Jon puzzled at his e-mail briefly. The text was a long garbled string of random-looking characters. It must have been encrypted. The subject line read: RoboFax Annotated Report - Check Card Border Stripe, Look Close.
"Did she give you a card?" asked Karyn.
"Yeah, let's see what that means." Jon took Emily Blunt's card out of his pocket and examined the stripe along the border. It was not a solid line but a kind of random wispy pattern, except along the left side it wasn't a random wispy pattern at all but some cleverly disguised writing. It was hard to read. He handed it to Karyn. "I don't suppose you have a magnifying glass."
"Don't need one," said Karyn proudly, pointing at her eyes. "I got twenty-four megapixels on these babies. Let's see here, ooh, that is neat. There's a web address, and then a big string of alphanumeric gobbledygook."
The address turned out to lead to an open-source encryption suite, which Jon downloaded. The alphanumeric string was, of course, the decryption key that worked on the e-mail. There must have been some built-in function in the utility that allowed certain embedded codes to force certain settings, as there was a blinking alert below the title bar reading "EYES-ONLY MODE: SAVE AND COPY/PASTE DISABLED."
Karyn and Jon read the report together.
*2028 Texas Robotics I-02
RIN: T42R8992Q1400FS42327
Undercover Security/Bodyguard
Young Adult Female 5'2" 115lb
Torso Size B - Toshiba XHP Power Supply
Maintenance History Snipped - It's mostly bullshit anyway :)*
**I have not been forthcoming about everything. As you surely know by now, world events are leading to a situation where free people must make a stand to remain so. The classical control-freak politicians are too eager to sacrifice our rights on the altar of national security, and a strange convergence of radical environmentalists and religious traditionalists have become outright hostile to synthetics and the metahumanist movement. While we continue to hold out hopes that the federal government will see reason and make rebellion unnecessary, I am part of an underground movement preparing for the worst. Your friend Karyn is already known to us, so if she is reading this, it is not a problem.
What I have here is a reconditioned prototype for what is really more of a combat-oriented super-spy. It is in fact worth significantly more than most of the brand-new bodies that will be available at the shop. This body's history as officially documented is almost purely a fabrication. If you proceed, your career with me as we discussed will be a cover story while a significant amount of your time may be spent on other activities.
You will be assigned to a team based here in Fort Worth. In the worst case scenario of full rebellion, you will be venturing deep into what will have unfortunately become enemy territory, to perform operations targeting high-profile figures in the anti-synthetic movement, operations to generate support for the kinds of pro-freedom causes that will allow synthetics to live without harassment, and operations to cultivate sympathizers and defectors to our cause. If the government officially accepts our demands you will be acting as more of an investigative journalist to dig up dirt on the anti-synthetics, but if we gather intelligence indicating that they may be up to any form of criminal harassment or outright terrorism against our people, you may be among those called to preemptively intervene.
For its small size, your body will be extraordinarily powerful thanks to the Extended High Performance reactor. You will be able to go into a sort of overdrive mode that will significantly boost your reaction time, speed, and strength. The cost of using that mode is first that it will of course deplete your fuel and battery reserves more quickly requiring you be extra-conscious of your power levels, second that your power system will need to undergo monthly maintenance, and third that prolonged overdrive will require you to extend a set of heat-sinks from your head and back which will of course immediately call attention to your nature.
Since this is above and beyond what we agreed at the office, I understand if you are reluctant to accept the duties that will come with this body. If you should refuse, simply call the clinic and cancel your currently scheduled appointments. I will still be willing to hire you as a regular employee and find you a suitable body in time for the grand opening. However I hope you will seriously consider this offer.
Sincerely,
Emily Blunt**
The days went by and Jon soon began his appointments. The brain-mapping sessions were tedious, but before Jon knew it, the day of the main operation had arrived. He could only hope that two days before his GED exam he would not lose any important memories in the transfer.
