Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is the Doctrine’s contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.
Hosted by Denise with one thing on her mind: sentence count (Hint: rhymes with Six)
If you’re a new Reader (or a regular Reader who might want to refresh their memory) here’s an opportunity to read the story Tom and I are writing from the beginning. The link to ‘…of Heroes and the MisUnderstood‘.
Prompt word:
REMOTE
[GCHQ London Branch]The city of London, with an estimated 627,707 cctv cameras, remote microphones and drones nesting in the clouds, could be thought of as, ‘the city that never sleeps’ but that characterization would not be fair, (or accurate), to either it’s citizenry or it’s surveillance system; in the case of the former, one’s sanity requires the personal privacy of sleep, while the latter thrives on constant awareness, albeit digital and thoroughly un-human.
“Yes, Leftenant Custos, something the AI can’t explain, I assume,” The LMN (Live Monitor Nexus) was a subterranean hectare of monitors and operators; the Watch Supervisor, Colonel Villicus, had sedgway’d down and across the ruler-straight aisles of the heart of the GCHQ until he stood behind the young man.
“The oddest thing, sir, a common speeder at first, but when I ran it’s path backwards, multiple gunshots, originating here,” the image on his monitor was a single family house and a very expensive car with four flat tires in the driveway; anticipating his supervisor’s question, “Yes those are two dead bodies on the opposite side of the street, but that’s not the oddest thing,” running the tape forward showed a van pulling out of the driveway, both men cringed as it sideswiped a parked car without slowing, racing out of the neighborhood until it was in a commercial area when, seemingly for no reason, tipped over and, sliding along on it’s side, came to rest in the middle of an empty intersection.
“Now, watch this,” pulling back on a joystick control, the perspective zoomed up and away sufficiently to bring two additional vehicles, a motorized rocket launcher and a helicopter into view; Lt Custos wisely decided not to comment on the rarity of such equipment on a London village street on a weeknight.
Colonel Villicus’s fingers flew over the keypad Velcro’d on his right wrist, activating an array of additional filters, including infrared, and the immediate result was the addition of the green-on-green silhouettes of four people, all moving towards a vehicle which, after a moment of hesitancy, sped in the opposite direction from the military-grade equipment.
A tone sounded from somewhere on, (or in), the person of the Supervisor, prompting a passable mime of a dog hearing an unexpected sound; resting his hand on the younger man’s shoulder he whispered, “Notify the locals, tell them this is a classified SAS training drill and all they need do is divert traffic until we give the all clear.”
About clarkscottroger
A most excellent montage to the story, master Weaver.
(One study estimates the CCTV cameras trained on public spaces around 950,000.
I can’t even stand the smartwatch thingies that monitor how much I sleep or walk 😆)
thanks ‘Keeper
yeah, from what I’ve been seeing (for the past few years) is London has been, like the total frontrunner in the art of surveillance
It’s so busy in the capital – always has – but now there’s too much going on. It was so much easier before when there were a few plods on the beat and there were walkie-talkies (tee-hee)
I agree completely. I know someone whose car was stolen, and the police weren’t even interested to take a report – told the owner their car was probably already on its way to Romania.
only had that happen once, way time ago… kids took it, crashed it. Got it back. Sorta
I wonder if it’s possible to Kintsugi-ise a car crashed to smithereens.
what I like about this place (‘the blogosphere’) new words, new views of reality, ever day!
surely it’s the absence of the presence (of authority) that is most disturbing
Nice contrast: “one’s sanity requires the personal privacy of sleep, while the latter thrives on constant awareness, albeit digital and thoroughly un-human.”
That overturned vehicle reminds me of Rue’s driving abilities. In London where they can’t drive on the right side of the road, mine wouldn’t be any better.
thanks, Frank! The tale (“…Of Heroes and”) is picking up a certain irresistible momentum (hope I can keep up!)
A magician’s bag of tricks?
I question that this is really a training drill and someone’s covering up something. I liked this visual: “passable mime of a dog hearing an unexpected sound”
ty MBF
Excellent, and entirely probable.
We didn’t need all of this back in the days of Dixon of Dock Green.
we would have laughed (or gasped) had it been suggested (surveillance )
It would appear all cities are on their way to perpetual insomnia. Enjoyed the alternative perspective of this scene. Nice switch up.
thanks