CLOUD NINE

Chapter 19

"So, how long have you been working here?" Nina asked.

"Almost five months. Ever since we started re-locating to the cloud kingdom," he mused, looking straight ahead at the city sprawled beneath them and the hazy skyline. They were both sitting on a thick ledge at the terrace. She had been apprehensive about dangling her legs on the other side, especially since they were on the sixth floor. But now, they had been comfortably settled for one hour, bunking their work.

"Nina, what do you like to paint?"

"Anything that attracts me I guess."

He mused for a while before speaking again, "Let me rephrase that. Suppose you could paint anything without the fear of it being censored. Anything you'd want to show to the people of these clouds."

"Well," Nina bit her lips, thinking for a while, "I'd love to draw Cloud Nine. And how electric sparks gallop on the edges and electrobots fry people alive." She shuddered at the memory of that night. The feelings of that fear were as fresh as a gaping wound on her.

"If you could draw that for me. Would you show it to the people who needs to see it?"

"But that's illegal. Why would I do something which could get me arrested?"

"Because you're passionate about it and you should have the freedom to express yourself," something twinkled behind his honey brown eyes.

"Is it possible?" Nina sensed there was something he wasn't telling her. Something deeper and darker.

"Only if you take a bit of risk and agree to keep your mouth shut," he winked.

"Come on. I want you to meet someone," he jumped down from the ledge and held out his hand for her.

"Whom?"

"A hacker," he mumbled as they got into the lift.

They stopped at the servant's floor and he swiftly moved towards the ladies' dorm, Nina scuttling along.

He stopped at a door. A big handmade sign in black and red outside it said 'DANGER' with a  hand painted in red. The pain was dripping from the sides of the crude painting. Nina laughed just as he knocked.

"Shh," he gestured, "she's a feisty little thing. You wouldn't want her to get upset or she can be a bitch."

"I heard that Derry-Werry," a shrill female voice answered and the door opened just a chink. A blond head peeped out with an almost doll-like face. How old was she?

The head scrutinized her from head to toe, "Who's she?"

"This is Nina," Derek explained, "Nina, this is Cynthia."

"Quick. Get in you two. I'm doing important work. Can't let others see," she opened the door wide enough and they slipped in.

The inside was lit by a dim blue light and Cynthia's laptop was lying on the bed, with a farrago of wires attached to three other small boxes that beeped.

"Tell me what you want," she gestured to the bed, sliding apart a tangle of wires to make room for them.

"Nina is an artist," Derek dived right to the point.

"Hmm. So?" Cynthia picked up her laptop.

"She wants to help with our cause," blunt as always.

"Really?" Cynthia questioned, drumming her fingers over the keyboard.

"Yes. I will," Nina finally spoke for herself, "Why do you use dim lights? This will put a strain on your eyes."

"Oh hello, doc, " Cynthia went on typing without looking up, but the scorn in her voice was evident, "there's a peephole outside every door and I don't want people to peep into my life or I could land in big trouble."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Nina looked at Derek. He just rolled his eyes with a 'ignore her rudeness' look.

"So you're a hacker?"

Cynthia gave Derek a sidelong glance, "You can trust her." Derek shrugged.

"Well yes. I do hack into the internet. You see we work over the dark web. But to make our content available to the people on search, we need to hack into registered sites."

"So you spam?"

"Kinda yes," Cynthia nodded, "via mail from email addresses that can't be traced back again because I collapse the URL. Also have you seen the popup ads when you surf the internet?"

Nina nodded.

"We make our messages pop up there and escape before we can be reported. Besides most people like illegal things and their curiosity is piqued at the ads that act as our propaganda," Cynthia informed further.

"So you send what? Artwork?"

"Photography mainly. As you know on the clouds we need a special license to own a camera. We have illegal cameras. I'm a photographer," Derek piped up in between, happy to be useful at last.

"But we promote calligraphy, art, weavings and most importantly writing. Our writer's wing is really big," Cynthia added resuming her typing.

"So you all operate from Cloud One?"

"No. our base is in Cloud Two. But we're working over the web."

"This all looks so complicated," Nina marvelled at the planning.

"It's risky as hell but we do it for us, to steal back our rights."

"How do I get into your circle?" Nina got down from the bed, balling up her fists.

"By keeping your mouth shut and choosing a pen name for yourself. And relax. We fight with brain and not brawn. "

"Nickel- Sodium," Nina blurted.

"What?" Cynthia's head shot up. Good! She had managed to faze the cool-headed girl.

"Oh, your name. Good," an understanding dawned on her face. Nina smiled and to her surprise, Cynthia did too.

"You're a sassy one. I like ya."

"Ahh, excuse me?" Derek raised up his hands like a nerdy kid asking a question in class. "What's Nickel Sodium?"

"Search up the periodic table," both girls giggled together.