Page 318 of Light Leech

“What do they know about you?”

“Is it that bad if they–”

“Not them, the whole neuronet! Did they find your old political guk? Sorry, I don’t mean it—“

I laughed. It was the only way I knew how to cope with the tension. “It was guk.”

“I’m sure you were inspiring.”

I shrugged. “I complained about things and people thought I knew what I was talking about.”

“Well, did you?”

“Yeah, but I vastly underestimated my country’s corruption.”

“Wow, sounding edgy now, huh?”

“Whatever. I was in the right mindset and lucked out with the algorithm.”

“I know you were probably doing your best.”

“I was, but I was young and thought I understood everything.”

“You’re still young.”

“But now I know I don’t know anything. Medislavia is a mess of an oligarchy, but it sounds like it’s nothing compared to the Gongtide.”

“Maybe it’s a part of it? It sounds like a lot of the world’s problems are connected to it.”

“Probably in some way or another.”

“Like Deleon being part of Cut’s plan?”

“Exactly.”

“Should we see what the news had to say?”

“I’m sure it’s guk but go for it.”

I took her hand and we jumped into our neurospaces, then initiated a neurolink. I gave her control as she navigated us on the net to something titled: Naoma’s back with a Former Medislavian Neuronet Extremist?

She laughed. I was glad she, too, was using humor to cope with the stress of what might me a most unhumorous situation. “Did they pull your title from the Medislavian net?”

“With Cut–excuse me, the late President Cuttrin–and Pavtov in bed with each other over Arabasia, I bet they’ve been mashing all of the media together.”

She selected start.

An aerial view focused on me and Naoma as we stood before the Donki Tower. I wondered whose drone had lucked out on that shot, earning them vile amounts of violet lumens for a lucrative shot of what they might have assumed was simple pop-up coverage.

Two women narrated the broadcast with the energy to match Ralia and Kyo.

“After–how long has it been, three months?”

“No, I think it’s been a year.”

“No chance! She topped the charts like what, six months ago with Let’s Eat!”

“Let’s Eat, has been at the top of the charts since she played it live, even prior to release.”