Free Join by Steve Toutonghi

The idea that two of Rope’s drives might be hidden creates a credibility problem with the entire story. The Directorate still hasn’t contacted Chance.
    After what’s happened, and the stress of Chance Five’s illness, Chance knows that paranoia is a health risk, but that doesn’t slow the flood of possible scenarios. What if Rope has simply planted this slant on the story to lure Chance back to unrestricted network access? Could Rope be that influential?
    The three major news agencies are all covering the story through brief updates. Stories like this are often single sourced, though. Rope wouldn’t necessarily have to influence all three agencies. But Rope would have to influence the Directorate. Rope would have had to use the Vitalcorp Directorate to build the story, and that would be a risky move, even for an executive senator. Which Rope is not.
    That morning before sunrise, Chance Two rolls out of bed in a guest room at Leap’s house in the Olympic Archipelago, a bit groggy from the long flight and late landing. The storm they’d flown into was part of what’s beginning to look like a full split of the Great Central megastorm. Its quick formation in a low-probability location is consistent with the other two megastorm splits from the last two decades. The event profile is a very close match to the Bengal megastorm split that ravaged New Dhaka. That storm brought on the worst loss of solo life since the era of coastal flooding drowned the original Dhaka, along with many other major cities.
    Chance and Leap had fought through the storm for an hour and then finally gone north to avoid it, dodging spirals from the northeast storm as they went. They had endured hours of rough flying, Chance helping as personal emergencies allowed. It had been a long day.
    Chance Two stands and walks heavily to the door. Leap lives on an island in the archipelago. Leap’s house is built in the UMI (Universal Modal Infrastructure) Craftsman style—meant to resemble old homes of the Pacific Northwest, but on the modern service grid and with adaptive nanomaterial. It was Leap One’s childhood home, originally built by Leap One’s mother.
    Chance pops the bedroom door open. The hall glows softly so the door to Leap’s room is visible despite the darkness of early morning. Chance stands in front of Leap’s door, waiting for the house to rouse her friend with the customary mild light, warm breeze, and soft tones.
    â€œChance, what got you up?” Leap One says from behind her, surprising her. Chance turns to face him. Leap One is leaning into the hall from the staircase. He doesn’t have a job, and Leap has him on an alternate schedule. She often keeps him awake while her other drives are asleep.
    Chance pads over to the staircase.
    Leap One says, “Let’s talk downstairs.”

PART TWO
    Things are exactly what they appear to be, just not what you think they appear to be.
    â€”Adofo, from the
    Seventh Pan-African Address
    Â 
    You mean you remember.
    No, I mean when my loved ones slip away from this life
they continue to live with me.
Just as you are the spirit of many,
so am I.
What you do with technology
nature has done through love since the mind began.
    â€”Joseph Rex,
    Poe’s Mission , Book I

“I got in touch.” Leap One is leaning against the kitchen island. Behind him is a large, hardbound book with a metallic silver cover adorned with two bright yellow X’ s, made to look as though they’ve been applied with dripping paint.
    Fortyish, short, and lean, Leap One has dark brown hair and a full beard, both starting to gray. He moves slowly, as if containing agitation. Chance Two is sitting at a breakfast table across from Leap One, her back to a window. The calm and lack of sentimentality that reads as a hard edge in Leap Two has always struck Chance as slightly creepy in Leap One.
    â€œWhat do you mean you ‘got in