Devious Origins

CHAPTER 13

I stayed up late working on my software project, then overslept and missed my morning class. I stumbled through the rest of my day, then rushed back to my dorm room to put some finishing touches on the software. Tilly's neighborhood watch was scheduled to begin patrolling that night, and I wanted to have my code done before that. Caught up in a fevered cycle of tweaking and testing, I ran out the door later than I intended. Afternoon was giving way to evening by the time I knocked on Tilly's dorm room door.

"Barry, I'm glad you could make it," Tilly exclaimed as she let me in.

"Sorry I'm late," I apologized, "I got really wrapped up in something." I looked around and realized Cloe was the only other person there.

"Everyone else is already out on patrol," she explained, "We stayed behind to take calls and coordinate. There's a couple of zones not covered yet, so you're not too late to help."

"Oh good," I answered, though in truth the idea of going out on patrol did not fill me with enthusiasm. "I really wanted to get here sooner," I said, "I've got something for the whole group." I pulled out my phone and brought up the application I had just developed. Tilly and Cloe looked on with curiosity. "It's a specialized geo-tracking app," I explained, "It uses GPS to keep track of your location and report it to a server, then other people using the same app can see where you are. It can show the location on a map, or you can tap this button and use it like a compass that always points toward the person you are trying to locate."

"Way cool," Cloe exclaimed. "May I?" she asked as she reached tentatively toward the phone. I nodded and handed it over. "What's this button do?" She tapped several times at the large red button labeled 'Panic'.

"That sends a call for help to all the other watch members. It sends out a text message, and your dot will show up red on the map. Not much to see until we get the app installed on a few more phones."

"OK, let's do that," Tilly suggested as she pulled out her phone. It looked like a newer Samsung.

"I've got a free Android version already in the app store, just search for GeoWatcher. I'll also have an iPhone version soon, but their app store takes forever to accept new apps."

Tilly tapped at her phone for a bit. "OK, I've got it installed, but now its prompting me for a user name and password."

"Should be the same as your account on the university chat server," I explained, "The phones will sign into it and then send messages to each other over a private channel."

"Yeah, that's it," she confirmed after tapping at her phone some more. "Look, there you are." She held up her phone. It was displaying a map of the campus. A red dot with the label 'Barry' hovering over it, blinked insistently. Cloe toggled the panic button off, and the dot stopped blinking and turned blue. The 'Barry' label was now nearly unreadable as it was superimposed with another label saying 'Tilly'.

"It's still beta software," I cautioned, "so don't be surprised if it's a bit buggy."

"No, this is great," Tilly assured me, "I'll blast a message out to the rest of the team and tell them to download it right away."

"While she's doing that, how about I get you your patrol route," Cloe suggested. She dug through the papers on Tilly's desk and handed me two pages. "You have your choice of two. Either Drunkard's Walk or The River Path."

I looked at the two printed maps and thought about it. The River Path was a winding paved strip that followed the river just north of campus. It wasn't well lit and thus not much used late at night. Drunkard's Walk, on the other hand, was the unofficial name for a route many students followed between campus and a cluster of bars to the east. It followed city streets, but with a higher number of intoxicated students on it, the likelihood of someone being victimized might actually be higher. I decided that was the one to pick.