Moans were heard coming from the dimly lit room.

Gert, sweaty and naked, was plugged into a web of wires connected to his headgear, immersed in the holographic porn beamed directly into his neural cortex, painting vivid scenes of sexual intercourse.

Amidst that, a subtle unease took over him, getting his dopamine pathways hijacked, reminded him he was part of the one that should control people with it, not getting controlled by it.

A wave of guilt crashed over Gert as he disconnected from the immersive experience.

Anxiety creeped back again forming a black hole inside sucking any sense of well being.

Every device in this room looked recent, except for one; an old rusty smartphone on the corner of the desk. he was their due to Gert efforts to completely forgot about his existence, but he could not get rid of him, this old rusty piece of metal was connecting him to his worst nightmare until now: Konrad.

Konrad was skeptical; he still refused to use any hologram interaction, or even simple audio or video. Even though the data was collected by his partners, the knowledge he had about their ability to monitor people’s lives made him paranoïd. Every time he was asked about it, his answer was “keyboard allows me to deeply evaluate my words.”

And if they were hearing us, that smartphone would soon ring with a message notification.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

[konrad][00:16 GMT+1]: Ghost beacon JDS again, forget about it, it’s the NSA business now….

Finally, Gert felt relieved this long day.

Ghost beacons generally meant a dead end. Those devices were small, capable of hijacking any wireless connection around, and powered with artificial intelligence to imitate other devices in order to stay hidden, and the worst, they were scattered everywhere around the globe.

Gert pushed the notification to read the rest of the message.

[konrad][00:16 GMT+1]:......According to the NSA, the JDS is an acronym for (Junk data spawners), it was first made by unhumanists, then adopted by the Oriental pact during their ongoing war against us, it purpose is to fill the western cloud databases with junk data, making the artificial intelligence unable to make full profile or knowledge about people, and create misleading intel.”

Gert didn't care about the message, but one thing caught his attention and gave him a rare opportunity to land a jab on Konrad. “ It’s not NSA anymore, it’s GSA.”

[konrad][00:18 GMT+1]: Yes. Sorry for the mistake. It became GSA. and it will stay. Humanity should win…… right? :smileyface:

Gert just emerged from his anxiety, only to find himself falling back into it again.

Konrad never uses emojis, neither dumb motivational sentences like that. Why is he doing it now?!

Does it Really matter?!

I’m i overthinking again?!!!!

Noooo….noo….no………

Konrad is….. There is no way he would have known that …… I'm …..i’m surely overthinking again…