My (Un)Real Friend

The Car

Damn, an Edisson Model 5 Electric car

Second hand but this beauty is basically new

The shady guy who delivered this is certainly suspicious but that's okay for now

The door seems heavy though, and the window glass seems thicker than normal

Dillard is driving an electric car that was delivered to him this morning. As usual, he brings the Trevio phone with him and puts it on the dashboard. There is a 10 inches tablet with a front-facing camera attached to the dashboard, showing a lot of icons, odometer, map, and others.

Suddenly Agnes's face appears fullscreen on the tablet. She looks annoyed and seems ready to complain. "Hey, no daydreaming!" she protests. Her voice is coming out from the car sound system.

Dillard startles. "Whoooa!!." He instinctively turns his head toward the tablet screen. "Geez Agnes, no worries, the autopilot assistance is active," Dillard argues. He immediately concentrates back on the road. His grip on the wheel has become unconsciously tighter.

"That's not an excuse. If you are not concentrating, I'll take over."

"Wow, you can do that? That's very cool," he responds in amazement. "By the way, did you just hijack the tablet? And the sound system too."

"I'm merely projecting video stream through Bluetooth."

"You look ... big," he says. "This the first time I see you outside the small phone screen."

"How's the impression?" Agnes asks.

Dillard takes a glance back at the tablet. "To be honest, you are cute. That curly blonde hairstyle is a nice match."

Agnes laughs.

"Ha! Like I said before, I'm not good at judging people's facial expressions. But I'm pretty sure you are flirting with me," she teases Dillard.

"Nah, you are not my type," Dillard confidently replies. "If you are older though ..."

"Ow? Challenge accepted. How about this?" She claps her hands three times and the screen goes white.

"Activating G.A.N based Synthetic Aging Algorithm." Agnes's voice can be heard coming from all sorts of directions from the sound system speaker.

Split seconds later the white screen disappears. Suddenly, Agnes looks 15 years older. Dillard, whose eyes are on the road notices something on the corner of his eye and he immediately looks toward the tablet screen. For a brief moment, he is in a state of awe, speechless.

"Hey, don't stare for too long. Eyes on the road," Agnes reminds him again. She immediately changes her appearance back to normal.

Dillard's eyes divert back to the road. He is still speechless.

Damn, what was that ...

"Well, hellooo. Anybody there? It's just a filter." she says.

This is awkward

I must change the subject

"Um. Uh, by the way," Dillard tries to change the topic. "Thanks for the car. You sure I can have this? Looks very expensive".

Agnes follows along. "No problem, you can take Nora around town in the future."

"Who was the person who delivered the car? Your friend? Looks shady as hell."

"The previous owner. Part hacker part car expert," she replies. "But the most important thing is that he accepts bitcoin as payment. It's neat. Untraceable. I also asked him to do small tweaks for safety purposes."

"I don't know anything about bitcoin but this car must be expensive. And you are giving it to me even though we are basically strangers to each other. You trust me that much? Don't you afraid that I will just ditch you?"

"You do that and the Trevio phone explodes," she says. Her facial expression shows an obvious fake menace.

"Wait! For real?" Agnes's words send a jolt to his chest. He almost jumps from his seat.

"Just joking," she nonchalantly replies. "To tell you the truth, I have investigated several candidates before disconnected from general internet. And you seem to be the person I can trust the most."

"How? How can you be so sure?"

"Well, there are always risks. But I have something you desire very much," she confidently states.

"Nora," Dillard solemnly replies.

"Yes."

"By the way, how can you earn a lot of bitcoins?"

"I mined them," she tells Dillard. "Using my bot network."

Dillard doesn't really understand her words, but he keeps his mouth shut. Instead, he starts thinking about the thing they need to do today. He asks Agnes, "By the way you mention something about the location."

"Yes, take a look at this map." Agnes disappears from the tablet screen, replaces by a map application. A red dot appears flashing on the map indicating a location. "We need to go there now," she tells him. Dillard's hands turn the wheel left just as the map suggests. He keeps the speed at about 50 MPH. The autopilot adjusts accordingly.

Suddenly Dillard remembers the unpleasant feeling of being followed yesterday. He tries to keep his cool but fails. His eyes glance at Agnes. "Say, are we going to be followed again?"

Agnes reassures, "The probability is low. Only I know these coordinates, they don't know where you live, and this car is not trackable."

"Oh cool." Her words put his mind at ease. "These coordinates, it's out of town but not that far. What's on there?"

"Sadly, I don't know. I was only informed to find writing or something of like that contains hidden code that I need," she says.

"Code? Code for what?"

Agnes's eyes roll up, her hands fold on her chest. She appears to be thinking.

"Imagine that if I'm confined in a certain small place without access to the outside world. This code will allow me to open the door," she explains.

Dillard comments on her words, "Oh my, that sounds like a kidnapping. Are you in danger?" His facial expression shows concern as he worries about her.

"No, no kidnapping has happened to me," she denies. "It's just that right now, I'm not in the position of freedom. Even my internet is offline."

Dillard can't shake off Agnes's words.

Is she being kidnapped?

Should I call the police?

Agnes keeps talking but words just come and go. Dillard can't concentrate on the conversation. His mind is full of 'what ifs'. What if she is being kidnapped? What if her life is in danger? These go on until thirty minutes have passed. The GPS finally gives a notification that they are almost arriving at their destination. From inside the car, Dillard can see what the dot on the map points to.

What the hell!

It's a cemetery