Free Pop Travel by Tara Tyler Page A

Phisner had re-sparked that protective instinct. He couldn’t let Audrey’s and Phisner’s deaths be in vain. He had to do something.
    So he went to Scenario Two. He could turn the drives in to the authorities. But if the people watching him had power over them, the watchers could easily confiscate the drives. He couldn’t take that chance. It would defeat the purpose of Audrey sacrificing her life to hide them in the first place. She knew something. Something worth risking her life for.
    Scenario Three, he would have to check out the drives. He ran out of other possible scenarios because what he did next depended on what he saw on them that Audrey had been protecting. As his grandfather used to say, “If you want something done right, don’t screw up.”
    He needed all the facts.
    His shoulders dropped. Anxious about what secrets the drives held, he needed a secure way to view them. He couldn’t risk looking at them on the compucenter in his room. Hotels were highly connected. All these problems kept tossing him from one patch of turbulence into another.
    Putting his feet on the floor, he leaned over and clasped his hands on the back of his head to keep it from exploding. A way to view them. Not on his QV, not on any CC or public imager. While he wracked his brain, questions invaded his thoughts.
Why did
Audrey keep the backups? And why did she and Jonathan have to die? What was so important? And who was behind it?
He also had a bad feeling that all this connected with what happened to the missing people over the past two years. Just like Phisner said.
    Along with most Joe Citizens, Cooper ignored the news reports, since they didn’t affect him personally. Now he was forced to acknowledge them. And he kept ending up in the same place. The people weren’t missing; they were gone.
It has to be a cover-up. But who would let such a thing go on? Who is responsible? If a government intelligence agency is involved, why are they involved?
The deeper he dug, the more his stomach twisted and his head pounded.
    Cooper should never have met with Phisner in the first place. Then he would be happily ignorant, like the rest of the world.
    Shaking his head, he got up to shower.
    He closed his eyes and let the water pelt him.
What is on those drives?
The steam relaxed his brain enough to think of a way to view them. He would have to get his hands on a basic, unlinked imager. Even then, he would have to be careful where he chose to view them, with the damn web cameras everywhere. If he kept going into restrooms, he would arouse suspicion just for that.
    Cooper threw on the same clothes as the day before. Not a first, but at least he had gotten to shower, this time. Stashing the loose drive in a pocket of his jeans, he felt better having the other hidden in his QV; in case someone caught and searched him; the culprit might find the easy one and stop there, missing the hidden one. Being paranoid made a guy more careful. He removed his jacket from the web cam on the compucenter and left.
    After checking out, he took a microcab to E-Needs. Stepping out of the store with his purchase, he looked around at the oblivious pedestrians and took a deep breath of fresh air as if it might be his last. He wanted to remember the calm before the storm. These people had no idea everything was about to change.
    To view the contents of drives, he chose the open fields of Piedmont Park, close by and hopefully clear of prying cameras.
    The pleasant, summer day made the short trip to the park an easy walk. But the sparkling sun and cloudless sky meant a satellite could easily focus on him. Glancing over his shoulder once in a while on the short trek, he kept an eye out for suspicious characters. He didn’t sense anyone following him, he just couldn’t help being overly cautious and again empathized with Phisner.
    When Cooper reached the park, he turned down a tree-covered path. A jogger or two would pass every so often and smile awkwardly at him. Out of