The last rays of sunlight filter through the treetops around the edge of the meadow, repeatedly forcing Cyn to shut her eyes. She relishes the warm caresses on her cheeks. The dry-stone wall behind her is still radiating the heat stored up from the afternoon, but cool air is already drifting over from the field and creeping up her legs. A lamb bleats lower down in the pasture. Two other sheep join in, while the rest of the flock lower their muzzles to the grass and graze contentedly. Silence settles once more over the scene.
‘Here you go.’ Vi sets a drink down on the rough wooden table in front of Cyn. She’s brought one for herself too. She sits down beside her mother on the bench. They clink glasses, sip their drinks and listen to the birds singing.
‘Another seven calls and about a hundred emails at a quick guess,’ says Vi.
Cyn doesn’t reply. She closes her eyes in the hope of catching one last beam of sunshine, but the chill has now reached her upper body and is fingering at her neck and face. She found this remote cottage in the Lake District through friends of friends. She opens her eyes again and gazes at Vi, who’s wearing a pair of smart glasses.
‘I don’t want anyone to know where I am for now,’ she says eventually. ‘You know that.’
‘I do,’ Vi sighs. At least she isn’t wearing a smartwatch any longer. Cyn noticed that the moment she arrived back in London. ‘No one can locate us here via my prepaid mobile phone and the network. I use privacy software and a mesh, I’ve dialled down my browser fingerprint, and so on.’
‘Mesh?’ Cyn repeats the word as a question.
‘A free communications network. A sort of ad hoc wireless network – there’s one in this area. Private regional initiatives that have generally grown up in areas that were too remote for the telecommunications companies. They often haven’t yet been infiltrated by the intelligence services or commercial providers.’
How does she know all this stuff? Cyn wonders.
‘But don’t go thinking that no one can find you here if they really put their minds to it,’ Vi continues. ‘Neither the mesh nor that thing over there will help you if they do.’ She points to the old Vauxhall they used to drive up here; it’s parked next to the house. A vehicle from a time when drivers had to steer their own cars, and passengers used a map to navigate – back when there was no satnav constantly transmitting the car’s position, and no on-board computer or individual parts such as brakes, axles or headlights continually informing manufacturers about their state of repair. They’d borrowed the car from friends too.
Cyn had to stay in New York City for two more days before the police would allow her to leave the country. She could easily have extended her stay by an extra week for newspaper and print profiles, photo sessions and filmed interviews, but she wanted to attend Eddie’s funeral. Detectives have been hunting for the men from the surveillance camera footage ever since. Working backwards as if rewinding a film, they’ve managed to reconstruct the movements of the five individuals over the previous few days. Each at some stage dropped clues as to his identity, either by revealing his face, getting into a car with an identifiable registration number or touching objects from which the police have since been able to take fingerprints. Two have already been caught. Three are still on the run. The police are also investigating the links between EmerSec and the small security firm. Henry Emerald’s spokesperson has denied any involvement by EmerSec in the events around Freemee, just as Erben Pennicott has insisted he has had nothing to do with the matter. Yet public opinion has been far more alert since Cyn’s coup, and the media and political opposition are also pressing the two men for explanations.
‘Freemee is still haemorrhaging members,’ says Vi. ‘Down by a quarter so far. No wonder. Everyone’s calling it big data’s Chernobyl, as you did in your article in the aftermath.’
Carl Montik has confessed to the experiment but without revealing the full details or its scale. He’s continued to dispute that it was in any way linked to the three thousand deaths.
‘What would you do if you found out you were one of Freemee’s guinea pigs?’ asks Cyn.
Vi says nothing for a second before replying, ‘I don’t know.’
‘Do you even want to know?’
‘I’m … going to take a long time to get over things as it is,’ she says. ‘But I don’t want to be a goth any more.’
‘And instead?’
‘Mum, how many times have we discussed this since you got back? Freemee’s finished. Public prosecutors are leading investigations in several countries. Adam’s mother and others are suing the company.’
‘So what? New companies will spring up and take over.’
‘Will Dekkert, for example,’ says Vi. ‘He and some colleagues have turned their backs on Freemee. He’s announced a data analysis company similar to Freemee but on an open-source basis so that everyone will be able to influence the program codes.’
‘I know. He told me before I left the States. He thinks there’s no going back from the world of data collection and analysis, but like this people could at least collaborate on writing the rules that will govern society in the future.’
‘In theory, maybe, but in practice they have to be able to write code.’
‘It’s still an opportunity for public control.’
‘Will has written several mails. He wants you on board for the project.’
‘I don’t know if I want this kind of society laid bare, with this disclosure of every relationship and connection. A world without secrets or surprises. A world where everything and everyone is for sale.’
‘That’s been the case for a long time already, Mum. The real question is who owns access to it and who profits from it – the intelligence services and a few secretive global companies or all of us.’
‘Well, for the time being I’m just happy to be here.’
‘And you’re entitled to be. You have enough offers to choose from. Have you already told Anthony that you’ve quit?’
‘Yep, from New York. It was high time,’ she says with a grin.
‘Zero’s posted a new video. Want to see it?’
‘No, thanks. I’m enjoying the peace and quiet.’
A breeze ruffles the tips of the trees. The night sky beyond the green foliage grows brighter the higher Cyn looks. Far above her, she sees the first star twinkling.
Or is it a satellite looking down at her?