Crowd: A Dystopian Social Network Thriller (Final Draft)

Armor Up

It was hard to focus on work when districts burned.

Rain sat in her dual office while Sasha flicked through the ranking profiles of potential clients. Taylor's ranking had stabilized, which was good. Rain hoped that Professor Piper would stop using his power to manipulate his students. As of now, an advisor couldn't really punish clients. After all, that was subject to bias and personal abuse and would go against the algorithm. Rain believed her visit had left a lasting impact on Piper.

Still, she was concerned that Taylor never called her, despite multiple offers.

Was he still too shy or even afraid?

"Mmmm," Sasha said from his desk.

"A problem?"

"I just wanted to check on Graham but his geo-tag is missing. Why don't you try?"

Rain looked for Graham on her terminal. His name and profile popped up, but his location didn't. "Maybe a glitch?"

"Nah. The software would tell us."

Rain zoomed in on the interactive map of Esperanza. She could retrace the moment where the signal disappeared. Right in front of a building in Ghettys Street.

"I see it as well," Sasha said and brushed his three-day stubble. "Looks like the signal dropped the second he stepped into that building. Lemme check." He called up Graham and swiveled around his chair. No response. Seconds later, Sasha wiped his index finger past his lush lips. "There's not even a busy sign. The menu tells me no signal."

That was weird.

It sounded like a malfunction, but the gear would send an error report.

Sasha took the last sip from his mug and stood up. "We're partly responsible for him because he's our case. Looks bad when our clients end up missing."

Rain put on her jacket and followed Sasha to the door when the section chief peeked out her office. "Where are you two heading?"

Sasha answered first. "One of our cases has been disconnected for some reason."

"Who?"

"Graham Schroeder."

"You do know there's a curfew starting from nine."

Rain looked up her vision clock. Almost four pm. Plenty of time to deal with Graham before the tension thickened.

The section chief said, "I'm not going to lecture you on safety issues, but I am responsible for you. Do you have any self-defense devices?"

"I have a stunbolt," Rain dutifully said, which failed to impress the section chief.

"Sasha, show her."

"Got it," he said and turned to Rain. "Follow me."

They went to a room on the other side of the floor Rain had never visited before. An intelligent cam above the doorframe scanned Sasha before opening the door with an affirmative beep. "Is that the door to another dimension?"

"Almost," Sasha said and ushered her inside.

White light flushed the square-shaped room with locker-style modifications extracting from the wall. An uncomfortable thought rushed through Rain's mind. She tried not show the emotional discomfort shivering through her body.

"Look at your face," Sasha said.

"I've seen a room like this before. In a futuristic shoot 'em up VR game, before my avatar attacked a military base."