Chapter Seven
Fargo was intent on his computer screen. Tying together the mapping application, the facial-recognition software, and the video footage from the traffic cameras - conveniently both already digital and stored on GD's servers - had been engrossing him for the last three hours.
"You're next, Fargo." Henry interrupted him and Fargo looked up reluctantly. He hadn't even heard Henry come in. He was almost done automating the process of porting the data to the mapping software to be charted. It was amazing to watch the map of Eureka be steadily populated with icons representing individuals.
"At 10 AM yesterday morning, you had to tow a car in from the highway," Fargo reported.
Henry looked surprised. "That's right. That was before the bats showed up over Main Street or that poor tourist would have had quite the story to tell."
"Eh, no one would have believed him. Robot bats are completely technically unfeasible. Outside of Eureka, no one even really understands how bats fly."* Fargo waved off Henry's concern dismissively, eyes back on his screen.
"How did you know that, though?" Henry asked.
Fargo turned the screen to show him. "Isn't it incredible?" he asked excitedly. "Diana Prince told me how to do it. I'm using the traffic cameras, facial-recognition software, and a mapping package to track everyone in Eureka. It's still working on the old footage, but I think I can get it to almost real-time tracking. And I want to tie in all the other cameras - security cameras, GD cameras - we'll be able to see where everyone is, all the time. Well, not inside their houses, of course."
"Fargo, have you ever heard of civil liberties? The right to privacy? You're turning into Big Brother before my eyes!" Henry was disgusted.
"Oh," Fargo was briefly deflated. "Yeah, those."
"How would you have liked it if some previous director of GD had been able to see your every move?" Henry pushed the point.
Fargo wrinkled his nose in distaste, and sighed. "Good point. It's really cool, though!" he added.
"I'm sure it is," sighed Henry, resigned. "And I accept that we need to use it right now. But after that, Fargo, disable it. No one in Eureka wants to be watched all the time. No one anywhere wants to be watched all the time."
Fargo sighed again. "I will." He turned the screen back in his own direction and admired his own handiwork again, briefly. "I'd know all the best gossip, though. Look, Taggart spent the night at Dr. Glenn's house."
"Like I said," Henry started, a firm look in his eye.
"I will, I will," Fargo nodded.
"Meanwhile, you're next on Ms. Prince's interview list, so you'd better get moving," Henry added.
"Oh, right." Fargo's reluctance wasn't just his unwillingness to leave his computer. He was more than nervous about this interview. He didn't want to be sanctioned for time travel, he really didn't. Although he'd been sorry that this Fargo had never even met Julia, his old timeline girlfriend, he loved this Fargo's life. Being Director of GD was sometimes stressful, but mostly it was amazingly cool. "How bad was it?"
It was Henry's turn to sigh. "If Eva Thorne was a barracuda, Diana Prince is a nest of piranhas." He shook his head. "I don't think I gave away anything but I don't know what she suspects. And some of her questions - I hope you know your favorite color."
"My favorite color? Is she a human lie detector?"
Henry shrugged. "Or that's what she wants you to think? Or wanted me to think? Don't let yourself get distracted by the fact that she's Zane's mother - first and foremost, she's an investigator on special assignment for the D.o.D."
"I'm not sure it makes a difference that she's Zane's mother, anyway," Fargo said gloomily. "It's not like I'm his favorite person."
"Is it true that Jo is wearing her ring?"
Fargo nodded. "And you should have seen Mansfield's expression," he couldn't help smiling. "It was great."
"But do you know whether-" Henry started.
Fargo shook his head. "Whether she's wearing it for this Zane or our Zane? No, I don't."
Henry hastily put a finger against his lips and Fargo winced. "I mean, no, I don't know the story yet," he said hastily, adding plaintively, "although they've seemed very happy together."
He shrugged and continued, "I will definitely delete that application as soon as we find out whether anyone connected to Beverly has been in town in the past two days." Unless sonic protocols were up, the group assumed that anything said at GD was recorded and available to anyone who wanted to listen in at the Department of Defense. Watching what they said had become a habit, although unfortunately not one that was never broken.
Henry nodded and then gestured with his thumb to the door, "You should get going, you don't want to keep her waiting."
Downstairs, in Jo's office, Diana frowned thoughtfully. It had taken her no more than the ten minutes between finishing with General Mansfield and Larry's arrival to find and access the security camera footage for all of GD. With the next ten minutes, between Larry's interview and Henry's, she'd gained control of the entire security system. The problem was the sheer quantity of information. Watching Henry collect Fargo had been a no-brainer - she wanted to see what he had to say and she wanted to see how Fargo reacted. It had been…interesting.
But she had months of video footage at her disposal, and not much time. She thought briefly, and then smiled and began to type, quickly setting up parameters for a search through the databases of footage. Then she paused, tapping one finger against the desk. "It's always the cover-up, never the crime," she said aloud, adding another set of instructions.
*This really ought to be a technical note in The BOUS Problem, but I forgot to include it - the real technological feat in that story wasn't the sonoluminescence (although that's probably impossible, too) - it was making robot bats that fly! We actually don't really understand how bats fly, so those bats are pretty much flat-out impossible. All the sound stuff however - from infrasonic sound to cavitation to sonoluminescence - was at least based on real theories.
A/N Aren't Saturdays nice? I love days that I don't have to work! Short chapter, but I stopped where I did for a reason - so that you could play along. Feel free to give away what Diana will discover in Chapter 8 in the reviews.
