Abbey's Drawtober 2021

Day 22: Dystopian Future

The woman standing in front of me is obviously a modder. She's got one side of her head shaved, and I bet if I looked around the back of her head, I would see where she's gotten non-regulation ports installed. Hell, her eyes are currently flashing a variety of colors, another feature that requires quite a bit of tampering.

"What can I do ya for?" She asks, giving me a small smile. This is the first time we've talked in person, so we don't need to talk in code anymore to avoid detection by government algorithms. I glance around, checking to see if we are alone.

"I heard you can mess with location data?" She raises her eyebrows.

"Going somewhere you aren't supposed to?" She smirks. "I respect that. It'll be fifteen credits, and I'll need access to your location chip." I pull out my phone, and she holds out hers. The credits are transferred immediately, without me even authorizing it. I suspected as much. This area's security must be pretty compromised.

I shove my phone back in my pocket, knowing that wouldn't help if she wanted any of my information. Hopefully she's as honest as my contacts say she is. She makes a twirling motion with her finger, and I gulp, but turn around, exposing the ports below my ear.

She gives a low whistle. "New hardware?" I give a curt nod, not wanting to give much away.

"Just upgraded." I can practically hear her smirk.

"Perfect. I've always wanted to mess with government tech." I'm about to ask how she knows that, but she pulls something out of one of the ports, and my world goes black.

...

The world rushes back to me in a flash, and I feel that I'm standing in the exact place where I was before I shut down. I turn around quickly, and the woman is still there, tapping at her phone. She gives me a short glance. "Your awake then? Good." She hands me what I now realize is my own phone.

She points towards a new icon on my screen, a location pin. "This app's what you're going to use. Just press the icon, and it will lock your location data in a single area for an hour at a time. No matter where you go, it will register at wherever you last used it. Good luck."

I'm about to thank her, but she's already got her back to me, walking down the alley and out onto the city streets.