Little Brother

Marcus and Jolu plan the keysigning party: only people they have known for over five years and whom they trust implicitly are invited. Those trusted friends will bring one other friend, using the same criteria. Their goal is to set up a communication system that will feed misinformation to the DHS spies, but to do so, they must first establish a means of communicating with trusted members that is unbreakable.

While waiting for the party to start, Jolu tells Marcus that he is through with Xnet activism; he can’t live his life terrified of being arrested. Because he is Hispanic, Jolu stands to do more time if he does get caught. Marcus understands but is hurt by Jolu’s incipient defection. Once everyone arrives, Marcus and Jolu explain that there are DHS spies on Xnet, but they do not disclose that Marcus is M1k3y, instead presenting themselves as M1k3y’s lieutenants.

When the key-signing group seems unsure about the need for the separate network, Marcus tells them about being detained by DHS on the day of the bombing and how Darryl never made it back. He urges them to create the web of trust to keep themselves, and him, out of jail.