“THREE weeks off? You gotta be kidding me, Fae!” shouted Pete when Fae tried to ask for time off fo her trip to Italy. He wasn’t too keen on the idea of having her best reporter who just published one of the most captivating articles of the year to just go off gallivanting across Europe. But Fae had a real gift when it came to talking her way out of tricky situations, and she knew Pete very well: she knew exactly how his brain worked, and was determined to get the most out of it.

“Pete, you know a good reporter never takes time off right? A good reporter is always working on a story, always analyzing, always documenting… this is not a holiday, really, but rather an opportunity for me to travel across Europe and also investigate what is going on with the digital underground, to see with my own eyes if what these people, these DigiPunks are saying is true” explained Fae, and she noticed that look in Pete’s eyes: it was the same look that he had when she pitched her latest article to him, that look that she knew she could rely on in situations like this.

“I will be reporting, 100% of the time. In fact, you can say the reason why I am going on this trip is because I want to get on the inside.” Pete kept looking at her, in silence: she definitely had his attention.

“I really cannot tell you much more than this without compromising my contacts, but… just trust me on this one Pete. Have I ever disappointed you? Seriously… imagine getting the Examiner to pay for this trip! Not gonna happen, right? So! I am paying for it myself, or better, someone is paying for this, I will get you some real juicy stuff once I get to Paris, and then Genoa. You’ll see. Plus, I am sure you will hear from me. All the time. You really have nothing to lose…”

She really never disappointed him, and she was always banking on that, as it always worked. This time as well, Pete could not help himself and begrudgingly agreed that this was going to be a good opportunity for an even more juicy follow-up article.

That same day, Fae decided that she’d better check if Kathleen had setup a time and a place for their next meeting. By now, she knew the drill: she had to check for a specific type of message to appear in a particular message board. DigiForum was actually one of the oldest DigiNet-backed services offered by EDS, and probably one of the most problematic ones for EDS to control: it allowed anyone to post a message to a specific board about anything, and be read by potentially thousands of people. Historically, it had always been used mainly for classified ads. Since the Pulse, economy shifted from buying new things from shops more to buying or exchanging used things from other individuals: tools, books, but also bicycles, and even old diesel cars could be found on dedicated message boards.

It was safe to say that DigiForum was easily the most used service on the DigiNet, and also the most problematic to manage for EDS: anyone could post anywhere, and even create new message boards, and in 2050, there must have been hundreds of different boards, organized by city and by topic. It was basically impossible for EDS to monitor every single message, and therefore it was the ideal place for the digital underground to exchange information and even recruit new members or collaborators. Of course, messages had to be somewhat disguised as something else, like a particular type of classified ad or a discussion on history, or travel, but once you knew where to look and what to look for, it was very easy to exchange information.

** Éireann Digital Systems
** DigiForum - National Message Boards
   v2050.3.56.24
   Licensed to: Fae Consoli
   
## Enter path to board or "list" to show top level categories.
> /city/cork/classifieds/books --days 3
** 6 messages matching criteria.
   1 - johoma08@cork.eire - Diesel engine repair guides
   2 - niglaw12@cork.eire - Baking with Confidence
   3 - marden22@cork.eire - Russian novels and dicrionaries
   4 - jefmcg18@cork.eire - Old guides to France, Switzerland, and Italy
   5 - lianee02@cork.eire - DigiCalc Fundamentals
   6 - karone11@cork.eire - Various poetry books
>> read 1
** Date: 2050-12-30 @ 18:54:11
** From: Jeff McGee <jefmcg18@cork.eire>
** Subject: Old guides to France snd Italy

   Selling different travel guides for 6 different cities:
   - France: La Havre, Rouen, Paris, Lyon
   - Italy: Turin, Genoa
   Most of them pre-Pulse, 30p each! Pickup only, preferrable on Thursdays or weekends, Coburg St.
>>

That had to be it: it mentioned pretty much all the major cities they would go through to get from Cork to Genoa, time was specified with the numbers in the ad (6:30PM), the day was definitely Thursday, and Coburg St was the street where the Glowing Shamrock pub was, i.e. the same place as the previous time Fae met Kathleen for the interview. She sent a quick email to her brother with the details, as if they were casually going out for dinner again with some friends.

As soon as she finished at work, she hopped on a tram to get to the library. They were looking at several days of travel, especially once they got on the continent and on the train through France, so she decided to borrow some books for them to read on the way. They would have stopped in Paris and maybe Lyon and Turin on the way to Genoa, so they had to get some travel guides and updated maps for sure. She was also looking for some early post-Pulse literature from Italy, and ideally Genoa, as she felt it would have helped them understand how the population reacted to the disaster at the time, and how it affected society.

She had a quick look at the Foreign Literature section, and one title especially caught her eye:

It was apparently a book written by someone in Genoa right after the Pulse, and looked like a collection of short notes from different people living in different parts of the city, how they survived the first days and months, their thoughts and emotion. That was exactly what she was after, and it had also been translated into English. She looked for an original Italian edition but unfortunately the library didn’t have it, so she borrowed that anyway.

The other book that she picked up was one related to the post-Pulse French digital renaissance, which had also been translated into English and sold abroad:

It seemed to be an account of the relaunch of the Minitel state-run digital network. Something that was very successful in France back in the 1980s before the rise of the World Wide Web, and that had been resurrected and reimplemented right after the Pulse, replicating the same level of user adoption, if not more.

She gave her DigiCard at the desk to have those books registered to her name, and paid the librarian a grand total of 50p for borrowing them. She could probably have bought new copies of those books, but she was used to borrowing books rather than buying them new since she was at high school, plus she didn’t feel like spending the extra money or bringing something on the trip that looked too flash. She was actually very concerned about her DigiBook, and she was debating whether it made any sense to bring it along at all, since she wouldn’t have been able to connect to DigiNet outside of Ireland, but she was getting used to take notes on it regularly now, and also she felt that bringing it was the right thing: it would make her seem compliant to the authorities when it came to owning only fully-licensed electronics, and perhaps it could have come in handy if she managed to make contact with the local underground.

She was came home just in time for dinner. It was Jenny’s turn that day, because it was one of the few days that week when her shift at the hospital allowed her to come home at a decent time. She didn’t have tons of time, so she played it safe and prepared some jacket potatoes and eggs. Fae wasn’t exactly overwhelmed but she didn’t complain, as everything was already on the table when she arrived.

Jenny immediately noticed the books she borrowed at the library, and was quite curious about the Italian one. She started flicking through it, reading a few passages. She had some weird morbid interest for anything concerning the very early days of the Pulse, which the book described in detail through the testimonies of many Genoese citizens. She was particularly interested in how people dealt with basic needs, and how they were able to survive and deal with the spreading of diseases.

Fae had to remind her that her dinner was getting cold, and her roommate put down the book to focus on what she had on her plate.

“Are you scared, Fae?”

“Of what?”

“Of going to Genoa. Italy is a mess right now, politically, and going to a maritime city is going to be particularly dangerous. Judging from this, these people seem quite hardcore” asked Jenny, concerned.

Fae didn’t reply immediately, leaving those words to sink in her mind. She was scared, but she also knew that she had to go. Not only for her parents' sake, but for herself as well.

“Oh well, I am a little bit jealous that you’ll be off touring Europe for three weeks for Christmas!” said Aisling in a jokingly pissed off way. Finn became even more nervous than before, he knew she was joking but he really, really likes this girl, and he was determined to continue to see her hoping that thir relationship could become something more stable. To be honest, this Genoa trip came at a really bad timing: they had just started dating and things were doing well, perhaps she thought it was an excuse? No, he had to make sure she didn’t think that, it would have been bad. He had to clarify the situation, and fast.

“I am going with my sister, we have to do this and yes it is really annoying and I didn’t really want to go but it’s not that I had an option in the matter” he blurted out, possibly making things worse.

“Relax! I was joking, it’s not that we are married or anything” she clarified. Yep, it did make things worse, ‘well done Finn!’ he thought. He had to come up with something to fix things, and fast.

“I mean, maybe you could come instead! We could pretend that you are my sister, you do kind of look alike a little bit, with your wonderful blonde hair and amazing blue eyes… we could forge documents, we could…” continued Finn, using what was probably a 6 out 10 for damage control.

“Here are your drinks, guys, enjoy!” said the waitress putting two pints on the table. That was lucky: nothing better than an interruption to diffuse a potentially-spiraling situation.

“Sláinte!” said Finn, who was really quick at grabbing his drink.

“Salute” replied Aisling, winking. Finn stopped sweating, finally.

“Ah! I wanted to ask you this” continued Aisling changing subject “last week we had a terrible day at work: basically all our DigiTerm business subscriptions expired at once (we ordered them pre-activated and in bulk), I phoned Éireann Digital Systems and after being put on hold for half an hour they told me that they would have had to be sent back and substituted with a new batch, and I they can only process them ten per day… but we have about fifty! We can’t stop everything for five days.”

“Yes… I am afraid that’s right: that’s standard procedure, especially for public infrastructure. The City Council ordered them in bulk, got a business subscription which comes with a ten days extra grace period just to avoid… sorry, I am just quoting regulations. Truth is that it sucks, and there is actually no valid reason for things to be this way” replied Finn, trying to empathize as soon as he noticed Aisling’s expression changing.

“Right?! And what are these subscriptions even for? They are just artificial limits put in by corporations like EDS, who want to sell us the privilege to use their crippled technology…” continue Aisling. Finn remembered those words very well: she was paraphrasing parts of Fae’s recent article on the DigiPunk Revolution.

“Did you read my sister’s article? I found it quite insightful, and I have to admit I started looking at my own job from a very different perspective” said Finn.

“That article was by your sister? Wow, that’s insane, it was an eye-opener for me too!” exclaimed Aisling.

The two spent nearly two hours chatting and finally getting to know each other properly while having dinner. Aisling was working in procurement for the Cork City Council, and she was glad to finally be able to talk to someone so openly about her frustrations, especially regarding matters concerning the neo-digital world. She confessed she was initially put off by the fact that he was working for EDS, as she regarded the whole company and all its employees as “a mass of brainless typing monkeys and petty bureaucrats”, and she was original inclined to place him in the first category.

Finn was pleased he was finally connecting with this girl: she was gorgeous, smart, witty… she kind of reminded him of her sister, even if he wasn’t too keen of that thought. Talking to her and her digital adventures at the City Council made him realize how bad things really were: the whole population in Ireland was basically forced to accept this new, neo-digital reality, in which everyone had to pay monthly subscriptions and in exchange was promised digital peace of mind: no longer worry about devices going wrong, coping with software glitches, remembering to apply critical system updates, or dealing with security risk and malware. But at what price? Complete ignorance of how things worked, lack of ownership of physical devices, no right to repair or tinker with technology, and no possibility to even learn about programming. It may have worked on paper, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that EDS was really taking the piss.

He started wondering how things were in other countries, and now he was going to have a chance to see it with his own eyes, at least in France and Italy. Presumably, things were not going to be too different, since the Treaty of Berlin basically determined in 2030 that technological innovation had to be strictly regulated by the government of each country, at least in the former European Union. Everyone accepted it at the time, as something deemed necessary to avoid other catastrophes like the Pulse, no questions asked. But he now knew that there should have been more questions asked at the time, like what really caused the Pulse and, most interestingly, why.

Thanks to his parents, Finn knew that it had not been a natural event, or an accident brought upon humanity by careless and unregulated technological advancement (which was the official truth that everyone came to accept). He know it was something carefully orchestrated by someone, but didn’t know who or why. From time to time, like that evening, he felt angry at his parents: they knew something, why didn’t they speak up? Why didn’t fight the system? Sure, they had two children to take care in a post-apocalyptic world, but they could have done something, told somebody… and instead, nothing. Until now.

He really felt the impulse to tell Aisling what he knew, but he fought hard not to do so: he really liked this girl, but that didn’t mean that she could be trusted with such sensitive information. Still, he was pleased that they were both on the same wavelength when it came to digital rights.

“You seem to know a lot about technology, and very interested in it, why is that?” asked Finn at one point.

“My father used to be a tinkerer” she replied “at least for some time. I think! I remember we had a lot of electronics in the house when I was little, and he used to make a living out of repairing radios and even cobbled together some primitive post-Pulse computers. Then he got a job at the city council, and he is also part of the reason why I am working there now I guess.

“That’s odd” said Finn “my parents also changed steered their careers away from technology at some point, it must have been after the Treaty of Berlin, for sure: things changed after then, and I guess people stopped trusting unlicensed technicians then, and they must have been fed up of it all”

The two kept talking until they realized it was getting late, and they were both supposed to show up at work the next day. Finn accompanied Aisling to her tram stop, and thanked her for the wonderful evening. There was a brief moment when they looked at each other’s eyes, while holding their hands… just when the tram turned up.

“I hope I can see you again before I go…” said Finn, as Aisling turned instinctively towards the incoming bus. She turned back at him, and kissed him softly on the lips, without saying anything, and smiled.