Her inner tension exploded from her mouth.
"Why didn't you answer my calls?"
Benjamin even stepped back as if to evade her sound waves. He swallowed and scratched his neck. "I shut off my phone. Too much junk news going viral."
"No shit. Your district is under fire."
"Nothing's on fire, except maybe you."
"This isn't funny, Ben. I came all the way from San Diego."
"Why?"
He just wouldn't understand. Did he just buy a bunch of groceries while protestors clashed with the police?
"Did you listen to what I just said? Your district is under fire. It's like a giant battleground."
He opened the door and told Rain to follow him into the staircase.
"Let's talk about this in my apartment."
Rain wanted to solve the issue, but Benjamin acted like a spy, trying to keep his profile low. Up in his apartment, he double-locked the door, activated his phone and synchronized the display with his flatscreen on the wall. "I know this area. The riots were only on a couple streets."
He showed a digital map of Santa Kahlo. Zoomed into the Esperanza district and showed the streets. "See those two? That's where the protestors were. Two, maybe three streets around the block."
"The feeds showed burning dumpsters and people running into houses."
"Which feeds?"
"The Crowd newsfeed."
"Don't watch it. They just try to manipulate you."
More conspiracy talk. Ben's contempt for the platform always turned into paranoia.
"Okay, show me. You're making me damn curious."
Without wearing AR lenses, he tried to watch it on his ancient smartphone. Apparently, the brand with the fruit logo was a major player decades ago.
"Quaint," Rain said. Not even Rain's mother used these devices anymore.
Benjamin moaned. "Doesn't work. My phone doesn't support VR and AR elements."
"Why don't you use AR lenses?"
"So Crowd can spy on my location? No way."
All this hostility against Crowd.
Coming from her mother. Her father and boyfriend. They were blinded by their paranoia and the fear of new technology. If only they'd try it once.
"If you did use lenses, I wouldn't have rushed from San Diego to here with a freaking panic attack."
Benjamin's shoulders slumped. He lost his attitude and hugged her. "I'm sorry, really. I had no idea you were that carried away." He wrapped his arms around her.
It felt good.
"Can I repay you with a dinner? I just bought fresh salmon and spaghetti. It's going to be delicious."
She should have said no.
Should have taught him a lesson about making her needlessly worry, but after the stressful birthday, she needed some positive vibes.
"Mmm."
"Make yourself at home and worry no more. I'll be your servant for the rest of the evening, okay?"
She couldn't suppress her smile. "Now we're talking."
"Salmon spaghetti with fresh pepper, crème fraîche a dash of lemon.
Just what Rain needed after the stressful day. She sacked into the couch and stretched her arms. A danger icon hovered in her upper left vision, warning of her position within the hotzone. Digital flames and miniature police cars. The feed would probably show more chaos on the street. Burning dumpsters and protestors fighting with the officers.
One part of Rain wanted to figure out if Benjamin was right about the newsfeed overplaying the conflict, for whatever reasons, but the other part of her wanted to rest. So Rain deactivated her interactive mini-map and enjoyed the freedom in her vision. She even avoided looking down the windows and focused on Ben cooking food in his corner kitchen when a new Crowd message updated. A rare one, framed in gold.
<SAGE exclusive task!>
As a member of the Special Advisory and Group Engagement section, you're dealing with interesting Crowdies looking to serve our community. Now it's your chance to reach a bigger crowd—pun intended—and score!
Description: Hold a public Crowd meeting with at least fifty participants with the next 7 days. Spread the Crowd love and show people how the platform can help their life.
Reward: 200 Creds
A big crypto reward, worth almost a grand in dollars, but was this really the time to hold public events though? The message said it was an exclusive challenge for Special Advisors, so she had to partake in.
"Anything wrong?" Ben asked from the kitchen.
"Just another Crowd update."
"Never mind then," Ben said and focused on his special, creamy salmon sauce.
Rain wondered whether the exclusive event had anything to do with her challenges at the job.
***Author's Note***
Thanks for taking the time to read this chapter. I'd love your feedback, so feel free to comment. If you like the chapter, you can vote for it by clicking the star below. You can also add "Crowd" to your library if you like to continue the journey which will be updated 5 times a week.