People asked her, on occasion, how she decided on the name mYin. Her answer was, she didn't remember, and it was true. She was pretty sure she'd decided that name while in China, so she assumed the Yin was from the Yin/Yan philosophy. It didn't matter, though. All that mattered was the name mYin hid her real name from anyone who might oppose her. Everyone who asked for a real name was told it was Emma Yin, which of course was a blatant lie, but they believed it.
At the moment, mYin was leaning over her laptop computer. A cybernetic implant in her lower back mimicked a wi-fi hotspot, allowing her instant internet access anytime, anywhere, practically a requirement for cyberhunters. The only cyberhunter mYin had ever met without a wi-fi implant was a hunter who was allergic to implants.
She allowed herself a brief moment to rub her fingers along the ridges of one of the scars left from the implants. Modern medical technology could remove the scars easily, but they were a rite of passage, a ritual. Her tribe had once placed scars strategically on the bodies of their youths at a certain age, at the time they were considered to make the transition from child to adult, and those scars had been symbols of beauty, symbols that they person bearing them was now old enough to join his brothers and uncles and father in the hunts for animals. The scars were still a rite of passage among this remote African tribe, but the prey was no longer a wild beast.
Her prey, at the moment, was a stalker. One of those disgusting people who met people over the internet, hunted them down, and then killed them. As a cyberhunter, it was mYin's job to hunt these people down.
She was using one of her other aliases, with a randomly-generated ISP address to throw off anyone who might think to check it against her other records and realize who she was. A few lies convinced her prey that she really was a young blonde from New York, rather than an African hunter.
She typed a few more lines into the text box of her IM program, then switched back to her web browser. She ordered the plane tickets without a second thought. By next week, she would be prepared to up the stakes. She'd spy on her prey in real time, watch him carefully, learn what little about him she hadn't already gleaned from the internet. By the end of the month, her training as a hunter would be put to good use. He'd never use the internet to hurt another woman again.
Her brother was currently studying in America, which made this all the better for mYin. After she killed her prey, she could visit her brother. Maybe even take a look around the school he was at Ð she was almost done with the new program running at their tribe-run school, and was looking forward to finding a new school to attend next year. Activating the wireless internet-based phone implanted along her jawline, mYin called him up to arrange the visit.
A week later, Joe Pace found himself trying very hard not to panic.
He'd seen a cyberhunter in New York City.
He told himself she couldn't be coming after him, she was probably a student. Cyberhunters rarely left their cozy tribe in Africa unless they were studying or hunting, but most hunting was done remotely, over the 'net. Studying could be done over the internet too, of course, but for some reason, that was one thing cyberhunters disliked doing online. He'd never understood why, and had never much cared.
He sincerely hoped this cyberhunter was simply a student. He'd heard that cyberhunters never started physically hunting their prey until they were nearly ready to attack, and he didn't want to die at the hands of a deadly little African teenager. Especially not now, when he was certain he had almost persuaded a girl he'd met over the web to meet him in real life. She still seemed a bit reluctant, but he was sure he'd win her over within a few days. He didn't want to have to move out now. He'd moved before, in order to keep the police from catching up to him Ð from Chicago to LA to NYC, trying to keep to the big cities, where he was more likely to find dumb kids with to have access to computers and parents who didn't monitor their kids well enough.
It was dangerous to be hunting kids in the same city as a cyberhunter student, though. Too dangerous. He'd rather have the police know about him, ready to come after him, than hunt in the same city as one of those cyber-enhanced Africans.
Just one more. He was too close to give up on this girl. He'd get her, and then he'd run, before the cyberhunter could find him.