residents were about to be rounded up by some uniforms. The sun glinted on the handcuffs. Oh for the simple life, he thought.
“Back already.” Steve said.
“According to the mechanic, it’s perfect. Nothing wrong with it.” George said.
“You want to see the freeway logs?”
“Which will tell me that a car jumped the middle and hit a truck.”
“Yes.”
“Who knows about this stuff?”
“Computer stuff?”
“Yes.”
“Best guy I know is Alan, in IT. You’ll have to take a journey to the basement.”
// Mia
She found the cafe without too much trouble. Entering, she scanned the occupants. Searching for that nondescript, blend into the background person.
Oscar wasn’t among them. She hadn’t expected him, it was best that she was early. His profile told her that he was higher in the rankings than her, if there was such a thing as the ranking. Which was interesting, since he was almost five years younger. He had specialised in technical hacks, where she had gone more for social media.
He didn’t have any of Mia’s hesitation as he arrived. Tall, windswept, blonde. If you didn’t know any better you would have taken him for a surfer. Not somebody who had spent most of his life traversing the world’s networks and systems. He didn’t scan the room either, just wandered in, caught her eye and sat down. No fear. Maybe that came later, Mia thought.
“Hi. Oscar.” he said.
“Pleased to meet you.” she said. Where to go next? Not a jump to the operational details. At least some small talk.
“You’ve just arrived back in Australia.” he said.
“Sort of. Recruited in Vietnam. Next thing I’m here back where I started.”
“How so.”
“You know. Poorer. Darker.”
“As in dark forces at work.”
“Yes.”
“I came from back from Laos last year.”
“Where?”
“Nhong Khiaw. I was earning a decent living hanging off the edge. The monthly job, nothing too serious. Just enough to keep me eating.”
“I’ve been to Nhong Khiaw. Sort of the end of the road. Next stop China. I liked it.”
“How long did you stay there?”
“About a month. I liked meeting the veterans that would drift across from China. Showing the effects of too many years on the road.” she said.
“A future version of you?” he asked
“Maybe. Somehow I didn’t think that I would end up like that.”
“You got an offer you couldn’t refuse.” Mia looked up, wondering how much he knew.
“Me too. We should go for a walk.” he said.
“Yes.”
No doubt a directional microphone could have picked up the conversation. Even in a crowded cafe. More difficult on a walkway, but still possible. Best to make it as much of a challenge as possible.
“BCSH. I don’t know much about it.” he said
“One of the newer banks. International, mostly business customers. More recently growing retail base. ”
“Why?” he hesitated. Maybe not the right line of questioning.
“Ours not to reason why. You up to this?” she asked. Not in a throwing the weight around way, but in a ‘if you’ve got a problem, now is the time to bring it out’ way. He stared out towards the boats in docklands.
“Yes. I’m confident. But if you’re asking whether I’ve ever destroyed a bank before, then the answer is no. You?”
“No. Of course not.” she said.
Mia didn’t have a detailed plan. But she knew where to start. They needed somebody on the inside.
“How does this go?” he asked
“We need access.” she said
“Network access?”
“No. Way too difficult. Access by someone inside.”
“Now I’m a recruiter?”
“Sort of. Young, female. They will fall victim to your charms.” He smiled. Maybe they will, he thought.
Mia reached for her phone, and opened a connection. A list of candidates with resumes appeared on Oscar’s phone. He lazily scrolled through them.
“So now I’m a gigolo.” he said.
“If you want to see it that way, yes.” she said.
// Xu
Xu Wei remembered very well the first time he met Li Guang. They were almost exactly the same age. They found themselves on a SciTec training course in the Blue Mountains, outside Sydney. SciTec favored a rural location. Get the recruits out into somewhere with scenery, somewhere not their normal milieu. Outside their comfort zone. Away from the familiar.
Their backgrounds could not have been more different. Li was not quite a princeling, but close to it. He came from Shanghai, and most of his family was Communist Party. Giving him the inside track, so to speak. He had never ventured far outside Shanghai, before joining SciTec. Xu was from Wuhan, and his family background was simple, and not quite poor. Li scarcely disguised his view that Xu was a country hick, unskilled in the ways of the big city.
Physically, they might have been mistaken for twins. Tall, dark, fit. Ambitious. On opposite sides of the conference table. A role playing exercise. Throw a hypothetical at the group. It was in the nature of these things that most of the group were happy to sit back, if somebody else came forward and carried it.
Straight after breakfast, the instructor began.
“You suspect that a member of your group has been leaking details of your bids to a competing firm. This has lead to a series of losing bids. Take me through what you will do to address the situation.”
Xu spoke first. “Of course I would put watches on all of his communications. But I would not expect him to necessarily make a mistake. At the time of the next bidding I would make sure I am close to him.”
Li smiled on the other side of the table. He looked toward the instructor. “I would lay a trap for him. A deadly trap.”
“You would send him to the next world without learning of his associates.”
“I would solve the problem.”
The instructor quickly moved things on. Not wishing to promote a confrontation. The tension between them was immediate and palpable. At the next break, Li moved close to Xu beside the coffee. Not a word was spoken, just Li moving inside Xu’s personal space and staying there much too long.
// George
George had never been in the second basement. Come to think of it, he didn’t even know there was a second basement. It certainly didn’t look like it was often visited. Coming out of the lift he wondered whether Kate had ever been down here. Starved of light, almost like a rubbish dump.
The directions were vague. Just keep going in a westerly direction, you will eventually encounter Alan. It looked increasingly unlikely. Empty cubicles, and stray electronics strewn across desks.
“Alan?” he asked.
“The very same. You’ve come to offer me an autograph? ”
George just looked confused. Alan was mid thirties, dark, slightly balding. But he looked fit, as if he ran.
“George.”
“Yes, well. You really are famous, aren’t you?”
“It’s my cross to bear.”
“Really? Surely the followers are worth it?” he said.
George didn’t know where to start. Who Alan worked for. Alan sensed his difficulty, and his eyes moved to the box George was carrying.
“The box?” he said.
“Out of a car. Something to do with the guidance systems.” George said.
He explained the rogue car. The veering onto the wrong side of the road.
“Integrity checks?” Alan said.
“Passed with flying colors, apparently.”
“Interesting.”
He picked over it much the same way that George might approach a murder scene. Turned it over, poking, prodding.
“Can you help?” George said.
“With the followers? Yes, j
ust give them this location. Don’t worry about sending too many. I can handle them all.”
George smiled. He liked Alan. Alan smiled back.
“How long?” George asked.
“Two or three days.” Alan said.
Returning to the wall, George stood in front of it. Looking at the latest configuration. The images of the car scene were there. Together with some more information on the victim.
“Personal life?” George said to the wall.
Images came up. Wife, kids. Suburban backyards.
“Have you looked at the infra-red overhead view?” George asked Steve.
“Why look at the tollway? It will just show the cars.” Steve said.
“No, broader. Was there anyone in the vicinity?”
“People on the path. That sort of thing?”
“Don’t pre-judge it. Just look.”
“OK”
Steve brought up the infra-red data for the minutes before the crash. Sure enough, there were the people on the path. Cyclists, pedestrians. Much of what you would expect. He was about to drop it, when he did one last run.
“Have a look at this.” he said to George
“Stationary.” he said
There was a group of targets that didn’t seem to move. Anyone on the path would be in motion, but these didn’t move. Just seemed to hover in the vicinity.
“Visual?” George asked.
“Trees cover them.”
Alice took an interest.
“Homeless camp.” she said.
“Take a look anyway.” George said.
Which in a sense might have been an excuse to get out of the office. Steve and Alice took a car and parked at the beginning of the path. It was late in the afternoon, and bicycle commuters were making their way from the lights down the hill and onto the path. Gingerly they made their way into the maze of trees, comparing their location with the position from the infrared scan. As they approached the location, there was nothing visible.
“Perhaps they have moved on.” Alice said
“Let’s just look around.”