****
“Charlie, Timber’s in,” Dan said back at Charlie’s apartment.
“Good. We need that information out for all of us to use. Not just Timber. There is some new technology out that can be mixed with other substances. It makes detection barely noticeable. It’s a form of liquid electronics.”
“Okay?”
“I’ll pass it to Sam and Sheila to make sure whoever these people end up being, use it. Fred has to have access to that information. We can’t have Timber being the sole conduit,” Charlie finished.
“How are we going to make sure that happens?”
“I don’t think there’s an easy way. I’m going to make a visit when we’re wrapping this thing up,” Charlie said.
“Yeah. Even so, she could end up holding back,” Dan said.
****
Sheila and Sam arrived at work on time as normal. They both went about their daily routines, marking off assigned tasks, attending scheduled meetings, and analyzing data that came through their offices. Sam had lunch with the corporate big wigs as was usual, contributing to the discussion of boats, houses, and cars they all had or wanted to have. They also talked about the daily tasks that remained unfinished.
“Sam, has there been anything unusual in your office?” asked one.
"Not really. Same processes being worked as before. I have some ideas on how to continue to streamline our methods.”
“Yeah, like what?”
“Just the improvements that we’re constantly looking at. We are trying to make the processes more efficient, as we always do. I’m not sure we’re going to be able to improve any further on our methods. As you all well know, man-hours and resources have been poured into these processes to make sure we’re taking advantage of every possible short cut available. To get us to the next level, we would need to analyze what’s happening on a broader scope, taking a look at data across all spectrums of The Corporation.”
A few of the executives looked at each other around the heavy dark iron lunch table, and then back at Sam. “Do you think you can make a change for the betterment of the company?” one of them interjected.
“Oh, of course,” Sam said. “But I would have to hire some new people, and we would have to process large swaths of the current protocols. It would be an immense project that would take time and resources. We would be analyzing many aspects of how we do business.”
“It sounds like you think it’s too big a task to handle.”
“It can be done. It will need priority within my office, as well as workers with security privileges to accomplish the job.”
“Sam, two more people, three more people, four more?”
“Uhhh, well if you’re seriously asking me to pursue this. And to make sure, you are asking me to pursue this right?”
“Sam, if you can’t handle it, we can—”
“I would like four new employees, and I want full control.”
“Done. Let us know what you find,” responded another. As soon as he finished speaking, he turned to another, “I got my wife tits last month,” and broke into haughty laughter.
****
“Sheila, my office,” Sam yelled into the intercom system. The system they employed was state of the art. The communications suite could be organized by geographic sections of The Corporation, by levels, by departments, by people, or any other discriminator the user desired. All Sam had to do was command a transmission out and that transmission would connect to the required area of the company. Sheila was down in her office going over streams of data from this morning when she received the message. She ran up immediately, closing the door behind her as she walked up to Sam sitting behind his large wooden desk. Sam, again, differed from convention. He had a wooden desk delivered to this office. Almost everywhere else in The Corporation, steel reigned. It was deemed more efficient and thus, a better choice.
“Green light,” said Sam. “I want four, trained and ready to go. They need to be able to pass the security check.”
Sheila nodded and left the office. She would pass the information to Dan after work, upon leaving at her normal time. It was imperative that Sam and Sheila’s daily activities remained unchanged. Although the executives had approved the new employees, there was no need to lead a trail to their origins. Sam developed and submitted the job request and filed it through the company’s human resources department. Sam would ensure the future employees applied through the appropriate channels, developing a legitimate paper trail for any curious eyes. Of course, Sam controlled the hiring, so their resumes would be built around the requirements. That night Sheila met with Dan and Charlie, passing them the criteria for the team Sam was to put together.
Charlie sent Dan and Sheila over to Timber to deliver the requests. At the meeting, one of the tech guys documented the requirements and started generating the dossiers for each of the four people assigned from Timber’s crew.
Sheila scrutinized the man as he partitioned out the information. “We need the credentials to reach back far enough to give each the credibility required for the job. Keep them vague where you can. The Corporation’s background checks are fairly thorough, but not all details need to be verified as long as red flags don’t start popping,” Sheila instructed.
“Yes ma’am,” the technician said as he typed.
The man set about embedding data in various networks to leave a trail of “proof” for their pretend characters. A rudimentary background check, even with accompanying interviews, would be fooled by the breadcrumbs left. Should capable detectives sift through the available specifics or mount a full investigation, the thin trail of evidence would soon unravel.
Over the course of the next few days, Sam, with the help of Sheila, reviewed applications to include the four from Timber’s crew. All applicants were processed through the resource department at the company. As they were input and vetted, Sheila fed details of the additional unknown applicants to Timber’s team. For each of the potential applicants, adverse information was introduced within their backgrounds. Over the next few days, the applicant pool dwindled to six potentials, each interviewed by Sam and another executive. The four from Timber’s crew were eventually chosen at the request of the additional executive.
The four reported the following day to a room designated by Sam, connecting to Sheila’s office. Sheila oversaw their tasks, limiting any unneeded exposure with other employees. They began to comb and analyze years of decisions and data that streamed through The Corporation’s networks. Any outside digital device connected to one of the terminals on the network, would have triggered alarms within the company. Due to this, the team employed the passive collection system Charlie had described, capable of imaging data displayed on the screens. The images were then stored in a liquid soft drive mixed with coffee in each of the thermoses they carried. It was fairly reliable when transporting sensitive data. At worst, an elevated heat signature might fail to pass detection but that could be attributed to the coffee. The only other concern was mistakenly drinking the contents. This led to required urine samples for the following twenty-four hours.
“Ma’am, we should be good for today,” one of the four informed Sheila at five that afternoon.
“Okay, sounds good. Take the main route out of the building. Don’t linger with others,” Sheila instructed.
As commanded, they each made sure to walk by as many surveillance cameras as possible before out-processing through the official exit checkpoint. The plan, coordinated earlier with Sheila, was that couriers would intercept the four new employees who then transported the thermoses back to Timber. Upon successful information extraction, the couriers returned the thermoses to the corporate spies. This dance went on for the next few days, as the team was able to extract a decade’s worth of information. Charlie had informed Sheila he was still not altogether comfortable with the fact that they were reliant on Timber and had no recourse should she decide to change the terms of their arrangement. Sheila was his main eyes and ears, mo
nitoring the entire process.
****
On the last night, Charlie accompanied Dan during a thermos drop off.
“Hello, Charlie,” Timber said smiling.
“Timber,” responded Charlie.
“Checking on your product?”
Charlie could play coy, but long ago, he had learned Timber was as smart as she was beautiful. “Forgive me, Timber, for being somewhat apprehensive. I only know you by reputation, and much of that is somewhat mysterious or at least hyped up. This collection is a key piece in our plan.”
“Don’t worry, Charlie. You have no idea how much I want what you want. Fellas,” Timber continued as she turned to two guys sitting at the terminals, “please show Dan and Charlie, our guests, what you have been doing with your time and my hard earned dollars.”
Charlie and Dan walked over to the terminals and saw the masses of information mixed in holographic representations. The computers were still processing most of the figures, but patterns were beginning to emerge. These patterns were then separated and analyzed further to pinpoint trends and weaknesses that could reveal possible motives of The Corporation and The Proxy.
Identifiers were also fed into the analysis to crosscheck potential third party discriminators. For example, if the group was currently analyzing administrative rulings over the course of the last decade, external factors such as the time of year, demographics of all interested parties, weather, important political events that were happening at the time, and even public opinion poll records were introduced. The idea was to generate patterns of behavior and conclusions that could be isolated as procedure, with the ultimate goal being to verify how the operation worked.
Charlie sat down at the terminal and started scrolling through the processes streaming down the screen.
“Hey,” said the analyst.
Charlie ignored him and documented where the identifiers were being introduced. He wanted to make sure Timber was doing what she had promised. When he was adequately satisfied, Charlie stood up. The analyst looked at him, not knowing what to say.
“Ma’am, we’ll be done processing by early tomorrow morning,” he finally mustered.
Timber looked at Charlie in expectation. “Well big man, you heard him. Is this still going to your friends down south?”
“Yeah. Dan’s ready to transport it as soon as it’s ready,” responded Charlie.
“Okay, come back tomorrow morning.”
Charlie and Dan decided to go see what Pam was up to. Charlie hadn’t seen her in a couple days. They had all decided it was best to limit interaction within the group to situations that were necessary. It was too dangerous to test whether a random surveillance node would pick up the few of them together, or see one or another traveling in the wee hours of the night where they had no reason to be. Careful was all well and good and he supported it, but damn he wanted to see Pam. She had left him a written note the other night thanking him for everything thus far. She had signed the note with a little smiley face that only girls can draw. For some reason, any time a guy reads a note from a girl with one of those, he gets the misguided notion that she loves him, even if the note’s only purpose is to say thanks for ordering the special at a steakhouse.
“Charlie… Dan, hey guys,” greeted Pam. She must have missed them too. She came running over and grabbed them around the necks, giving each a squeeze hard enough to choke off the air.
“We’re going down to see Fred tomorrow,” said Dan.
“I’m in,” responded Pam.
“Are you sure it’s a good idea that all of us travel together?” asked Charlie. After much debate, so much so that an outsider listening in would think these three were trying to solve the issue of world hunger, they agreed that Dan would travel alone.
“Dan, take this with you,” Charlie said.
“What is it?” Dan asked.
“Have Fred plug it into his console when you’re down there. I’ll be able to monitor what you guys are doing. Hopefully, I can provide some insights to help.”
“Sure,” Dan said as he took the little device.
****
Dan arrived at Timber’s early the following morning. He sat with Raoul and discussed his current weight lifting regiment. Timber’s crew was finishing the final steps of their analysis. As soon as he had everything, Dan left, traveling down to Los Angeles as Pam and Charlie had done before. It had been years since he had visited the city. As he exited the central train station in Los Angeles, he saw a big black and white sign, with City 17 written on it. It hung there as if to label the city for someone who didn’t know where they were. There was no welcome or other slogan. The simple placard was stamped against one of the main entrances to the city. He was sure similar ones existed across the globe, positioned at major entry and exit points, as beacons to another point in space in this new world.
Dan arrived at Fred’s place midafternoon. Fred was teaching a combined meditation and yoga class down on the bottom floor of his home. Dan couldn’t tell which, because it seemed as if everyone remained in deep concentration for prolonged periods of time, intermixed with crazy body poses that defied physical ability. Dan sat upstairs with Manuel. Manuel didn’t pay too much attention to Dan, as he was busy preparing some equipment. It looked as if Manuel was setting up a control center in the little room near the center of the house. The room had cords and cables routed down into the wooden room where Fred was conducting his class.
Around three in the afternoon, Fred finished, thanking everyone for their participation and focus. The students filed out of the front door onto the street. Fred came up and greeted Dan, foregoing the normal pleasantries, asking immediately if Charlie and he had been successful attaining the information from The Corporation. Dan handed over the five liquid core drives that Timber’s team of mad computer scientists produced from the company’s drives.
Fred took the drives from Dan and went over to discuss something with Manuel. After a little deliberation, Manuel placed the drives on a single platform above the workstation he had rigged together in the control room. The platform was able to extract the information Timber’s team had loaded into the drives. This was then uploaded onto a central drive that could hold the information as a standalone network accessed solely by connected terminals. Timber’s team had done most of the work, analyzing the information and developing the patterns that existed. Fred’s system repeated much of the same, creating life size scenes that filled the large wooden yoga room.
“Manny, is Charlie up?” Fred asked. Manny gave Fred a thumbs-up from the main console area. Fred handed Dan a small clip. He picked up one as well and clipped it inside his right earlobe, gesturing to Dan to do the same. Somewhat reluctantly, Dan complied. As soon as he did, he felt a strange sensation that some third party was now occupying part of his brain. Fred didn’t say anything as he led Dan down into the yoga room.
Fred and Dan sat across from each other, as Manuel remained at the terminal above. With the additional information surrounding them, coupled to the images broadcasted throughout the room, Dan started to associate a connection with what he was witnessing to the third party sensation. Fred sat with his eyes closed, lost in deep concentration, observing the same things as Dan. Timber and Fred’s system had been able to combine and collate the petabytes of information retrieved from The Corporation. Dan and Fred were now able to witness the information and reactionary decisions played out over the course of the past decade. These were generalized into patterns of behavior, providing a depiction of the motivations behind the actions, rather than the actions themselves.
After an hour, Fred got up. Dan was still entranced with the sheer volume of information that encircled him. It was as if the core of everything he had been taught, and conditioned to obey or fear, was laid bare before his eyes. Every minute detail was present for him to witness. He couldn’t stop searching.
He was even able to narrow down to a traffic ticket he received when he was sixteen years old. He had been drivin
g a friend to swim practice and decided to run a stop sign because they were both late. As he flew through the stop sign, he saw a police car sitting nearby and in so doing, smashed into a parked car. The son of a bitch police officer met him in the hospital and handed over the ticket for running a stop sign. Now, he was able to view the case from the point of view of the judiciary. This type of scenario could be viewed for anything that had occurred. Situations could be viewed with as much or as little detail as he wished. Fred finally strolled over to Dan and unclipped the device from his ear.
“Charlie’s on the line,” said Fred.
Dan stumbled to his feet, trying to get his bearing now that the third party, previously lodged in his brain, was gone.
“We’re missing something,” said Charlie.
“What? Everything is there, everything we could possibly want,” replied Dan.
“We need real time information,” Charlie continued.
Not good, thought Dan. Real time information meant more people in The Corporation, and it also meant a live feed, which would require monitoring or retrieval on a regular basis. These were all aspects of a scenario, which would leave them exposed.
“I agree with Charlie. Dan, we live on information. If we are going to make this work, I need to be able to observe while events are actually happening,” said Fred.
“I don’t know guys. This is not going to go over well.”
“I need you to convince them that this has to happen. Both of you. We have to have this. There comes a time when you have to make a decision. Do you want to live your life? Or do you want to live your life, Dan? Because right now, we aren’t. This is the way for us to take back our lives.”
“You’re asking a lot of the people who will have to get this,” exclaimed Dan.
“Don’t think I don’t know that and don’t think I do it with a light heart. I know what I’m asking and I also know what it’s worth,” replied Fred, as he held Dan by the shoulders.
Dan sped off thirty minutes later with the formatted liquid drives. Fred uploaded the information, all evidence signaling an attempted coup. That night he met Charlie, Pam, Sam, and Sheila at one of the blind sites and told them everything Fred had instructed. Charlie didn’t say much, just to echo Fred’s convictions. There wasn’t much to say, as Sam and Sheila were the ones that held the keys to what Fred requested.
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