The Blurt of Richard Davies

Chapter Nineteen

November the 4th.

I should have done my dark web research while I had the chance, but I've been busy and my eyes have been feeling strained recently. Now I've finally got round to it, I find the entries in DarkWiki as well as the usual rumour mills regarding James and Mr Yu have been systematically edited. So we're left with the 'official' biographies of both of them.

Sadly I deleted the background research I'd done on IMS and James as part of my interview preparation long ago, but something is nagging at my brain; some all but forgotten facts. The trouble is they are staying all but forgotten. If I don't think about it for a while perhaps my subconscious mind will keep working on it, and the answers suddenly become apparent. Or maybe not, as they appear to stay unremembered for the moment.

I knew neither of them was spotlessly clean, but such a thorough cleansing implies a fear the Connies might go trawling in the dark world as well (if they haven't gone dredging already) and drag up something embarrassing. Given the rumours I've heard about James' past it would be understandable; but surely his Zone backers would've done some investigation before they threw their weight behind him? So why the sudden action now? Have they discovered something compromising and decided to bury it so deep it could never be uncovered?

I'll have to try some of my more dodgy frazzling contacts and see if they can access the earlier records. No doubt if they are able to then there will be Connie sympathisers who can do so as well. If there is a skeleton poised to fall out of the cupboard, we who are helping to run his campaign ought to know about it if for no other reason than to try to plan an advanced response if the Connies do have some dirt and decide to dish it.

I spend the rest of the day trying, and failing to think of a way of asking James about it in a chary manner without getting fired, or worse.

 

November the 7th.

Today I spent a fruitless hour in the Portsmouth Central Community Support office trying to renew my cycling licence. It should've been a straightforward process but in the Fed you can't take anything for granted. After waiting for my number to be called I'm told I can't get it renewed here. Apparently I should've gone to my home office in Waterlooville, though it's the first time I've heard of that rule being applied.

November the 8th.

So, today, before I head for Portsea Island, I visit the Waterlooville office, only to find after a thirty minute wait there they can't process my renewal and being told I should go to the Portsmouth Central office

After explaining testily the problem I had yesterday I ask them to put their interpretation of the rules down in writing; this takes another forty-five minutes to obtain. I can see where this is going to lead; I'll be forever ping-ponged back and forth from office to office. So once I reach Media House I outfit myself with some of our covert 'cording gear and head back to the Central office once more.

Community Support Offices were another of the Council's money saving bright ideas and the replacement for the Crown Post Office network and Job Centres, now combined and renamed. They are the first - nay the only - physical point of contact for citizens to access government services. From Reassignment to obtaining the many different cards you must have to get by in the Fed; the CSO is where you have to go. If you're not feeling suicidally depressed when you enter, you will be by the time you leave.

I think there must be a deliberate policy to put people off using them. How else can the dismal, unwelcoming interiors, the overbearing entry checks, the constantly prowling security staff, the armoured glass partitions at the counters, the few uncomfortable seats, and that particular quality of the lighting which seems to stop time in its tracks be explained?