Chapter 24
MINKA
There are different kinds of smart people in this world.
There are those who work inside this building and know their way around the human body.
They can identify a person’s sex based on the shape of their pelvis or the length of a bone.
They can assess illness long after a disease ends a life, and they can stand inside a courtroom and speak for a person who was otherwise silenced.
Then there are smart people like Sophia Solomon and Preston Danes. Like Theo Griffin, who works on the fifteenth floor of my building and kind of reminds me of a Pinky and the Brain episode from my childhood.
“We’ve got you set up with a centralized security management platform. That’s where everything goes: cameras, access control, logins, alarms, sensors.”
“So it’s like the mother computer, taking care of all the baby computers?”
Preston’s lips twitch with the laughter he wants so badly to shut down.
“Yes, Chief. This is your mommy computer.” He gestures across my exceptionally messy fifteenth floor.
“She secures all the rest and processes data locally to reduce latency. She’s encrypted, so all devices inside the George Stanley communicate over a segmented network, and comes with a failsafe in case of a system failure. ”
“Which means?”
He settles back on his heels and digs one hand into his pocket.
The other holds his trusty laptop. “It means if the zombie apocalypse arrives, power grids are down, a bolt of lightning strikes your building, and one of your staff members opens a dumb email from a fake ass prince in a third world country, all at the same time, the failsafe will kick in and handle the situation. I’ll also be notified, so I can keep an eye on things. ”
“Handy. Will you know specifically which of my staff is communicating with the prince?”
A silent snicker bounces through his chest. “Yes, Chief. I will. I can then add more layers of stop-fucking-around to that person’s devices to curb their stupidity. Hopefully that won’t be necessary, but it’s there, just in case.”
“Doctor Raquel seems the type. Definitely keep an eye on her communications.”
He inclines his chin. “Noted. We’ve set you up with 4K IP cameras, with low-light and thermal imaging, pan-tilt tracking, facial recognition, and behavioral analytics.”
“Behavioral?”
He hums in the back of his throat. “Unusual movement patterns, discarded objects, and loitering detection. That sort of stuff. We also have overlapping coverage to minimize blind spots within the building. You’ll have administrator access, Chief, so if you want things switched off anywhere, at anytime, it’s literally as simple as a voice command. ”
“Can anyone else do that?”
He shakes his head. “Just you, and then those of us at Checkmate. If you switch something off and forget to turn it back on, I’ll receive alerts and fix it back up for you. If I’m not sure, I’ll contact you. I believe Soph already told you about the voice activation for your autopsy suites?”
“To start the record?” I nod. “Yeah. She said it’s easy.”
“It is. The system will grow smarter as you use it. It’ll learn your voice and become more intuitive, so make sure you speak clearly for the first little while, enunciate your words, but don’t overthink it. This tech is bitchin’. She won’t let you down.”
“Grows smarter?” I raise a single brow. “Learn? Pretty sure there was a movie about this sort of stuff. It didn’t work out so well for humankind.”
He chuckles. “Our tech is better, and she only thinks as much as we allow her to.” He gestures ahead and leads me on a tour of…
flashing lights. “You asked for keycard entry, but we’ve given you more than that.
Key cards, pin codes, biometrics, voice.
Everything you say and do inside this building will be recorded and filed as it should.
If you say my name, I’ll receive an alert. ”
“You don’t like people talking about you?”
He’s amused by me, shaking his head as mirth dances in his eyes. “It’s more of a hierarchy filing system. I get everything anyway, but if you need my attention quicker or for a specific file to sit at the top of my inbox, saying my name would throw up the appropriate alarms.”
“So, I could say something like, ‘Hey Preston. I lost my eyes and fingers in a freak acid incident. Buzz me in,’ and that would work?”
“Exactly. Except, I hope you don’t lose your eyes and fingers to a freak acid incident. That would be bad.”
“I concur.” Glancing toward a companionably working Theo and Soph, I furrow my brows and watch as a small parcel slides smoothly across the tiles. “Theo asked for the green box. Soph gave him a blue box. He said thanks.”
“Don’t ask.” Wrapping his hand around my arm, Pres leads me through a minefield of wire cut-offs, discarded boxes, and an empty soda bottle.
“We’ve added role-based access controls, which basically means your staff has access to the sections they have clearance for.
Your receptionist has no need to be in the toxicology lab.
Your toxicologist has no need to be in the zero-temp fridge.
If you want them to go to those places as a one-off, you have administrator credentials to make it happen, then everything resets after a certain amount of time.
If you believe I’ve allocated incorrectly, like you believe your receptionist should be in an autopsy suite every single day, then just let me know, and I can tweak.
Throughout discussions with your autopsy techs, I came to understand each medical examiner has their own allotted suite and rarely has need to use another, so I’ve allocated those suites to those doctors in our system. ”
“But we sometimes—”
“Any doctor can access any suite while they’re on shift, but because each one is allocated, an unfamiliar voice or face will throw up alerts.
It won’t stop them from using that space, but it lets you know if someone isn’t quite where we expect them to be.
The underground garage has been fitted with the same tech, so anyone down there who shouldn’t be will be flagged.
License plates will be logged as they pass through, and fingerprints will be scanned and stored after every push of a button inside the elevator.
I expect this will considerably assist in homicide investigations, since it may be difficult for the detectives to get such data without a warrant. ”
“But we can collect it without a person’s permission?”
“You sure can, especially considering the notices we’ve placed throughout the building alerting occupants of such. Them being inside the George Stanley is them consenting to the collection of data.”
“Sneaky.” We come to a stop at the front of the mommy computer, where a wall of screens shows me everything. “You now have perimeter and internal scanners, including motion detection grids, breakage and vibration sensors, and RF signal monitoring.”
“Which means?”
“If someone walks into this building with a device that attempts to interfere or block the security within, there’ll be alerts.”
“So… this bright red warning alert right here?” I point to the top-right screen. “Looks kinda serious.”
He snickers. “That one will go off anytime Checkmate is in house. We pride ourselves on interfering with everything. Always.”
“Oh, well…” I nod. “Cool. Glad to see the system works.”
“We wouldn’t normally throw up flags and let someone else’s system know we’re fucking with them, but Soph has given you the same level shit we use, so that makes you kinda special, I guess.”
“Super special,” Soph grunts from her awkward position under a heavy steel box. She holds it up while, on a ladder, Griffin wires it in. “I’m waiting for payment, Chief. We had a deal.”
“Do you wanna hear about all the doodads and fancy software keeping this bitch humming?” Pres asks. “Your eyes are kinda glazing over, so…”
“Nah, I’m good.” I leave Soph trapped under an object she can’t set down, and make my way toward the elevator.
“It’s fancy, it’s secure, it’s way more than I asked for.
” I tap the call button and turn back to face Pres.
“I wanted to swipe a card rather than hen-peck my email address every time I needed to use a computer. I ended up with the set from a Mission Impossible movie.”
“Nah. You ended up with a beast of a control center accessible to no one, anywhere, ever, except us and you. If the cops want something you don’t wish to give them, they’ll have a fuck of a time trying to secure a warrant.
If you collect evidence, whether intentionally or incidentally, you do wish for the cops to have, then that’s easy, too.
Ultimately, you have an amazing system built on computer intelligence, but with human oversight at all times.
” He follows me in and turns to face the closing doors.
“It sounds crazy complicated, and, well…” He shrugs.
“It is, if you wish to know the ins and outs of how she works. But for you, for the end user, it’s actually insanely simple.
You exist, the system recognizes your face and voice, you do your work, and she’ll file and store it all away for later.
It means cutting out a lot of the administrative monotony, and reduces human error, and ‘oops, I forgot to put that file away before I clocked out Friday afternoon. Now I can’t find it. ’
“What if I want files to sometimes be lost or forgotten?” I roll my bottom lip between my teeth and peek across at the man who always seems happy. “You work for Sophia, so I won’t insult either of us by waffling on about black and white, right and wrong.”
“It’s smart enough to know when not to record, Chief.
You can shut systems down in certain sectors with just a voice command, and if something is recorded that you’d prefer wasn’t, we can go back and manually override.
This conversation right now, for example…
” The instant the doors open on the ninth floor, he gestures me ahead. “Never happened.”