Override (Glitch)

out lately or putting in more hours of weapons training. I’d gathered she was still mad about not being included in the mission and was determined to show her brother she was as capable as any Rez fighter.
    My drawing wasn’t working. I couldn’t seem to make the picture on paper match the image in my head. I put down the purple pencil I’d been using and stared at the door Saminsa had left through. I wondered if she’d get any sleep tonight, or if she’d stay up keeping guard against us.
    Ginni chatted on like she always did. “So I heard that Tyryn might be dating one of the new Rez recruits. She’s got auburn hair that’s so smooth and shiny, I would just die for it. Nothing like mine.” She tugged at the ends of her frizzy hair and sighed.
    I paused and looked at her. “How do you always know about everything that’s going on with people?”
    “Oh, you know, I just hear things.” She looked away.
    “Yeah, but it’s more than that.” I frowned. “You seem to know things no one else does.”
    She bit her lip, hesitating before looking back at me. “If I tell you something, will you promise not to hate me?”
    I laughed. “Of course.”
    She looked down at the line of stitches she’d made. “I used to be a Monitor.”
    My mouth dropped open. “What?”
    “The officials at my Academy figured out I’d been glitching from the repeated anomalous incidents flagged in my record. They offered me safety if I spied on the rest of the students for them. So I did.” She fidgeted with the edge of the fabric while the words rushed out.
    I couldn’t help gaping at her in horror. Monitors were specially trained as spies, hidden among the regular population. They were adept at detecting all the subtle clues that someone’s V-chip hardware was malfunctioning. After they turned in someone, the subject would be taken away for new hardware installation or, worse, deactivation. An involuntary shiver snaked down my spine. Ginni couldn’t be a Monitor. She was too sweet and good.
    “Eventually they even had me tracking not only anomalous students but also other Uppers who came through our Academy. I was good at it because of my power. I always knew when a person was somewhere they weren’t supposed to be. I’d sneak up close but out of sight and listen to their conversations, then report.”
    “And you just … went along with it? You helped them capture other glitchers like us?”
    She squeezed her eyes shut and I immediately felt bad for the accusatory tone of my voice. “When you become a Monitor, they put more tech in your head. Even though I was glitching and safe from the V-chip, I couldn’t escape the new hardware.”
    “Oh Ginni,” I put my hand over hers. Here I was again, accusing someone before I’d gotten all the details. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea that was how Monitors worked.”
    She forced a smile. “Don’t be. I’m the one who’s sorry. When the Rez rescued me, they tried to disable the extra hardware, but they couldn’t completely. I still have the compulsion to spy on people and learn their secrets. The Professor says I can try to fight it, or at least keep the things I learn to myself. But it’s hard.”
    I squeezed her hand and pointed to the hardware portal at the back of my neck. “The Community left its mark on all of us. We’re all trying to recover from what has been done to us.”
    *   *   *
    I went to sleep soon after Xona and Saminsa came back. I pulled the heavy curtain to my bed box closed and said the words to Link myself, waiting for the usual calming tones of Scheduled Subject Downtime to play as my thoughts melted away into the Link.
    But as my senses dulled, I realized it wasn’t the calming tones of Scheduled Subject Downtime playing. I’d Linked right in the middle of the Link News, complete with audio and video reports. The Link did its work, slowly numbing me to my outside senses, shutting me up in the gray of my own mind with no stray sensory data or reactions.
    Anomalous activity continues to be on the rise. Families of those reported for anomalous incidents must submit to additional testing.
    Footage played of the current Chancellor Supreme of Sector 6, a short gray-haired man. He stood at a podium and spoke. “We are Humanity Sublime for a reason. We have stamped out the destructive passions that ruled our ancestors. Any and all anomalous activity poses a threat to our peaceful and productive society.”
    The vid scene switched. A