Transparency by Charles Royce (children's books read aloud txt) 📕

“Jamal, please. You have no idea what’s going on.”

“I’m following orders.”

“Jamal, look.” Josh exhales. “I know they probably have something on you, something awful.”

Jamal’s lips turn downward, his eyes squint.

“I’ve seen the files,” Josh says. “They have shit on a lot of us. It doesn’t matter anymore. You gotta trust me. This is important.”

Jamal looks at the agents, then back to Josh. He shakes his head. “I’m sorry.”

Josh pats his hands gently on the desk. “Can you at least tell me where the control suite is, so I can find West on the security cameras?”

Jamal thrusts his head forward. “Across the lobby. Down that hall. Three doors down. I’ll let my guys know you’re coming.”

“Thank you.” Josh turns to the agents. “Come on, fellas.”

“No, no.” Jamal stands between them and Josh. “Just Josh.”

The agents stand aside.

“You’re the FBI,” Josh says. “Can’t you just do what you want?”

One of the agents steps forward, leans in to Josh. “Don’t make a scene. We’ll be fine.”

Josh pulls the two agents aside. “Once I get in the control room, I may need to change out my headset, so I need you to tell Pillsbury to meet me there. If she’s not going to demand a VIP badge, I’m just down the hall over here. I’ll let her in. Got it?”

“Got it.”

C h a p t e r   6 0

JOSH USES HIS employee pass to unlock the control room. He shows his VIP badge as he enters, then immediately his mouth drops.

The suite is two stories high, filled with large high-definition television monitors showing vantage points from at least sixty cameras across the three-building structure. Any people in the spaces have a semitransparent overlay of their body temperatures, along with a facial recognition notation of who they are, where they live, their criminal histories, and location coordinates. The whole system has a three-dimensional look to it, with rotating angles following people’s movement. The feeds are on twenty-second rotations, showing other views from additional cameras.

“Dear God.” Josh recognizes the system immediately. “ArchEngine.”

One of the two muscled security guards—tall, moustache, dark spikey hair—looks up from his seat. “Remarkable, isn’t it? I’m Manny Vasquez, controller. That’s DonDon over there. And you are?”

“Josh Harrison, executive creative director. This entire building is run by ArchEngine, isn’t it?”

“How did you know?”

“I’ve seen this interface before.” Josh pulls the marked flash drive from his pocket. “In fact, I need to use it to access this file. This whole building is in danger, and this file is crucial to understanding why.”

“Danger? I doubt that.” Manny stands. “This building is controlled by a living, breathing, integrated management system with over three million sensors dispersed throughout the three buildings. The sensors can pinpoint any anomalies in a matter of nanoseconds. Everything’s been clear so far.”

“Sensors? What do you mean?”

“I mean, not five minutes ago, I saw you walking into the lobby after ArchEngine alerted me to your gun-toting friends. I immediately knew you were Élan’s executive creative director, and they were FBI agents. Got their federal identification numbers and everything so I knew you were fine. In fact, here’s another agent walking down the hall right now.”

Josh looks up at the center screen. Agent Pillsbury is taking respite against a wall, her hair a complete disaster. The ArchEngine thermal scan is showing a gun at her waist, while a small notation shows the following:

PATSY PILLSBURY

FEDERAL AGENT

ID #05051969

RESIDENCE: CLASSIFIED

“That seems like a lot of information for an FBI agent to have floating out there,” Josh says.

“We got a software update this afternoon,” Manny says. “West ordered it this morning from ArchEngine.”

“Can you bring up James West?” Josh asks.

The system automatically brings up James West in the center console. West is getting off the elevator, 68th floor, North Tower.

“Did you do that?” Josh asks.

“No. You did that. It listens. If the system hears a question it knows the answer to, it will automatically help you out, within reason. Most of the time you have to say ArchEngine first, but sometimes you don’t. Gets annoying as shit sometimes.”

“Can you pull up my ArchEngine file for me?” Josh holds out the flash drive.

“Sure, hand it to DonDon. He’ll download it and show it on the center monitor.”

Knock, knock.

Josh turns around. “That’s—”

“FBI Agent Patsy Pillsbury, we know.” DonDon walks to the door and opens it.

Josh can’t take his eyes of the screens. He hands the flash drive to DonDon, who inserts it into a nearby drive.

“What is all this?” Agent Pillsbury asks, still a bit winded.

Josh turns to look at her. “Whoa!”

“Don’t.” She pats down her hair, looks at his computer screen. “You uploading the ArchEngine plan?”

“Yes, another minute or so, but look at all of this.” Josh walks a few steps closer to the enormous wall of monitors. He points. “This entire security system is run by ArchEngine. It’s tracking everybody.”

“No way.” Agent Pillsbury scans the plethora of screens.

“No wonder West said they stopped all their surveillance. The building is doing it for them now. Look there, at the center monitor. ArchEngine, zoom in.”

“Is that West?” Agent Pillsbury watches as the picture zooms in on a man sitting at his desk, head in hands. “It looks like he’s crying.”

“He is.”

“Was he like this when you came in?”

“The guards and I first spotted him walking the penthouse floor of the North Tower. He walked straight to his office, looked out the window, poured himself a drink, then sat down. He’s been like that for the past few minutes.”

“I need to talk with him.”

DonDon’s computer pings.

“Don’t you wanna see the ArchEngine file first?” Josh asks Pillsbury.

“Sure.”

“You ready?” DonDon asks.

“Yes,” Josh answers.

“Holy moly.” Agent Pillsbury watches as the image of the entire building zoom in and out, switching from realism to 3D. “We wondered about this a few weeks ago when we got your drives. We didn’t have the program to open this file.”

“Too expensive for government work?”

“Something like that.”

“ArchEngine, show full screen.” Josh watches to see if his command works. The 3D image of