I’m thrilled to announce that my technological thriller “Don’t Ask Questions” has been published in Emberwing, an anthology of flash fiction from LegendFiction authors.

The anthology was built around the word “Emberwing” as the theme. While most of the other contributors wrote in the fantasy genre, I thought the word sounded like the perfect username for a hacker. I went in a thriller direction, telling a story about a young hacktivist who realizes the leader of her group isn’t who he seems.

Don’t Ask Questions

Emberwing says we move tonight, so we’ll move. I was the only one who voted to wait. We should watch this guy and see if he leads us to someone higher up the chain of command. They all shut me down.

Maybe I should bail. They couldn’t do this without me. If I’m out, the whole thing collapses. And Emberwing would flip.

No names, that’s how we do it. Don’t know who anyone is – not even an age or a gender. Just a faceless username in an encrypted IRC server. Think they’d still trust me if they saw my face? They all speculate, but no one ever asks a direct question. That’s the implicit rule – you don’t ask questions. We deal in hypotheticals: “Your coding knowledge runs deep, AngelFury. You must be forty something. Probably work in the industry IRL.” No one ever expects an answer. It’s safer that way.

I tell my roommates I’m cramming for finals so don’t expect me for dinner. When I reach my bedroom, I make sure to lock the door and leave the lights off. I cross the room in the dark and switch on the color-changing LED desk lamp. It glows red – vendetta-energy crimson. The lighting makes my anime figurines look like creepy dolls about to come to life. Video game posters obscure the popcorn texture on the walls.

I settle into my gaming chair and open my laptop. The desk rattles on uneven legs as I log into the IRC server. Everyone’s already gathered in the #pregamechannel, our little inside joke. It really is a game to some of them.

* AngelFury (~AngelFury21@111.215.37.49) has joined

Ryuukaze: welcome AngelFury

AngelFury: thx

aid3N: u stoked for this or wut

palantir: settle down children

Ven0m: didn’t think you’d show, angel

AngelFury: stfu Ven0m

Ryuukaze: chill dude not worth it. Let’s go over the plan one more time from the top

Ven0m: not without ember

aid3N: bro’s always late to his own party lmao

palantir: are you going to take this seriously aid3N or do we need to leave you with a babysitter while the adults work

aid3N: shut up nerd

palantir: I rest my case

* Emberwing (~Emberwing@323.740.21.3) has joined

The chat falls silent as Emberwing enters. I wonder if he has that presence when he walks into a room in the real world too.

Emberwing: Good evening, everyone.

palantir: evening ember

aid3N: sup

Emberwing: I will only say this once: anyone who does not wish to join us tonight should leave now. No one will hold it against you. You are still free to join for future attacks.

I lean back in my chair and cross my arms, refusing to acknowledge the game he’s playing. There’s dead silence in the chat for a good minute or two.

Emberwing: I’ll take the silence as a statement of full and willing cooperation from all present.

aid3N: roger that

Emberwing: Now that those pleasantries are out of the way, here’s the plan for tonight.

Emberwing lays out the strategy we already know by heart: classic SQL injection hack. Dox the victim, shame him, blow up his socials with hate speech. Simple enough. Too simple. Almost childish (palantir’s favorite word). That’s when it hits me, what’s felt wrong about this the whole time.

This isn’t like Emberwing.

Cold doubt creeps into my stomach. A feeling like I’ve been doused with ice water inside-out. Then the pings start to come in, one by one:

* Ryuukaze has quit (Remote host closed the connection)

* Ven0m has quit (Remote host closed the connection)

* aid3N has quit (Remote host closed the connection)

* palantir has quit (Remote host closed the connection)

And suddenly it’s down to Emberwing and me, alone in the channel. There’s that awkward hesitation; the implicit question: Why are you still here?

Then Emberwing starts to type. He stops and starts again.

Emberwing: We know who you are, Selena.

Emberwing: You work for us now.

AngelFury: what about the others

Emberwing: They didn’t take my offer when they had the chance.

My fingers move on instinct, closing the chat window and killing the software entirely. I do a hard shut off on my laptop and bolt for the bedroom door, stumbling on a pile of books in the dark. I fall to my knees and push myself up again. My hand grasps the knob as the doorbell chimes downstairs.

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