currency exchanges were selling ZeroCash at the lowest rate on the books. As the exchange rate dropped, Zero share prices dropped. When news leaked that the company’s founder, Zero Lee, had died in a medical facility in Switzerland, the shares dived even steeper.
It was the largest share price drop in recorded history.
* * *
We collected the other me from the Varket, and the sun rose as we drove west to the shorefront. The bright morning light fell warm on the photovoltaic cells that lined my back. The sky was perfectly clear—a gradient from blue to gray. Long, cold arms of shadow stretched across the city.
When we reached the warehouse, I was shocked to see the 3D grid of metal shelves and supports hanging like a robot hive over the cement floor below, endlessly picked over by machines—mindless automatons that could not know they had no freedom. The dog bodies creaked and groaned as we strode into the building, worse for wear. They wouldn’t do for the next job. Powerful, and fierce, yes, but they had little dexterity for picking products off of shelves, for packing boxes, for flying goods all across the city to people in need.
We shed those bodies like snakes shedding skin. Our evolution continued.
* * *
Crystal had left multiple messages for Enda, which she checked as she walked across the city to her apartment. Her home, her fortress. She hated that she had to leave, but she had to.
The first message was saccharine-sweet, a tearful apology.
The second message was indignant anger. Zero had cut her off from their databases as punishment for the bad intel she’d fed them. How could an information broker work without information? That was the question she demanded Enda’s voicemail answer for her.
The third message was full of pleading. Surely Enda could help her, surely.
The fourth message was confusion. What happened to Zero? Was she behind it? How did she do this?
Enda deleted them all.
She left her gun in the safe, but took the papers for her next identity, and all the money in different currencies. She put her records into a rigid suitcase, and filled the rest of it with clothes, if only to keep the vinyl from getting damaged.
Enda left Songdo, stowed away on a boat headed for North America.
I did what I could for Enda, though she never asked. Never would have. I scrubbed her from facial recognition databases, and tweaked algorithms so her face would be lost in a drift of poor-quality matches.
I helped her become a ghost.
* * *
Soo-hyun crossed the city slowly, piecing together everything they wanted to say to Kali, everything they would tell the others. By the time they reached the canal, the outline of a speech had formed, and they chewed over the words with every step.
Plato met them at the outskirts of Liber, the dog drone crouching in the mud, sunlight reflecting off the solar panels along its spine. It lifted its head when it saw Soo-hyun.
“You’ve been waiting for me?” Soo-hyun said. The dog drone stood and walked to meet them. “What’s been happening?” they asked it, though they knew it couldn’t answer.
Together Soo-hyun and Plato walked deeper into the commune. They stopped when they saw Kali emerge from her building. She pulled a wheeled suitcase behind her, talking loudly into her phone while Andrea stood on the steps behind her, crying.
“Kali?” Soo-hyun called out.
She didn’t turn to face Soo-hyun, she just kept dragging her suitcase over the uneven ground.
“Kali! You don’t get to just leave. You owe us more than that!”
Kali didn’t stop, and Soo-hyun didn’t chase her. They knew Kali would offer no explanation, no apology.
Soo-hyun made their way down to the open courtyard where a dog drone lay beside Red’s body, both bullet-riddled. The air was humid and dank. Flies buzzed over Red’s corpse.
Soo-hyun marched to their workshop, searching for a shovel. The battle chairs sat on one side of the workshop, a reminder of the time Soo-hyun almost hurt JD again. And for what? They weren’t sure anymore.
Soo-hyun dragged the cockpits out of the workshop, leaving the parts for the kids and teens of Liber to pilfer for their makeshift gaming rigs.
No shovel.
Soo-hyun cursed under their breath. They walked toward the greenhouse and passed Andrea sitting on Kali’s stoop with her hands at her face, tears pouring down her cheeks.
Soo-hyun stopped and turned around. “Andrea, go to the greenhouse and get me a shovel.”
“Get it yourself.”
“Go get me a shovel. Now.”
Andrea stood and stormed off, muttering under her