Jerry was now standing next to a coffee shop instead of an empty grayspace. It was part of the city, but he had not seen it before. The light indicated it was the next morning. There was a small dog tied to a table, a couple of patrons, and more importantly, 07760 was walking toward the table with the dog.
“But how did you reconstruct this scene?” Jerry was surprised. She obviously discovered a method to track 07760's movements through the city. Jerry disabled all the conventional methods of tracking through nanomachine signatures. He knew her tactics. She was using something new.
“I've reconstructed this scene from a photograph,” she said as if it would explain everything.
“How? Photographs don't have refined detail.” He was still confused.
“07760 appeared in the background of this couple's photograph.”
There was a tourist couple stuck in a loop. They took a picture of themselves with a thumbtouch and then pulled out a map. A screen appeared on a social networking page marked “archive” displaying the couple’s original photograph. The well-dressed man was impressed with her detective work, and he couldn’t hide it. She never ceased to amaze him. And he saw it again, the hint of emotion on her face. During their training, all the agents were taught to bury emotion incredibly deep. A good agent always looked at the situation objectively. They still had emotion. It wasn’t genetically removed. They were just trained to use it when they needed it. For example, when they were trying to intimidate a suspect, anger was a useful emotion. Human emotion was a utility tool for an agent rather than a fact of being. But he knew all the emotional tricks in the book. Her emotion was something different. He was sure of it.
She directed his attention to the couple. She began to explain, “The device you see is a cell phone. They were sort of miniature computers of the time. The people used to use a database called a social network to catalog their journeys. This couple, in particular, is on their honeymoon.”
“So you have a time, place, and date. I'm sure there is a time window near to this event. Yet I don't see him shackled here with me.”
The scene morphed and changed again. It was a different street corner, a different time of day, in front of a clothing store. 07660 was frozen in time wearing a different article of clothing with the tag still hanging from the clothes. Good boy. At least 07660 suspected something and began to take steps for secrecy. Though, he obviously hasn’t figured out everything yet.
“A government CCTV network picked this up. Since the store never reported a robbery and no one was watching this particular feed at the time, the incident went unnoticed by city officials. But our computer noticed. In fact, the computer is running through every bit of historical photograph and video feed. It’s only a matter of time when we narrow in on his objective. For now, we are attempting to narrow down the search by reconstructing a timeline of events.”
“You’re spying on him.”
“The best informant doesn't know he is an informant.”
There was the emotion again. She had him this time. There was very little Jerry could do. Because of the time period, cameras were on every street corner and in every pocket. Finding a liquid moment to cross the time barrier didn't matter now. It wasn't a question of finding a time window, but a question of which time window does she want to use? Jerry let defeat slip on his face. With a spy network tracking 07760's every move, Nanette will be able to pinpoint the perfect time, date, and location to travel back.
“I wanted you to know before I have to do this and that I’m truly sorry.” She pulled a smooth tube from her pocket.
The well-dressed man’s eyes became wide with fear. She was about to cut him off. She placed a tube on his exposed skin, and there was a tiny prick. The data flowing into his mind began to trickle to a halt. The