Convergence - The Last Science #2.1 - In Plain Sight

B2: Chapter 4 - Comes the Hero - IV

  Jonathan was the first new awakened to sign onto the site Rachel had set up for them. Originally, it had been a heavily locked down private message board, like those from the height of the bulletin board days before social networks took over. Hailey vaguely remembered hanging out on a few of them, but she'd readily admit to being a member of the Facebook generation. Returning to the old format wasn't really nostalgic so much as it was tedious. The site originally had no methods to notify them of new messages, or subscribe to things. It couldn't even send email. All in all, Hailey was a bit underwhelmed—until Cinza got ahold of it.

  Rachel had given her full access, so Cinza had brought on a friend who she claimed to trust explicitly, though none of them had any clue who they might be. This 'Tezofarl' had explained over chat that Rachel had deliberately selected an old version well before the data mining revolution, to be sure the software wasn't phoning home in any way to report on their activity. Unfortunately, that meant the site also lacked for a few basic modern comforts like notifications. Tezofarl restored those features, and following Cinza's requests, also provided a tiered system of private areas by which they could still communicate privately amongst the so-called 'Ghosts of Rallsburg', and a second tier for the new 'second generation Awakened', as Ruby had taken to calling them.

  Hailey immediately resolved to find a better name for them before it stuck, like so many other names Ruby coined.

  As for the mistake with Jonathan, they agreed it was a necessary risk at the time, but that it couldn't be repeated. Alden and Cinza practiced his approach to new recruits, making sure he wouldn't slip up again, and Hailey stuck to the invisible shadows with Jessica. They managed two more in the following week—Katie Nelson, a mother of three who'd found a Scrap stuck to her birdhouse in the backyard, and Drew Jacobs, a young electrician's apprentice—tracking them both down through videos in the local area on social media. Anything slightly suspicious they followed up on, either by a message from Rupert or Alden, or a direct visit if they weren't hard to find. It was exhausting work, and it kept their schedules packed, but it felt right. It felt satisfying.

  After two weeks, the helicopters finally gave up and stopped circling the town. The park rangers continued their sweeps, but the excitement died down again. The news stopped covering Rallsburg, with no further developments past the discovery of Jerry's body. It was business as usual, and that meant Hailey could finally make it there unnoticed in a normal glide, without having to do a high altitude suicide dive every time.

  She kept doing them anyway.

  As they came down for another wind-shrieking landing, Joe waved them in. He looked he wasn't eating well, even though their garden was producing more than enough food as fast as they wanted it to, in or out of season. Hailey let Jessica loose and walked over to sit with him on the benches they'd built around the stream.

  The camp in general was looking more developed every day, but Hailey appreciated the sensibilities Cinza had applied to the landscape design. While they continued to construct benches, walkways, arches and a few extra cabins to house them more comfortably, the construction never interrupted the natural flow of the region. If anything, it looked like it was always meant to flow that way, with the benches made of smooth wood that seemed like real trees had simply bent that way naturally, and the cabins perfectly settled into the ground and connected to the trees nearby.

  "It's Yusuf's thing," Joe explained, as Hailey asked about the way the bridge seemed to be a growth of wood right out of the ground, despite clearly being engineered. "I mean, Cinza and Ruby do the actual construction 'cause he doesn't have the affinity, but he touches up the designs. Makes 'em seem all natural. It's really cool to watch."