Cheat Read online

  Which meant that Sam really wasn’t just sitting back and taking government assistance. No one could have afforded that kind of thing without significant resources.

  It was impressive, so Mason gave a low whistle.

  “Damn, girl, you really know how to live, don’t you? Take me out to dives like this, but treat yourself to half million dollar imbeds first? I couldn’t afford that unless I made it myself. Too poor after all those nice meals I’ve taken you to.” Which he could do, naturally. It wasn’t that hard, if you had access to top end assemblers. Most didn’t though. He’d built his own, or he wouldn’t have had them either.

  Sam shrugged, te’s thin shoulders going up expressively.

  “You think I’m a woman?”

  Rather than do the polite thing and claim he didn’t know, Mason decided to be playful about it. After all, they’d known each other for over half a year. It was about time he at least knew if the person across from him wanted to pee standing up, or not.

  The truth was, he truly had no clue. Sam was nice, but had really kept who te was under the makeup to themselves pretty tightly. That didn’t mean there weren’t some clues. There was always information if you bothered to pay attention. Mason couldn’t help it, that being part of who he was.

  “Oh, sure. More than that, I know who you are in real life. I can guess, anyway. I haven’t been sitting around thinking about it or anything, but you know, you’re scanable to my keen and wily intellect.”

  There was an interested leaning in then, as if he weren’t just playing around.

  “Really? You think? Okay. Three guesses, and if you get it right I’ll tell you a secret that will change your life forever. I mean it too, I’m not just being melodramatic.”

  “Goody. Um, right… So now I’m on the spot, aren’t I? I should have stuck with the girl thing.”

  Sam raised te’s eyebrows, and gave a sharp and informative head tilt.

  “Yup. I mean, you don’t even know my gender for certain, so guess who’s going to look pretty bad inside three guesses? Hint, his name is you.”

  “Heh. Yeah, that’s going to be me. I was totally bluffing. Not that you aren’t a girl. By birth, or medical treatments. Your hands are too small, and your hip structure is wrong for a male. You swish a bit when you let your guard down. That could be faked up, but I hear it’s hard to do. So… Woman.” He was really stuck, but was playing, so it didn’t matter if he got it right or not.

  Sitting there he stared for a bit, which meant that menus were walked over by the waitress. Carlene, if her name tag was being honest with them. Not that there was a real reason it had to be. A lot of people used fake names at work, anymore.

  “You folks give me a wave when you’re ready to order.” She dropped back then, not hovering over them like some wait people did. Then, dive or not, this place had more than two people in it that night, so she actually had work to do.

  Most restaurants barely managed to keep the doors open, but there were at least six people eating there that evening. It was still early too, not even being seven yet.

  Mason had to say something, so looked over his shoulder, as if about to deliver a secret.

  “All right. That mask doesn’t fool me. You’re Batman, aren’t you? Bruce Wayne, billionaire industrialist.” It was the name of a fictional character that everyone knew.

  That got a chuckle, which had been the point. If you couldn’t be right, at least be funny.

  “Not exactly. Close though. I do look good in shiny gimp suits. Then, who doesn’t? That’s one guess.”

  That was just true. It was a guess, and a poor one. Still, he didn’t know what else to say. There was data in his head, but that didn’t mean it was all there, ready to make sense yet.

  “Fine, be that way, Mr. Wayne, but don’t be shocked when I figure it out. I mean, you’ve told me a lot… You clearly have a secret identity, and no one would pay for that kind of skin imbed just because they liked to play dress up. You’re smart, and have some tech skills, I think, but not a lot of nano design skills. Not at the level needed to design or rip something like that. Which means you’re actually rich, even if you do like to hang out in places like this. So, you have a reason for doing that. You’re trying to throw people off a trail.” He had nothing, and knew it. Not that he was wrong about what he’d said, but that didn’t give him a name.

  Sam seemed content to wait. Letting him sweat. There was no indication that he was even in the right gender ball park, other than the hands.

  Fuck. This was hard.

  “You’re someone important. A public figure. The whole gen-neutral thing is an act then. A disguise, since it allows you to wear what amounts to a mask in public without anyone really paying too much attention to you. That won’t stop the cameras or biometrics, but it will keep people from being able to identify you as easily. Since you aren’t a criminal, and I have faith in that one, that means that people would know who you are, on sight?”

  There was a shrug again and a smile that either belonged on a very feminine person, or was so well acted that the man doing it was a professional that way.

  “Are you asking me? That isn’t the game is it? If you want the great prize that I’m offering, and it’s really high end and life changing info, then I’m going to have to ask you to apply yourself a little bit harder than that. Who am I?”

  It was a great question. One of them even had the answer, but it wasn’t him. So, he guessed, letting his subconscious mind work things out. Sometimes that worked, after all.

  “Um… Let’s see… Lexi Horn?” She was the only famous person he knew of, after all. One that Sam had mentioned a few times. Given that there had been no one else talked about that way, it might mean it was a personal issue for his friend. It could also mean that te just wanted to have sex with her. Possibly both, since people could be messed up that way from time to time.

  Sam froze.

  “Uh…” The wide eyes seemed scared for a moment, and then narrowed a little bit as te leaned in. There was no talking after that. Not even to say he was wrong about it.

  Mason grinned, “and they say random guesses are never right. Well, what’s my prize? The meaning of life? Free backstage passes to whatever it is that you do in real life?”

  It wasn’t like Sam was really Lexi Horn, after all. That would be highly unlikely, except that te leaned forward then and hissed at him. It made it seem a bit more believable actually.

  “Fuck it all to hell. I can’t believe this. You randomly guessed who I am? For real? Well, yeah, then. I’m Lexi Horn. Are you going to fanboy out on me now? Yell squee and dance around asking for me to sign bodyparts?”

  Mason looked across the room, no one was watching them at all.

  “Nope. I mean, I’ve totally banged you in VR, but it isn’t like I follow the career. I played a sim or two with you in it, I think. Seriously though? You’re really her? That’s different. I wouldn’t have figured on an actress being as smart as you are. You are pretty good though. It never even occurred to me before now.”

  Sam gave him a look that was hard to read, what with all the paint on te’s face.

  “Not consciously. When did you hook that up in virt? Three or four months ago?”

  Thinking for a few seconds, he gave a sharp nod. That really was about right.

  “Yeah, about that. Do you think I picked up on something subconsciously?”

  “Most likely. That, or using special Mason powers. That you aren’t totally dead psychically is one of the reasons we became interested in you to start with. I’ll go into that later. There’s more than one reason. I know it’s hard to understand, but you’re actually decently interesting. You won’t believe me yet though, so if you don’t mind waiting for that secret? It won’t be long, I promise.”

  Waving at her, if she was really a woman at all, Mason picked up the menu.

  “You know me, I’m good that way. Patient, and all that. Have you eaten here before?”

  Te nodded,
a slightly subdued thing. Mason knew the answer, since they’d spoken about it, and even gone there a few times, but small talk was, by definition, not important.

  “A few times. As you know.” There was a bit of a goofy look then, as if he were being a dumbass.

  “What’s good? I normally just eat what my food printer recommends, most days.” That was a bit of snobbery, saying that, Mason knew. Most people couldn’t afford that kind of thing, even if they were rich. Not a high end one like he had. He was doing all right, but he only had one because he’d built it.

  “Try the chicken strips and coleslaw. They make it from actual food, so it isn’t too bad. Um, trade seats with me? The first part of the secret I want to share with you is walking in right now, I think.”

  It was a strange thing to say, but he did it, moving the composite chair out and sliding into the warm seat that Sam vacated. Gesturing with her head, and it was impossible not to think of her that way instead of as te, now that he knew she was a woman. Then, with her fancy hat still hiding her hair from the world, there were quiet words. Almost whispered at him, like a lover sharing something intimate.

  “The man coming in, the dark skinned one? You see him?” It was said in a deep whisper, which wasn’t anything like the voice used in the simulations at all.

  “Yep. He, uh, seems normal enough to me. A bit chubby, but nothing too bad. Why?”

  Sam sat up and took a deep breath.

  “Because he’s about to be arrested. Just so you know ahead of time, he’s completely innocent. More to the point, there hasn’t been a crime. The system is about to have a monumental brain-gasm, and the government watchdogs are going to uncover that this man has millions of dollars in his account that he shouldn’t. The trick there is that it will only be for a few minutes.”

  That didn’t make sense, so he locked eyes with Sam. They were a light blue, and now that he was thinking of her as a girl, everything seemed to fall into place, making it seem right. It was either that, or Sam had stopped pretending so hard.

  Still, Lexi Horn as his best real life friend was really farfetched. Now that he thought about it, Batman was the more likely option by far. It would explain all the disguises at least as well. Possibly better, since you probably had to be careful if you were a vigilante, or Watch would get you almost instantly.

  “I don’t get it. How could that happen? Some kind of setup?” People did talk about how they were framed by the police and government on occasion. No one believed them.

  The system watched everything, so if you were innocent of a crime, it would see that too. It might be possible for some high level government guy or gal to still do it, make a person look guilty who wasn’t, sure. A person that was trusted with the right codes for instance, or a linker that could side step into the machine works well enough. They might make you look guilty when you weren’t. The local cops though couldn’t pull that off.

  They just weren’t smart enough, on average, and this wasn’t halfway through the last century when some guys just lying would be enough to have a person put away.

  Sam gave a tiny shake of her head. It seemed delicate now. Girly and feminine.

  “The banks have billions of dollars in their systems that are unaccounted for. They’re so big that they honestly don’t know where that money belongs, so they bounce it around from account to account, constantly. They can’t put it in anything they own, since that would be theft, even if they intended to give it back later. In the main no one ever knows about it going on. You’ve probably had it happen with your accounts, for instance. Unless you knew that it was happening and drained the account the instant it had the funds dumped in, it wouldn’t do you any good though. It’s a polite fiction to keep everyone in balance with the law, more or less.” Sam reached out to play with the paper napkin that was setting in front of her. She didn’t tear it up, just rubbing it between her fingers a bit nervously. “Maybe once a year a person lucks into overdrawing their account by a few dollars when that takes place. When it happens, the banks just eat it, most of the time. No one even knows about it taking place, most days. Not even the banking system. It’s all automated.”

  Mason tried to work out what would be happening then, given what he knew.

  “So, um… This guy’s account had more money than it was supposed to, which should go unnoticed, but it didn’t, since the system was watching it as it took place?”

  There was a smile then, “kind of like that. Except that the whole thing won’t take place for a few minutes. The… People I work with, have access to both the government Watch system and the banking data. This will be a conflict between the bank and the IRS. Not directly, I mean it isn’t an AI war or anything, but we know how the algorithms are set up. We can predict when things like this are going to happen, about eighty percent of the time.”

  “So, why not tell them about it? Let the IRS or the bank know? Make a call and fix it?” He knew that one however. It would be illegal to have that kind of data, even if you only used it to protect the innocent. That was private financial data, kept in secret by both parties, so that the man in question wouldn’t be taken advantage of.

  Rather than give Mason a dirty look, one which he probably deserved for being so stupid, there was just a bit of straightening in her posture.

  “We’ve tried, of course, in the past. They won’t listen to us, since both systems believe themselves to be infallible, or close enough to it. They aren’t mental though, so they will figure it out soon enough. No laws are being broken, so other than a single night in jail, this man, Lewis Rhyse won’t be in trouble, or shouldn’t be. It’s the rest of this that I want you to watch.”

  “What? That doesn’t make sense. Why would you want me to watch a man be arrested? Especially an innocent one. That has to be rare, doesn’t it?”

  There was a tiny lifting of shoulders then, as if to let him know he was being a dumbass.

  “Not really. Over half of all arrests are done on meta-data alone anymore. Information gathered from thousands of different sources and put together to make a picture. Half of that ends up being wrong. I’m sure you can see that one. A single AI or advanced program can put things together pretty well, but several of them working at cross purposes makes just as big of a mess as if they were humans. Please, keep your voice down now. I think things are about to heat up here.”

  Nothing happened, for a bit, so Mason waved the waitress over. Sam had said that it wasn’t a hundred percent perfect, if the whole thing wasn’t just his weird friend making things up to be entertaining. If so, well, it was better than he would have imagined, or invented, if he were the one doing that part.

  Some kind of corrupted government policing thing going after innocent people was a good idea, for a sim or story. It didn’t seem very likely in real life though.

  He sighed.

  “The odds of those two things happening would have to be a million to one.” Mason didn’t clarify that he meant the banking system dumping funds on the guy at the same moment the IRS program looked at his banking information.

  Sam nodded.

  “Millions, plural, to one. Something like a hundred million to one, on any given day. But think about it for a second. The U.S. has four hundred million people. Do the math on that. Four people a day have this exact thing happen to them. More or less. It actually varies, between one and seven, but you get the idea.” She didn’t turn around, but seemed to know what was going on anyway.

  “Here we go. Remember, if shooting starts, get down. I should be fine, so stay behind me.” She tapped the imbed on the back of her hand. “Bullet proof. Be ready though.”

  Then, almost as if taking direction from Sam, the police stormed into the little dive of a restaurant, breaking the glass of the front door as they did.

  Screaming.

  Chapter two

  Two things happened in very quick succession. The first was that Sam, whoever he or she really was, stood up a little bit. Not much, just about a quarter way. Thi
s gave Mason a bit of cover. A shield that could act as protection or a place to hide if things got intense. Bullet resistant or not, that seemed really brave to Mason, suddenly.

  The second thing was that the situation almost instantly went the wrong way entirely. Knowing the whole story, or at least the portion that he’d been told, if it was the truth, the whole thing seemed suddenly very different than it would have otherwise. The door almost exploded inward as an armored man came in. He, or possibly she, was dressed as if they expected death to be upon them from the man they were there to take in. The chubby one that was ducking, like everyone else. The MCT unit, ten armed men and women strong, at least inside the place, yelled the entire time.

  “Get down! Get on the floor!” There were loud bangs, and the room filled with a sickening green light. It was coming from one of the MCT members, who filled the doorway. Mason didn’t look at them, being smart enough to get what was going on.

  “No,” Sam hissed at him. “I know it will make you sick, but you need to watch this. You have to see what they do.”

  It was harder than it sounded like it should be, since the green light made him want to toss his cookies. That he hadn’t had dinner yet was all that had kept him from doing it already, and his friend wanted him to stare the damned vortex dazzler down, like it wasn’t a problem. The things were literally designed to keep people disoriented without hurting them. He’d never seen one in person before, but it was clear that they worked.

  “Down!” The screaming kept going on as they grabbed Lewis Rhyse. It wasn’t done gently, but the man didn’t try to run, or fight. More than anything he seemed scared.

  “I don’t know what’s going on here.” He sounded frightened, and even though two of the large and incredibly strong armored men held him, each holding an arm, the man took a step back with one foot when one of the other men moved in on him, a hand going toward his face like a punch.