《2084 by Michael Harrington》


 Chapter 1: Influencer

    I was walking my normal route down People''s Victory Street to Work is Good Avenue. His car was in the same position as always. That was good as the special app I had would do what was needed only in an exceedingly small GPS area. Crossing the street, I briefly brought my phone down as I passed the custom license plate cover on the car. I kept it down for a moment while walking away as well.


    The custom cover was very unique in that he changed it every day. His old covers would go to various important people throughout the nation where they would often hand them out to their various sycophants and toadies. Obviously, I am not a fan but for the official record I am deeply a fan and if I owned a vehicle, I would have sought out one officially. But walking played a number of roles for me, so I walked, which allowed me to take a much more detailed picture than what they thought I was.


    The file said it was a bitmap and I often was seen saving it as a jpg before I uploaded it to my blog site. Handy site that blog site. In truth it was a photo and a short video.


    Today was no different than usual as I reached my workplace. Officially I was in foreign public relations. Unofficially I was a facilitator.


    The blog was great for both of those and for my other role in life. I was also an insurrectionist. My family raised me as such in secret, my grandparents having survived the various purges somehow despite having always been opposed to those who seized power. Honestly, they got lucky.


    I entered the front door like I always do with a wave and a hello to the pretty receptionist as well as grabbing my copy of the national newspaper.


    I reached my office and sat down at my rather bleak-looking desk. Oh, it was sturdy, but it also was just a series of chunks of wood barely cut into the right shape with some drawers that mostly fit. The good stuff goes out for export after all.


    My company allowed me two hours to review the news, to update my blog, and to do memos to those who needed them and the likes electronically. Which meant two memos a day on simple things so that no auditor would find anything worth worrying about nor that would make our business seem anything anyone would have any grievances with.


    The other six hours were listed as ''purchasing, research, development, training, public relations, and/or paperwork. The company let me set the agenda for those six hours so long as it would pass an audit and so long as I conducted my primary role as a facilitator.


    A facilitator is a secret position inside all the companies that handled the elites who would come calling and prevent the elite from declaring an irregularity or, arguably far worse, a questionable act.


    Fun note the position of a facilitator is highly desired as it is seen as a way to potentially enter the ranks of the elite or at least be brought into an elite''s inner circle. Thus, those who are not facilitators often try to act one to get the position or at least into the eye of a chosen elite.


    Which leads me to today''s event where one of those elites will be having lunch in our executive cafeteria. I made sure my special package was in my wool jacket''s interior pocket. It was of course but making sure is something I needed to do. That this package would have gotten me robbed if people knew was beside the point, it had to be done personally.


    But lunch was some hours off, first I needed to get to my blog. Officially my blog was to help the reputation of my company, in that it had three parts, company products, my ¡°arts and crafts¡± section, and a section about the elites. Oh, it was not publicly about the elites, but it was about the elites.


    The trick is every elite has an angle, a thing they want. They publicly might say they want more energy efficiency, but they really wanted money. Or they might say they were worried about workers'' rights when in truth they wanted art. Sometimes it was a culinary experience, others it was a partner for their bed at the hotel.


    I blogged about their needs and how to satisfy them. That is how I got this position at this company.


    Now you cannot just go out and say ¡°xyz elite wants money¡±. Do that and you would suddenly be an agitator and if lucky you would be hung from the top of a building where they would leave your body for a week to be an example.


    No, you had to be covert about it. But not too covert. Today I was posting about the new license plate cover and about Richard the Energy Directors visit yesterday.


    I typed ''Richard, our beloved Energy Director, came to tour our campus and make sure we were being rigorous in our energy efficiency. ''


    Note to you... Always play with their public persona first.


    ''Richard would tolerate no errors on his watch. His timely inspection was just after, yet another set of improvements added hours to our power efficiency. He of course had only needed a few minutes to see we were keeping up with our plan incremental changes. This was the second time he had visited our fair facility and with just a few seconds'' notice of his inspection given in advance. He was very satisfied with us and said so when he completed his tour. ''


    The real truth is I secured a rather old Rolex watch, a high quality one, and then after his surprise of a visit I not so secretly dropped it in his pocket when only he and I could see. Then, per the instructions I had from an associate at M. Keller Ltd, I asked him where his traditional watch was as we entered the room with his staged media.


    He of course smiled and made a comment that he had put it in his pocket, pulled the watch I gave him out and put it on, while also making comments about how pleased he was with our efforts.


    This. This is what I get paid to do.


    The license plate cover was merely a picture for now, my followers, those who also checked my arts and crafts area, knew I would follow up from home with commentary about it.


    But now I needed to put out some images for work, so I could provide the cover story that I helped their PR internationally. We had no new products coming out and I never mix elites with this section, so I had to work with an old standby... I wrote some fake thank you letters.


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    By the time I was done it was 10:45 and our newest elite visit was thirty minutes away. Or so the schedule said. Since he was known to visit over breakfast, lunch, or dinner only he was pretty easy to prepare for. Fortunately, the package was still secure. It was a little costly, but the company paid for it via an expense account. Every expense I put into it was under Misc. Operational Expenses. Only expenses dealing with the elites could go in there and I personally had to hand off the receipts to the Chief Accounting Officer of the company. So, there was where I was going just before arriving to the cafeteria.


    I walked over to the elevator and pushed the up button. The guard at the desk knew I was allowed and that of the people not on the upper floors I was allowed free access since I very much so did not abuse it.


    I was currently in the back of the quite large and mostly empty lobby. Between me and the front were some bushes so our executives could avoid the eyes of those beneath them. The guard sat behind a desk immediately next to the elevator and his job was to enforce the no unauthorized access.


    Going upstairs was always a risk. The people up there had dreams that they were minor elites in their own right and they loved to play games. So, the obvious answer was to not attach yourself to any but be a cog in the machine that was our company. Thus, I always gave a perfunctory hello and goodbye and kept answers short and to the point. I also turned down any and all offers from up there of any sort in the politest manner possible while trying to make it clear I wasn''t prepared for such stuff. It usually worked and the few times it did not I let an Elite in while I took a day off ''to recover''. Amazingly that usually worked real wonders inside the company, and I think they now thought of me as a bureaucrat with my own personal fief set up with no desire to leave it.


    I stepped into the cherry wood lined elevator onto the posh silk carpet and pushed button two. There was a third button, but the top floor was for the President, the CEO, and two vice presidents only. It also required a physical key to access.


    Getting out I saw the office of the CAO and set about to walk there at my usual slow gait I adopted when upstairs. They might think it was for other reasons but really it was so I could try to overhear conversations and maybe see a form or two that might reveal something from outside the company.


    My receipt was for a decent amount. You could not just get this stuff for the prices they had in my grandparents'' day. Inflation, more inflation, hyperinflation, and lack of trust by other nations meant if we bought it then it was at a premium. Though really that was true of most things these days, which is why despite a lot of resources our prices were high. Well, that and taxes, regulations, laws, ordinances, fines, fees and penalties. That said working for one of the ''authorized'' corporations allowed a certain amount of leeway against much of that. Business came first because the government found they needed business to survive. That said the elites were actually first then the businesses. People often were dead last in those considerations.


    I reached his door having seen nothing worth my time on this trip. Sad but expected. I knocked once on his frame to get his attention and he called me in by waving at me through his glass door. I walked in while reaching into my shirt pocket.


    ¡°This is for Mr. Edwards visit at lunch today¡± I told him, my eyes not making contact with him but staying on his hands.


    ¡°Odd, Carl said he had Mr. Edwards today and submitted his receipt this morning¡±


    My stomach did some flip flops, in fact it may have gurgled by the way he suddenly shifted but I was too caught up to realize. ¡°Carl?¡± This was a disaster; Carl was a blatant amateur who did not pay attention to nuances. He preferred an open play without looking for the special methods the elites preferred. Bribery was ok so long as it was done in a way that did not seem to be bribery to the average prole. ¡°Can you call him to here, stop him by chance?¡± I asked, feeling a little woozy.


    ¡°The Director is here now; he came a little early at the prompting of Carl¡±


    I admit that I may have slammed the door a bit hard as I ran out it. The elevator was not going to be fast enough but if I took the stairs, I might get sweaty and that also would be a problem. I had to be patient and collect my thoughts.


    Fortunately, it was on this floor still, the value of not much traffic to the upper offices. Standing inside it felt like the longest trip ever but the doorbell went ding and the doors did open.


    I forced myself to walk at a standard pace, if the elite had his people out it would be a problem to be seen moving at speed. I would just have to try to fix the error as well as I could when I arrived.


    Passing one of our guards and two of his guards I entered the cafeteria to see Carl hand our elite a stack of money. I also noticed the table had plates but no silverware as of yet. The Director looked at the money and shoved it back into the hands of Carl.


    ¡°What is the meaning of this! Guards this man is trying to bribe me, arrest this malcontent!¡± The screaming the director did was probably for show since he probably felt it was an effort to entrap him.


    I calmly walked over to the place setting for the Director and pulled out my package. I felt the eyes of the Director turn on me. I almost started sweating due to the pressure. I carefully laid out, in proper order, a full set of gold silverware with silver decorations inlaid in the gold. The whole set was quite tastefully done and quite well expensive. Additionally, it had taken nearly two weeks to get this set made from the gold and silver I had ordered since it had very precise specifications on how it was to be made.


    ¡°Mr. Director, I apologize for that cretin, and we will move to strike him from our operation, I hope this has not spoiled your appetite as we have a most delicious lunch prepared¡±


    I kept my eyes down but I could still get a decent read on his body language. He was leaning a little forward and I was sure he was looking at his table setting.


    ¡°I understand that some think they can blackmail anyone, I still am surprised that some think the Director of Ethics would be susceptible to bribery, I will not hold this against you or order an inquiry. In fact, no need for an audit as well since this man seems to have been alone in his efforts here.¡±


    I felt so relieved at that, an inquiry would have meant many jobs lost and replaced with those removed having no real futures before them except as basic labor. The removal of even an audit meant no one but Carl was going to get any punishment from this. I even dared look up as I moved away from the table to watch Carl get cuffed and quite literally dragged away by some of the guards.


    I stood against a nearby wall for the entirety of the lunch which saw the CEO and the President both come down and provide talking points about their efforts to stamp out corruption and provide profuse apologies for Carl who obviously might even be an insurgent or foreign spy.


    Carl was going to have a very bleak future at the questioning camp and with his eventual execution I thought to myself. The crime he committed was more of ¡°being an idiot desperate for a promotion¡± than anything else.


    The luncheon finished and as per his norm the Director carefully cleaned each utensil then discreetly placed them in his pockets.


    Another successful visit by an Elite without them doing harm to the company.


    Interestingly enough that watched the Director grab the stack of money as well. I made sure not to make any attention towards the act. But then the Director departed as well as his extensive guard detail.


    With no food eaten, I was on duty ready to attend after all, I went and grabbed a sandwich from a platter. Normally the executives were the only ones to eat food in this cafeteria, but I clearly had saved them from a big hit, and this is the way I could wave away any talk of rewards or other gratuitous acts.


    I started eating the sandwich as I walked down to the elevator going up again, I would need to make sure our Chief Accounting Officer was accepting my receipt.


    After the short trip up and confirming that indeed there was no problem with my paperwork I decided to go home early. It would be a great way to act as if I was dissatisfied with today''s events and it would give me more time to do things I needed to do.

 Chapter 2: Activated

    At home I checked my alarm system immediately upon entering the house. It was conveniently placed in a large closet where I always closed the door before checking it. There was the normal alarm but there was also a covert addition added by the special people I secretly associate with. The covert part indicated no one had entered and then played around acting as if they had not been here at all. Since the Government required that they have codes for all alarms that was a very real thing. Fortunately, I would not have to worry about it today.


    I grabbed my ''never online'' tablet from the charger in the same closet.


    The next part was the part I never liked. It was going to be work.


    I downloaded the picture from my phone of the license plate cover. I ran a program called ¡°Hail Damage Identifier.¡± In this case it saw the special tags in the picture and demonstrated the visual makeup of the license plate cover. This included flaws that were slightly detectable. These flaws were small indentations. Since the art was designed around the indents it was not obvious to the elites or others.


    I used an option to graph the license plate. If anyone was watching, they would think I was critiquing the plate cover rather than anything too out of norm for me. The truth was that the indentations was a combinatorial based data storage method.


    The encryption also relied upon the first color in the upper right of the cover. In this case it was a dark blue. Blue started the color chart with four for light blue, five for dark blue, six for light green, seven for dark green, through yellow, orange, and red. Purple would mean no data that day if light or if dark meant danger and would be my clue to be very cautious of which program took a picture of the license plate cover.


    In any case the four meant smaller math for me today. I would break it all down into four square groups using the graph function. Then the location and count of the flaws would give away the data stored. The flaws were small compared to the graphed areas but that meant a flaw could be in any location inside a graphed square. I played the video to make sure the system caught all the flaws, zooming in to areas that had no detected flaws per section of four. I found three areas this way but there were a few more that appeared to have no flaws.


    I carefully counted one, two, three is flaw, four. If there were two flaws it was more difficult, like the next one, two flaws meant I needed to think in combinations-based math. In this case there were six patterns that two could make and four patterns that three could make. Since the enemy would be thinking in binary terms, we used a system that could seem like binary, flaw or no flaw, but was distinctly not binary. Four options were two bits, six options were two to three bits as in a Huffman routine like 00, 01 100, 101, 110, 111. By doing it this way they would try four bits for every section of four and never get anywhere. That or they would assume that sections with more than one flaw (there was a lot of those) were indicative of more bits. When I was shown this system, they indicated that without knowing the system the government would make many assumptions of how it worked. If captured all I needed to do was indicate it was binary and indicate that I passed the information off at my office without saying to who.


    All flaws were a 0 and no flaws was a 1. License plate covers were small, so our system only allowed so many bits. In this example we had forty-two locations that gave us one hundred bits. Twelve and a half bytes. This being Thursday I had collected four hundred and twenty-five bits. These bits were encrypted so I could not tell you what they said, I was merely a middleman passing information from our artist to a public dissemination method. Who the artist got his information from and what it encased I never knew.


    That said I needed to start planning my blog story about the license plate cover. First, I turned off the graph system and truly looked it over. In this case it was a series of symbols of the Department of Auditing. For example, that one was symbolic of the end of Oracle and the one next to it was from the end of the NFL for distracting people from their righteous work.


    Moving to my desk I started my desktop. The tablet was to the side, and I plugged my phone into the desktop to download the image to the desktop. He had four ways he could encode his data. Odd length words and even length words, which were harder than it sounded, words with I and words with o in them, which also was much harder than it sounded. I could also do numbers if I could make it work. That sometimes could work but I was also advised that I could only do it once a quarter without possibly attracting attention.


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    That left option number four. Option four was to include typos in my work. First, I would make a typo or two in the last forty letters, characters, numbers and even sometimes symbols. Forgetting an apostrophe was one of my favorites. This would tell them how many bits there were. The options were many since two errors or three could give the same value just via different patterns. After a long time working with the forty-length combinatorial, I could create it from memory. I always used split screen and I would make a really nasty rough draft. Something no one would read without a headache. It had a lot of errors in it, and no one would see any value in it if they were reading. The rough draft was so I could write an article in theory but make it, so I had to redo it to make it readable.


    That way I could keep count as I typed, and I could add typos when appropriate. Before I did that, I made a light meal, also per my pattern, after writing the rough draft. Any auditors watching me would presume that I was eating so I could wake up and do some better typing, or so I hoped. In reality the time the microwave took, and the other delaying methods was so I could arrange for a conversion of every eight bits. I would try two errors in twenty and see what I got. If this did not work, I could then use two errors in the next twelve locations. I also was using up to down to hide the errors rather than left to right. It made double errors easier to hide that way. I also skipped one column per. I had to have forty characters for the end and at least something in the range of up to 3000 characters since we skipped columns. I usually went to about 5000 on purpose with no errors over a 20-12-20-12 double pattern set. The no errors on sixty-four would indicate end of the message. The three thousand in a very specific font designed to keep the columns clear.


    A quick set of free hand on my napkin to indicate where the combinations would go (done covertly next to the microwave and made of a food based edible paper), I would already know almost exactly my column count from the first draft, I always made a second draft with the combinations in mind when I made my typed up second draft, the final draft was where I got serious about error placement. I would then read it several times from the decryption view to see if it was correct and then make a show of finishing off a quick bite and eating my napkin.


    Only by being a ¡°low waste¡± type could I get away with the edible napkin, it was now a lifestyle where at first it was a distinctly difficult change for me.


    At 4. 5 characters per word on average I had about 1250 words. All said it was a ten-paragraph work about the quote and unquote, fantastic piece. So good of him to highlight the courage and the diligence of the Department of Auditing.


    With the piece done and checked many times over I hit publish. Mission accomplished it was not time to check comments on the arts and crafts side then on the elite''s portion.


    I first observed a Kylo Ren making a minor comment about wanting a Star Wars license plate cover. I really was unsure what Star Wars was.


    Then I noticed two more posts which made me tense up.


    The oldest was a Daisy Duke and she commented how the General Lee would look with one of the race car covers.


    Daisy was a flower type as was Ren. The center post was from John Washington. The trick was to choose a definitely Christian first name and to pick the name of a former President. Then before that person posted and after he posted, inside a window of 30 to 60 minutes before and after the flowers were to post. Many people might miss that Ren was a type of flower.


    It was a message for me. Fortunately, it was not an alert, but unfortunately it was a notification that I was going to be contacted soon to assist in an operation. The minor insurgency was surviving by using the cell system, using vetted individuals and families, and most of all in extreme discretion. I survived the extensive efforts by the auditors and elites by my very hidden nature and the difficulty in detecting me at all. No one could peg me for anything at all.


    I was not happy, and it showed. Through the evening I paced, I changed channels, I even had a touch of the low-grade alcohol I had stashed away for times just like this.


    Fortunately, the near miss with the Director would protect me if someone was spying on me right now. Periodically when I got lucid from my melancholy, I mumbled the name Carl. I did this because one could not be paranoid enough in this society.


    Eventually it was bedtime, and I did my wipe of the tablet, the shutdown of my desktop, my cleaning of dishes and brushed my teeth. I also put pajamas on. Professional note, the auditors sometimes did audits acting as if they had evidence against you. If you wanted to avoid 8 hours of being naked and surrounded by people who might be willing to take advantage of your nudity to hurt you while supposedly acting, well then you wore pajamas to bed like I do every night.

 Chapter 3: Contact

    In the morning I started breakfast right after a visit to the toilet. Bacon and eggs were on the menu. I remember when I was not middle management and had to eat foods from the managed foods list. I hope to never have vegetable-based gravy and low-grade wheat biscuits again. It was bad, I really hated that stuff.


    I took a shower, mindful of my water rations, it was short like usual. Then I dried off, got dressed and went over my mental checklist of normal tasks and possible means they would use to contact me.


    In two weeks, the Health and Safety Director was going to arrive in our city, the problem was he was very easy to plan for. I knew the trick was that his son ran Help Others Now which was a for profit assistance corporation that acted like it was a not for profit. You sent him money, something I could do next week, and his daddy, the Director, never felt the need to inspect your amazing corporation.


    No that would not provide me with cover, so it had to be something else. Maybe they would use my parents again. They had met as resistance members and fallen for each other which was good for their covers as well. Or maybe I might get instructed to visit a grandparent. Family units tended to be a thing in the insurgency which is why the government tended to take all of a family when they found one person working for the insurgency.


    That said I did my normal routine for going to work. I got a picture of the plate cover just like normal and the secret video, I blogged about the Director visiting and included a section on how my company provided a most excellent luncheon with some tasteful silverware. Again, it was important to make a good note of what you did for the elite so others, who would check many sites to detect a common theme, could try to keep up with the trends amongst the finicky elite.


    In this case I mentioned each piece of silverware in turn while glossing over the food. I did not want the readers to presume it was a good meal this director wanted after all.


    I got a little company blogging time and then I got a summons by the Chief Accounting Officer. Probably fallout from Carl or a thank you I thought.


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    A quick trip past security, up the elevator, and over to his office and I was asked to close the door. That distinctly bothered me. But I did it.


    He asked me to sit down and so I did, the plush chair being one location I currently did not want to be located at. I felt this was unusual and I distinctly do not like unusual.


    ¡°Are you married?¡± he asked me suddenly.


    ¡°Ah, no, just to my job¡± I said. I was young, I had time, and this was a way to provide a possible activation phrase. This, asked here, was definitely not comfortable...


    ¡°It is the job of every man to seek out his heart in life¡± was his quick reply.


    Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit I thought... that is the code phrase! I stumbled over my reply ¡°Life does, err, does not give us, does not give our hearts so easily.¡± It had been a long time since I was given that set of codes. Could they have been captured? I was sweating so bad suddenly.


    ¡°One should seek to have a chance¡± was his very precise reply. ¡°Relax agent, this room is safe, and I am indeed your contact as the alert prepared you for. I need you for a mission Saturday night¡± .


    Glancing at the door and feeling a lot of fear I turned to him and said, ¡°I am a facilitator, I also blog, I am no field agent, you must be mistaken¡± .


    ¡°I already told you it is safe; the rest went out golfing two hours ago and I swept this room thoroughly. You are an agent, but you are part of an information dissemination cell. I am from an ops cell, and we need your assistance in an operation.¡±


    ¡°Assistance? I have no training, no experience, in field operations, I clearly cannot help you.¡±


    ¡°Actually, that is wrong. You are in information dissemination, and we will use you to collect and then disseminate information while we perform our operation.¡±


    I was probably trapped, they would wonder if I was a double agent if I refused to help, I even felt a drop of sweat fall down my face... Giving away how nervous I was.


    ¡°I can transmit, yes, but are you not worried that my lack of experience will hurt the chances of your operation? I don''t even know how to evade the cameras covering everything, I really wonder if I would be a liability.¡±


    He sighed and sat up more closer to meet, he drew out a sheet of paper and dabbed his finger into it. ¡°The cameras won''t work tonight. Not any in a few hundred miles of here at any rate. We also have utilized back-doors to all local cameras on the route and at the target. Well, we will when it is time. We leave Saturday night and organize at this address.¡±


    A slip of paper was pulled out of his pocket and put into my hand, him standing up. ¡°The time, the rally spot, the code words, are all there. Don''t go missing because you are expected.¡±


    I was trapped...

 Chapter 4: Questions

    ¡°I want to warn you about a loose raccoon getting into the trash¡± I said


    ¡°Thank you but it is actually a beaver.¡±


    This was the cheesiest, most horrific passphrase sequence ever. I was not happy with where I was but at least it was a dark neighborhood. If the cameras really were down, then maybe I could get away tonight without anyone knowing better.


    They led me into a large basement room, no one was talking to anyone else. I tried to hide in the shadows as much as possible. Being unseen might save me if this operation had any issues. Thus, I also kept my head hung low and did not look at any of the others.


    Unfortunately, it got crowded really fast. A typical cell had five to eight. My cell was of course vastly different due to how we operated. Before I found out about the Chief Accounting Officer, I knew my parents and grandparents, the two people who trained me, and the artist. The other times I was contacted were just updates to my phone''s hidden systems or for specialized dissemination via dead drops. The few others I could suspect I could not exactly place, unless they were merely associated with us and not active participants.


    I was still mulling over the forty or so individuals here when one handed me an electronic camera. It was a fancy one with audio and video. I could not help myself, so I looked up when he handed it to me.


    ¡°You will need to edit out any audio with our voices of course, and any fingers or faces. Get images of all the children as we find them, you get the imagery, and you leave then and take any safe route home. Avoid any contact at all when returning home. Also wear this over your face on the way there then peel the tape off and dispose of them. Keep those gloves on the whole time as well.¡±


    I had worn gloves and combed my hair halfway over my face. I nodded my head and looked the camera over. It had a port for a USB J on the side and had a memory stick inside. Examining the stick, I saw it was a half terabyte stick.


    The briefing said that we had a van and two panel trucks available. Each of them was from a company in the region which made deliveries. I was assigned a seat in the van with my Chief Accounting Officer next to me. He was second in command of the operation.


    The mission was broken down into three parts. The first part was elimination of the various guards at the target site. The next part, mine, was to obtain video imagery of the children our target had apparently kidnapped and had brought to his rented house. None of them were expected to be alive due to the information we had about this ''Made Man''.


    A Made Man, or Woman, was a business leader, a celebrity, or some other well-loved individual. While they were not allowed the ability to order audits, nor to make policy, it was recognized that the government needed these individuals to help keep the population under control. Therefore, when one got high enough, they were first considered an ''influencer'', next they were ''respected''. The final level was ''Made''.


    The government would not let influencers get too far with things; they could not avoid an audit for example, but no one did anything if they committed a few low crimes. A respected person could get away with raping someone in every town they visited, so long as it was just one, and nothing would ever come if it.


    A Made person could do truly sick and twisted shit and get away with it so long as the elites were one hundred percent sure he would never betray them. In fact, they liked the sick and twisted because they could ruin that person quickly if that person did in fact betray them.


    Our target was a movie actor who would lure children to his vehicle and then take them to wherever he was staying that week. Those children were raped and then killed. Later he would have a special aide take the bodies out to be dumped in a desolate location.


    The third mission was to kill the Made Man, his primary assistants, and to not necessarily be nice killing him. Fortunately, I did not have to be around for that portion.


    During the ride I saw all power was down. It had been explained that just before cutting the power backdoor hacks went out to all cameras on the route being taken but especially the ones that had power supplies to last through a blackout. There was a severe storm north of us and the operation included a false power outage due to the storm cutting power to this area of the city.


    Men covertly jumped out of the trucks at various points as we circled wide of the house. The trucks stopped at intersections as we sped on. Then we stopped and most of the team got out. My company''s executive and I remained with the driver until a blue laser dot flashed a circle on our windshield.


    We went out running, I definitely did not like this part, but I also knew speed was of the essence. Running I passed a number of dead bodies, the guards, on the way in.


    A member of the breach team directed us in a door and pointed down a hall. They had found the bodies early in the breach.


    I jogged down the hall. In a small half bathroom was a plastic tarp and in the tarp were the bodies of four girls and a boy. Not one of them was over the age of ten.


    I pulled up the camera and started video right away. I zoomed in on each child''s face and upon their naked bodies, I briefly focused on the injuries inflicted upon them all. The insurgency always gave evidence when they performed a hit. This was the evidence this time. I almost gagged, I definitely cried silently.


    Footage in hand I walked over to the exit, I pulled the goggles off my face, removed and pocketed the tape that kept it from having samples of my skin, and tossed it to the side. I also pulled a bandanna out of my pocket and put it over my face. I needed obscurity for a little bit more.


    I was about forty blocks from home which just plain sucked. It was common for people to walk everywhere since vehicles were mostly for executives, business purposes, elites, and those who needed vehicles as part of their work.


    I walked everywhere, I did not even take a public ride-share vehicle or bus. In fact, I definitely needed to avoid the bus routes because there could be a lot of cameras involved and right now that would be bad.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    So, I started walking. I also started looking down roads as I went for those with hedges, fences, and a lack of cars. Time after time I would divert to the left or the right to avoid homes with cars. A few of those houses had lights on which indicated generators which meant I was going way around those houses. Those houses likely held agents, auditors, executives, or the likes.


    I somehow felt like I probably avoided any scrutiny when I got home hours later. At least I greatly hoped so. It was a long trip and my legs ached. Fortunately, I could sleep on Sunday and upload these graphics when I wanted to.


    I needed to hide the camera. First, I made sure the images were on the camera''s memory card which I then removed. Next, I heated up a jar of oil drippings. Due to no power, I used a heating candle. I poured most into a pan and put the camera inside after the jar cooled enough to support the camera. I then heated up another portion and mixed in butter to it. This got poured into the jar. Letting that cool I then made a portion mixed with some gravy from my fridge, cooling it down as well. The final portion was just as annoying as I added some olive oil, just a dab, to it. Once it all seemed cooled down (I used the freezer to help speed the process up) I put it back in its usual place. It was an over-sized jar just for this sort of thing as I was trained to do. Few would think to search a pile of used cooking oil and if it looked like it had proper layers then they would move on.


    I never had a need for this, but our training did include this, well my training did since my dad often had done operations until he married my mom and changed positions to command a cell.


    I was still amped up, so I started to make a bowl of cereal using milk from the fridge. It would go bad anyways, so it was best to use it up.


    Then the power was restored. I was actually relieved at that part as it meant I was home and successful in things. The last thing I needed to do was hide the video chip and check my clothes and shoes to make sure there was no evidence of my trip. So, I stripped to my shorts and after checking the clothes I emptied my basket upside down then I dropped the nights clothes at the bottom before carefully dropping clothes from the previous week and a half on top in proper order. My shoes were unmarked with no blood, dirt, or liquids to my eyes, so I put them where they usually went, then I sat down to my cereal.


    I got done, put it unwashed in the sink, and grabbed the chip. I went to my alarm closet and using a hand towel from inside the closet I carefully opened the alarm system. Inside was the alarm panel guts. It looked, or so I was told, exactly like the regular alarm system down to exact sizes of the various components. However, mine had a small difference. I carefully used a key from my key ring to pull a processor out. It was a fake cover and the functions of that processor had been hidden inside the board spread out in very thin fibers. This fake processor had space for five of these memory cards and I carefully dropped it inside, gently used the cloth to push it back in, then closed the cover. I might even wait until Monday to upload the video since I went by the motto ''safety first''.


    I went to the bathroom and got rid of a lot of tension as well as the usual. I washed up my hands and then walked back to the kitchen sink. I almost reached the faucet when my back door and front door crashed in.


    I dropped to the floor and leaned up against the counter covering my face as screams of  ¡°Federal Agents, do not resist, you are under audit!¡± came not just from the doors but from the windows around my house. I put my hands straight up, but I could feel how bad I was shaking.


    A half dozen agents reached me and tied me up hog tie style in quick order. I was thrown into an empty space on my floor and an agent sat down and started to just watch me. The other agents fanned out and started searching everything. I watched as my electronics were seized, tablet, desktop, smart phone, even television and as they went through every surface. I was not going to talk to them but apparently no one was bothered with me watching them.


    Our training included that an audit of this nature could happen but that we needed to just be quiet unless talked to. Acting afraid was okay because even innocent people would act afraid during an audit. All hints of fatigue vanished as this process went on. The agents were very thorough using devices designed to detect electronics, weapons, and hidden compartments.


    Finally, an agent ordered others to sit me on the couch untied. He looked at me directly as I carefully perched on the seat and then he started asking me questions.


    Where were you over the last twenty-four hours? Do you know Mitch Markelson? (That was our Chief Accounting Officer). Do you know what he was doing this weekend? Do you know anyone in the resistance? Are you a rebel? How long have you worked where you work? What do you do there?


    The questions lasted for hours and the auditor often repeated questions, sometimes exactly the same and sometimes in different manners, but at a pace that barely allowed me to answer them.


    Of course, I lied when I needed to. I even managed to keep my lies separate from the truths I told. I think my parents would be proud of that. Throughout the whole process I utilized my training and my instincts, and I avoided making myself complicit during this questioning phase.


    Then he waved his hand at me, cutting me off. He gestured to some of the other agents who reported that there was nothing uncovered inside the house, that my electronics were clean of any illicit software (since I was given equipment with hardware modifications including hard-coded programs that could only be activated under the correct circumstances and handling this was true) and that my background came up clean.


    He then asked me what I was doing just before they entered. I told them I ate breakfast and then used the restroom. He walked over to the sink and looked in.


    ¡°Why cereal? Our records indicate you rarely buy cereal.¡±


    ¡°Oh, that''s simple¡± I answered, ¡°the power was out, and I did not wish to waste the milk since I did not know when it would be restored.¡± It had turned twilight near then.


    ¡°And the heat candle?¡±


    ¡°It was cold and dark; I usually wake up early and I am not the type to go back to sleep just because it is a weekend.¡±


    The agent nodded as if that made sense.


    ¡°Last night your Chief Accounting Officer and a bunch of rebels attacked a man and his family. He killed the man, his staffers, and the children. Apparently, this was done to support the rebels in scaring other innocents into not doing their obligations to society.¡±


    ¡°The man fingered the President and CEO of your company though I think they are probably innocent. Unfortunately, the decision went out to seize all executives at your company.¡±


    I gasped at this revelation, this was a big deal, were they going to close the company down? Were they arresting everyone at the company?


    ¡°I did, I was, I did, I was not aware of this stuff. Wha, what happens now?¡± I asked, shaking because even though I may have passed the audit I might be doomed anyways.


    ¡°The company will get a large group of new executives. Due to your being supported by one of the elites you are being made an executive.¡± he waved me down as I started to gape ¡°apparently your efforts as a facilitator have paid dividends and you are trusted implicitly currently.¡±


    ¡°You cannot turn this down as they feel it is essential to have someone who knows enough about the company be able to attend board meetings and to provide the new executives with information as needed. We will be digging deep but fortunately for you your background has been checked so many times due to your facilitator role and this flash inspection was to make sure you were not compromised.¡±


    That missing fatigue? It caught up to me just then and my legs got wobbly. ¡°Err, what, or who? Who do I report to?¡±


    He started walking me to the front door. ¡°Go to work Tuesday as we will be checking the offices out all Monday, your regular hours¡± and with that he walked out my door. A new door with a key in the lock  ¡°the doors were replaced while I questioned you, but the frames might be weakened a bit, check it out later¡±


    With that he waved the few remaining agents out, pulled the key out, tossed it to me and closed the door.


    I walked to my bedroom, put the key on the nightstand, I was still in my undergarments, so I went to bed.

 Chapter 5: Stress

    After being up so long and being stressed in so many ways I slept the sleep of the near dead. It had been late afternoon when I went to sleep, and it was past time for me to be walking to work when I woke up... Except I was off this Monday.


    That was going to affect my message for the week, but then again, my message for the week was far less important suddenly.


    I had to do something, I had to inform command about the operation and trigger an alert. It could save lives after all.


    I went to my computer, and I went to my arts and crafts section. I inputted a quick paragraph.


    ''Awkwardly I will not have a picture today, a change in workforce is happening and I have been told to stay home. I know your zealotry for the art, but circumstances have made for an imperfect day. I sincerely hope someone can substitute on my behalf in this regard.


    There it was, I used my key words. I never used a negative in any post, I always was positive. I never found a fault in anything he did. Therefore, opening with awkwardly was the first and most important keyword. It was a negative. I then had a word per letter to indicate duress and a word per letter to indicate I was being monitored, a word per letter to indicate a problem had occurred. In this case zealotry meant a problem had occurred. Zealotry was a safe word because I would never accuse an Elite or a government agency of being a zealot. The last part was where I had ¡°hope¡± that someone could ''substitute'' on my behalf. That indicated, as it was the last sentence, that I could not perform my duties due to the circumstances.


    If I made a longer document I could include typos, mistakes and such and make a hidden message but now was not the time for that. Now was the time to make sure no one approached me for a moment, and that I would try to get a message out later.


    Then I made breakfast because I was starving.


    ______________


    As Monday crept closer to an end I considered my options. I felt seeking a visit with family could be dangerous. I also did not want to check my alarm system because who knows if they hid a camera in there. I did not want to deviate from my normal behavior at all and I could not control circumstances really well at that time. My hidden memory chip would have to remain hidden and a message out could be risky until at least after Tuesday.


    I made a plan inside my head as I watched a show that I watch every Sunday. Or rather a lot of television shows. After meeting the other executives and seeing what they were needing, wanting, doing, I could ''inspect'' my door frames and find fault with it. Or at least act worried about it. Since there was a sensor in both of the doors the alarm company could be called out to inspect their equipment, perhaps after buying a new door frame and getting it installed. It seemed a reasonable plan. I just needed to ignore the door until I got back on Tuesday.


    This was not so difficult. I steadfastly avoided my computer for the rest of the day as well. Instead, I went through and refolded my clothes, washed my dirty clothes, and did things that would allow me to lightly look for a bug or a camera. It was not ever going to be safe here again but that might be resolved by my advancement to executive.


    While there was the elites and then there were influences, respected individuals, and made individuals I now was entering the third strata of the mechanism that held up the government. Executives had four ranks, where they could cross over to publicity and be a Made Man, they could also stay hidden and climb up the executives'' ladder. The ladder, named for the rungs, was Manipulator, Strong Arm, Industry Giant, and Boss. Every executive was by default at least a Manipulator. The CEO has been a Strong Arm. Our firm was not important enough to rate a Giant or a Boss. An example of a Boss was Lockheed-Boeing. As a major exporter for the nation and the source of much revenue it took a big player to keep meddling lower-level elites from breaking it on accident. While executives could argue with elites and Made Men, they could not create policy nor get away with crimes. But in exchange they could live a life of luxury beyond the reaches of the common person.


    For example, I live in a one-bedroom house currently as an unmarried male. As an executive with no spouse, I was going to be expected to move into a three-bedroom house and to seek out a car. I knew that I was going to have to get shown how to drive as well. My parents, just because of my increase, would be allowed a second bedroom to be added to their existing house or they could move to one. But that would be after a while because the government did not do those notifications very fast.


    So now I was a manipulator and a facilitator. I would probably be given a straight budget and be expected to keep cash on hand from it to cover our needs. I would also be allowed to make other expenditures to help the company. I was sure of it.


    On the way in Tuesday I walked my normal route. I took a standard picture but not video of the license plate cover. I did it by using the app from inside the menu instead of the side button that could be set for camera use. If the phone was hacked, and it very well might be, using the GPS triggered side camera button would have been detectable. I hate being paranoid but without paranoia they will get you.


    I got to work and waiting in the lobby was our standard receptionist. ¡°oh¡± she said and then hung her head low. She reached down and grabbed a manila envelope that had my name on it. ¡°You should open it in your old office¡± was all she said.


    My old office had a few things I would be expected to take upstairs with me. I calmly emptied my trash bucket and started shoving things in. I''d have to leave the poster for someone to remove for me though as it was behind glass.


    I sat down halfway through the packing process and opened the envelope. In it was a new set of identification with my picture on it, identifying me as an executive seventh rank, some keys and a username and password on a slip of paper. Also, there was a letter sized envelope which I then opened.


    ¡°You will be the assistant to the company auditor¡± it read, ¡°your office is on the right side fifth down. Read your email associated with the new user and password for more details.¡±


    I thought that was easy enough, so I finished packing and went upstairs. The guard was new. Probably an agent so they could watch us closer.


    It was pretty standard fare for them to flood a corporation when they found a high-ranking member of the insurgency standing in as an executive. I was going to have to be careful.


    I got in the elevator and rode it up. The walk down to my room was... Very quiet. I thought to myself that there should be someone else up here but by the time I reached my room there was not a single person in sight.


    The plaque on the door said my name but underneath it caused my stomach to hurt a little. It read ¡°Assistant Auditor¡±. Surely this was some sort of morbid joke.


    I entered my room. The carpet looked like silk and was blue with red lines going through it in a swirl pattern. The desk was well treated and polished oak and had obviously been designed by a master craftsman. The wall had the typical paintings expected by the elites showing motivational statements to support the nation, and various cabinets, tables, chairs, and even a coat rack adorned the room.


    I shook my head then I sat the bucket down. I started to pull out the first thing which was a coffee mug when some light knocking came from my doorway.


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    I turned around and nearly dropped my mug. It was the agent who audited me Sunday. He was not in a black combat suit like before but this time he was in a suit and tie, and a red power tie at that.


    My upset stomach started building up some acids and my nerves started to cringe in terror. Nope nope nope I did not want to see him. That said I asked, ¡°how can I help you agent?¡± as calmly as I could.


    ¡°First don''t call me agent, you can call me Director or Eric. Next we have a board room meeting and I would like to invite you.¡±


    ¡°Oh, okay¡± and with that he waved me forward and down to a room I had never seen before - because I was not an executive and did not need to see it.


    It was a very large room with two dozen people already inside, thirteen women and eleven men. Well thirteen men with me and ¡°Eric¡±. The odds of that being his real name were probably less than the odds of all Elite''s giving up power tomorrow at noon.


    The cherry wood table, the exotic carpet, the armoire filled with crystal glassware and various alcoholic drinks, there was so much largess presented here as to beggar my imagination. Fortunately for some reason there was a seat near the door. That seat I rapidly took while Eric the Agent went to the head of the table.


    ¡°Good morning, all, thank you for waiting. I have several bits of news to announce, the first being that we have a newly made influencer amongst us." That got my ears perked, an influencer of course was someone who could do minor illegal things because they helped support or prop up the government''s elites. This man has made the lives of the Elite much more stable; he has introduced a way to help others know exactly what the elites are looking for, he keeps his tongue proper, and he has amassed a large enough online following to be inducted into the influencer ranks.


    Was there another facilitator amongst us I considered, peering around the room to see if I might recognize one. Carefully I put on a decent smile while looking them over.


    The problem was they were all looking at me, not a one was looking elsewhere. Why were they looking at me? Wait, wait, wait... Surely that does not mean.


    I felt a hand on my shoulder causing me to turn to Eric ¡°And so my assistant auditor is not just an auditor, a facilitator, but is also an influencer.¡± He looked me directly in the eyes as he said the next ¡°Your work had set you apart from the companies'' leadership, your actions were noticed by many elites who actively started coming here just to see how good you were. I in fact expect you to easily join the ranks of the respected with your efforts. But I digress, we need to perform the functions of the board.¡±


    With that the boring business of budgets, supply, sales, and assigning manpower commenced for the next three hours. At the end I was given the handshake of every one of the board as they left for their offices, as well as Eric. None even bothered shaking other hands in the room, it was clear there was two of us they were watching and being good to, it just so happened that I was one of those two. How badly have I stumbled to get this much attention? A spy is supposed to be in the shadows, unseen, unbothered, but here I was in a spotlight and a microscope at the same time. It was a wonder I could stand at all and that I was not losing half my body weight in sweat.


    When the last one of the others walked out and Eric put his hand firmly on my shoulder, I felt like I could happily accept a heart attack because then I might be able to hide from him for a while. Alas no such luck was happening at this moment. ¡°Would you come with me please? We have a lot of talking to do about your new position.¡± It seemed to be the thing to do, to follow him as meekly as I could.


    We got to his two-room office, he closed and locked the door to the outer one, we walked through to the next room where he pointed at the nearby sofa. ¡°Take a seat please.¡± He himself got into an exotic looking leather chair. I calmly got into the center of the sofa. Once upon a time my mom told me that the auditors used a sofa as a test and that if you sat at an arm, it indicated nervousness, but if you sat far enough away from the arm and spread your legs wide and leaned back then they assumed you were comfortable in the situation. So, I sat down, spread my legs a bit and leaned into the back of the sofa. However, it seemed Eric, via the wry look he gave me, thought something else of my move.


    ¡°Comfortable already in your position there young auditor?¡±


    Think fast I said to myself and then I just started ¡°It''s been a long week or so, so many things happening, then a long meeting with topics I had no preparation for and more responsibility and all sorts of new positions, titles, and such,¡± I paused for a second, ¡°I just felt like relaxing for a moment.¡± To that he nodded. Then he surprised me by getting up and heading to a cabinet ¡°Do you like Whiskey? I have some wonderful 1994 aged whiskey here and I think you may have indeed earned a good relaxing moment while I introduce you to your position under me.¡± While he was talking, he grabbed two bourbon style glasses and an old-fashioned bottle of whiskey. He also pulled open a small fridge and continued talking ¡°you were chosen because when we have a compromised board, we need someone who can help look into a corporation to help find more of the traitors. And to be very frank you are known, respected, and were already going places and it was the perfect opportunity. I watched as he took some cloves and dropped them in the glasses, a bit of a cinnamon stick (I could smell it from here), and then tossed in nutmeg, lemon juice, a dab of honey and then added whiskey to near the brim of both. ¡°Oh¡± he said as he looked at me,¡± I am making some Toddy''s as I figured they would be a great way to relax.¡±


    I reluctantly reached out when he handed me my Hot Toddy, I avoid drinks because, well, our training included knowledge of how many were outed by their drinking, unfortunately I did not see a way to avoid the drink. Fortunately, my parents had told me the secret to avoiding getting drunk, you drink slowly and talk more.


    I really did not want to talk more but I really did not want to get drunk and be caught off guard. Discomfort swallowed; butterflies caged I went to start talking.


    ¡°It''s a shame about those others, I really thought they were good people, not that I had much contact you see¡± as I started basically prattling to him ¡°but one assumes that everyone should and is loyal to their nation and would not do such horrible things.¡± I took a small Sip as to be seen as not avoiding the drink, a key requirement in my play I was about to launch.


    ¡°Unfortunately, we need to examine those other boards nearby who they may have interacted with, we also need to probably consider their neighbors for how else they should send messages and such, presuming they are not alone of course.¡±


    With this he nodded his head, and I took that as a sign to continue, now I needed to act silly and dumb, ignorant of how these things worked. ¡°We need to have someone look at their computers, and the mail they have received but not yet been thrown out. Oh, I wonder if mail has come in since which would help you track down their fellow scoundrels!¡± This last part I almost shouted, and I frantically waved my drink spilling a little less than a drink as I built up my apparent excitement for coming up with a supposedly brilliant idea.


    ¡°Please calm yourself before you get too excited there, you might not know of methods and mechanisms behind how these people work but clearly you are interested in clearing your corporation''s name and getting a name for yourself. And why not, you are going to be a made man and more.


    With that he also glibly grabbed my drink before I could tilt it over more, acting as if I was unaware of the drink.


    ¡°I think perhaps this part of the plan was not so suitable, do you drink at all?¡±


    ¡°No sir I do not, I could not afford that with my budget before and I had desires for discretionary choices in other directions¡±.


    ¡°No matter¡± he said ¡°you shall be able to pick up the habit yourself of drinking good drinks where the carpet might not be so expensive.¡± With that he sent my drink down, sat at his desk and started typing on the keyboard.


    ¡°You are right that we must follow leads, tomorrow an agent will deliver to you all of their mail for you to read and examine, you shall see if there is anything out of the ordinary for me. After that we shall review expenditures and after that we shall examine associations and potential accomplices.¡±


    ¡°Tonight, however, I want you to look at this map and choose one of the indicated houses, as you are rising in the world there must be a change in your living style. Since your family is still around, I have also made notes of a few that will allow them to live close to you if you wish.¡± While he said that he reached into his desk and grabbed a map with sticky notes attached to it.


    He then waved me to the door and said, ¡°take your time but do try to hurry, we need to know fairly quick after all¡± .


    I got up and walked out clutching the map to my chest.


    When I looked at the map there was no house which would give me a viable route past my parents'' current home. However, it was also marked with some options for my parents to upgrade to. One of those perks of being an executive was to provide a better living place for parents and children of the executive. That said there was still no route between work and any of the residences I could choose. Looking more I determined there was a route that led to a store from one of the houses and past where one of the houses my parents could move into. Conversely there was a route for dad to use to get to his place of employment that would pass my house. It was not ideal, but it would work. It was fortunate that they would be only a few blocks away.


    None of these places would allow me to continue passing messages, however, and there was also a high risk of my future home being bugged in ways we could not expect. I would need to consult with command through my parents on what to do. Oh, and their new place would likely be bugged... Sigh...

 Chapter 6: Home & Dinner

    I got home and considered what to do. The first thing to do would be to announce what had happened, but do I call my parents first or do I make a post online? I did not know what my parents did for the resistance but they had been doing it for a long while so they should have a better feel for this than I did. I called them right then.


    ¡°Honey what''s going on?¡± answered my mom


    ¡°Sorry to bother you, I know this is not a normal time for me to call¡± I replied as an effort to give her words cover. She was clearly worried, her voice carried the worry, and the bots that listened to phone calls could easily catch that and that is why I had to reply the way I did.


    ¡°Well...¡± she started before I talked over her


    ¡°Mom, I have news, you may need to sit down. It''s not bad, it''s actually good news but it has some... things... that need to be discussed... at length.¡±


    ¡°Umm, ok I can do that¡± and a pause ¡°ok I am sitting now¡±


    ¡°My company is going through an audit and the top executives are all gone,¡± and I heard her gasp on the other side, ¡°and I got a promotion to the executive board.¡± You could have heard a pin drop over the next half minute.


    ¡°Promoted? What does this mean for you? For us?¡± By us I knew she meant her and dad.


    This was the moment where I needed to fall upon family level code words and set up a safe and secure meeting. I would let her choose the venue. The key word in this case would be fancy, because if fancy was with food, then it meant I felt I was being followed. It was a reasonable assumption under the current circumstances. I also needed to include one of our key words for bugs. I would stress that by using two words with the letter b that we would not normally use. Beer and brandy. Those two words were often Coors, and we never drank brandy unless we needed to say bugs were a possibility and instead would drink whiskey.


    "I think we should get some fancy food, not beer this time either but instead something good, like brandy mom¡± . I paused for a moment to let it sink in then continued ¡°this promotion is big, and I need to talk about things with you and dad because they want you to move and me to move and it''s just so much¡±


    ¡°Oh wow, umm, ok I will think of something, are you walking here or are we walking there son?¡±


    By stressing walking, she was trying to indicate to push for time, she needed some time to consider where to go considering our circumstances. She might also need to make a few calls to find a secure place. I needed to give her an out.


    ¡°Well, I do need time to update things first here, I cannot be remiss on my social media side with such a promotion, how about I see you¡± and I looked at the clock, it was only two in the afternoon. ¡°How about we meet at your place at 5? I can take a short rest to think things through and take a shower and clean up a bit¡±. It was an offer and now it was her turn to take it or change it. The latest I would do would be eight o''clock. Any later and I would need to just do a pro-forma type meal with her and then schedule an effort with her later for a more in-depth talk.


    ¡°Oh, that''s perfect, do be punctual and wear some proper good clothes, your performance review clothes for example would be ideal.¡±


    That was code. A single but stressful bit of code. She was making sure I got the message and kept the message close. She repeated words with ''P'' in them four times and things that she would not normally append to it as well. Fortunately, the bots listening in would not be able to make heads or tales over what she said where I could see that she was telling me to go to passive mode. Passive mode, in family code, was to not do anything for the resistance at all, to shut down, to be a dark spot on a dark wall making no noise and no light. It was the message to take no risks at all and wait for new instructions. Something that I, in my still shaken up feelings, could do.


    ¡°I will be there, later mom.¡±


    ¡°Bye honey¡± she replied


    It would seem rude to any human listening in, the bots would not care, but a human would take note I ended the call quickly. I needed a bit of cover again... But the code meant take no risks and terminate even the call because that was a call to resistance even if it was family.


    So, I went to the bathroom and sat on the toilet for a long time. I acted as if I felt the need but could not perform the deed. It was not the best cover in the world, but I think any agent would understand and not bother making a note of it if they connected the two. I did have a bit of a stress filled weekend and today would be called an emotional roller coaster if anything.


    I then went straight to my computer and started typing ¡± Dear readers there is amazing news and there is bad news. The amazing news is I have been promoted to be an executive at my company. The bad news is I will not be able to post on the license plate covers. That simply will be too far out of my way to continue doing. I have been sponsored in other ways, but it would be premature for me to talk of those things here as well. The next week or so you might not hear much from me as I will need to move and will be adjusting to my new circumstances.¡±


    I called a ride-share car and arrived a few minutes early, but I felt that under the circumstances it felt like the correct thing to do. I forced a smile on my face, my smile not reflective of my feelings. I was in fact trying to not dwell on the recently killed resistance team, the really close call I had, how I was now at risk of discovery by many different loose threads just dangling for an auditor to find, and finally how my parents would react to all of this.


    Mom was actually waiting outside, and she called dad out. When I made to get out, she waved me off and said in a loud voice designed to carry ¡± keep the ride we will need it for getting to the restaurant.¡±


    Dad came out and they piled into the car. Mom grabbed my phone and updated the address, and we took off.


    Mom grabbed my leg in a manner designed to let me know if I should stop and looked me in the eye and said, ¡± could you repeat the good news again, I might have told your father only part of it¡± .


    ¡°Well, my work as a facilitator was noticed and apparently, I''m now designated an influencer. This was happening without my knowledge when an opening in the executive board opened up and they placed me there. The position is technically the assistant corporate auditor¡± and then I sat there trying to act calm as my mom''s hand changed from potential pincher to a series of pats.


    ¡°That''s amazing honey, I booked us the best room in a fantastic place to eat so I hope you brought your appetite¡± and then we all were silent for the rest of the ride.


    I remembered the restaurant when we arrived, it was one we had been to a few times when mom or dad had gotten a new job or a promotion. That made things click for me, but I made sure not to show anything.


    As soon as we got our dad put his arm over my shoulder and mom took the lead. I got the message quickly that this was her show and that I was to follow her lead. The door man opened the door for us, and we strolled into the reservations desk.


    ¡°We are the party of three for the downstairs room¡± mom said when the man there looked at her inquisitively.


    ¡°I''m sorry but we don''t commonly rent that room out, the owner reserves that room for special patrons only¡± the man replied glibly.


    ¡°When I called, I was told it was available and I asked the lady to hold the room for us, we are celebrating some good news¡± .


    The man looked us over as of looking at some rodents who asked if they could move in, seeking on me.¡± I see, I will have to inquire of the owner if he wishes to honor the error or not, but I shall not keep you standing, come we will go down there now.¡±


    We went down a flight of stairs in the back, it was a cramped stairwell where the only way down was one person at a time. When we got down there, however, the table was exquisite and the chairs looked like works of art.


    The ma?tre d'', at least I think they are called that, sat us all down and then proceeded to look meaningfully at my mom before leaving the room. A few minutes later a man in a three-piece suit came down the stairs.


    ¡°You are all clear, the sensors did not detect any bugs, now why did you come here and how fast can you leave?¡± he said.


    ¡°Bruce this is big and bigger, we need the chief and we need about five hours to discuss this, and we need the cover for that five hours as well¡± replied my mom from her seat.


    ¡°Hmmph, I will get him, but this is on your head, this is not the time for theatrics¡± and with that he went up the stairs.


    I just sat there, this was completely out of my control, I did not even know this place was part of the resistance and it sounded like one of our station chiefs might even be here. Just how deep in the resistance was mom? It took twelve or so minutes, but the ma?tre d'' came down with a tray of drinks. How he managed that in the stairway was beyond me.


    ¡°This had better be good since we have a major loss and are still assessing how much risk of discovery we have.¡± he said even as he started setting drinks down. A few more people entered with bread sticks and trays of appetizers. Just how much was this cover story going to cost us I wondered.


    My mom actually stood up from her seat to address the man.¡± Dwayne my son has come forward with critical news. He was promoted to executive at the company and more he was pushed up as an influencer and his position is that of an assistant corporate auditor there.


    The man looked at me and he gaped openly, the whole room was silent and even the servers were looking at me without even hiding it. Dad just grabbed a bread stick and took a bite.


    ¡°Shit¡±


    ¡± Yeah, no shit¡± said my mom in return.


    ¡°Ok this does change things; this makes us have to run with this for sure as we won''t get a better chance... But if I remember correctly he is a messenger and not an infiltrator, am I correct?¡±


    ¡± More that he was our messenger between all regional cells but yes that is correct¡± replied mom.


    I was what?!? All the regional cells? I had thought I was just for a few sources and not so tied in deep.


    ¡°Well, he cannot do that anymore and we need to burn those bridges thoroughly now,¡± and then he looked at me, ¡± you are now the single greatest asset in the region, of many regions and I suspect you do not even know why.¡±


    Ok that does not make me feel comfortable, if I could sink deep into the seat and disappear I think I would choose to do that without hesitation.


    ¡°You see the Elites often start to create new elites, they are slow and careful in their decisions but they feel a need to make new Elites to keep their ranks full. After all they occasionally trim on of their own and at times we successfully eliminate one as well. We usually do not do such in our efforts because we know they will just raise up another and thus society will suffer as they perform a massive audit of an area but sometimes one of them has become a monster and we simply must do what we can.¡±


    That did not make sense, surely, we had plans to beat them, he had paused, and it seemed he wanted a reaction from me.¡± I thought we sought to remove them from power and to bring society freedom from their tyranny.¡± I stated simply.


    ¡°It''s more complicated than that, long ago we determined that it would not be immediately, that we needed to take over a series of the Elite''s positions before we could move on to actually disrupting them enough that we might succeed. The problem is that with the world of Influencers, Made Men, Executives, Auditors and how they set up the military...¡± he paused for a second..¡± we cannot possibly win against them, too many have benefits they would never ever give up and too much power is spread between them all.¡±


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    I felt anger at those words ¡± Then why are we taking these risks, why are we dying? If there is no chance at all then we should not even try!¡± I almost screamed at him. Almost, I did not because I did not know how far it would carry, but I did use a very angry voice.


    ¡°We failed to get anyone to be an Elite is why we have not moved. We have influencers, we have Executives, we have some Generals and some Admirals, we even have some auditors at various ranks though I am not privy as to most of the identities of all those people we have in various positions. What we do not have, did not have until today, was someone who has three critical positions. To become an Elite they mark you as three of the seven different types of power they respect. An executive, an influencer, an Auditor, a General, an Admiral, a high-level agent in the spy ranks, or a bureaucrat of high standing. The rank of these things does not matter so much, nor the position. You can be a General over a training school and qualify, you can be a corporate auditor and qualify... which I note that your handler has said you are. You can be an influencer of the lowest sort and an executive of cleaning outhouses... It does not matter how glorious your position it matters that you have the minimum qualifications for grooming to the higher levels.¡±


    Shit, shit, shit... This is not good I thought. How can I be an Elite? Surely they have tests that will find my true intent and desires out. The fact that my mom was my handler, a thing I did not know, was a mere footnote in all of this.


    ¡°It cannot work, I cannot be an Elite, they would find me out with ease!¡± I said.


    ¡°Actually, it can work because they already did the vetting to get you there, now you only need to prove value for them to elevate you to higher levels. If you have a problem we can assassinate the problem, if you have reached the highest levels and there is no promotion, we can kill a few select Elite''s off and see how quickly they promote you then, if there are potential competitors for the Elite positions, we can fake evidence of foul play and more. In short, the entire resistance is ultimately going to assist you even if they do not know they will assist you.¡±


    I shuddered uncontrollably for a few seconds. This was not my job; I was not trained for this.


    ¡°And before you think we did not train you for this, we did. We made you an influencer, we worked hard to put you in a specific company hoping we could use our executives there to get you promoted upwards in a few years. We were grooming you for this like we were many others.¡±


    Shit, it was a trap, and one planned for a long time. I looked at mom meaningfully and she looked back at me without even blinking.


    ¡°I did what I could for you son, and you need to believe that. The future of our nation now possibly lies in your hands so... Don''t mess it up.¡±


    ¡°Right, and with that we need to move your cell out of the ordinary channels, you cannot meet here anymore and likely we cannot meet regularly at all. This means covert messages. It''s time for me to introduce you to a new system, one I devised but have not implemented.¡±


    And with that the next few hours were food, drinks (non-alcoholic so we could stay focused), and training on the new method. It was designed for giving two hundred or so ''trits'' of data. It would be in a Combary Data Storage method devised long ago by Michael Harrington and Patented back in the early years of the United States. It was simple really, we had three signals at a given moment that could be shown. The first stood for a 0, the second stood for a 1, the third stood for a 2. There was a sub-length assigned to a section of trits and this sub-length would be based upon the date, the hour, the quarter hour, and the week of the year it was. This meant every time I used the code, I would need to use it exactly on time or I would need to flag that it was without the quarter hour and hour and those would be emergency messages only. Or they would be emergency messages to me or to my parents who were both to be part of my now three-person cell. My grandparents actually would be moved out of the region to help make it look like they were unimportant to my life and that I was looking forward to getting a wife and starting my own family. My future would have to include going dating now it seemed.


    Anyways the sub-length would help determine the value of the combination portion, which would be the twos, the ones and zeroes would remain standard binary. This system was the system that destroyed AES in the early part of the 21st century as it was far more difficult to crack. Our goal was to make it impossible to detect. Combary had an advantage that it could store 1. 67 bits per a trit, this made it optimal for storing tons of data. This meant that with 200 trits I was actually giving 320 bits of data. This means that with the alphabet, numbers, the space between words, and a few symbols I was using 48 total characters. Then I was told to make a list of some letters to have several possible characters for the same letter and even some letters with three characters. All told I then had 64 possible characters which would represent all the letters on the keyboard, some numbers, some repeated letter values and some symbols. This meant that the, estimated 200 trits I could send in a sitting would give around 53 characters. I would need to use acronyms, reduce words by cutting letters off, and the likes to make a message fit but in theory I could actually give a decent message this way. For example, the words ¡± Mary had a little lamb¡± were 22 characters under this and I had chosen the letter ''a'' to have three options on characters. This would help with the encryption even more than usual. So at 22 characters for that small sentence, I could definitely give a name, a small summary of a problem, or the likes. It was doable and since I was already a blogger and already trained in Combary and writing tricks I could memorize the whole method with ease.


    The how was also simple but would keep messages down for a while. It would be how I held utensils in my hand while eating. Interestingly enough Dwayne showed that while eating people would hold their fork in many different ways, often for many different efforts at obtaining food. He showed me six different angles I could hold the fork in and then showed me three different grips. This meant I had eighteen ways to show the three possible trits. Further he set it up so if I had a knife in my left hand, it over-ruled the fork and the angle, of three possible, would give another set of options. For the spoon it was even simpler, if I took and swung it from the back and scooped it to me it was a 1, if I centered it and scooped into it then brought it out it was a 0, if I started nearest to me and scooped into the plate it was a 2. It was an easy method, and I could also deviate from the norm to signal an end to the message or just as a break point before continuing. Two deviations in a row were the end and one was a break until I deviated again.


    The problem was you never really take two hundred bites of food. You won''t get that in a standard sitting. But that was easy to resolve as well. Except for the knife and spoon part I could toy with the utensil on the way there a little. Each bit of toying added up easily. And since it was not cool for people to watch you eat and stare only at you and not touch their food, we had a way to drag this out as well. I would be sitting with my mom and dad, and we would talk. The conversation would not matter, the dragging of the meal out to a message length would be the big deal. I could go over 200 trits if I needed to, it was not a hard rule, it was just a guide for a reasonable length of a message. I would talk to them, and they would take turns observing me for the message, each working to get a certain amount of trits.


    Dwayne assured me that it would not work so well at first but as we all got practice at it, we would dramatically improve. He further stated that he was going to find an operative I could socially date who could also take and give messages.


    That part made me nervous; I had avoided dating just because I felt insecure about the idea of dating someone who might not be open to the resistance. While this agent would be resistance it also came with a duty and not pleasure type of feeling to me... How can one have a supposed girlfriend who happened to also be a messenger between you and the resistance?


    A few dead drop locations were discussed, and they picked a house for me I would stay at. Conversely, they chose a house that was not very close for my parents to live at, the premise there was that as a soon to be very enriched man I could afford to have them come over via rideshare or I could get there in my future vehicle of my own. Eventually they said I would have a driver and even guards as I climbed the ranks but right now as the lowest of each tier for Influencer, Executive, and Auditor I would only be able to expect a decent amount of cash to come my way. In fact, they advised me to ask about it tomorrow when I met back up with Eric the auditor.


    Eric had seen me in the morning, confirmed where I wanted to live and where I wanted my parents to live. He also handed me the first of many paychecks - he said that this was my monthly amount and that this was a starter bonus. My eyes almost popped out as it was almost eleven times my old salary.


    He sent me to my old home to direct the movers and to settle in to the new one. He said that I would have some documents at the new place to start reviewing, they were copies of the originals.


    My problem was I had limited control over the movers, I could not select who they were, and there was the hidden file with the video from the night I was almost caught. I could direct them to pack a certain room first, so I had them start on my bedroom. A few other things were there that I did not exactly want to give away for notice as well so I called mom and asked for her help ¡± Mom I am moving today, I would wonder if you could help and then afterwards, I can help repay you for that incredible meal last night¡± . She quickly agreed and I ordered a ride-share for her.


    The movers were still busy with getting the final part of the bed frame and some boxes of clothes out when mom and dad arrived. I asked dad to pack my computer and electronics and mom to help me in the kitchen. That left the bathroom, closets, and the living room for the movers. I did not have enough stuff to keep them busy forever, but dad was quick about boxing the computer and the few other electronics I had and then went to the closet near the front door on his own. Maybe he would be able to quickly grab the file, but it would be a risk. I was worried about what he might do while they were here.


    Mom was done with the critical part; the rice paper and a few other obscure methods we could use to write edible foods and she went boss mode on one of the workers to ''very carefully pack up the fridge items'' she selected and to toss the rest. She then directed one of them to get cleaning supplies and to work on my bedroom. The harried worker looked at her and then at me and then with drooped shoulders he went to the bedroom and started cleaning the window in there.


    That left one last worker who was not distracted, and I guess that my parents were making a move to get that video because there was no longer anything to worry about here in open view or being able to be grabbed by a worker inadvertently or via theft. The last worker I tackled myself with a line of questions ¡± Do you have the address to my new house?¡± and then I made him confirm it, he had it on his phone, and then ¡± Are you specific for this move or can I hire you to help with other furniture, I will need to buy some new things at the store soon¡± and he dug into his wallet for a business card and then ¡± Oh and how much do you charge¡± . I had to ask two more questions, ¡± Do you have insurance for covering things if they get broken¡± and ¡± Will you be placing the furniture in the new home or just putting it inside¡± before dad wondered out of the closet with a box in his hands. I however knew the USB J was not in there so dad was unsuccessful but had probably checked anyways. I meaningfully grabbed the jar of grease and handed it directly to my mom and said, ¡± You should take this with you, I know you use grease for a few things¡± . I hoped she got the message.


    The rest of the packing went quickly with six of us, I really did not have much at all in keeping with my usually frugal methods. When we got to the other house, I had mom and dad secure the boxes they knew were the most important and I kept the workers distracted with where to put the things they had until they were done. I knew I had made their work a little more painful and annoying, but it was better than being discovered I figured, even if the odds of such a discovery were low at this point. I did, however, tap into my savings to give them a higher-than-normal tip which should keep them from being annoyed for too long.


    Then I took mom and dad to my bank where I deposited my check. It seemed that the bank had gotten word of my upgrade because one of the managers themselves came quickly to complete the transaction and to help provide me with a new bank card. I also had them open up a bank account in my parent''s name and deposited half the funds from this first check into their account. Mom even went wide eyed over the amount I just transferred to her, so I guess there is that.


    Then we still had half the day left so I asked, ¡± Should I get furniture, a new computer, or do some other things?¡±


    This was a simple question designed to allow mom to direct me where she might need to get me to go in order to get new covert gear from the resistance, or even to just buy things from a resistance outlet to help them with some extra income on their end. We tended to do that a lot, buying from resistance members that were there just for that purpose though we never let them know were another cell.


    ¡°You need a better phone, we cannot have an executive with such a piece of junk, and you should have a better laptop as well. I think also clothes because you need to dress for the job you want and not the job you have, and you already have a job well above the value of your current clothes. First let''s get that phone and laptop and then we can get you fitted and order the clothes.¡±


    Oh, what did I just unleash? She went full female shopping mode on me for sure because this was surely just her opening moves...


    The stores were closing when we finally finished. We had to rent a ride-share van for the day to just keep up with the shopping. A new smart phone, presumably from the resistance, a new watch, a high performance gaming laptop mom insisted I get ''just in case you need some fun, I have not seen you dating after all and being an executive can be stressful work'' (which I knew was her way to start covering for me to start dating, she would keep that up for a long time to be sure to set up the cover), a new set of blankets and sheets because and I quote those are threadbare and not worthy of an up and coming man like yourself, a new desk, and worst of all she had me measured in every way possible while she watched and I was in my boxers for clothes. Clothes that would not even be available for a few days to a few weeks for some because they had to be made.


    It was so late at night when we arrived, I almost forgot a move dad made before getting into our ride-share for the last time. I saw him make a grab for a bug flying near him. He actually grabbed it out of the air and then made as if he threw the dead bug away, but I could see it from my angle in his hand between his fingers. He grabbed a tissue mom presented and acted as if he cleaned his hand, but I knew he was transferring the bug to the tissue for mom to have.


    When we arrived at the house we unloaded the ride-share into my garage for the things we had gotten today and then when in the kitchen mom made a move as if swatting a bug and sure enough there was a bug splat there.¡± We need to see if those movers let in a lot of bugs while they were hear, perhaps even replace the carpet just in case,¡± she said, ¡± but that will have to wait a few weeks.¡±


    I said goodnight to them, and they went off in the ride-share to their home. With them went a certain jar of grease so at least that mission was likely concluded soon. During that whole time, we never tried to pass any messages or such to each other and if mom had made contact with any resistance I did not even notice. Perhaps we did not at all because now I was such an asset supposedly. The less risk the better in my mind, I just wished I could crawl into a hole like I was climbing under my blankets and hide from it all. Sleep came far too easily after such a busy day.

 Chapter 7: Basic Auditing

    I got a call from Eric in the morning. It was 6:15 in the morning in fact, and I was bleary eyed.¡± There has been a change of plans, instead of sending the documents over there we will have you come to the office to review them here and I will have an assistant for you to take notes as you go along.


    Oh boy, Eric was already changing plans and showing how powerful he was. I wondered if he was a regional Auditor for the State or a National Auditor. There was no way to know but I did know Eric was trouble.


    I got showered and dressed and because of the change of plans I ordered a ride-share. In fact, I thought it over while the ride was enroute and figured that I might need to set up a daily commute with a ride-share company in order to make my cover story seem more real. Discussed at the restaurant was the fact that I would eventually need to start acting more privileged and start spending money on luxuries. Mom taking me shopping was a part of that and I could rely upon her to help act as if she was forcing me to adjust to my circumstances. They discussed how this could also help cover for my discomfort in this effort as it was a change of my lifestyle, and they could act like mom was the principal force behind that change. Just thinking back on that made me sigh with regret over all of my life choices. This was not who I had become and now they wanted me to act in many ways like the very people I had come to hate in life. The only consolation I had was that I might be a bigger part of ending their rule than I had ever considered.


    On the way upstairs I had to change my mentality, being angry and not focused around Eric was a sure way to get caught.


    Eric was waiting for me in front of the elevator as I got out. Internally I shuddered as this could have been it if I had walked out with the wrong look on my face, or with a different sort of body language. This man was dangerous.


    ¡°Follow me, we have set up the conference room for your work and I will introduce you to your assistant.¡± and with that Eric led the way to the conference room. In there were cabinets worth of paperwork and cabinets. I looked at Eric and said, ¡± You cannot be serious, this is too much for one man¡± .


    ¡°It is too much for one man, even with your assistant. I agree, but unfortunately, we are not calling the shots and the man who has become my boss wants all of this looked at¡± , and he moved his hands into quote marks, ¡± as possible.¡±


    I knew this was not possible but then I had a thought... If it was not possible then I could deliberately set aside any evidence of the resistance as I went along as if I did not see it. There was simply too much paperwork after all, and I could plead innocence on it if challenged... No one could expect me to be able to handle all of this and make sense of most of it. Even with this assistant beside me. He was an auditor for sure in my head and I would have to be careful with Tom. The one thing going for me is that they already knew Mitch was a resistance member. I could search his files the hardest and use what I thought would be safe but was obviously a move by the resistance to show I was finding some things.


    I looked at Tom and said ¡± Let''s start with Mitch¡±


    This was not as easy as I thought. Mitch was buying and selling things by the net ton, he had unique purchase orders by the net ton and since I still did not fully understand what the company produced, I could not tell if purchasing fifty pounds of magnesium was a legitimate purchase or not. The one for a gallon of ether I flagged as probably a suspicious buy and the one for the acetone, industrial bleach, and an ice machine was flagged by Tom and when he told me why I also flagged it as a definite issue. One thing for sure is that Mitch was making moves for the resistance, and he had been a little too carefree in his purchases and it showed.


    Over the next few weeks, weeks during which I had no real messages for my parents, and they seemed to not have any messages for me from the resistance, except mom starting to nag me about grandchildren and if I was seeing anyone yet, I just focused on the files assigned to me. I was able to finally determine what my company was making through the paperwork; we were apparently an electronics company involved in prototype work including trying to make a simple device to get past resistance training to detect lies and to possibly even read our memories. I asked for information on the basics of this so I could see if purchases were in line with this effort or were not and I was given a short historical lesson on it.


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    At one point in the early 21st century scientists and doctors had determined that if someone focused on something very specific, they could see it in the persons mind but only for simple concepts such as yes or no. Efforts also produced results in flashing images in front of a person and seeking a reaction. The resistance suffered huge losses until they discovered how to avoid scrutiny, this was some training I had in fact received. To defeat the system, you had to focus your thoughts on the answer they wanted if you were loyal, to act loyal in your own head. Since the devices had to be extremely close to you, they had no way to really hide the fact those devices were there. Further if they drugged you then it ruined the whole effort, the mind would wonder naturally and produce chaotic results. To defeat the flashing images, you just daydreamed something dull and boring in front of you and periodically made it less boring but still mostly boring. They would measure brain changes at periods that would not make sense and they would give up. Often, they would use older techniques then to get the truth, but this prevented the technological solution from working.


    Only my company was trying to literally map the entire mind perfectly, to understand the language centers of the human mind to a scale never tried before. It was slow progress because there was a difference in how everyone''s minds were made up but usually most people fell into a small spectrum of brain shapes.


    When Eric told me all this, he confided to me and Tom that it was likely that Mitch and the others had sabotaged some of the work in some manner or another and therefore his work was to check and recheck all of the research to find out where and how bad the tampering was. I also found out he had an unprecedented twenty assistants working with him in the labs.


    I already had a feeling that my mom and the resistance knew what was going on, after all Mitch had been their man in the facility and there was no way, he did not pass the word up and therefore I had no duty to report the basics at all. In fact, only if I found firm and usable information should I even try. Because I did not want to take that risk at all.


    I really did not leave the office building however, even with my facilitator work, so I had no access to the labs, the fabs, the 3D printers, the researchers, or anything that would be solid information, at least not yet.


    My facilitator work still progressed, I had to argue with Eric for a moment but I really did need to keep posting on my blog for that side of things, it was not just a cover anymore it was a way to help others avoid issues with an upset Elite, it was my way to keep a portion of what I used to do and to be able to keep my sanity.


    During all of this the Health and Safety director, an Elite, showed up after a long delay due to the security concerns at my company. I had money sent to his sons'' organization already, but it seemed that he was going to visit anyways. This turned out to be a nothing as the Elite literally stayed at a high-quality hotel nearby and had the new CEO and President of the company come and visit him to report to him personally. The entire affair of a true visit was avoided entirely, and I presume the donation was part of the reason but that the Elites were worried about the change of leadership at the company.


    The only other thing to result during this time was that Tom had discovered too many purchases that did not make sense from a single supplier. He was running down information differently than I was trying and they, Tom and Eric, decided to send in Auditors to question the staff of ¡± Earls General Goods¡± in a city eight five miles away. I felt bad for Earl and his staff but there was nothing I could do that would change the result since they made the call before I even knew what was going on and I could not even arrange a dinner with mom until work was over. Since Auditors were never discreet when they made a move the resistance in that city would know quickly enough about the problem and well before I could get a message sent over. Simply put it was not worth the risk for no real gain.


    That of course is when the resistance decided to throw me their own form of an ambush via my mom.

 Chapter 8: Date

    ¡°Honey I was hoping we could have dinner soon, I have steaks ready for a barbecue if that sounds nice, and some potatoes, and I even baked an apple pie for desert.¡±


    Those words made me think mom had a message for me, she never offered desert up front and usually would not even make desert because she was worried about the sugar going to my belly. But I figured she had to make a convincing call to make the dinner happen tonight.


    ¡± Ok mom I will be over tonight, what time works for you?¡±


    ¡± Seven O''clock and please dress well¡±


    What? ¡± Umm sure thing mom¡± . What the heck?


    So I arrived with the ride-share and knocked on the door. Dad opened the door and gestured for me to go in. He followed me with a curious look on his face. Was that whimsy? What was going on... I tried to think about when their birthdays were, when mine was (nowhere near now) or if there was a holiday, I forgot about when I walked into the kitchen and saw mom sitting at the table with another lady. Shit.


    ¡°And there he is, come here son and meet April. April moved in next door recently and I thought to greet her to the neighborhood with some good food, but the steaks come in a four pack and with three of us it just did not make sense to not have a fourth here, so I decided to have you come over as well.¡±


    Yep, it was a date ambush. Or an ambush date. Or maybe just an ambush in general. No honor amongst family eh mom? But I knew this was going to be an effort by the resistance and I figure I just got set up with a potential match. And since mom was now acting as a busy body about my life it fit that she would try to make a match, or ten since I planned to probably reject the first bunch of them.


    ¡°Uh hi, I am glad to meet you¡± and then I turned to dad who was now trying to gently prod me forward and said ¡± I need the restroom, I will be right back¡± .


    Inside the restroom I turned the water on and then ran some over my hands and splashed the water into my face. Why did they even feel like I needed this? I did not like this idea at all because then I would have to worry about the lady until I knew her good and this was all but like an arranged marriage if I even tried to accept one. In other words we would have to fake love and desire because it just would not work. I stayed in there a requisite amount of time to have done something in the restroom and then opened the door.


    Unexpectedly dad was right there and he put a hand on my shoulder.¡± Son I hate to break this to you, and I know you well enough to think this through. You are going to try to reject her and keep rejecting girls your mom will conveniently find for you. The problem there is simple..¡± and he paused and gave me a look directly into my eyes ¡± and that problem is she will eventually think you are gay and start trying to introduce men of that persuasion to you. Some will be pushy, some will be passive, but she will do that. She will keep pushing people at you until you give up and select someone. By then the best match might have decided to go elsewhere and then you might be forced into dating at length someone you really do not care for just to keep mom from pushing more at you.¡±


    It was not just an ambush, it was a trap I could not escape...


    ¡°So my advice son is that you don''t just reject some woman out of hand and you try to see if you can connect with a lady. You won''t need to just go with April, find someone you like and can enjoy life with and be ready to do some committing. Your status in life has changed and being a bachelor is probably not the best route and being some sort of playboy with temporary girls is not going to make your mom happy, so deal with it.¡±


    I sighed, then drooped, then mumbled ¡± Ok dad¡± . I already had lost not just a battle but the entire war. Anything less and my mom would introduce torture upon me until I yielded to her desired results.


    So under his escort I walked into the kitchen. Sure enough there was four places set on the table and April was helping mom by straining out some baby carrots that had been boiling clearly by the way the steam was coming out of the sink. Mom was outside at the grill with tongs grabbing the last of the steaks off and putting it on a large platter.


    Dad directed me physically to a seat with a hand on my shoulder, it seemed dad too was completely in on the ambush. I wondered if there was a way I could make him feel as uncomfortable as I was. Thanks a million dad.


    Places set and food being put on plates I waited for my doom. At least I could have a decent last meal I guess.


    Interestingly enough dad sat down and then started playing with his silverware.¡± I am starved, hurry up girls!¡± he said even while he was sending me a five character message ''Safe!''. I assume this meant that April was part of the resistance and that this was a true meet and greet for a possible new or second handler.


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    Soon enough the table was ready and mom and April had taken seats. Due to circumstances no one offered a lords prayer, even though it was technically allowed, because it could also be seen as a sign that you might seek to follow God more than the Elite''s. Knowing I was going to have to give a bit of replies I added a second sitting of mashed potatoes and gravy as well as extra carrots.


    Things did progress to messages, we would provide small talk while sending covert messages, all four of us. Verbally I found out that April was working at a nearby Hilton Business Class Hotel, designed specifically for low level business workers who''s rooms were being paid for by their companies. I also found out she was my age, loved the food we were eating, had a little bit of a sense of humor, and all about her family... Admittedly it was harder than it sounded to make small talk to cover for everything. Everyone had to drag out their own meals as much as possible to get the messages being sent.


    Ultimately I learned that she was born into the resistance like I was, that she was a mid level messenger who used the counter desk job as a means of passing information via a colored blemish on a room card. With access to one hundred colors and with the card being able to be divided into 12 regions on front and back this meant that just over 11 bits of information could be exchanged if only one color blemish was there. Except that there was more to the routine. Each blemish could have an angle, with 4 directions being possible, each blemish could have a shape with a total of eight shapes possible, and there could be two blemishes which increased the number to just over 20 bits. But every customer also received two cards so in truth it was 40 bits but the person getting the message would have to determine which 20 bits was first and which second. That was small beans however. At 40 bits you could only send 5 ascii characters normally, however it was clear she was using a second language, specifically Italian, in her messages and they have 21 letters in their alphabet. Numbers were not used at all which allowed for larger messages. This meant that 9 characters could be sent but the people getting the messages could not know the contents until they took the card description and their estimated color value (often people might confuse a pink for another pink for example) to a designated decryption person in their cell. This also meant that messages could take a while to understand and that messages might get garbled. Fortunately the high error rate and the fact that it often took eight or nine people getting parts of the messages meant that the chance of interception was very low and more so the ability to crack it was almost impossible.


    Mom, who apparently had more knowledge of April, explained part of that and how her messages were considered more of an opportunity message than a critical message. During my training I learned that opportunity messages would be things like the route for an Elite to travel, a flaw in a security plan, unguarded equipment the resistance could use, and so forth. It was probably an opportunity message that had set up the night where the made man was eliminated and the resistance cells that participated, myself excluded, were captured or killed because of.


    April was just part of the group involved at the Hotel it seemed but she was the one who designed the code going out and therefore planned the messages. This indicated she had a strong math and artistic mind.


    I also learned, from dad, that April had been matched to me from code stolen from E-Harmony the dating site. Apparently the resistance was hoping that a woman who would match what my parents thought of me would help me and her click. I do admit her math skills and the fact she had zero problems in the silverware code system was nice.


    April was a brunette, with long hair in a single ponytail, she was only about 5 foot 6 inches but that helped her otherwise be hard to notice if she tucked in the ponytail or made a good bun. I found that she was rather attractive and if I was forced to go on a few dates a smart and attractive woman was not necessarily a bad thing.


    In code dad prompted that I needed to take initiative and ask her on a date in case we were being listened to. I really hate being so paranoid that we could not have a dinner without worries about our despotic government listening in with bots and agents.


    ¡°Umm, so April, would you like to go to a movie or something this weekend?¡± I asked lamely. Honestly it was a pitiful request made bad by my almost stutter.


    ¡°Yes that sounds nice¡±


    ¡°Err, can I get your number then?¡± and I pulled my phone out of my pocket.


    She calmly reached out, grabbed by phone, and dialed in her number and called herself before hanging up. Her ring tone was Sounds of Horizons, the Samsung official phone sound. That was interesting because her phone was definitely not a Samsung. Maybe that was an effort to blend in if it rang at a bad time?


    I looked at movie schedules on my phone and saw a few movies were playing and asked ¡± Anything specific you want to watch?¡±


    ¡°How about Scoops with Nathan Viscount?¡±


    Scoops was a movie about a father who worked as a ice-cream man at a local store in a small town when some bad guys kidnapped his daughter. Only they did not know he used to be Special Forces. His tag line supposedly ran along different flavors of ice-cream and his big one that all of social-media was running with ¡± You want another scoop with that?¡± after he had defeated someone. Supposedly it was a great film. It also would not allow any trade-craft at all that he had been trained in, some family code could work but my family would not show an outsider those methods. Less what I expected from a lady but sometimes women were unfathomable.


    ¡°There is one playing at 6:30 at the local Movieplex, how does that sound?¡±


    ¡°I live the house just to the left of this one, will you be able to pick me up?¡± she said, a smile on her face. Hmm, dimples. Dimples are nice.


    ¡°yeah I can arrive at six and that should give us plenty of time to buy tickets and some drinks¡± and suddenly I had a date.

 Chapter 9: Audit Upgrade

    The next day I decided to try to change things up at work. Instead of going to the conference room I went to Eric''s office. I had been up early and had an epiphany that while I might be slowing down discovery of what supplies were snuck into the resistance; I was not slowing down research or production at all. Then I realized a path forward that would be very disruptive and time consuming.


    I knocked on his door and he let me in.¡± Have you found something?¡±


    This was the part I was nervous about; a bad effort here could be something that made him monitor me more closely.¡± No, I just had a thought. Maybe a worry? If the previous executives were... Up to no good...¡± damn I''m doing horrible, ¡± what if, well... We don''t know if they took something¡±


    Eric stopped me there ¡±and that is why you are going through the purchase orders and receipts.¡±


    ¡°No sir, I mean what¡±, and I decided to just go all in, ¡±what if they took parts or even a full one of the devices?¡± I saw him go pale at that suggestion.¡± Without doing an inventory how could anyone be sure?¡± I stopped there and left it hanging in the air. Surprisingly he got even more pale.


    The time between us talking took longer that a supposed pregnant pause, it was a long time but what more could I say, or should I say?


    Finally, he spoke,¡± This is alarming, we did a cursory examination to check if the machines were still there but parts, we don''t know if they took parts that could assemble a machine and if they had a better working idea of the system then the risk is real...¡±


    He paused for a moment as his hand went to his chin, he had a grimace on his face and then both hands went up over his face and swept down. Finally, he said ¡± Ok so this is going to be very bad and big both, but my duty is clear, good call, go tell Tom to get one hundred audit badges, he needs to give you both rank one badges and a rank five badge for me and one other. He should probably set up five other rank one badges as well but leave them blank for now. That''s all¡± and with that he did a shooing motion for me to leave.


    I walked down the hall to the conference room thinking about what I had started. I hoped I was not risking any resistance personnel with this, the thought intruding from out of nowhere, but I had to try to distract them from producing these devices and to make a move like this was exactly what was needed. With luck the entire effort could be derailed even.


    I reached the conference room and Tom looked up at me.¡± Tom I just got orders from Eric and he wants one hundred audit badges made up. He said you and me are to be rank one and he was to get a rank five. He also wants a rank five and five rank one badges but I guess he wants them blank?¡± I looked at him expectantly.


    ¡°Oh, so we have a plausible threat. Ok I will get on that; can you secure a downstairs conference room and arrange for an appetizer selection from the kitchen? If I am printing this many badges, it is likely some of these guys won''t have time to grab something to eat when they get the call.¡±


    So, with this I went downstairs to the executive assistant we use when we needed, and I got to watch as she went to a nearby conference room of some size and shooed out a bunch of mid-level managers from some sort of meeting they had. Then she came back and offered to let me select the appetizers, but I deferred to her experience. I returned to see Tom returning with a small box on top of a larger box.


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    ¡°Ahh perfect timing, come here and help me add lanyards to these badges¡± he said.


    He already had a lanyard and badge on his neck, it was green. I noticed most badges were white, but a few were green and there were two black badges. One badge, a green one, had my picture and I grabbed it. I wondered where they got this picture but at the same time, I cynically knew they probably had hours of video to select an image of me with. One of the black badges had Eric''s picture but no name under it. I started on others as I finished mine.


    ¡°The white badges are for the basic auditors we use to go through things, green is sort of like a team leader more than anything else, if we had blue they would be in charge of several greens and about twenty white badged auditors. Red is above blue and would have about one hundred under them, Black is considered the agents in charge and usually there is two of them on missions. The fact you are getting a green badge tells me you are the reason for the audit,¡± and that made me pause and look at him with worry starting in my gut, ¡± because otherwise the boss would have had you and me issued white badges instead. A rite of passage you might say and proof you will get auditor training soon.¡±


    I almost missed a beat from the last part, but I seem to have come out ahead from this in more ways than I suspected.


    Slowly but surely the pile of badges and lanyards disappeared into a completed piled and food service workers came in to drop off trays with crackers, cheese, lunch meats, and others small snacks. I also noticed large jugs filled with juices, urns with coffee and tea, and boxes of pastries.


    The bagels and cream cheese were too hard to pass up, so I quickly went and grabbed one, and looked at Tom to make sure if he wanted one. He might be an auditor, but you should always be polite even though you hate what they do for work... Besides it makes for a good cover to always be polite and think of them. He however waved me off.


    However shortly after I started nibbling, he directed me to come sit next to him.


    ¡°You have never seen these I should hope¡± and with that he pulled out a unique looking identification card. It was rectangle with his image on the left side, his name and some numbers and letters on the right, but most interesting was the corners which were boxed off and had a number in each of them.¡± The numbers on the corners indicate various authorizations we have; however, you won''t know the code so just let me issue out our team leaders badges when the time comes. Here let me show you how we use them.¡± Tom then pulled his badge from around his neck, he squeezed the sides and the green card slipped out of a transparent case that held his picture.¡± The green card can thus be switched if I have a different authorization level, but in this case we are both green cards¡± . I looked at mine carefully and saw how it was a shiny yet transparent case over a green card.¡± The cards are coded to the facility they are designed for and the color codes also grant certain access rights usually, in this case however all doors will be open for our green cards and the black cards where the white cards will have a lower level of access.¡±


    ¡°I see¡± I said as I watched the first arrivals start streaming in. Tom grabbed the green cards and then handed the black cards to me.¡± huh?¡± I said as he did so.


    ¡°Go upstairs and give our boss those cards, then come back and help me issue cards to our team¡±


    I hustled upstairs and came to Eric''s office. I saw someone was inside with Eric, but that someone''s back was facing me. I knocked on his door gently and held the badges up for him to see. Eric gestured for me to open the door and come in.


    The man in the seat with his back turned to me and I admit I just about stumbled, and my heart leapt into my throat. How the heck could it be...


    Eric took that moment to say ¡± I think you know Carl and of course Carl knows you.¡±

 Chapter 10: Shock

    It turns out that Carl had been an auditor the whole time undercover. Tom explained, after I gave him the badges, that Carl had found out about some of the executives being disloyal and how at least one had plans to attack a celebrity. While Carl had not been able to act on the information fast enough to save the celebrity, he had been fast enough to catch the entire assault team and his information had led to the shutting down of the previous executive board and their ''questioning at length'' in a nearby auditor center.


    ¡± My information was hot and that is why I needed to make an excuse to just¡± and Carl held his fingers up like quote marks ¡± disappear in a way that would leave no one asking questions.¡±


    Carl further elaborated on how he had to attempt to identify the target and how they were willing to sacrifice anyone not an Elite in order to clean up the whole cell.¡± And it was a great success, they all definitely knew each-other, and this means we closed out the whole bunch, spread across ten companies, with two proven executives, and we got their weapons, we got several safe houses, and more better is I got promoted from a corporate auditor to a national auditor and given a higher rank as well¡± . I could see his pride at his new position as he practically swelled with his final statement.


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    I of course was flabbergasted, and worried. Did Carl know about me? Did he have plans against me? Did he hold my past behavior to him against me?


    ¡°Just for the record I am not upset at how you treated me, you were doing your job and my cover was that of someone ambitious enough that others might seek to recruit me. You were very astute that my methods would only cause problems with our leaders.¡± said Carl as if he partially read my mind.


    I suddenly remembered I had the two black cards in hand and lifted them up between my fingers and when signaled to hand them over I handed them directly to Eric.


    Carl stood up suddenly and reached for my hand. I hesitated at first but then reached over and shaked his hand.


    ¡± Welcome to the team, I am very happy you are on board¡± Carl said. He released my hand and looked at Eric and said ¡± Shall we?¡± to which Eric nodded his head and got up.

 Chapter 11: Tour of Duty

    When we got downstairs Eric told me to chat with Tom. Tom explained the numbers on the corners where one corner stood for your skill in investigation, another in interrogation, another was surveillance and the final one indicated if you were a company or corporate auditor, a regional auditor, or a national auditor and indicated your rank. The last one was interesting because ranks 1 to 99 was for a corporate auditor, ranks 100 to 199 was for regional auditors, and the remaining ranks of 200 to 300 was for national auditors.


    My badge had a one in all positions except the one for corporate auditor which showed a twenty. When I asked how I had so much rank Tom indicated it was because of my various special statuses.


    Carl and Eric proceeded to give a quick talk about the worries that microchips, parts, code, and other aspects may have leaked out and that we were going to do both an in-depth inventory of everything but also an electronic and interview-based audit. The expected time span shocked me as they said they would work for two weeks on this audit but apparently by the way everyone responded this was expected.


    Part of me wondered why they did not think of this when the original executives were arrested but I kept that to myself. Carl issued assignments to certain green card wearing leaders and then assigned others to support those leaders. For example, a computer forensic auditor was assigned four men and a woman to examine all the files, logs, and software on the computers, another green card auditor was assigned to scan every receipt and purchase order for a much larger forensic accounting group to process off site. My name was called, and I was surprised that Eric indicated I was to work with Tom as an ¡°indiscriminate auditor team¡±. Tom gave me a look that made me know he would explain afterward the meeting was done.


    As the others left when Carl finished, some following Carl and some following Eric I was held back by Tom.


    ¡°So, our job is the best of the lot, which is the prize for the one who found the potential problem. We get to question everyone, examine all the evidence, check all the computers, we can literally do what we want in there. The only rule is that we do this as a team. This is so that I can use my trained skills while you use your local knowledge, well at least in theory. To be honest you probably know less of this secret project than I do, though only barely.


    A few people came out wearing outfits like you would expect a nurse to


    wear. They were unceremoniously escorted back inside by Carl who then


    directed a team of auditors to start interrogating them.


    Tom kept going until we reached an area clear of workers. Auditors were


    streaming past us as he pulled me over.


    ¡°Where do you think we should go first?¡± he asked while looking me directly


    in the eyes.


    ¡°Umm,¡± I said lamely as I started to think, ¡°one second.¡± I rushed very


    fast to think. I literally needed to think like a spy, which of course I


    really was. The resistance would want hardware schematics, software, and if


    possible would want access to a top person or two...


    I also started thinking about software code when Tom waved his hand in front of my face ¡°Yo space man, let''s go somewhere and you can do this sitting down and we can compare notes¡±


    I nodded to Tom and followed him as he went to an office. Upon entering he showed his badge and said ¡°I need paper, a good pen, and for you to then get out¡± to both the agents and the man they were questioning.


    The office worker, because it was so obviously an office with filing bins for reports and such, opened a drawer, withdrew a leather covered notebook of paper, opened the center and withdrew three stylish pens, and then the two agents escorted him out post haste.


    Tom proceeded to rip the top five pages off and when he saw I was watching he said, ¡°Could have some sort of evidence, we will send these off to get tested for indents in the paper from previous writing and someone will make sure it is added to the investigation¡±. He then put them to the side and put on top of them a small slip of paper that said in big bold words ¡°Evidence¡±. Then he looked at me and said ¡°Now where were you¡± as he slipped the pen onto the pad.


    ¡°Well,¡± I said ¡°I think that they would want one, some, or all of three things...¡±


    Tom gestured impatiently for me to continue.


    ¡°The first would be a person inside here. It seems we are looking for such a person right now with the¡± and then I hesitated for a second before rushing out the word ¡°audits¡±. I guess the word still causes me issues. Tom nodded and wrote down ¡°persons¡± after a number 1. He then wrote down lower a 2 and looked at me expectantly.


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    ¡°The second one would be computer stuff. Emails, specifications, diagrams, parts lists,¡± and I continued as I somewhat slipped into a list of what mom would want if she were telling me what to do, ¡°payroll documents, shipping manifests, receipt''s and reimbursements for them, images, encrypted files, compressed files, and even just the locations of access points and user names and passwords.¡± I sat there to think for a second and looked at Tom.


    Tom appeared to be impressed with this list and was busy writing as fast as he could. I continued ¡°I think we prevent any electronic devices?¡± and a nod was given by Tom to that ¡°so then they need to smuggle out information via paper documents or even old-style photographs. I did not see a way to screen things coming in so maybe they got an old camera style that printed out pictures on the spot for their efforts?¡± and I looked askance at Tom.


    Tom looked pale and worried.¡± That...¡± he almost stuttered even! ¡°That would be quite ingenious and would work, damn... One second¡±. And with that Tom slipped out a phone and started texting asap to someone.


    ¡°What was number three¡± he suddenly asked me.


    ¡°Oh, that would be hardware. They would want any parts they could get, memory cards, an example of what it looks like, and more. In fact, if the item is shipped, they would probably want the shipping information so they could grab one¡±.


    ¡°Well, none have been shipped anywhere and in theory we have never transmitted anything from in here to the outside world, the only thing is paperwork delivered by hand of the results of each new version of the device.¡±


    ¡°Are we certain?¡± I asked, then pondered a way to get them to waste time. Then I remembered a book I was allowed to quote, one which I got from the company library, rather than our advanced methods.¡± What about morse code through the exterior lights, or indestructible''s passed through the toilets? Is all trash and refuse burned? Maybe someone thought of something that resists heat higher than the local furnace?¡±. It was reaching but it was methods the resistance had considered and discarded because each could be detected if the government actually put in effort at checking everything thoroughly during an audit. That might be why that book was allowed because it would allow auditors a way to detect amateurs using those methods and not realizing the risks of using it.¡± We probably need to inventory everything in this building entirely just to be sure there is not something we would not want in the building?¡± I looked at him with what I hoped was an inquisitive look to see his opinion.


    ¡°Oh, the old camera thing actually makes sense, if you were trying to get something past chemical sniffers it might not work if they were able to smell it, but this place does not have any of those... The security methods were seen as very adequate. In fact,¡± and Tom continued, ¡°a rubber band around paper would work to get that information out if not checked well enough¡±.


    I sat there thinking of how I might try to get past security and a couple of ideas came up. I considered if I should mention them but the idea of slowing or even stopping the research was so important to me that I decided to give away a couple of them and see where it went.¡± Could they write inside their clothes? Or use lasers to etch the inside of their shoes with the information? What about those pens that detect where they are on a surface and spray ink as appropriate, could they use ultraviolet or other inks to hide information on clothes or even their bodies?¡±


    I knew that being forced to undress every day to enter and to discard clothes everyday would become wearisome to the staff and that it would also affect their performance and even possibly make some despise the government they currently were happily working for. It was a gamble but one I thought would work to give the resistance time to plan to get something out or even for me to do something... anything...


    Alarmingly at first, I saw Tom collapse in his seat.¡± Shit¡± he said as he sagged.¡± No one, I mean no one, is going to like this and yet, and yet...¡± Tom paused...¡± The fuckery of it is this all is plausible. And it won''t be something any of them want to hear.¡±


    Tom''s language was quite different than the normal , in fact I thought I never had heard him swearing like that before and I sort of pulled back from the desk I was sitting next to. His body language was also vastly different than normal, and my training kicked in... He was afraid.


    ¡°Sorry,¡± said Tom, ¡°the circumstances mean bad news is about to get passed on and in a way that will probably cost someone in our ranks his life. The problem now is personal survival for all of us as you really are hitting this nail on its head. So, there is two routes, the first is not going to work for long and that is to bury the problem under paperwork or to just ignore it. This is a babied program, and the Elites are definitely wanting it to be completed. The second is to pick one of our auditors to take the blame and make sure the buck is fully passed onto him. That usually never happens to the top guys but instead would usually hit a guy like you and me. I wish I had a flask right now; I could use a hard drink because I really do not want to go down that road.¡±


    This of course alarmed me.¡± Am I... I mean we... In danger?¡± I asked. I may be a bit worried, and my voice may have cracked a bit there...


    ¡°Yes, no, maybe?¡± He shrugged.¡± All I do know is that we need to track down any and all escaped materials and anyone who pulled a fast one on us. It may be the only way to resolve this with few issues.¡±


    So, it seemed we needed a supposed traitor and we needed proof that we could use. We also needed to actually get some of the technology or at least an understanding of the weaknesses of it. I could do none of this just sitting here and with my life on the proverbial line for both being resistance and for being an auditor with a story the elites would not like I needed to get busy. Shuddering past my fears and feelings of inadequacy I pulled a deep breath.


    Then I calmly said, ¡°Okay how about we start touring this place to get a feel for the big picture while everyone else is busy checking things out?¡±


    Tom nodded and we started the tour.

 Chapter 12: We are all DOOMED!

    The facility was one of contrasts. One part was a one-way loading dock where a truck would come into a pristine and empty dock to unload materials before leaving, then a door would drop and all supplies would be brought in. There was no shipping going out, so it was secure. Other parts were widely separated by dark and narrow passageways. Apparently, this was to prevent people from wanting to wander around where they were not authorized. Some rooms were cramped with papers, computers, diagrams, and the likes while others were fully functioning clean rooms. The contrast was quite discordant as you would go from one area through a series of hallways and doors to another and the entire atmosphere would change instantly.


    What got me was the fact that various technical papers were out in easy view in many of the rooms. As I covertly gave them the side eye, I noticed that each one seemed to focus on a different specific part.


    It was not until near the end of this tour of the facility that we finally got to the room with the final product. In there also was one of the chief scientists working on the project.


    My eyes were drawn instantly to the chair. Designed to recline after someone was strapped in carefully it had the appearance of a minimalist design with... huge flowers around it in a cascade that covered all available space. The scientist was describing to the auditor how it worked and so I listened in with care. Beside me Tom gave me a side eye and then smirked but said nothing as I listened.


    ¡°The flower looking parts are designed to vibrate a bit to change their positioning with regards to the subject. These minor changes help us keep different sensors rolling on to the subject through their own apertures. The sensors are mostly packed into the back of each of the devices with nanoscale to micron sized sensor heads providing the scanning we need. Some overlay is possible due to different wavelengths and sensor types so that is why they can overlap so well. We cannot map the whole mind at once of course but we can determine quickly the subjects¡¯ normal behaviors in their prefrontal cortex and their cerebellum.¡±


    The agent asked questions about the ''big words'' and the scientist identified them as the parts that control language skills and the part of the mind that decides if something is a lie or the truth.


    The scientist started describing the various sensors and their full applications, but those parts were decidedly over my head and I could not keep up. Nor could the agent who was responsible for questioning him. The scientist quickly came up and outright said ¡°Most of this is going to be way beyond an average agents¡¯ capabilities and that is no insult, this is after all a mix of the highest of brain scanning technology and an understanding of minute aspects of the brain. For example, just the math behind Michael Harrington''s Rubik''s cube brain mock up is easily a match for rocket science. To think that he did all that math without a degree in 2013 to 2015! These things will need a specialist at best to even try to understand. I think you should be more focused upon the possibilities behind our technology here.¡±


    The scientist, a Greg Albright, went to show specific parts where they would work together to keep track of the ventral prefrontal cortex for the emotional state of the subject, where the scanners for the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex were located which apparently helped identify language comprehension, and he went on about how the specific comprehension system was to keep track of ''known triggers''.


    The agent asked about known triggers and Albright answered that the triggers were the most easily identified words. Things like yes, no, and very direct answers. Albright went on to describe that each human could store some things in almost the same way and other things in a vastly different way.¡± It''s like wordsmithing, a word like struggle can be interpreted to be like a fight, a challenge, a difficulty, and even a societal movement. Due to my efforts to keep very careful track of words for my blogs this made absolute sense and was something I definitely could take away from this audit to the resistance.


    ¡°However, the subjects have at best, between them all, thirty two ways to say no and twenty five to say yes. There are other key words we can easily narrow down to a range but trying to go for strings of words can get more complicated. Right now, we are working on a number of key phrases and statements that would suffice for the needs of our government as well as factual identification of their responses up to a point.¡±


    I think my eyes grew wide at that point, what I thought I heard was that the technology worked but they were just working on their equivalent of a dictionary. Actually, not technically a dictionary but a phrase recognition system as it sounded like they had a decent library of words they could always rely upon.


    Tom grinned as the scientist continued and whispered in my ear ¡°yeah it is not all bad news, if the system can be deployed properly then no one will care if there was a traitor and all that, even the security lapses will be forgiven because we could wrap up all loose ends and the Elites would never worry again¡±.


    His statement worried me greatly. It took all my effort to not shake or show an emotion at that point. This could doom everything.


    The worst part was that my family, my fellow resistance members, and even ask of society relied upon one person... That person being inadequate to the job, being unsure of how to proceed, always being at risk, out of his trained skillet, and that person was me... Everyone is doomed.


    __________________________________________________________


    Tom decided that we should look at the work being done where the servers were kept. Row after row of these mainframes were inside this large climate-controlled room.


    He led me to a small attached where there was a table and four leather seats. Tim indicated for me to sit in one and grabbed the one opposite of me. When I gave him an inquisitive look he simply said, ¡°We need wait for them to show up.¡±


    The them turned out to be Eric and Carl. I started to try to stand b they both waved me back down and they both got into the remaining seats.


    I thought to myself that seemed weird. I thought that unless something was found they would be busy, it surely seemed to be their standards from what I had learned from my parents and from my own audit. So why were they here like this together?


    Carl simply looked at Tom once he was seated, that sort of head lean that asks a question without saying a single word. Nothing ominous about that. Was I nervous? No, not especially, just anxious, nervous, and worried at maximum levels. What the hell is this about,¡± I thought to myself.


    ¡°I give high marks; he was on top of several ideas that really would work¡± Tom said with a smile as he looked at me.¡± He proposed several that would work even where we would be hard pressed to succeed.¡±


    Eric laughed and then said, ¡°At least he did not suggest knitting, did he?¡±


    Knitting? What the...


    ¡°No not at that level, but it was inspired work¡±.


    ¡°Knitting?¡± I just had to ask; I mean seriously what the heck is this stuff?


    Carl laughed next and then pounded the table once, ¡°Seems we can one up this guy,¡± then he looked at me and said ¡°We had a recruit once propose that a turncoat could smuggle in sewing supplies and might knit up a garment that would have code hidden in how it was knitted. That turned some heads down at headquarters.¡±


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    They continued softly laughing and grinning for a second.


    The nervous part of me was out of control, I was out of my zone and unsure what was going on, so I just felt like asking ¡°What is going on here?¡±


    Tom replied to me after getting my attention with a small hand wave.¡± As you know you are not a true auditor, you are just an assistant to a company auditor. The lowest of the low right?¡±


    I nodded.


    ¡°Well, it''s simple, we have a recruiting method where we check for the talent of people. Most are not so talented but are very dedicated to the cause, do you follow?¡±


    ¡°I think?¡± I said confused...


    ¡°So, we have a hard time recruiting smart people, often the dumb people are scared of smart people and will sabotage them as much as they can and then we are back to square one¡± at which point Eric waved his hand and Tom stopped.


    ¡°You see,¡± started Tom, ¡°We need a leader trainee but without protection no leader trainee really gets anywhere. But you, you have the protection of being an influencer and a manipulator, or as an entry level executive. This indicates strong support from at least a few of the Elites and thus others will be very hesitant to try to cause you harm while you are at the academy.¡±


    I sat there thinking about his words when the last one reared up and slapped me on the face.¡± Wait... What? Academy?¡± It was sort of hard to spit words out in a coherent manner.


    Carl laughed ¡°Congratulation, this was all a test. We audit this place a lot, usually without the executives ever finding out, as a way to test potential recruits and to make sure that the trash gets no chance to make connections here. We actually audited it last when the executives were replaced by some of our own agents. The idea that the first executive caught in decades was at the heart of this operation made a lot of people sensitive and thus we were told to train up you and replace all possible outsiders with our own people.¡±


    This did not seem to help the anxiety which was mounting a nuclear war inside my gut, and I uttered ¡°Academy?¡± one more time.


    ¡°Yes, the Academy to train Auditors. You will officially be trained as a national level auditor, but your first post will continue to be here until the completion of our truth detection equipment.¡± was his reply.


    Inside me I knew this was bad, I sat there with my head lowered as I thought about this. I knew the equipment was almost done, I had critical knowledge of the facility, and now they were going to send me away to the one place I could probably never get a message out.


    ¡°Why so glum? You act like you have seen a ghost man,¡± said Tom.


    I about peed my pants then, I was giving myself away, floundering I thought of several things before I thought of April.¡± I umm, have an umm, a date with a gal¡±


    ¡°Oh!¡± and everyone laughed which got me to lamely laugh as well.


    ¡°Dude do not worry, it starts in two and a half weeks, you can get your fun time in and make sure that she won''t try to find someone else while you are there for three months at the academy¡±.


    Two weeks was a long time, I could definitely prepare some sort of message in that time frame and possibly find something more of use for the resistance. I felt my own shoulders relax from my tense state.


    ¡°Okay so now that you are aware, you will continue to help us do an audit for the rest of this week, we will focus it upon your strengths and help to try to define what department you will end up in at the end. I suspect that we will have you placed in either propaganda or in document analysis. I would recommend the latter as while you have written good words about our Elites you have never really tried to do any works on our government separate from them and that might hinder you. You really do have a find nose for finding things and deducing the meaning which is what go our attention in the first place, you always helped the Elites with exactly what they wanted with information you gleaned from the web...¡±


    Even as Eric continued on, I started losing attention, though I tried to nod through the next half hour as if I was listening, I was trying to think on how to take advantage of the remaining time, how to compose a message, how to prioritize what I had learned, and so forth.


    ¡°... And with that I think you have a lot on your mind already, let''s conclude this meeting. Just keep on top of your email and we will make sure you get the itinerary.¡±


    I used that moment to excuse myself to go to the bathroom. I did need to go, and this was a good way to make sure I could think with silence around me.


    Bathrooms in our modern times were no longer proof against being watched, recorded, and being intruded upon in other ways. I had even heard word once of the government using heat sensors and cameras inside a toilet just to see if someone was really taking craps or was the source of some dropped toilet proofed notes that were flushed into the sewer system from a military camp. That guy was found and killed of course, after an extensive and very hands on ''audit''.


    No, my intent was to merely think and not have my facial features misconstrued as I also took advantage of the facilities. I had a meet up this weekend with April, I could also visit my parents to hand off information afterwards and remain plausible. Those were good opportunities. Next would-be subject matter. I had the general shape of the device, I had the fact it was close to completion, I had a summary of how it worked, and I had a single name... What was his name? Albright... I thought hard and tried to remember, oh yes Greg Albright, I even recalled exactly how the guy looked.


    What else did I have to report? Oh, yeah, that bad news that I am going to be training to be an auditor. Not just some corporate auditor where I could focus on those they already had caught and give them next to nothing, but an auditor who would be expected to find and out fellow resistance members.


    Now how to give all of this at once? A typical message might get seen given the severity of what I had learned. I am probably under the most scrutiny possible for the next two weeks. Any electronic device I handled would be watched, any business I visit will be audited and anyone I visit would be audited. At least that was my full expectation. That means even April would be at risk of an audit if we held hands, touched for long, or did something that they could not see. The same with my parents, I had to presume that if I went somewhere they could not see that they would be going full blow super audit and might find something despite our best efforts to not get caught.


    It would have to be visual and yet it could not keep their eyes on it. It would need to be a photo and all information would have to be visible in one photo. Or maybe not a photo but some new alternative method? It made me think of that knitting comment, except I had zero skills in knitting, and it probably would be a bit obvious now if I was to knit something like that.


    I needed a way to send information without getting caught. If I could knit, I could use our four-box system where the interior of a box could have a cross line in two directions or an x as well. Each box could then hold a trit and trinary would expand it fast. More so we could use extra crossings in some circumstances to further increase the code. However, it would take a long time to knit a message. And again, the problem that they have talked about this.


    I had to think fast, I needed a quick solution. I could use the stars and pick a few to create a length, a wavelength, and with a stopping and starting point? No, it would also take too much time and just studying the stars could give me away. With the increased scrutiny I was sure I was under I just could not come up with anything requiring technology so that was quite limiting.


    Vaguely I thought of cooking a cake with rainbow coloring added carefully but I really was not that good of a cook.


    Time was up and I had no viable solution, in fact I felt frustrated because my backup methods looked like they would not suffice. Being a resistance spy is frustrating work when you are literally being watched at every possible moment.


    So, I stopped my visit to the toilet, washed my hands, and went back to meet the others.


    ¡°Took you long enough,¡± said Tom when I came back. He was the only one in the room.¡± They made me wait until you returned to tell you to go over purchase orders for parts for the project, they think this will help you get your mind in the right type of game. Also, they told me that they placed some dummy orders in there throughout the years and to tell you that, so that you can find all the bad orders possible and try to identify why they are bad orders.¡±


    Jeez that sounds like some serious make work, years of materials.


    Tom must have seen my face crinkle, he laughed and then said, ¡°No you do not need to go over it all, just do your best and try to find at least one, if possible, you would definitely miss the start of next month''s Academy class if you had to find everything.¡±


    Tom led me out of the building, which resulted in a far smaller inspection than I expected. Tom languidly waved his hand and said ¡°Technology, it keeps us honest, and audits ensure it¡±. I did notice Tom had to surrender his phone; it was a good thing I had left mine in my office on the charger.


    The rest of the day I was going through purchase order after purchase order. As I was doing it, I found I could make five piles of the paperwork, one for the 3D Printing supplies, one for electronic parts, one for manufacturing equipment, one for normal items such as toilet paper and coffee cups, and then one for anything more unusual. I would sort that last one out even further later. The work was far faster than I had thought it would be.

 Chapter 13: The Message

    It was during my sleep I had an epiphany. We needed a person we could use as the resistance but did not have one, but the government did not know that. We could also use one of their trusted people to get us information without them knowing and possibly paint the guy as a supposed source for the resistance if the information was found before the resistance could grab it. Even more so we could work hard to frame the guy as we moved along. Greg Albright could be our patsy. The security did not check for things going into the facility and I learned where a potential dead spot (from the cameras and other devices) or four were located. More so the audit would be completed by Friday which gave a potential time frame to do this.


    All I needed to do was not get caught, write down things in plain English for the resistance, and do it in a timely enough manner that I could evade being detected. I could try to do it under my blankets tonight, but that method often results in really bad writing, oversized letters, and so forth because you dare not put your head under the blanket.


    Then it hit me, I knew how I could do it. It would require some careful work, but I could write out some papers for my work while investigating like they asked, and I could have some papers underneath and use a pressure system to impress my words on the next paper using exactly the letters I need. I could then slip ¡®excess paper¡¯ into my bag or a briefcase and have an easy excuse of being prepared in case I needed to write more. There are twenty-seven letters in the English alphabet, but I would hardly need to use all of them.


    First, I need to think of my message. It should go ¡®Greg Albright scientist mind reading device near completion, use Greg as source leak and kidnap¡¯. That would be, and I counted carefully, 95 characters in length. If I wrote an average of 54 characters before I needed to impress the paper hard, I would have to write down about 5130 characters or about nine hundred to a thousand words. While that many would be annoying it was a plausible method. The problem would be to get it all to fit on a single page, which is not so plausible. However, I could probably make several written reports and keep on saving pages by timing things properly? The reports also could not go to Carl, Eric, or Tom¡­ They would easily detect the nuanced pushing of the pen.


    So, I could write them at home and transcribe them at work. Yes, that seems the most plausible. Then I could shred the papers I used as tops for the other pages and get away with the pressure plan. Fortunately, the workload was to examine a lot of bills of lading and other such paperwork. I could even start a document and then take it to work and finish it there which would allow me a way to leave pages here which would¡­ Actually, leaving them here would be bad.


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    I would need to separate the pages, then add them to something I would control. Nope, I control nothing when they assign me something. Dammit, I need something right now! All of this thinking, all of this planning, and I have nothing? Then it hit me¡­ My old blogs! Duh! How stupid could I be. I am already trained in it, I know I can leave a message on it, I know they could get it. I even know that if I use an advanced form, I can squeeze more information in so long as I wrote a reasonable amount of words.


    And so, I wrote, I wrote how life will change suddenly and make things so different, I wrote positives about our system compared to the old system, I let loose with my false persona and waxed poetically in many different ways about how my life was changed and how this made me feel. It was a lot of effort to force so many words out but ultimately it would be worth it.


    The final message was more coherent, but I would need to leave a message somehow that I deviated from the normal format for it to make sense. I had hopes that my parents or April would be easily at hand. The message would make sense, it had to make sense, it was fully fleshed out and ready for them. I still felt nervous, but I had the message actually online now and available, I just needed to make sure I could pass the key for it along.


    A text message to April saying I needed to meet her got a quick response.


    I knocked on her door with some trepidation, I knew nothing of her house or what to expect. I could openly tell her I was going to go away soon and nothing more without code. The code part I was going to have to work out on the spot, hopefully with a hand holding or such.


    She opened the door and there she stood in a really nice sundress. The floral patterns were not recognizable to me, but they were very pretty. She stood there for a moment before I awkwardly said ¡°hello¡±.


    She invited me in with a bit of concern etched on her face. We went into the kitchen where she said she had some soup on the stove and she asked if I would like some. This would make it difficult to pass a message, but it would also buy time where I could try to indicate my need.


    We sat there at the table, she having served up some of the dumplings and rice she had made. As I savored the chicken part of the dumplings, I tried to eliminate any paths leading to larger talking as we did some small chatting about the weather and upcoming films. I don¡¯t think I had to try very hard to make it look like I was nervous or anything, probably comes naturally to me.


    When we finished, I asked her if we could sit in the living room, and she followed me to the couch. I turned partially toward her and lightly grabbed her hand. While I looked her in the eyes, I gave her the hand code for blog and the unique keys. I also deliberately, or maybe not, started the conversation a few times before telling her I had to go soon and that I would be away for a while. I finished that I was still interested in her, but the job was pushing me to do something unexpected.


    She asked that I write her or text her at the least, and that I should do my best with what work wanted from me and that she would be waiting when I got back. She also used her hand to communicate back that she got the message and what the key was. I had successfully passed on the message!