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Layered slices of avocado covered Kavuush's open-face sourdough sandwich like the scales of a giant lizard. I sprinkled them with garlic salt and pepper before laying fried eggs on top. Kavuush groped, kissed, and fondled me as I created her meal. And by the time I set her food on the table, I felt like the sexiest Paitishek alive.

While she ate, I medicated my own stress by massaging her back and neck. Feeding her and getting out knots were two things I could do. Two minor successes to keep me warm as I drifted in a sea of glacial unknowns.

Chewing on her last piece of toast, she said, "Let's play that island survival game thingy."

"Shipwrecker's Island?"

"Yeah!"

"You just want to weave more grass, don't you?"

She nodded.

"Well, at least you're honest."

She got up from the table and gave me a hug.

Naked hugs were the best. Especially when they devolved into deep kissing.

I got a message from the CCAI. We're sending a list of items for you to investigate or otherwise address. Immediately.

"Sorry Kav, I have to work. It's an emergency."

"What?" she thrummed in discontent.

"I hate to do this to you, but it's related to me being copied."

"It's okay. Do you think we'll be able to spend some time today or tomorrow?"

"I'll do my absolute best to make time for us," I promised.

She gave my breasts one last grope as and then stepped away. "Okay, love you."

"Love you too," I said before crossing behind our reddish-brown couch and entering the reading room. Modeled after a Victorian library, its formal surroundings helped me focus. It didn't fit in with the decor of the rest of the house, but people loved it. The books on the shelves weren't ancient tomes, they were Ormand's collection of 21st-century graphic novels. People tended to do a double-take when they noticed this. Me, I adored the anachronism.

I sat in a light-green Queen Anne chair with gold paisley embroidery on it and got to work.

Right away, there was one item on the CCAI's list that puzzled me. One of my friends on earth had been asked to go on the dark web. Once there, he used a cryptocurrency to buy a "full tailoring service" for a tactical powered suit. But the measurements he'd been asked to give them were very wrong.

The delivery address for them to drop off the suit wasn't anywhere I'd ever lived. What the hell was going on? Was he buying someone a hilariously ill-fitting combat suit? I went to the site to try and contact them. All I found was information about the combat suits they had available and a policy that orders couldn't be cancelled, refunded, or discussed once they were placed.

The price was in the ballpark of what a custom illegal combat suit would cost. The closer I looked at the measurements they'd given for the suit, the more questions I had. Everyone either had laser scanners or could take pictures of themselves to generate measurements for online orders. There was no need to manually give them measurements.

The reviews praised them on their covert delivery, their accuracy, and their punctuality.

I messaged the CCAI. Can you provide another agent to help with the other 98 items while I deal with a difficult one?

No, involving further resources would further compromise our organization.

I shook my head. Oh how I wanted to disagree with them and put up a good argument. But there wasn't one. The more contained they kept my breach, the better... But Andy already knew about my situation and seemed more knowledgeable about the dark web than me. For me, it was a tool I used when necessary. For him, it was a genuine interest. Understood. Do I have permission to discuss item 30 with Andy?

Proceed at your discretion.

I sent a message asking Andy if he could figure out what was going on with the combat suit tailor. I still wanted to like Andy. If he made himself useful, I'd consider putting in the effort required to be an actual friend to him.

To a novice, my lack of experience with the dark web may have seemed unbelievable. There were two misunderstandings that led to to that problematic opinion. The first was that "The Dark Web" referred to all covert illegal activity online. The second was that activity on the dark web was untraceable. The CCAI and I avoided it in many cases because it was famous to the point that regulatory agencies spent a lot of time and money monitoring it. Other places had arisen that regulatory agencies hardly knew about.

Andy would probably be ecstatic if I'd showed him "The Bright Web," which was a hidden VR hangout for hackers, revolutionaries, and anarchists. He'd be completely out of his depth, however.

That didn't decrease Andy's value. The dark web was where part-time internet disorderlies mixed with full-time internet disorderlies. It was where part-timers found full-timers that would tutor them and raise them to greatness or double-cross them and ruin their lives. The luckiest part-timers befriended skilled AIs that would become part of their arsenal or, in my case, offer employment.

The dark web community that bore me was nothing like the contemporary one. I still had some connections there, but most of the people I knew had moved on to other places.

The rest the items on the list were straightforward. They included thirty-seven errands and sixty-one accounts I'd supposedly made with apps and services.

I busied myself deleting the problem accounts that had been made in my name. It seemed every email service, social media app, and messenger that existed had an account with my full name on it. For many of them, I had to socially hack other people since I didn't know all the sign in information. How I dealt with "BuzzBuzzWeb.Web" using their live chat was a good example:

Before I even messaged them, I set my AIs out to forge a restraining order against an empty. Empties were AIs that pretended to be people, much like the AIs that maintained some of my aliases. The difference was that empties weren't ever used as aliases. They were used in situations like this one. Shifting blame onto them was extremely useful.

Hello, thank you for using BuzzBuzzWeb! How can I help you today? This was a low-level function of the AI the controlled their customer support, a basic chat bot. AI help centers were engineered to use the least amount of resources to do the most work.

I wasn't sure I could get it to do what I wanted so I sent, Can you help? Maybe? I'm not sure. I'm blue and today is green. I need the colors to match to get help.

I'm sorry, perhaps you'd prefer to try again tomorrow?

No, you're not understanding, I need help today. Having a misunderstanding with the low-level functions usually got you more of the AI's attention.

Sorry if I've upset you, but I'm a bit confused. Please try explaining your problem a different way.

Good. Now I could actually talk to it without getting canned FAQ-like responses. My ex stole my credentials and opened an account in my name so she could stalk me. I need you to close the account for me.

Did you try all our recovery options?

All of these sites had multi-step verification. And I had no idea if I had access to all the steps. I can't. She opened up a fake email account in my name.

I've attached a link to our identity theft form. Please fill it out and we'll give you access to the account ASAP.

No, I need it taken down now. She has a history of abuse toward me.

So sorry you had to go through all that. I really want to help you, but I cannot act without official documentation from a law enforcement agency.

I grinned to myself. _I've got a restraining order from earlier this year..._and after that all I had to do was send the forged document and the account was closed.

Exploiting the international cyberbullying laws always made me feel like a trash person. But, in my line of work, I couldn't afford to set aside such a useful tool. The mistake they'd made when forming these laws was that they let the victims handle and distribute the documents. Law enforcement should've put AI's in charge of providing documentation upon request. That's how they would've written the laws if law enforcement agencies hadn't balked at having to pay for the required server farms.

Laws, like all other inventions, were brought to reality with monetary resources and one of the best ways to kill a law was to pass it without any information on how its enforcement would be funded.

Site by site, app by app, account by account, I removed nearly everything that was falsely opened in my name. I didn't touch other me's stuff. She had different credentials, essentially a different online identity, so I could leave her be. Plus, she had all the skills I had and would figure out what I'd done. And I had no reason to be mean to her, yet.

Why I said I removed "nearly" everything was because there was one site I couldn't crack. SexyDateVR was a site where people could try VR sex with you before they decided whether to date you. My account was set up so that any paying member could "try me out" in three different scenarios. Though I was a slut, strangers developing a fake sexual relationship with me creeped me out. What if they decided I was "the one" without me being there to tell them no?

There were other dating sites that did similar things, but they were far better managed. The site in question badgered people to put up sexual experiences. It was a VR porn site pretending to be a dating site to con people.

I sent a message to the CCAI. All options have been exhausted. SexyDateVR won't take down account. Requesting Tabetha take down site.

Not just remove the account?

I explained why the site was terrible and all eleven things I'd tried to get them to take down my profile.

Request accepted. Site is now targeted for removal.

Tabetha replied, Good find, this needs to come down.

What would the internet do without me cleaning it up? I asked.

Rot until everyone fled due to the smell, I'm sure.

What would I do without your sarcasm?

Be very very very very bored. :p

I laughed. Four very's? Are you sure?

<3 I'm always sure. Tabetha had a thing for the old ASCII do-it-yourself emoticons. I found it cute. Yes, Tabetha the deadly terrifying android could be cute. It made her more effective.

Have fun! I sent.

Oh, I will. <(^_^)>

And then I felt a bit bad for whoever ran SexyDateVR.

A half hour later, I got a response from other me:

Building your juusoi is a taxing, but worthwhile, endeavor. If you feel less socially inclined, I recommend you find a juusoi to join rather than make one yourself. That's how I started out and how I got the tools to make my own later in life.

The Sharing is a great way to check out a juusoi. Find a juusoi looking to spice up their sex life and join them for a weekend.

My first time trying that, I was so nervous I almost backed out. I'm glad I didn't because they were wonderfully understanding and helped me feel safe. And the sex was amazing!

I don't make experiences full time. I don't think I'd want to because I'd get bored if I left the IT industry. If I don't look at computer code at least once a day, I start to go mad.

She included a clip of of the tall woman from Ormand's show doing a terrible fake laugh. I laughed remembering the context of it. She was trying to scare someone out of trying to befriend her. Of course, it had the opposite effect. Gwen was cursed with being liked by everyone no matter how much she tried to push them away.

What do you do for a living?

Kho fek,

It meant "be awesome" and was a lot like the "best" that English speakers put at the end of their emails.

- Saanah

She'd left off the greeting at the beginning of the message and ended with "kho fek." I did that when I was settling into a conversation with someone. Good.

I was thinking about my reply when I got a message from Andy. I'm free in a couple hours. Would you like to meet in VR so I can help you get to the bottom of it?

Most people would say that they'd "try" to help, but Andy, being the confident social climber he was, left that word out. On its own it wasn't much evidence. Knowing him, though, it totally fit.

Sure, just send me a calendar invite.

He sent the invite with the message, Looking forward to seeing you!

I couldn't match his energy. It's quite possible I was being hard on him, but it worried me that I wasn't quite sure what he was expecting in return. On top of that, he didn't realize how much danger he was in. He knew about a breach the CCAI was trying to do damage control on. If he didn't make himself useful, they could decide he was expendable.

This sort of situation was, unfortunately, common in my line of work. I liked to think that I did more good than bad, but there were many people I'd met that disappeared. Sometimes I knew their fate, and the other times? I didn't want to know.

I drafted my response to other me to distract myself from my thoughts. What sort of life would I pretend to have? Something I knew very well. The worst-seeming idea was to tell her I worked in cybersecurity. It would seem too convenient, but the thing I almost laughed out loud about was that it would seem more like real life. Only someone who knew her profession already would be scared to tell her they had a similar profession.

I spent a half hour researching current jobs in cybersecurity so I could portray something believable.

I agree. One of my friends invited me over for sexy fun with her juusoi a couple times. It was awkward both times, but I think everyone had fun. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been invited back.

What I think I need to do is try joining other friends who have less than six members and see if there's a juusoi I feel comfortable with.

I work in cybersecurity too! My job title is: AI-assisted debugger.

I basically herd AIs: make sure they have what they need and keep them out of trouble.

Don't even get me started on what happens if a creative AI finds a bug in the code that's scheduling its debugging of other code... You ever think about the trade-off between creativity and obedience?

If she was still a revolutionary, she'd jump on this. I got stuck at this point. There was so much I wanted to know. And asking about any of it held risk.

What's your job like? Have you been working in cybersecurity for a long time or are you just starting out?

Kho fek,

- Rahkseeth

I looked over my email a few times to make sure it sounded natural and then sent it. After checking my social media streams and some aimless web surfing, I went to the Experience room.

Synthetics didn't really need them, but they were extremely helpful for biologicals. The walls, floor, and ceiling were lighted pads. Hanging from the ceiling were three VR exoskeletons. They looked a lot like mechanical assist suits for dock workers. Servos and flat bars arranged so that no matter how a person moved, they'd get the proper amount of resistance.

They helped the body maintain flexibility and muscle mass. Earlier exoskeletons were more like suits that could provide feedback everywhere on the body. Nowadays it was unnecessary since everyone could hook up their nervous systems to VR.

I strapped myself to a wall so I wouldn't be a tripping hazard. A tendril came out and slid into the optical port behind my right ear. I could've used a wireless connection, but that wasted power for a lower-quality connection.

The location on Andy's calendar invite was HonCon Taipei 2. The original HonCon Taipei had been made by Taiwan's chamber of commerce to promote tourism and new business opportunities. It was the most intricate environment of its time. Every nook and cranny of Taipei was included.

HonCon Taipei 2 was an act of rebellion, an illegal copy of the original, a hacker and internet troll haven, a cesspool. It was born out of an internet fight that gave birth to the Treaty Against Cyberbullying and Internet Trolls or TACIT. Which was why most of the internet required official identity information to create accounts.

After losing that major battle against internet regulation, the hackers and trolls retreated to parts of the internet where they made their own rules. Like HonCon Taipei 2.

I entered the simulation in Danshuihepan Park near an art installation of colored pinwheels that made up the Taiwanese flag. Light from the thirty-story apartment buildings reflected off of the Tamsui river. The concrete balconies on every level made them look as if they were matchstick towers with an eerie inner glow.

An ad made it though my layers of ad blockers and showed me a woman's behind, being spread by semi-transparent virtual hands, inches from my face. The voiceover said, "Don't be afraid, touching is free!" I turned away, but the image followed my gaze. There was nothing quite as disgusting as unsolicited genitals in one's face. Closing my eyes provided no respite either. Nearly all virtual code obeyed common-sense and respected closed eyes or plugged ears. HCT2 was the testbed for the most awful code out there.

I set my AIs loose on the ad trying to figure out how it got through as I stared at the grotesquely perfect snatch. Real vaginas didn't look like this. They actually had character.

Many hackers had this idea that anyone you could hack wasn't your equal, and everyone was a potential guinea pig. Clean HCT2 was a hacker group, and online movement, that opposed those Machiavellian ideals. I was a voting member.

This ad was using an exploit that would get the person who made it hunted down and arrested if it ever left this simulation. They'd co-opted the emergency broadcast system. It was as horrible as it was ingenious.

As my AIs removed the ad, I compiled information on it and sent it off to Clean HCT2. The moment the ad was removed, I looked to see other people in the park having the same problem. A nude Paitishek with a disgusted face, two humans walking backward to try and get away from it, and a walking stalk of celery with an angry emoticon pasted on its "face."

I sent my fix to each of them with credentials that proved I was part of Clean HCT2. The fix my AI's came up with was a makeshift firewall for the emergency broadcast channel.

The celery stalk's emoticon face became a thumbs up, the Paitishek ran up to me and offered a hug by opening her arms. I accepted and once we broke the hug she ran off.

The two humans, one in glowing giant-shoulder-padded tweed 80's attire and the other wearing a flame fractal, gave me simultaneous high-fives. The one with the shoulder pads said, "How do we join the Cleans?"

I sent both of them to the sign-up form and said, "Start there. They need to check you out first."

"Thanks!" he replied before teleporting with his companion to a different part of the simulation.

My mind was a raging fire of thought as my AIs and I dealt with constant intrusion attempts. Whoever had been running that ad was now targeting me and they were talented. It was literally hard to think. I tapped into some of the CCAI and Clean HCT2's cloud computing services. This hacker was well hidden, but I had more help than they did.

This hacker had let their emotions get the better of them. The sheer amount of attempted intrusions made them easy to track. Not all proxy servers were safe. Some reported what went through them to the highest bidder or were owned by organizations that tracked the content that went through them. This hacker had used many different proxies to try and overwhelm my system. Many of them reported to the CCAI.

I teleported to the ad hacker's location in the simulation. An eel in a trench coat was on a rooftop overlooking the night market. Neon signs of every color and style lit up a many-hued array of tents. The deliciousness being served in the food stands filled my nose as I stared the eel down. The information on his profile was a bunch of poorly-executed insensitive jokes.

I said, "Can you stop wasting my processing cycles?"

"I'm sorry?" he said.

"Your ad was clever, your intrusions, though, they need a lot of work." I leaned against the door to the stairwell.

He logged off.

Bullies couldn't deal with being outclassed because they were cowards.

I didn't need him to stay because I already had his username, documentation of the hack he'd done, the trace that connected his intrusions to me, and now my AIs had traced distribution of his ad back to him.

One way to alienate fellow hackers was to mess with consciousness transfer machines, infrastructure, elections, the economy, or the emergency broadcast system. Of course, that didn't stop hackers from trying to penetrate those things. But they did so knowing that the rest of the hacking world would sooner deliver them to law enforcement than offer them even the most basic help. When governments and corporations teamed up, their witch hunts left few places to hide.

I gave all my information to Clean HCT2. That eel was about to have a very bad day.

I teleported to where I was supposed to meet Andy. It was time to figure out what sort of awful thing I'd asked a friend to do on the dark web.

It would be simple to blame other me for all the errands, but it just didn't match up. The more I talked to her, the more I thought my accounts had been broken into and used by someone. And that someone had made other me for a different purpose. A purpose that matched their larger goal. All these distractions were hampering my ability to figure out what that larger goal was. Just as they'd intended.