Two hard-boiled eggs for dinner.

Boiled in a pot I had to clean, caked with amazingly-bad smelling protean mass, probably primordial soup from the dawn of existence. Cleaned in the bathroom sink, naturally.

On a stove which was basically only an overflow for dishes which could no longer be recklessly piled in the sink, lest their added mass create enough of a gravity well of sufficient density to spontaneously generate a black hole.

All this with a dishwasher right ducking there.

I gave my eggs a quick rinse in the tiny sink vacancy I’d created by removing this pot, and yelped as the water spurted and flowed brown with rust, spraying me and my dinner with what looked like poopy water.

I hated roommates. I hated them so much.

But as I flopped into the crappy spinning chair I’d found for free on the ‘net and put my eggs on a napkin on my similarly-acquired desk, I was the happiest I’d been in a month.

I gave my cheap little computer my biosig and logged in. Surreptitiously glancing at my sleeping roommate–who was wearing nothing but a pair of panties, laying on top of her blankets with her butt hanging out–I pulled up a page and leaned in close to the holo.

My heart raced with excitement. Or cholesterol from eating nothing but eggs for a week. I had a buyer. A big buyer, too. He wanted all sorts of stuff I was pretty sure I could dig up. I took a bite of egg and scrolled down by swiping the holo.

The piece of egg I’d bitten off fell out of my mouth and bounced across the floor. I didn’t even notice. The amount of credits this guy was offering was ridiculous. I could buy a new egg and a new floor with that kind of credits.

It had to be a scam or something. There was no way people would pay this amount for stuff I could dig up with a few weeks on the ‘net and some basic deductive reasoning.

Yet there it was. More zeros than I’d ever had to my name, that was for sure.

I swallowed and realized there wasn’t egg in my mouth anymore, and frantically (and silently–my roommate was still sleeping) searched the floor before I could accidentally squish it into my toes on accident. I found it and dropped it into my trash can, the only functioning trash can in the apartment, and went back to ogling the sheer number of credits this guy was offering.

I couldn’t…not do it, could I? This data I’d dug up was all I had now, and I needed to somehow turn that into enough information and resources to get a rescue operation out to my brother.

Hands trembling on the holo, I began to write the guy a reply.

Two hours of revisions later, I had crafted a brief response, in-character as the Exhuman I’d invented. It was…really outstanding work, I thought. Despite the effort I’d put in, it had an air of flippancy and casual cool I would expect from Black Shark, but was still professional. I went over each and every word with a thesaurus to make sure I wasn’t using a single one which would out me as a high schooler.

And also, I told the buyer no. Not for that paltry sum. I was an Exhuman, and my services didn’t come that cheap.

It was a huge gamble, but one I ultimately felt like I had to make. The amount of money was staggering to me, but to Black Shark, it would be almost nothing. Not worth getting out of bed for, much less sending a reply to this guy over. If I was going to sell the identity, I had to consistently stick with it in all things.

I was…arguably selling government secrets and also outing myself as an Exhuman. There was really zero room for squidding it up.

I reread it again. And again. And one more time, backwards, one word at a time, just to be sure, and tapped send.

And then I had to get off the holo. I couldn’t take the anxiety anymore. I jumped on my futon on the floor and (silently, because my roommate was still sleeping) did a little flailing dance just to get my nerves out.

I can’t believe I’d just done it. That was probably a violation of a dozen federal laws. I bet the XPCA was already on their way to kicking down my door. They’d mistake the sink (and the bathroom too) for some kind of biological-Exhuman power and arrest me on the spot.

I was being crazy, I knew. I just couldn’t believe what I’d done. First stealing from my parents and now selling government secrets, or trying to at least. It was like a holo they’d show little kids. Don’t do drugs or next thing you know, you’ll be digging up your grandfather’s grave to pawn the wristwatch he was buried with.

There weren’t actually any kid’s holos like that, I was still being crazy. I tried to take some deep breaths and sit still for a moment, but suddenly, someone knocked sharply on the apartment’s front door. As though there were any other way to knock but suddenly.

I froze. It wasn’t possible. It had only been…I checked my computer holo…three minutes. Was the XPCA that good?

As I walked to the door, slowly and cautiously, like that would somehow protect me from who was on the other side, I swore up and down I would be a good girl, I wouldn’t do this anymore. I was truly, truly sorry for everything I’d done and did and would ever do.

The person in the hall knocked again, louder this time, making me jump. I crept forward and called out in barely more than a whisper. “W-who’s there?”

“It’s me, Subaru. I forgot my key.”

“Subaru who?”

“Your roommate Subaru? Is that you, Lia? Open the dang door.”

“O-okay.” I fumbled with the lock and got it open somehow despite my shaking hands.

“What took you so long?” he said as he stepped inside. “Wow, smells like trash in here. Did you cook something?”

“Y-yes. I’m sorry,” I said, giving an apologetic bow.

“You okay? Not like you to be all…whatever this is. Normally you’re all rock-hard confident and stuff. Fail a test or something?”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Um…y-yeah. Something like that.”

“Bummer.” He clapped my shoulder in sympathy. “Hang in there, you can fail a few before they start putting you on probation. Want to get drinks later?”

“Um, think I better not. Thanks, though.”

“No problem. See you around, Lia.” He gave me a wave and disappeared into the other bedroom in the tiny apartment.

I just stood there quaking and blushing, not sure what to do with the ball of emotions working its way through me. Maybe I should just make like my roommate Chiho and sleep for the next 12 hours. But under the sheets, and dressed with some dignity.

I headed back to my room and flopped into my chair again, tapping the holo to life. I sat bolt upright as the words on the holo processed into thoughts in my brain.

He had replied. He said yes to almost triple his initial sum. I’d just sold it and made…more money than I knew what to do with. Frantically, I began to write a response giving him information about how the exchange was to be made, but stopped myself.

I still had to be smart. I couldn’t afford to mess this up. I knew exactly what my plan was, but had to execute every single step flawlessly.

An hour later, I checked the private account I had set up and just stared at the number of credits I owned. It had all happened, exactly as I’d planned, and I couldn’t believe it. I listed them on a public trading site as a complete set of antique collectable trading cards for the price we’d agreed upon, and he’d bought it. The information he wanted was digitally transferred, bouncing through tens of thousands of networks around the globe a hundred times before it came to his hands. And I had an enormous number of legal and spendable credits in my account.

I held up a huge blank credit chit I’d picked up at a bank cities over and weeks ago and linked it to the account, watching the number disappear off the screen and appear in my hands.

I couldn’t believe it. I just couldn’t. Life could not simply be this easy.

A month later, I was consistently pulling in figures that put the first sale to shame, with as much casual ease as I imagined Black Shark would have done.

There was no longer any need to play the part or think about how Black Shark would do things. I’d grown into the identity. Minus the Exhuman superpowers, I was Black Shark.

Information, I’d found, was easy to come by as long as people thought you already had it. I was networked with at least two criminal organizations now, and one condition of my cooperation with them was unlimited access to whatever data they owned. They didn’t care, they thought I was an infopath and had full access already. Then their secrets slipped into other people’s hands, and my reputation of able to get any knowledge, anywhere grew.

It was…totally intoxicating. When I was off the net, when I wasn’t Black Shark, Athan was constantly on my mind, but when I was working, I had to remind myself, I didn’t need millions of credits, I needed enough to find and rescue him, and that was it. I turned down any work which seemed risky or compromising, and somehow that just served to further fuel the myth of Black Shark. She was a fickle Exhuman who only worked with those as suit her whim. Demand skyrocketed the more I turned people down.

I was just finishing up another order and was just putting the finishing touches on it, recording a personalized video for the client. I set the last of the parameters on the recording and then slipped my mask on, and my hood and scarf on over that.

There was literally no reason for an infopath to ever show her face (even with a mask), or for someone wearing a full face-mask to also wear a hood and scarf, but people just ate it up. It’s what made Black Shark Exhuman, what made her more than just any other source of information. Here was some mysterious figure with powers you couldn’t comprehend, ominously showing up on your screen, and for a few hundred thousands or millions, she would be yours.

I guess I sounded like a prostitute when I put it that way, but I was putting on clothes, not taking them off.

“Mister zzBeatz28, please find attached the information you requested, and keep me in mind for any future services you may require. The eye of Odin opens only for Black Shark.”

I raised a gloved fist dramatically for the closing proclamation, the voice synthesizer in the mask making me sound like an emotionless, genderless enigma. I stopped the recording.

They just ate this stuff up. It was amazing.

I started the app I’d put together to strip out any identifying information in the holo and also corrupt it randomly and artfully. It was a nice touch, but safety first.

And then the door opened. Chiho, my roommate stood in the doorway.

She stared at me, sitting at my desk wearing a mask, hood, scarf, cloak, and gloves. She held a plastic bag in her hand.

“Uh…L-Lia baby?” She asked, quaking a little.

I was frozen but managed to nod a little.

“I…are…um…you, uh, cosplaying?”

I shook my head. I didn’t know what that was.

“Oh.” She looked at the camera set up on my desk and the holo recording software running on my computer. “Oh. This is some kind of cam show. I…didn’t know you did that.”

“Uh..” I said, my voice coming out commanding and flat through my mask.

“No, that’s totally cool. I know tons of girls who do that. College, right?” She forced herself to laugh as she slowly backed out of the room and began to close the door. “Mom gave me a ton of tangerines so if you want some, they’re out here.” She shook the bag a little at me, still slowly withdrawing. “Let me know when you’re…done in there. Thanks!”

The door clicked shut.

Cam show? Cosplay? I set my mask and camera aside and looked up these things in case they would help me with my cover.

About eight seconds later I slammed the page shut and danced away from the computer, dancing to shake off the heebie-jeebies.

Nope. Nope, nope, nope. That was definitely not something that would help with my cover. I would pretend to be an omniscient Exhuman, but cosplay cam shows were way beyond anything I was willing to pretend to do. Why the hell were people so gross?

After I changed, I went into the living room and sat down on the horrible couch we had out there next to Chiho, who was aggressively on her mobile and not able to make eye contact with me at all. She was wearing a crop top and short denim shorts that showed off a lot of her, and there was a lot of her to show off…she wasn’t quite fat, but…I think the polite term was ‘curvy’? Her breasts made mine look like accidents, and I was still a decent B.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey Lia baby,” she said, putting her mobile down. “Didn’t uh, expect that from you. Always the quiet ones, huh?” She laughed again, still sounding forced.

“If you could…not talk to anyone…like, ever about what you–”

“My lips are sealed. I understand.”

“I’m not sure you do. I’m not sure I do. But…thank you.”

“Hey, no problem. It’s not like you’re hurting anyone or selling government secrets in there or anything. Just doing what comes natural and making some money, right? No harm in that.”

“Yes. That is correct. I am doing that, and also not doing those other things you said I wasn’t doing.”

Thank god, she took my idiotic awkwardness as a joke and laughed.

“You’re a riot, Lia. Y’know, you should come out with me and Subaru for drinks tonight. It’ll be fun, and I don’t think you’ve even been once.”

I was about to refuse as usual but suddenly felt the enormity of the debt I owed her, even if she knew nothing about what I was really doing in there.

“You know what? What the moose, let’s do it.” I said. She laughed.

“Awesome. So excited, let me shoot Subaru a message, he’s been dying to get you to come out for weeks.”

“He…has?”

“Yeah. I think he thinks you’re cute.” She flashed me a peace sign and a big grin. “Hey, you’re 18 right? You can drink?

“Uh, yeah. Of course.”

“Yeah of course. Freshmen just look so young these days. You gotta tell me what you do for your skin.”

I laughed nervously. Yeah. Freshmen.

This was probably the least illegal thing I’d do this month, and somehow I knew I was already in way, way over my head. This wasn’t in the plan, wasn’t anywhere near the plan. I had no idea why I was doing this except that I owed Chiho big time for keeping her mouth shut.

And…drinks? Shit, I was fifteen. I couldn’t drink. But now, I also couldn’t not drink. What if I got carded? Worse, what if I didn’t get carded and they just gave me a drink? What would I order? What would I do after I ordered? What if I drank and hated it? What if I drank and loved it, and then got drunk and blabbed about my second life? I was hyperventilating and Chiho was looking at me strangely.

“Ohh, I get it,” she said smiling. “You like Subaru too, huh? Don’t worry, I’m sure we can switch rooms for tonight if you need.” She playfully elbowed me.

I needed to find Athan. And fast.