"Roxy, wait, I— I have to tell you something."

She looks back at me suspiciously.

"You do know something, don't you?"

"Well..."

"Come on, Kal, help me investigate! With your help, maybe we could catch her. Imagine that, we'd be famous! The girls who caught an ingenious hacker! Just like the detectives in the books!"

Hey, at least she didn't say infamous... Not the point.

"Yeah, Roxy, there's a bit of a problem with that plan."

"What's that?" Roxanna asks worriedly, clearly sensing my discomfort.

"Umm, can we talk somewhere else?"

Roxy follows me to the bathroom, which luckily is empty. I hold up my phone and mouth, "turn your phone off". She looks confused, but nods and shuts it off, and I do the same.

"Kalix, what's going on with you?"

"I can't help you find Codebreaker, because I... Already know who she is."

Roxy stares at me expectantly, but her expression is mixed with worry and confusion, and she doesn't seem as excited as before.

"Well? Who is it?"

Not knowing how to respond, I awkwardly look around the room and shift uncomfortably.

"Kalix, who is she?" She asks again, more worriedly this time.

"Umm..." I say in a quiet voice, "you can't tell anyone, OK?"

"Kalix—"

"Promise me you won't tell anyone."

"Umm..." She sighs. "OK. OK, I promise. I won't tell."

"Roxy, it's me."

"Wha— What?"

"I'm xCodebreaker01."

"Uh, are you... kidding or something?"

"No, I'm definitely her..."

For the first time ever, Roxanna seems at a loss for words. After what seems like an eternity, she finally speaks.

"I... have a lot of questions."

"Yeah, that's... Understandable. Look, I— I'm sorry I lied to you— well, lied by omission, I guess, but I haven't told anyone, it was just too dangerous. And, whatever questions you have, I'll answer."

She nods, and is about to say something when the school bell rings. We share a moment of uncomfortable silence before she says,

"Well, I guess I'll have to ask those questions later. Um, see you in class."

She leaves, and after taking a deep breath, collecting my thoughts and of course, turning my phone back on, I head to my next class.

* * *

Half sitting, half falling into my comfy bean bag chair, I gesture for my monitor to come on and flick aimlessly through the channels. It's hard not to roll my eyes as I scroll through baking shows, reality TV, old 2070s reruns and the 23rd season premiere of some soapy trash-drame. So this is what I get for not paying for premium channels. Realizing there's nothing better on, I flip to a random news show.

"Tonight, on A-News Today," the reporter starts to announce, dramatic intro music in the background. "New developments revealed in controversial scientist Dr. Rovart Blayne's mysterious cybernetics project. Pictograph, Inc. has officially announced its acquisition of music and streaming startup, MyPlay. And, for our main story tonight, arguments arise between the United European Kingdom and African Constitutional Monarchy about how to best divide the natural resource hotspot recently discovered just northwest of Morocco Province. Stay tuned for the latest news and updates on A-News Today. An Allanite subsidiary."

The screen fades to white and the logo appears, ANT in a square with the name beneath it, and a quick little flip-over animation changes it to the AllaCorp logo. The screen fades back to the newsroom, but I barely pay attention to the reporter's nattering about Weird Scientist Dude. For obvious reasons, my mind is elsewhere.

Specifically, it's back in a highschool bathroom going over my conversation with Roxanna.

Is she mad at me? Doesn't she have the right to be? How do I fix it? I wish we hadn't been cut off by the bell, then maybe at least I'd know a bit more about how she was reacting... I hope she doesn't hate me... for the whole "criminal" thing or for keeping it a secret.

Was it a mistake to tell her at all? Maybe I should've, I don't know, found some way of just changing the topic. But, she's my best friend, I can trust her, right? Maybe my mistake was not telling her sooner. Maybe I should've had faith in her, and maybe it says something terrible about me and my ability to form relationships that I didn't trust her enough to tell her, and maybe I'm just some cold, lonely girl who's terrible at making friends and scared to ruin relationships but even more scared to let people in and maybe I have trust issues and maybe there's something wrong with me and maybe—

Maybe I'm overthinking this. Seriously, that took a very, ah, psychoanalytical turn.

"According to my sources, ex-co-worker and Fourth Wall Technologies CEO Azria Quarta has expressed concern not only about the nature of Dr. Blayne's research, but the new possibilities arising from his reported corporate sponsorship. While Ms. Quarta hasn't yet made an official public statement—"

Blah blah blah. Corporations have too much power, we get it. You call that news? That's a Tuesday.

Still, I'd rather listen to this while I wait for the AllaCorp story than let my mind go back to worrying about Roxanna.

Experiments... controversy... trials... human trials—

Wait, hold up, that's actually concerning. Dr. Blayne is testing on humans now? Didn't he, like, just start rat trials? Uh, that's not how that's supposed to—

"For our next story, Pictograph, Inc. has announced this morning that it is acquiring previously independent company MyPlay as a subsidiary—"

Seriously? The story finally gets interesting and they move on to blah blah blah, corporations are buying each other. Who could've predicted that?

One boring, long — OK, not that long, but it felt long — explanation later, the reporter moves on to the final story. Or at least, she tries to, but is interrupted by an alert message and changes topics in an instant.

"Breaking news: This afternoon at 17:27, Allanite Corporation Innovation Lab was breached using an illegally programmed access card. Reports say the card allowed the intruders to unlock any door and lock it behind them, as well as gain access to, and modify, any computer system in the building. No one was in the facility at the time due to a building-wide evacuation which witnesses say was in response to the triggering of the fire alarm. Authorities still haven't been able to unlock the doors and regain access since the hack took place, but the UNBI Cyber Crimes department has confirmed what many already suspected: the program matches coding patterns of internationally known, infamous—"

Oh, shut up.

"... cyber-criminal xCodebreaker01."

I shouldn't be surprised, I know, but I guess I just didn't expect the anonymous client to use my program so soon. Three days later, it's already been used to infiltrate one of the most secure facilities in Japan... Once again, I find myself wondering if I made the right choice in accepting the job.

The news host continues to explain the details known so far about the program I wrote, regular updates on Cyber Crimes' progress on reopening the inaccessible building, and the available information about the UNBI's current plan. Apparently they've created a criminal profile of me and are beginning interviews of everyone fitting the physical description, no doubt information given to them by U5_Delta.

As the reporter, having told all the new information about the AllaCorp hack, moves on back to the main story, I can't help but think about my sister and her job at the peace department. While she's not directly involved in the discussions between the African Constitutional Monarchy and North American Republic, her job is basically the same — keeping the peace between the officiates and their nations — only concerning the JEADS alliance and its relations. A newly discovered resource hotspot is what the reporter said... in the old days, wars would've been fought over something like that. Now, in the journalist's own words, they were having an argument. In the past century, people have dedicated so much time and effort into unifying the world, maintaining peace between the Alliances, that it's almost hard to believe how things used to be. Time doesn't improve all things, that's for sure, but it's good to know at least some aspects of society are headed in the right direction.

At least, I hope so. Some political scientists believe we're entering a new era of peace and collaboration, while others predict that, as companies become more powerful, corporate conflicts will simply replace political ones and we'll eventually end up in some sort of all-out corporate war. Sounds dark, but honestly, more realistic than "world peace" if you ask me. That's what life is, really. Fix one problem, it's replaced with another. Not unlike the struggle to debug a program.

A knock at the door pulls me from my thoughts. Pushing myself up to standing, I signal for one of the other monitors to turn on and quickly open the house security app. The doorbell cam shows a police officer standing outside, and a car with Tokyo Local Police painted on the side is parked in front of the house.

"Chikushō! Shit. Holy... shitting shitfulness! Dammit, why am I bad at swearing?" And why am I thinking about that now? I rake my hands through my hair, nervously scanning the room as if my messy bookshelf or table lamp somehow contains all the answers. Questions I really don't want to think about start to fill my head. Did Roxanna turn me in? No, she wouldn't do that... right? Of course I trust her, she's my best friend, but then again, she trusted me, too and I kept a secret from her for so long. She seemed OK at school, but I don't know, maybe she doesn't want to be friends with me after that.

No. That's ridiculous. Even if Roxy is mad at me, she wouldn't do something like this.

Something like what? Her civic duty? It's not like she'd be the bad guy here...

Forcing the thought out of my head, I turn back to the doorbell cam. There's only the one officer, and he looks like a newbie, shifting back and forth on his feet while he waits for the door to open. And the police car is parked right in front of the house... if they were trying to apprehend me, wouldn't they be more stealthy about it? Park down the street? Maybe this isn't as bad as I thought.

Then again, they could just be trying to lure me into a false sense of security.

OK, I think I'm overthinking this. I have to answer the door eventually... and it's probably just the interviews they mentioned on the news.

The officer knocks again (there's a doorbell right there... why do they never use those?), and I hurry down the stairs.

"Hello?"

"Hi, I'm Officer Doi. Are you—" He consults the phone in his right hand. "Kalixieta Raven?"

I nod, trying to act normal. "Yup. That's me. What can I help you with, Officer?"

"I just need to ask you a few questions, Miss. It's nothing to worry about, you're not in any sort of trouble. You fit a suspect profile given to local police by the UNBI, we just have to gather some basic information to help them narrow down their search."

Right. That's what this is, they're just narrowing it down. I just have to act normal and innocent and answer their questions and they'll move on to the next person fitting this "profile".

Just take a breath, Kalix.

"OK. Um, would you like to come inside?"

"Sure, thank you, Miss."

We both sit down in the living room and he asks his questions. Nothing unexpected, just things like had I ever heard the username U5_Delta — no idea, Officer — and where I was the night of the Café Suki raid — I was at home, sleeping, of course.

"Can anyone confirm that location, Miss?"

"No, sorry, my mother was asleep, too. Oh, but you can check my tracker data, if that's helpful."

He also asks a question or two about Xaria Clarke, then a few regarding my cybernetic structure. U5 must've told him about my arm. Still, what he asks isn't new information — he's probably already looked up my medical records, and is just asking me to confirm what he already knows. Besides, any physical description given by U5 must be vague enough to fit plenty of girls in Japan. After all, he didn't even see my face.

I don't sense much suspicion from him, either, but that still doesn't help with my nervousness. Trying to keep myself calm, I mentally remind myself again that I'm just one of many fitting a profile. He has no reason to believe it's me.

"One last question, then I'll get out of your way," he says, with a quick smile. "I'm assuming you've heard the news recently, and know about the break-in at AllaCorp? What do you think that was about?"

"What? Wha— uh, how would I know?"

"Just speculate," he asks, with a shrug.

See, this is exactly the kind of thing that's concerning me. I am just another girl who fits the profile. This is an oddly specific question to ask, and besides, why would he want me to speculate? What good would a random 16-year-old's opinion be?

"Um, if you don't mind me asking, why do you want to know? I mean, my guess is as good as yours, or anyone's, really. Not even as good, because you're an actual police officer..."

"I'm afraid I can't reveal the UNBI's reasoning behind this—" He lowers his voice. "— actually, I don't know myself — but if it's any reassurance, we're asking this to everyone. You have no need to believe we suspect you, or that you're in any trouble. The questioning is just protocol."

"OK, sorry, I was just curious."

"No problem, Miss. Anyway, could you answer the question, please?"

"Oh, right. Um..." What do I tell him? I honestly don't know what the anonymous client was planning to do at AllaCorp, not that I would tell the officer even if I did. I should just say something that sounds inconspicuous, clueless, even. The kind of answer you'd expect from a highschool student. "Uh, maybe a robbery or something?" I shrug. "I really couldn't say."

He nods, presses a button on his phone — probably ending an audio recording — and stands up.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Raven."

I lead him back to the door. "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help."

"Oh, don't worry, you've been more helpful than you think. Like I said, it's really just about narrowing down the list of people fitting the profile. Anyways, have a nice evening, Miss."

"Thanks, you too. Bye."

He leaves, shutting the door behind him, and I let out a sigh of relief as I sit down against it.

OK, that was... nerve-wracking, to say the least. At least it's over now, and I don't think the officer seemed suspicious. I mean, why would he? He has no reason to think I'm more likely to be xCodebreaker01 than anyone else who fits the UNBI's profile, and thanks to my tracker watch I even have an alibi for the night of the café meeting.

Anyway, there's nothing more I can do about it now, so I figure I'll just watch some TV program to distract myself. I think a new episode of Parallels dropped this morning, so I'll finally get to find out what happens to Cara Drake and her team of multi-dimensional travellers after having crash-landed in the yet unexplored Universe 47.

Apparently I forgot to exit the A-News tab before, because that's what opens when I turn on my monitor. I would've just closed it and gone on with loading the Allanite Streaming website, if it weren't for the particular news story that was playing.

"New developments in the case of the cyber-attack on Nexlo's London office: After days of trying to crack the program's camouflaging algorithm, authorities' efforts have finally paid off — the hacker's target may have just been revealed."

Wait, really? They know why Outlaw was hacking the building? Tell me tell me tell me tell me tell me—

"Financial logs were accessed as well as personal logs of several high-ranking Nexlo employees, and the perpetrator, believed to be London-based hacker OutlawResolve, has leaked much of this sensitive information to the public," the reporter tells me.

Leaking info? Interesting.

"Not to mention, most of what was revealed was less than virtuous, to say the least. Many of the employees involved have found themselves under quite some scrutiny online and in the media, with the released info ranging from minor issues to full-blown scandals. Most notably, Nexlo Germany's National Supervisor and senior manager Chael Narlan has been accused of—"

Leaking scandals? Now that's even more interesting. I wonder who hired OutlawResolve. Could've been a rival, like when I was hired to hack Lampton, but then, why attack the whole building? And why a London office building? Chael Narlan couldn't have been the only target, or Outlaw — or his client — would've chosen a building in Germany, right? But, who would have a motive to drag several, seemingly unconnected employee's reputations through the mud?

Another company, maybe? They could just want Nexlo as a whole to look, for lack of a better expression, like it hasn't got its shit together. But, why would Outlaw concern himself with something like that?

There I go with the questions again. I always seem to have so many whenever he comes up.

My left monitor pings, and I switch my attention from the news to the dark web chats. I groan internally. Please don't be the anonymous client again...

I'm pleasantly surprised.

OutlawResolve: Codebreaker? Let me know if you're online.

It's him. I guess it's speak of the devil and he shall appear — er, think of the... mysterious criminal hacker... and he shall... message you on a dark web platform... you know what, nevermind.

I wonder what this is about... I know it's stupid, but I had a bad feeling since he ignored my messages yesterday. Is he mad at me or something? Shit, is this about AllaCorp, because that would be pretty hypocritical of him, considering—

You know what, no. Enough. I am not going to overthink this any more.

xCodebreaker01: I'm here.

He writes back quickly.

OutlawResolve: Did you see the news?

xCodebreaker01: Of course. You're not here to judge me for breaking the corporation rule, are you? Because that would be a serious 'pot and kettle' situation.

OutlawResolve: Fair point.

OutlawResolve: But this isn't about that.

xCodebreaker01: You have my attention.

OutlawResolve: The news I was talking about is the Dr. Blayne thing. You know he recently got corporate backing on a project, right? Long story short, he wants to start human experimentation.

OutlawResolve: I don't know exactly, but the whole "cybernetics are the future of humanity" thing isn't the full story. From what I've been able to gather, it's a cover for something.

xCodebreaker01: How would you even know all this?

OutlawResolve: I wish I could tell you. It's not safe. But I need your help.

OutlawResolve: There's a 16-year-old girl in Japan, I think her name is Kali-something, I'll send you an ID profile in a minute. He's targeting her because she's over 25% cybernetic, a requirement for an experiment Blayne wants to run. I don't know why he chose her, specifically, but she'll need serious help evading him, with the resources he now has at his disposal.

OutlawResolve: She's in danger, and you're the only one in Japan with the skills to help her disappear.

The world seems to freeze as I process what he's just told me. I'm sure there are plenty of girls in Japan with names that start with Kali, but I have a really bad feeling...

xCodebreaker01: It's not Kalix, is it? Kalixieta Raven?

OutlawResolve: Yeah, that's it. I'm just pulling up her UNBI ID profile now.

OutlawResolve: Why, do you know her?

I slam my hand on the power button to my computer with significantly more nervous energy than I had 10 minutes ago.

Yeah, you could say that.