The Great Symmetry Read Online Free PDF Page A

says –”
    They finished in chorus: “Hey, Get off My Lawn!”
    In her accustomed role, the young woman set up the senior caster. “That just makes no sense, Al. That a ship would send that as a message. What do you make of it?”
    “Well Lisa, the clear part is probably just a diversion. And the encrypted message has been sequestered. Top secret, you know. Seriously, folks, don’t do anything to help infoterrorists – if for any reason you received the transmittal and haven’t called for help cleaning it off your system, you need to do that right now.”
    “You mean, you need to do that yesterday.”
    “That’s right, Lisa. You can’t be too careful with sequestered data.”
    Mira knew what the cover message meant. The encrypted message was for her. And it was from Evan McElroy.
    Which meant that he had been on that ship. And that now he was dead, killed by the missile strike that had destroyed the ship.
    Evan. Dead.
    She left her stool, on purpose this time, and headed for the door, reaching for her phone. “Kestrel, meet me at the Buttonwood. How soon can you be there?”
    A grumpy voice answered her. “Do I get to finish sleeping first?”
    “No,” she told him.
    “Five minutes then.”
    “Ok, see you there.”
    Perfect. Just enough time to walk there in the nice cool evening. Mira set an even pace, floating for a brief moment off the ground in each long step.
    The friendly streets of the Untrusted Zone were welcoming. They were home. There was always something going on, at any time of the day or night. Vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, sorting it all out in real time, getting where they needed to go. Although there was no specific requirement to do so, she kept to the edge of the street as she walked along.
    Hey, Get Off My Lawn!
    When she had been his pilot, it had been their little joke. Evan had only three more years than her by count, but was seemingly decades older in attitude, experience, and, as he didn’t mind needling her about, maturity. Any time she had one of those moments, whether dismally unhelpful or merely inconvenient, they would look at each other, and one or both of them would say it.
    It was always an adventure with her. Was that bad?
    Then had come the moment of truth. Two days before they had been scheduled to lift, heading for Phoenix for the next expedition, a close friend of Mira had been identified as an infoterrorist, and Mira’s credit had been instantly zeroed.
    When you get zeroed, you have nothing. Can’t buy anything. Your insurance is canceled, and you can’t do anything without insurance. You are frozen out.
    People who were once your friends will not help you, for fear that whatever got you zeroed will taint them. The algorithms are notorious for that. If you associate with a known infoterrorist, you will be zeroed until any questions are resolved. The chain could and did reach out to snare the unwary – it was definitely safest to have no interaction with anyone who was zeroed.
    She had gone to see Evan, to tell him that he needed to find another pilot. She had wanted to tell him in person, but it had also been necessary, because her phone didn’t work. The neighbors wouldn’t even open the door for her. How had they known so quickly? After a four-kilometer walk, she had been at Evan’s door.
    Mira had explained the situation and offered her apologies. Maybe she would be in good standing in time for his next expedition. If he was willing to give her another chance, at that undefined time in the future.
    After she was done, Evan had just held up his hand and seemed to ponder. “Okay,” he had said at last. “You’ll be going on my credit.”
    This was not something that anyone did. “Are you insane? They’ll zero you like it’s nothing. And then forget about the expedition.” She wasn’t going to let Evan throw it all away, even to try and help her.
    “I don’t think so,” he had told her. “Anyway, it’s wrong, and we won’t have that. So,