by John Marrs
They entered the bedroom, Louie first and then his father. Louie would be sleeping in here alone, but cameras and motion sensors would monitor him at night, alerting the staff to any problems. As he was nonverbal, a standard-issue monitor had also been inserted under the surface of his wrist to measure health issues that he couldn’t communicate. Bruno had already laid out Louie’s clothes and toys in strategic positions around the room so they were instantly recognisable to help with his transition. His favourite toy, a stuffed green Tyrannosaurus rex, was sitting upright on his pillow.
Bruno and Cally watched carefully as Louie tried to make sense of why all his possessions were now here and no longer at home. And when he began tapping the side of his head with his fingertips, his father recognised it as a sign of agitation. He removed his phone from his bag and passed it to Louie to play with. It was a useful calming tool that often stemmed outbursts of negative emotions.
“Leaving him alone for a few minutes each day over the last few weeks means he’s used to spending time here,” Cally assured Bruno. “When you feel ready, I’ll see you back in the lounge.”
Bruno watched quietly as Louie worked his way around the phone with more skill than his father. He appeared to be playing some kind of complex word and shape puzzle that looked too advanced for someone who’d yet to reach his teens. But Louie had a habit of surprising his dad.
“What are you doing, mate?” he asked, peering over his son’s shoulder. Bruno began recognising hidden patterns and numbers but Louie was way ahead of him, slotting them all together. Bruno’s synaesthesia, known as personification, was the most common; it enabled him to give humanlike personalities to numbers, letters, and days of the week. He would never know if it had been inherited by Louie. But Bruno assumed that it had and that it was much more powerful in his son, enabling him to solve puzzles like this and others with lightning speed.
Louie looked at his father and showed him the completed puzzle before directing his attention towards a box of Lego under the window. He frequently lost himself for hours in the world of colourful building blocks. It was Bruno’s cue to leave. He only wished that his boy could say goodbye.
* * *
—
BRUNO PERCHED ON the edge of the single bed, surveying the pitiful room. To his left was a kitchenette, comprising only an oven, a sink, and three cupboards. Ahead was a sofa bed, a television, a wardrobe, and a chest of drawers. The room’s square footage could have fitted inside the lounge of his and Zoe’s family home. Outside and across the corridor was a bathroom he shared with the owners of the Thai restaurant below. It was a world away from all he loved.
His home and most of its contents had been sold or auctioned to repay his mortgage arrears, for legal bills, and for Louie’s private care home. His wife and son were gone along with Bruno’s determination and hope for a brighter future. The only plus in a world of minuses was that for now, Louie was receiving the best help money could buy.
Bruno had taken very little with him from the house he had been forced to leave. Family photographs had been stored in the cloud, to be played on a loop and on a digital frame in Louie’s room. Bruno, however, wanted no such reminders of Zoe around him. He didn’t believe the accusations that made her sound like a predator prowling her office corridors, harassing colleagues and promising promotions in return for sex. But at the very least, she’d had an affair. Now when he thought about her, an image of her having sex with the man she died with obliterated fifteen years of marriage. He would never forgive her.
The alarm on his smart speaker sounded, making him aware of the time. He opened the bathroom cabinet and removed a tub of Vaseline. As a recent employee of online retailer 1-STOPSHOP, he was low down the pecking order of his warehouse depot job. And it meant that he was only permitted to wear the basic exoskeleton model used to lift heavy pallets. It was engineered to reduce joint pain and aching backs and had not been built with comfort in mind. Even covering his shoulders and wrists with Vaseline wasn’t enough to stop the metal frame from leaving him chafed most days.
Suddenly his watch vibrated: it was an email alert congratulating him on solving a puzzle and urging him to respond as soon as possible. It was the third he’d received that week, along with several missed calls. He drew a blank when he tried to recall entering a competition, then remembered the game Louie had played on his phone. Louie must have completed it. Bruno wondered if there was a cash prize involved that might go towards paying for a seventh month at the care facility. It was worth a look, he decided, and opened it.
What would you say if we offered you the opportunity to start your life again?
Once more he glanced around his bedsit. And without giving it any more thought, he pressed the read more button.
** CONFIDENTIAL **
TOP SECRET: UK EYES ONLY, CLASSIFIED “A”
THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT
MINUTES OF JOINT CYBER-ESPIONAGE/INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE ASSESSMENT MEETING 11.6
“THE ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO STORAGE OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS”
** Please note this is an account of the minutes taken from the above meeting. Portions of text and certain participants have been redacted to prevent threats to security. **
LOCATION:
████, ███
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Edward Karczewski, Operations Director, █ █ █ █
Dr. Sadie Mann, Director of Psychiatric Evaluations
Dr. M. J. Porter, Head of Neuroscience
██████████, Ministry of Defence (MoD), Porton Down
██ ███, MI5
William Harris, HM Government’s Minister for Central Intelligence
NONMEMBERS PRESENT:
Prime Minister Diane Cline
PRIME MINISTER: Have you all lost your bloody minds?
EDWARD KARCZEWSKI: I appreciate that at face value, yes, it might appear that way. And I accept this is a very radical, revolutionary solution.
PRIME MINISTER: Might? It might appear that way? First you send our classified information off on its travels in the backs of lorries and boats and God knows what else, and now you’re trying to convince me that the fate of our country lies in the hands of people whose only qualification is solving a bloody puzzle? ██████, please tell me I’m misunderstanding something.
██ ███, MI5: My initial reaction was similar to yours, Diane. But please hear them out.
EDWARD KARCZEWSKI: It’s much more complex than that, Prime Minister. I’d like to introduce Dr. Porter, Head of Neuroscience at Dunston Laboratories. She is the leading scientist behind this procedure and can explain it in more detail.
DR. PORTER: Prime Minister, what you’re watching on the screen in front of you isn’t just a puzzle. It’s a complex configuration made up of three-dimensional images and letters, colours, shapes, and numbers, all hurtling around at pace and in random directions. It’s designed to test certain aspects of the brain’s functions, such as recall, problem solving, identification, and separation of information using the parts that interpret vision and hearing. To people with a condition called synaesthesia, this all makes perfect sense. What can take us hours or even days for our brains to interpret—if we can do it at all—they can locate in seconds.
PRIME MINISTER: My university flatmate had synaesthesia. It’s where people see colours when they hear musical notes or time can have specific shape, isn’t it? She swore blind she could taste flavours based on a photograph or a sound.
DR. PORTER: That’s correct. Approximately one in 280,000 people are born with a form of it. We believe it’s a cross-wiring in the brain that leads to the blurring of senses. Our brains are split into four separate sections. Some synaesthetes are born with all four sections’ connections u
niquely overlapping. And it’s that abnormality which will enable them to solve our puzzle that as yet, no computer algorithm can decipher.
PRIME MINISTER: Your use of the word abnormality concerns me.
DR. PORTER: I assure you, the term is used in a positive way. Their abilities demonstrate how receptive their brains are to storing massive amounts of data, specifically when it’s broken down into code. As you are aware, DNA is a single molecule that stores all the data that makes us who we are as individuals. But we can now turn anything into code, even voices and images. A limitless amount can be stored on a single strand of DNA, the equivalent of seventy billion floppy disks. For four years, I’ve been leading a team of scientists turning everything hidden from public view in our nation’s archives into binary code. It’s now ready to be stored in microscopic DNA and injected into the part of the brain critical for memory and learning.
PRIME MINISTER: Can they access this sensitive data?
DR. PORTER: If they wish to, yes. But they will be trained not to. The DNA will be stored inside a plastic bead and injected into lesser used sections of their brains, where the contents will disperse and can only be retrieved in a laboratory procedure where they are encouraged to migrate back to the bead. The bead cannot be transferred from one person to another or survive outside the body beyond our specialist laboratories. It is also biodegradable and after a period of five years will dissolve and be absorbed into their system. All they have learned will disappear with it.
EDWARD KARCZEWSKI: But by then, our nation’s security will be permanently unhackable.
PRIME MINISTER: If this bead is so small, why not just store it somewhere else? Anywhere else? Somewhere completely off-grid. Not in a human . . . perhaps an animal?
EDWARD KARCZEWSKI: It’s an option that’s been thoroughly investigated, but only human brains have proved suitable. Besides, if it’s stored anywhere else, a record of it would always exist somewhere, placing it at risk of being hacked and held to ransom.
DR. PORTER: However, a person cannot be hacked. And who would think to look inside a human being?
PRIME MINISTER: But humans are fallible. They can be compromised.
EDWARD KARCZEWSKI: Not if they’re of the correct mindset. We’ve calculated the risk potential of candidates turning rogue after we have rebuilt them and it’s negligible. Each will be eager to start their life afresh under a new identity and will have access to funds to make this happen. But first, over several intensive months of training, their consciousness will be stripped and rebuilt according to the criteria required for a successful deployment. They will be taught to assess all risks and react accordingly, to trust no one, and to die or to kill for their country if necessary. Keeping themselves and what they know safe will be their only priority. Once their five years are complete, we will help them to relocate anywhere in the world they desire and they will be financially compensated.
PRIME MINISTER: And if they are, for example, discovered and tortured for what they know?
EDWARD KARCZEWSKI: We have developed a medical procedure to ensure that the somatosensory cortex and thalamus do not recognise pain. So our candidates could break a leg and feel nothing. Please read the attached contract of employment for further details.
PRIME MINISTER: And if they choose to sell our secrets or give them away? I assume there to be consequences?
██ ███, MI5: The candidates will sign the Official Secrets Act papers and will be reminded of the severe ramifications to any friends or family if they put the programme at any risk. We are prepared to punish not only them but anyone they have been close to by ██ ███ █ █ and if necessary, ██ ███ ███ ███ ███████████████████████. They will also be declared an enemy of the state.
PRIME MINISTER: How do you propose to find these candidates?
DR. SADIE MANN: Mass media and targeted online advertising. Those who complete the puzzle in the fastest time will demonstrate a defined ability to retain and process data. Under anti-terrorism laws, we have access to every recorded online click a British citizen makes. Our analysts will gather a candidate’s personal data from hundreds of private and public sources, including their phone, work, and home Wi-Fi, to make estimates about their personalities and how they might fare in different scenarios. Entrants will be filtered until we have the most suitable candidates and they will be invited for an interview. Inside this document you will find in detail everything they will undergo in the programme.
** EDWARD KARCZEWSKI has offered printed documents to each person in the room **
PRIME MINISTER: Where will you hide them once their training is complete?
██ ███, MI5: They are free to travel to wherever they please within the confines of the British Isles.
PRIME MINISTER: And how do we follow them? Do we implant tracking devices in their wrists like we do with our children?
EDWARD KARCZEWSKI: There will be no way to follow them either by GPS or by satellite. If we can’t find them, our enemies can’t either. I am the only person who will know their identities and, roughly, their whereabouts.
██ ███, MI5: Other members of this programme will be aware of how to communicate with them. The public message board ReadWell is the largest online book club in the world with twenty million subscribers. Our “Minders” will regularly log on for updates, and only if their mission is at risk will we send them a recall notice to pre-assigned safe houses.
PRIME MINISTER: William, if it came to it, have you calculated the cost of giving in to the Hacking Collective’s demands?
WILLIAM HARRIS: As our economy has grown and we are now one of the world’s fifteen wealthiest countries, we estimate the one- to two-trillion-pounds mark.
PRIME MINISTER: I need time to consider this.
EDWARD KARCZEWSKI: Unfortunately, we don’t have that luxury. After the attack on the lorry, our data is once again vulnerable.
PRIME MINISTER: You must all appreciate that if this crackpot scheme of yours backfires, it’s my name that will forever be associated with bankrupting our economy. That is a legacy worse than taking us to war with no proof of weapons of mass destruction or even the Brexit referendum.
EDWARD KARCZEWSKI: I understand that, Prime Minister. But we need to give our programmers and engineers time to find a way of stopping the Hacking Collective, securing critical infrastructures, and creating deterrence tools and an infallible, unhackable system. And we estimate it will take at least four to five years to create it from scratch. The Minders will give us the peace of mind and breathing space to do just that.
PRIME MINISTER: And when will your programme be ready to roll out?
EDWARD KARCZEWSKI: Very soon, once we iron out some teething issues.
DR. PORTER: They are very minor and I am confident it can happen within the next couple of months.
EDWARD KARCZEWSKI: Are you sure of that . . .
DR. PORTER: I stake my reputation on it.
WILLIAM HARRIS: This is about staying one step ahead of the enemy, Prime Minister. We need to protect ourselves now and make sure we are future-proof. Our freedom depends upon it.
PART TWO
CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT
I, [INSERT NAME], have been selected as a suitable candidate for Operation █████ ███. I agree to become a data storage device of confidential information relating to the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, allies, and enemies.
I am aware that my further involvement in the programme is confidential and subject to the Official Secrets Act.
By participating, I provide my explicit consent to the medical and surgical procedures outlined below to be performed by medically trained r
epresentatives of His Majesty’s Government.
The proposed medical procedures involve:
Injecting genetically enhanced, microscopic DNA containing the confidential information into the subject’s pyramidal cells of the brain’s limbic system.
Invasive neurostimulation to improve learning and handling of stressful situations.
Thalamus manipulation to provide significant reduction in feeling physical and emotional pain/consciousness.
Ongoing psychological assessment and re-education.
The procedures have been explained to me, in terms I have understood, including information about (1) how the procedures are to be performed; (2) associated risks to me personally, which may include but are not limited to strokes; depression; anxiety; paranoia; schizophrenia; reduction in pain and emotional sympathy, resulting in mutilation and harm to self and others; and infertility.
In exchange for my service to King and country, I will receive recompense to ensure that I can live a fulfilled life in my chosen location within the United Kingdom for the five years I will be a Minder. I will be required to adhere to all policies and rules, which include:
Severing all ties with my former life, including family, employers, friends, etc.
Maintaining a normal existence so as not to draw attention to myself.
Avoiding all internet/online usage, which could result in a trail being left.
Not divulging in any way the confidential information I am retaining.
