by Alex Knight
“What’s he on about?” Titus asked. “What rest of the plan?”
“He’s getting to it,” Kaiden said, all too familiar with the way Bernstein liked to draw things out for drama. Apparently, it persisted even when he was recording critically important videos meant to be played in the event of his untimely death. Had to hand it to him, the man was consistent, if nothing else.
“All right, so back to a question I’ve wrestled with for a while now,” Bernstein said. “How does one spread the critical information I’ve gathered – information that will see justice brought upon the Party – without getting caught? Furthermore, how does one spread it to enough people that it’ll actually make a difference?” Bernstein started pacing, the projection wading through the front seats of the van as he did.
“The obvious answer would be the internet. Of course, the Party has censored that to the point of crippling it. Their AI censor programs are so effective you wouldn’t get one megabyte into uploading this database before they stopped it, identified your IP address, and dispersed some Party thugs to your house. Everything after that – well, let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty.”
Kaiden couldn’t help but wince. Bernstein had found out exactly how bad it could be when Party thugs turned up at your door. He’d deserved better.
“So, what to do, what to do? How do you disperse information to the masses when the entire government is set against you doing that very thing? You go through a loophole. A particular loophole that’s been a thorn in the Party’s side for years now.” He drew out the moment, then smiled. “You go through Nova Online.”
The projection of Bernstein was getting excited now, talking more quickly.
“Nova Online, the only place they can’t censor... yet. That makes it the perfect loophole. Slowly and secretly, I uploaded the database to Nova, bit by bit and hidden inside innocuous files. Then, once it was in-game, once it was safe from the censors, I put it all together. Assembled my masterpiece!” He cracked his knuckles. “Then, I just needed to weaponize it. To disperse it to the masses. But... again we come to the question of ‘how?’”
“This guy likes to hear himself talk,” Titus remarked.
“He was brilliant,” Zelda retorted.
“But a bit eccentric, you have to admit,” Kaiden said.
Zelda looked offended.
“What? I loved the guy, but it’s true,” Kaiden said by way of clarification.
“You’re being thick. Just hear him out. His plan will be perfect.” She turned back to the video projection.
“Trading was my first thought,” Bernstein continued, oblivious to their disagreement. “But as I’m sure you know, files in Nova Online can’t be duplicated.” He waved his hand as if exasperated. “If you can’t copy a file, then the information contained in it is valuable, making the file a sort of in-game commodity. Yadda yadda. It’s a nice thought, but I’m not sure it ever panned out. Anyway, exact copies of files can exist, but only if they’re uploaded individually into the game. Seeing as it took more than a year to upload the first database, byte by byte so it went undetected, you can understand how that wasn’t a feasible option. And besides, trading wasn’t big enough. It couldn’t be scaled. In theory, I could trade the database to another player, have them download a copy, then pass it on. But having a physical copy of the database doesn’t do much. Keeps it safe, I suppose, and allows you to replicate it offline, but you’d never be able to physically disperse enough copies. No, I needed a way to get the database to as many people as possible and before the Party could react. By the time they figure out what the database is, it needs to be too late. The information contained within it needs to have spread as far as possible. To every player in the game, ideally. Millions of players.
“But again, we’re faced with the same problem. How to send a file to every player in Nova at once?” He left the question hanging for a moment, like he didn’t have an answer. Kaiden knew better, however. Bernstein always had an answer.
The projection smiled knowingly.
“The answer is the warden All-Frequencies Broadcast System. You know, that system they use to send a message to every player in-game at once? Surely you’ve seen it before. Probably received a message or two from it. But did you know it can host files as well? Files that can be downloaded from it by everyone who receives the message?” Bernstein smiled wider. “The AFBS as they call it, is a direct line to hundreds of millions of people. Can you imagine if this database – this evidence – were sent to each of them? Why, the Party’s crimes would be undeniably exposed. That many people with evidence can’t be stopped. Change would be inevitable.” He paused for a moment, smiling directly at them, then nodded.
“Though, of course, there are two challenges that must be overcome for this plan to succeed. First, the AFBS can only disperse files that have been uploaded to Nova Online – I’ve taken care of that one for you. The second problem is the one I’m still trying to solve. It’s the reason you needed to power level – and will likely need to do so again. It’s the reason I’ve been trying to gather allies and confidants. It’s the reason I haven’t done all this myself yet.”
“Well, get on with it!” Titus said.
The video projection couldn’t hear him, obviously, but it paused momentarily before continuing.
“The AFBS can only be accessed from the heart of Warden Headquarters. Now, I doubt the Warden Corps would react kindly to my request to borrow their system for a quick broadcast. That’s why I – er, I guess now you – have to take it by force.”
Chapter Three
“Take Warden HQ. By force.” Zelda repeated the words for a third time. It still didn’t sound any easier.
“Just that, huh?” Kaiden said, feeling the words constrict in his throat. He didn’t know much about Warden HQ, but from what he knew about how well defended even a single carrier like the Anakoni was, he couldn’t imagine HQ would be exactly a walk in the park. Zelda’s shock only reinforced that idea.
“Oh, come on,” Titus said, looking at them both. “After everything we’ve done, is this really that big a challenge? We’ll need some muscle to help us, but how bad can it be? It’s not like they have an army there.”
Zelda winced and Titus frowned.
“Wait, do they? Do they have an army?”
“There aren’t that many wardens,” Kaiden said, thinking aloud. “There are millions of players in Nova. The Warden Corps is nothing compared to that number.”
“We’re not going at this with all of Nova at our backs, Kai,” Zelda said. “Currently, the entirety of our force comes to a sum total of three. Besides, you both saw the fleet guarding the void tear. That was only forty, maybe fifty percent of the Warden Corps’ navy. There’s a lot more ground forces too.” She paused, clearly thinking. When she spoke again, there was the slightest hint of hope in her tone. “Given, most wardens are usually on rotation, dispersed across the universe and working wherever they’re stationed, so we have that going for us. As long as they’re not tipped off that we’re coming, the full warden force won’t be waiting for us at HQ. That’s... something.”
“Okay, good!” Kaiden said, trying to be positive. “That’s one advantage in our favor.”
“It’s still nowhere near enough.” Zelda shook her head. “Look, I can’t fault the logic of Bernstein’s plan. As far as I can tell, it would work – in theory. But that’s only if we could make it to the AFBS control panel. It only exists in-game and can only be accessed by a player standing directly in front of it. I just can’t see a way for us to get to it. Not unless you two have a personal army I don’t know about. And we don’t even know what will be waiting for us at Warden HQ. I mean, the place could be a fortified maze. Say we did fight or sneak our way in, how would we find the AFBS? And how do we use it?”
“Storming Warden HQ and taking it by force? That’d be pretty much impossible,” a voice chimed in from the back of the van. “Unless you had the help of a high-ranking warden with det
ailed knowledge of how the Corps operates and how HQ is laid out.” Thorne struggled into a sitting position. “Oh, that’s right, you do.”
How long has she been awake? How much did she overhear?
“Though if you keep shooting me with knockout rounds and tying me up with – what are these? Seat belts? – I might have to reconsider my offer.”
“We didn’t ask for your help,” Titus growled.
“But you do need it.”
“Do we, though?” Kaiden asked. “We took the database despite your efforts to stop us. We unlocked it despite the entire Warden Corps hunting us.”
“That’s right. You did.” Thorne nodded. “And I’m still impressed. But imagine how much easier all of that would have been if, instead of working against one another, we’d worked together.” She drew out the last word. “I’m not your friend. Far from it, in fact. I get that. You don’t know me; I get that, too. But consider this. Kaiden, you want to clear your name, be free again. Zelda, you want to free your parents, want to expose the Party’s injustices. Titus, you want... well, I don’t exactly know, but it probably starts with not being labeled a terrorist and actively hunted by the Party, yeah?” She looked at each of them in turn. “You’ll get what you want – what you need – to carry on with your lives if that database gets dispersed to everyone.” She nodded as if to the world beyond the van. “All I’ve ever wanted was to protect people. To make sure something like the Great Test never happens again. But the Party has become something just as bad. I can’t let it continue like this. You don’t have to trust me, because dispersing that database to the masses gives you what you want and gives me what I want. Why do we need trust when we have mutual self-interest?”
Silence followed her words. Kaiden bit his lip.
She has a point. But, what? She just shows up after hunting us all this time and wants to switch sides? Wants to help us bring down the Party?
“I don’t buy it,” Kaiden said, shaking his head.
“I agree,” Zelda said, staring at Thorne as if she were a puzzle to solve. “We’re missing something here.”
Titus huffed. His mouth worked like he was chewing the inside of his cheek and contemplating something he didn’t much care for.
“Mutual self-interest is how a lot of things got done on King Street,” he finally said. “You don’t have to like or trust who you’re working with on a job as long as you both want the same thing.”
“She’s from the Party,” Kaiden said, gesturing toward her. “They killed Bernstein, the rebels, Zelda’s parents.”
“Arrested Mr. and Mrs. Yoshida,” Thorne corrected.
“Oh, great. Only arrested. Disappeared and taken to some unmarked prison. Much better.”
“Kaiden’s right,” Zelda said. “This database Bernstein compiled, it’s full of horror stories of what the Party has done. I haven’t even dug that deep into it and already I can see that.”
“And that sickens me,” Thorne said, a hint of a growl creeping into her voice. “I’ve dedicated most of my life to the Party.” She gritted her teeth, lips pulling into a scowl. “I fought through the Great Test, that hellacious war, all for the ideas of the Party. I watched people I knew, people I loved, die in that hell. And then when peace – blood-soaked, hard-won peace – was finally achieved, I gave years of my life to building the Party. I’ve spent the last decade protecting it. People I loved died to put the Party in power, and now, after all that, I find out it was all a lie? All to put power-hungry maniacs like Moran in charge? No. It requires an answer. It demands a response. You don’t understand the betrayal, the loss I feel right now.
“So, I get it. How could you possibly understand why I’m here? But I’m not asking you to understand my reasons and I’m not asking you to trust me. I’m asking you to let me help you, because right now, you’re the best way I see to right the greatest wrong in this world since the Test.”
Silence, then, for some time. Kaiden looked over to Zelda, then Titus. Both were frowning, and he didn’t blame them.
“I... uh, well,” he said, then stopped. Trusting Thorne felt wrong in every way. Working with her felt even worse. But was there a chance she was actually genuine? Had she really come to help?
A police siren sounded outside. Thorne looked toward the windshield, then cursed.
“That officer you stunned – you tied him up, right? Restrained him before you left so we’d have more time before he blew our cover?”
We were in a hurry...
“Well, we—” Kaiden began.
“Oh my god. You didn’t.” Thorne shook her head. “How have you three not been caught yet?” She cursed, then sucked in a deep breath. “You’re wanted fugitives. Hunted in-game and out. You’re living in a van that’s hardly even shielded. You’re low on food, you have no place to go, and you have barely enough money to even gas this thing up. Did I get all that right?”
Zelda reluctantly nodded.
“So let me help you.” Thorne struggled against the seat belts binding her, then sighed. “Hell, keep me tied up if you want, but we need to move, now.”
Another police siren outside, this one drawing nearer. Kaiden peered out a window and cursed.
“They’re headed this way.” And they were. At least four squad cars were zipping through the traffic lanes, lights flashing and sirens blaring. An armored SWAT vehicle followed them, heavily armed soldiers crouching in its open side door, guns in hand.
“I have reserve accounts, money I’ve tucked away under different names,” Thorne began, speaking rapidly now. “Most of all, though, I have a place we can go. Somewhere secret, somewhere safe. But we have to go now. You can’t delay any longer. You have to make a decision: work with me and bring down the Party, or let me the hell out of here. I’m not going down because you three couldn’t get your heads straight.” She took a deep breath and the glare on her face eased slightly. “So, what’s it gonna be?”
Chapter Four
“All right, make a turn northeast,” Thorne said, directing Titus with a gesture from her recently unbound hand. “Not too much… there! That’s the heading.”
“This is it?” The big man slowed the van to a stop. Around them, wetlands stretched into the distance in all directions. “You’re leading us into a swamp.”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Thorne said. Technically, around these parts they called it a bayou, but she’d never really seen the difference. All that mattered was her bunker was off the grid and hidden well out of anyone’s way.
Thankfully, they’d made it out of the city and were now well beyond its suburbs. Basically in the middle of nowhere. There wasn’t likely to be anyone around to recognize their vehicle, but all the same, they needed to get hidden.
“Hold this direction for two miles, then we’ll come to an acre of trees blackened by fire a year or two back. I’ll show you a good hiding spot for the van once we’re there.”
“I’m sorry, am I driving a getaway vehicle or exploring a new continent?” Titus asked. “You know we have GPS to give us exact directions? Don’t need all this orienteering crap.”
“Where we’re going has no address,” Thorne said. It was safer that way, after all.
“Okay, sure. But it has coordinates, right? I could put them in the van’s computer and we can head right to it.”
“The best way to make sure information stays safe is to keep it up here,” Thorne said, tapping a finger to her forehead. A fact she’d learned all too well during her years tracking down dissidents for the Party. Everyone thought their offline databases were safe, but anything could be hacked. Anything except one’s memory. No computer was breaking into that.
Titus grumbled, then called to the others who were huddled in the rear seats.
“Is it too late to change our minds about this?” he asked. “We can still ditch Thorne in the swamp and find our own hiding place, yeah?”
Neither Kaiden nor Zelda responded. They were too occupied with the database. Zelda had it open on her
handheld console and they were flicking through it like mad, thoroughly exploring its contents.
“This thing is loaded,” Kaiden murmured, clearly awed by the information Bernstein had acquired. Sooner or later, she needed to get a look at that database, Thorne knew. Realistically, she didn’t need any more prompting to see what the Party had become, but all the same, she wondered just how deep the corruption ran.
“I’d be more excited about everything Bernstein gathered here if it all wasn’t so terrible,” Zelda said, opening another file on her console’s screen. “Extortion of private customer data from just about every company of significance. Mass surveillance well beyond what’s legal…” She spoke the crimes as she read them, glancing at the evidence coupled with each accusation before moving on. “Taking bribes from criminals. Extrajudicial imprisonment of citizens—”
“Well, that one sounds painfully familiar,” Kaiden chimed in.
“Murder,” Zelda read, the list growing still more severe. “Extreme collateral damage when responding to rebel activities.”
Thorne winced at that accusation specifically. She couldn’t help but think back to the day she’d gone to talk to Zelda’s parents; to Werner busting in and arresting them, and then the bombing. How many innocents had died that day?
“Disappearing ‘political radicals’ and their family members. Operating black site detainment centers.” Zelda shook her head. “It just goes on and on. If even half of this got out it’d be enough to bring down most of the Party’s leadership. I knew Bernstein had dirt – we dug a lot of it up together – but I didn’t know he had stuff like this.”
“This the fire-damaged place?” Titus’ question pulled Thorne’s thoughts from the database. She glanced out the windshield.
“Yeah, that’s it. See the old cypress tree just ahead? To the left? Yup, that one.” She nodded as Titus angled the van toward it. “Take us just beside it, then ease us into that thicket. We can hide the van there. The bunker’s just a short walk.”