“Well, I’m sure Stacy must have told you about the car accident, so you’ll know that my grudge goes back. But when Michael was forced out of Sycamore, he came to me and told me that Amos was planning something big.”
“But… I hadn’t even pitched it,” Kurt repeated. He didn’t know what Ernesto was getting at.
Michael spoke up. “It was the SycaPhone. If you hadn’t come along with the Seed, the SycaPhone would have done a lot of the same things. Sycamore’s endgame was to have everyone wearing UltraLenses all the time, and the SycaPhone was going to be the reason people did. That’s why so many apps were ready to go so quickly after the Seed launched. Everything was ready for the SycaPhone, they just had to tweak it.”
Kurt had assumed most of this already and it did nothing to assuage his guilt over cursing the world with the Seed. However good the SycaPhone might have been, Amos could never have dreamed of the near-100% reach that the Seed achieved in a matter of months. The whole appeal of the Seed — and the whole problem — was that it went inside the user; it went under their skin; it became a part of them.
Ernesto continued: “And when Michael told me that Amos was planning something big, he said there was talk of a proprietary network that would for all intents and purposes replace the internet. Amos had total confidence that he could get the government on board. This was back when everything happened with the lawsuit. Michael and Anthony weren’t safe as long as Amos knew where they were. That’s when we came here.”
Michael was a difficult man to read. He nodded slightly during parts of Ernesto’s explanation, but his face displayed no emotion.
Kurt still didn’t quite follow. “But you couldn’t have known that Sycamore was going to get this powerful. Not six months ago. I don’t get why you would start a resistance against a company that a lot of people had never even heard of.”
“Oh, it wasn’t a resistance back then,” Ernesto said. “This was just a safe place to stay low until we decided what to do. It turned into a resistance the night you stepped on that stage at the Talent Search. Michael thought you were a shill and that everything you said about cashless payments and pre-emptive crime prevention had been written by Amos, so we knew things were about to step up. But obviously we had no idea how quickly it would all happen.”
“So what was the plan?” Kurt asked.
“At first our plan was to recruit a few popular figures,” Ernesto replied. “People like Tyler. We were going to launch a propaganda campaign against Sycamore.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“How could we? Even if I’d managed to get ten of the most famous faces on the internet and each of them had posted ten videos a day, no one would have seen them. Michael thought the Seed might launch with a closed system and no browser, and we knew that Sycamore would have total control of the content users could see, but the number of people who got seeded straight away just killed us. Almost everyone is seeded and there’s no way of getting information to them from outside of Sycamore’s ecosystem. But now we don’t have to worry about any of that. Now, if you can get us in, you can just click a few buttons and shut the whole thing down, right?”
Kurt and Minter shared a look. “That’s not the plan,” Kurt said.
“What’s not the plan?”
“Knocking Sycamore offline.”
“Of course that’s the plan,” Michael said, the first words he had spoken in a while.
“No,” Kurt said. “That’s the nuclear option. The kill-switch is there if we need it, but it’s an absolute last resort. Because if we knocked everything offline, they would just blame the outage on a terrorist attack and use it to justify whatever new powers they wanted. We’re going to do what you were trying to do with Ty, but a million times bigger. We have footage that will outrage everyone who sees it, so we have to get it in front of their eyes. Killing the system might stop the lies for a while, but we have to share the truth.”
“We should turn it off as soon as we have the chance,” Michael argued.
Kurt shook his head. “We don’t want to turn it off; we want to turn it against itself. We don’t want to disable people’s Seeds and Lenses; we want to show people the truth so they want to take them out. We want to hijack the AR. We want to write our own messages in the sky and expose Amos for what he really is.”
“How can you do that?” Michael asked.
Minter answered: “If I can get into the Emergency Control Interface, I can do anything. And trust me, I can get in. Where are the computers? I’ll show you now.”
“Tomorrow,” Ernesto said. “It’s going to get dark soon and we can’t be on the wrong side of the mall.”
“Why?” Kurt asked.
“We can’t cross the walkway after dark.”
If Kurt was curious before, he was flat-out confused now. “Why not?”
“See,” Michael said, “you might have noticed that the roof above the paths is made of glass…”
“If you’re worried about being seen, then surely night should be the only time you do walk under the glass,” Kurt argued.
Michael shook his head. “In the extremely unlikely event that a SkySweeper drone was to pass over the mall, it would be at night.”
“We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Kurt said.
“Exactly. I’m just saying that if a drone passed over on its way somewhere else, which it won’t, it would be at night. It’s a sensible precaution to keep the lights off in open areas and to stay off the paths.”
“How do you know the drones would only come at night, anyway?” Harry asked. It seemed that everyone was interested in the conversation now that it had turned to drones.
“Oh, he would know,” Minter said, joining the fray. “Michael would know all about the drones.”
“No one asked you,” Michael snapped. He turned back to Harry. “But to answer the question: the M-300s, which you might know as SkySweepers, were designed to fly low enough to be seen. They were built to respond automatically to crime reports as a way of gathering evidence, but also to patrol high-crime areas as a deterrent. But we have sky-facing cameras at both ends of the mall and more outside, and we’ve never seen a single one. We never will. These drones only operate in populated areas, and there’s not another soul within a six-mile radius of this mall.”
“But how do you know they don’t have better drones?” Harry asked. “Even a Predator could spot our heat signatures from 10,000 feet, and those things are decades old.”
“SkySweepers are the only drones Unifield ever produced and the only drones that Amos has,” Michael insisted; and he had worked with Amos when Sycamore was Unifield, so Kurt took his word for this. “And when you mention Predators, you’re talking about Air Force vehicles. If it came to the point that this mall was under any kind of scrutiny, let alone military surveillance, it would be because they already knew we were here. And let me assure you: they don’t.”
Michael then asked Ernesto how much longer the meeting was going to be, since he wanted to sit down. Ernesto said “not long.”
The trio of Ty, Lisa and Mary looked equally keen to leave, or at least thoroughly disinterested in the discussions going on around them. Kurt wondered why Ernesto had made them attend. Mary had spent most of the meeting looking at the floor while Ty and Lisa had been whispering things to each other and smiling at how funny they were. Kurt was sure that Ernesto had noticed them doing so, but his lack of reaction suggested that he was used to it. Kurt didn’t much care what Lisa did or said, as long as it was nothing about his UltraLenses.
Now that the issue of physical security had been addressed, Kurt had some queries of his own relating to the mall’s internet connection. He asked Ernesto to clarify his three main concerns at once. These were: where the internet connection came from; how fast it was; and, most importantly, how secure it was.
Ernesto addressed them one at a time. “We’re using an old mobile business account registered in Montreal. It provides coverage throughout North America but
speeds are only 4G. As for security, what specifics are you worried about?”
“The data itself,” Kurt said. “If we’re looking at things related to Sycamore and someone is combing through our history…”
“The telecoms firm we’re dealing with is renowned for respecting users’ privacy,” Ernesto assured him. “No one is looking. It’s like the drones; if someone was looking, it would be because we’d already been caught.”
“But where does the company stand legally? Surely the government could seize its records or pull the plug?”
Ernesto shook his head. “The Common Communications Agreement is set in stone. Obviously the plan was for US firms to gain Canadian customers, but it works both ways. The government has blocked domestic ISPs from dealing with domestic citizens — which could collapse in court, anyway — but ComComm means that they don’t have unilateral authority over a Canadian firm operating in the US. It’s not a perfect metaphor, but it’s sort of like when you couldn’t fly to Cuba from here and American firms couldn’t deal with Cuba at all. People just flew from Canada or Mexico, and the government couldn’t stop British or French or German companies from doing whatever they wanted. We’re really quite lucky that ComComm came into effect last year and not next year.”
“Okay,” Kurt said, still processing what Ernesto had said but more than pleased with the depth of his answer. Kurt hadn’t even considered the ComComm Agreement’s provisions offering some leeway. “The other thing is the machines that we’re using. How secure are they?”
Michael chimed in. “Put it this way,” he said. “If we uploaded a video of you against a white background right now, Amos wouldn’t know where you were.”
This was Minter’s cue to rejoin the conversation. “Michael’s right,” he said, almost choking on the words. “When I was at Sycamore I saw all of the messages between Ty and Ernesto, but I couldn’t trace Ernesto’s location or see anything about his device or connection.” Kurt remembered Minter telling him this before they left Kurt’s house.
“What about the video site?” Harry asked, proving as interested in the security side of things as he had in the drones. “Surely they could trace a user?”
“I was working with them,” Minter said. “But even with the best minds and the biggest budgets, when you come up against a new and sophisticated cloaking mechanism, there’s not a lot you can do. How do you think real terrorists don’t get caught as soon as they upload their stuff?”
“Right,” Michael said. He looked at Minter and gave a barely perceptible half-nod of thanks. “Exactly.”
Kurt was willing to defer to Minter on this one; for while Kurt’s hacking days had focused on improving store-bought devices, some of Minter’s extracurricular activities had been the kind that necessitated serious cloaking. He moved on. “So what kind of devices are we working with?”
“We have three laptops and a box of unopened cell phones.”
“What kind of phones?”
“Systelonik,” Ernesto said.
“XK6?”
“I think so.”
Kurt flicked his eyes to Minter then back to Ernesto. “That’s a good phone.”
“Pretty useless as it turns out,” Ernesto said. “I thought we’d be able to use them to talk over wifi with no external connection, but apparently not.”
“Hmmm,” Kurt replied. He knew for a fact that he could open-up each XK6 using Trikk_Stikk’s software and sideload an app to enable voice comms, either one-to-one or as part of a drop-in/drop-out mall-wide network. He had experience of doing similar with his own phone and the whole thing would take him ten minutes at most. He kept this to himself for now. “So can we definitely see the computers and the phones tomorrow?” he asked.
“Definitely,” Ernesto said. “I just wanted to have this meeting today to clear the air and it seems like we’ve done that. So unless anyone else wants to say anything…”
“What about water?” Minter asked. “What about toilets?”
“Yes and no.”
“Yes and no what?”
“We have more than enough water,” Ernesto said, “but not running. The toilets are chemical toilets; two standing units, four portable. You’ll adapt.”
Minter looked like he had eaten a lemon. He turned to Kurt, who quietly told him it was fine. Kurt hadn’t known what kind of provisions the group would have, but he would have been happy with a campsite and a flimsy tent as long as there was physical security and a reliable internet connection. He worried how Joyce might cope with these conditions, but there wasn’t much he could do.
“So that’s it,” Ernesto said. “No one else has another question this time?”
Kurt looked at Lisa, hoping she would keep quiet. She looked back at him, knowing exactly what he was thinking. “I do,” she said.
“You?” Ernesto said, barely containing the disdain he obviously held for her.
“Yeah. It’s about Kurt.”
“Really?”
“It’s nothing,” Kurt said. “Lisa just wanted to tell everyone to be careful around my hand while it heals. She did a great job of cleaning it up, by the way.”
Ernesto narrowed his eyes and flicked them between Kurt and Lisa. “Fine,” he said.
“That’s not what I was going to say,” Lisa said. “It’s something else.”
“What is it?” Ernesto asked, clearly losing whatever patience he had left.
Kurt stared at Lisa and silently pleaded with her not to say it.
“Well, when I was checking to make sure he didn’t have a concussion, I noticed something. I noticed that he had, like, this big bruise on his face… and I was wondering: who would have done something like that to him?”
“Meeting’s over,” Ernesto said flatly.
Lisa winked at Kurt and fought to stop herself from laughing. As everyone filed out of the room, she brushed past him and whispered in his ear: “Should’ve seen your face, mate.”
~
Kurt hung back to talk to Val, who hadn’t said a word during the whole meeting. He asked her where all of his things were and whether anyone had been through them.
Val pointed him over to the table of bags and suitcases where Lisa had placed the first aid kit. Kurt saw that his bags as well as Minter’s, Harry’s and Joyce’s had been there amongst the others the whole time.
“I certainly didn’t look through them,” Val said. Kurt found his computer and the Two-Way in the right parts of the right bags and knew that no one else had, either.
Everyone else apart from Minter, Harry and Joyce seemed to have gone wherever it was they went when darkness descended on the mall. Val explained to Kurt and Minter that the lights could stay on all night in closed-off parts of certain stores, including Tasmart Home. It crossed Kurt’s mind only now to ask where the mall’s power was coming from. He knew it couldn’t be the grid, or else the electric company would know people were there. “Generators,” was Val’s short and straightforward answer.
“What kind?” Kurt asked. “How many?”
“You should probably ask Ernesto.”
“Okay,” he said. “But if I plug my computer charger into the wall, it should work, right? Because the automatic sliding doors at the entrance worked, so the whole mall must be hooked up.”
“The wall outlets work. But you really would have to ask him about the details.”
Kurt thanked Val for her answers. She took Harry and Joyce to their sleeping area, leaving Kurt and Minter all alone by the table.
“Nice hand,” Minter said.
“Shut up.”
“Nice face, too.”
“I can make yours match if you want,” Kurt joked, slinging his backpack over his right shoulder then picking up his laptop’s carry case.
Minter smiled and lifted as much as he could carry. “Where are we going, anyway? Is this not the place where everyone sleeps?”
Kurt shrugged. They walked to Tasmart Home’s entrance and looked out at the rest of the mall. It was starting
to get dark, as Ernesto had suggested. The glass roof was great for natural light during the day, but the mall was so tall and wide that the sun didn’t reach the main walkway until quite late in the morning and left relatively early in the evening. Standing on the main walkway was like standing between two forests of stores.
Across from Home, Kurt was surprised to see Lisa and Ty sitting in the food court. Ty spotted Kurt, too, and called him over. “Might as well get a drink,” Kurt said. Minter agreed.
They walked over to join Lisa and Ty.
“Where can I boil water?” Minter asked straight away, without sitting down.
“There’s a kettle right there,” Lisa said, pointing to the only open fast-food counter. “Plus mugs, sugar, spoons, teabags…”
Minter put his bags down and searched through them until he found the half-empty tub of instant coffee that Harry had given him before leaving. He didn’t offer any to the others.
“So,” Ty said to Kurt. “Do you have any extra pairs of Lenses?”
Kurt looked at Lisa and couldn’t help but laugh. At least she hadn’t told Ernesto. “No,” he said. “Sorry.”
“Did you bring any other cool stuff?”
Kurt thought immediately of the Two-Way. Maybe another time, he decided. “Not really, no.”
Ty shrugged, not too disappointed. “So how long until your boy does his thing and gets us out of here?”
“A week,” Kurt said. “The goal is a week.”
They both looked happy to hear it.
Minter came back with his coffee. “Where do you two sleep?” he asked.
Lisa pointed back across to Home. “Everyone sleeps in there. It’s huge, though — like, properly huge — so you get your own bedroom. They were for display so they’re fully decorated; wallpaper and units and beds and everything.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, but we’ll need to head over pretty soon or he’ll come out shouting about not crossing the mall in the dark like he always does.” She stood up.
“It’s better than being spotted by a drone,” Kurt said.
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