed his hands together and smacked his lips. “Or maybe edit her Facebook Hologram to cut off her shorts an extra three inches. Also, maybe give her some cleavage. I bet her macho ‘it’s illegal to take rocks home’ father would hate for that to happen."
Chuckling in response, Lester retrieved another package of Pringles from the cupboard. “Well now that you put it that way, I guess it’s not so bad."
Harlan waddled towards Lester and nudged him in the ribs. “That’s the spirit, Les. Remember, we’ve had a lot of fun with the 3D Printer. A lot of fun. It makes life bearable in this outhouse of a station on the side of a dormant volcano, in this sea of blazing hot lava rocks. Oh, Hawaii. What a blast. I think I’ll sit in a stifling hot plywood box, no bigger than an outhouse, answering dumb-ass questions from dumb-ass tourists all day. Yeah, that’s how I plan to spend my life.”
Lester made a sandwich out of ten Pringles and crunched down. “Well, I know what you’re saying, Har, but you have to admit, we made lemonade out of lemons. It’s one brilliant scheme we’ve got going on here. And it was your baby all the way, Har. Your idea to manufacture extra ‘special’ shiny lava rocks with the 3D Copier, and then sprinkle them all over the side of the mountain, where our hapless victims are most likely to find them.”
Harlan stuffed a bunch of Bugles in his mouth. “I do agree with everything you just said Les. It’s quite the little tourist trap we’ve got going on. When our idiot employers put this 3D Copier into our little mecca of an information station here, they had no idea what they’d unleashed. No idea what a disgraced Inteligix Code Writer and a wrongly terminated Gentigen Video Game Programmer could do with it.”
Affecting a Southern accent, Lester laughed. “A lot more than copy 3D maps of Mauna Kea for Cole from Alabama.” Lester picked up a pile of 3D maps and threw them across the floor.
Harlan chuckled and gave Lester a good strong pat on the back. “A lot more, my tall, skinny, Munster-looking friend. A lot more. Combining the Curse of Madame Pele with some good ol’e 2027 technology. Who would’ve thought we could wreak such havoc? Indeed, who would’ve thought?”
“Like I said, you are a genius, Har. Manufacturing a pile of fake extra shiny lava rocks with Servotransponder Veils embedded in them. A true genius."
“You flatter me too much, Lester. But, I do admit, it’s well deserved. The shininess of the rocks attracts the dumbest of tourists. They usually don’t believe in the curse and think they’re getting away with murder by stuffing their formally anemic looking crotches with rocks. And, once these idiots take the rocks home, the Wi-Fi signal hiding in the Veil shoots directly back to us. Allowing us to then mess with all areas of their lives. And those arrogant enough to flaunt Madame Pele by stealing a rock, start believing in the Curse real fast…real fast. But it’s us, Les. Little ol’e us."
“And they can never trace the Veil’s signal back here, since I’ve put a scramble on the Servotransponder," said Lester, jumping up and down like a kid at Christmas.
“Yes, my boy,” said Harlan. “That, I might add, was a slick move on your part."
