Shelter A Conspiracy Thriller by Ursula Poznanski Sample Translation A vigilant analysis of the mechanisms of modern superstition and a shocking thriller about a prank that becomes confusing reality.
What if you created your own conspiracy theory - and suddenly, everyone believed in it? It was half past one in the morning when the neighbours began, banging on the wall. Nando stopped the playlist in the middle of „Kick you when you're down“ by AC/DC and pounded back. "It's my birthday!" he shouted, before Liv grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back to the table. "Come on, leave it, they want to sleep." "But ... birthday. And they don't know WHAT I HAVE JUST BEEN THROUGH!" Nando looked in Benny's direction, but he shook his head, as much as he wanted his friend to celebrate. Their shared flat was not very popular in the house anyway - Benny was in a constant clinch with the Sochors from the second floor, because he allegedly parked his bicycle too close to the basement stairs. Had parked, that is, because it had mysteriously disappeared three weeks ago. But that had not appeased old Sochor, and now they were going to turn the rest of the tenants against them. too, if they flooded the whole house with Australian hard rock. "The crazies are gone now, aren't they," he said. "And if you're in the mood for some music, we could go to the Shriek, huh?" He caught a warning look from Liv, who hated the place. "Or we could play a game of ... something. Scrabble. Or Kings Cup." Nando had dropped into his chair and was looking sadly at the remains of the chocolate cake Darya had baked for him. It had been huge, a three-tiered work of art with decorations of spun sugar, but the twenty guests who had been here until recently had left little of the splendour. But now there were a few more grandiose cake photos on Instagram. more cake photos. By now there were only nine of them left, and after the sobering knock, four more people set off Nando's friends from medical school, who had given him a life-size plastic skeleton. At the beginning of the evening they had all christened it Ludwig with apple juice. Now only the smallest circle sat around the big table. - Nando, Darya, Liv, Till and Benny himself - not counting Ludwig. Till had placed him effectively the place of honour at the front. They shared the last bottle of champagne, which had become far too warm. Benny wondered who would clean up the mess in the flat later on and, above all, who would wash the masses of glasses. Nando probably not,
he was the birthday boy, and asking Liv to do it would end in a fight. Darya didn't live here unfortunately -, and neither did Till. So the cleaning would sweeten Benny's Saturday. Great prospects. At least Till was helpful, thoughtfully scraping candle wax off the tabletop with a cheap-looking piece of jewellery hanging from a chain. A gold-coloured spiral that tapered into a heavy point. Benny blinked. "What's that?" "I don't know." Without looking up, Till continued scratching. "One of Nando's presents. Christmas tree ornaments, maybe." "Exactly!" grinned Nando. "Christmas tree decorations in May. "No, dear friends, that's a pendulum. And now guess, who gave it to me so I could balance my food intolerances. Together with a Set of Healing Stones." He sighed heavily. Liv looked sheepishly at the tabletop. "Again, sorry. Sorry I couldn't control myself." "Don't be sorry. It really was unbearable." Nando fished for a transparent bag containing green. with green, white and orange chunks in it. "I'm going to be crazy healthy forever now. The healing stones you put them in water, you know, and then it becomes... tadaa! Gemstone water! Gives strength and courage and makes you beautiful!" He squinted, stuck his tongue out of the side of his mouth... and still looked good, as Benny noticed, not without envy. Liv took the little bag from his hands. "You are ungrateful, Nando. And yet they explained to you so patiently how pointless your studies are. Who needs medicine when you have Who needs medicine when you have healing stones?" "And a pendulum," Till interjected. "Exactly, and a pendulum." "You're right." Nando rubbed his eyes and began to drumming his fingers on the table. "Hey, if I my next exam, I can always become a shaman. " With one of her dance-like movements, Darya turned to Benny. Darya turned to Benny. "I didn't catch it earlier - but the stuff is from those two who were yelling like that before they left?" As always when he spoke to Darya, Benny made an effort to keep his voice as tried to make his voice sound as full and deep as possible. "That's right, Dennis and Sarina. She was the one with the long blonde braid and the sun tattoo. He was the guy in the striped jumper." "I thought so." Darya weighed the stones in her hand. Her dark curls, which she liked to tie up with colourful scarves, made her look like a shaman herself. A priestess, Benny thought, a beautiful one. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Till was also looking at her wistfully. He handed her the golden spiral thing. "Do you want to try? Do a bit of scrying?" Darya grabbed it, stood up and clamped the chain between Ludwig's teeth, then tousled Nando's dark hair. "Don't look so sad, Ferdinand. Can't have only sensible friends like me." Nando, who couldn't stand his full name, screwed up his face. "I wouldn't care if the presents were rubbish," he said. "What bothers me much more is that you can't have a normal conversation with Dennis anymore. Not since he started dating Sarina. They've seriously started up again with the chemtrail nonsense and the chips you're supposed to get implanted with vaccinations. Big, big world conspiracy." He sighed. "Honestly, I've known Dennis since school, and I like him, but I'm not going to invite him back."
"I bet he'll cut off contact with you anyway," Liv muttered. "First of all, you're studying something really scientific, and secondly, you live under the same roof as me." Point two probably weighed even more heavily, because Liv had ended the conversation, which was degenerating more and more into an argument, in her own way. She had folded two tinfoil hats and pressed them onto Dennis and Sarina's hair. "Sorry, I accidentally read your minds earlier and my IQ immediately dropped five points. Better shield your little heads." Clearly, the two had departed in a huff; Dennis silent and scowling, Sarina scolding loudly. It hadn't even been eleven then. "Well, Liv, that was a bit rough, but mostly it was funny." Darya held one of the healing stones to her left eye. "Pretty as they are." "But just regular stones," Benny muttered. She laughed, her teeth flashing. "That's what you think." She reached for a white stone and plopped it in Benny's glass. "Here. Healing champagne." Benny blew one of his red strands of hair out of his forehead, sipped and fished a spoon from the table. He looked at his distorted reflection in it. "No. It doesn't make you more beautiful," he observed. "Too bad. But who knows, maybe I'll grow horns." Together they toasted Ludwig, then Benny began to clear the table. What he did today, he would be spared tomorrow. Against all odds, Liv proved helpful, stacking dirty plates together and depositing them in the sink. To celebrate, she had gelled her short light blonde hair into spiky spikes. Like an albino hedgehog, Benny thought, not for the first time. He watched her as she began scrubbing cake cream off the plates with furious thoroughness. "Too bad mind reading doesn't really work," he said after a few seconds. "I'd be really interested in yours just now." Liv slammed the soap-soaked sponge into the sink. "Oh, nothing important. I'm just still upset about the chemtrail couple. I would have loved to argue them into the ground, but it was like walking into a rubber wall. They would be cool research subjects for a psychological study. Logic totally bounces off them." She roughly moved a plate into the drip holder. "There's a guy at my university who's like that and always tries to convert me. That's probably why I overreacted. I would have had so much fun with it ... oh, never mind." "Fun at what?", Benny inquired. She shook her head, then grabbed the sponge and twisted it between her hands as if to strangle him. "I'd like to put evidence in front of these people that's so clear they can't say anything against it. But that's the problem, the truth is too boring and too complicated for them, facts don't interest them. They don't let anything take the wind out of their sails, and ..." Till stepped up to them. "Who's sailing?" Tiredly, Liv wiped at a wine glass. "No one. I just can't get the frustration about Dennis and Sarina out of my system. Plus, I feel bad about ruining Nando's party. Maybe I should swallow one of those healing stones, then at least I'll know what's in my stomach." "Or ...", Benny began, but immediately stopped himself. The idea was silly.
"Or what?" "Or you show them how naïve they are in another way.It will probably hurt, but they will get it. And hate you forever." "Well, I don't care then." She took a tea towel from the hook and began to dry the clean plates with it. "Well, then maybe you should have done that in the first place!" Benny nudged her from the side. "Present them with a totally bullshit conspiracy theory of your own, and as soon as they'd gone for it, you'd have said haha, oops, it's all just my personal fantasies, and you'll buy it just like the other nonsense." Liv quirked her mouth. "Yeah, that would have been cool. But unfortunately I didn't think of it, and I wouldn't have been able to come up with a world conspiracy so quickly." She picked up another plate from the draining rack. "I wasn't at my best today. My lecturer rejected the topic for my bachelor's thesis, I can start again from scratch, but I only have five weeks left to come up with something new. It's disgusting." "Well, then you can't start a world conspiracy, too." He sank two champagne glasses into the dishwater. "I understand." Lost in thought, she continued to polish the long-dried plate. Benny could see it working behind her brow. "On the other hand," she said, "why not? You could definitely make something out of it. A topic for university, I mean. Something like: Alternative realities: Psychological profiles of convinced conspiracy theorists. Or something like that." She cleared the plate into the cupboard, smiling. "That would be super cool." Till had been listening to them the whole time, and by now Darya and Nando were also following the conversation; Nando with growing interest. "University stuff aside, I don't think it's a bad idea as it is. It would be great fun, wouldn't it? Funnier than making a pilgrimage to the Shriek right now." He leaned forward. "We could think of something. Something really wacky, we'll get that out among the people - see if it sticks anywhere." Darya wrinkled her nose, looking adorable. "You mean we'll develop our own conspiracy theory?" "Exactly!" Nando grabbed a few stray peanuts from the kitchen table and kept talking while chewing. "For example, we spread the word ... that I am from the future and will take over the reigns of the earth soon. Whoever wants to get on my good side should bring gifts, but hurry. I'll be so kind and share with you." "So if Benny should take on this role," Darya interjected. "He's a really good actor, has he played you his exam monologues yet?" Benny's insides grew warm, then hot. He knew he must have been bright red in the face by now, and as much as he was pleased by Darya's praise, he wished he could have taken it more relaxedly. "We hear his monologues several times every day, even when his door is closed." Nando contorted his face into a dramatic grimace. "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?" He grabbed his throat with both hands and let his tongue hang out of the side of his mouth. "Sure Benny's a good actor, and I'm sure he'll pass the test, butstill I am the ruler of the world. "
Liv had abandoned the dishes; she dried her hands and sat down at the table with the others. "So, I'm in. And I'm really thinking about burning the action for my bachelor's thesis. Just make sure the story isn't too ridiculous." "Yes!" Nando was in a good mood again. "That's exactly what it has to be! As crazy as possible - and you'll see, enough people will still fall for it. Hey, there are some who believe in lizard people." Liv nodded, slowly at first, then faster and faster. "We could look for it. We'll see if people like Dennis and Sarina take the bait. Or the guy at my institute." Benny registered Till's grin, the enterprising gleam in Darya's eyes, Liv's pugnacious expression and Nando's flash of enthusiasm. Only he himself suddenly regretted that he had not kept his idea to himself. He was so happy to have made new friends in the new city. It had now been a year and a half since his life had been so brutally turned upside down, and he dreamed about it less and less. That was certainly also due to his clique - and the fact that they knew nothing about it. What they did together was wonderfully normal; they neither pitied him nor blamed him, and Benny very much wished it would stay that way. "We don't really do that, do we?" he said. "Because, I wouldn't really feel comfortable deliberately leading people up the slippery slope and then making fun of them." "Oh, no!" Nando had jumped up to get paper and pens. "It's just a game! I think it's great fun to make up stuff like that, we don't have to be serious." He pushed aside paper napkins, remaining dishes and torn wrapping paper to make room for his writing utensils. "So." He glanced around the room. "Who rules the world?"
2 The first suggestion came from Till. He shifted his glasses and clasped his hands on the tabletop. "How about this: The secret world government has found a way to cancel gravity specifically, you see? That way they can make people disappear, they just get sucked up into the atmosphere, and they're gone. Zap. Undetectable." Liv had started to take notes, but now paused. "Nice idea, just too conspicuous, unfortunately. There would have been observations of people suddenly shooting towards the sky." Till nodded. "True." "I'd think something with an underground cave system would be cool," Darya mused. "I just can't think of what the big plan behind it would be. Hmm." "There's a lot of beauty in cave systems, though." Liv swiped at her phone. "Hang on, there are studies on what properties such a theory should have ..." "Oh no!" Nando pretended to throw himself off his chair. "We're not in university! You get to do the psychology bit again on Monday, but not today!" Undeterred, Liv scrolled on. "Ah, here. So: Conspiracy theories that are supposed to work have to have three features. First, what happens, happens in secret. Nothing is accidental, everything is planned. Secondly, nothing is what it seems. Reality has a double bottom, so to speak. What fits the theory is taken as evidence, what contradicts it is ignored." She took a sip from Benny's glass with the healing stone and squinched up her face. "Thirdly, everything is connected. The conspirators recognise each other by secret signs, but basically anyone could belong. Everyone is suspect." She looked up. "Your own neighbour, for example. Or the teacher. The man sitting next to you on the bus. Or the cashier at the supermarket. An invisible network. A secret elite. " Deep wrinkles of thought had formed on Darya's forehead. "Atlantis," she said. "Ah, funny idea." Till beamed at her. "And the conspirators are recognisable by the webbed toes? But what are they doing on the surface?" "Protesting against the pollution of the seas?" suggested Nando. "Too friendly." "Too harmless." "Yes, it makes you think of dolphins and Aquaman and Arielle ..." Now everyone was talking in confusion, laughing, only Benny kept out of it. He had another idea, and it was so full of ideas that you could put everything Liv had listed in it. A bit radical, perhaps, but it was only a game anyway. When the others were silent for a few seconds, he looked up. "Aliens," he said. "With webbed feet!" shouted Nando. He was in a good mood again. "Listen, can we start by agreeing that I am the secret ruler of the world? As a birthday present?" "Who else?" Till saluted mockingly. "Ferdinand the First, ruler of the seahorses. How should we pay homage to you?"
"I really don't think Benny's alien idea is bad," Liv interjected. "Invasion from outer space. Aliens take over Earth and no one notices." "Except when they're green." Nando started making beeping noises like a truck in reverse; watching him, it was hard to imagine him being a doctor one day. "Okay, and how do you recognise the aliens?" Till reached for a salted pretzel. "Not at all," Benny said. "They ... take over normal humans. Settle in them like parasites and control them, you know? Then everyone's really suspicious, like Liv says." "Creepy," Darya observed. "But why do they do that? What do they want?" Nando raised his hand, like a schoolboy. "Enslave us, for example?" "Too much trouble," Darya thought. "Not worth gondoling across space for." "Okay, then ... how about they hunt us down to get food?" Nando was literally bursting with new ideas. "Or they need a certain agent? What if the protein in our brains can cure them of a deadly disease?" "Aliens," Liv reminded him. "Not zombies. And that's probably not how our idea works, because no one's brains are being eaten out, so our conspiracy doesn't really work. It would have to be something that really happens. That you can observe and then think - ha, the aliens." "Global warming." While the others had been discussing, Benny had been running through various possibilities in his head. "They're looking for a new planet and they've found Earth. They like it, but it's a bit too cool for them. That's why they're raising the temperature." Liv nodded slowly, then began to write. "That's not bad. A lot of people are guaranteed to get into it." "I like it too." Darya wrapped one of her black curls around her index finger. "I'm just wondering how we're going to spread the story. Walk around and say, hey, I saw a spaceship? Hm, I could photoshop something and post it on Instagram and TikTok. With a fake account. But honestly, I don't think that's enough." Benny caught himself staring at Darya - her vivid gestures, her dark shimmering eyes. Hastily he averted his eyes, hoping no one had noticed. "It won't be enough, but we should get a few fake social media accounts anyway," he said. "Two or three each, that's enough to start discussions that others will join." He paused for a moment, listening within. Searched for the concerns from earlier, but they had disappeared. "If you want," he suggested, "I'll take care of it, create email adresses and the whole shebang." They all nodded, only Nando's face screwed up. "Sounds like it's going to be work. Playing on three fake accounts? Phew." "That's only going to be necessary at the very beginning," Liv agreed. "Once this thing rolls, we won't have to do anything. Just clear it all up at the end." Again she jotted something down, cheeks flushed as she bent low over her note. No question about it, she had found a spare subject to work on. "We need another sign," she said, "Something graphic, like the Templar Cross. Or the Q of QAnon." Groaning, Till rolled his eyes. "Right, I'd completely forgotten about that club." He chewed his lower lip broodingly. "Maybe a Greek letter? Sigma looks pretty, I think."
"One letter is already taken by the real lunatics," Darya objected. She reached for one of Liv's sheets and a pen. With practised, quick strokes she scribbled something that looked like a fork with curved prongs. "Neptune's trident. What do you think of that?" Nando nodded approvingly, Liv scratched her chin. "I don't know," she said, "It seems a bit contrived. And very terrestial, I think." "You're right." Darya drew something new, a horizontal line with an upward arc at the right end and a downward one at the left. It reminded of a mirror-inverted S. "That's what barred galaxies look like, I saw photos on the net the other day. Would fit better topically, wouldn't it?" "It does," Liv found and passed the note to Till, who looked at it sceptically. "Hmm, correct me if I'm wrong, but that looks like a letter too, doesn't it? Just upside down." Benny nodded. Put a dot under it and you had a question mark. Not so easy, even for an art student like Darya. All the memorable symbols were already taken. "The best thing would be something totally meaningless," Nando interjected. "Some random thing that everyone can put something else into and ..." He raised his hands in perplexity, at the same time Darya laughed out loud. "You are so right. And we even have a candidate already. Look." She grabbed a used paper napkin from the table and held it up. Someone must have put their glass down on it, because there was a red ring dried on the cream-coloured cellulose and another diagonally to the upper right of it, which intersected with the first. However, the glass must have been almost dry by then, because it had only left a semi-circular imprint. A whole circle and a half that looked like they were loosely interlocked. "I like that," Liv observed. "I think it's perfect too," Benny joined in. "Completely meaningless, it could mean anything. I'm really looking forward to the theories that will come out of it. If someone really falls for our story." "Want to bet?" Darya put the napkin on the table and smoothed it out. "Now all we need is for our mark to mysteriously appear. Out of nowhere, overnight."
Half an hour later they were on their way, in two groups: Liv and Nando with a can of Christmas spray paint; Darya, Till and Benny with three thick Sharpie pens. . "No damage to property, okay?" Liv warned, "but billboards or graffiti walls can take a hit." The prospect of an all-night adventure had put them all in the party mood again, including Benny. They set off, laughing and full of beans. Darya had cut two stencils out of cardboard so that the painted symbols all looked even: about forty centimetres high, the lines a good five centimetres thick. At first it was not so easy to find the right spots, but after a short time they got an eye for where the sign would stand out and at the same time not cause any damage. Benny and his group left it on squares, in subways, on zebra crossings. By now it was half past three in the morning and the streets were dead. If a car did pass by, they immediately stopped their action and waited until it was out of sight. "So far we have twenty-four," Till announced as the horizon began to lighten. "In three districts. We should call it a day, the city is waking up."
To Benny's disappointment, Darya immediately agreed. But apparently the other two were tired, only he would have liked to continue. Not because he wanted to paint more squiggles on walls, but because he enjoyed being with Darya so much. The way they communicated with brief glances and gestures. The way Darya's hand kept brushing against his when he held the stencil and she coloured in the mark. They shared a secret. Of course, Till was there too, but he mostly confined himself to keeping watch. Benny and Darya decided on the route, chose the spots and applied the symbol. They worked perfectly together, they were a team. He wanted to enjoy it as long as possible. "What do you think, should we have breakfast together?" he suggested. Darya beamed. "Good idea! I'll call Nando, maybe he and Liv want to join us too." They wanted to. Nando knew a café that opened at six in the morning, even on Saturday, not far from the city centre. When Benny entered, he smelled coffee and fresh croissants; Nando and Liv were already seated at the largest of the corner tables. "Twenty-four," Till called out, throwing himself onto the red-plush bench. "Thirty-two," countered Nando, whose hands showed visible traces of gold lacquer. "But we had the advantage, it's just quicker with spray." "We found some perfect crime scenes," Liv added, pulling out her phone and showing Benny the photos she had taken. "Right by three underground stations, absolutely unmissable. Four times we sprayed on the ground - in pedestrian zones. It looks mega and will be gone in a couple of weeks when enough people have walked over it." "We've painted a few zebra crossings," Till exclaimed, but promptly lowered his voice at Liv's warning look. "Looks darn great too." They ordered breakfast, and Benny saw Darya yawn several times. He thought feverishly about how he could further delay the moment when he would return to the shared appartment and she to her flat. "I'll set up our new accounts later then," he said. "Do you guys feel like joining? Then you can choose your own fake names." "Let's get some sleep first," Liv thought, "I'm totally over it. We can do the accounts in the evening, can't we? And then maybe do a second round, six and fifty squiggles is still a bit low for a convincing world conspiracy." "Sounds good." Darya waved at the waitress. "Then let's have a quick breakfast before bed. What time should I be with you tonight?"
Benny had boarded the tram with Liv and Nando and had watched wistfully as Darya and Till disappeared downhill towards the underground. One hundred percent de Till would try to end up with her. In the worst case, Darya would get on it. In the second worst case, she was so repelled by his advances that she wouldn't come to the flat-share tonight. Benny wished with all his might for a repeat of last night. Not that he necessarily wanted to relive the party - it had had its unpleasant moments. No, the two hours before had been much better. Darya had shown up early to help with the preparations, and for half an hour they had retreated to his room because she wanted to know what monologues he was preparing for the entrance examination to the drama school.
At first he had been incredibly embarrassed to let himself go like that in front of her. He had played the Rosencrantz monologue from "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" for her. The play was in a way a spin-off of Shakespeare's "Hamlet", it revolved around two minor characters and was quite funny. Benny had to prepare three passages for the exam - he definitely wanted the Rosencrantz included. He had knelt on the floor of his room and looked at Darya out of wide eyes. "Do you ever imagine that you're really dead, lying in a box with the lid closed?" Then he had shaken his head violently, like a small child who wouldn't eat his porridge. "I don't either. I really don't ... It's ridiculous to get depressed about it. I mean, you imagine it as if you were alive in the box, forgetting to take into account the fact that you are dead ... which is a considerable difference ... isn't it?" She had laughed and he had cheered inwardly. After the first few sentences, he had played himself free, the sense of shame gone, Darya's undivided attention spurring him on. She responded in all the right places, listening with her head tilted, not taking her eyes off him for a second. "I mean, you'd never know you were in a box. Wouldn't you? It would just be like sleeping in a box - not that I'd like to sleep in a box, you understand, at least not without air - and you'd wake up and be dead for a while - and where would you be? Except - in a box?" He had played the whole, long monologue for her without a single falter. He had immersed himself in Rosencrantz, in the young man who did not want to think about dying and yet could talk about nothing else. He had slid around on his knees, knocked on a coffin that wasn't there and felt for the first time that he really could do it. At the end, Darya had beamed and applauded. "You're good, Benny. Really, really good. I'm not just saying that, you know that, right? You've got real talent. Big time!" It had been perhaps the best moment of the last year and a half, but of course that didn't mean Darya was interested in him. Not in the same way he was interested in her. Would she get involved with someone like Till instead? He studied law, he was, in a way, the personification of a secure future. It would have been no wonder if Darya longed for someone like that. In Benny's eyes she was perfect - beautiful, clever, sometimes incredibly funny. But then again, she had a deep, sad seriousness that he knew about himself, but which in her case was probably rooted in her family history. And Till? A reliable friend, but just a nice average guy. Seen from the outside, Benny had to admit unwillingly, he was that too. Tall, lanky, with that horrible fiery-red hair. Women could camouflage freckles, but it looked stupid on men, so he wore them willy-nilly, while secretly hating them with a fervour. Well, if he was honest with himself, he had as little chance with Darya as Till. But she liked him as a friend. He knew that. Reason enough to look forward to tonight. The flat was still in chaos. Benny sighed. He had almost fallen asleep twice on the drive home, longing painfully for his bed. Despite this, he cleared the table, rinsed the remaining plates and glasses and put them in the draining rack. He took the napkin with the red circles - one complete, one interrupted like a crescent moon - and stowed it in the top drawer of his desk. No matter what others might interpret into this sign, for him it symbolised Darya and himself: she was perfect, a rounded personality, everything about her was right; he, on the other hand, was disoriented, indecisive, uncertain and without any plan in case the drama school didn't work out. Unfinished, that's how he felt.
And heavy with exhaustion. His legs, his head, his eyelids, everything. He drew the curtains and lay down on his bed. Ten thirty-two the alarm clock read as Benny closed his eyes and sleep carried him away.
3 "Lisa Aigner," Darya suggested. "My third self." The five of them sat around the computer where Benny had been creating email addresses and fake accounts on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok for an hour. Facebook was dead, they all agreed, yet Nando and especially Liv pleaded with them to register there too. "We want to reach out to all age groups, and my grandma, for example, is very active there." "Lisa Aigner already exists over umpteen times on Instagram alone," Benny objected. "But that's good. Then I'll melt into the crowd." She grabbed the bowl of popcorn from the table that Nando had just taken out of the microwave. The others were filling their new accounts with content. Following people who, by all appearances, liked to follow them back. Liking posts. Uploading a first Instagram photo. "The problem with new profiles is that you can tell how new they are," muttered Till, who had taken on two male and one female alter egos. "No friends, no pictures, no credibility." "My first profile has already been followed by eight people," Liv noted, simultaneously typing on her smartphone. "I'm subscribed to about twenty cat accounts on Insta, and I'm looking for anti-vaxxers right now. On Twitter, it's easier there than anywhere else." For the next fifteen minutes, there was almost constant silence; everyone was hunched over their phones, switching back and forth between their various identities. Benny himself had had a second account on Instagram for three years under the name Lattissimo, where he posted photos of his milk frothing skills. Swans and roses, fir trees, whales, Easter bunnies and squirrels. In his part-time job as a barista, he had developed a real passion for latte art. Since he had moved away from his old home over a year ago and no longer worked at Café Max, hardly any new pictures had been added. But the account was there, it had 3894 followers, and there was nothing to stop him using it for new purposes. Benny picked out one of the photos from last night - the sign shining black on a blue background, illuminated by a street lamp. The surroundings sank into darkness. Increase the contrast, put a filter over it, and it looked really mysterious. I saw this sign three times last night on my way home! he wrote. Anyone have any idea what it means? The first likes came quickly, and after five minutes the first comment arrived: No, no idea, but cool photo, wrote Fuxo1211. Satisfied, Benny put the smartphone aside and turned back to his computer, where his Facebook timeline was open. A former school friend had bought a car. A girl he had met on a skiing holiday was celebrating her birthday. Someone called Ellie Richter, who he didn't know who she was or why he was friends with her, posted aphorisms: Always walk towards the sun and you will leave the shadows behind. Surrounded with stars and flowers. Oh my goodness. With a sniff, Benny clicked on this Ellie's profile to unfriend her, but his finger remained over the mouse button. Maybe it wasn't a bad thing to have people like her in the friends list, because like her, he imagined the target audience of their action.
Around midnight they set off again, three of them, like last time, but this time with two brand new spray cans in their luggage. "We'll take the car," Till announced and directed them to his old Toyota.
Benny's mood sank abruptly, but he kept quiet. Sat in the back seat and fastened his seat belt, half depressed, half annoyed with himself. He wouldn't be driving himself, he would just sit in the back and close his eyes if necessary. None of the others knew his story, so he couldn't expect anyone to show consideration for him, yet he resented Till's composure as he slid behind the wheel. "We'll have the sign appear outside the city today - at petrol stations, for example, or on country roads." Darya sounded eager. "In parks!" They had christened their symbol Double Moon - Nando's idea, which they had all liked. The name fit the alien theme and hit the mark visually: a full moon and a half moon overlapping. From his back seat, Benny watched Darya pull out the notebook Liv had given her to write down all the marked locations. "Then I can see later from which areas the most reactions come," Liv had explained with a beaming face. Liv's drive pulled them all along. If Benny was honest with himself, he would have preferred to stay at home tonight, and not only because he would have liked to avoid the car ride. They were investing a lot of energy in a quest that would probably soon fizzle out. But the experiment gave him more time with Darya. She clearly enjoyed finding clever places to spray the sign and photographed each of their works. Twice they sprayed over a swastika - first they made it disappear behind a layer of black spray, then they applied the sign in shimmering silver. "Squiggles instead of hooks," Benny heard Darya whisper as they got back into the car. Till had turned the radio up loud, it was playing People Say by Don Diablo, and he hummed along as he steered the car back onto the road. "What do you say we look for suitable places near schools?" he suggested. "The kids will notice right away when something has changed, and a few of them are bound to post it." "I don't know." Benny stowed the two spray cans in his tote bag. "Do you really want to drag kids into this?" "They'd just be spreading the word," Till insisted. "They wouldn't fall for the accompanying story anyway, most of them are far too awake in the head for that." "Maybe not right outside a school, but close by?" pondered Darya. She scrolled through the photos on her phone. "We're at fifteen new graffiti at the moment. Not bad at all, I think." "And we're about to add one or two more," Till said, eagerly searching around on Google Maps. They reached the school he finally headed for in just under ten minutes. It was in a cul-de-sac, the grounds themselves were fenced and blocked off, but there was a bus stop a few metres from the entrance. Till parked the car one street over and stood guard at the entrance to the cul-de-sac while Darya and Benny took a look at the little house of the bus stop. It was already smeared from top to bottom, the waiting students had immortalised themselves in every conceivable way on the tin walls. Darya shook the spray can. "We'll do black undercoat and silvery dop pel moon again, yes?" "Yes." The characteristic smell of varnish rose to Benny's nose as Darya began to work. He glanced around. There were apartment buildings within sight, but there were no lights on behind any of the windows. Still, he had the feeling they were talking too loudly. Making too much noise. "Now the template," Darya said.
Benny pressed it onto the black surface, which was still sticky. Darya opened the silver spray and started. The sign glittered in the light of the streetlamp. "Done," Benny called muffled in Till's direction while Darya was already pulling him back to the car. They had barely risen when a man with a German shepherd on a leash turned into the street. He probably hadn't seen them, but he saw Till standing by the bus stop taking photos of their new work. Apparently he did not notice that the man was heading towards him. Benny lowered the side window to signal him or call out if necessary, but by then the man had reached him. "What are you doing?" Visibly startled, Till wheeled around and hid the phone behind his back in a guilty gesture. "Me - why? Nothing." "You just smeared something on the bus shelter." He tapped the sign with his finger. "It even still stains. That's vandalism, you know that?" With a quick grip, Till had put the mobile phone in his back trouser pocket and was now showing his hands, empty. "What am I supposed to have done that with, according to you?" The dog whined and pulled at the leash, but the man was not yet ready to leave. Suspiciously, he eyed the dustbin next to the bus stop. "Then you've just made the evidence disappear already." He didn't sound quite as accusatory as before, and Benny relaxed. If he had had to rush to Till's aid, everything would have been clear at the sight of his paint-stained fingers. "What is this, anyway?" The man pulled the zip of his jacket higher. "Some circles? Or letters? OC? Is that an abbreviation?" Benny saw Till tighten his back. "You don't know that?" he asked. "No. Why, should I?" "Depends." Till put every ounce of weight and superiority into his voice. "But if you don't know it ... if you don't know what it means, I can't tell you."
Till had walked off in the other direction, only returning to the car when the man had disappeared and the coast had cleared. "Whoa, I almost got hit earlier when that guy and his dog suddenly showed up," he groaned as they turned onto the main road. "But your reaction was so cool." Full of appreciation, Darya patted Till's arm. "If you don't know what it means, I can't tell you. Perfect, really! You left and didn't see it, but the guy took a few photos and I'm sure he's not going to let your comments go. " Till laughed out. "You think so?" "Well, sure. He was staring completely spellbound at the rings and then at his mobile phone - he didn't even see me and Benny sitting in the car, even though he walked right past us." She beamed at Till, and Benny looked down at the rubber mat at his feet. Later, after they had sprayed another ten signs and returned to the flat, he served Darya a cappuccino with the most beautiful frothy milk unicorn he had ever managed, but that didn't elicit half as much admiration from her as Till's quick wit had earlier.
The hashtag that caught on Monday morning was #Oc. When Benny came out of his room yawning, Liv was already sitting at the kitchen table. She had her notebook in front of her, smartphone in hands at the same time, and was scrolling through social media. When she saw Benny, she blew the steam from her tea in his direction in a good mood. "Eighteen photos I've found on Instagram so far. A girl took three on her way to school - one by the subway, one on a pedestrian crossing and one on a billboard outside the school." She thrust her phone into Benny's hand. He thought he recognised two of the places. Does anyone know what this is supposed to be?, it said under the posting. Saw three of them on the way to school today, they're all new. @rikky_sally has noticed them too, but we have no idea what they mean. Do you? Anyone? #signs #funnygraffito #Oc "Well, at least someone noticed something." Smiling, Benny handed the phone back to Liv. She took a sip of her tea and began typing away on the keyboard of the notebook with lightning speed. Benny groped his way to the fridge. "Are you pouring oil on the fire? Any early conspiracy theorists you can pull the wool over?" "No, I'm creating a spreadsheet with all the mentions and the texts that go with them. I also want to document where the signs are most likely to be noticed and photographed." Well, someone was really taking his studies seriously. Benny rummaged through the fridge, the result was depressing. Two pots of yoghurt with last month's expiry date, an opened jar of raspberry jam and a scrap of butter. Whose turn was it to do the shopping, his own? The bit of bread he found on the sideboard was so hard he could barely get it through the slicer, but it was better than nothing. He spread butter and jam on it before sitting down with Liv. "Has anyone come up with a theory yet?" "No. So far everyone is just puzzled and curious. Someone thinks the sign reminds them of broken chains, so they have a point. Besides, I found something cool on Instagram!" She switched to the relevant app, searched around a bit and again held the phone out to Benny. Someone called Cheri_Reich had posted a photo of the bus stop shelter he and Darya had worked on. "At our school" it said "I don't know what it's supposed to represent, but my dad was out at night with Smurf and saw someone sneaking around that painting. He asked what the sign meant, but the other guy was all mysterious. "If you don't know, I can't tell you." Totally weird. Gives Dad a hard time. Does swarm intelligence know more? " The swarm intelligence had no idea, as the comments below the thread testified. Sounds mysterious, sounds spooky, no unfortunately - no idea what that is supposed to be. That was all Cheri had to show for it. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" asked Liv, smiling with pleasure. "Probably not. What are you thinking?" "That this thread is the perfect place to throw out some initial bait." She logged in with a new fake account she must have created herself. Welcome toP3, which had already brought her to twenty-four followers, after all. Benny took a quick look at the postings - they were all pictures. Once starry skies, once the blurry shot of white crystals.
"Sugar," Liv explained at his questioning look. "And the one below that is a close-up of some road mud." He would never have recognised that, it just looked like a greyish, shimmering mass. Welcome to P3. Only now did he grasp the meaning of the name: P3, Planet 3, the third planet in the solar system. Liv had set up a welcome account for the aliens, wasn’t this nice. The text for both pictures read: Not much longer. No mucho más. "I see," said Benny. "Very mysterious." Liv grinned an exaggeratedly wide grin and called up Cheri's post again. He asked what the sign meant, but the other went full on mysterious. "If you don't know, I can't tell you." She thought for a moment, then started typing: Those who are to know it, know it. To the rest of you it is of no consequence. Tell your father not to bother about it any further. She tapped send and put the smartphone on the table. "You'll cut your teeth on your breakfast, Benjamin. You'd better go shopping. And bring some pudding. "