The Capital of Security was established around 50 years ago. It started as a small business where people could freely sell their personal information to their systems. It would be secured in their files until someone had bid for your info. You could choose the highest bidder, which they hoped would lower the chance of creepers and greaten the capital gained by the people. Fathers could help daughters who were struggling financially by buying their location information.

Instead, the business went down hill. Doubles stuck in generational poverty, let alone general poverty, had no choice but to sell their everything. As a result, doubles murdered in nearly every subsection had doubled ( pun intended ).

The capital was saved by a huge philanthropist that no one truly knows about. He was a recluse up until the day he died.

All of this history had let up to now.

They pulled up into the main gate in front of the Capital of Security. A man in an intercom buzzed in.

“If you have a code for a specific location, please enter it. Most parking spots are reserved in advanced, so if you can’t find one, we are very sorry for the inconvenience.”

Steven called up the notification for something. He saw a code at the bottom that read “2381”. He punched it in, and the gates opened, and voice read directions in robotic monotone as it followed them through the intercoms.

“Please take a left.”

Steven sighed. We are in a one-way corridor. I can only go left. What the hell is your purpose?

The two men stopped at a set of doors, and the voice told that only Steven could move forward.

“Ok, I guess. I’ll just wait outside on my phone.”

David walked out as Steven entered the double doors. He walked into a place that was a mix of an auditorium and a gym. The ceiling was as high as they could possibly set it, and the area was filled with computers set concentrically pointing to the center of the wall parallel from the one he just entered through.

The people at each computer were typing away, each one fighting their own battle with an amateur hacker. The walls of protection were being updated with each press. The whole system reset every day, as to account for all the new edits to register on everyone’s tablets, phones, and computers, as well as their implants, if they had any.

A man from the center circle walked through the main pathway to meet up with Steven, who was currently gazing at the blue, purple, pink, and yellow hues filling up the space.

“Hello,” spoke the man, “ I have summoned you here with one task.”

He pointed out to the sea of white-hat hackers fighting back.

“All of this? Is being called from one group. There’s just one problem.”

The man looked back at him, pulling Steven’s focus back as well.

“They speak another language. We believe it’s called Esperanto. We have reason to think that you might know this language. We need you to translate any new information that we intercept.”

Well, shit.

“We hope that we could fill your allotted time slot at your regular teaching job.”

Steven was curious. He asked “So, this is going to be just like a normal translating job, or is there a sort of condition?”

“Oh, heavens, no. You’ll just be paid in cash. A little more… under the table.”

Steven interjected.

“I’m not as fluent as I used to be. Is it ok if I take a few days to recuperate and study?”

“Yes, that’s fine. You can take this weekend to relearn and get your fluency back. But, we need you by Tuesday, understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

The man grasped at Steven’s hand. “Great! Welcome! My name is Mr. Harvey Cogne, but you can call me ‘Cogne’.”

Cogne. He was going to commit that to memory.

Cogne told him that he was free to go, and Steven left the way he came. Even if he would have gotten lost, the intercom would chime in every twenty or so seconds.

He rolled through the side entrance and saw David leaned against his bike. Steven shouted and waved, calling him over. He saw as David hopped on his bike and tried to turn it on.

“Damn it! I think I’m out of gas!”