Dystopian Interlude
FinsburyParkCarrots
Posts: 12,223
Part one
FIELD MARSHALL SAGGERS: Interview recording commencing 03.46hrs. Present, myself; Colonel James Quayle; Doctor Theo Silverman; Officers Waugh, Price, and Levy. Accused - Anthony Patrick Secombe - also present. Interview beginning now. Ahem. Anthony, given the wealth of documentary evidence that has been presented to you in previous interviews, do you acknowledge we have both material and circumstantial data to locate you among the chief conspirators who over the course of seven months were filmed covertly at a specific location waging a plot to seize Party Central Command Headquarters? That you were caught on camera in an indoor location addressing an assembly of known subversives advising them on the specific logistics of how you would use elaborate guile to intercept security and commandeer the Grand Information Database that controls all aspects of media and surveillance? That you had developed a sophisticated cipher-cracking system that would jeopardise security throughout Social Sectors one to seventeen of British US East? In the face of the overwhelming audio and visual evidence we have relayed to you demonstrating how we have been following you closely, are you prepared to acknowledge your fault and sign the form of confession put to you?
SECOMBE: Listen, I'm telling you straight. That isn't me in that footage. I'd never ventured outside Sector Twelve until you arrested me and brought me here to Sector One.
DR. SILVERMAN: And this has all be some dreadful mistake, Tony? Yes, yes, I see. Gentlemen, the accused refuses to acknowledge his own culpability in the face of objective evidence to establish his involvement in political intrigue. What is interesting here is that he does not behave like an equivocating subversive under interrogation. However, it would be hasty to attribute his reticence and cunning to an individual psychopathology; Secombe is politically motivated. He hasn't tried to strike any deals with us yet. But, given his intricate scientific knowledge of information manipulation, code cracking and subterfuge, I'm sure with the correct persistence on our part he will want to bargain with us.
SECOMBE: If that was the case you'd have called your men aside to say that. I'm not stupid.
DR. SILVERMAN: Oh, we know you're not stupid, Tony.
SECOMBE: You're trying to browbeat me. You know I'm innocent. My knowledge of code goes as far as my job, designing body chips. And you design the code itself, I just apply the software to the hardware.
DR. SILVERMAN: We know all about your reading of contrabund literature. About your longstanding fascination with liberalism. About your being in possession of a copy of the US Constitution when you know we outlawed it.
SECOMBE: That's not enough to incriminate me in revolutionary activity at the scale you're suggesting!
SAGGERS: No, not per se, Secombe. But our surveillance is.
SECOMBE: But I'm telling you that isn't me in that footage! I admit the person looks very like me.
SAGGERS: Identical, wouldn't you say?
SECOMBE: Okay, dispassionately, yes, he does, just like me. And anyone could be forgiven for thinking it was me, but it wasn't me!
DR. SILVERMAN: Even if your biometric data matches that of the figure on our footage? Iris data? Voice patterns?
SECOMBE: That information can be forged and you know it.
SAGGERS: Maybe, Secombe, maybe. But there's one piece of evidence linking you to the footage that can't be falsified.
DR. SILVERMAN: And we think you know what that is, eh, Tony? After all, it's your line.
SECOMBE: What? The body chip?
DR. SILVERMAN: Exactly. Uncorruptable, individual signals transmitted at orchestrated frequencies from your body chip were recorded at ultrasonic levels on the sound track of the recordings of you planning the insurrection with your cohorts. We've no doubt it was you. None.
SECOMBE: Who located and analysed such information from a bit of video footage?
SAGGERS: Dr. Silverman did.
(Silverman nods.)
SECOMBE: And was this information independently researched and Dr. Silverman's observations corroborated?
SILVERMAN: You show an informed regard for the machinations of power. You seem familiar with the tenets of outlawed democracy. (Nods to Waugh and Price to lean over behind Secombe.)
OFFICER WAUGH: There is nothing outside of Party Central.
OFFICER PRICE: Answer the questions.
SECOMBE: These questions can only be answered with questions. I'm being implicated in something of which I have no knowledge! All this circumstantial evidence! What of material evidence? What of testimony. Supplied under duress from thugs like your officers, ha?
(To be continued)
FIELD MARSHALL SAGGERS: Interview recording commencing 03.46hrs. Present, myself; Colonel James Quayle; Doctor Theo Silverman; Officers Waugh, Price, and Levy. Accused - Anthony Patrick Secombe - also present. Interview beginning now. Ahem. Anthony, given the wealth of documentary evidence that has been presented to you in previous interviews, do you acknowledge we have both material and circumstantial data to locate you among the chief conspirators who over the course of seven months were filmed covertly at a specific location waging a plot to seize Party Central Command Headquarters? That you were caught on camera in an indoor location addressing an assembly of known subversives advising them on the specific logistics of how you would use elaborate guile to intercept security and commandeer the Grand Information Database that controls all aspects of media and surveillance? That you had developed a sophisticated cipher-cracking system that would jeopardise security throughout Social Sectors one to seventeen of British US East? In the face of the overwhelming audio and visual evidence we have relayed to you demonstrating how we have been following you closely, are you prepared to acknowledge your fault and sign the form of confession put to you?
SECOMBE: Listen, I'm telling you straight. That isn't me in that footage. I'd never ventured outside Sector Twelve until you arrested me and brought me here to Sector One.
DR. SILVERMAN: And this has all be some dreadful mistake, Tony? Yes, yes, I see. Gentlemen, the accused refuses to acknowledge his own culpability in the face of objective evidence to establish his involvement in political intrigue. What is interesting here is that he does not behave like an equivocating subversive under interrogation. However, it would be hasty to attribute his reticence and cunning to an individual psychopathology; Secombe is politically motivated. He hasn't tried to strike any deals with us yet. But, given his intricate scientific knowledge of information manipulation, code cracking and subterfuge, I'm sure with the correct persistence on our part he will want to bargain with us.
SECOMBE: If that was the case you'd have called your men aside to say that. I'm not stupid.
DR. SILVERMAN: Oh, we know you're not stupid, Tony.
SECOMBE: You're trying to browbeat me. You know I'm innocent. My knowledge of code goes as far as my job, designing body chips. And you design the code itself, I just apply the software to the hardware.
DR. SILVERMAN: We know all about your reading of contrabund literature. About your longstanding fascination with liberalism. About your being in possession of a copy of the US Constitution when you know we outlawed it.
SECOMBE: That's not enough to incriminate me in revolutionary activity at the scale you're suggesting!
SAGGERS: No, not per se, Secombe. But our surveillance is.
SECOMBE: But I'm telling you that isn't me in that footage! I admit the person looks very like me.
SAGGERS: Identical, wouldn't you say?
SECOMBE: Okay, dispassionately, yes, he does, just like me. And anyone could be forgiven for thinking it was me, but it wasn't me!
DR. SILVERMAN: Even if your biometric data matches that of the figure on our footage? Iris data? Voice patterns?
SECOMBE: That information can be forged and you know it.
SAGGERS: Maybe, Secombe, maybe. But there's one piece of evidence linking you to the footage that can't be falsified.
DR. SILVERMAN: And we think you know what that is, eh, Tony? After all, it's your line.
SECOMBE: What? The body chip?
DR. SILVERMAN: Exactly. Uncorruptable, individual signals transmitted at orchestrated frequencies from your body chip were recorded at ultrasonic levels on the sound track of the recordings of you planning the insurrection with your cohorts. We've no doubt it was you. None.
SECOMBE: Who located and analysed such information from a bit of video footage?
SAGGERS: Dr. Silverman did.
(Silverman nods.)
SECOMBE: And was this information independently researched and Dr. Silverman's observations corroborated?
SILVERMAN: You show an informed regard for the machinations of power. You seem familiar with the tenets of outlawed democracy. (Nods to Waugh and Price to lean over behind Secombe.)
OFFICER WAUGH: There is nothing outside of Party Central.
OFFICER PRICE: Answer the questions.
SECOMBE: These questions can only be answered with questions. I'm being implicated in something of which I have no knowledge! All this circumstantial evidence! What of material evidence? What of testimony. Supplied under duress from thugs like your officers, ha?
(To be continued)
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SECOMBE: Listen, I'm telling you straight. That isn't me in that footage. I'd never ventured outside Sector Twelve until you arrested me and brought me here to Sector One.
DR. SILVERMAN: And this has all been some dreadful mistake, Tony? Yes, yes, I see. Gentlemen, the accused refuses to acknowledge his own culpability in the face of objective evidence to establish his involvement in political intrigue. What is interesting here is that he does not behave like an equivocating subversive under interrogation. However, it would be hasty to attribute his reticence and cunning to an individual psychopathology; Secombe is politically motivated. He hasn't tried to strike any deals with us yet. But, given his intricate scientific knowledge of information manipulation, code cracking and subterfuge, I'm sure with the correct persistence on our part he will want to bargain with us.
SECOMBE: If that was the case you'd have called your men aside to say that. I'm not stupid.
DR. SILVERMAN: Oh, we know you're not stupid, Tony.
SECOMBE: You're trying to browbeat me. You know I'm innocent. My knowledge of code goes as far as my job, designing body chips. And you design the code itself, I just apply the software to the hardware.
DR. SILVERMAN: We know all about your reading of contraband literature. About your longstanding fascination with liberalism. About your being in possession of a copy of the US Constitution when you know we outlawed it.
SECOMBE: That's not enough to incriminate me in revolutionary activity at the scale you're suggesting!
SAGGERS: No, not per se, Secombe. But our surveillance is.
SECOMBE: But I'm telling you that isn't me in that footage! I admit the person looks very like me.
SAGGERS: Identical, wouldn't you say?
SECOMBE: Okay, dispassionately, yes, he does, just like me. And anyone could be forgiven for thinking it was me, but it wasn't me!
DR. SILVERMAN: Even if your biometric data matches that of the figure on our footage? Iris data? Voice patterns?
SECOMBE: That information can be forged and you know it.
SAGGERS: Maybe, Secombe, maybe. But there's one piece of evidence linking you to the footage that can't be falsified.
DR. SILVERMAN: And we think you know what that is, eh, Tony? After all, it's your line.
SECOMBE: What? The body chip?
DR. SILVERMAN: Exactly. Incorruptible, individual signals transmitted at orchestrated frequencies from your body chip were recorded at ultrasonic levels on the sound track of the recordings of you planning the insurrection with your cohorts. Sector One, NW Sub fourth zone, strip nine alpha, 09.17hrs. We've no doubt it was you. None.
SECOMBE: Who located and analysed such information from a bit of video footage?
SAGGERS: Dr. Silverman did.
(Silverman nods.)
SECOMBE: And was this information independently researched and Dr. Silverman's observations corroborated?
SILVERMAN: You show an informed regard for the machinations of power. You seem familiar with the tenets of outlawed democracy. (Nods to Waugh and Price to lean over behind Secombe.)
OFFICER WAUGH: There is nothing outside of Party Central.
OFFICER PRICE: Answer the questions.
SECOMBE: These questions can only be answered with questions. I'm being implicated in something of which I have no knowledge! All this circumstantial evidence! What of material evidence? What of testimony? Supplied under duress from thugs like your officers, ha?
SAGGERS: All interviews were recorded.
SILVERMAN: No harm came to any of the witnesses who stated you were present at the bunker location from which you help lead a conspiracy to topple Command.
SECOMBE: No harm. All video evidence showed these individuals present at the interview. The iris data and voice records matched those of known subversives whom you say you have in your control. Their chip records bleated on the tape. I know. Incontrovertible evidence, damning me.
SAGGERS: You see it’s all so simple. And it could be painless if you confess.
SECOMBE: That’s a threat. A direct threat on tape.
SILVERMAN: No threat. Are you feeling well? Would you like a glass of water? (Aside) The patient requested a glass of water at 03.49hrs. Log that, Levy. (To Secombe.) Now, this business about threats, no-one has threatened you, Anthony.
SECOMBE: Then play the tape back! Play it! I heard you say “And it could be painless if you confess”, the inference being you were about to torture me should I refuse to comply with your demand that I sign your confession form!
SILVERMAN: There, there, Tony. Relax. It’s a long, protracted procedure, interrogation. It hurts me too, Tony. It physically causes us all pain. We’re sentient men, Tony, we in command. We care deeply about the preservation of security, about keeping things running smoothly. (Aside) Price, rewind the interview footage on annex bypass recorder seven. Go from counter no. 2017, 03.48hrs. (To Secombe.) Yes, your stubbornness causes me pain. Causes us all sorrow.
SECOMBE: Don’t play with the words. I got your meaning.
SILVERMAN: Run the tape. Ah, now, Anthony, watch from this monitor here.
SECOMBE: Oh, I’m watching –
SILVERMAN: And you can see it’s unaltered footage.
SECOMBE: Yes.
(Tape runs)
SECOMBE: No harm. All video evidence showed these individuals present at the interview. The iris data and voice records matched those of known subversives whom you say you have in your control. Their chip records bleated on the tape. I know. Incontrovertible evidence.
SAGGERS: You see it’s all so simple. And it could be painless for us if you confess.
SECOMBE: For us?
SILVERMAN: It’s a long, protracted procedure, interrogation. It hurts me, Tony. It physically causes us all pain. We’re sentient men, Tony, we in command. We care deeply about the preservation of security, about keeping things running smoothly. Admit you played a key role in teaching code to insurgents to infiltrate the Grand Information Database.
SECOMBE: Listen, I'm telling you straight. My knowledge of code goes as far as revolutionary activity at the scale you're suggesting! ! I admit – [/i]
SECOMBE: Hey! You’ve taken snippets of my speech and edited them to make me say that!
SILVERMAN: (Aside) Now. (To Secombe) You’re well trained. We want you to ponder who trained you, who supplied you with the sophisticated wherewithal to hold back on admitting information on the organisation that sanctioned this attempted coup. Continue to watch the footage –
SECOMBE: Yes! Yes! I shall!! –
So will you confess, repent of your wrongs and submit to Party Central?
SECOMBE: Yes! Yes! I shall!!
SILVERMAN: And you sign this document of confession?
SECOMBE: I shall!
SECOMBE: Damn you all! You’re playing with my voice patterns!
SILVERMAN: So, why is that you on the footage signing the confession document?
SECOMBE (signing form, drinking water): Damning me.
SECOMBE: Damning me. What of my questions? Where are my questions?
SECOMBE: These questions can only be answered with questions No harm. All video evidence showed these individuals present at the interview. The iris data and voice records matched those of known subversives whom you say you have in your control. Their chip records bleated on the tape. I know. Incontrovertible evidence, damning me.
This was fun to read! It has all of the elements of a great political thriller! I cared and identified with the characters immediately and wanted to know how brilliant man like Secombe came to be in such unscrupulous company!
~it is shining it is shining~