Read A World Without Secrets for Free Online Page A

I jumped backward as if I'd received a massive electrical shock, lost my balance, and tripped over my own feet as I backpedaled.
    I found myself sitting on the floor against the base of the sink cabinet, staring up at a telecast of people walking on a congested city street. I couldn't move as I sat there hyperventilating with my mouth wide open and my eyes probably as large as teacup saucers.

 
     
     

Chapter Three
    I'd hit my head on the sink cabinet when I landed but didn't think I'd hit it so hard that I could be hallucinating from a concussion. And I had fallen only after suddenly seeing a piece of paper turn into a television.
    I continued to sit on the floor, staring dumbfounded at the newly revealed video device. My involvement and passionate interests in the computer and electronics fields had always kept me on what's been referred to as the bleeding edge of technological development. That's about six months ahead of what's known as the leading edge and a year ahead of what the average person is seeing in the news. I knew nothing like this was available, predicted, or even contemplated for the near future. A product like this was not even speculative hardware at this point. It was what I'd always referred to as dreamware. A paper-thin monitor— literally paper-thin, without any visible power supply— had to be super hush-hush corporate or 'eyes-only' government stuff. Just knowing about it could make people 'disappear.' I immediately thought of the mysterious emails I'd received. "Someone already knows I have it," I mumbled. "In fact, they knew before I did. So who are they , and why haven't they shown up to collect it?"
    I jumped to my feet and raced to my front door. After fumbling with the solid steel security pole, I managed to position it between the metal floor plate embedded just below the surface of the hardwood floor and the steel plate mounted on the door. As I pushed downward and locked it into place, I leaned back against the bathroom doorframe. There, I thought, it'll take someone with a battering ram to get through the door while that pole's in place, and they'll only succeed if they smash the solid door to kindling . But the idea of someone using a battering ram to get in set my mind reeling again, so I raced to my bedroom and peered cautiously out the one-foot square hole in the plywood. I couldn't spot anything suspicious, but that didn't mean there wasn't someone out there watching. Across the street, the lot was almost completely cleared. The firemen were long gone, and a front-end loader and several dump trucks were cleaning up in the far corner while workmen erected a plywood fence around the entire property. The absence of the apartment building meant that buildings on the cross street for an entire block now had an unobstructed view of my house. Anyone with binoculars or a telephoto lens could be watching my front door from a block away to see when I emerged. I stood there, quietly hyperventilating, while my heart pounded in my chest like an out-of-control trip-hammer. But the only people on the street were local residents, many of whom I knew and all of whom I recognized.
    Satisfied that a SWAT team wasn't out front preparing to assault my apartment, I returned to the kitchen and stared out the back window. Nothing suspicious there either. The fenced backyards that I could see into were empty except for next door where old Mrs. Schmidt was hanging her wash. Of course, they could be watching the house by satellite. But if it was the government, wouldn't they just bust down the door and retrieve the device? "No," I said to myself, "it's not the government. The government is never subtle in matters like this. It definitely has to be somebody else— someone who has to maintain a low profile."
    My next thought— that perhaps the device was some super advanced prototype a company was keeping top secret and they couldn't afford to make a scene— I immediately dismissed. That didn't make sense