Chapter 46
On shaky legs I slump at the table in the staff kitchen and call Lily. ‘Tia Amboro is an anagram for “I am a robot”.’
‘What!’
‘The three Lucys worked it out; well, specifically Lucy Lou who has an analytical mind and is good with—’
‘The three who – never mind. What the actual heck?’
‘You need to post this on the Reddit thread.’
‘Me?’
‘You. I don’t want to risk it coming back to me after that cease-and-desist email but if I’m right, none of that matters anyway. Are you posting?’ I’m hyped up and shaking with nerves.
‘I’m posting, I’m doing it now. But what do you mean if you’re right?’
I inhale a steadying breath and try to calm the erratic beat of my heart. ‘It’s a joke, a con.’
‘What is? Bang, Bang!?’
‘Yes!’
‘When she shared that AI author photo, that cemented it for me. First of all, the book doesn’t even hide the fact it’s robot written; in fact, it exaggerates it. Then she announces the release of Bang, Bang 2! – with the exact same cover. No serious author would do that. It’s a game!’
‘But why? Who would play a game like this?’
‘I don’t know, but staying on this island has taught me a few things, about what people do to pass the time, and this is someone doing this for kicks. Or proving there’s a way to beat the system. To infiltrate it. I feel it.’
‘And making a ton of money to boot. Are you sure?’
‘We don’t know if they’re making a ton of money because look what they’ve dropped on promoting it! If you look at the ROI, I bet it’s abysmal.’
‘OK. Still…’
‘It’s bonkers, I get that.’
‘Totally bonkers.’
‘I’m going to prove it.’
‘Keep me in the loop and be careful.’
‘I will!’ I swipe to end the call. Wait a few minutes to give Lily time to post before I click into the Reddit forum.
r/Harpersbookhaven
AnonymousLurkerNotInLondon: Tia Amboro is an anagram for ‘I am a robot’. Thoughts? This proves Tia isn’t real, right? But who is she really? Surely Harper wouldn’t blow up her own Bookstagram page and play silly games like this, right?
BlahblahblahBoise: OMG how did we not see that?
Ohsodramatic: Wow. Maybe Harper was right all along! This really is some tech bro.
BlahblahblahBoise: Why give the game away like this, though? Surely someone was always destined to work it out. Bang, Bang! is making bank, why risk it?
Ohsodramatic: Unless it was never about the money but about the duplicity?
Unreliablenarrator708: What do you mean?
Catch22always: @Ohsodramatic means this person was making a point.
Unreliablenarrator708: Is the point in the room with us?
Catch22always: I’m guessing that they have manipulated the market using AI and it worked.
Or it was some kind of joke that will later be shared as a series of TikToks or something.
The thing is, it should never have worked, right?
Harper called it out, and no one listened.
Even us. We also turned on Harper as soon as the conspiracy theories started.
Harper got her whole life turned upside down trying to tell everyone about this.
And again, we’re back to that delicate issue of when it’s OK to call someone out over the use of AI because what if we’re wrong.
TrueCrimeAllTheTime: How do we find out who Tia Amboro really is?
Catch22always: I’m guessing whoever it is, is already following these pages and will know the anagram has been solved.
Or I could ask Tia myself. I go to my backup Instagram account and bring up her name and click to message her.
I am a robot? Really? What was the point of this book? The whole scheme? You got me fired for what reason? All for a joke? A prank?
I hit send, too angry to be rational or think of a better way to word it. There’s not much chance she’ll reply anyway.
When she does, I freeze.