Auto-cars hadn’t surged into Davao yet, but that didn’t stop Grab from experimenting with their prototypes in the rural province’s infrastructure. The result was that only a handful of cars in Davao City were automated. MULTO, it turned out, worked just as well on them.

“Woah,” Carlotta said as we waited for the script to do its work. “You’re good with computers, eh?”

I grumbled. “I guess.”

“My mom’s good with computers. She says it’s like medicine, where one person can’t know everything. A general practitioner doesn’t know anything about brain surgery. Like that. But I disagree.”

“You… disagree?”

“Yeah. It’s not like they’re the human body or anything. Signals are signals. Screens are screens.”

I didn’t try to justify that with a response. Some people exhibited peak ignorance when it came to IT. But it probably wasn’t Carlotta’s intention to be ignorant. Either way, I was thankful when MULTO finished running. “There,” I said. “Now, if you just-”

When I turned around, Carlotta wasn’t alone anymore. A man stood next to her. He was around the same age—our age—and a bit chubby. His unbuttoned dress shirt revealed a bulging belly, which he didn’t mind was poking out. His ripped jean shorts were too tight. He didn’t look threatening at all.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

“Dude. You already have.”

Carlotta smiled next to the man. “Really, Jayson Vargas, you have to be more careful. Can’t go walking around in broad daylight like this.”

Oh fuck.

I remembered the notification from minutes before. A FIELD AGENT IS NEARBY.

“Relax,” said Carlotta, as if reading my mind. “Your little alarm is accurate. You can rest assured.”

I thought how long it would take to leave the car park and run. No doubt Carlotta could have followed me. “Wait,” I said, “you can hear it?”

“‘A field agent is nearby?’” Carlotta’s impression of the announcer was spot on. “I heard it the whole time. Yeah. It’s quite good.”

I waited for her to go on, and when she opened up her jacket to reveal her shirt, I thought I was getting flashed for a moment. Instead, emblazoned on her was the name of a company.

Delta Reel. The streaming giant.

“You’re a field agent?” I asked, dumbfounded.

“Field agent intern, more like. Carlotta Riaz at your service.” She opened up her hand to me. “If you can’t beat them, you join them. Isn’t that what people say?”

“Sure is,” said the other man.

I didn’t know what to think. Both of them were in the backseat now, and I wasn’t going anywhere without the two. Then again, Uncle Nestor was on the way. He could get me out of this.

But no. I shouldn’t have been depending on him. I could do this myself.

And that’s when Carlotta pulled out the gun.

I had been entertaining the idea that this was all some joke put on by Carlotta and one of her classmates. The two looked fresh out of university. All those hopes left me when I saw the pistol. It had two barrels, like the iconic field agent weaponry everyone knew. The second barrel was for EMP blasts, just like the one Andrei used to take down the drone back in Taal. Simpler times, indeed. That felt like an eternity ago.

“This,” she said, “is a gun.”

“Yeah, I know.”

She waved it. “And, as a field agent, I have every right to use it against you if I suspect you are compromising the safety of company assets.”

“Which I’m not doing.”

She chucked. “Black Fire.”

“It’s competition.”

“It’s illegal.”

“It’s not ‘compromising the safety of company assets.’”

“We’ll judge that,” the other man said.

“Who are you anyway?” I asked him.

She clicked the gun. “Enough talking, Jayson. Get going. Before I hand you over to the PNP.”

I breathed in, clicking the auto-car to start. It was anti-climactic. All I had to do was click a button, and MULTO mimicked the car on Davao’s small fleet network. The hardware connection wasn’t necessary now, so I pocketed the cable.

We pulled out onto the street. The car was smart enough to dodge the jaywalkers. It felt even more responsive than the Manila models, which surprised me. Even out here, Grab was innovating.

“You know, you could make a lot of money with that,” Carlotta said as the car swerved around a trike. “Shame you have to put it to this kind of use.”

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I ignored her. “So it was all a fake?”

“You did trap me in there. That’s for sure. But the stuff after? Yeah. I knew you’d come back. You look like just the person who would.”

Fuck. I was pissed at myself more than anything. I hadn’t even considered Carlotta was faking it. “Forgive me for being sympathetic then.”

“Oh, don’t try that bullshit on me.”

“Yeah,” the other guy put in. “We’ve been watching you bud. Better keep your guard up.”

“You’ve been watching me?” I paused. “Who the fuck are you anyway?”

“I’m a guy.” His voice lounged out of him like he was taking his sweet time with it.

I sighed. “Are you a stoner?”

“Are you in a predicament? Two things can be true at once.”

“So you are.”

“This is taking too long,” said Carlotta. “Drive it yourself.”

I hate how she was on a first-name basis with me. That was her idea, not mine. I complied, though, keeping MULTO running in the back while I scrolled through the car’s menus and terms of agreement. Yes, I wanted to drive myself. Yes, I was fully aware of the consequences. Yes, I knew I would be liable if I crashed the thing. I had bigger things to worry about.

The car jerked as it switched from auto to manual mode.

“Take us to the others,” Carlotta went on.

I had no choice. I was going to get popped if I didn’t comply. However, I wouldn’t make it easy for them. I had a plan.

I steered us out of Davao and along a rural road heading south. It was the opposite direction of the Haven, but they didn’t t know. During that time, I tried to formulate a plan. My original intent was to bring Carlotta to the Haven to learn more about her condition. Now that I knew it was fake, I had to stall. It was the only way.

“What’s your name anyway?” I asked, speaking to the man. “We didn’t even have a chance to make introductions.”

We hadn’t been talking for the last ten minutes. “Guess,” the guy said.

“What?”

“Guess my name.”

This was stupid. “Carl. Carl and Carlotta.” I chuckled. “Wouldn’t that be funny?”

“Would be more funny if it weren’t true.”

I blinked. “Shit.” I felt like a taxi driver, starting up useless conversations to bide time. “So… how did you two meet?”

“Drive the fucking car,” said Carlotta.

“We’re both interns.”

“Stop telling him all that stuff.”

The two continued to bicker. It was clear they were friends, so she was probably telling me the truth. At least up to that point.

“Why me, anyway?” I asked. “Why not just shoot me?”

“Hmph,” Carlotta smirked. “Never thought you’d ask.” She relaxed the grip on her gun—only slightly. “Black Fire Online is, I have to admit, nothing short of revolutionary.”

I rounded a corner, driving past a barangay. Even at this hour, it was lit with activity. People sat outside their bamboo huts, chatting and sharing drinks. It was a weekend, I realized. I had lost track of time. Stuck in the Haven did that to you, just like Mother’s mansion.

Damn.

I hadn’t thought of my mother much these days. What did that make me? A bad son? I knew I wasn’t. Not to my father, at least. I had to be something more here. Something for Janice, my friends, my uncles, and my aunts. I had to put them first. If Carlotta was serious, I might not get out of here alive. I had to be prepared for that.

“Oh yeah? How so?”

“Well, for one, you’ve essentially created the first social network on a stitching. We haven’t even been able to do that.”

Carlotta seemed eager to divulge company secrets. Maybe that was a flex, or maybe she didn’t care because I’d die soon.

I knew the way back to the Haven, and as I drove, I checked my phone to ensure my location was being tracked. There were at least twelve unread messages, but I couldn’t check them without Carlotta peering over my shoulder.

They were getting impatient, and I couldn’t elude them forever.

“Jayson,” said Carlotta. “We’ve been driving for an hour. I’m starting to think you’re leading us in circles.”

One of the many social media pictures my Uncle Nestor posted was of Kapatagan. It was a municipality, but most people knew the area was mountainous and filled with waterfalls. I had visited this place a few times since coming to Mindanao, and as I drove the car down a dirt road, I slowed it down and pressed it off.

“Get out,” I said.

Carlotta’s brows furrowed. “What?”

“Get the fuck out. I’m not taking you anywhere.”

“Seems you don’t know your predicament, dude,” said Carl, the stoner.

“Yeah? It seems neither of you is getting what you want. And I’m okay with that.”

Carlotta wagged the gun at me. “We can hand you over to the PNP, Jayson,”

Her gesture didn’t phase me. I had already consigned myself to death, as much as the other times. “Then do it,” I said. “Fucking do it. I’m sick of hiding and being chased by you fucks.” I opened the door and got out. The night air was cold. I didn’t know it, but at the time, I was shivering. “Come on!” I yelled. “Get out!”

The two eyed each other and whispered something. Carlotta, however, stayed inside as Carl stepped out.

The chubby man folded his arms. “Look, Jayson. Carlotta’s an idiot. She’s not good with people.”

“Hoy!” she screamed from the open window.

“You’re not,” Carl told her before returning to me. “I guess we came off on the wrong foot.” He stepped towards me and extended a hand.

“What the hell is this?” I asked.

“Consider it a partnership.”

Carlotta finally stepped out of the car, her pistol in one hand. She stuffed it into her pants. “How will we get anything from him for being his friend?”

“It’s called cooperation.” Carl eyed me. “So, dude? You gonna show us what you’re working on, or will you get shot?”

I hesitated, though only for a moment. “I’m gonna get shot.”

“See?” Carlotta asked. “He’s an idiot.” She raised the gun again. “Let me do it. We can go through his phone when he’s dead.”

I hadn’t thought of that. They’d find my friends. My family. They’d find everyone. And it would be all my fault.

I brought out my phone just then, slowly, and checked MULTO. I hadn’t closed the connection yet, meaning it was still tethered to the car wirelessly. The signal was dodgy out here, but it was enough. I predicted that, at a high enough speed, the car wouldn’t be able to swerve away from jaywalkers.

Or people standing in front of it.

“What’s he doing?” asked Carl.

I watched as MULTO re-initiated, establishing a connection and starting up the Grab EV. I put the car in Turbo mode, but as an electric, it was quiet. The only sounds I heard were the tires scraping on dirt…

…before it slammed right into Carlotta.