– 71 –

 

Agent Bishop, hiding in plain sight, reported for work at the Mekhos Command wing of the National Security Agency building in Seattle. The MC section stood apart from the main building, with its own parking lot and security entrance.

This NSA had evolved to become an organization far different from that on Earth. It encompassed all security matters pertaining to Mekhos. Since the bulk of the Mekhos system was located on the outskirts of Seattle, over time the NSA had moved many of its personnel there. On FLO the NSA was not only involved in assessing and analyzing foreign threat potentials, but domestic as well.

Rector had given Bishop a tablet computer. Among other things it contained the personnel files of all coworkers. The ones Bishop was most likely to meet were flagged, along with the most important one for his deceased twin. Most of the early history of the two Bishops up to college and a stint in the military was identical, except Bishop of FLO had never been to war. He had also sustained a head injury during a training exercise almost a decade earlier. After recovery it was acknowledged there was a slight personality change, veering into the antisocial. It wasn’t quite significant enough to undermine his career. Although he had occasional disputes with superiors and coworkers, Rector thought that it wasn’t necessarily viewed as a detriment by some of their superiors. Bishop was now one of three Supervisors of Security at the MC. His team was investigating Virtue, the anti-Mekhos group.

The defenses protecting Mekhos went far beyond anything that could be designed or even clearly understood by any human programmer working for Virtue. The Virtue hackers knew it. But in addition to probing the Mekhos defenses for vulnerabilities, Virtue also actively campaigned to keep the public aware of the price of allowing Mekhos so much control and surveillance in their lives.

The hacker attacks were tolerated up to a point, mainly because they helped harden security. Every few months a few of the more persistent individuals were arrested, tried and jailed for a few weeks. Those convicted also lost their Raim removal key privileges, destined to wear the bracelet forever. That alone acted as a deterrent to at least some potential dissenters. The government made no attempt to reconcile its public assertions that the Raim was a benefit with the fact that it also used the Raim as a punishment.

Virtue had a more radical wing, one that was not above using violence and terrorism. With so much of society on FLO operating under increased surveillance it was difficult to plan, organize and execute attacks, much less carry them out without being caught. Virtue dealt with it by developing and adopting new methods out of necessity, much like any other radical group faced with relentless countermeasures. As powerful as Mekhos was, the determined minds leading Virtue were adept at coming up with effective ways to circumvent safeguards. Mekhos could not always see or sense everything that was about to happen, at least not yet.

Bishop’s position as a security supervisor gave him access to information on the locations of all the Mekhos system hubs. Simply by calling up a general status report he was able to find the main power source, the various backups, their capacities and what power stations they were sourced from. There were also some memory backups scattered around the globe. There were many redundant safeguards built in too, which made any attempt at totally destroying the quantum supercomputer essentially impossible. That is, if one’s plan was to physically destroy Mekhos.

Bishop arrived at the office early to acquaint himself with the building. His shared office was very neat and orderly and there were a few pieces of memorabilia on his bookshelf that he recognized, including a photo of his parents and a hockey puck he had caught as a boy when a visiting team shot it into the stands. He didn’t recognize some of the other items – a photograph of a car with two men sitting on the hood, and what looked like a woman’s necklace slung over a small piece of driftwood.

His two colleagues entered the office. From file photos Bishop recognized the lead one as Philips. He was carrying a cardboard tray with three coffees. He set one down on Bishop’s desk and handed the other to Gerard, the third member of the supervisory team. Bishop glanced up and gave a curt nod to the men.

“Forgot to ask you yesterday. Get home all right the other night?” Philips said as he sat down and woke his computer. Bishop paused for a moment.

“Yeah. Thanks for your concern,” he replied dryly, looking back at the screen. It was a neutral if slightly sarcastic answer, the best Bishop could do given that he had no idea what Philips was talking about.

“You said you were going on a date,” said Gerard.

“It ended early. No chemistry.” Bishop’s heart rate had increased at the unexpected question, but he managed to sound calm enough. “I went home, made myself some popcorn and caught up on your weekly scuba diving journal. Reading about your recommended nitrogen and oxygen mix for deeper dives was the highlight of my evening.” That generated a laugh from the two men.

There weren’t many distractions throughout the next hour. Aside from some discussion about another new radical group and the occasional complaint about the competence of the people outside their small office, the men were largely silent. They went about their duties, mostly consisting of cross-checking dissenter information and going over internal personnel reports. A junior aide knocked on the open door.

“Sir?” he said, looking at Bishop.

“What is it,” Bishop replied. The aide stepped tentatively into the office.

“Some of the admin guys are asking me if you will look into that scheduling matter. With the VIP tour of the building there is a shift shortage because some of the evening team have been sent to cover the—”

Bishop cut him off.

“Give me another copy of the visitors list. And start showing some initiative! If you don’t have the ability to make recommendations you’ll never be promoted. Send me your proposal within the hour.”

Philips looked up briefly. Gerard didn’t react.

“Yes sir,” the aide said after a slight pause, and quickly left the office.

Four minutes later Bishop received an email from the aide. He printed off the visitor’s schedule list and proposal. He scanned the names. He recognized two of them. Dr. Douglas Lockwood and Commander Brent Jamieson.