Kindled, Part VI: Flashback 1: Lies
Our heroes look behind the curtain
ONE YEAR AGO
The ultra-smooth surface of Lev’s occulted tablet was cool to touch as he took it out of his bag. He’d brought the thin, emerald green, titanium device from home. It wasn’t connected to the Amazon network or any network for that matter. It wasn't even connected to his smart home, and all of the information on the device was encrypted. This is what ‘occulted’ means.
He took a glance around the office. He didn’t really have to. He had his own office and though the wall which faced the rest of the office was made of glass, what it faced were cubicle walls. If someone wanted to spy on him they would have to walk down the hall and stand right in front of his office. There were no cameras in his office as far as he knew but he couldn't be certain of that. He would just have to risk it. After all, it wasn't like he was up to anything nefarious.
“Okay, let's see what we have here,” he said to himself as he downloaded the file from his work console. It was a short video clip, only three seconds long. It was blurry and it was his job to fill in the details. The file that came with the clip told him that the man was carrying a handgun that is too blurred to see and that he had an angry expression on his face, also too blurry to see. Lev’s job was to paint in those details himself using the Amazon Creative Suite they provided him at work.
The thing is, Lev knows that there is, or was, software capable of removing blur from videos. He remembered it from when he was a child. He had started using the Amazon Creative Suite for fun at the age of seven. Back then it included a blur removing feature that used a sophisticated algorithm to negate the effects of camera jitter, dirty lens, and atmospheric interferences like fog. That feature disappeared from later editions of Amazon Creative Suite.
He still has a copy though and that copy is on currently his occulted tablet. He opened the file in the out-of-date version of ACS Vid Pro and ran the algorithm. Then he played the clip. It showed a man in his mid-thirties briskly entering a cafe with what looked like a large remote control in his hand. His expression looked fairly neutral if not a little stressed. He was obviously in a hurry. What wasn’t obvious was criminal intent.
Lev got a sinking feeling. He was pretty sure that he wasn’t looking at a gunman. He was also pretty sure that whoever sent him this file knew that the man in question wasn’t a gunman.
This big office that Lev has is new. He got it only last week after a meeting with his superior in which Lev was informed that he was getting a promotion and that he would be handling “more sensitive and important files” from now on. He signed a new NDA. This one was scarier looking than the one he signed when he started at AMZ 44. He was pretty sure it included the line “executed on the spot” somewhere in the sea of text. His travel badge was upgraded and now he commutes to work in a luxury shuttle which includes padded leather seats, sparkling water, sparkling wine, and hors d’oeuvres.
He wasn’t sure what “more sensitive and important files” meant until now. The realization was like a boa constrictor. He was paralyzed, his breath getting more and more shallow as panic started to grasp him in its clutches.
Then something happened. A moment of clarity. He knew what he had to do.
He brought the file up on his work console and did the assignment just as requested. Then he made a copy of his work and put it on a jump drive.
When Lev first saw that deblurred video clip he wasn't sure what to do or who to turn to. He didn’t really know many of the people at the station. The office was segmented, most of the tasks didn’t require much communication between the workers. Most people got their assignments from above just as Lev does.
Then he thought of Leo and the next step became obvious.
Leo was a little different from the others. He actually goes around saying “Hello” even when he knows that his greetings won’t be returned. He’s a bit of a hacker too and a bit of a weirdo. In his office, all along the back wall, are tall, black servers. They don’t have to be there, they could be anywhere. The fiber optic cables are lightning-fast so speed isn't an issue. No, Leo requested to have his servers in his office. He wanted to be physically near the information that he was hired to preserve.
Leo maintains AMZ44’s databases and does data retrieval for anyone with the authority to request digital items. In his free time, he works on personal projects like the army of crawlers he has gathering information for him that no one is supposed to know about.
Lev knocked on Leo’s door. No answer. He knocked again, this time louder. Still nothing. Lev cracked Leo’s door and saw him gesturing around blindly with a pair of VR goggles and gloves on. Lev entered the room.
“Leo!”
“Huh?” Leo said as he stepped backward and stumbled over a wastebasket. He took the goggles off and blinked the bleariness out of his eyes. He glanced over at Lev and his expression opened into a look of concern.
“Hey Levy, what’s up with you? You look like someone just atomized your cat.”
Lev closed the door quietly. “I need to talk to you about something.”
The next day Leo sent a text to Lev: “It’s ready. Come by.”
Lev entered the office. It was warm and there was the everpresent bassy hum of the servers.
“Take a seat,” Leo said gesturing at the empty chair across from him.
“Okay. what did you find?”
Leo just gave Lev a serious look. Then he took out a remote control and pressed a button. Nothing appeared to happen.
“That should take care of any recording devices,” Leo said. “I had my crawlers search for that clip you showed me. The one you altered for the station last week.”
“And?”
“And I didn’t find your exact version of the clip but I found others. Other clips of the same footage with slight alterations — and the alterations are meaningful.” Leo opened a ruby-colored laptop on his desk that Lev hadn’t noticed until now. He assumed it was occulted just like his own emerald-colored tablet. Leo spun the laptop around so Lev could see it.
“Look at this.”
The clip played. It was the same as the one Lev had worked on except the man’s shirt was no longer grey but red, and his complexion was lighter and pinker. He also wore a red hat which wasn’t there before.
“This clip was from a news story titled Rural Zealot Holds Coffee House Hostage,” Leo said.
“Hm. So that’s probably a lie, huh?”
“Yeah, and check this out.” Leo spun the laptop around, cued up another clip, and spun it around again so Lev could see.
This clip was similar to the original except this time the man had a darker complexion, was wearing a blue t-shirt, and it looked as if his lips were altered to make them fuller. No hat this time but his hair was much darker than it was in the original.
“That’s from a news story titled Angry Urbanite Goes on Killing Spree.”
“Wow.” Lev stood there for a while, silent. Then he said, “So what are they up to?”
Leo looked thoughtful. “I think they are just trying to maintain control of the narrative.”
Lev looked at Leo blankly.
“You see, Lev, if there is total peace in the world then people will be free to think about anything they want to. They will have relaxed minds capable of pursuing any line of thought. That’s bad news for Amazon.”
“I don’t get it. Why is that bad?”
“Well, what do you think a relaxed person without a care in the world will think about?”
Leo paused. “I don’t know.”
“Exactly. You can’t really predict what a sane, and happy person will do. But if someone is frightened or angry their actions become much more predictable. They either want to get away from the thing that frightens and angers them or destroy it. Either way, you know what they need and so you can control them by offering it to them.”
“I think I get it. You can only sell a solution when there is a problem. No problem, no sell.”
“Exactly.”
“What do we do now?”
“Research and destroy. I will direct my crawlers, gather more information. Maybe even set up some surveillance. I’ll contact you once I have more useful information. Then we can start planning.”
“And, I’ll go about work as usual?” Lev asked.
“Bingo.”
Lev took a deep breath and tried to calm himself.
“Okay,” he said, more to himself than to Leo. He stood up and squared his shoulders. “See you later.”
“See ya!” Leo said with a big grin on his face. He was obviously excited to have finally stumbled upon something big.
That was the last Lev ever saw of him.
A few days later Leo disappeared. The station said that he had breached his contract and could no longer perform his duties.
That same day two men in white uniforms came to Lev’s office. They escorted him to a white room filled with white light and asked him to sit in the only chair available. It looked an awful lot like a dentist’s chair.
“Is this a contemplation space?” Lev asked right before everything got fuzzy.
The next day he was at work bright and early. He felt good. He felt like a burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He had a nagging feeling that he was forgetting something but besides that, he felt better than he had in a long time. He stretched out in his chair, looked around his new office, and sighed happily.
R. D. Holland © 2021
