A Steemit Original

Chapter 1

Look Both Ways

Joshua looked both ways and hurriedly crossed the street. He wasn't concerned about being hit by a car, but they had been following him closely as of late. The men in suits on the subway who would keep an eye on him and follow him out at random stops. The women who seemed to hit on him at the coffee shop and feigned interest. The oft asked question, "Don't I know you from somewhere? You look familiar." The askance looks he received from soccer moms while buying fruit at the grocery store, as if they were judging him by the quality or the type of apple he chose to purchase. Anyone could be a spy.

Perhaps he had one of those faces, he thought. No, they were after him. He knew it. It had only happened in the last few months, and only several days after he had stumbled upon it.

Joshua had been browsing the Deep Web, going through cypher-punky anarchist forums and reading up on the latest conversations, the latest hacks and data dumps of corporations and the politicians that had been bought and paid for.

He came across a link to information that had had been up for only a few minutes, before it was to be deleted, presumably by the agents that didn't want that information to be brought to the light. But it had. Joshua had seen it.

It wasn't terribly shocking, your run of the mill backroom deals that plagues any institution. But the names and the wealth of data was so damning that those at the top would do nothing to stop that flow of information.

Joshua had downloaded it prior to it being gone forever. He read the download once, and, as he was plagued with perfect memory, purged it immediately. There was no unreading what he had read. Too late. Some things are better off left unknown.

To be continued ...