iFrankenstein (sequel to iDrakula) (iMonsters Book 2) Read online

  iFrankenstein

  by

  Bekka Black

  COPYRIGHT

  This is a work of fiction based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Any resemblance to any other characters, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © by Rebecca Cantrell

  Artwork:

  Friedrich, Caspar David.

  Woman on the Beach of Rugen 1818, 1818. Oskar Reinhart Foundation, Winterhur, Switzerland.

  Village Landscape in Morning Light (The Lone Tree). 1822. Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany.

  Woman at a Window, 1822. Nationagalerie, Berlin, Germany.

  The Wanderer above the Mists, 1817-18. Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany.

  The Cemetery Gate (The Churchyard) c. 1825-30. Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany.

  Graveyard under Snow. 1826. Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig, Germany.

  Grebe, Fritz. Blick in den sommerlichen Hardanger Fjord. Oil on wood. Private collection.

  Marszewski, Jozef. Nocturnal Landscape and Windmills. 1864. Oil on canvas. National Museum, Warsaw.

  Millet, Francisque. Mountain Landscape with Lightning. c. 1675. Oil on canvas. National Gallery, London, UK.

  Odevaere, Joseph Denis. Lord Byron on his Death-bed. c. 1826. Oil on canvas. Groeningmuseum, Bruges, Belgium.

  Pearson, W. Atlantic liner Titanic sinking bow first, 1912, with eight full lightboats nearby and iceberg in the distance. 1912. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

  Schouman, Martinus. The Explosion of Gunboat nr 2 Under Command of Jan van Spejik. Antwerp. February 5, 1831. 1832. Oil on canvas. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

  Van Gogh, Vincent. Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass. 1888. Oil on canvas. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

  Dedication

  To my son and favorite reader.

  Table of Contents

  October 22 - The ship sets sail

  October 23 - Victor releases the crawler

  October 24 - Elizabeth tours Amsterdam on her own

  October 25 - Victor starts the AI analysis

  October 26 - Virtual Victor (V.V) is alive!

  October 27 - Victor gets hacked

  October 28 - Victor gets an email from his dead mother

  October 29 - V.V is like nothing seen before

  October 30 - Victor faces V.V

  October 31 - Doorway to death?

  Biography

  Other Works

  October 22 - The ship sets sail

  Text from Elizabeth Lavenza to Henry Clerval

  October 22

  10:45 AM

  Elizabeth

  Vacation goal: Blast Victor out of the cyberworld & into the real one

  Henry

  Not enough dynamite on the planet

  Elizabeth

  I hope u r wrong

  Henry

  Where r u guys now?

  Elizabeth

  Southampton, England

  Henry

  Where the Titanic sailed from?

  Elizabeth

  Yup. Here’s a painting I just saw in Greenwich Maritime Museum

  Henry

  It’s all fun and games till someone loses an…iceberg

  Elizabeth

  Ha ha. At least the beginning of THAT cruise was fun

  Henry

  Uh-oh. Where’s Victor?

  Elizabeth

  Hiding in his cabin on ship. Banging on his laptop

  Henry

  Sounds like u’ll have a fun trip! Almost as much fun as staying here in Palo Alto and watching him type

  Elizabeth

  Advice?

  Henry

  Maybe u’d be better off hanging out IRL with ur mom?

  Elizabeth

  Mom & Victor’s dad are busy planning their National Geographic piece about the Walton’s last voyage

  Henry

  That IS how the trip is getting paid for: free tix if they chronicle the ship’s final voyage

  Elizabeth

  Whatever. It’s not the same without u here. Victor & I r like Huey & Dewey without Louie

  Henry

  Am closer to Scrooge McDuck these days

  Elizabeth

  That’s Victor

  Henry

  Except it’s his computer not his gold coins that he loves

  Elizabeth

  Even Scrooge came around in “Mickey’s Christmas Carol”

  Henry

  All u need r invisible Christmas spirits and u r set

  Elizabeth

  Hmmm…

  Text from Elizabeth Lavenza to Victor Frankenstein

  October 22

  10:55 AM

  Elizabeth

  The SS Walton won’t disembark for hours. Come onshore with me!

  Victor

  Isn’t it raining out there in nature?

  Elizabeth

  Not any more. It’s kinda like this

  Victor

  Looks windy

  Elizabeth

  It’s exhilarating!

  Victor

  Exhilaration is overrated

  Elizabeth

  Ur body. Only u can live in it

  Victor

  Technically, parasites can live in it too

  Elizabeth

  Ha ha. R u coming?

  Victor

  Can’t. Have 1 more object to debug

  Elizabeth

  I’ve heard that a million times

  Victor

  It’d be faster if the damn ship had internet like my father, the Sperm Donor, promised

  Elizabeth

  What’s wrong with the internet?

  Victor

  It keeps breaking + they won’t let me fix it

  Elizabeth

  Can u survive 2 weeks without internet?

  Victor

  Maybe not

  Elizabeth

  Have u ever gone a DAY without internet?

  Victor

  Why would I want to?

  Elizabeth

  So u can meet urself IRL!

  Victor

  Cyber-me is still me. That whole IRL distinction is crap

  Elizabeth

  Gotta go enjoy life, Sunshine Boy

  Victor

  Return to me in one piece

  Elizabeth

  Not more than two pieces. Promise

  Henry's Browser

  October 22

  Cruise Itinerary for the SS Walton

  October 21

  Southampton – Great Britain. Sail early evening. Check-in 12 to 5 pm

  October 22

  Bruges – Belgium. Full day on shore

  October 23

  Amsterdam – Netherlands. Full day on shore

  October 24

  Oslo – Norway. Full day on shore

  October 25

  Stavanger – Norway. Full day on shore

  October 26

  Flaam – Norway. Full day on shore

  October 27

  Cruise in Sognefjord – Norway. Evening

  October 28

  Cruise in Nordfjord – Norway. Evening

  October 29

  Trondheim – Norway. Full day

  October 30

  Bodo – Norway. Morning

  October 31

  Reykjavik – Iceland. Full day

  November 1

  Southampton – Great Britain. Arrive early morning, disembark 9 to 11 am

  Henry's Browser

  October 22

  ASK FRANK Search Results

  Your search for "queen mary Southampton" returned 4,000,600 results.

  Southampton –
Queen Mary – The Queen Mary’s maiden voyage was out of Southampton on May 27, 1936…

  Queen Mary – Southampton – One of our favorite ghost-hunting tours, the Queen Mary has more ghosts than…

  Queen – “We Will Rock You” The Mayflower Theater Southampton. After the success of the regional tour…

  Victor's Phone Notes

  October 22

  Use crawler to retrieve text from all portals I used in the past 5 years: email, Facebook, MySpace, twitter, Amazon reviews, Netflix reviews, YouTube reviews, SecondLife, Runescape, World of Warcraft, other online games, etc.

  Dump the texts into a database, separated by end of message, periods, hard line breaks, etc. Borrow processing power to speed this up

  Move results into AI database

  Set up data mining engine to sort out meaningful questions + answers: AI chatbot complete!

  Win the Turing test in all major online contests: True Turing, Conversationalist, etc.

  Get scholarship + early admittance to Carnegie Mellon

  Leave home a year early!

  Finally spend “quality time” with Elizabeth

  Rule the world

  Screw up massively + be stuck living with the Sperm Donor another year until I graduate

  Victor's Browser

  October 22

  True Turing Prize

  Alan Turing, celebrated mathematician, postulated that a machine could be said to think if it could answer questions such that a human asker assumed the machine to be human. As simple as it sounds, it has proven to be very difficult to create a chatbot that can pass this test.

  The True Turing Prize is awarded yearly to the chatbot who comes the closest to fooling a human interrogator. Winners receive a medal and a $10,000 prize, plus additional scholarship money.

  Elizabeth's Browser

  October 22

  ASK BRANDON

  How To Find Out What Boys Really Think

  Dear Brandon,

  I have this guy who’s been my closest friend since forever, but I want something more. How do I get him to notice me as something besides a BFF?

  Jessica

  Dear Jessica:

  You have to show him it’s a new world now. Take him someplace you’ve never been together. Do some activity with him that you’ve both never done. Try a new look. Don’t go overboard, but maybe try something a little sexier than usual. Guys are very visual.

  If he still doesn’t figure it out, you can either decide he knows how you feel and is just pretending not to know to spare your feelings, or take the risk and tell him how you feel.

  Good luck!

  Brandon

  Text from Elizabeth Lavenza to Henry Clerval

  October 22

  9:10 PM

  Elizabeth

  I dragged Victor out of his cabin & on deck this evening

  Henry

  Bet he hated it

  Elizabeth

  U r not going to believe this, but he was almost struck by lightning!

  Henry

  Figures. Is he OK?

  Elizabeth

  Fine, but mad! Now he swears Mother Nature hates him. He’s nursing a grudge in his cabin

  Henry

  Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did u like the play?

  Elizabeth

  Southampton’s amazing!

  Henry

  The Queen Mary had her maiden voyage from there. Remember that trip?

  Elizabeth

  U were scared to go on the ghost hunting tour

  Henry

  The entire Clerval/Lavenza/Frankenstein clans were there! If I screamed like a girl I’d never live it down

  Elizabeth

  U were very brave in the end

  Henry

  So patronizing. Ouch. That trip was awful!

  Elizabeth

  I thought the Queen Mary ghost hunting tour was cool

  Henry

  U thought all the yearly trips were cool

  Elizabeth

  Every single one. Every single summer since we were 11. I miss them. Don’t u?

  Henry

  Doesn’t matter, E. After that trip everything died

  Elizabeth

  Not everything. Just Victor’s mom & my parent’s marriage

  Henry

  And my freedom

  Elizabeth

  What r u up to today?

  Henry

  U 2 r missing the Palo Alto junior/senior homeschool prom right now

  Elizabeth

  Is it fun?

  Henry

  Didn’t go. Didn’t want to dance in the wheelchair

  Elizabeth

  Remember when u taught me to dance in 5th grade for our first homeschool dance?

  Henry

  My poor sad toes remember

  Elizabeth

  If u can dance with me, u can dance with anything, even a wheelchair

  Henry

  Do u know how gratingly cheerful u can be?

  Elizabeth

  It’s not easy either

  Henry

  :)

  Elizabeth

  Miss u

  Henry

  Miss u both. Tell Victor Mother Nature might not be so angry if he visited more often

  Elizabeth

  Will do. G’night

  Henry

  Sleep tight

  Text from Alphonse Frankenstein to Victor Frankenstein

  October 22

  9:14 PM

  Alphonse

  Hey, Victor! Where are you?

  Victor

  Alphonse

  Don’t wait up for me, kiddo. I’ll be up late working. Lots of historical photos to plow through. Good night.

  October 23 - Victor releases the crawler

  Elizabeth's Browser

  October 23

  Bruges, Belgium

  Art Museums

  Text from Elizabeth Lavenza to Lydia Lavenza

  October 23

  9:35 AM

  Elizabeth

  May I go into Bruges today? Visit museums, take pictures, do sketches

  Lydia

  More Elizabeth art specials? I’d love to see them. Of course you can go.

  Elizabeth

  Want to come with me?

  Lydia

  We’re meeting with the captain who first piloted the SS Walton for the piece. Otherwise you know I’d love to!

  Elizabeth

  I’ll see if Victor wants to go

  Lydia

  Oh, I hope so! And don’t miss the last boat back!

  Elizabeth

  I’m 16, Mom, not 6

  Lydia

  I know you’re very responsible, Lizzie. Sorry I nagged you.

  Elizabeth

  I forgive u. :) Especially because Bruges is going to be COOL!

  Lydia

  Have fun!

  Text from Elizabeth Lavenza to Victor Frankenstein

  October 23

  10:00 AM

  Elizabeth

  Wanna go into Bruges for lunch? Their specialties are French fries & waffles, ur kind of food

  Victor

  I saw the movie In Bruges. Don’t need to see the real life version

  Elizabeth

  Real life might be more complex than u think

  Victor

  + last time we went someplace ur Mother Nature nearly murdered me

  Elizabeth

  U can’t text Mother Nature. U have to meet her on her own terms. Unplug

  Victor

  They’ll have to pry my laptop from my cold dead fingers

  Elizabeth

  Bruges has an Internet café in a windmill…

  Victor

  Internet!!!! I’ll be right there. With my laptop. Ready to download the crawler

  Elizabeth

  I ring with joy

  Victor

  Meet me on deck, smarty pants

  Email from Victor Frankenstein to Henry Clerval

  October 23

&nbs
p; 11:32 AM

  It’s begun!

  The damn windmill Internet café has no wireless access! I had to beg them to let me plug an Ethernet cable into Dad’s old laptop because my files are too big to transfer with a jump drive. The teenager in charge really didn’t want to, because of course he worried I have some heinous virus that will destroy his entire computer network, but in the end I prevailed.

  I set the crawler loose! It’s trolling the Internet for every bit of text I ever wrote. It’s going to take some time to collect it all, even with my “borrowed” computer resources. Don’t tell Elizabeth how I’m borrowing them either. You know how anti-hacking she can be. And it’s not like the computers I’m borrowing it from are using it. No harm, no foul, right?

  Based on my results with the test databases, I think my chatbot’s a cinch to win the True Turing, unless you can pull a rabbit out of a hat. If you can’t, it’s early admission to Carnegie Mellon for me. I won’t have to be dragged everywhere on the globe that the Sperm Donor gets paid to photograph. Nirvana. Or it’ll be a massive and tragic failure and I’ll be aimlessly walking the earth another year in his shadow. Some days I think it’s a coin flip.

  Elizabeth says “hi” and also to tell you that “the Internet café is in an old windmill and while Victor was banging away I ordered some delicious bread that was ground on a working windmill and it tastes awesome and no Victor won’t try any because he says it’s not Wonder Bread which is exactly the point, but You Know How He Is (caps mine).” Also, there were some eyerolls.