The Unidentified (24 page)

“They’re blaming Alibi,” Tesla said quietly. “For transmitting the pariah virus. Everything is getting real serious real fast.”

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that they’re using this scare as an excuse to crack down on unauthorized programs. I mean, they never go easy on these deliberate flaunting of Game guidelines. But I don’t want to lose score for something I didn’t do.” Poor Elle.

“They haven’t tracked Alibi back to you, though?” I asked.

“Not yet. But Protecht got more resources to hunt down its threats. Virus prevention is big business. They’re out for results.”

Tesla put her arm around Elle to comfort her. “This is so vred,” she said. “I hadn’t even
heard
of a pariah virus before you mentioned it, Kid.”

That’s what everyone had been saying. They’d never heard of it, and then all of a sudden there were warnings everywhere.

I opened my notebook(r) and did a quick search on Archive for pariah virus.

There were tons of results, but all of them really recent reactions to the crisis. The first mention was also the top hit for pariah virus prevention. Zeronet:

The pariah virus exploits a natural vulnerability in the Network system. Contact list transparency and mainstream connectivity practically invite the breach of confidentiality the pariah virus threatens.

Largely undetected from market malware scanners, there are no diagnostic systems available to determine whether or not a Network account is infected. The virus quietly catalogs all password- protected files and keyword searches, then sends sensitive content out to the least appropriate recipient on the account’s contact list.

No one has yet determined what triggers the attack phase.

Currently, the only known prevention is to delete all contacts for an undetermined amount of time until the virus runs its course.

Of course, very few of us can afford to remain offline for any length of time. For uninterrupted service, switch to Zeronet, the alternative connection with increased privacy control.

Zeronet. Everyone has something to hide.

I shut my notebook(r), disgusted.

I noticed Swift playing at a port in the corner. He was using the new blink-of-an-eye technology that was being advertised everywhere. The setup kind of looked like Tesla’s flipstream goggles, but instead of magnifying upside-down-looking eyeball’s, his eyes were hidden within a thin, green mesh grid over dark shades.

I walked over to the port where Swift was playing Buy, Sell & Destroy.

Swift was bobbing and weaving his head around to avoid the fist punches of aggressive and stressed-out stockbrokers in the Wall Street trading pit.

The new tech incorporated eye-movement tracking and blink-click interface in the design. I couldn’t see Swift’s eyes behind the shades, but it was weird to see him leaning back in his chair, twitching in front of the screen, hands gripped uselessly on the edge of the desk.

He was scary-skillful with the new technology.

“Has Protecht been able to detect any sign of the pariah virus?” I asked him.

“Not yet. But we will. Network Inc. is dedicating full resources to combat the virus and repair the security breach.”

I looked at his game. He was a billionaire, and instead of button-mashing to shred sensitive documents, he had to rapid tweaker blink to pass the level. His stress meter was flashing red panic.

“Why isn’t Mikey back in the Game yet?” I asked. “You know he wasn’t responsible for that War Game riot. I told you who was.”

Swift didn’t answer.

“Look at me.”

“I can’t. I need to pay attention to what I’m doing now.

The federal government’s getting involved. If I don’t play this right, they’re going to start regulating.”

I got pissed off. “This isn’t a game.” I tore off his goggle controllers.

Swift’s businessman avatar fell down on the screen.

Heart attack, the pressure was too much. Swift exploded into expletives. Then he turned to stare at me, angry and bleary-eyed.

He stood up and shouted in my face, “You ruined my game! I lost a life!”

“You’re vred,” I said, taking a step back. He couldn’t tell the difference between what was part of a video game and what was not. He moved close into my space, close enough to kiss me, but the closeness was more threatening than intimate.

“Protecht hasn’t completed its investigations,” he said in a low voice. “No one’s secrets are safe.”

I logged out and headed across the parking lot to the Game shuttle pickup spot. I saw Ari sitting on the hood of her car. I was surprised when she saw me too and jumped down, walked over to me.

“Do you hate me?” she asked in the way she always did when we had a fight.

Yes.
My brain knew this was an easy question, but I still didn’t know what to say. I missed her, but I hated that I missed her. I couldn’t believe she could just walk up to me like nothing happened.

“Everyone’s been talking about you,” she said when I didn’t answer.

Yeah, I wonder why that is, Ari.

I couldn’t do this. I wasn’t going to be able to have a conversation with her without losing it.

“Ari, what do you want?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to make sure that we were still friends.”

I opened my mouth to speak, kind of choking on my shock. “How could you think we’re still friends?
You
were the one who dropped me, remember? You told Protecht my password and you ditched me and I didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah right, you didn’t do anything. You only took credit for my searches, and ignored Rocket in the VIP Lounge and didn’t tell her about what was going on with Palmer and Eva, and kept me from being branded by Hit List,
and
stole Jeremy Swift when you
knew
I liked him.”

I didn’t know Ari liked Jeremy. I mean, she acted that way about all branded guys, so excuse me if I didn’t take her infatuation seriously. She could have him. The overambitious backstabbers would make a lovely couple.

“Besides…you should be
thanking
me,” she said. “Do you think anyone would know your name if it wasn’t for me?”

She was probably right. If she hadn’t given my password to Protecht, I wouldn’t have had to tell them about the pariah virus. And people wouldn’t be talking now.

I looked at Ari. Half her face hidden behind her bangs.

Thinking that her cruel betrayal was just part of the Game.

I wanted to talk to someone. To not feel this alone in my room with my dog. But it was a Friday night and Mikey’s page was still suspended. And even if she wasn’t flirting shamelessly with cool hunters at After Hours right now, there was no way I could ever confide in Ari. I held my intouch(r) but there was no one to listen.

I checked the Network rankings. There were hundreds of names listed on-screen, all followed by strings of the emptiest of non-numbers. Nationwide, kids were dropping out of Network because of the pariah virus scare.

This whole attack plan hadn’t been a revolutionary action, a way to fight back. It had just been a cleverly disguised Zeronet campaign, a plan to cut into their competitors’ marketshares. Zeronet was positioning themselves on top while everyone was racing to the bottom.

All these zeros had to add up to something.

I thought about how I’d used this same ranking page to find the members of the Unidentified only a few weeks ago.

Even their identities were buried in the Zeronet privacy trend. If I would’ve done the same search today, I never would’ve found them. Elijah Carmichael, Sophia Carvalho, Cayenne Lewis. Just a part of nothing.

I wondered if they knew they were involved in a Zeronet business strategy. I sat up in bed.

Did the Unidentified know?

Cayenne had come looking for me at Mikey’s because Cayenne had come looking for me at Mikey’s because she was convinced Kant was keeping secrets from the Unidentified. She was probably the only one who could understand what I was feeling right now. This feeling of being used. Cheated.

I wished I could talk to her, but I didn’t know how.

Even though I hadn’t erased my contact list as part of the virus scare, Katey Dade had zero friends.

I didn’t know if I would find them there or not, but it was the only place I could look.

I used Alibi to synch my intouch(r) and headed out into the Saturday early morning calm to break into a prison.

It stood in the city center, a massive stone monument, but almost invisible. No one noticed it anymore. It was just in the background while everyone went around living their lives.

I found the grate Kant had opened; he had shown me the way. Or I thought he had. It was embarrassing to remember how I’d felt then compared with what I knew now.

The loose rocks in the tunnel whispered quietly with my footsteps. What if he was waiting on the other side? Would he be as charming now that I knew his secret?

I stood crouched in the underground. Should I move forward or go back? I didn’t want to go back.

Inside the prison yard, I retraced the steps I’d taken when I’d followed him. I was about to push open the door to the administration building when I heard a voice behind me.

“What are you doing in here?”

I spun around to see Cayenne standing in the gray morning. I smiled, relieved to see her. She didn’t smile back.

“Is he here?”

“Why are you looking for him?”

“I’m not. I was looking for you.”

She watched me, her face neutral. “Well, you found me.” Then she turned back toward the watchtower. She stopped and looked back. “You coming?”

We climbed the creeping stairs. “What’s up here?” I asked, panting a little.

“Nothing. Better reception,” she mumbled. The room at the top was just as trashed as the rest of the prison. Small panes of glass were knocked out of the window overlooking the yard like missing teeth.

Cayenne walked to the window where she’d left her notebook(r) running. “What are you doing here?” she asked again.

I didn’t know where to start. “Have you ever heard of Zeronet?”

“Please leave the promotional content out of this conversation, thanks.”

“I’m not—” I hated that she always made me feel so under attack. “I think Brenton Kant is working for a company called Zeronet,” I snapped. “This is entirely relevant.”

She looked up from her notebook(r), her full attention finally on me. There was something almost scary about the openness of her features, how vulnerable and delicate she looked. I almost wished she would go back to being a defensive bitch. “How do you know?” she asked softly.

I told her about how Zeronet was rising in rankings while everyone else was dropping out. How Protecht had a file on Brenton Kant that said he had completed the Game file on Brenton Kant that said he had completed the Game and was employed by Zeronet.

“I still don’t know why he attacked Mikey,” I said, thinking back to the security footage replay. “Why he had to be involved.”

“To get you invested,” she said numbly. “So you’d spread the word.”

“What?”

“I couldn’t figure out why he confided in you all the details about the virus that day.” She nodded toward the administration building. “He kept saying he could trust you to do the right thing.”

I was still confused and it must’ve shown.

“He knew you would tell your sponsors about it to protect your friend,” she said. “You did, right? You told them?”

I didn’t want to admit to her that I had sold them out, but the truth was obvious when I blurted, “But
why
would he want me to inform Protecht?”

She looked back at her notebook(r), stared at her screen for a long time, then she stood up. “He had been hyping the virus the whole time. Saying how we should spam the Network with an invitation to a protest party with this sneak-code buried in it.” She continued, spitting out her words. “But he kept on wanting me to rewrite the invitation, to tell people they had been infected by this thing and I didn’t understand how he expected to get people to our event right after we oh-by-the-way effed up their Network status.”

“I never got an invitation,” I said.

“I never got an invitation,” I said.

“No. We never sent them out. This pariah virus thing took off on its own and—” she stopped and looked at me.

“It’s a hoax,” I said hollowly.

This was all my fault. All the hysteria about the pariah virus started when I’d mentioned it to Harrison.

I had been played.

37 SECRET’S OUT “Do you guys have a Bat-signal or something?” I was in the passenger seat of Cayenne’s car again, heading to Mikey’s, where the Unidentified agreed to meet us.

“Who do you think we are?” Cayenne said, checking her mirror. “I just texted them.”

We pulled into Mikey’s driveway where Lexie and Tycho were waiting. “Why are we meeting here?” Lexie wanted to know.

“Mikey’s mobility has been limited to his family’s property since his game was put on pause,” I answered.

“Yeah, but why does he—?”

“He’s as involved in this Zeronet conspiracy as we are,” Cayenne said before I could. “It’s only fair.”

Lexie shrugged.

“Have you heard from Elijah and Sophia?” Cayenne asked Tycho.

“Sophia’s having problems getting out here, so Elijah’s going to stop by and assist. He said he’d race here direct after.”

I could tell Mikey was more than a little weirded out about having the Unidentified in his bedroom. But he hid it well.

“I haven’t ever even
heard
of Zeronet,” Tycho said, shaking his head.

“Oh, but I bet we would have,” Lexie said. “When the time was right, hype at its highest, a big reveal of the anti- time was right, hype at its highest, a big reveal of the anti- Network company. Promising privacy for whatever price.”

“And we would’ve bought it,” Cayenne said. “Because we are a target market.” She paused, then asked me. “Do you think Trendsetters was in on it?”

“I don’t know what to think anymore. But probably not.

They thought it was genuine dissent they were tapping into…I don’t think they knew they were popularizing a Zeronet campaign.”