Two Birds

Chapter 1

Neal walked through the bright, white walled hallway toward the Cubes South elevator bank. As he turned a corner, a voice whispered to him from an alcove nestled between apartment doorways.

"Neal, come here."

Neal stopped and squinted into the dark alcove. "Sandy, is that you?"

"Yea bro, keep your voice down. And don't move."

Neal wanted to laugh at the sight of his oversized friend Sandy Bhavasar and his long black hair, dark hoodie and a thick black beard, wedged in a tiny crevice. Sandy's eyes darted from Neal to the hallway behind him.

"What's up? You look like hell." Neal couldn't remember the last time he saw Sandy in New Edison, the MESH town. MESH was an advanced network blanketing the entire town from Onoco, Neal's employer.

Sandy stood up straight. He put his hand over his top lip and spoke into the ground. "They're after me."

Neal chuckled and said, "Who? Is this a joke?"

Sandy stared back at Neal, eyes bulging out of his head, lips pursed.

Neal said, "Come on man, what are you playing at? I just closed a great sale, one I've been scrapping on for months. Should finally get me some recognition from my boss. You should have seen these people, they couldn't wait to buy the latest One Home kits. Almost at full retail too."

Sandy continued to stare at Neal.

"And they told me about this new personal drone service called Rising Stone. On demand, can carry 2 passengers anywhere within 500 miles. Guaranteed pickup in 5 minutes or less. Of course it costs 200,000 OneCoins, which is almost my total savings. Why don't we..."

"Bro, shut up. And don't move." Sandy stepped out of the alcove. Sandy had dark rings under his eyes, fine lines spidering out from the edge of his face. "I'm not kidding. Your company is after me. They could be watching us now." Sandy looked behind Neal. Neal and Sandy roomed together for 6 months as trainees at Onoco. Originally an odd couple, the underachieving, wide-eyed suburban boy and the brilliant and worldly Sandy became fast friends. They remained close after Sandy's dropout from the program and the corporate world.

"Onoco is after you? Why?" asked Neal.

Sandy took a deep breath. "I got a vid of the head of Onoco at my Pleasure Node. I tried to publicize it, sent it to a national news outlet. A few hours after I reached out to them, the house I sent it from was raided by New Edison police."

"You just can't resist going after these corporate guys," said Neal. Sandy dropped out of the Onoco due to his allergic response to corporate double speak, hierarchies and verbose employee manuals.

Sandy's dark eyes focused on Neal. In a higher pitch, Sandy said, "These guys think they can do whatever they want here, like they operate above everyone else. Screw them, I'm going to bring them down."

Neal stepped toward Sandy and put his hand on his shoulder. "Ok, ok, sure. Why don't we go get a beer or a coffee and talk this out? There are some places in the lobby below."

"No!" Sandy said loudly, then covered his mouth. More softly, he said, "We can't move around freely here, in New Edison. They own this town, they control the security, surveillance, feeds, everything."

"I know we live in a sponsored town, but I don't think..."

"Yes," growled Sandy. "Yes, they monitor cameras, track people, influence the local cops. This is their town. They must monitor comms from within the town. That's how they found me."

"Ok, it's...this is just so weird."

Sandy looked Neal in the eye. "I need help getting out of here, without letting your company or their security goons know. We should get my girl in her Pleasure Node. They are off-MESH so Onoco can't find us there. She's waiting there for us."

This made sense to Neal. Pleasure Nodes were an open secret. Independently operated and off-MESH, they offered anonymous services to residents of sponsored towns.

"Kat's node is close by, yes? Basically across the street?"

"Yep. We run everything on an ancient Windows NT network, everything wired. No MESH, so they can't monitor what we do in the PN."

"I have no idea what an NT is, but it sounds good," said Neal.

"You should go downstairs to the lobby, like didn't talk to me. When you get outside turn off your OneDisc and I'll meet you there."

"How will you get there without being seen?"

"There's an old parking garage, pre sponsored town, beneath this building connecting across the street. I'll jog over."

"Eh, ok. This all seems nuts," said Neal.

"I know. It's crazy. And Neal?"

"Yea?"

"Thanks." With that, Sandy pulled his hood over his head, faced the floor, and walked away from Neal. Neal watched him head down the north hall and push open a door marked "Stairs."

Neal turned and headed toward the elevator. He pulled out his OneDisc and noticed a message marked urgent. The message was from Erics, the CEO of Onoco.