The shoe phone had saved his ass more than a few times over the past few years, and he was not going to give it up that easily. Maybe it could save his ass again.

The number he needed to call was one of the first ones he had programmed into it—the number for one of his oldest clients, which was really an alias for whatever forwarded line she was using at the time.

Xelina wasn’t there, and the message he left was brief.

It’s Donny. Call me. It’s about Slider.

He had an urge to call Slider, just to shake his last bit of disbelief, but Slider didn’t do phones when he was alive. Said they were the ultimate tracers. Even the blackphones like Donny had.

He went online, looking for news about the events Karen had described in her ambush that morning. It took him a while to figure out where and how to find it. Information channels were tricky in those days. Through platform standards and censorship both soft and hard, the prior regime had mostly managed to turn the media into several hundred versions of the same channel, most of it propaganda, even when it was propaganda disguised as sports, or sitcoms, or nature shows. When it died, the atrophied remains of what had once been a vigorous free press had trouble filling the vacuum. Especially since they no longer had a viable way to pay the bills. Most of the myriad factions pushing their agendas for what the new regime should look like had media organs they used to spin their take, and there were a handful of wire services that still cobbled together updates. Beyond that, it was like the radio stations—a lot of irregularly programmed and often eccentric perspectives. So mostly you had to go to the foreign sources for the real news, assuming you could cough up the digital snowflakes to get through the paywall.

What was most annoying to Donny was that, when he finally found a solid recap of the story Karen had spun, it was on Detention Watch. No wonder Sarah had shown up. She already knew.

Heiress Arrested by New Orleans Justice Tribunal

Casualties on Both Sides as Firefight Precedes Extraterritorial Seizure

Dallas, Feb. 3—Texas heiress Heather Hamilton-Green was seized tonight from her family home by paramilitary deputies of the Free City of New Orleans, who claim Hamilton-Green and HG Enterprises are responsible for damage to the environment there and must be prosecuted before their new truth and reconciliation tribunal. This is the third such arrest by agents of the People’s Council of persons residing outside of their jurisdiction, in states that do not recognize their legal authority, and the first such arrest in which the deputies faced armed resistance. It follows a series of burglaries from corporate offices around the region, including at HG affiliates Promethean Resources and Tripto Labs. Three are reported dead.