The restaurant was busy at this time of the evening, but not with people Laith often saw in his everyday life. Naturally, people were dining out before returning home, or picking up their dinners on their way back to their houses or apartments, eager to turn in for the night. Normally, Laith disliked being in crowded, busy areas. He preferred visiting restaurants, shops, and public spaces when he knew there would be less people around. But he’d decided to grin and bear it this time around. He needed to learn more about PATET.

The Bone Bouquet Cafe & Eatery wasn’t a place he’d ever been to, and not a place he imagined the people he knew – his colleagues, friends, and relatives – ever frequented. In fact, he’d suggested another place entirely, but Audra Haize had not-so-subtly implied that it might be more comfortable for her to meet here, and so he’d obliged, given that she was doing him a favor by helping him out. It was completely unfamiliar territory, though. He stared at the name banner from outside on the street, leaning against the large cylinder of white light that functioned as a light post. The banner consisted of three planks of recycled wood pyrographed with the words ‘Bone Bouquet Cafe & Eatery’ – complete with little skulls for the Os and a long bone underlining the title. It was easy to recognize that this was one of those heli-goth establishments, and the clientele, being largely teenagers and young adults, seemed to reinforce that this wasn’t a place Laith would normally hang out in.

The heli-goth movement, sometimes referred to as solar goth, was a largely peaceful one, and not quite as seemingly morose as he’d learned previous evolutionary stages in the sub-culture had been. While the heli-goths still looked to discussing and understanding themes of existentialism, tragedy, the human condition, nihilism, and other intriguing topics, if Laith was to believe the books and articles he’d read for a report back in high school, the current movement had taken a more hopeful turn. Just as society had looked to the revitalizing and stabilizing effects of nature, so had the heli-goths. They looked to the sun, to the trees, to the rich earth and that which grew upon it, and to the tireless cycle of life. Finding ways to reconcile these environmental considerations with traditional gothic themes, the young men and women who claimed membership to this community simply continued a movement that had always focused on helping them identify who they were and where they fit into the changing world around them.

The gothic sub-culture might have had its day in darkness, but it had been born anew, changed into a healthier, sunnier version of its former self. Or so he’d read. It helped, of course, that many of the vices that had been so easily available in the pre-Heliopolic era were no longer so freely tempting. Recreational use of dangerous drugs, which had been a big concern for the public (and not just within the gothic scene), was almost nonexistent in Heliopolis, and the Drug Crimes Division worked alongside PATET to keep it that way. All that remained, then, was ideology and aesthetics, music and art – all of which were much more docile and sensible when not mixed with the vices and prejudices of old. Now, more than anything, they celebrated life and death equally, took a healthy interest in what it meant to be a human in this day and age, and what their responsibilities to the Earth and the environment were.

That his interviewee had chosen this, of all places, told him something more about her that he hadn’t previously known. But Audra Haize was apparently running late, and the place seemed to get busier and busier as the minutes passed by. It would be better to get in there and grab a table before the place was too full.

Laith pushed open the wooden doors and stepped inside, keenly aware of the fact that he stood out in this establishment, his usual detective garb of a button-down shirt and black pants not at all similar to the fascinating hodge-podge fashion of the heli-goth enthusiasts that littered the eatery. Their self-designed clothes were mostly monochromatic, like they had been so long ago, only this time they bore bright accents in the forms of blooming floral motifs, shining suns, luminous moons, and more symbols of an environmental nature. One adolescent girl even wore a crown in the shape of the sun. When she blinked, her eyelids revealed a gibbous moon, with the dark side of the moon serving as a dark, thick eyeliner. Rose-shaped earrings hung from her ears like droplets of blood, glinting in the light.

He’d told Warda not to wait for him for dinner, because he was meeting an expert consultant, but she’d stubbornly promised she would, anyway, so he wasn’t going to order anything. The booths in the back of the restaurant were the most private, and that area seemed the quietest as well. Laith pulled back a curtain of Ceropegia woodii, also known as chain of hearts, and slid into the booth it concealed, the warm lighting lending an inviting touch in the small wooded compartment with its pyrographed floral designs featuring bones littered here and there.

While he waited, he perused the touch screen menu set on a wooden stand, almost leaning against the wall, wondering if he should order a drink. There was a small note that told him all of their offerings were halal, so at least he wouldn’t have to puzzle out which of the options he could choose from. There were a range of interesting sounding appetizers, meals, and desserts to be had, like the Stuffed Marrow Flowers, Floating Chrysanthemum Soup, and Living Skull Cake. The last one sounded particularly intriguing, and he made a note to try it out sometime with Warda. This wasn’t their usual scene, but they enjoyed trying new things out together. He dragged his eyes down the list of drinks and settled on a Black Rose Tea, which was described as a rich infusion of black pearl and black ice roses. He didn’t really enjoy the taste of rose water, finding it somewhat overpowering, but he supposed he could try rose tea and see if he liked it.

Just as he sent in his order, the curtains drew back and Audra Haize slipped into the seat across from him. “Sorry I’m late,” she said breathlessly, and gave him an apologetic smile. She had changed her Specialist uniform, which Laith had noticed consisted of an off-white shirt and navy trousers, in for a black dress with puffed out sleeves and maroon roses embroidered on the shoulders. It had a hand-made, tailored feel to it. “I was halfway home when I remembered we’d agreed to meet. I don’t know where my head was!”

“That’s alright,” Laith said. “Do you want to order anything?”

“Oh, yes,” she replied enthusiastically, and took the menu from its stand to enter her order, seemingly familiar with the options. “I love their blood moon biscuits,” she said as she tapped away. “And their Pure Chocolate Death drink – it comes with a few bone-shaped honey tablets that you can drop into your hot chocolate to sweeten it.” She sent in her order and placed the tablet back on its stand. “So, Detective, what was it you wanted to ask me about?”

“I have a few more follow-up questions about PATET, if that’s alright with you,” he began. “Mr. Antrum didn’t seem all too pleased to answer my questions earlier today,” he added dryly.

Ms. Haize’s smile faded slightly. “Yes, it was a bit strange. We’re always busy, but I’ve never seen him act like that,” she admitted. “But he was right, you know. I still have much to learn about the system. I’m not sure if I could be of more help than he can. He’s been around much longer, after all, and seems to know an awful lot.”

“That’s alright,” Laith said. “I just want to know a little more about your theoreticals. Earlier, you said that it was theoretically possible for someone to hide from PATET. Can you tell me how that might work? How would someone go about concealing their identity?”

“Well, to be completely honest with you, I might have misspoke,” she said sheepishly.

They paused for a moment as the curtain was pulled back and a smiling waitress placed their drinks on the table. They both thanked her and claimed their drinks, and Audra Haize insisted on paying for both of them – in cash, which was surprising for Laith. Most people used their Slates these days, because most people were paid directly to their accounts, which were linked up to the devices for an easy payment and money transfer method.

In fact, cash was really only used when someone didn’t want the payment to be recorded. Gamblers often dealt in cash, and often because they didn’t want any family members or significant others to find out about money transactions moving in and out of joint or minors’ accounts. People also dealt in cash when they were buying something they thought might be embarrassing to have logged on their purchase history. Sometimes, that was as innocent as something like lice shampoo or diarrhea medications. Sometimes, it was something a bit less innocent. Nevertheless, it didn’t always mean that something shady was happening.

Audra Haize didn’t strike him as the kind of person to be embarrassed about sitting here and purchasing delicious treats for herself. Then again, maybe she just liked the feel of cash in her hands, even if those were some pretty big bills she’d pulled out of her wallet. “Keep the change,” she told the waitress. If she noticed his curiosity, she didn’t let on, and Laith didn’t question it further, deciding that it was none of his business what a young Specialist did with her money and turning his attention instead to his drink. Laith’s was a mug of steaming tea that smelled heavily of roses, like a bottle of perfume, and featured a single floating black pearl. He took a tentative sip of the sweetened tea, and realized with some surprise that it wasn’t as terrible as he’d expected it might be. The rich aroma of Audra Haize’s chocolate drink battled for prominence over that of his rose tea, and he watched as she took a small golden-brown capsule shaped like a bone and plopped it into her drink, where its coating dissolved to release the sweet honey within. She added a couple more and mixed her drink together with enthusiasm, her eyes glinting.

“So, you were saying something about having misspoke?” Laith prompted after she’d taken what looked to be a very satisfying first gulp of her Pure Chocolate Death. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, right,” she said, tucking her inky black hair behind her ears and wrapping her fingers around the hot mug. “Well, I started thinking about what Mr. Antrum said, and he’s not wrong. You can’t hide from PATET. At least, not in real-time. So, I might have given you the wrong impression there. But, theoretically speaking, you could potentially erase yourself.”

“Erase yourself?” Laith wondered, intrigued. “How would one go about doing that?”

“Well – keep in mind that this is a very hypothetical situation, since we’re speaking theoretically – I suppose it could be done by a Specialist,” she said, taking another gratifying gulp of her rich chocolate drink. “To be fair, it would go against all protocols, and it goes against what we are taught to do, but technically speaking, Specialists do have the power to manually enter and alter data and information within PATET’s framework of databases and programs. Sometimes, in special cases, we do that in order to fix errors or manually override little bugs that have caused certain malfunctions.”

“I guess it’s only natural that the Specialists would need to be able to manually adjust things from time to time,” Laith said, tapping his fingers against his mug of rose tea. “Are you telling me that any Specialist can go and do whatever they want in the system, though?”

“Oh, no,” she replied quickly, shaking her head. “Well, not really. You need to earn clearance, and that comes with being promoted into senior and executive roles. I couldn’t mess around with PATET, for example, because I’m still an assistant Specialist. My pass only allows me superficial permissions – I couldn’t change much of anything, even if I wanted to.”

“But someone in a senior position could?” Laith asked, and she nodded her head in confirmation. “Someone like Grot Antrum?”

Haize’s eyes widened. “Ah – well, I suppose, theoretically, yes.” She tilted her head, as though considering something. “But it wouldn’t really make sense, because we’re just one of hundreds of teams working on various different parts of PATET’s systems. Even at his level, Mr. Antrum doesn’t have access to the entirety of PATET. We work on specific solutions, upgrades, and fixes, but everything is sent higher up in the chain, and there are Specialists at much higher levels that will then integrate it all. If there’s anyone who could mess around with PATET on a significant scale – say, erasing all traces of someone committing a crime – it would be someone much higher up the chain of command, so to speak.” She held up a finger and added: “Also, I should emphasize that I am not trying to say that there is someone who has been messing about with PATET. This is all just hypothetical.”

“Right,” Laith said, taking a sip of his tea. “Okay, so spell it out for me a little more. How does that relate to my earlier question?”

She had one bone-shaped capsule left, and she played with it, poking at it with her finger, while she responded. “It’s not really too far of a stretch, in my opinion, to enter, delete, or change information about a certain person, place, or thing. With the kinds of permissions that someone higher up the chain has, a Specialist could do most anything they wanted. It might take some time and a great deal of knowledge – PATET is very complex – but theoretically speaking, it’s possible, I think.”

Laith imagined that, given what Antrum had said about their competitive hiring methods and rigorous long-term training, all of the Specialists at PATET HQ were potentially quite capable of doing whatever they wanted, should they have the opportunity to do so. The idea didn’t settle well in his stomach. He’d read stories about cities of the past, when they’d tried to automate their systems, and how easily many of them had suffered sabotaging at the hands of hackers or even disgruntled members of their communities. Sewage systems that had been re-set to drain raw sewage into residential areas, dams that had suffered explosions from remotely-altered turbine settings, and banks being robbed blind of the personal and financial information of their clients, which were then sold – all of this and much more had taken place at the hands of people who had been undoubtedly resourceful but morally and ethically corrupt. To think of something similar happening via PATET made his stomach twist in anxiety, and he pushed away his mug of tea.

“Surely there’s a fail-safe, though?” Laith asked. “I mean, they can’t just let Specialists do whatever they want without any consequences. I’m sure they have some kind of protection against rogue Specialists fiddling around with what they shouldn’t?”

“Mmm,” Haize agreed, swallowing yet another big gulp of her hot drink. “The hierarchy itself is a security of sorts. At the very least, it can be easier to identify where an issue might have happened when analyzing the nature of the issue at hand. If it crosses multiple areas of PATET’s operations, then it’s a pretty sure thing that it had to have been someone in a higher position who would have had access to all of those areas. Smaller teams like mine only really deal with one small project at a time.”

“And there’s no other security measures in place?” Laith asked, surprised. “None at all?”

“Well, there is one thing. But we’re not really supposed to know about it.” Ms. Haize took another sip of her drink, this time looking particularly interested in it.

“Not supposed to know about it, or don’t know about it?” Laith prodded.

Audra Haize gave him a mischievous smile. “Well, let’s just say that I know of some methods that PATET HQ might be using to keep an eye on things. Theoretically, of course.”

“Of course,” Laith said. “And theoretically, what kinds of methods would those be?”

“The most relevant, when it comes to identifying a specific party, is the use of hidden logs,” Haize explained. “The log will track every single Specialist’s actions. If you click on something, it tracks it. If you write a word and then erase it, it tracks it. So, it stands to reason that if a Specialist were to dishonestly mess around with particular parts of the system, all of that would be tracked, too.”

“Alright, well, that’s something, at least,” Laith murmured, unconvinced. “But the logs are only relevant after the matter, aren’t they? Anything to stop someone in their tracks?”

Ms. Haize finished her drink and set it aside, still playing with the last bone-shaped capsule. “PATET has some security measures in place, especially around the more sensitive and delicate of systems, but generally speaking, anyone with enough skill and knowledge could work their way around those walls, so I think the log is your best bet. I know it seems a trifling thing in comparison to the kind of damage that could hypothetically be done at the hands of a rogue Specialist with the right permissions, but that’s also why PATET HQ has such a challenging hiring experience,” she explained, frowning as the coating of the capsule melted against her finger and released the honey.

“There were a range of tests, many of them aimed at determining our skill levels and abilities, but there were also a few that had to do with the more ethical and moral implications of becoming a Specialist. They gave us several hypotheticals, some of which didn’t have much to do with PATET itself, and asked us what we would do in those situations. No options to choose from. No answers already prepared. We just had to answer with what we honestly thought was the best way to react.” She shrugged and popped her finger into her mouth, unwilling to let the honey go to waste. “Even now, we trainees still have semi-annual evaluations of our skills and ethics. I think, if there was someone who was so ethically or morally corrupt that they might do something of the magnitude of what you’re implying, they would have been weeded out a long time ago, in the application and training stages.”

Laith wanted to ask her straight-out whether someone could remove their entire identity from PATET – whether they could essentially become an unknown ghost, floating through the city and doing whatever they wished without being identified or brought to justice. But he knew that he couldn’t; to do so would alert her of the real reason behind all of his questions. He suspected that she had already somewhat guessed what he was looking for through his line of questioning, but he didn’t need a civilian to know any more than she needed to.

They sat there for a little while more, and he asked her a few other questions about training, how promotions worked at PATET HQ, and a some aspects of the workplace that he wasn’t all that interested in – mainly in an attempt to throw her off the mark slightly, though he got the impression that Audra Haize was much more cunning than she let on under her chirpy attitude. It wasn’t long before he was thanking her for her help, and they were parting ways.

On his walk home – the cafe was only a handful of blocks from his house – he shuddered at the thought that the entire city of Heliopolis and all of its systems were potentially at the mercy of the Specialists. One corrupt individual could sabotage everything that made the city what it was.

He hoped the Pure Chocolate Deaths he’d ordered to go for Warda and himself would stay warm enough for them to enjoy at home, but the idea of everything being so easily destroyed kept him from having much of an appetite anymore.