Reborn. Lance Erlick
to shut her down and she didn’t want to provoke that.
There were so many faces to watch that were not images in a database. Her virtual tour of the town hadn’t done justice to seeing it for herself. The sentiment of wonder was something she shouldn’t have had. She smiled.
Synthia spotted the sidewalk café where Machten planned to wait next to the network shop. She entered the Connection and approached the counter. Along both walls and through the middle of the room were cubicles where several students were working. She spotted empty cubes toward the left that provided some privacy.
Machten had constructed her to seek direct access through her wireless network connection, though he was afraid that risked someone tracing the link back to her. He was obsessed with doing things the slow, cumbersome way as being safer. It wasn’t.
“Easy does it,” he warned her. “You’re a student looking for an hour of anonymous network time.”
She smiled at the slender young man behind the counter with a tuft of dark hair hanging over his left eye. She recognized his face from his social network profiles; he was a full-time student supplementing his income, a bit of a romantic with an off-and-on girlfriend. He seemed distracted, his blue eyes darting between a device in his hand and two screens before him. He was texting his sweetheart, trying to arrange a date for later in the day.
Synthia smiled and waited for him to look up.
“Don’t flirt,” Machten said. “You don’t want him to remember you.”
She placed a twenty on the counter. “I’d like to purchase time.”
“Wouldn’t we all,” he said. He looked up and smiled at her. “Ah. Haven’t seen you here before.”
Of course, since her projected image was a new composite. She even softened her profile a little, adding a vulnerability that appealed to boys and acted as a contrast to the plain, geek look Machten had given her. The man fumbled with his phone and dropped it on the counter.
“My boyfriend’s been stalking me,” Synthia said. “I need a quiet booth.”
“This buys you two hours. Will that be enough?”
She nodded, gave him a sad face, and headed toward the most secluded cubicle along the left side. Machten sat at an outside café table, where he could watch her and make sure she didn’t flee. Evidently, she’d tried that before, which was perhaps one reason he limited her memories. She didn’t want him doing it again.
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