Chapter Eleven

Susan

After a long day shadowing a police unit, Susan had completed her audit. Without them knowing she was there, Susan was able to observe the activities of a local patrol who were performing stop and search and checkpoints. Most of their activities were focused in and around the exit and entry points to East Bank which had now been on a de facto lockdown for weeks following the events at the Plaza. Susan was tasked with identifying behaviours that could be seen as unconscious bias, in favour of the East Bank residents. Officers who were seen to be lenient with East Bankers travelling into the rest of the city were to be identified for reeducation training and those who were permitted past the checkpoints were to be profiled. She was dressed in full police garb that was reminiscent of her past profession in order to appear to be part of the blockade in the eyes of the unlensed but the officers on duty hadn’t the slightest clue she was there. Keeping her distance Susan was able to observe a veiled familiarity between some of the cops and the people they were stopping. On a few occasions she noticed pat downs were being carried out methodically, others were less than thorough with a few first name basis connections between the cops leading to pockets and backpacks being completely passed over unchecked. Susan was able to identify connections between the beat cops and the East bankers. She was specifically told to look for this and report back. Susan knew this was going to lead to these guys being pulled up on this by the chain of command and felt uneasy about it. She felt uneasy about a lot of her assignments lately. This one in particular was eating away at her convictions and her sentiments towards the people she used to work with. It felt like an attack on the institution that was the police force, a breach of trust. As she headed back to her car to change back into her own clothes, she decided to patch through to Anna and ask her about the goal of the assignment. “Yes Susan I have a few minutes what’s up?”. “This assignment… I am aware that it could be performed through the Lenses of the officers but yet we are still shadowing and performing this task ourselves. What is the purpose of this exactly?”. Anna exhaled despairingly and decided to lay it out for her. “Susan, I would normally question your commitment with a question like that but I am going to be frank with you. The CIB is pushing for legislative clearance to integrate Oculus as a whole into the force. This means we would be allowed to act on the information received through the Lenses of the police force. We would be allowed to remotely access their Lenses at anytime and issue commands directly.” “You can’t be serious!?” Susan was unable to hold back her outburst. She was ok with CIB operatives acting at a high level in secret with the tech, but for it to completely weaponised against the citizenry through the police was insane. “Susan, we need to have a meeting on this it seems. The O Room at ten AM tomorrow.” Anna cut the link abruptly. Susan’s nerves were in her throat. She was not someone to lie down on an issue but also knew that Anna was formidable and cold. She decided to head out for a drink. As she pulled the car up to her house she locked it and headed in the direction of the town. As she walked away from her car she became aware of a presence behind her. There was a man in an overcoat and a hat who looked like his face was covered, standing against the entrance of an apartment block staring in her direction. She continued on towards the bus stop and waited there keeping an eye out for the man. The bus arrived without any further sign of him and so she got on and took a seat. She was the only passenger on the bus. “You don’t remember me do you?” said a familiar voice. It was a familiar face too. The driver was the same driver from the incident a few weeks before.