Copyright Hugh Perkins 2009 Total Surveillance Chapter 1 Electra looked out of the window at the deserted street. Why so quiet? Back home, she liked walking down the streets sometimes at night, it was peaceful and relaxing. There were fewer people than during the day. Couples on romantic walks, the odd lonely guy walking around. Poets. Angst youngsters. Here there was no-one. What was going on? Electra let herself out the door, and closed it behind her. She remembered the advice of her landlord, "Make sure you lock it behind you." Lock the door? What was the point? Anyway, she did it. Who would enter someone else's apartment? Everything was on video anyway right? She looked behind her up at the CCTV camera. It was all on camera, what was the problem? Electra stepped out into the street. It was drizzling slightly. The street was covered in a thin film of rain water. It wasn't cold, but ever so slightly chilly. Electra pulled her silk shawl a little tighter around her shoulders, and shook her long black hair free. Cars were parked along this side of the street. She could hear traffic in the distance, but this street was silent, nothing, just the gentle tap-tap-tap of light drizzle floating onto the car roofs. Both directions looked the same really. Electra turned to her right and started up the street. *** A rustle came from between two cars next to Electra. Something jumped out from the gap and threw itself at Electra. A man, with a hooded top. He smelt of sweat and alcohol. His clothes were dirty and smelt of smoke. He grabbed Electra by the shoulders, twisted her around, covered her mouth with a handkerchief and dragged her along the street. *** Electra lay on the floor of the disused apartment shaking. Her vagina was bleeding and painful. The floor was covered in rubbish and rotting food. A rat ran across her legs. She brought her legs up into the fetal position and her arms in front of her face. She wept, cried, lay there in numbed disbelief. She felt dirty, violated, painful. How could this happen? The cameras saw everything surely? They'd catch the guy! How could he do something like this? *** Electra walked into the police station. A middle-aged woman sat at the reception desk. The woman looked at her disdainfully, looked at her stained, ripped clothes. The muddy patches made Electra look like a beggar, Electra supposed. Electra walked painfully up to the desk and said softly to the woman, "I've been raped." The woman looked at her strangely. The woman said, "Are you sure?" She said it in a whisper, quietly. No-one else would be able to overhear her. Electra shouted, "Yes! Just now! In the street! How could this happen!" The woman looked at her a little coldly, mildly sympathetic. She said, "Are you sure you know what you're doing? Sex is forbidden here outside of marriage." Electra looked at the woman strangely. Electra said, "Ok fine. I was raped. What happens now?" The woman said quietly, concerned, "Are you sure you want to report this? Do you know what the punishment for sex outside marriage is?" Electra said to her, shouted, "I was raped! What are you talking about? Of course I want to report it!" The woman looked at her, dropped her eyes. The woman said, "Ok." The woman sighed a little. She shuffled some papers around on the desk a little, looking for the appropriate form probably. Seeming not to find it, she opened a drawer next to her, then closed that and walked over to the office behind her. A man came out of the office, about 40. The man had cold eyes. He walked to the front desk and looked at Electra. His pupils were tiny, just pinpricks. The man said officiously to Electra, "You want to report a sexual incident?" Electra said, "Yes. I was raped just now." She tried to stay as calm as possible, but she felt her body shaking, her hands tapped against the inside of her sleeves, tap-tap-tap, with adrenaline, with fear, with exasperation and frustration of not knowing what was happening. This strange masquerade. The man said, "Follow me please." He lifted the counter of the reception desk and stepped out. He walked towards a door to one side, beckoning Electra to follow him. *** The policeman indicated a chair to Electra in the interview office. Electra sat down. The policeman sat in a chair opposite. The man said, "You want to report an illicit sexual incident?" "Yes, I was raped just now. I was walking down Broker Street just now. A guy jumped out, dragged me along, had sex with me, left me in a room all by myself, rats, rubbish." Electra stopped her outpour, brought her hands up to her face and sobbed into them. The man waited for Electra to take her hands away. The man said, "You had sex with a man in Broker Street?" "Yes! He raped me! Just now!" "Was he your husband?" "No! Of course not! He raped me!" "Are you married?" "No! I was raped! What are you talking about!" The man wrote down in his notebook with a pencil. He wrote slowly and carefully. Electra couldn't see exactly what he was writing. The notebook was held slightly upwards, away from her. The man said, "Could you sign this statement here please?" He thrust a form towards her, written in Eurospeak. Electra took the form. She could understand bits of it. "Sex in broker street. Not married. Not her husband." She said, "What does this form say?" "It's a record of what you told me. You had sex with a stranger in broker street. He wasn't your husband. Sign here please." He jabbed a finger at the bottom of the form, and thrust a pen into her hand. Electra moved her hand to the bottom of the page and sprawled her signature. The man took the form and looked at it. He nodded approvingly. "That looks good", he said. He got up and moved to the door of the room. "Wait here please", he said. What else could Electra do anyway? She sat in the chilly room. Her vagina hurt. She lifted her skirt slightly with one hand, and massaged the area with the other hand. It was so painful! The pain was inside, she couldn't touch the pain. Was the man diseased? Would she die of some horrible disease that would kill her slowly over years? Would she catch something that meant no man would want to marry her? Would she become sterile? She looked around at the walls. Posters encouraged neighbors to spy on each other and tattle on their neighbors. "A spying neighbor is a good neighbor", said one. "A spy a day keeps the rapist away", said another. She put her arms on the table and rested her head on it. What a horrible place. She wondered how her arm was. She wanted to call her mum. She wanted to fall into her mother's arms, feel her mother's arms around her. The door opened. The man walked in. He carried the form before, and a bunch of other papers. Photocopies of the same form. He sat down in the chair opposite Electra. "You are from UNA. You are a guest here. You have to abide by our rules in our country." "Sure. What are you going to do about the rapist? He must have been on the cameras?" The man continued calmly but somehow viciously, "Sex outside of marriage is forbidden in PDE. The punishment for sex outside marriage is death." Electra felt suddenly very cold and strange. The feeling of being out of her depth, in a strange nightmare intensified. She would wake up surely. She said quietly, "What?" Disbelievingly. They'd kill her for being raped? That was insane! "The punishment for citizens of the PDE is death. You are our guest here and are obliged to abide by our regulations and laws, our way of life." Electra looked at him. Her whole body was shaking. The feet of the chair tapped loudly against the wooden chair as it shook backwards and forwards. The man said, "You unfortunately will probably be deported. Held here for a few days, and then sent back to your home country. Some political stuff. We're not allowed to punish you the way you deserve." "Punish? Me? For being raped?" The man leaned forward. He said quietly, "You walked in a public place at 3am soliciting sex. We will not let our society be turned into a whore-house." He leaned back on his chair. He said, "The duty officer will take care of your incarceration. The man picked up his papers and pen, moved to the door, opened it, and closed it behind him. *** Electra touched down at Washington airport. Home. Raped. But home. *** Electra walked out of the customs area into the arrivals area. A barrier held back a crowd of faces and signs announcing welcoming parties. Electra stood in the open space looking around for her mum. Her eyes watered under the stare of so many people. People accusing her of rape, of sex outside marriage. Her mum ran around the barrier and ran up to her. Her mum shouted "Electra!" and ran up to her, embraced her. Electra sunk into her mum's embrace. Home, but so strange, so incomplete. She felt odd, incomplete, hollow. Guilty. Chapter 2 Six months earlier. Tiffany packed her bags. She tried to squeeze her teddy into the bag. It just wouldn't fit. She pushed the lid down, sat on it, still no joy. "Mum! I can't fit Teddy into my bag!" Mum came into the room. "Oh darling, I'm sorry. Maybe you can carry it?" "My carry-on bag is already full!" "Well, you can carry it with you, I'm sure no-one will mind." *** At the airport, Tiffany queued in line for security, to enter the departure area. She reached the x-ray belt. An officious woman came up to her. "Only one piece of hand-luggage per person." The woman glared sternly at her, showing her authority. "Oh, it's just my teddy bear. I can't bear to leave it." "How do I know that? It could be a bomb." "Oh please. It's my teddy bear." The woman reached up a sweaty ugly hand, grabbed the teddy bear. Tiffany tried to hold onto it. The ugly horrible woman snatched the teddy bear away and threw it in a big drum marked "Danger: explosives". "That's my teddy." Tiffany started to cry, her eyes watered. The woman looked at her coldly, "It's the rules. One piece of carry-on luggage per person. Move along please." Tiffany stepped through the security arch, her shoulders slumped. *** Tiffany sat on the plane, teddy-bear-less. She looked out of the window at the clouds over the ocean below. Her last taste of PDE left a sour taste in her mouth, and she missed Teddy. She wandered what it would be like in UNA. She'd heard stories of a crazily over-sexed society. People had sex openly in the streets. Nothing was secret. People could see what you did at any time. She'd seen videos about it. They laughed at them at school. It was a crazy world. Six months in a crazy new world. Broadening her horizons, but there were limits.... *** Tiffany entered the border area. She waited in line to present her passport. She walked up to the passport booth, and the official examined her passport. He flicked through the pages looking for a visa. He looked up, "Student visa?" "Yes." "Do you have your eye-implants verification form?" Her what? "No. Do I need one?" "Go to the office over there please, the one labelled 'Eye Implants'". He pointed to an office about 30m away. "Do you see it?" "Ok, sure." Tiffany took back her passport and boarding pass and stepped away from the booth. *** Tiffany stepped into the "Eye Implants" office. A line of people ran along the inside wall. Students like herself mostly. She stood at the end of the line. She watched as one by one the students sat at a machine, put their face against a rubber mask attached to the machine. The machine clicked, flashed a few times, whirred, and the student was handed a document, before leaving the office. *** Tiffany stepped up to the machine. The official said to her politely, "This will implant sousveillance equipment in your eyes. It's for your own good. It makes crime impossible in UNA." He continued in a rapid fire this-is-something-I've-said-before voice, "You have the right to refuse implantation. Your return fare back to your own country is at your own expense." Tiffany said, "Will it hurt?" "Not really. A slight twinge maybe. Your vision may feel a little blurred for a while, but nothing really horrible. You'll be used to it in a few days." "A few days!" "A few days tops. To completely not notice it. Sit down please." Tiffany sat at the machine and placed her face against the rubber mask. A flash speckled in her left eye, then in her right. She felt a slight stinging sensation in each eye, like a tiny splash of lemon juice. "You can step away" said the official. Tiffany stepped away from the machine and blinked to try to remove the lemon-juice sensation. It didn't go away, but it wasn't really strong. The official handed her a card, "This is your implantation connection details. You can use it to access your own camera, or you can just look them up in the database, under your name." The official turned to a monitor next to him. He looked up, "I just need to check your implants are working." He tapped in some numbers, and an image, a video appeared on the monitor. It showed the official on it. Actually, it showed exactly what Tiffany saw through her own eyes. "Freaky", she said. That was horrible she thought. Anyone can see through her eyes? "People can see through my eyes at any time?" "Yup." The official stamped a form and gave it to her. "Here is your eye implants verification form." The official looked to the end of the line, "Next please." Tiffany got up, her eyes stinging a little. What if she wanted to use the toilet? People could see that too? The official turned back to her briefly, "There's an information booth by the door. If you have any queries, you can ask them there." Tiffany walked to the information booth. There was a line of people complaining and whinging. The official seemed fairly calm, answering the questions happily. The girl in front said, "How can I turn this off whilst I use the toilet?" "You can't", said the official calmly. "Sousveillance is on at all times. It keeps you safe. You'll get used to it. We all look the same under our clothes." "But I'm a girl", said the girl. "I can't let guys see me naked." The official, a young woman, said, "You'll get used to it. Remember: this makes rape and other crimes a thing of the past." The girl said, "Fine, I'm going to use the toilet in the dark from now on." The official laughed, "There is a special toilet for new arrivals, with a light switch if you really want. It's not really recommended though. It's over there." She indicated the toilets. "Last cubicle on the right." The girl moved off in that direction. Tiffany tagged along behind her, having the same idea. *** Tiffany entered the toilet. It smelled of the last person. Ugh! She closed the door as air freshener blasted out of a box above her. Anyone could see through her eyes at any time? Fine... She pushed the light switch and the room fell into blackness. She took down her pants. Hmmm, maybe put paper on the seat first? She pulled her pants up. Lights back on. She took some toilet paper and arranged it on the seat. Light off again. Pants back down. She felt for the toilet seat, and felt the toilet paper slipping off the sides. Grrr.... *** Tiffany walked into her student room, put the bags to one side, and closed the door. She took off her shoes, and lay back on the bed and closed her eyes. She was in UNA! This was so exciting. The eye implant stuff was a little freaky, but it was adventure. She felt sticky and greasy from the plane journey, from lack of sleep, from not having taken a shower since leaving PDE. The eyes again. She rubbed them with her fingers. They still stung. Could people really see through them at any time? That was horrible! She really needed a shower though. She'd have to have it in the dark. She wasn't going to let people see her naked. No way! Tiffany closed the curtains tightly, made sure there were no gaps, then turned off the lights. There was still a small sliver of light coming through the join between the curtains. Maybe a bulldog clip, or a paper clip? She put the lights on again. She unlocked her bag and hunted through her bags for a couple of bulldog clips. Tiffany clipped the curtains together with the bulldog clips and turned the lights off. Darkness. Couldn't see anything. She felt her way into the shower, and did her best to have a shower in the blackness. Chapter 3 Tiffany walked into the university canteen. A line of people ran along one wall. She joined the line and waited to sample the UNA food. She could smell burgers and chips. Didn't sound very healthy, but smelt good! Tiffany asked the girl in front of her, "Excuse me, I just arrived here from PDE. Can you recommend me what is good to eat here?" The girl in front turned to her and smiled. "Hi, are you an exchange student?" "Yes. And you?" "I'm studying Eurospeak. I hope to go to visit PDE later this year." "Cool! Can you speak Eurospeak?" "Learning. Not very good yet... Your English is very good. What's your name?" "Tiffany. You?" "My name's Electra." Electra held out her hand to Tiffany, "Nice to meet you Tiffany." Tiffany took Electra's hand, "Good to meet you Electra. Hey, could you give me some pointers to the food here?" *** Tiffany and Electra sat on Electra's bed watching tv. Tiffany said, "Electra, can I ask you something?" "Sure." "What do you think of the eye implants?" "Oh! They're great! We don't have crime here. You can walk around in the streets when you want!" "But don't you... what happens when you want some privacy?" Electra laughed, "Oh, we don't have privacy! Anyone can see us at any time?" "People can hear our conversation now?" "Sure! Of course! Does that worry you?" "It's a little odd." Electra picked up the remote. "Here, let's go exploring, watch some other people chatting." "Isn't that ... odd? It's eavesdropping?" "Sure. But it's ok, it's normal. We don't have secrets here." "Can you see who's eavesdropping on you?" "Yes. There are no secrets here." "What about boys? Do you get pervs voyeuring on you?" "Well, there are guys who look at you sure. It's normal." "But, something bad could happen? They could rape you?" "Nothing bad happens in UNA. We don't really have crime. How about in PDE?" "We have cameras, but they don't really stop the crime. But we have privacy most of the time. We don't have eye implants. No-one can see you using the toilet." "Do you use the toilet in the dark here?" said Electra, smiling. "Here? Yes! Do you not?" "No! We're all human, we all look the same underneath. Well... some girls look hotter than others. Ok, look, let's check out some other people." Electra played around with the remote. A list of people appeared on the screen. Electra said, "These are the guys looking at us at the moment." "That's... all those! That's crazy." Tiffany shuffled nervously, looked around the room. Of course, it wasn't any use looking for the hidden cameras. The cameras weren't hidden so much as part of her own eyes. Electra looked down the list. "Ok, so the first couple are just random pervs. They enjoy looking at us, but they're too shy to actually talk with us." "They don't scare you?" "Not really. I mean, occasionally they might look at you strangely if you pass them in the street, but they're not going to do anything really bad to you." "Don't they hassle you or anything?" "We have pretty strict laws against harassment. Watching someone doesn't count as harassment. Trying to talk with them on the street multiple times does. It's easy enough to prove since it's all recorded." "We used to have harassment laws, but they faded away after the unification. They were really hard to prove from what I heard." "No problems with that here." "Ok, so what about.... well.... what about when you get married? Can people see you ... you know... ?" "Having sex?" Electra laughed. "We have sex all the time. And yes, with the lights on, in front of the cameras." Tiffany recoiled. "Ewww, that's horrid! I could never do that!" "It's fun!" "Do you ... do you have any videos of other people? I mean, just to test I mean, not to watch." Electra smiled, "So that you know what not to watch?", she said winking. "Yeah sure, probably. We can search quite easily actually." Electra put in a search query into the machine, "Couples having sex". After a pause, a list of feeds appeared, with a small thumbnail video feed next to each result. "Ewww, that's disgusting!" cried Tiffany. "Um, can you make those results a bit bigger so I can see how bad it is?" "Sure!" said Electra laughing. She pushed a couple of buttons on the remote, and the thumbnails grew bigger. Tiffany said, "I'm not watching. I'm just, you know, it's just to see, just out of curiosity." "Of course!" said Electra. "I never claimed anything different." She nudged Tiffany slightly with her elbow, smiling mischievously. Tiffany looked at the feeds. She said, "Hey that second feed looks pretty bad. Can we zoom in on it just to see how bad it is?" Electra smiled. "Sure!" She clicked a couple of buttons, and the feed became full-screen. *** Tiffany grabbed her lunch tray. Electra said, "Hey, there's Tony and Lee. Let's go and say hi to them." Tiffany looked across to where Electra was heading. She said, "You've got good taste Electra." Electra turned to her smiling, "Thanks Tiffs. I'll introduce you." Electra headed up to Tony and Lee's table. Tony said, "Yo yo Ella." He opened his arms wide and indicated the chairs, "Sit down. Who's your friend?" "Tones, this is Tiffany. She's an exchange student from Europe." Tiffany turned to Tiffany, "This is Tony, and this is Lee". *** Tiffany stepped out of Electra's car, and walked around to Electra's side. Tiffany said, "When are the guys getting here?" "Should be here soon. Let's check their feeds." Electra pressed a couple of buttons and pointed her phone at the ground. An image of the view out of the front of a car appeared on the ground. Tiffany guessed, "that's what one of them's seeing right now?" "Yeah, this is Tony's view. Hey, I've turned the audio on." She said, "Hey Tony!" "Yo yo Tiff! Hey, you guys look great!" "Thanks Tones. Keep your eyes on the road ok?" "Yeah yeah. Here we are." The image on the ground showed the entrance to the Entertainment Complex. The car turned into the complex. Tiffany and Electra heard the roar of the car, and then it glided through the car-park, coming to rest in front of them. "Hey guys!" said Tony leaning out the car. *** Electra's ball rolled down the lane, just clipping the final pin, but not quite toppling it. "Nice one Electra! Close one!" said Tony. He got up and pulled a big fat bowling bowl from the rack. Lee leaned over to Tiffany, "You just arrived from Europe?" "Yeah, it's pretty weird here, but it's so cool. You guys are really fun!" "You speak excellent English, Tiffany." "Thanks Lee. What are you studying?" "Geography. Pretty dossy subject." "Geography is cool. What are you learning at the moment?" "Volcanoes. There's some excellent ones in South America. Some of them hardly ever erupt, but then... Boom!" He indicated a big explosion with his hands. "Massive lava runs. Major evacuations." He looked at Tiffany, "How do you like America?" "These eye camera things are kind of strange. Ella was showing me that you can watch anyone anywhere." "That's pretty strange for you huh?" "I take showers in the dark." "I do far more than that in the light." Lee smiled mischievously. Tiffany led him on, "Uh-huh, like what?" "Well... I'll show you sometime." "What, like playing cards?" "Yeah, 'playing cards'" he said, smiling ironically. "I like playing cards", said Tiffany. Not really, but she quite liked Lee. Lee looked at Tiffany. He said, "Alright, 'playing cards' it is." He moved a pair of fingers to indicate quotation marks. *** Lee looked up. "Nearly downloaded the film. A couple of minutes." Tiffany said, "We pirate everything too, in PDE. Some people are scared of getting sued, but most people just pirate stuff." "Pirate stuff? Well, I'm going to pay for this before I watch it. Just the downloading is free." "But if you've already downloaded it for free...?" "Anyone can see I'm watching it. Computers are smart enough to scan all the feeds and see what I'm watching. UNA is free of piracy." "Oh... that sucks. You have to pay for all your videos!" Lee said, "I want to be a film producer. I'm quite happy that people will pay to see my films!" "I suppose so..." "Films are fairly cheap anyway. There's no middlemen, and lots of competition. Anyway..." Lee tapped on the keyboard, made a few keystrokes. "There, that's paid for. I've paid for both of us to watch it." "Thanks!" Lee and Tiffany settled back on the sofa as the movie started playing. *** Tiffany and Electra walked into the restaurant. Electra spotted her father and walked up to his table. Electra said, "Hi Dad. This is Tiffany." Dad stood up, and held out his hand, "Pleased to meet you Tiffany. Electra's shown you to me on the feeds. Very happy to meet you." Tiffany took Dad's hand. "Thank-you, Mr Peters." Mr Peters indicated the chairs, "Do sit down." Electra and Tiffany sat in the chairs, pulled their seats in towards the table. Electra said, "How's things Dad?" "Good. Just applied for a new patent. Maybe will pay for a new patio!" "Nice one dad! Tiffany is an exchange student from Europe." Dad said, "Yes." He turned to Tiffany, "So how's Europe treating you Tiffany?" Tiffany said, "It's ... interesting! Everything is so open! It's a very strange experience. It's fun!" Mr Peters said, "We saw you had a good time with Lee last night." Tiffany reddened, "You saw that?" Mr Peters said, "Well we didn't watch in detail. We have other things to do! But we did see you guys together in the thumbnail feeds. How are things going between you?" Tiffany said, "He's ... cool. It's just for fun. He's ok." Electra smiled, "They seem to like each other. We went bowling the other night, with Tony." Tiffany said, "Mr Peters, did you say you're applying for a patent?" "Yes. It's very technical though." "Yes. But... you know everyone can see what you invented already right?" Mr Peters laughed, "Yes! That's how it works here. Everyone can see my invention, so it's easy for me to prove I invented it first. It's very lucrative. It paid for our house." Tiffany said, "My dad's a businessman. It's hard for him. He doesn't have enough contacts in the government. Every time he tries to do something, win some contract, someone beats him to it." Mr Peters said, "Someone knows what he's going to propose before he does it?" "Yes. Some company with better contacts wins the deal." "We don't have that problem here. Every company can see everyone else's proposals, before they arrive." "Doesn't that create problems?" "Well, at least it's fair. No-one has any unfair advantage. Corruption is non-existent basically." Tiffany said, "Interesting. We should do the same thing. Only we won't. It won't happen." Electra said, "Right, I'm hungry. What do you want to eat Tiffany?" Tiffany picked up her menu and started to look through the delicious gastronomic options available to them. *** Lee sat closer to Tiffany. She felt the warmth of his body against her. She moved away a little. She said, "Hey! People can see! Aren't you worried?" Lee pulled away slightly, "Sure, but most people have better things to do than watch everyone else all the time." "What about the pervs?" "What about them?" "It's kind of horrible though. Can't we turn out the lights?" "Sure. Why not?" Lee laughed. He flicked a button and the lights dimmed, went out. Tiffany said, "I can still see!" "Well, it's a little hard to watch a video and have total darkness!" "We could just stop the video", said Tiffany. Lee smiled, "Sure!" The video screen clicked and went out. Total blackness. "Is this better?" "Can I trust you?" "Probably..." "Don't do anything bad ok?" Lee leaned across to where Tiffany was before, moved his lips towards where he remembered hers being. His forehead bumped into hers. Tiffany cried, "Ow! Careful!" "Sure!" Lee readjusted his trajectory. Their lips touched. Tiffany put her arms around his head, and pulled him towards her. Chapter 4 Electra bounced into the classroom, "Hey Tiff!" "Ella!" "I saw you and Lee hung out again last night." Tiffany smiled, "He's sweet!" "An awful lot of blackness in your video feeds! You guys go to bed early!" Tiffany looked bashful, "We... we were tired from studying so hard." Electra smiled, "Studying, uh-huh!" Tiffany said, "You want to do something tonight, the four of us?" "My Dad's got a response to ITT tonight. He wants me to help out. Gopher and stuff." "Oh....", Tiffany sounded disappointed. Electra said, "You know what, you can come if you want? You said your dad is a businessman right?" Tiffany looked thoughtful. She looked up, "Ok, sure. Can I help out?" "I'm not sure. I usually just end up making coffee and stuff. How's your search and synthesis skills?" "We don't really learn search and synthesis in Europe. I mean, I can do a basic web search." "Good enough. I'll show you some stuff. We'll grab some pizza." "What about Tony and Lee?" "You'd better tell Lee you can't make tonight. He'll be really unhappy about that!" "You think I..." "Don't worry about it. 'Treat 'em mean: keep 'em keen!'". "Right," though Tiffany didn't look really convinced. Tiffany's dad often worked on creating responses to ITT. They were rarely successful. She thought about the nights her dad spent slaving away on them with no success. *** Two months earlier: Tiffany walked into the house, and went into the sitting room. Her dad looked up, "Hi Tiff. How are you?" "Hi Dad. Working late?" "We've got a new proposal for the Zain Plant. I think it could be the winner we've been waiting for." "Good work dad. Shall I leave you to it?" "Thanks. It's going to be a late one. Deadline is tomorrow 8am." "I'll get you some coffee ok?" "Thank-you Tiff! Coffee would be lovely." Tiffany headed out to the kitchen and started to fix together some coffee for her dad. Dad looked down at his papers. Everything looked excellent. Somehow they never quite seemed to get the contracts they thought they would. Belt Industries always seemed to figure out a slightly better contract than them. Not this time though! This time would be the contract they needed to make it big! *** In the offices of Belt Industries, Nathan looked around, "Right. Where are we with the opponent analysis?" Matt looked up, "We're well on track. Zeus Ions and Theta Services are still ongoing." "Those guys are working through the night again. Won't they learn to stick to something simpler, like working for us?" He laughed. Matt smiled at him, "Zeus Ions won't hold out much longer. Their bank account is bare." "Well, they're still against us for this contract. Can we get an update on their contract?" "I'll check with John for the latest." Matt picked up the phone, connected with John. "Hi John, how's things going?" "Pretty slow night. Good to have something to do! Hey, you want an update on those contracts?" "Yes please. What do you have on Zeus Ions and Theta Services?" "Let me see." Matt heard the sound of a keyboard tapping at the other end of the phone line. After a few seconds, John's voice came back, "Well, the Zeus Ions CEO is still hacking things out on his comp at home. I'll forward you his latest file. Theta Services must be having a meeting or something. I don't see any activity on their computers. You want me to tap their mobiles?" "Yes please John. You know we're all in this together right? We watch each other's backs?" John laughed, "Hey, don't worry Matt! Are you guys still up for golf this Sunday?" "Yeah should do. You're not going to win again you know!" "Oh I'm sure we'll have fun. Ok, just getting that phone tap in now. Let's see... You want me to just conference the phone tap in to the line?" "Sure. Sounds good John." The voices of Theta Services came onto the line. A voice said, "... are up against us again." "They're old and stodgy. We're young and nimble. They don't stand a chance." "But they always win the contracts." "Not this one." A third voice, "Right, let's summarize our proposal." The voice paused, maybe looking at some notes in front of him? The voice continued, "We've agreed that..." *** Back in the classroom, Tiffany wondered how come her dad's responses were so rarely successful. His ideas were good. He worked hard. He should have done better. Tiffany looked up at Electra. She said, "How can you compete in responses to ITT if other people can see everything?" Electra laughed, "Oh, you'll see. It'll be fun!" Chapter 5 Electra and Tiffany walked into the entrance hall of Underlying Corp, Electra's dad's company. The receptionist looked up, "Oh hi Electra. Can you sign in please?" "Sure." Electra signed in. She turned sideways to Tiffany, "You'd have thought we wouldn't have to sign in any more. After all it's all on video. Hang-over from the old days." Tiffany said, "Do I need to show my passport?" "No need. Look." Electra indicated a display in front of them. A monitor showed a view of the small reception area, with Tiffany and Electra standing there. Their names and a few details were overlaid on top of each of their pictures. Tiffany said, "Wow, that's freaky. You can know who someone is just by pointing a camera at them?" "Yup!" Electra looked at Tiffany, "Don't worry. There's no corruption here, and no crime. You're not going to have your bank account emptied or something!" Tiffany looked uncertain, "Hmmm, ok." Back home, she hated being surveyed. Surveillance was done by the government, and it wasn't ever for anything good. Corruption, political manipulation. Cameras were evil as far as she was concerned. *** Tiffany and Electra walked into Electra's dad's office. Five men in suits turned to look at them. Electra's dad walked to them. "Hi girls", he said, holding out his hand to Tiffany. Tiffany took his hand, felt the strong embrace of his hand on hers. "Hi Mr Peters.", Tiffany said. He withdrew his grasp and patted Electra on shoulder. Mr Peters said, "Ready to do some work Electra?" "Sure!" "Tiffany?" "Um, what is it we will have to do exactly?" "Well, we've brought in some pizzas, so first thing is to ensure 100% consumption of said nourishment. I'm counting on you girls to help out with the eating-pizza effort. Reckon you can chip in?" Electra said, "Pizza's my fave. Great!" Tiffany looked at Electra. She said tentatively, "Pizza's nice." Mr Peters beamed at them, "Ok, let's get stuck in." *** Over pizza, Mr Peters briefed them. "Ok, what I need you girls to do is help out in the surveillance." Electra nodded, she'd done this before. Mr Peters looked at Tiffany, "How's your search and synthesis skills?" "They're a little... well we don't do this too much in Europe Mr Peters. Everything is centrally controlled. We're not really encouraged to search, or synthesize. Doesn't your government worry about people searching too much?" Mr Peters laughed, "Ok, Electra will show you. You girls can work together. How's that sound?" Electra said, "Works for us." Tiffany said, "You sure you want to get me to help out with something that is so important for you Mr Peters? I've never done this before!" Mr Peters said, "The more the merrier. Electra is a great teacher. I hope you enjoy yourself, maybe learn something that you can share with Europe?" Tiffany said, "Ummm..." Electra said, "We'll do great dad." She turned to Tiffany, "Ready?" Mr Peters said, "Ok, wait, let me brief Tiffany a little more on what is happening here." He turned to Tiffany, "Do you know what is a Response to ITT?" She shook her head. He continued, "Ok, ITT is 'Invitation to Tender'. It's when a company wants some work done. They send out an Invitation to Tender, and anyone who thinks they can do a good job on that work can send them a response. A 'Response' to ITT. So the whole thing is called a 'Response to ITT'. Ok?" "Sure. My dad does these things all the time. They never get accepted though. Almost never. He always gets outbid by people with better government contacts than him." "Yes. We used to have that problem here. Those who had the best contacts with Central Surveillance won the contracts. After a while, we figured it was best to just let everyone survey everyone, all the time." "Even in the toilets! And when I'm having a shower! It's insane!" "Ah, well, it took some getting used to. I won't say it was easy. Some people formed groups and set up no-surveillance areas. Some people left." "I can imagine!" "But today, it's fair, and we can compete fairly, without any corruption." "Ok..." "It makes our prices drop through the floor, because it increases the competition, but on the other hand anyone can compete. You don't need quite as many contacts to win. At least: you don't need government contacts, and that is the key here. "Anyway, so tomorrow morning is the deadline for an invitation to tender for a big engineering contract we want to win. The deadline is 8am." "8am. You're going to work through the night?" "You are too Tiffany! Hmmm, do you have school tomorrow?" "Well, I'm on exchange, it's pretty laid back. This sounds far more interesting to be honest." "Good! "Ok, so, we're bidding on an ITT from Solid Carbon Corp. It's a lucrative contract. We want to win!" He smiled at Tiffany. "You guys can help with this." "Ok." Tiffany smiled nervously. Could they? "We have several teams. One team, the team you're in, is responsible for surveying our opponents. You need to see what they are putting in their contracts, and report back to us." "You want us to spy on them?" "Yes. They're doing the same to us. Right now. They're watching you eat pizza. I'm sure it's very exciting for them!" Electra looked at Tiffany. Electra thought it would probably be more exciting for stuffy old men to be watching Tiffany and her than some stupid contract. She didn't say that though. Just smiled at Tiffany, and Tiffany smiled back. Mr Peters said, "There are other teams. We have a response submission team who will be writing the response tonight. They are the main target for external surveillance." Tiffany said, "Couldn't you just create a fake submissions team? Put the real team somewhere else?" "Well, we could, but they'd notice. How'd we communicate with them?" "Well, they can survey you?" Mr Peters smiled, "Hmmm, maybe." *** Electra showed Tiffany to their seats. They sat down in front of the equipment. Electra said, "Ok, put your headset on." Electra and Tiffany both donned their headsets. Electra said, "We're going to be surveying X-Fos. They're one of the outsiders for this response, so it's important to survey them, but if we make too much of a mess, it's probably not a big deal." "Sure." Tiffany felt that was definitely a good thing. She still felt nervous though. She didn't want to be responsible for losing Electra's dad their big contract. Electra said, "Right, you can search by saying what you want to search for. Watch." Electra said, "Computer. Search X-Fos personnel" A list appeared on the monitor in front of her. Thumbnail videos appeared next to each result. Electra said, "You can see each person from X-Fos, and what they are looking at right now." "Two of them are looking at us!" "Hmmm, one of them is quite cute. Hi Edward!" The guy in the thumbnail mouthed something. Electra touched the thumbnail and it went fullscreen, the audio activated. Electra said, "Say again Edward, we didn't have audio on." "Hi Electra. Your dad's roped you in again?" "You guys all set?" "Oh, we're not really expecting to win this. We're just doing this for form, for practice." "Your suit looks good." Tiffany turned to look at Electra. Flirting with the competition! "As do you Electra. How was the pizza?" "It was great! You want some?" "Yeah, send me some!" "Come over here and help us!" "Sorry, got my orders. I'll see you at the party on Sunday Electra?" "Sure! Later ... oh, by the way, this here is Tiffany." She looked towards Tiffany, so that her video showed Tiffany. Tiffany said, "Hi Edward. Hey Electra, do you normally spend so much time talking with the competition?" "Oh, he's cute. Anyway, we're just doing this for fun mostly. X-Fos don't stand a chance. Right Edward?" "Right! I'm just doing this so I get to watch you girls." "Easy, Edward. Anyway, see you at the party Sunday, ok?" "Yup, later girls." Tiffany said, "Bye Edward." Edward said, "See you Tiffany. Bye Electra." Tiffany turned to Electra, "He seemed nice. Is it normal to chat to our enemies so much?" "Oh there's no harm done. Besides isn't it more pleasant to chat than just to eavesdrop on the other person?" "True that." "So, who's Edward?" "Oh, he's just... some guy.. .works for X-Fos. You know?" "Heh! You like him!" "I do not!" She slapped Tiffany on the arm gently. She held up one finger to her lips, "Shhhh!". Electra's eyes sparkled playfully. Tiffany looked at her equipment. "Ok, so I just say, well let me try. Computer: search Electra Peters." A bunch of Electra Peters results appeared. Tiffany spotted the Electra that she knew on the third line. "Wow, neat." Tiffany wondered what else she could search for. This was kind of fun. Could she search for the president? Tiffany said, "Computer. Search United North American President." A single line appeared, with a thumbnail video showing some kind of dinner party. Electra said, "You can touch the thumbnail to make it full-screen, turn on the audio." Tiffany said, "Ok." She touched on the thumbnail of the UNA president. His viewpoint expanded to fill the monitor. The audio cut in. The viewpoint turned. A woman's head appeared. It said, "Darling, you are simply the sweetest." "Thank-you Margerie." A voice said, "I really think the threat of global warming is overstated." The viewpoint turned to look at this voice. An older man with gray hair. Glasses. A thin face. Another voice, "Yuri, Yuri! Well, we could sit here all evening discussing global warming." "Which is the whole point", said a deep voice. Electra cut in, "That was the president's voice Tiff." Tiffany said, "Whoa neat. Can they hear what we say?" "Not unless they're surveying us. Which seems highly unlikely." Tiffany looked thoughtful. Hmmmm. Ok, so, "Computer. Search president of People's Democracy of Europe." A list of responses appeared. Tiffany said, "There are video feeds of the PDE president!" Electra said, "There are, but not from him. He's not fitted with a video feed. Besides, those kinds of feeds are censored by PDE." "Hmmm", said Tiffany disappointed. She clicked on a video feed. A news presenter appeared, "Behind us is the palace of President Gunter Magnus. Inside, the representatives of United North America, China, Russia, and of course ourselves are discussing emissions reduction." Tiffany said, "Hmmm, the feed on UNA president was more fun. Computer: search UNA president." The UNA president thumbnail reappeared. She clicked it and it expanded, audio clicked in. The viewpoint showed the second guy, the guy that had been berating Yuri for discussing global warming. The deep voice, the president's voice according to Electra, said, "John. What do you recommend we should do about global warming?" The guy in the video, a younger man, with a tweed jacket, a goatie beard, intelligent lively eyes, twisted his glass a little. He looked up at the camera, at the president. "Well, what do you think we should do Newton?" Newton chuckled, "Well, I was posing the question to you John! Our current policies dictate attempting worldwide negotiation to reduce CO2 emissions, and evacuating those areas likely to be affected by rising sea-waters." "Yes. What about the increasingly arid bread basket plains?" "We'll purchase additional wheat from PDE." "Making us dependent on PDE?" "Yes. Over time, the Canadian plains will open themselves up to increased agriculture as they warm. That's the plan." The deep voice laughed a little. Yuri, the small guy said, "Seriously, it's all a fuss about nothing. It's just some temporary aberration. You'll see!" Electra said, "We should probably be getting back to X-Fos Tiff." Tiffany turned sideways to Electra, "Yeah, you're probably right." She cut the feed. *** Tiffany looked at the list of X-Fos personnel. "Hey Electra, can we go back in time?" Electra said, "Yes sure. Just say "as at" and then the date in your query." "Ok. Computer. Search X-Fos personnel as at four weeks ago." The list reappeared. Tiffany counted through. "Eighteen people. Two more than now. Two people got fired?" Electra said, "Hmmm, you're right. Computer. Compare search X-Fos personnel with X-Fos personnel as at four weeks ago." A shorter query results page appeared. Electra said, "These two guys are no longer working at X-Fos." Tiffany clicked one of the thumbnails. It filled the screen. She looked at the viewpoint. "Hey! They're doing a response to ITT too!" Electra peered at the viewpoint. "They are. How strange." "You think...?" "Hmmm, let's tell Dad." *** Electra and Tiffany walked to the coordination circle. Electra called, "Dad! Tiffany's found something interesting. Two X-Fos personnel are no longer part of X-Fos." Dad said, "Ok. So they got fired?" Electra said, "They're writing responses to ITT, for this ITT." Dad's body straightened up. He looked alertly at Electra, "Really?" "Yeah, I think. You want to come and see?" "Yeah." They walked to Tiffany and Electra's chairs together. Dad looked at the viewpoint. He turned on loudspeaker audio. A voice came from the loudspeaker, "... found you. They're looking at your feeds right now." Dad laughed, "Nice work girls! X-Fos have a covert submissions team! Had." Dad sat down at Electra's chair and scanned through the feed history, showing the covert X-Fos submission so far. Dad said, "Wow, this is a sweet submission. They've come up with a novel way of doing this. They'll undercut us." Tiffany said, "Can we change our own submission to match their technique?" Dad said, "Unfortunately no. Patents are first-to-invent, not first-to-file. They'll patent this process, and we'll be shut down." Tiffany said, "You can patent things whenever you want? Even if someone is already using them?" Dad turned to look at Tiffany, "Well, you still only get 17 years, from whenever you had the idea. It's not the best system, but it beats the alternatives." Dad looked thoughtful. "I'm going back to our submissions team to discuss this. Nice work girls! Keep watching ok?" Electra said, "Thanks Dad. Good luck!" *** Electra patched in to Edward. "Hey Edward!" "Hi girls. You figured out our pretend covert team huh?" "Pretend covert team my arse!" "Heh!" "You guys want to win this bid don't you?" "It wouldn't hurt. How's your submission going?" "See you on Sunday Edward!" Electra clicked off the connection, shutdown the audio feed from Edward. She turned to Tiffany, "Right, let's keep going, see what else we can find. You never know, maybe they have two covert teams, and that one is just a bluff!" Tiffany smiled, "Does that ever happen?" "Not really. I mean, it's not that hard to find covert teams. It's just that no-one really considers X-Fos in the running so we didn't hunt too much." "Is their covert submission capable of winning?" "Dad seemed worried by it. Let's see what happens. What shall we check next?" "Get some oj?" "Yeah, let's go." They got up and headed for the refreshments desk. *** Electra poured orange juice into the plastic cups Tiffany held out in front of her. Her dad shouted over to her, "Hey Electra, I think we found a workaround for X-Fos idea! Great work girls!" "Thanks dad! So, you're sorted for this submission?" "Well, we'll see. I mean, obviously all the other teams are watching us too." "Going to be a close one again huh?" *** Electra said, "How's your impression of UNA so far Tiffany?" "It was scary at first. The surveillance stuff. But now, everything feels so ... safe. So transparent. Warm and cozy." "Yeah!" smiled Electra. "We like it." "Doesn't it ever get corrupted?" "It's all been figured out. Everything is peer-to-peer. Not sure exactly what that means, but apparently it makes corruption really hard. Something about there being no central computer, no single point of failure or something." "Ok." Tiffany took a sip of orange juice, swished the refreshing flavor around in her mouth, then swallowed the sweet, tangy liquid. Delicious! Tiffany said, "How'd you guys get your government to choose such a system? Isn't it bad for the people in the government?" "Ah well, that was the challenge. It wasn't easy. Right, shall we go and check that X-Fos aren't doing something stupid again?" "Yeah! Sounds fun. Maybe check in on the president's dinner party again?" "Oh yeah, let's find out about global warming again. Not!" Tiffany smiled, "Fine! X-Fos it is." *** Electra's dad looked up. He said loudly, "Right, it's submitted." He stood up and looked around. "Awesome work guys. Here, let's come in around this screen." Tiffany and Electra got up and moved to the central podium area. The other teams joined them. Dad said, "Awesome work guys! We've done well. It's too early to say yet whether we won, but, guys, excellent work! We deserve to win. Nice work! Underlying Corp for the win!" The group smiled, broke into grins. A few people said, "Thanks Jonathan." Tiffany smiled at Mr Peters. Electra said, "Nice one dad." "We're all tired, want to sleep. Let's have a toast first. Champagne anyone?" A chorus of "Excellent!", "Nice one Jonathan!" "Team!", "Go Underlying Corp!" arose. Jonathan Peters walked over to the refreshments area, opened the fridge, and pulled out three bottles of Champagne. He grabbed two of them by the necks in his left hand and held the other bottle above his head with his right hand. He said, "Nice work guys!" Electra grabbed a tube of plastic cups. She cleared a space on the central podium table, putting the papers into neat piles, and started laying out the plastic cups ready for the victory beverage. *** Jonathan Peters held up his cup of champagne. "Cheers everyone. Nice work!" The gang clinked cups against each others. Electra clinked cups with Tiffany, "Nice one Tiffany. Good idea!" Mr Peters stepped towards them, "Great work girls. We may win this deal, and you were key to that." Tiffany smiled at Mr Peters, "Thank-you Mr Peters. It was fun!" Electra said, "Right dad. About that new patio?" Mr Peters smiled, "Ok, we didn't win just yet Electra. We'll see about the patio." Chapter 6 The communicator beeped insistently into Mr Peters sleepy brain. The communicator? At this time of night. Oh what, it must be 3am in the morning! What was happening? What could be so urgent? His brain slowly entered into coherence, started to make sense of his surroundings. Response to ITT. That was last night right? They'd gone to bed at ... 10am? The sun was shining through the net curtains. It was hot in bed. He groggily opened his eyes and looked at the clock on the wall. 4pm. Not so early. He sat up, rubbed his eyes. Looked across at the communicator. It continued to sound. Solid Carbon Corp. That sounded familiar. Solid Carbon ... Oh! The ITT! Mr Peters tried to mentally wipe the sleep from his brain. He said "Communicator. Accept call." A voice came through. "Mr Peters?" "Yes." "Morning Mr Peters. Or afternoon in fact! This is Dan Winchester from Solid Corp." "Hi Dan." Mr Peters sat up straight, tried to rub the remaining sleep from his eyes. "You've caught me ... as you see." Dan smiled at him in the communicator, "Yes, that's fine. You had a hard night! Jonathan, we'd like you to come in. We have a few questions about your response to ITT." "Ok. Sure. When is good for you?" "How soon can you get in?" Mr Peters thought quickly. Half an hour? An hour? An hour to be safe? "How well does one hour fit in with your schedule?" "Ok. Right, it's 4:15pm right now. Shall we say 5:30pm?" "Sounds good. Should I bring the team?" "We'll be six people." "Understood." "See you there Jonathan." The communications channel clicked off. *** Electra's Dad walked into the Solid Carbon meeting room, followed by his core team members. The room had deep thick dark green carpet. The chairs were dark wood, big and chunky, with green leather upholstery. A huge wooden table filled the center of the room, inlaid with marble. Pictures hung around the wood-paneled walls. Nice office! thought Jonathan. Dan stood up to greet him. He walked around the table, and held out his hand. "Thank-you for coming in Jonathan." Mr Peters took his hand, and they shook firmly. *** Dan looked across the table. He looked down at his papers, shuffled them a little then back up at Jonathan and his team. "Last night was a great response to ITT night. You guys, all teams, worked really hard." Jonathan smiled tentatively, "Thank-you Dan." "We have a few questions about your response to ITT we'd like to go through. Ok?" "Alright, sounds good." *** Electra's dad sat in the car, watching as the world went past. Foggy this morning, a little chilly. "Car. How's traffic looking?" "Oh, we're well on schedule Mr Peters. Traffic is looking good. No major malfunctions at the moment." "Great! You're doing a good job Car." "Thank-you Sir. I do my best." Jonathan smiled. Semi-sentient cars still amused him. Were they real? Did they have actual feelings? Anyway... He looked down at his comms panel, glancing through the day's headlines. His communicator beeped. It said "Incoming call from Carbon Corp, Dan Winchester." "Dan!" "Morning Jonathan. We've reviewed your response to ITT, and your follow-up answers. "It was a tough choice. Competition seems to keep you guys on your toes! We're going to go with your proposal Mr Peters." Sweet! That would pay for a new patio! "Hi Dan. It's great news that our response can meet your requirements!" "Well, it doesn't meet all our requirements perfectly, so don't get too carried away Jonathan. It does look highly competitive however. Jonathan, when can you come in for signature finalization?" Jonathan smiled. It felt good to have impressed Carbon Corp, and especially to have impressed Dan. He said, "When is most convenient for you Dan?" "Ok, say, 10:30am?" "Sure!" "Alright. See you there Jonathan. Remember, this is just the beginning! The real work starts now!" Jonathan smiled, "I hope we meet your expectations as well as possible Dan." Dan said, "I'm sure you will. I'm counting on you Jonathan. We had some quite long discussions. I pressed hard for you Jonathan. Your proposal looks good, and you've done some great work for us in the past. Are you looking forward to this project Jonathan?" "Working with Solid Carbon is excellent. Definitely." "See you at 10:30am Jonathan." "Later Dan." "Bye". The communications clicked off. Wow. They'd won. Excellent! He high-fived the ceiling of the Car. The Car said, "Hey! Careful of the upholstery Sir! It's very delicate!" Jonathan smiled, "Hey, sure! Your upholstery is in excellent state by the way Car." The Car said, "Thank-you Sir. I hope it is to your satisfaction?" "Oh yes. Today is a very satisfactory day Car." *** Tiffany prodded the cold chips. She stuck a fork in one, and drowned it in ketchup, tried to smother the horrible taste of staleness. Electra walked up to her table, put her tray down. "Hey Tiff! Great news! Dad won the contract!" Tiffany looked up, smiled, "Wow sweet!" "It's thanks to you Tiffany. If you hadn't helped out, X-Fos would have come first." Tiffany smiled, "Well... good! Glad to be of help." "Dad's holding a dinner tonight. Are you coming?" "Oh, I had a date with Lee..." "Bring him. Dad's very happy. I'll bring Tony." *** Tiffany cuddled up to Lee on the sofa, "It feels good being with you Lee." Lee looked at her, kissed her on the forehead. "Feels good being with you Tiffs. Dinner was good. Electra's dad was very happy!" "Hmmm, he was." Tiffany looked up. "Hey you wanna do something?" "Yeah of course." Lee rubbed Tiffany's shoulders, massaged them. He said, "You want me to turn off the lights?" Tiffany looked at him, "Let's keep the lights on!" She smiled shyly, mischievously. Lee smiled. He looked at Tiffany, "Alright!" He started to unbutton her shirt. She pulled him towards her with her arms.