The above image was made with stable diffusion using the prompt 'wire and colorful glass sculpture.'
The tram sped along its cable a thousand feet above one of the world's largest slums, carrying Harlen and the party of DIA executives towards Rio de Janeiro's Elite District. The executives didn't speak as they studied their devices or interacted with their implants. Attempting to fit in, Harlen fiddled with the phone they'd given him and tried not to think about the soreness on either side of his jaw where translation implants had been installed the previous week.
Closing his eyes, Harlen felt far away, regretting how he'd left things with Silver. They'd fought and broken up. She'd begged him not to go and kept insisting that something terrible would happen. Now, Harlen wondered if he was in love with Silver or just hurt that she'd rejected him. Either way, he missed her.
Dara Newcastle was seated next to Harlen. She looked his way. "You need me to go over your instructions again?" she asked.
"Stay in the hotel until tomorrow," said Harlen. "Then go with the group to the conference rooms. At some point, you'll tell me to leave, to go pick something up from an artisan outside the District. I'll go, and that's where I'll make contact with the ... uh ... artisan you're interested in."
"What happens next will depend on the artisan's situation and requirements," said Dara. "It would really be best if you brought them back to your hotel room, where we have more control. This particular hotel has a special door without biometrics for discrete encounters. Use it."
"Thanks, I received the written plan," said Harlen. "But I'm still not clear on what happens to my if I'm caught sneaking an unauthorized person into the Elite District. Isn't that a serious offense?"
"Your temporary authorization as our agent should be sufficient for the artisan," said Dara.
"Right, but what if it's not?" asked Harlen.
"Then avoid the drones and try to return to the hotel," said Dara.
"Are you going to give me any cool drone countermeasures?" asked Harlen.
"If you need them, you'll have to secure them yourself," said Dara.
"By tomorrow, in a city I've never been to, without leaving the hotel," said Harlen.
"If you're half as clever as Jack thinks you are, that shouldn't be a problem," said Dara.
Later, alone in his suite, Harlen spent an hour pacing, worrying that Silver had been right and this was all a colossally bad idea. Then he went downstairs to the restaurant and an idea came to him. "This fish is excellent," he told the robot waiter. "Would you be so kind as to introduce me to the chef?"
"Certainly," replied the bot. A few minutes later, the chef approached, smiling broadly. "You like the fish?"
"It's the best I've ever had!" said Harlen. "Listen, I have a strange request. My boss asked me to pick up a few things and there's no way I'll have time to find them before tomorrow morning. But I'm thinking you might have everything I need in your kitchen. If you have a moment to gather these things up, I'll pay very well for your trouble."
The chef's eyes narrowed. "A thousand bits, plus my cost on the items," she said.
"You're a life saver," said Harlen. "I need half a cup of sugar, a roll of heavy aluminum foil, a stack of card paper, heavy duty wire and snips, and as many whipped cream gas canisters as you can spare."
"Okay, but it sounds like your boss might just be giving you a hard time," said the chef.
The next morning, after a late night of preparation, Harlen ate with the DIA group in the hotel and joined them as they boarded a luxury van. As the party exited the vehicle and proceeded into the lobby of an office building, Dara caught Harlen's eye. "Mr Ornay," she said to him, loud enough so everyone could hear. "There is an artisan just outside the District named Xero, at a shop called Fine Wire. I ordered a basket but they can't have it delivered by tonight. Please go there, pick up the basket, and have it ready for me when I return to the hotel after the conference dinner."
Looking up the shop and mapping its location on his device, Harlen nodded. "Got it," he said. "The place is three kilometers away. Should I take a taxi?"
"Fine, but no security personnel," said Dara. "There's nothing extra in the budget for that."
"Okay, see you later," said Harlen, waving down a taxi.
The drive through the city was interesting. The Elite District looked much like the Elite District back home. The steel and glass buildings were the same. So were the vast manicured parks that almost no one seemed to use. The big difference Harlen noticed was that Rio's statues were mostly religious in nature, whereas the statues back home tended to be figures from secular history.
All similarity to his hometown ended as the taxi left the District. Everywhere Harlen looked, there were crowds of people and buildings that seemed as if they'd been made from literally any material that was handy. And these weren't small buildings. One stood ten stories tall, and appeared to have been constructed with old metal light poles and some sort of dark brown concrete.
Fine Wire was a few doors down, in a building decorated with hundreds or maybe thousands of ornate sculptures of wire and colorful glass. Getting out of the taxi, Harlen stood outside for a few minutes, examining the artwork.
"Good, yes?" said an old man sitting on a rocking chair on the packed earth sidewalk. "Inside, inside. Buy a nice gift for your mother."
"Thanks," said Harlen, working up the courage to enter the store and carry out his mission.
The place was dimly lit, with moving spots of colored light from the glass sculptural elements dancing across everything. As Harlen made his way deeper into the store, seeing no other customers, he eventually came to a sales counter. There was a bell, so he rang it. Nothing immediately happened, and he began to worry that he was in the wrong place.
Finally, Harlen heard a stirring and saw someone approach the counter from a back hallway. "You must be Mr Ornay," he heard a woman's voice say.
"Xero?" said Harlen, trying to keep the shock he felt out of his voice.
"That's right," said Xero. "I'm Jala, not human. And aren't you just the cutest beginner spy?"
"You're the ... corporate defector?" asked Harlen.
"Only if you can get me safely back to your people," said Xero. "You do have a plan for that, don't you?"
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