Legwork

Whatever this is, I know what I need.

I drop a bitworm into my net node. Then another. And another. The first pingback confirms what I already know. The numbers are coordinates. Geographic ones intersect in the city. Electronic ones match an adjacent public node.

The second worm brings search results. Not mine, everyone else's. Most of these are incidental, which makes sense. People looking for a local business would get the string without explicitly asking for it. The deliberate ones seem to originate from the location itself - which, again, makes sense. If you're meeting someone, you'll want to point them to the right spot.

Then the third worm pings back. The one I told to watch for watchers. It tells me that someone is monitoring the searches for the string, yes, and that someone is at the location itself. Which makes sense if they expect me to show up. And now that they've seen me look, they'll know I'm coming.

If I'm coming. It's not too late to bail.

Well, I'm coming. Time to get ready.