Cory Doctorow/Little Brother/100
crabbed signature at the bottom right corner of the other side. It's been a week since I got out and I
don't think that anyone knows that
The signature read, simply: ZEB. their sons and daughters are imprisoned in the middle of the Bay.
I picked it up and started to read.
At night we could hear people laughing
and partying on the mainland.
> Dear Marcus > I got out last week. I won't tell you
how, in case this falls into the wrong
> You don't know me but I know you. For hands. Maybe others will take my
the past three months, since the Bay route.
Bridge was blown up, I have been
imprisoned on Treasure Island. I was > Darryl told me how to find you and
in the yard on the day you talked to made me promise to tell you what I
that Asian girl and got tackled. You knew when I got back. Now that I've
were brave. Good on you. done that I'm out of here like last
year. One way or another, I'm leaving
> I had a burst appendix the day this country. Screw America.
afterward and ended up in the
infirmary. In the next bed was a guy > Stay strong. They're scared of you.
named Darryl. We were both in recovery Kick them for me. Don't get caught.
for a long time and by the time we got
well, we were too much of an > Zeb
embarrassment to them to let go.
There were tears in my eyes as I finished the note. I had a 
> So they decided we must really be
guilty. They questioned us every day. disposable lighter somewhere on my desk that I sometimes used 
You've been through their questioning, to melt the insulation off of wires, and I dug it out and held it to 
I know. Imagine it for months. Darryl the note. I knew I owed it to Zeb to destroy it and make sure no 
and I ended up cell-mates. We knew we one else ever saw it, in case it might lead them back to him, 
were bugged, so we only talked about wherever he was going.
inconsequentialities. But at night,
when we were in our cots, we would
softly tap out messages to each other I held the flame and the note, but I couldn't do it. 
in Morse code (I knew my HAM radio
days would come in useful sometime). Darryl. 
> At first, their questions to us were With all the crap with the Xnet and Ange and the DHS, I'd 
just the same crap as ever, who did
it, how'd they do it. But after a almost forgotten he existed. He'd become a ghost, like an old 
little while, they switched to asking friend who'd moved away or gone on an exchange program. All 
us about the Xnet. Of course, we'd that time, they'd been questioning him, demanding that he rat me 
never heard of it. That didn't stop out, explain the Xnet, the jammers. He'd been on Treasure Island, 
them asking. the abandoned military base that was halfway along the 
demolished span of the Bay Bridge. He'd been so close I could 
> Darryl told me that they brought him
arphid cloners, Xboxes, all kinds of have swam to him.
technology and demanded that he tell
them who used them, where they learned I put the lighter down and re­read the note. By the time it was 
to mod them. Darryl told me about your done, I was weeping, sobbing. It all came back to me, the lady 
games and the things you learned. with the severe haircut and the questions she'd asked and the reek 
> Especially: The DHS asked us about our of piss and the stiffness of my pants as the urine dried them into 
friends. Who did we know? What were coarse canvas.
they like? Did they have political
feelings? Had they been in trouble at "Marcus?" 
school? With the law?
> We call the prison Gitmo-by-the-Bay.
My door was ajar and my mother was standing in it, watching 
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155