It’s a good thing that this was a short story/novella as the typing, which was explained as being on an old typewriter, was frustrating indeed with plenty of errors and typos. I found the story to be quite intriguing and the format worked perfectly for it. It had one of those endings though that raises a lot of questions and doesn’t answer any of the previously stated questions that bugs me and leaves a bad feeling in my mind. Once again, I must acknowledge that it fits the narrative perfectly!
I definitely see myself recommending this to other people and would read more stories set in this universe.
Summary:
Katya deals in Authenticities and Captures, trading on nostalgia for a past long gone. Her clients are rich and they demand items and experiences with only the finest verifiable provenance. Other people’s lives have value, after all.
But when her A.I. suddenly stops whispering in her ear she finds herself cut off from the grid and loses communication with the rest of the world.
The man who stepped out of the trees while hunting deer cut her off from the cloud, took her A.I., and made her his unwilling guest.
There are no Authenticities or Captures to prove Katya’s story of what happened in the forest. You’ll just have to believe her.