Firefall: A high-tech conspiracy thriller (Shadow Operatives Book 3), page 15
They reached a room with a small sign on the door that said, “Modeling.”
The receptionist turned to her, still all Mr. Serious. “Wait here.” He entered and emerged a minute later holding a powder blue hospital smock. “Step inside. Take off all your clothes and put this on. Someone will be right with you.”
She looked down at the gown in her palms. “Wait, what?” But the receptionist had already wheeled and was already headed toward the double doors.
She took a calming breath and entered the empty room. A sofa leaned up against the near wall. Across the room was a large ten-foot-tall device made of glass and metal the color of putty, with an open entrance. Inside she could see an array of light diodes running up and down both sides of the machine. It looked kind of like those full-body security scanners at the airport.
This wasn’t what she was expecting. Not at all. Should I undress? I feel like I’m on thin ice already in this place. It’s not my thing, but I still need time to heal. I can’t go back to my old life. There’s no going back. Too many memories of how things were … before everything changed.
She stood there and decided to wait. To find out what the hell this was about.
The door behind her clicked open. Shawna Taylor entered. She felt a surge of relief. “Hi, Shawna.”
Shawna gave her the once-over. “You haven’t changed yet.”
“I thought this was supposed to be my modeling session.” She unfurled the medical gown to its full length and saw that it ended halfway up her thighs. “This … this isn’t nude modeling, is it? I’m not comfortable with that.”
Shawna let out a guffaw. “No, Scarred Angel. Nothing like that.” She came up and squeezed Piper’s right palm. “I’m so sorry I didn’t explain. Things are moving fast here. All the girls go through a one-time modeling session. 3D modeling, that is.”
“Ohhhh,” Piper said. But she still wasn’t getting it. “What’s that?”
“It was right in the agreement you signed. As part of your engagement with YouthCam Studios, you agree to license your likeness for a digital avatar that our artificial intelligence creates. Maybe you’ve read about this? They’re called Doppels.”
She shook her head. “Doppels?”
“For digital Doppelganger. It’s all the rage in gamer boy circles. We ship a small container to customers, about yay high and this big.” She held out her hands to indicate a rectangular size object roughly two by two feet in area and eight inches high. “It sits nicely on a desktop next to a computer monitor.”
“Okay. What’s it for?”
Shawna let out another laugh. “It’s for lonely gamer boys, that’s what it’s for! This is one of our top revenue drivers. Especially popular in Korea and Japan, where some early versions came out as early as 2020.”
“I—I still don’t get it.”
Shawna gave a fakey supportive smile. “Tell you what. I’ll show you exactly how it works once you’re scanned. It actually takes the AI only a few minutes to work from a base template and make a few adjustments to account for your facial features and body dimensions.”
Piper began unbuttoning her blouse. “All the girls do this? And it’s mandatory?”
“Yes. And I’m on a tight schedule, so let’s move it. I’ll look away if you’re shy about this sort of thing.” She turned her back. “When you’re undressed, just step into the scanner. Don’t worry, you don’t feel a thing.”
Piper unbuttoned her jeans, slid them to the floor, and folded them onto the edge of the sofa. “You’re sure I can’t just wear my undies?”
“Oh, you shy thing.” Shawna locked the door. “Yes, the full-body scans need to be hyper-realistic. That’s part of the attraction, knowing there’s a real girl who looks exactly like the Doppel you’re buying. And remember, you get a cut of the action.”
“I do?” She slid her blouse over her head and placed it on the sofa.
“Yes. We deposit your royalties directly into your crypto wallet. And you know what? We already have two hundred preorders of our Scarred Cheerleader Doppel. These crypto dudes have more money than God.” She gave Piper an icy blue stare. “It’s funny that the virtual you is doing better than the real you.”
To Piper, it was more a sad commentary on where the world was heading. She felt a little grossed out by the whole thing. But she’d come this far, and she wasn’t a quitter.
Maybe I’m just not keeping up with the cyber times. Maybe if the virtual me makes a lot of money, I won’t have to do any more cam modeling.
She walked toward the entrance of the body scanner, paused at the doorway, and removed her panties and bra, folding her palms across her breasts. She stepped inside. “Okay, Shawna, I’m ready.”
Shawna walked over to the control panel in front of the scanner and shielded her eyes with her right palm. “Not looking. Not looking.”
Piper chuckled at that. “Thank you.”
“But you’re going to need to stretch out your arms all the way. Hold tight, girl. Just breathe normally. Like I said, you won’t feel a thing.”
“Should I close my eyes?”
“No. We want to capture your natural eye color.”
The curved glass door shut. It made little beeping noises as the glass encasement whirred back and forth with soft pink beams of light shooting out of the small oval diodes attached to the casing. It actually kind of tickled her skin, though that was probably from the cool air.
After a minute she began to wonder how long this would take. But Shawna shouted out. “Okay, all done. You can get dressed.”
The door flew open. She stepped out, put on her undergarments and then the rest of her clothes.
“See?” Shawna turned to her. “That wasn’t so bad.”
“Uh, no, I guess not. Kind of weird, though.”
“Was it? I don’t know. We’re living in a new world, Scarred Angel. More of us are spending more and more of our time online, living virtual lives, buying virtual goods, spending virtual currency. That’s especially true of gamers, geeks, crypto natives—in other words, our target market. Everyone needs a little companionship.”
“From a … Doppel?”
“You want to see one in action?”
Piper nodded and followed Shawna to a workspace along the far wall where a small Doppel unit sat. A small hand-lettered sign on the workbench surface said, Cyber Diorama. Shawna took out her ever-present tablet. “You have a favorite friend at YouthCam?”
Piper thought about it. She hadn’t made any real friends yet. But there was one girl she sometimes had lunch with at the WROL Deli near the base of the waterfall. WROL, Shawna informed her, meant Without The Rule of Law.
“Is FoxyFalon in your system?” Piper asked.
Shawna looked up and smiled approvingly. FoxyFalon was another semi-recluse at Raven Rock. Piper once grabbed lunch with her when she spotted her dining solo.
“We’re marketing her Doppel under the name Cyberbunny,” Shawna said. “We’re going for a less adult, more mainstream market with our Doppels.” She tapped out some commands on her tablet. Suddenly the Doppel House was transformed into a small beach. Waves lapped at the shoreline, and Piper heard the surf and the distant squawks of seabirds.
There, sunning herself in a beach lounger, was a miniature virtual replica of FoxyFalon. She wore a white bikini and reflective sunglasses as she read a novel and repositioned herself to get comfy atop a striped beach towel. It reminded her of the famous Star Wars scene with Princess Leia calling out, “Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.” Only the high-definition fidelity was light years ahead of the Star Wars hologram.
“Cyberbunny, you have a visitor,” Shawna said.
Cyberbunny—the digital version of FoxyFalon—looked up from her book and flicked her shades down her nose. “Hey, Shawna. Hey, Scarred Angel. Nice to see you.”
That surprised Piper. “How does she know it’s me? Is she … an AI?”
Shawna smiled wryly. “Well, no. She’s a hologram. The visualization is created on the fly by our system’s AI, including subtle facial gestures and complex body movements. Our AI also synthesized Falon’s speaking patterns based on her voice sample. But as our disclaimer says, the Doppel is not built to engage in in-depth conversations.”
“But, how did she know it was me?” Piper interrupted.
“You mean, did the Cyberbunny Doppel recognize you with facial recognition just now? No. I wish! I just typed in your name under ‘guest’ when I booted her up. I chose the French Riviera beachfront for the setting, but we also have Jungle Habitat, Manhattan Skyline, Surface of Europa …”
“The beach is fine.” Piper’s eyes moved from the Cyberbunny Doppel to Shawna. “Can I talk with her?”
“Of course,” Cyberbunny said, putting her book down and leaning forward on her recliner. “I’m here to keep you company.”
Piper mouthed the words to Shawna: Keep me company?
Shawna gave a wry smile. “All the Doppels have a limited set of preprogrammed scripts to work off of, based on keywords in your dialogue.”
“So they’re not so good at genuine interaction,” Piper said to Shawna. Then to the Cyberbunny: “You see the Packers game yesterday? Wasn’t that something?”
“Mmm,” Cyberbunny said. “I was wrapped up in the latest Danielle Steel novel. It’s a real page-turner. Want to hear about it?”
“Not really,” Piper said.
“Hold on.” Shawna studied her tablet screen. “Your Doppel is coming online.”
“Already? Don’t you need my voice?”
“You submitted a digital reading on orientation day. Remember?”
“Oh. I thought that was to audition for a podcast or something.”
Shawna smiled and shook her head. “You’re funny. Hold on.” She tapped a few commands on her tablet.
“G’bye!” Cyberbunny shouted as she began to dissolve. “Miss you already!”
A moment later, Cyberbunny and the French Riviera beach were gone. A new visualization took its place. A room took its place. Piper recognized it at once. Her bedroom back at home. She now recalled Shawna sending her instructions to capture photos of her bedroom and send them through along with her application to YouthCam Studios. Her desk, her cluttered closet, her stuffed animals, all faithfully reproduced in digital form.
The bedroom door opened and in walked Piper, wearing her red and white Annandale High cheerleader outfit. She circled around the room, looking up, as if to make eye contact. The Doppel gave a big smile, wrapped her hands over her shoulders to hug herself, and bounced down on the bed.
“Do you like my bed? Come on, let’s play!” the Scarred Angel Doppel said.
Piper backed away from the Doppel diorama. “Ew. I would never say that!”
Shawna hit a button on her tablet to freeze the Doppel. “Of course you wouldn’t,” she said. “This isn’t about you. It’s all play action. Games. Fantasy.”
Piper flounced her dark braids from side to side. Her throat started to constrict, something that happened when she got super-upset. “But it’s not fantasy. It’s … it’s too realistic! That’s me!”
“Scarred Angel, calm down. Your show starts in ten minutes and you shouldn’t get worked up.”
“I won’t calm down. How is my likeness going to be used? What can these men do to me?”
“Now, Piper,” Shawna began. It was the first time she’d heard Shawna address her by her real name since she’d arrived and chosen a model pseudonym. “This is a new product line. From our early testing, we expect some subscribers will like dressing you up in different outfits. Some will think of their Doppel as a kind of pet. Others may do what guys do. But what happens behind closed doors doesn’t really matter.”
Piper straightened and gave Shawna a death glare. “It matters to me!” she cried. “This is wrong!” She bolted from the room, slamming the door behind her.
27
Poconos, Pennsylvania
For a long moment, Kaden, Nico, and Scorpio went silent. Kaden felt a mixture of relief and apprehension wash over her at the news that Amelia had located Piper.
“You found Piper?” she asked. “Is she all right?”
Amelia’s visualization began wavering between full and zero opacity, causing her to flicker in and out. Probably because some of the other restaurant patrons were streaming videos or playing online games. “To catch everyone up, Kaden sent me Piper’s social media profiles, and I used facial recognition to compare her headshots to a host of public and private image databases. I found a screen capture on the darknet that was a ninety-two percent match. Then used the background imagery to identify the site it appeared on.”
“Good work. Which site?”
“YouthCam Live. She has her own channel. At least, I think that’s her. She just went on the air. Sending to your phones now.”
All three of their phones pinged with a text link.
“I don’t mean to sound like an old fuddy-duddy,” Amelia added, “but I just don’t know what these young women are thinking.”
Kaden tapped the link and then tapped the button acknowledging she was eighteen or older.
Her screen filled with a live video of a young girl wearing a cheerleader uniform and lip-syncing a pop song. She was wearing black kitty ears with white whiskers and a white dot on her nose against a dollop of orange face paint to give her the look of a tiger cub. She’d dyed her hair pink—or somebody had—and she was wearing blue contact lenses and a glowing LOVE necklace atop her red and vanilla cheerleader top.
“That’s her,” Kaden confirmed. “I recognize her from Camp Defiance on Samana Cay.”
“Yeah, that’s her,” Nico agreed. “What is she doing there?”
“Performing,” Scorpio said. “For tokens.” They all turned to look at him.
Nico probed further. “And you know this … how?”
Scorpio’s eyes returned to his phone to avert their glares. “YouthCam is very popular way for girls in Eastern Europe to earn money. Romania, Belarus, Russia—their economies are disaster. No good jobs. Some girls figure this is best way to survive. Who can blame them?”
They all went quiet. Kaden studied the live stream closely. To be frank about it, it felt a little lurid, watching Piper like this. Piper couldn’t see them, but Kaden could see a stream of comments running down the screen with guys using pseudonymous handles asking Piper to strip … or worse.
“Oh, Piper,” Kaden said. “She’s seventeen. An age not known for making rock-solid decisions. But still …”
She peered at the surreal scene. Fluffy white pillows, satin sheets, and a big brown teddy bear wearing star-shaped shades and love beads were spread out on the bed. Shelves of unicorns, baby seals, and other plush toys lined the nearest wall. The other wall was decorated with small candy hearts in pink, peach, lavender, and banana colors. Grossest of all was a string of colored lights draped across the bed’s headboard, flicking on and off, giving the whole thing the vibe of a strip club.
Piper—this brave girl who’d stood up to her captors on Samana Cay—had somehow decided she wanted to perform for the Internet.
Kaden noticed something. “I don’t think she’s in Europe.”
“Why not?” Nico asked.
“Take a look at the electrical outlet to the right of the bed.”
Scorpio nodded. “Definitely American.”
That was good news. “Amelia,” she said, “can you find out Piper’s location?”
“So far no luck, but I can try.” Amelia cast her eyes downward, frowned, and dusted some digital snow off her skirt. She was looking a little … depressed.
Kaden had tried to program Amelia to ignore all the batshit crazy stuff on the Internet. The conspiracy theories, the hate speech, the magical thinking, the mob mentality. She’d programmed Amelia to test and analyze. Consult authoritative sources. Practice virtuous behavior. Don’t harm others.
But maybe all the abusive behavior online was throwing her into a tailspin.
“Kaden, dear,” Amelia said, leaning forward. “A lot of the girls on this site seem much too young. Some seem like they’re doing it against their will. Others are displaying signs of duress or abuse. Most of them are vaping a narcotic to ease the trauma of what they’re experiencing. This may be the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Nico didn’t have his smartglasses on so he couldn’t see Amelia, but he could hear her. “Since Piper is just seventeen,” he said, “it doesn’t matter even if she consents. Pretty sure just her being there is breaking some federal laws.”
They watched as Piper winked and made the shape of a heart with her fingers. She blew a kiss toward the camera.
“What are we going to tell Viper?” Nico asked. “This will break him.”
Kaden thought for a moment. “We need to tell him the truth.” A feeling of fierce determination welled up in her chest. “And then we need to find Piper.”
28
Greenwich, Connecticut
President Frederick W. “Freddie” Caldwell knew his political fortunes were in dire shape. An incumbent president should be heading into a presidential election year with the wind at his back and an approval rating near or above fifty percent. But these latest numbers …
He pressed the switch on the limo’s door to roll up the glass partition so he and his chief of staff could talk in private. He leaned closer to his wife. “Luis and I need to discuss the latest poll numbers.”
First lady Leticia Caldwell looked out the window at the gathering darkness. “You do whatever you need to do.”
Whatever was needed. The president grasped her underlying meaning. Always the hard-charger. Wanting to get it done, damn the consequences.
“Luis, any change from last week?” Caldwell folded his hands and leaned forward.
Luis Salazar cleared his throat. “No, Mr. President. We’re still five percent below water. But holding steady.”
Caldwell understood the shorthand for running behind our likely opponent in a head-to-head.
The receptionist turned to her, still all Mr. Serious. “Wait here.” He entered and emerged a minute later holding a powder blue hospital smock. “Step inside. Take off all your clothes and put this on. Someone will be right with you.”
She looked down at the gown in her palms. “Wait, what?” But the receptionist had already wheeled and was already headed toward the double doors.
She took a calming breath and entered the empty room. A sofa leaned up against the near wall. Across the room was a large ten-foot-tall device made of glass and metal the color of putty, with an open entrance. Inside she could see an array of light diodes running up and down both sides of the machine. It looked kind of like those full-body security scanners at the airport.
This wasn’t what she was expecting. Not at all. Should I undress? I feel like I’m on thin ice already in this place. It’s not my thing, but I still need time to heal. I can’t go back to my old life. There’s no going back. Too many memories of how things were … before everything changed.
She stood there and decided to wait. To find out what the hell this was about.
The door behind her clicked open. Shawna Taylor entered. She felt a surge of relief. “Hi, Shawna.”
Shawna gave her the once-over. “You haven’t changed yet.”
“I thought this was supposed to be my modeling session.” She unfurled the medical gown to its full length and saw that it ended halfway up her thighs. “This … this isn’t nude modeling, is it? I’m not comfortable with that.”
Shawna let out a guffaw. “No, Scarred Angel. Nothing like that.” She came up and squeezed Piper’s right palm. “I’m so sorry I didn’t explain. Things are moving fast here. All the girls go through a one-time modeling session. 3D modeling, that is.”
“Ohhhh,” Piper said. But she still wasn’t getting it. “What’s that?”
“It was right in the agreement you signed. As part of your engagement with YouthCam Studios, you agree to license your likeness for a digital avatar that our artificial intelligence creates. Maybe you’ve read about this? They’re called Doppels.”
She shook her head. “Doppels?”
“For digital Doppelganger. It’s all the rage in gamer boy circles. We ship a small container to customers, about yay high and this big.” She held out her hands to indicate a rectangular size object roughly two by two feet in area and eight inches high. “It sits nicely on a desktop next to a computer monitor.”
“Okay. What’s it for?”
Shawna let out another laugh. “It’s for lonely gamer boys, that’s what it’s for! This is one of our top revenue drivers. Especially popular in Korea and Japan, where some early versions came out as early as 2020.”
“I—I still don’t get it.”
Shawna gave a fakey supportive smile. “Tell you what. I’ll show you exactly how it works once you’re scanned. It actually takes the AI only a few minutes to work from a base template and make a few adjustments to account for your facial features and body dimensions.”
Piper began unbuttoning her blouse. “All the girls do this? And it’s mandatory?”
“Yes. And I’m on a tight schedule, so let’s move it. I’ll look away if you’re shy about this sort of thing.” She turned her back. “When you’re undressed, just step into the scanner. Don’t worry, you don’t feel a thing.”
Piper unbuttoned her jeans, slid them to the floor, and folded them onto the edge of the sofa. “You’re sure I can’t just wear my undies?”
“Oh, you shy thing.” Shawna locked the door. “Yes, the full-body scans need to be hyper-realistic. That’s part of the attraction, knowing there’s a real girl who looks exactly like the Doppel you’re buying. And remember, you get a cut of the action.”
“I do?” She slid her blouse over her head and placed it on the sofa.
“Yes. We deposit your royalties directly into your crypto wallet. And you know what? We already have two hundred preorders of our Scarred Cheerleader Doppel. These crypto dudes have more money than God.” She gave Piper an icy blue stare. “It’s funny that the virtual you is doing better than the real you.”
To Piper, it was more a sad commentary on where the world was heading. She felt a little grossed out by the whole thing. But she’d come this far, and she wasn’t a quitter.
Maybe I’m just not keeping up with the cyber times. Maybe if the virtual me makes a lot of money, I won’t have to do any more cam modeling.
She walked toward the entrance of the body scanner, paused at the doorway, and removed her panties and bra, folding her palms across her breasts. She stepped inside. “Okay, Shawna, I’m ready.”
Shawna walked over to the control panel in front of the scanner and shielded her eyes with her right palm. “Not looking. Not looking.”
Piper chuckled at that. “Thank you.”
“But you’re going to need to stretch out your arms all the way. Hold tight, girl. Just breathe normally. Like I said, you won’t feel a thing.”
“Should I close my eyes?”
“No. We want to capture your natural eye color.”
The curved glass door shut. It made little beeping noises as the glass encasement whirred back and forth with soft pink beams of light shooting out of the small oval diodes attached to the casing. It actually kind of tickled her skin, though that was probably from the cool air.
After a minute she began to wonder how long this would take. But Shawna shouted out. “Okay, all done. You can get dressed.”
The door flew open. She stepped out, put on her undergarments and then the rest of her clothes.
“See?” Shawna turned to her. “That wasn’t so bad.”
“Uh, no, I guess not. Kind of weird, though.”
“Was it? I don’t know. We’re living in a new world, Scarred Angel. More of us are spending more and more of our time online, living virtual lives, buying virtual goods, spending virtual currency. That’s especially true of gamers, geeks, crypto natives—in other words, our target market. Everyone needs a little companionship.”
“From a … Doppel?”
“You want to see one in action?”
Piper nodded and followed Shawna to a workspace along the far wall where a small Doppel unit sat. A small hand-lettered sign on the workbench surface said, Cyber Diorama. Shawna took out her ever-present tablet. “You have a favorite friend at YouthCam?”
Piper thought about it. She hadn’t made any real friends yet. But there was one girl she sometimes had lunch with at the WROL Deli near the base of the waterfall. WROL, Shawna informed her, meant Without The Rule of Law.
“Is FoxyFalon in your system?” Piper asked.
Shawna looked up and smiled approvingly. FoxyFalon was another semi-recluse at Raven Rock. Piper once grabbed lunch with her when she spotted her dining solo.
“We’re marketing her Doppel under the name Cyberbunny,” Shawna said. “We’re going for a less adult, more mainstream market with our Doppels.” She tapped out some commands on her tablet. Suddenly the Doppel House was transformed into a small beach. Waves lapped at the shoreline, and Piper heard the surf and the distant squawks of seabirds.
There, sunning herself in a beach lounger, was a miniature virtual replica of FoxyFalon. She wore a white bikini and reflective sunglasses as she read a novel and repositioned herself to get comfy atop a striped beach towel. It reminded her of the famous Star Wars scene with Princess Leia calling out, “Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.” Only the high-definition fidelity was light years ahead of the Star Wars hologram.
“Cyberbunny, you have a visitor,” Shawna said.
Cyberbunny—the digital version of FoxyFalon—looked up from her book and flicked her shades down her nose. “Hey, Shawna. Hey, Scarred Angel. Nice to see you.”
That surprised Piper. “How does she know it’s me? Is she … an AI?”
Shawna smiled wryly. “Well, no. She’s a hologram. The visualization is created on the fly by our system’s AI, including subtle facial gestures and complex body movements. Our AI also synthesized Falon’s speaking patterns based on her voice sample. But as our disclaimer says, the Doppel is not built to engage in in-depth conversations.”
“But, how did she know it was me?” Piper interrupted.
“You mean, did the Cyberbunny Doppel recognize you with facial recognition just now? No. I wish! I just typed in your name under ‘guest’ when I booted her up. I chose the French Riviera beachfront for the setting, but we also have Jungle Habitat, Manhattan Skyline, Surface of Europa …”
“The beach is fine.” Piper’s eyes moved from the Cyberbunny Doppel to Shawna. “Can I talk with her?”
“Of course,” Cyberbunny said, putting her book down and leaning forward on her recliner. “I’m here to keep you company.”
Piper mouthed the words to Shawna: Keep me company?
Shawna gave a wry smile. “All the Doppels have a limited set of preprogrammed scripts to work off of, based on keywords in your dialogue.”
“So they’re not so good at genuine interaction,” Piper said to Shawna. Then to the Cyberbunny: “You see the Packers game yesterday? Wasn’t that something?”
“Mmm,” Cyberbunny said. “I was wrapped up in the latest Danielle Steel novel. It’s a real page-turner. Want to hear about it?”
“Not really,” Piper said.
“Hold on.” Shawna studied her tablet screen. “Your Doppel is coming online.”
“Already? Don’t you need my voice?”
“You submitted a digital reading on orientation day. Remember?”
“Oh. I thought that was to audition for a podcast or something.”
Shawna smiled and shook her head. “You’re funny. Hold on.” She tapped a few commands on her tablet.
“G’bye!” Cyberbunny shouted as she began to dissolve. “Miss you already!”
A moment later, Cyberbunny and the French Riviera beach were gone. A new visualization took its place. A room took its place. Piper recognized it at once. Her bedroom back at home. She now recalled Shawna sending her instructions to capture photos of her bedroom and send them through along with her application to YouthCam Studios. Her desk, her cluttered closet, her stuffed animals, all faithfully reproduced in digital form.
The bedroom door opened and in walked Piper, wearing her red and white Annandale High cheerleader outfit. She circled around the room, looking up, as if to make eye contact. The Doppel gave a big smile, wrapped her hands over her shoulders to hug herself, and bounced down on the bed.
“Do you like my bed? Come on, let’s play!” the Scarred Angel Doppel said.
Piper backed away from the Doppel diorama. “Ew. I would never say that!”
Shawna hit a button on her tablet to freeze the Doppel. “Of course you wouldn’t,” she said. “This isn’t about you. It’s all play action. Games. Fantasy.”
Piper flounced her dark braids from side to side. Her throat started to constrict, something that happened when she got super-upset. “But it’s not fantasy. It’s … it’s too realistic! That’s me!”
“Scarred Angel, calm down. Your show starts in ten minutes and you shouldn’t get worked up.”
“I won’t calm down. How is my likeness going to be used? What can these men do to me?”
“Now, Piper,” Shawna began. It was the first time she’d heard Shawna address her by her real name since she’d arrived and chosen a model pseudonym. “This is a new product line. From our early testing, we expect some subscribers will like dressing you up in different outfits. Some will think of their Doppel as a kind of pet. Others may do what guys do. But what happens behind closed doors doesn’t really matter.”
Piper straightened and gave Shawna a death glare. “It matters to me!” she cried. “This is wrong!” She bolted from the room, slamming the door behind her.
27
Poconos, Pennsylvania
For a long moment, Kaden, Nico, and Scorpio went silent. Kaden felt a mixture of relief and apprehension wash over her at the news that Amelia had located Piper.
“You found Piper?” she asked. “Is she all right?”
Amelia’s visualization began wavering between full and zero opacity, causing her to flicker in and out. Probably because some of the other restaurant patrons were streaming videos or playing online games. “To catch everyone up, Kaden sent me Piper’s social media profiles, and I used facial recognition to compare her headshots to a host of public and private image databases. I found a screen capture on the darknet that was a ninety-two percent match. Then used the background imagery to identify the site it appeared on.”
“Good work. Which site?”
“YouthCam Live. She has her own channel. At least, I think that’s her. She just went on the air. Sending to your phones now.”
All three of their phones pinged with a text link.
“I don’t mean to sound like an old fuddy-duddy,” Amelia added, “but I just don’t know what these young women are thinking.”
Kaden tapped the link and then tapped the button acknowledging she was eighteen or older.
Her screen filled with a live video of a young girl wearing a cheerleader uniform and lip-syncing a pop song. She was wearing black kitty ears with white whiskers and a white dot on her nose against a dollop of orange face paint to give her the look of a tiger cub. She’d dyed her hair pink—or somebody had—and she was wearing blue contact lenses and a glowing LOVE necklace atop her red and vanilla cheerleader top.
“That’s her,” Kaden confirmed. “I recognize her from Camp Defiance on Samana Cay.”
“Yeah, that’s her,” Nico agreed. “What is she doing there?”
“Performing,” Scorpio said. “For tokens.” They all turned to look at him.
Nico probed further. “And you know this … how?”
Scorpio’s eyes returned to his phone to avert their glares. “YouthCam is very popular way for girls in Eastern Europe to earn money. Romania, Belarus, Russia—their economies are disaster. No good jobs. Some girls figure this is best way to survive. Who can blame them?”
They all went quiet. Kaden studied the live stream closely. To be frank about it, it felt a little lurid, watching Piper like this. Piper couldn’t see them, but Kaden could see a stream of comments running down the screen with guys using pseudonymous handles asking Piper to strip … or worse.
“Oh, Piper,” Kaden said. “She’s seventeen. An age not known for making rock-solid decisions. But still …”
She peered at the surreal scene. Fluffy white pillows, satin sheets, and a big brown teddy bear wearing star-shaped shades and love beads were spread out on the bed. Shelves of unicorns, baby seals, and other plush toys lined the nearest wall. The other wall was decorated with small candy hearts in pink, peach, lavender, and banana colors. Grossest of all was a string of colored lights draped across the bed’s headboard, flicking on and off, giving the whole thing the vibe of a strip club.
Piper—this brave girl who’d stood up to her captors on Samana Cay—had somehow decided she wanted to perform for the Internet.
Kaden noticed something. “I don’t think she’s in Europe.”
“Why not?” Nico asked.
“Take a look at the electrical outlet to the right of the bed.”
Scorpio nodded. “Definitely American.”
That was good news. “Amelia,” she said, “can you find out Piper’s location?”
“So far no luck, but I can try.” Amelia cast her eyes downward, frowned, and dusted some digital snow off her skirt. She was looking a little … depressed.
Kaden had tried to program Amelia to ignore all the batshit crazy stuff on the Internet. The conspiracy theories, the hate speech, the magical thinking, the mob mentality. She’d programmed Amelia to test and analyze. Consult authoritative sources. Practice virtuous behavior. Don’t harm others.
But maybe all the abusive behavior online was throwing her into a tailspin.
“Kaden, dear,” Amelia said, leaning forward. “A lot of the girls on this site seem much too young. Some seem like they’re doing it against their will. Others are displaying signs of duress or abuse. Most of them are vaping a narcotic to ease the trauma of what they’re experiencing. This may be the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Nico didn’t have his smartglasses on so he couldn’t see Amelia, but he could hear her. “Since Piper is just seventeen,” he said, “it doesn’t matter even if she consents. Pretty sure just her being there is breaking some federal laws.”
They watched as Piper winked and made the shape of a heart with her fingers. She blew a kiss toward the camera.
“What are we going to tell Viper?” Nico asked. “This will break him.”
Kaden thought for a moment. “We need to tell him the truth.” A feeling of fierce determination welled up in her chest. “And then we need to find Piper.”
28
Greenwich, Connecticut
President Frederick W. “Freddie” Caldwell knew his political fortunes were in dire shape. An incumbent president should be heading into a presidential election year with the wind at his back and an approval rating near or above fifty percent. But these latest numbers …
He pressed the switch on the limo’s door to roll up the glass partition so he and his chief of staff could talk in private. He leaned closer to his wife. “Luis and I need to discuss the latest poll numbers.”
First lady Leticia Caldwell looked out the window at the gathering darkness. “You do whatever you need to do.”
Whatever was needed. The president grasped her underlying meaning. Always the hard-charger. Wanting to get it done, damn the consequences.
“Luis, any change from last week?” Caldwell folded his hands and leaned forward.
Luis Salazar cleared his throat. “No, Mr. President. We’re still five percent below water. But holding steady.”
Caldwell understood the shorthand for running behind our likely opponent in a head-to-head.
