Enemy Lines - 15/Sep/2012
It was a nice pub. She'd seen one or two, over the years. She thought she was an adequate judge. Mako just wished she was a better customer.
It was mid afternoon, on the outskirts of the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire. England, Earth, Sol System; pretty close, she thought, to the Main Line. The pub was a brisk half-hour walk from where she awoke. She was rather abusing their hospitality, but, she felt she had little choice.
She'd quickly realised that her height would make her stand out, so a holographic distortion took her height down to 178cm, "less than six foot" as she thought the locals would say. Otherwise her social shape seemed adequate. Based on previous experience the looks she got meant she was 'attractive'.
Television and radio signals were providing her with some intelligence, and it hadn't taken long to crack the encryption used by mobile phone signals. The pub provided free wifi to customers, which she was making careful use of, and a mouse-sized drone was tapping the pub's telecomms wiring.
She'd released a kitten drone, that she found she had a template for. That was prowling around the pub, chasing imaginary mice, being nice to the occasional customer. It'd been fed a few pieces of food, which would prove useful, and overheard quite a bit of talk.
Fifteen minutes in, she was increasingly glancing at her wrist, and a simulated image of a mobile phone. She'd cracked the coding on the payment card transmissions to various banks, that her mouse-drone had relayed to her. Not that she planned to raid anyone's accounts, but she'd need the info to build a local identity. No ids implanted in customers, or mobile phones used for payments, so there weren't those complications.
A police car had driven by, and fortunately been using a data link for vehicle identification. So, she had that piece of the puzzle. There didn't seem to be universal tracking and identification of people, just vehicles, so her job was much easier than she feared. Though, the surveillance cameras gave her some concern, they didn't seem to be centrally networked.
Another half-hour work, and she'd have a usable local identity. Her bank card would soon be ready, and she wouldn't need a large balance for her purposes. Making an old, photo-free, driving licence was well under way. A passport would soon follow. She wasn't in a hurry, so there was no point in risking drawing attention by rushing the work.
OK, her bank card was ready, and she had funds. Time to stop the annoyed looks at her 'wrist watch' and 'phone'. While the kitten was harvesting some nice organics, she thought she'd have a pint, and see what they'd do off the menu.
Just because she was behind what might be enemy lines, didn't mean she couldn't live properly.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
It was a nice pub. She'd seen one or two, over the years. She thought she was an adequate judge. Mako just wished she was a better customer.
It was mid afternoon, on the outskirts of the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire. England, Earth, Sol System; pretty close, she thought, to the Main Line. The pub was a brisk half-hour walk from where she awoke. She was rather abusing their hospitality, but, she felt she had little choice.
She'd quickly realised that her height would make her stand out, so a holographic distortion took her height down to 178cm, "less than six foot" as she thought the locals would say. Otherwise her social shape seemed adequate. Based on previous experience the looks she got meant she was 'attractive'.
Television and radio signals were providing her with some intelligence, and it hadn't taken long to crack the encryption used by mobile phone signals. The pub provided free wifi to customers, which she was making careful use of, and a mouse-sized drone was tapping the pub's telecomms wiring.
She'd released a kitten drone, that she found she had a template for. That was prowling around the pub, chasing imaginary mice, being nice to the occasional customer. It'd been fed a few pieces of food, which would prove useful, and overheard quite a bit of talk.
Fifteen minutes in, she was increasingly glancing at her wrist, and a simulated image of a mobile phone. She'd cracked the coding on the payment card transmissions to various banks, that her mouse-drone had relayed to her. Not that she planned to raid anyone's accounts, but she'd need the info to build a local identity. No ids implanted in customers, or mobile phones used for payments, so there weren't those complications.
A police car had driven by, and fortunately been using a data link for vehicle identification. So, she had that piece of the puzzle. There didn't seem to be universal tracking and identification of people, just vehicles, so her job was much easier than she feared. Though, the surveillance cameras gave her some concern, they didn't seem to be centrally networked.
Another half-hour work, and she'd have a usable local identity. Her bank card would soon be ready, and she wouldn't need a large balance for her purposes. Making an old, photo-free, driving licence was well under way. A passport would soon follow. She wasn't in a hurry, so there was no point in risking drawing attention by rushing the work.
OK, her bank card was ready, and she had funds. Time to stop the annoyed looks at her 'wrist watch' and 'phone'. While the kitten was harvesting some nice organics, she thought she'd have a pint, and see what they'd do off the menu.
Just because she was behind what might be enemy lines, didn't mean she couldn't live properly.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind