Steps Leak Secrets

Jean-Pierre, before his retirement, was a sonar operator on a submarine. Now, he runs a small café by the Seine. He enjoys observing the passersby, just like he used to listen to the various sounds from the deep sea while on the submarine. His daily routine, besides preparing coffee for his regular customers, is to open his old smartphone and check the daily records on his pedometer app.

This app, called "Healthy Life," was a gift from his son, who said it was to encourage him to exercise more and live longer. Jean-Pierre doesn't pay much attention to it. He walks the same route every day, from the café to the nearby park and back, monotonous like his submarine patrols before retirement. What really interests him are the colorful charts and data on the app's interface. They inexplicably make him feel at ease, as if he still possesses some quantifiable presence in the vast sea of humanity.

"Jean-Pierre," said an old customer, Paul, a retired gendarme captain, placing his newspaper on the table, "did you know? The news lately says that the French Navy's submarine secrets might have been leaked. They say it's because soldiers used some sort of pedometer app."

Jean-Pierre shrugged, saying casually, "I don't understand those high-tech things. I only know my 'Healthy Life' app says I've walked over three thousand steps every day, and that my health is not bad."

Paul laughed heartily and patted Jean-Pierre on the shoulder, "You, old chap, you're still so stubborn!"

Jean-Pierre chuckled. He enjoyed these kinds of jokes with his old friends. He picked up his phone, ready to check his steps for the day, but noticed that the app interface looked different. The usual display of steps, calories, and exercise time had been replaced by strings of unfamiliar coordinate data and a dense map.

He frowned and muttered, "Is this app having problems?"

He swiped the screen, trying to find the settings, but all the menus were garbled. He shook the phone vigorously, and the app screen flickered briefly, then displayed a red warning message: "Data breach risk, delete immediately!"

Jean-Pierre's heart skipped a beat. He suddenly remembered that a few days ago, he had downloaded a so-called "military map enhancement pack" online, which claimed to improve the app's navigation accuracy. He had thought it was just a fun thing to try, and hadn't given it much thought. He quickly closed the app and uninstalled the program.

Paul was still mocking him from the side, "What, old man, is your 'Healthy Life' getting an upgrade?"

Jean-Pierre gave a wry smile and didn't answer. Something felt off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He decided to close the café early today and rest properly.

That night, Jean-Pierre lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. He had a feeling that the app on his phone was more than just a simple pedometer. He even started to wonder if his daily routes had really just been from the café to the park and back again?

He picked up his phone, wanting to see if there were any relevant reports. As soon as he opened the browser, a news headline popped up: "French Navy Responds Urgently: Submarine Operation Routes Exposed Due to Soldiers Leaking Sensitive Location Information."

Jean-Pierre's heart sank. He felt his heart rate accelerating. He opened another news website: "Naval Spokesperson States, After Investigation, Some of the Leaked Information Originated from a Pedometer App Used by Soldiers in Their Daily Lives. The Step Information Recorded by the App Could Be Maliciously Exploited to Calculate the Submarine's Trajectory."

Jean-Pierre slumped against the headboard. He looked at his shriveled hands and suddenly realized that he had thought he was just a retired old man running a café, but in reality, he might have, or rather once had, leaked a nation’s most critical military secrets. And all of this was because of a pedometer app that he had never really paid attention to.

He smiled weakly. He seemed to hear the familiar yet strange echoes from the deep sea once more. Within those echoes, there was a mixture of technological coldness and human absurdity, reverberating for a long time in the dark night.

He opened his phone and typed in the search box: "How to completely delete data." Before any search results appeared, his phone screen suddenly flickered, showing a white text line in a very small font that would be easily missed:

"Welcome to the new world."