Christen
Thursday, Private jet flying from Sri Lanka to Singapore
Johnna dug through her bag until she brought out a metal box that required a code. She punched it in, and the lid popped open. “Okay we’re going to train you on a piece of technology,” she said taking her seat then looking up to catch Christen’s eye. “You have 20/15 vision.” She reached in and pulled out a contact case. “I’m assuming you’ve never worn contacts before?”
Wow, they read my file thoroughly. Christen focused on the plastic case then sent a quick glance Lula’s way. “I’ve worn them before. In college, I bought some colored contacts just for fun for dates and such.”
Lula bumped shoulders with her. “To make yourself alluring for the boys,” she crooned. This mishmash of childhood friends and spy-stuff kept Christen off balance. She liked clear delineations – mission mode/non-mission mode. Yes, she got it. Lula was trying to get her in the right frame of mind. But this was not how Christen operated. Lula was playing the besties card a little too forcefully. Christen was here, as requested. She was doing her duty, as required. It didn’t mean she liked it. Any of it. Getting spies into her dad’s home, and being away from her own work? No, this wasn’t fun. But if she was giving Lula and Johnna the cold shoulder, this wasn’t going to work at all.
Christen wiggled around trying to relax her muscles, and slapped on a plastic smile that she hoped she could warm up a tad before she had to make that phone call to her father. “Yeah, well, just for fun.” She picked up the contact case that Johnna had set before her, popped the lids and peered at the clear contacts floating in the liquid. “There’s technology in these contact lenses?”
“Yes, hang on let me pull up our technical help.” Johnna opened her lap top, and pulled up an antenna. After a few taps, Christen heard a ding. Johnna slid a code developer from her pocket and tapped the numbers in. The screen lit up.
Hey! She knew this guy. Christen pushed her face forward so she was picked up on the camera. “Hey, Nutsbe.”
“D-day, fancy seeing you there.” He paused. “Uhh, why are you there?”
“I could ask you the same. I thought you were still flying for the air force…”
“Had a mishap. My flying days are behind me. Now I do ground support and live vicariously.” He laughed “Don’t scowl, I love my job. It’s a sweet gig. I’ll recommend it to you when you’re finally done risking life and limb.”
“Uhm... thanks?” That didn’t sound so good. She wondered what had happened to him. She’d have to ask around when she got back to the base. “If you’re involved, it’s got to be something cool.”
“We’re figuring out the contact lenses,” Johnna interrupted.
“Have you used contacts before?”
“They were just asking me that. Yes. It’s been a while, but I can get them in and out okay.”
“Alright, let me walk you through the technology,” Nutsbe jostled his computer around, pulling it closer so his face took up most of the screen. “You have two contact lenses, but you only need to wear one at a time. As a matter of fact, you should only wear one at a time. The other is back up in case you lose one or it gets damaged.” He looked her straight in the eye. “Don’t lose these or let them get damaged. Seriously, they’re like a bajillion dollars a lens.”
“Okay,” Christen said with a grimace.
“These are video cameras and can also take still shots if you’re focusing on something important like a contract or a photo or… I don’t know, a symbol on a building, for example. The camera switches on and off by how you close and open your eyelids. We’re going to practice until we know you’re comfortable. It would be a shame if you thought that you were taking an impression just to find out you’d turned everything off.”
Christen nodded.
“There are sensors that are programmed to detect the length of time you close your eye. It can distinguish blinks and involuntary movements from voluntary movements. And while this technology is new, and few people know about it, you still want your voluntary movements to seamlessly integrate with your facial expressions, so it doesn’t look like your sending Morse code messages out.”
“Why not just leave it on all the time?” Christen asked. “Is there a problem with memory? Is the memory in the contact? That seems improbable – well as if any of this seems probable.”
“There might be times when you might want a private moment.”
Christen wrinkled her brow. “Why?”
“Using the bathroom, having a sexual encounter… private stuff.”
“I’m not here to do private stuff. If I go to the damned bathroom fast forward. You’re not a perv. And I’m not here for sexual gratification. I’m on a mission.”
“I hear you, D-day. And if you’re more comfortable leaving everything on, I’m cool with it. I’m just letting you know you have an option. As to the memory, we’re going to give you a bracelet and a phone. They are conduits. They take in and encrypt the information then send it on immediately. If there’s no receptor for any reason, it’s still encrypted and hidden beneath other images. It would look like a music video to anyone downloading the data. If someone were to steal either piece of technology, the phone or bracelet, there would be nothing concerning for them to find. Nothing. So that’s not a worry for you.”
“Got it. But I imagine that it’s weird to watch a video with my blinking black dots into the film.”
“The software automatically erases the black spots it interprets as blinks. Otherwise, yeah, it would be kind of nauseating. For that same reason, it also corrects for tilted images and can get rid of some of the blur if there’s eye gunk on the aperture.”
“Ewww.” Christen wrinkled her nose.
“Until you’ve tried to decipher faces through an eye gunk covered video, you can’t realize how nice this advancement is. Go wash your hands for me, please, then try them on.”
Christen went to the sink and scrubbed herself clean, then gave a flick without using a towel so she wouldn’t pick up any lint. Lula and Johnna sat quietly out of the way, letting Nutsbe train Christen one on one. If they sensed that Nutsbe was a calming, equilibrium restoring factor, they were right. When she sat back in her place, Christen scooped up a contact, balancing it on the pad of her finger while she held it to the light. “Ah, this is crazy! Is this for real? I can’t see a thing!”
“That’s the point. No one can know you have this technology. You, by the way, are the first time we’re trying it in the field, though we’ve played with the technology around Iniquus Headquarters.”
“Oh, you’re working for Iniquus now? Golden reputation. Great gig.”
“Agreed. I’m glad to be here. Glad to be anywhere to tell you the truth.”
Christen nodded and wondered what took him out of the military. Nutsbe had lived and breathed the Air Force. He was a fabulous pilot. Christen had always thought he’d do his time then go on a teach at the Air Force Academy or fly with the Thunderbirds.
“Can you go ahead and slip the right eye contact into place?” Nutsbe asked. “You are right eye dominant according to your file.”
“Uhm, yeah.” Christen glanced around.
Lula got up and fetched a hand mirror and then held it in place. The airplane hit a pocket of turbulence, and Christen waited for things to smooth out before she pulled her lid back and tilted the contact against her iris.
She blinked, and her eye watered, but it was comfortable, almost imperceptible. “Does this record sound as well?”
“Just the visual.” Nutsbe replied. “The sound comes from redundant locations because while the visual is important the audio is crucial. Red, did you give her the bracelet yet? I need that in place, so I can synch the two.”
“Coming up, just a second.” Johnna moved over to the black duffel at the other end of the galley.
“Nutsbe, I’m imagining while we’re on this mission that there will be times when my phone isn’t in my hand. How far away can I be to gather the contact lens data?”
“I’d try to stay within fifty feet or so. You can swim in these. Carefully. They may not be the best look, but if you have to go into the ocean, you don’t want to be popping the contact in and out. Try to wear a snorkeling mask or a pair of goggles. Or if it doesn’t cause suspicion, just hang out on the beach. If you absolutely must go in the water, make sure your eyes stay closed.”
“Wilco.”
“These are thirty-day lenses, the one should last the entire mission no problem. And like I said, if you have a problem you have the back up.”
“Wait – a couple of questions.”
“Shoot,” Nutsbe said as he lifted his coffee mug for a swig.
“If someone gets hold of the lenses couldn’t they tell that they have technology?”
“If they put them under a microscope, yes. But this is cutting edge, and you’re going in as yourself to your father’s gig so, no. That’s a miniscule possibility.”
“Okay what about sniffing the air for information?”
“Hackers can do that. But they won’t know the source of the information they’re sniffing, and they won’t be able to read it. It’s encrypted, you’ll remember.”
“Encrypted from its point of origin, not at the point of reception?”
“Affirmative.”
“Okay, that’s good. But there are places where we’re going that there are no cell towers. The island. As I remember it, the mansion has satellites for regular reception but in stormy weather it’s ham radio, if anything at all. And while this is considered the dry season, climate change has made all kinds of unusual weather patterns pop up. If we lose satellite, for example, what happens then?”
“The phone and the bracelet know what to do, you don’t need to worry about it. I don’t want to disclose more than is required. But the data is safe and will be passed along.”
“Huh,” Christen said, completely unsatisfied.
Nutsbe sat still, his eyes focused to his right, and she heard a door close and a female voice say, “Nutsbe, do you have a second?”
“Grab a cup of coffee, Lynx. I’m almost done here.” He focused back on Christen and blinked. “I lost my train of thought, what was I telling you?” he finally asked. “Oh, yeah! Thirty-day lenses, they should last the whole mission without a hitch. Obviously with this level of technology, we don’t want daily rubbing to clean them or daily changes because that would not only be expensive, but it would leave too many opportunities laying around for the bad guys to get hold of this.”
Johnna handed Christen something that looked like a fit bit and then a smart phone. “All set up for you.” She smiled. “The bracelet works like any exercise information. You can plug it into your phone or computer and find out how many steps you took, your heart rate, and how active your sleep was.” After Christen clasped it into place and clamped the safety chain, Johnna gave it a tap. “It should never come off once it’s locked into place. You can wear bangles, or what have you, to hide it during more formal events. As fit as you are, this will make sense to everyone. This is your travel phone. Your phone story is: You always grab a throw-away when you travel to a new country. It just makes life easier and you don’t worry about having your everyday phone lost or stolen, you just have your calls forwarded to the new one.”
“Is that true?”
“Yes, why? Would you rather that not be true?”
“If I’m playing with bad actors, I’d rather them not have any way to access my personal phone. I don’t want any malware to find its way to my phone.”
“True. Okay. I’ll fix that,” Johnna said.
“I can get it from here. Two secs.” Nutsbe tapped at his computer. “All clear.”
“Fit bracelet and phone. Not a poison lipstick or a dagger pen?”
“Too old school. Here’s one more.” Johnna uncurled her fingers to reveal what looked like a very expensive ring, of a size and embellishment that Christen would never wear—well, she never wore rings period— but the style would fit in perfectly with a socialite persona.
“GPS?” Christen guessed.
“Bingo, we have trackers in all three,” Nutsbe said.
“You think I’m going to go missing?”
“Not big missing.” Lula reached for Christen’s hand. “Maybe tiny missing. If Johnna needs to tell you something, and you’ve wandered into the kitchen for a snack, she can wend her way down to you. Things like that.”
“It’s got that level of micro precision?”
Nutsbe grinned. “Let’s just say that my company reaches for the stars when it comes to keeping our people safe.”
“You’re connected to the GIS?” She turned to Lula. “Do you work for the NSA not CIA?
“I wouldn’t be able to tell you if I did, so no need to ask.” Lula squeezed her hand and then released the contact.
“Huh, that feels strange knowing I’m personally being tracked by a satellite.”
“Lucky girl. Okay we need to get started on your training.” Nutsbe said. “Let’s try this out. First, I need you to read a few pages of text, so my computers can learn your voice patterns, and then we’ll practice with the contacts, and we’ll see what we can see.”
“Literally.”
“Exactly.” Nutsbe smiled.
***
After they broke their connection with Nutsbe, Lula leaned in. “Are you ready for this Christen?”
Johnna’s eyes were sharp. “It’s a big deal. It’s important that we understand the dynamics of what goes down this week. We will all be recording, just as you are.”
Christen rolled her lips in.
“We’re good friends.” Lula finished. “We’re here for a vacation. Everything is just fine. Besides, we’ll have helpers if we need them.”
“Why would we need them?”
Johnna shrugged. “The truth? Many of the men who are going to visit with your father are misogynist pricks,” she said. “They’ll go into private rooms where women are excluded. The difficult part from our point of view will be the places where a man could see and hear where we cannot.”
“Like the bathrooms,” Christen said.
“You’ll see. They’ll segregate us. The men from the women. The men will go and have boy talk – the kind of thing that a woman shouldn’t worry her pretty little head about.”
“I’ve found that if you keep your mouth shut and don’t assert yourself or your thoughts, that they forget you’re there.” Christen said. “And you get to hear things.”
“What kinds of things have you heard?”
“Enough to know I needed to separate myself wheat from chaff and head out to do my own thing. It was up to me to figure out who I was and what I was capable of doing. And what I didn’t have the slightest interest in doing, like manipulating the masses for fun and profit.”
“Do you still think you’ll be allowed to just sit and listen now?” Lula asked. “You are a Night Stalker after all.”
“Come on, Lu! My being in the military went in one dad-ear and out the other. The last thing he heard and latched on to was a class I was taking at MIT in origami engineering.”
“That sounds kind of cool,” Johnna said.
“Yeah, it was. I really enjoyed it. I made a few things that I gave my father that Christmas, and now he tells everyone that I’m an artist and fold origami.”
“Seriously?” Johnna asked.
“Seriously.”
Johnna looked like she was calculating this information into some equation. “You fold origami for a living?”
“Not for a living, he thinks I’m living on my trust fund money. Which I am not. I give my yearly stipends to Fisher House. He thinks I fold origami as part of my artistic life, and he’s even told people that my art is in museums.”
“Is it?” Lula asked.
“Sort of. Not museums. Museum. And not now. A few years ago, one of my class projects was on display at the MIT Museum.”
“That made an impression on him though,” Johnna pressed.
“Yeah, art is an acceptable way for me to spend my time, and my little exhibit gave that art some credibility. It was a narrative he liked and that’s the one that got glued into place. He didn’t come to any of my ceremonies with the military – he said it was a phase, and I would quickly grow out of it. And somehow, it all disappeared for him. I’ve seen no reason to challenge him on the fact. If origami makes him happy and leaves me in peace, whatever, right?”
“This is good.” Johnna grinned. “Very good. Better than I could have hoped for. I thought that whenever you were around the conversations would stop cold, that we’d only be able to pick things up in passing.”
“What were you hoping I’d overhear?”
“We don’t have a goal in this operation,” Johnna said. “There is no beginning, middle, and end. All we’re doing is observing a brief moment of time and recording it for future intelligence use.”
“And finding a way to get my dad to cooperate by becoming a cut out.”
“Oh, we don’t need to do that by coercion. We just need to couch the information in such a way that he will want to pass it on. We need a strategy, though, and strategy comes from understanding and planning. This is merely information gathering for that planning.”
“If that’s true, then why the hell am I here? I could be back with my unit, helping get Prominator, Smitty, and the Deltas back safe!”
“Because, believe it or not, doing this will save military lives. Hundreds, if not thousands of military lives.”
Christen shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“Good.” Lula said. “It’s better that way.”