Bug - 6

Liberty and Pier were wearing similar fighting tribal masks. It looked natural; friends often participated in tournaments together. So, they walked side by side in their new long coats, obscuring their figures. As everything concealing, these coats were popular in the area. If Liberty had to guess, she would say that most people would see them as friends participating in bug quarter activities for fun and a sense of belonging.

Nobody she asked wanted to work without a prepayment.

Liberty could probably afford one or two prepayments. Still, she checked her PostDove and bank application messages, so she knew she was fired. Probably it was wise to keep that money for now. And even if it was not, there was no way she could let herself spend it here. She did not expect Pier to do any better than that. Despite being part of a rich family, he was even more broke at the moment than she was.

Liberty considered deleting PostDove because she was not going to this unprotected piece of software for some time. But before this day, it was her primary messaging application; all her contacts were there. Instead, she wrote several messages, proposing a meeting with people she knew. She had to choose people with whom she had at least some communication, and just pointing in the opposite direction of where she planned to go would have been too obvious. So Liberty selected several well-monitored locations, securely sending copies of messages to Anna. Anna came up with details on who Liberty should describe as her cooperators, but in exchange, she agreed to update Liberty on relevant news from these locations. It seemed like a sweet deal, but Liberty felt guilty, knowing that other people might suffer because of her actions. But, at least they did not have to work with murderers.

“I only convinced 1,5 people to join us,” Pier wrote in a private message.

“I got 0. Who is the 0,5?”

“Some medic. He lent me a little money, but that’s about all.”

“And who is the 1?”

“Freeman.”

So, they were siding with the murderers.

“Will he walk with us?” she asked.

“He will join later. He believes that we look more natural as a pair.”

A pair? There were thousands of reasons why they made a bad romantic couple. Freeman obviously meant a pair of friends.

“I am too good to be your pair,” Liberty still could not keep herself from replying.

“Everyone with eyes could see that,” Pier answered instantly.

Liberty turned to look at him. Even though she was using text for communication, sometimes she felt an instinctive need to look into the other party’s eyes. For example, when she was lied to or when a joke was lame. But Pier was looking before him, focused on his lens. He, apparently, did not even notice her movement, so Liberty carefully turned her face away from him, pretending that nothing had happened.

They finally exited a huge interconnected building. The level was surprisingly high, which made sense since the art galleries were not common on lower levels. Pair of kids playing in cool anonymous bug quarter denizens were not in sight, but they also were not out of place. There were no other people around.

Liberty looked for maps and made sense of what she saw around her. As with other things, locals preferred to endure some inconveniences if it allowed them not to share information, so there were no good 3D maps of the area. There were some maps on the internet, of course, but they were intentionally inaccurate. It did not help that upon entering the quarter, everyone’s lenses were put on “no recording” protocol at the entrance, just as on some fancy events. That was one of the reasons why Freeman’s ability to guide them to Anna via uncrowded areas was remarkable.

Liberty had belatedly realized two things. First, this protocol must have been responsible for the lack of videos describing the FLC event. And second, she could make some money from selling her video. Liberty had the advanced lens for less than a week, but she did record a piece of the area after jumping off the train. It was an entry point without any kind of lens control.After a little hesitation regarding whether she should delete the video right away, Liberty found a convincingly looking program for encrypting lens video and bought it. She then set to encrypt all of her future lens recordings. She also encrypted most of her existing recordings, only keeping a part of the event video in an original state. Pier’s idea about the deadman switch did seem reasonable to her. However, she did not know what exactly to do with the video. Liberty checked if there was a program for sending a file to all of her contacts in case her heart stopped beating. She found four applications with such functions, three of them free.

By the time Liberty set her lens to send the video to some of her friends in case of her death, she had realized that just destroying her lens before her heart stopped would be enough to prevent it from working. She could set something similar on a server, but then there would be a problem distinguishing between her death and any disruption between her lens and the server.

“What now?” Pier asked quietly.

For a second, Liberty was disoriented by his unnaturally beautiful voice and the fact that he chose to speak instead of texting.

“We’ll go a couple of levels down to a place that should be pretty safe, according to A,” she wrote, “I will send F the address.”

“Let’s walk fast,” she added orally.

Despite what she said, they used a system of elevators and escalators more than they walked. Pier’s anonymous transportation card was enough to pay for them. Walking was less stressful than standing without moving, but standing was less likely to be recognized by tracing software. So, Liberty was trying to move only when it was required, and that led to her back aching.

While they were moving to their destination, Pier told her how he got Freeman to help. It turned out that Freeman offered his help himself. Liberty found that suspicious. In exchange, he asked for several changes in how FLC tests the company’s products. There were only two explanations Liberty could come up with. Either Freeman cared deeply about the potential harm caused by insufficiently tested production might cause, or he planned to pretend to be on their side and then sell them to get his compensation elsewhere.