Freedom TM

it?”
    “No.”
    “What the hell does ‘Rakh’ mean, anyway?”
    “It’s Russian. Look, one advantage of the darknet is that no one needs to know who you
were
. Because they know who you
are
.”
    Sebeck gestured up to Ross’s darknet reputation score. “Meaning you’re someone people can rely on.”
    Ross nodded. “That’s what matters, isn’t it?”
    Sebeck pondered the question. “Well, you sure were right about Sobol in those early days. We should have listened to you.”
    “Should you have?” Ross gestured to the bustling small town around them.
    Unlike many Midwestern towns, Greeley appeared to be undergoing a renaissance. Main Street was lined with recently renovated brick storefronts and micro-manufacturing shops with their roll-top doors opened to reveal machinists and customers poking at D-Space objects, negotiating and ordering 3-D plans off the dark-net. CNC milling machines hummed in the workshops beyond.
    In the street dozens of young adults, young families, and even middle-aged folks with call-outs over their heads walked, clicking on one another’s data, interacting in multiple dimensions as though it were a natural extension of reality. Already second nature.
    It reminded Sebeck of something Riley said to him months ago in New Mexico about social interactions where race and gender didn’t matter. They were all members of the network here, and Sebeck had found himself increasingly looking at people’s call-outs to really know who they were. Reputation mattered more than physical appearance, and he was shocked at how quickly his brain had made that transition. Everyone had the same color call-out in the darknet.
    Sebeck dialed down the number of layers he was looking at and reduced the range of his D-Space vision to prevent call-out overload. He wondered how long it had been going on like this. Judging by the scaffolding and ongoing construction, it hadn’t been long. Most of these folks were probably new arrivals from suburbs and cities. Or perhaps
returning
from suburbs and cities.
    Ross was watching the people of the small town, too. “Given what we both now know—it’s sometimes hard to tell whether it was for better or for worse. If society continues to come apart, who’s to say this won’t wind up saving lives
and
civil society?”
    “So, what made you finally decide to join the darknet?”
    “Have you ever heard of a sorcerer named Loki?”
    Sebeck shook his head.
    “He’s possibly the most powerful Daemon operative alive. He nearly killed me. He killed just about everyone I worked with.”
    “And that convinced you to
join
the darknet? I’d expect the opposite reaction.”
    “If this new network is going to have a future, it can’t be ruled by bloodthirsty sociopaths like Loki. And there was another personon that task force—a man they call The Major—who made me realize the existing order is even worse.”
    Sebeck nodded. “I’ve heard of The Major. Hell, people are looking all over for that guy. He’s the one who shot Roy Merritt—the Burning Man.”
    “I
knew
Roy. I worked with him. He’s the one who got me onto the government team. We were both betrayed by The Major.”
    Sebeck raised his eyebrows. “So you’ve got some powerful enemies.”
    “Here’s what I’m worried about, Pete: the darknet is an encrypted wireless mesh network—constantly changing—but it’s got to have some elements that tie it together, and I’m worried that some very advanced minds are working on a means to hack into the Daemon and take control of it.”
    “You think that’s possible?”
    He nodded. “This new spring of freedom might be short-lived if that’s the case. And I’ve lived through false springs before.”
    “So this Major guy is …”
    “Part of a financial system that rules behind the scenes. They seem to know the global economy is faltering, and they view the Daemon as a way to retain control. Darknet news feeds are recording a rise in violent repression around the world—focused on resilient darknet communities. They don’t want people to be like this.…” He gestured to the town.
    “You mean self-reliant.”
    “Exactly. Democracy is a rare thing, Pete. You hear how democracies are all over the place, but it isn’t really true. They call it democracy. They use the vocabulary, the props, but it’s theater. What
your
Founding Fathers did was the real thing. But the problem with democracies is they’re hard to maintain. Especially in the