She scowled. ""

He held his breath and asked, ""

Lauren sighed, ""

"" David told her. He pulled her aside and mentioned, ""

""

David shrugged. ""

""

"" He glanced at the terrified girl and back to Lauren, ""

"" Lauren suggested. ""

"" David crossed his arms and only gave a moment of thought before he let out a sigh and told Lauren that they should go. ""

David walked over to the young girl and tried to get her to walk with them, though she panicked and would not listen. Lauren tried to help as well but the result was the same; the young girl wouldn't budge and frantically cried out for what they both a.s.sumed were cries for help.

Lauren asked, ""

""

""

"

" he admitted, ""

Lauren stopped him. "" She took the girl's arm and started walking back across the bridge. David cursed under his breath and followed after her.

August 16th, 2029 8:03 PM.

Redmond, Washington Sho sat in his living room, actively engaged in the game he played through. He wore a tee-shirt that displayed one of his favorite manga characters. A forty-five inch, flat screen plasma TV he had mounted in the wall before him showed his fluid game play and beneath it stood a small cabinet where three of his video game consoles resided, one of which worked actively for Sho. In front of the couch where he sat was a small coffee table, and the newest addition to the table was his Creeping Darkness 2 figurine. His den was filled with different video games, DVD's, video ca.s.sette tapes, comics and manga, and posters of different characters, people, and places he was fond of. It was his own little s.p.a.ce that his wife allotted to him on the condition that the rest of their home remained presentable.

Sho's wife came down the stairs and spoke to him in j.a.panese, ""

"" he said to her, which only caused her to roll her eyes.

"" she returned as she walked up the stairs.

"" he joked.

"" Misa said with a laugh.

Sho returned to his game but only for a moment; his cell phone buzzed which caused him to pause and answer, " "" he asked.

"Yeah, sure, what's up?"

Drake took a moment to answer that question. "My friend's brother was killed this afternoon."

"Oh...Geez, I'm sorry Drake."

"I am too," Drake told him, "But I was wondering if you could help me out."

"Help you how?"

"I'd like to know exactly what the police suspect in this case," Drake said. "I want to figure out what's really going on, seeing as I don't think this was a random killing."

"And what makes you think that?"

"He was a high school English teacher," Drake informed him, "Not too many people are gunning down instructors right now, for starters."

Sho walked upstairs to get his laptop and brought it back downstairs with him. He opened it up, logged on, and asked, "What exactly do you need from me?"

"I hoped you might be able to tell me of any leads the police might have," Drake explained, "And a.s.sumptions, and clues...anything for that matter."

"Alright," Sho cracked his knuckles, "Give me one minute."

He opened an internet browser and found his preferred search engine and typed 'complete wood overhaul' into the search bar. Once it loaded a second later he chose the third result from the top and accessed the website it advertised. The website was about how to perform a complete resurfacing of one's home to make all doors, floors, walls, cabinets, and counters wood. There was a login on the right side of the page which Sho utilized. He typed in his username, 'kirasho52,' and then his pa.s.sword. It immediately registered as an error, which Sho knew was a routine procedure. He logged in once more though with a different pa.s.sword than before, which opened a separate program.

The entire screen went black and remained that way for nearly twenty-five seconds before a single word in white text focused into view in the center of his screen, REFOIA. He entered his login information for a third and final time, with another separate pa.s.sword, and afterwards REFOIA became accessible to him.

REFOIA's layout was initially similar to a standard web browser. The homepage was akin to a social media website, with email messages and notifications stored on the left hand of the page, recent trending and important news articles in the center, and a list of friends who were currently online and available listed on the right hand side of the window. At the top of the page was a search bar that allowed the user to search REFOIA's database for anything from video games and music to full television episodes that ranged back as far as recorded television's origin and full length movies. REFOIA offered complete libraries of both fict.i.tious and factual books in every language, including audio versions of almost everything within the library. The program also offered live streaming news articles from across the world as well as archived news pieces that dated back to the mid-nineteenth century in some instances. But above all, REFOIA was a ma.s.sive and ever expanding multilingual encyclopedia that stored information on everything from political figures lives to differing methods for lawn care. It also had a biography for nearly every single person on the earth, although some of these were brief and contained little more than a photograph and information surrounding their birth and any possible marital status. REFOIA was open-ended in regard to the possibility for anyone to update and submit additional data or photographs or videos about any matter or any one, though the submissions were always subject to the higher powers of the program.

Sho saw that he had quite a few messages and notifications from his contacts, though he ignored them and asked Drake for the murdered man's name.

"Victor Jacobs."

"You don't happen to know his middle name, do you?"

"No, but is that really needed?"

Sho let out a small sigh, "Well yes and no. You see, the system searches through billions, possibly hundreds of billions of names to gather anything remotely close to that, so it'll bring up all of the Victor Jacobs that are out there, including anyone who might have the middle name of Victor and the last name of Jacobs...so we could be looking at tens of thousands of entries. I can narrow it down to the Seattle area, but that could still render a couple hundred options."

"He wrote a book called Origins," Drake told him, "So that should help target what we're looking for."

Sho grinned, "Well then..." he entered his search terms into REFOIA and immediately produced a few dozen results about the man. He sifted through and added that he wanted information about the death of Victor Jacobs and it produced only two items, the first being a brief paragraph written by one of the enigmatic masterminds behind REFOIA, who tended to write a brief line in anyone's biography unless someone else beat them to it. It merely read: 'Victor Jacobs. Shot dead in main entrance of Both.e.l.l Senior High School, Both.e.l.l Washington, on August sixteenth, twenty-twenty-nine.'

Beyond that brief sentence it gave the link to the main article about Victor Jacobs, which Sho opted out of and instead selected the second gathered search result, which was a detailed police report of the case behind the death of Victor Jacobs.

He opened it and skimmed through the notes and information, which he relayed to Drake, "It says here he was shot twice, once in the heart and in the stomach. They don't mention any witnesses, though there was another death on the scene"

"Yes," Drake interrupted him, "What else?"

"Ah," he read on and frowned, "There aren't any suspects or theories of motive, though they're questioning whether a disgruntled student killed him and the princ.i.p.al over possible expulsion or a failing grade."

"But there isn't any mention of who that could have been?"

"No, sorry."

Drake told him it was fine. "How did you manage to find all of this anyway Sho? In fact, how the h.e.l.l do you get confidential police reports without any effort?"

"It's all through REFOIA," he told him.

"REFOIA?"

Sho stopped typing. "REFOIA. The Realistic Entirety of the Freedom of Information Act, established in twenty-eighteen by a radical group of the same name. They have over one-hundred fifty websites devoted to streaming free information about everything. A majority of the sites are shut down every day, but most are reactivated under cover sites within minutes of them being closed. They exist to one; continue to be an annoyance to the United States Government, and two, to continue informing the public about whatever they need to know about."

"Alright."

Sho heard him, but continued anyway, "They have information about everything, every car ever made, what homework doc.u.ments were stolen and from whom and what site, the meaning of every word, phrase, or idiom in every language, how to hotwire cars, hack into GPS"

"Sho!" Drake stopped him. "Thanks for the tutorial, but I've got my hands full on my end."

"Oh, sorry about that."

"No...It's fine, don't worry about it. I'll see you at work tomorrow."

"Okay, I'll talk to you then."

"And Sho," Drake stopped him, "Thanks for your help. If there's anything I can do"

"Yeah, yeah. Just get me a better job once you get promoted, okay?" Sho joked as he hung up.

"" Misa called out from the kitchen.

Sho quickly saved the two doc.u.ments he'd viewed to his personal archives, logged out of REFOIA, closed the web browser, logged off his computer, and set it aside on the side table next to his side of the couch. He grabbed his controller, saved his game, and shut it off right as Misa walked down the steps into his den with their dinner of yakisoba, rice, and steamed asparagus.

Sho hurried over to her to take the plates from her and allowed her to take her seat, which she thanked him for. He noticed the asparagus and made a face. ""

Misa glared at him, ""

He jokingly acted like an unhappy five year old and joined her on the couch. She smirked and turned to their television program right as Sho took a bite of the asparagus. His eyes widened and he looked at his wife and proclaimed her as the best chef he'd ever had the pleasure of knowing. Misa only rolled her eyes and laughed.

August 17th, 2029 5:18 AM.

Paris, France The girl sat behind a black table in a small room with white walls and a tiled floor. Her hands trembled as she stared at the table and waited for the steel door to swing open. She couldn't tell if anyone was outside or not since she hadn't heard a thing since they brought her to that room. All she could think of was how she possibly traveled so far so quickly and if her eyes deceived her when she was outside those walls.

Metal shifted and the door swung open. An Asian man entered and closed the door behind him. He spoke but she couldn't understand what he had said. The man grinned, his eyes flashed, and he asked in Arabic, ""

Her eyes lit up, ""

He smiled, ""

"" the girl asked.

""

"" she quickly answered.

A small notepad was produced from the man's pocket; he wrote that down and continued to question her, "

""

"" Detective Mizuno told her without looking at his watch.

She frowned, ""

"

""

""

She shook her head, ""

The man stopped writing, ""

""

"" he broke in.

"" Afifa's trembling grew worse, ""

"" he asked her, and she told him she didn't. ""

She thought a moment, ""

Mizuno jotted notes down, then stared at Afifa for a moment, and then wrote more. He stopped and told her, ""

Afifa's breathing became erratic and very rapid, "" The detective tried to calm her, but she continued, ""

""

""

""

""

"" he asked.

"" she guessed.