Evan cussed. Never before had there been a rumor intentionally placed in the Dark Web to capture a Keystroke. Yet, in a matter of moments, he was shackled to a table inside the Router, face to face with a buff Firewall.

The Firewall tossed the magnetic plasma inducer on the table, clearly a decoy object in the bright lights of the Stateful Inspection cell. Evan rolled his eyes, allowing his long bangs to cover his eyes. Of course it was a fake. The blasted Firewalls were bound to use their brains eventually.

“Who hired you?” the Firewall asked.

Evan expected a reprimand, so he was surprised by the officer’s soft tone. Nevertheless, he retained his sullen attitude. “I hired myself. I steal to survive.”

“You think I’m an idiot, boy?” the Firewall said, his tone again astonishingly gentle yet firm. “We have been tracking the movements and strikes of Keystrokes for months now. Every time a new article is published about the electromagnetic tech and informatics research inside the Inner Circuits, one of you blokes snatches the item up within a week. You think we wouldn’t catch on and deploy a ruse?”

Evan shrugged, refusing to answer. The Board would erase me if they figured out I revealed any information on them.

The Firewall nodded. “So that’s how you’re gonna play. Listen,” he threaded his fingers in a patronizing way, “I know society’s hard. Life without a family is even more difficult, and you feel the only resort is to steal to survive. But you’ll never get out of the Board. Time and time again, we find the bodies of Keystrokes who attempted to escape the Board. If you think you’re any different, you’re spacing out. However, I have a way to break the vicious cycle if you’re interested. Get you a new life. A ticket out of here.”

Evan stared hard at the officer. “How do you know so much about me?”

Now it was the Firewall’s turn to shrug. “We have access to the federal files on everyone. We know a lot about you. Your parents ditched you when you were six, forcing you to live on your own…”

Bitter memories of his parents leaving him in the alleyway threatened to flood his mind, but he stuffed them down. The offer of freedom from the Board was on the table, and he wanted to weigh his opportunities.

“Anyway,” the Firewall finished his recitation spiel of Evan’s file, “we want to make a deal with you. The Firewalls of the Inner Circuits are close in league with the CPU to lure the Board out into the open, but we need an insider’s help. You with me so far?”

Evan nodded, wondering where this was going. The scars on his back ached in reminder of what the Board was capable of, and he abhorred them with a passion.

“Now, as of right now, the Board has no idea you’ve been inactivated, so they think you’re still on your mission. They don’t suspect a thing. We have the real magnetic plasma inducer right here with one small tweak so they can’t use it to build a weapon of mass destruction. Here’s the plan. You will go in and act like nothing ever went wrong. Like you stole the device, no problem. We will place a tracker on you, so we can follow you back to the Board’s location.”

“The Board always leaves messages,” Evan interrupted nonchalantly, playing into the Firewall’s hand. Seeing what lay for him at the end of the tunnel. “I only see them when I’m in trouble.”

The Firewall nodded. “We suspected as much. Where do you drop your items off at?”

Evan shrugged. “A shady guy named Shift usually finds me when I’m not expecting and takes the item. He usually appears and disappears like it’s second nature.”

“Any chance you can slip the tracker on Shift?”

Evan shook his head. “Not a chance. He’s too observant. He sees things on a whole other level.”

The Firewall stared back at him, hope gleaming in his eyes. “So you’re willing to help then?”

Evan shrugged. “I still don’t see what’s in it for me.”

The Firewall waved his hands emphatically. “Don’t you see? You’ll have freedom. Once we have the information we need, we’ll send in the CPU to extract you and remove you to a remote location in the Outlets, where you’ll never have to worry about filling your stomach for another day. You can live in luxury and peace.”

Evan envisioned a place where he never had to be concerned whether the Board would stab him in the back. Whether the Board would off him like they did his friend. His stomach tightened, reminding him it had been over a day since he last ate. A deep yearning entered his heart for the beauty of the freedom this Firewall was offering. And it all seemed in his best interest. It seemed almost too good to be true. Evan hoped it wasn’t

Evan leaned forward, lowering his voice to a whisper. As if the Board might overhear his betrayal. “What do I have to do?”