{"id":107,"date":"2008-07-12T15:53:43","date_gmt":"2008-07-12T15:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/?p=107"},"modified":"2008-07-12T15:53:43","modified_gmt":"2008-07-12T15:53:43","slug":"in-the-hands-of-others-8-of-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/?p=107","title":{"rendered":"In the Hands of Others (8 of 20)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mr. Alpha tried to read the documents sprayed out on the desk. Most of them were in type too small, but he could make out the gist: scientific ramblings about flash-freezing, frozen cadaver preservation, possible advances for getting the bodies back out of stasis. He was amazed that people would submit themselves to a coffin of ice, at great cost, without any promise of getting out again. He wondered about the business model of these places. Was it until the money ran out? Did they pull them out for defrosting after that point? If you can pay, you can stay!<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Not much to tell,\u2019 said Mr. Smoke. \u2018Here\u2019s the tape.\u2019 He fiddled with a remote control and an old, battered television on one shelf played out a careful selection of black-and-white CCTV scenes.<\/p>\n

A blurry Morgana broke open the front door; there was no mistake, it was her again. She strode past reception, uninterrupted and without pause. Next scene: she travelled down the corridor, passing the office they were sitting in.<\/p>\n

Mr. Alpha looked up at the patterned window in the office door, expecting to see a shadow pass by. No one came.<\/p>\n

Morgana proceeded further down the corridor, reached a big, metal door. She played with a panel beside the door; it opened.<\/p>\n

\u2018So where\u2019s security?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018They were there at the time this footage was taken, but no one remembers seeing anything. Not the guys in the control room, not the man at the front door. How does she do it? What are we supposed to do to prevent it happening again? I\u2019ve not heard any suggestions so far.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mr. Alpha leaned forward towards the screen. \u2018She\u2019s so careful and clever \u2013\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Is that hero worship I\u2019m hearing?\u2019 Mr. Smoke barked. \u2018She barged into my<\/em> facility without an invite.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Hold on,\u2019 Mr. Alpha said. \u2018Look, she\u2019s so careful and clever but why doesn\u2019t she do a fucking thing about the CCTV?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Time?\u2019 Mr. Smoke was impatient with him. Mr. Alpha twigged; Mr. Smoke had heard all about the \u2018failures\u2019 of the plucky probationer with a bad mouth. He could recall the same glint in the eyes of the receptionist Ms. Wood, a look that conveyed unspoken words: \u2018Oh, it\u2019s you.<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t bloody think so,\u2019 Mr. Alpha answered. \u2018Look at her wandering around as if she has all the time in the world. She\u2019s not quaking in her boots. She\u2019s telling us she doesn\u2019t give a dog\u2019s nut if we know what she\u2019s up to.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mr. Omega said, \u2018Assumptions, Mr. Alpha. There are multiple possibilities. Possibility first. She\u2019s pretending she doesn\u2019t care, to make us think there is genius in her action \u2013 and lead us to plot falsely what she might do next. Possibility second. This is a smokescreen for her real activity, deliberately drawing our attention to blue centre incursions away from a bigger picture. Possibility third. The CCTV gives us so little information that it\u2019s not worth her time disabling it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Hmm, fair play. Perhaps it\u2019s all of those possibilities.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mr. Smoke laughed at them with derision. \u2018I don\u2019t know how she managed to evade a couple of smart-ass whipshits like yourselves.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mr. Alpha tried to read the documents sprayed out on the desk. Most of them were in type too small, but he could make out the gist: scientific ramblings about flash-freezing, frozen cadaver preservation, possible advances for getting the bodies back out of stasis. He was amazed that people would submit themselves to a coffin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}