Welcome to ARCA

Mia didn't launch ARCA until after ten the following night.

She'd scheduled it for six. Four hours had disappeared into revision requests from two clients. After her shower, she lay on the sofa with a towel wrapped around her wet hair and stared at the invitation.

It was late. She could just go to bed.

Still, she didn't like deleting something she'd put on her calendar.

"Open ARCA."

The room lights dimmed as ARCA connected through her neural implant. A setup screen appeared in her field of vision.

Select the sensations you wish to enable in ARCA.

Temperature, wind, scent, touch.

She enabled most of them. Heartbeat sharing went on the lowest setting. Personal memory sharing stayed off.

Last came the types of physical contact she was willing to allow.

Handshakes, hugs, more intimate contact.

"Handshakes only."

Her settings were saved, and a list of destinations unfolded.

A bookstore in the snow. A pool above the clouds. Paris a hundred years ago. A hotel on a cliff. An amusement park at night.

She chose the bookstore.

Her ceiling vanished.

Wooden floorboards lay beneath her feet. Cold air drifted through an open door. She could smell paper. She held out a hand, and a snowflake settled on her palm, melting against her skin.

She reached up to adjust the damp towel and stopped.

There was no towel here.

Her body was lying on a sofa, but she could feel solid flooring beneath her toes.

"Okay. That's pretty impressive."

The first ten minutes went quickly.

She tried a few other places, but she didn't want to stay anywhere crowded. Strangers struck up conversations, and one man sent a handshake request without even saying hello. She declined and moved on. She didn't feel like explaining what she did or where she came from to someone new tonight.

She just wanted somewhere quiet.

Near the bottom of the recommendations was a small beach.

This space was reconstructed from recorded visits to a real location.

The preview showed a beach at dusk, small lights glowing along the water's edge. It looked like a good place to sit and unwind for a while.

She selected it, and sand slipped between her toes. The breeze smelled of salt. Waves broke softly in the distance. It was much like the beach a short walk from her room in Bali, except her hair didn't stick to her face, there were no mosquitoes, and she wouldn't have to rinse the sand off her feet afterward.

Smiling to herself, she walked along the water.

Then she noticed a man sitting alone on the breakwater. Black shirt, light-colored pants. Unlike the elaborately styled avatars elsewhere, he could have been someone sitting on an ordinary beach. She kept her distance as she passed, not wanting to disturb him.

"You'll have to turn back if you go that way."

Mia stopped.

The empty stretch of sand seemed to go on ahead of her.

"Why?"

"They're still building it. You can't get through."

Despite the warning, she took a few more steps.

A line appeared in front of her.

This area is not yet available. Please turn back.

She heard a laugh behind her.

When she turned, the man was looking out at the water as though nothing had happened.

"Did you just laugh?"

"A little."

"Because I went anyway?"

"Yes."

He admitted it so readily that she couldn't think of anything to say.

She walked back toward the breakwater.

"Do you come here often?"

"Sometimes."

"Why here?"

He looked at the sea.

"It's quiet."

"Sorry to ruin that."

He glanced at her and shifted a little to one side.

"You haven't. Yet."

Mia sat down, leaving room for three people between them. The surface of the breakwater was cold and rough beneath her palms. Waves broke against the stones below.

Neither of them said anything.

Strangely, the silence wasn't uncomfortable.

She'd only meant to stay for ten minutes.

Somewhere along the way, she'd stopped keeping track.