Cory Doctorow/Little Brother/24
coffee just then), and then set a styrofoam cup of water down next It's funny, but when she was talking about my getting
to me without unlocking my wrists from behind my back, so I "privileges" it scared me into submission. I felt like I'd done
couldn't reach it. Hardy har har. something to end up where I was, like maybe it was partially my
fault, like I could do something to change it.
"Hello, Marcus," Severe Haircut woman said. "How's your 'tude
doing today?" But as soon as she switched to this BS about "safety" and
"security," my spine came back. "Lady," I said, "you're talking
I didn't say anything. about attacking my home, but as far as I can tell, you're the only
one who's attacked me lately. I thought I lived in a country with a
"This isn't as bad as it gets you know," she said. "This is as constitution. I thought I lived in a country where I had rights.
good as it gets from now on. Even once you tell us what we want You're talking about defending my freedom by tearing up the Bill
to know, even if that convinces us that you were just in the wrong of Rights."
place at the wrong time, you're a marked man now. We'll be
watching you everywhere you go and everything you do. You've A flicker of annoyance passed over her face, then went away.
acted like you've got something to hide, and we don't like that." "So melodramatic, Marcus. No one's attacked you. You've been
detained by your country's government while we seek details on
It's pathetic, but all my brain could think about was that phrase, the worst terrorist attack ever perpetrated on our nation's soil. You
"convince us that you were in the wrong place at the wrong time." have it within your power to help us fight this war on our nation's
This was the worst thing that had ever happened to me. I had enemies. You want to preserve the Bill of Rights? Help us stop
never, ever felt this bad or this scared before. Those words, bad people from blowing up your city. Now, you have exactly
"wrong place at the wrong time," those six words, they were like a thirty seconds to unlock that phone before I send you back to your
lifeline dangling before me as I thrashed to stay on the surface. cell. We have lots of other people to interview today."
"Hello, Marcus?" she snapped her fingers in front of my face. She looked at her watch. I rattled my wrists, rattled the chains
"Over here, Marcus." There was a little smile on her face and I that kept me from reaching around and unlocking the phone. Yes,
hated myself for letting her see my fear. "Marcus, it can be a lot I was going to do it. She'd told me what my path was to freedom
worse than this. This isn't the worst place we can put you, not by a to the world, to my parents and that had given me hope. Now
damned sight." She reached down below the table and came out she'd threatened to send me away, to take me off that path, and my
with a briefcase, which she snapped open. From it, she withdrew hope had crashed and all I could think of was how to get back on
my phone, my arphid sniper/cloner, my wifinder, and my memory it.
keys. She set them down on the table one after the other.
So I rattled my wrists, wanting to get to my phone and unlock it
"Here's what we want from you. You unlock the phone for us for her, and she just looked at me coldly, checking her watch.
today. If you do that, you'll get outdoor and bathing privileges.
You'll get a shower and you'll be allowed to walk around in the "The password," I said, finally understanding what she wanted
exercise yard. Tomorrow, we'll bring you back and ask you to of me. She wanted me to say it out loud, here, where she could
decrypt the data on these memory sticks. Do that, and you'll get to record it, where her pals could hear it. She didn't want me to just
eat in the mess hall. The day after, we're going to want your email unlock the phone. She wanted me to submit to her. To put her in
passwords, and that will get you library privileges." charge of me. To give up every secret, all my privacy. "The
password," I said again, and then I told her the password. God
The word "no" was on my lips, like a burp trying to come up, help me, I submitted to her will.
but it wouldn't come. "Why?" is what came out instead.
She smiled a little prim smile, which had to be her icequeen
"We want to be sure that you're what you seem to be. This is equivalent of a touchdown dance, and the guards led me away. As
about your security, Marcus. Say you're innocent. You might be, the door closed, I saw her bend down over the phone and key the
though why an innocent man would act like he's got so much to password in.
hide is beyond me. But say you are: you could have been on that
bridge when it blew. Your parents could have been. Your friends. I wish I could say that I'd anticipated this possibility in advance
Don't you want us to catch the people who attacked your home?" and created a fake password that unlocked a completely
innocuous partition on my phone, but I wasn't nearly that
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155