DoubleThink - An SOS Novella

SEPT. 24, 12:42 A.M.

SPEEDING EAST ON ROUTE 50, LEAVING D.C.

BACK IN THE CAR, TYLOR drove while Penny sat in the passenger seat, practically vibrating with the adrenaline rush. The first sign of their handiwork was their inability to get a signal on their cell phones.

"Not good," Penny said. "We did some real damage back there."

"You think?" Tylor laughed. He sounded giddy. Almost manic.

Penny sort of got it. She was both horrified at what she had done and amazed. Her actions had an immediate, significant impact on other people. She felt powerful in a way she hadn't in a long time. Because of something she did, thousands of people couldn't Netflix and chill tonight, or look up stuff on Wikipedia, or update their Panjea page.

Take that, Panjea!

Yes, when people started waking up in a few hours, this would disrupt their routines. They couldn't read the morning news, check for weather updates, read their important emails. The workday would be disrupted. But all those things were inconveniences. Maybe when it all came back, they wouldn't take it for granted anymore. Penny knew how awesome and powerful the internet was—she lived on it every day. But most people didn't even think about one of the most important tools in their lives. Today, that would change.

Penny's cell phone buzzed. She answered it on speakerphone.

"Superb work," Nick said.

"What happened?" Penny asked.

"Washington D.C. is effectively off the grid."

"That's what I don't get. We couldn't have done that with just those cables," Tylor said.

"There were five other teams cutting cables at separate locations," Nick said.

Penny started to feel queasy.

"What about our deal?" she asked.

"As I said, that information will never get out now. I wouldn't have thrown you or your families under the bus anyway, but now you can rest easy knowing that the information has been erased permanently."

"Okay," she said. "Thanks. But what's this really all about? What we did tonight . . . that isn't sustainable."

"We just kicked the U.S. government off the internet. We cut off large chunks of the Eastern Seaboard and other parts of the country from communicating overseas. Many others are experiencing a dramatic slowdown in service."

"The city will be back to business as usual in a week or so," Penny said.

"I'm counting on it. We'll be studying exactly how they recover from this," Nick said.

"This was a test," Penny said.

"Yes. We weren't just testing your potential as new recruits. It was also a proof of concept for a much bigger initiative, which will make a statement no one can ignore. Tonight was an invitation to both of you to take part."

"Why would we want to keep helping you? You threatened my—people I care about," Penny said.

"We apologize, but we needed you to be motivated and distracted by your personal feelings. The stakes are that high, and then even higher still."

"Who are you working for?" Penny asked.

"That would be telling. But piece it together. Just ask yourself what all these targets have in common. You'll need the internet for that, so you'll do that when you get back home. Once you've figured that out, decide whether you want to get more involved, and then send me an encrypted email using this PGP key fingerprint."

Their cell phones dinged with a new text message:

DCC3 8A16 96DE CB5B 220F BDB7 5E84 BD4F 3A64 A400

"And then what?" Tylor asked.

"Are you up for a little travel?" Nick asked.

That wasn't even a question for Penny. Especially not now. She had always wanted to see more of the world. As a hacker, unless she was doing on-site penetration testing, she could work from anywhere. And businesses would potentially pay her to travel to them. But she had built up her professional identity as Emmie Steed and half-a-dozen other personas, all of which were her, so she couldn't go full-time and on the level without outing herself as a hacker first.

Still, she wasn't ready to give up her power to change the world for the better, and right now that relied on secrecy.

"Depends on where," Penny said.

"Penny, what do you think of Berlin?" Nick said.

Berlin?

"It's supposed to be beautiful this time of year," Penny said.

"You'll have to let me know," Nick said.

"What about me?" Tylor asked.

"London."

"Sweet."

Penny narrowed her eyes. "If you're sending me to Berlin, you must be working with—"

"Don't say their name," Nick said.

She stopped short of speaking "Ada Kiesler" aloud. "So I'm guessing our targets are all related to a certain major media company that's been buying up internet real estate lately. So what is this? Vengeance? Getting hackers to do her dirty work?"

"Not vengeance, Penny. Justice. What do you say? Are you in?"

"I need to read the fine print first," she said.

"It's the same as always: This is illegal and potentially dangerous work. And you can't tell anyone about what you're doing. Anyone. Including DoubleThink and 503-ERROR."

Well, that confirmed how much he knew about Penny and her connections.

Doing this required her to give up her life as she knew it. No more college. She'd be lying to her mother and Risse and keeping Max in the dark. It also put Penny at a new level of risk she wasn't prepared for: operating in the field on her own, depending on strangers to have her back. Trust didn't come easy to her; even with Evan's glowing endorsement of his best friend, it had taken her a long time to accept Max as a partner, in every sense of the word.

"I'm not sure I'm the right person for this job." Max would be a better choice. Hell, even Risse would be better at whatever this was. She was already looking for ways to put Dramatis Personai to work helping Ada Kiesler.

"I think you're the perfect person for this. Both of you. I hope we can find out together," Nick said.

Penny glanced at Tylor. He was grinning. His mind was made up. She wondered what he was giving up, or running away from.

They had worked well together so far, but it felt like some kind of betrayal to be joining up with another team. Would Max be jealous? Worried about her? He'd headed off on his own without giving her much consideration. But Nick wanted her help, and if she signed up for whatever this was, she'd be choosing him and Tylor.

It was almost like having friends in real life for a change.

As for Risse . . . she didn't need Penny watching over her anymore—holding her back. She was happy at home, dabbling in hacktivism safely, more or less. Finishing school. Going on dates.

ZOMG. How was Risse's second date going?

Penny sighed. That wasn't the life she lived. Penny needed to be out there helping to make that life possible for other people. She had already helped save the world as she knew it. Now she wanted to see what she had been fighting for.

Penny returned Tylor's smile.

"I'm in," she said.