DoubleThink - An SOS Novella

SEPT. 22, 11:09 A.M.

STARBUCKS, THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS (BECAUSE CAFFEINE)

PENNY BEAT A HASTY RETREAT, taking advantage of the confusion as people gathered around the broken Panjea locker. A couple of people pointed at her, and a security guard followed her out of the store and halfway down the block. But another thing New York was good for: large crowds, easy to lose people in.

Penny settled in the closest Starbucks; she had her choice of three in a two-block radius. She ordered the largest coffee they had and sat in a dark corner, near a shabbily dressed man sleeping in a green armchair. Everyone else was keeping their distance, which suited her just fine.

So now she knew at least one of the puppet masters behind this game. "You are been Pixelh8ted" was the calling card of a legendary hacker with the handle H8Bit. He was actually one of the founding members of Dramatis Personai who had been active in the old days of . . .

Well, now all those dated movie references made sense. In fact, rumor had it that H8Bit had been a consultant on WarGames and a contributor to one of the first ARG-like experiences on the early internet, Ong's Hat. He also had been a hacktivist before the term had come onto the scene, using his considerable powers for good—but he'd disappeared long before Penny took up the cause herself.

If this was really H8Bit, there had to be more going on here. And he wanted the person who opened that locker to know he was involved. Why?

On the other hand, this might not be the original H8Bit. People took over old, abandoned handles sometimes—case in point, the way Risse had assumed full ownership of DoubleThink. There were copycat hackers, trying to steal other people's glory.

People also tried to hijack ARGs; it was possible that Penny had strayed off the path into some alternate-reality game, or the puppet master had lost control of his or her own narrative.

And it had delivered to her a mysterious box.

Now that the moment had arrived, it felt strange to not be sharing this with anyone. She looked around the coffee shop. So many people, living so close together in this city, but they were all strangers to one another—as if the only way to maintain a semblance of privacy was to keep people at a distance emotionally. She didn't know anyone in New York. For a moment, she fantasized about what it would be like to live here one day. Would she have roommates? A best friend to go to parties with and talk about boys?

Penny snorted.

She dialed Risse, but she hung up before the call connected. Her sister was on her way to school right now, living her life. Apparently her date with Emerson over the weekend had gone well enough to merit him a second.

Penny tapped the table with the edge of her phone. It was only five p.m. in Paris right now. She logged in to their usual video chat, but of course Max wasn't online. She sent him a text message anyway. Then she switched to her camera and started recording live video to an unpublished link. It would be sent to Risse and Max automatically in three hours if Penny didn't deactivate forwarding first.

"Okay, so I guess I'm recording my first unboxing video ever," she murmured just loud enough for the mic to pick up her voice. "And yes, this feels pretty stupid, but I don't know what I'm going to find inside this thing."

She peeled the tape off and gingerly opened the box to reveal a black, nylon duffel bag.

"A bag." She lifted it out carefully and turned it over with her free hand. She ran the camera over the white logo printed along it: a lopsided "V." The right side of the letter was crossed with an arrow pointing forward, forming a "T."

"Verbunden Telekom swag? That has to be intentional. It's heavy too. What's in here? Bricks?"

Penny unzipped the bag very slowly. "Please don't be someone's head," she muttered. "Please don't be a head." She pulled out its contents one by one. She laid them out on the table, making sure the camera picked it all up: