Anger Is a Gift

It's funny, really. Funny how I never once thought that things might have been different back then to how they are now. It never even crossed my mind.

After all, why would things have been different? It may have been the past, but it was still the same world. People still walked the same streets. People still had the same conversations. People still innocently went about their daily lives, following society's orders to have an education, find a job, get married and produce children to do the exact same thing.

It's just, I never realised that they did it all without being watched.

The small amount of old CCTV footage that I stumbled across in the CIA's databases was unusual. And that's exactly what was abnormal; the fact that it was a small amount. It paled in comparison to the terabytes and terabytes of archived footage that I had access to around the city from just the past year alone. There were even areas of the old city that weren't covered at all. At first, I assumed that the coverage was simply missing or accidentally erased. But, after more searching and finding no trace of any files of that nature, I realised that it wasn't missing; it never existed to begin with.

How is that even possible?

And another thing. There was no fingerprint cataloguing. Looking at the small amount of high street footage that was there, I knew that something wasn't right. Everyone was moving too smoothly. For a busy time like a Saturday afternoon, the queues outside each building should have stretched far out onto the main street as everyone waited to check in. Strangely, there were no queues in sight. Which meant only one thing - these historical people didn't have to wait in front of each building to have their location recorded by the government. People could simply walk in and out of buildings whenever they pleased. What the hell...

The automatic glass doors of the archive room slid open behind me. The noise startled me more than it should have done. Closing the archived footage on my computer in haste, I turned round to face the agent that strode into the room. I didn't even need to look at the badge on his uniform to know that he was of a senior position. Lit up by the glow of the room's many computer screens, his posture was assertive, and I could feel his eyes boring into my skull behind his shaded glasses.

"Good morning, Agent...?"

"Sklar, sir."

"My apologies, Agent Sklar. I can't say I can place your face..."

I internally sighed. I wasn't in the mood for conversation at all, and this man was trying to make small talk with me. Just swell. "I work on the LI Experiement, sir." My voice didn't sound right. I sounded too tense. I needed to put the footage I'd just seen from my mind. "I observe Subject 4202."

"Hmm, the LI experiement..." he mused. Then, the senior agent raised an eyebrow. "If that's the case, shouldn't you be observing Subject 4202 now?"

Crap. He was right. It was getting harder to mask my discomfort. I swallowed, finding my mouth dry, and continued as smoothly as I could. "I was just updating Subject 4202's files, sir. And my apologies for neglecting my duties. I'll be on my way."

With a hurriedly crafted reassuring smile, I rose from my seat and headed towards the glass doors at a pace faster than average, but not too brisk as to be suspicious. It would be hard to explain the real reason why I was accessing the databases, as my mind wasn't feeling as sharp as usual today. I'd barely slept last night. I really wasn't in the mood for confrontations.

My ears perked up at a snippet of speech from the senior agent behind me, most of which was cut off by the glass doors sliding shut behind me. I could easily pretend I hadn't heard him speak at all. After all, very few people would have heard something as brief as that. I continued walking down a glass-walled corridor without altering my current pace. I made sure to keep my body language relaxed and at ease, masking the guilty embarrassment I felt within.

Guilt. Why guilt? The files I had been looking at weren't restricted. Maybe if I'd had to override the system to retrieve the files, I would have had justification for my uneasy emotions. I hadn't seen the access status on the document, but since I'd been able to openly access it, it's highly likely that it was a document available to all agents. Hell, if I'd actually told the truth to the senior agent that had walked into the archive room, he might not have thought anything of it.

Then, why did I get the feeling that I shouldn't have seen them? If those files were widely accessible, why hadn't I heard of the lack of control the government used to have over its citizens? Why were the government keen to keep it from the public?

I blinked. Hard. You're in the CIA, Kayden, I thought to myself. Of course you won't know the answers to some things. That's why they call it a secret organisation, dumbass.

Pushing the questions to the back of my mind, I turned my thoughts to my current task. I was supposed to be observing my assigned LI experiement subject. In order to do that, I needed to find out Subject 4202's current whereabouts. Or, as she was known by her friends, Ava.