I was going to tell Sergeant Garcia, Major Daniels said, that there was no way for anyone to avoid our surveillance until the events of tonight, which now forces me to seriously consider that there is someone out there that can avoid being seen by our system.
Colonel Ortiz said, Are you trying to say that someone has the ability to become invisible?
Yes, I guess I am, Major Daniels replied.
Hes not invisible, Danielle mumbled as she stared at the display.
How could she know that? Esa wondered to himself.
How else would you explain what happened tonight, Miss Ash? Major Daniels asked sharply.
Danielle looked up from the screen with a startled expression, then looked at Major Daniels and said, Im thinking about that, but the evidence suggests that hes not invisible.
How did you come to that conclusion? Esa asked.
Major Daniels, will you go back to the video you showed us of the five men as they approached the wall? Danielle asked.
Major Daniels pressed a button on his display, and the screen began showing each of the five men as they moved towards the wall.
Danielle said, I want you to notice that each of these men is looking at the wall as theyre moving. They see their victim; notice right here that one of them is pointing at the front attacker to hurry to get ahead of the victim. Notice that all of them arrive at the same time, surrounding the person they selected to attack. They have to be able to see him to do that. I also think that if you go back a little further in the tape youll see that they followed him when he passed the buildings south of here. Theres no doubt in my mind: they see him but your cameras dont. One more thing, isnt the Bill Clinton School south of here?
Esa just stared at Danielle for a long moment. Major Daniels was surprised by her memory of the previous videos. Major Daniels looked at the video again and had to agree that the attackers had to be seeing the person they were following. Then Esa said, Miss Ash, who is your general department head?
Danielle looked nervous, wondering what she had done wrong. Larry Wharton has overall command of my division.
Hold on just a moment, Miss Ash, Esa said. He lifted his communicator and said, Julie, get Larry Wharton on the communicator immediately.
Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb! Danielle thought. When am I going to learn to keep my big mouth shut? I just told a department head that he was wrong. Im so stupid! People dont want to hear the truth.
She then heard Inspector Connor say, Larry, Esa Connor here. Im head of the Continental Security Enforcement Committee. Im going to send you some directives in the morning, and Im going to date them retroactively to tonight. I am going to transfer, just a moment He lowered his communicator and said, Miss Ash, what did you say your first name was?
Danielle, she said meekly.
Right, he said. He raised his communicator and continued, Im going to transfer a Danielle Ash out of your division and make her an associate inspector in mine effective immediately. He paused for a moment, listening, and then said, Larry, I dont give a jolly good damn about your manpower requirements or any other problems you might have with this decision. If youll read the directives in the morning youll see that theyre being made on the basis of safety of the state power that I have. Now just so were clear, if you get in the way of this transfer in any way Ill have you in front of a board of security so fast that you wont have time to realize how you lost your job. Is that clear? Esa listened for a moment and then said, Larry, you dont need to apologize. I know Im being heavy-handed and I dont like doing it and I cant explain why. This young womans talents are being wasted and unused in her current position and we can use them. Youre going to have to trust that Im making the right decision for the right reasons. Thank you for taking my call so late; youll receive the paperwork first thing in the morning. Esa pressed the button on his communicator and Danielle heard him say, Julie, did you copy all that? Good. Yes, thats exactly what I want. By the way, what pay grade is a medical technician? A three! he said as he looked at Danielle. He said into his communicator, Then she probably wont mind being raised to an eight.
Danielle couldnt believe her ears. Could this really be happening?
Miss Ash, Esa said, you are no longer a medical technician. You will report directly to John Sinclair after our meeting, who will swear you in. You will continue to work with us on this case until we get it solved. You will work on weapons training during your spare time. This is not, however, a temporary transfer. I am not easily impressed, Miss Ash, but you have exhibited traits and insights that are rare and valuable in my line of work. You have shown initiative and the willingness to make a decision, along with saying what needs to be said regardless of consequences. I think youre dead on in your analysis about the invisibility. Have you had any other insights?
Danielle could not believe her good luck. Her mind was in a whirl. This was the sort of job that she had prayed for, where she could use her talents. She had to pull herself together. Then she had a thought.
Inspector Connor, thank you so much for the promotion. You can count on me to work hard to be worthy of your trust, and I hope what Im about to say doesnt diminish your opinion of me.
Go ahead, Miss Ash.
I was mentally celebrating my transfer just a moment ago in my mind, and I pictured my name and title, Danielle Ash, Associate Inspector, with searchlights and fireworks going off. Then I had a thought. She turned to Major Daniels and said, Major Daniels, what if someone could see the view of your camera like the beam of a searchlight? What I mean is, if someone were turning a searchlight towards me I could see it coming, then I would look for something that I can hide behind when it got to where I was, or it may be as simple as lying down while it passed overhead. What Im trying to say is, if I can see what your cameras see, then wouldnt it be possible to avoid being seen?
Major Daniels was quiet for a moment and then said, Just like the attack scene tonight, we didnt catch the entire event because the camera swung away. All of the cameras in our system are constantly moving, and it is possible that there are places in the overlap of the cameras field of view where there are areas not seen. The point is, we never really looked to see if there are enough areas not being recorded so that someone could move through them and not be seen.
Esa said, Major, will you do an analysis to see if what she says has any merit?
Major Daniels raised his communicator, spoke for a few minutes, and came back and said, Im having my second in command run an analysis of the area from that building south of us to the end of the park north of us. What the computer will do is lay down an overlay to track the patterns of non-coverage as they occur. I should have it; here is now.
That was quick, Esa said.
Inspector Connor, you know how good our computers are, and my assistant knows how to use them. He lifted his communicator again and said, Please download it to my display. The display came on immediately and Major Daniels said, Thanks, Arney.
The six of them gathered around the display and watched the patterns. Major Daniels said, Im not sure where to start.
Start where the five men started moving in this direction, Danielle said.
Major Daniels turned to Esa and said, Be thankful youve got this young lady now, otherwise she would be working for me by morning. Youre right, Miss Ash, and since we know they were following our Superman, all we have to do is look at the patterns along the wall as they moved northward to see if there were any patterns that would allow someone to move unseen.