He would know it when he saw it, he told himself. He walked on, staring down at his
phone. Around him, the city bustled as he side-stepped through the throng using his
peripheries. He hadn’t gotten into one of those awkward dances in years, the kind
where two people walking toward each other, side-step the same way, and again, and
again. No, that game had changed. Head down, you either anticipated the other legs
with speed and agility, or you brushed shoulders and gave an irritated ‘sorry’.
The sidewalk began to curve to the left. Sneaking a quick glance, he noted the
buildings up ahead were getting less dense and more industrial. He didn’t like the vibe
he was getting in this direction, so at the next opportune cross-walk, he took a sharp
right and continued on. The street began to slope up-hill, but that was alright with
him. The buildings started getting older, and the streets narrower. He got a good vibe
from this direction, noticing his first bar. He had never been in this part of Montreal
before, but what choice did he have? He didn’t have access to the site he needed from
home, couldn’t afford it. It was one of those small, independent sites, the kind that
could never afford the CRTC’s regulatory fees. Plus, he only has basic Internet at home,
though he did splurge and buy a subscription to Facebook.com. Most people agreed
it belonged in the basic package, and some even tried to push for a massive boycott.
But it was hard to mobilize people en masse without using Facebook in the first place,
especially since Twitter was shut down last year after it was used to incite a protest
that turned violent in Ottawa. No, what he needed was a pirate signal to the wide web.
He glanced up and saw more people like him, staring down at their phone, avoiding
the cameras. Well, maybe that last bit was just him, not that he was doing anything
strictly illegal. Sure, he was using a jailbroken phone, and that was technically illegal,
but you couldn’t tell from the outside. It looked like any other phone, except that he
could install whatever he liked. He wasn’t restricted to what was available on the app
store, where content guidelines and CRTR approval kept out anything that wasn’t well
understood. It was the only way he could install cLAN, community local area network,
the application he was using to track the pirate signal.
His phone vibrated again, two bars. He was definitely going the right way.
#InvisibleCities 