Clashing Obsessions

Epilogue

6 Raglan Road, Belvedere DA17

Bexley, London

The address, along with directions, displays on my eyeview.

I was able to find an affordable apartment after a few hours spent scouring the internet last night. Which, by the way, was actually my third day at the motel — the first two were mostly spent sleeping and compulsively checking the news feeds. The Codebreaker identity reveal has been the talk of the town — well, world — since the information was released, but the UNBI haven't revealed any new leads, which reassured me at least a little.

It sure is weird, though. I can't so much as open the feeds without seeing or hearing my name — in a news report, a socials post, even in 'fan theories' on true crime blogs. Not my username, either. My name. Kalix Raven. People know who I am. Everyone knows who I am.

Holy shit. I... don't know what to do with this.

Anyway, back to the apartment.

I haven't had the chance to write some kind of FaceRec-confuser program... and, honestly, I don't even know how I'm going to do it when I do get the time... so for now, I have to avoid any and all cameras, meaning security, traffic, even peoples' cell phones. Wouldn't want to be caught because I was in the background of some Media Girl's selfie.

Staring at the map overlaid onto my vision, I try to determine the safest route.

"Raglan Road, Raglan Road..." I whisper to myself, squinting my eyes at the confusing mess of streets in front of me.

"I'd take Napier Road, then Havelock, if I were you. Only one street camera, and you can easily slip behind it."

The voice spoke out of nowhere, and startled, I spun around, coming face-to-face with a stranger. My neural interface recognises his face as unfamiliar, and automatically tries to run a FaceRec search, but it fails, since I had to disconnect my internal software from the net before leaving Japan.

Questions flood my head faster than the FaceRec error messages cloud my eyeview. Who is he? Does he know who I am? If not, how does he know I'm avoiding cameras?

After clearing my vision, but certainly not my mind, I can at least get a good look at the stranger. He looks to be around my age, maybe a year or so older. His medium length, wavy hair is dark brown, same as his eyes, which watch me expectantly, waiting for me to say something.

Oh. Right. Human interaction involves conversation, and I've just been standing silently for an awkward few moments.

"Sorry, my eyeview was just... glitching. Uh... who are you? And, wait, why— why would you think I'm avoiding—"

"Don't worry." He raises his hands in an attempted reassuring gesture. "I'm not here to turn you in." He glances around, as if deciding what to say, and through narrowed eyes I continue to analyse every detail I can. Lost in an unfamiliar city without a fully functional eyeview, in the presence of an uncomfortably informed young man, what I need is information.

Luckily, he continues. "I know who you are — Codebreaker, I mean. I follow your work. I—" He pauses again, and takes a breath. "Sorry, I didn't introduce myself. My name's Darien," he says, extending a hand. "But, I believe you know me as OutlawResolve."