I slid out of bed without a sound and into my clothes that I’d piled on the floor. I had years of practice with these pre-dawn spyflick extractions. Scootching out of the bed of some guy who had transformed from someone I had to be with, to then get away from, in the space of two hours. Tiptoeing through his place like I was stepping over red security beams of a jewel vault. Bare-assed past his front door where I’d dress in the hallway of his apartment—who cared if one of his neighbors saw because even the jingle of the zipper of my jeans might wake him up. On the stoop of Yusuf’s house, the dry desert heat was a furnace to the face.

Sweat trickled from my hairline by the time I reached my door, my skin still smelling of him, and I slept alone.

*   *   *

More changes and shifting sands inside and outside the Compound. I was too busy at the Footage Farm and I couldn’t pull Yusuf away. Genesis would have teased me about hanging up my camera and working for The Man.

I saw Kaori’s face whenever I planted myself in front of a TV. Breaking news cut into sitcoms I’d been trying to melt my brain with. Screaming pundits on their weeks-long End-of-Days-watches replayed bits of her conferences and footage of her walking out of buildings to decode if what she wore or how she walked was actually a secret message to the Illuminati or the alien overlords sending her orders from their invisible mothership or something.

She kept up her media pole-dance at press conferences and news shows—shimmying, winking, and only ever showing what she wanted to. Behind the scenes, I figured, she was cashing checks from donors and investors. Get that coin, Kaori. I smirked as she bulldozed some suit on an evening news show who clearly thought he was going to invite her on and rake her over the coals about the danger of this tech, especially with what we learned from the Cloud Cold Wars.

For all the shit I gave her early on about keeping the Envisioner and this place secret, I never thought she’d blab this much to the media. Looking back, going public and shaping the story had probably always been her plan, and she just had to wait for the right time, art-directing the future into one that she’d always wanted.

KAORI (VOICEOVER)

Let’s call it “transparency in the name of science and social progress.” Or even “philanthropy” if you’re feeling generous.