City Spies

Sara Martinez sits in a family court office in Brooklyn and hears the plea deal that she’s being offered for a crime she recently committed. At 12 years old, she has spent most of her life in foster homes and doesn’t fear juvenile prison, but when she hears that she won’t be allowed near a computer, this upsets her deeply. Sara’s source of joy and solace is her computer, and she struggles to control her temper in this moment. A tall, eccentric man enters the room and claims to be Sara’s new attorney. He compliments her recent operation in which she hacked into the juvenile justice system computers and tells her he needs her to do it again to list him as her attorney, admitting he’s not a lawyer. Sara is unsure whether to trust the man at first but agrees to take a risk. He picks a name from a list, “Gerald Anderson,” and allows Sara to use his custom computer. She explains her reasoning for hacking the system, stating how her last foster home was abusive. She and another, much younger child, were locked in a closet and then outside overnight, and the foster parents were using their state funds on themselves, rather than to provide for the children.