In the evening I spent some time watching the Zillah, Washington Publicams. The laundromat was the most interesting - a gang of gradeschoolies were putting a stray dog through the wash and dry. In the faded light of evening, El Ranchito was lit with tiny lights in the hanging pinatas. It looked like a Tijuana marketplace at Christmas. Very pretty, really.

I tried calling Bernley a couple times that night, and every night for the next three days. Bernley was gone. I called his sister in Lafayette. She said, yes, Bernley was AWOL from home and job, and the whole family was worried.




I was off to see Aporkalypse, in Santa Fe.
Time for a field trip, I decided. It was a sunny Friday, early afternoon, and I'd just wrapped up a manuscript edit for Nintendo UK. I notified my agent that I'd be away for a week or so, listed some tools for the serf to download to my palmtop, packed a knapsack and launched out the door.

It was vid-mail from Aporkalypse that really got me going. She had uncovered a surprising story on the "eldorado" remailer, the source of the original Bernley anime-girl e-mail. And Porky had asked that I come see her soon, urgent biz, real-life.

I'd never seen her real-life. Two years ago we'd met in a communication protocols net class, and became friends working together on our final project. I'd tapped her skills numerous times since then, subcontracting low-level security and AI programming jobs related to various edits.

It's normal to have friends scattered across the globe, and I always felt like I could show up in a dozen cities and I'd have a friend there and a place to stay. Everyone felt that way. Of course it's rare to GO and SEE someone real-life anymore, because you could just BE there instantly across the video channels of the net. The net was as good as being there, for most things.

But Aporkalypse wanted me THERE, wetmode, and she had said it was urgent. Her homebase was Santa Fe, NewMex.

It had been five days now since Bernley had vanished. A while before leaving, I programmed an agent to monitor the Publicams for signs of the troll. So far I had no hits.