“I don’t know.”
She laughed at him, but not in a mocking way.
“Well,” she said in a smoky, seductive voice that she had never used with him, “why don’t you come in so we can talk about it?”
He felt a chill and then a tingling sensation up his spine.
“Sure,” he croaked.
He knew what his going inside her house would lead to. He was ready. At least he thought he was ready. Jennifer was the first woman he’d been alone with after his wife’s death. After a moment he decided he was ready for what he knew was going to happen.
The man’s haggard face was illuminated by the large bank of monitors. He looked like a person transitioning from human to zombie. Empty coffee cups and junk food wrappers were strewn all over the workstation. The operator was so concentrated on his work that he didn’t hear the two men approach.
“Carl.”
No response.
“Hey Carl!”
Still no response. Annoyed, the tall, lean Nate Ransom tapped the distracted man on the shoulder.
“Carl!”
Startled, Carl nearly jumped out of his seat. He twirled around in his office chair. The movement caused coffee cups and fast food wrappers to fall to the floor.
“Carl, this here is Alex. He’s going to be working with you on finishing up the system.”
Carl, never one for developing personal relationships, nodded a greeting and turned back around in his chair.
“Carl.”
No response.
“Carl!”
“Yes?” he mumbled, turning back around.
“I wasn’t finished.”
Carl adjusted his thick-framed glasses and stared at Ransom.
“Sorry Nate, been working on this all night. I’m just about finished.”
All three admired the wall full of gigantic monitors, each displaying two-by-three inch images relayed to the system by cameras that were placed all throughout the town. It was early and the streets were nearly empty so there wasn’t much going on. However, the sheer number of cameras was impressive.
“How many cameras are there?” Alex asked Nate, not wanting to get Carl’s attention again. Nate looked up and the ceiling, trying to calculate the number in his head.
“Four thousand, seven hundred and fifty two,” Carl interjected before Nate could finish his calculation.
Alex whistled. “Why so many?”
“It was part of the deal with the government. Before they let us do this we had to ensure the people’s safety. This was our solution,” Nate said, gesturing towards the monitors.
Alex exhaled loudly. “How will a bunch of cameras ensure the people’s safety?”
Nate shrugged. “Beats me. But they accepted it as our solution so what can ya do?”
Alex smiled at that. Though late to the game—he’d just recently been hired by Insight Resource—he was beginning to feel like part of the whole machine. He was a recent graduate from the University of Utah in systems technology and with a young family, had looked for work locally so he could keep his wife close to her parents.
“I couldn’t do it,” Alex said, almost to himself.
“Do what?” Nate asked, confused.
“Live in a place where I knew I was being watched twenty-four, seven.”
“These people don’t know about the cameras. That was never part of the contract. We just have this for our monitoring purposes and to satisfy the government.”
“What do you think they’ll do when they find out?” Alex asked with wide, almost shocked eyes.
“I don’t know. We don’t plan on them ever finding out. That’s kind of the point, isn’t it?”
Alex looked at the monitors again. Carl was mumbling something and tapping a mechanical pencil on the desk.
“I don’t know,” Alex said. “I guess I never thought about what the point might be.”
“That’s good,” Nate said. “It’s not for us to reason why.”
“What?” Alex replied, confused.
“It’s a quote. Anyway, we just monitor what’s going on and report it to the people in charge. All those PhDs are the ones who care what actually happens. They’re in it for the money and glory.”
“Money?” Alex asked, not seeing the connection.
“Yeah. They take the results from this and publish books and papers and all that. There’s lots of money to be had here. Hey Carl?”
No response.
Nate looked at Alex. His head was about to explode.
“Carl!”
“Yes?”
“Did we get the entrance monitoring station up and running?”
Carl looked out the window at the breaking dawn. He’d been awake for almost forty-eight hours now and his brain wasn’t working at its usual capacity. Finally he said, “Yeah, they called me last night. Then that senator showed up and was asking about it.
Nate rolled his eyes.
“Senator?” Alex asked.
Nate shook his head and nearly shuddered at the memory. The senator had come into the office, walking into rooms and offices like he owned the place. Trailed by his army of security guards, of course.
“Yeah. Senator what’s-his-name,” Nate said, snapping his fingers in hopes that it would jog his memory. “Anyway, he sponsored the bill that paid for all this. You wouldn’t believe the final cost.”
“What was the final cost?” Alex asked.
Nate just stared at him.
“Come on,” Alex pleaded after a moment.
“Let’s just say I now know why our country is so far in debt, because of BS like this.” Nate shrugged again. “But let’s be grateful. This BS is why we have jobs.”
Alex nodded gratefully at that. They both looked back up at the monitors. They were going paying him a lot of money to help keep a security system up and running. He’d landed the job just in time too—his house was about to go into foreclosure. He was going to have to live with his wife’s parents. It was his turn to almost shudder.
“There’s a rumor going around, though…” Nate said, shaking Alex from his nightmare living situation. “That this is being paid for by two individuals. I guess one is a huge liberal and the other guy is some Republican from somewhere or other.”
“Yeah, but why would they throw all that money away like this?”
Nate shrugged and said, “I dunno. Why do people do anything?” he asked and then something occurred to him.
“Oh, Carl,” Nate said, needing to ask him about another problem. When he turned to look at him, Carl was fast asleep, a small puddle of drool already formed on his desk.
“Forget it,” he said, throwing up his hands in frustration and the two of them walked away.
The term “spy” seemed a tad melodramatic, but it was fitting of the position of the people hired to perform the function. They would live and work alongside everyone else in the community, but Insight Resource would be paying them an additional salary. One of these spies was Bao An Hahn. He definitely didn’t feel like James Bond, chasing babes and bad guys, that is. In fact, his cover was to fill and service vending machines. Nothing could be less glamorous in the young man’s mind.
Bao was a second generation American, the son of a South Vietnamese Army lieutenant who managed to escape the country during the last few days of the war. Bao’s father met his mother in Oakland, where many Vietnamese refugees had settled. The two went on to marry and raise five children, of which Bao was the youngest. As with most Vietnamese families who migrated to the United States, the children were driven and forced to succeed in school. There were two doctors, a lawyer, an accountant and then there was Bao. It wasn’t as if Bao was a failure, it was just that he never thought he needed to attend college to do what he wanted to do.