Read Online A Vault of Sins by Sarah Harian - Free Book Online

thanks.”
    “Assuming he’s a guy. Corny as fuck or not, he did know you were going to be at that bar, so he isn’t all full of shit.” I type:
The last thing you told me was a lie. I know you wanted to bring me to Val, but you broke your promise on the info that would save my ass. Why should I trust you?
    He types,
Lie . . . you sure about that? How about you turn on your feed?
    “What the hell?” Valerie grabs the tablet from my hands to read for herself.
    “Jenna,” I murmur. “Activate news feed.”
    The screen illuminates on the wall, and the breaking stories are listed in the news application.
    CR Feed Leak Destroys Division of Judicial Technology’s Credibility, Brings Humanity to Inmates
    Valerie and I sit on the bed as I play the feed and a pretty female reporter explains everything to us.
    ***
    The real data for Room C was hacked. Footage has been released on a public domain called Reprise.
    The hackers are anonymous, the owner of the domain anonymous. Right now, the government is doing everything that they can to find out who they are. At least, that’s what the news is saying.
    The footage is comprised of hundreds of hours of us in the real Compass Room. Every single moment up close and personal. Somehow, the technology used to film us even captures the illusions we experienced, like it was interconnected with our experiences—a Bot, chip, and recording triangulation. The cameras must have been microscopic, hiding in trees and rocks and walls. Every second was documented. We run for our lives, make friends, make love, bleed . . . nothing was cut out. Now the entire world knows what it looks like when Evalyn Ibarra shits in the woods.
    “We haven’t been able to view all of the footage for ourselves yet,” says an anchor, who sits at an oval table with her colleagues as though she’s in the middle of a debate. “But sources tell us that this footage fully explores the reasons as to why candidates within the Compass Room thought the simulations were glitching, and why they took action to get themselves extracted. These young men and women had grown to care about one another.”
    The man sitting across from her chuckles. “I wouldn’t say
just
caring about each other.”
    “What an asshole,” Valerie grumbles.
    It’s difficult to comprehend that the man on television made a joke because he saw me having sex. “They . . . watched us.”
    “The entire world has seen your tits, Ev. The entire world has seen
my
tits.”
    “Not just our tits.”
    “Welp.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “This is awkward.”
    The breaking news story details everything they know about the leak. The hackers pulled the “highlights” and important moments to the front of their website, with several scenes showing that both Casey and I and Valerie and Jace were in evolving romantic relationships. They examine our community and the grief we carried over death, and the logic behind our belief that the Compass Room was actually malfunctioning.
    “The Division of Judicial Technology has already called a press conference to address concerns about the feed, but word is that at this time, they are claiming this data isn’t a recording of anything taking place in the real world, but of the meta simulation the candidates went through . . .”
    “How could
anyone
believe that bullshit!?” Valerie nearly screams.
    By the time the story finishes, my mouth is dry.
    “Everything,” she says.
    “Everything,” I repeat.
    “I don’t want to watch it with you, but I need to see.”
    “Come.” I stand and she follows me into the kitchen, where I pour us two shots of tequila. We down them at once and I pour us another round.
    “So much for keeping Casey your little secret.” She licks salt from her hand. “I guess running really was all for nothing. Now you seem like an even bigger bitch to the public than you would have if you had stayed with him.”
    I inhale the second shot. “Won’t matter if