Damned!

Protests

"Show your badge and place your personal items here, please," the security guard motioned, pointing to a basket on a sliding tray that slid through a metal detector archway. She dug through her pockets to locate the badge with the pin backing. Normally, she would be wearing this throughout the day, but new activity outside the government building had necessitated an incognito status.

The safety measure of scanning belongings had been adapted after a recent slew of online gun violence and bomb threats had targeted government buildings. Laura was both glad for the extra precaution and saddened about the changing messages throughout the online presence that was perpetuating this violence. The government was blaming the youth, with the recent protests outside their buildings filled with advocates who were against the government use of AI facial recognition throughout Thai's capital or city governments. A ragtag group of college journalists, recently calling themselves the Village Voice, broke the story that this new technology already contentiously designed for use in the Homeland Security Department to track foreign terrorists, was now included in a proposed legislation to be used for both national and city police forces. The centrists in the government were advocating for police access while the leftists were claiming anarchy against a government they felt abused their rights.

In the fray of change, Laura was glad she had chosen science engineering instead of politics as her choice of career, but the chants of "Freedom- our born race, Don't scan our face!" did beg an awareness. Afterall, her career was located inside the capitol building. The wave of posters and daily morning chants she walked through to get to the building meant that she was often asked to explain her position to strangers and the "I just work here" was no longer good enough. To avoid scrutiny, she often hid her badge until entering the building, but secretly she did start listening to the online chatter to form her own opinions.

Upon entering the third floor, she turned right to her office, passing by the convention room with a long oblong table where all department meetings were held. There was a memo on her desk about a scheduled meeting with the mayor and secretary of state for the end of the month to see the revised plans for the Jungle Watershed Project.

Opening her email, she found a detailed message outlining what was expected to be completed by the upcoming meeting. Laura sighed impatiently. There was no mention within the Watershed Jungle Project of the need to hire a community liaison. She wondered if there had even been an attempt to gauge potential hazards to the community. Not that she wanted to change the outcome, but modifications are a part of every job. This would certainly be a necessity. Picking up the phone, she placed a call to her personal assistant Janeane to explain the parameters in finding and hiring such a person. As she was conversing, she heard a knock at her door.

"I'm sorry, Janeane, one moment."

The office secretary peaked through, and mouthed a sorry. "Thomas Havell, secretary to homeland security."

Laura looked confused, but quickly masked it as the young man, in a pinstriped suit stepped inside.

"Janeane, I will call you back soon."

"May I help you?"

He waited momentarily until the secretary walked away and then motioned at the door, proceeding to close it quietly. He looked around the room carefully for a moment eyeing the corners and ceiling.

Laura was beginning to be annoyed, and about to chastise this interruption when he suddenly spoke.

"Thank you for taking me on short notice. I'll be brief and to the point. Ever since the welcoming party last week, I heard you have been asking about a certain man."

He walked forward and placed a scrap of paper labeled "secret" with a phone number on it folded over with the name Ein M. sharpied on the back.

Speaking louder he said, "By the way, this person- John, happens to also be interested in you. He is a really good guy, I can vouch for his character, and it is not often he asks about someone. He wanted to exchange numbers, but was too timid to initiate the conversation, so I took the liberty of supplying his number."

Laura nodded as if on automatic command, still too confused to utter anything else.

"This is his number?"

"Oh yes. He is interested. I would call him real soon, in fact befo

re the weekend. His schedule is really busy on the weekends."

"And more importantly," his voice seemed to lower to normal volume, "If you need any information in the Watershed Jungle project terrain, I'm sure I could connect you with the right people in homeland security. In fact, my boss said it would be a good idea to schedule a meeting,... which was my reason for stopping by. How is 2pm next Monday?"

Laura unfroze and checked her schedule to confirm.

"Good then. It is scheduled in the books. Remember to give John a call, he is insufferable and becomes anxious whenever there is a woman of whom he thinks is out of his reach." Winking, he pointed once again to the slip of paper he had given.

As he left, Laura thought with surprise, an fortuitous answer to solving her problem of securing a liaison.Then she wondered, what does he want with me?