Athens DeMolay took one last long drag on his cigarette before snuffing it in the ashtray on his desk. He rubbed the back of his neck, tilted his head and closed his eyes. Something wasn’t quite right with Veronica’s recording, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was.

Athens opened up the recording again and stepped inside. He sat down at an inconspicuous table in the corner, by the buffet trays of hot food. A scent of curry filled the air. Athens waited, conjured up a newspaper and held it out in front of himself, as though reading it. His eyes skimmed the top of it though, waiting for the appearance of his wife.

She walked in brusquely clutching a small brown purse in one hand. She shook off the rain and found a seat in the middle, facing the door. Her back was to Athens. She hadn’t seem him sitting there waiting for her. She had no idea how closely he watched her, of if she didn’t, then acted like she was blissfully unaware of it. Perhaps this was the source of Athens’ weird sensation over the whole thing. But he thought not. He secretly sat in on her life often enough to know better.

Veronica shifted uneasily, looked at her watch.

Minutes later, a white unmarked repair van rolls to a stop and parked out front of the restaurant. Athens turned the page of his newspaper, careful to maintain the illusion of anonymity.

In walked a man about Athens’ size, though some ten years younger. Athens glanced down at his newspaper for verification. The black printed letters shifted around to form an inhabitant profile. FISHER CALDWELL, it read. A holographic photo of Caldwell coalesced along with detailed biological and social stats. Athens knew who he was already though, a low-level TOTU tech. No one of any real importance. No one Veronica should be spending any time even thinking about, let alone meeting for lunch. Athens turned the page carefully and adjusted the volume a couple notches higher.

Veronica’s face flushed when Fisher walked in, although Athens wasn’t able to see it from his position within the recording. Bio-sensors tracking Veronica’s every move indicated it was so.

“Fish!” she said happily. “I’m so glad you made it.” She reached out and touched Caldwell’s arm.

“No problem,” he said. “What did you want to talk about?”

Veronica looked around nervously. “I - I’m not sure I should say it here…Not like this. He might be watching.”

A concerned expression crossed Caldwell’s brow. His head and voice lowered slightly. “What? Who? Do you wanna go somewhere else instead?”

“No, there’s no time. This recording should be secure, but just in case it’s not, you’re just going to have to read between the lines of what I’m about to tell you. Understand?”

Caldwell nodded slowly and crossed his arms in front of him on the table.

Athens stirred from his seat in the corner.

“Fish, what I wanted to tell you… is that I can’t see you anymore.”

“Is that why you sent your sim to talk to me today?”

Veronica’s simulation nodded quickly. Her hand waved Caldwell on, as though they were playing charades and he had to guess her meaning. Caldwell did not seem to be getting it though. Athens reflected on this; it might just be part of their little game though. Athens rotated his viewpoint to another corner of the restaurant so he could get a better look.

Veronica started over again, “Fish, I can’t see you anymore.” She pointed to her eyes, which moved side to side in an exaggerated motion. Athens played it back in slow motion before resuming the scene. Caldwell’s body language was unresponsive.

Veronica shrugged and made a face like she was about to cry. Athens guessed it was an emotional forgery. The bio-sensors Athens had on her couldn’t distinguish for sure. “I’m sorry, Fish. I – I have to go.” She grabbed her purse, got up and strode towards the door.

Athens froze the scene and extricated himself from it. He shrank it down to the size of his desk and with his hands slowly rotated the transparent orb with the miniature restaurant scene inside it.

Athens lit another cigarette and leaned back in his chair to review the data. This recording seemed designed to convince the potential viewer of it (Athens could only assume it was himself) that Veronica had employed a sim to create an interactive recording for the man she was having an illicit affair with.

Athens spotted several potential problems with this interpretation:

(1) It may be spurious to assume that the recording was designed for viewing by anyone other than Fisher Caldwell. Athens knew his wife though and immediately discounted this possibility. She definitely meant me to see this, Athens thought.

(2) This may not have been a sim of Veronica at all. She may have made the recording herself and pretended to be a sim. Athens considered this, but couldn’t see what the potential benefit to obfuscation would be.

(3) Athens had scant proof at all that Veronica was actually balling this low-level reality repair technician. But Athens had his hunches and it was these hunches which had brought him where he was today. So he was inclined to trust them.

Athens blew smoke rings around these possibilities, having exteriorized each of them as bullet points which hung in the air of his office. He leaned back, cigarette hanging from his mouth, and clasped his hands behind his head.

As a tech, Athens mused, Caldwell would at least have a basic understanding of how to hide their affair, never mind Veronica herself. The words spiraled themselves out into the air in his office and found a place to rest just beneath his third bullet point. Even after all these years together, Athens still had no idea how strong his wife’s grasp of technology really was. But he was smart enough to guess that it was likely far beyond his best guess. In all the simulations of her that he had running concurrently, she always surpassed his expectations.

Athens turned and looked out his window to the teeming jungle below. A long-necked dinosaur lifted its head from the tree-tops it was munching on to eye Athens as he smoked.

“I can’t see you anymore,” Athens said aloud. “See… and she pointed to her eyes.” He looked at the dinosaur as it lowered its head and returned to its meal.

Is her signal broken? Athens wondered. He scanned TOTU for household parity ratings. Veronica’s held steady at 65%, the covenant limit. Athens’ own though had dipped sharply. It was wobbling at around 59%. 58%. Athens slowed his breathing, concentrated. The wobble stopped and the number began to edge higher. 61%. 63%. 69%. Athens exhaled. That’s where he liked to leave it, at least as far as the public records were concerned.

Athens considered the possibility that he had misinterpreted a simple request for technical assistance sent by his wife to a TOTU tech. She couldn’t see him anymore might just mean that her connection to consensciousness needed some tweaking. But if that was the case, why didn’t she just go through the proper channels? Prosperity Dearest would have been more than happy to send someone over. But that someone might not be Fisher Caldwell… Athens put out his cigarette.