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Stolen Looks, Stolen Secrets - By Emma Smith Sunday, 25 August 2002 All persons and organisations portrayed in this story are fictitious, sadly. I used a script to generate all the character names for the story. No reference to any real persons is intended or should be inferred. Cast Andy Rathbun SomaChange (UK) Director Adam Eaves SomaChange (UK) Security Chief Stacy Butler SomaChange PA to UK Director Gerald/Geri MacNeill SomaChange Computer Expert Linda Gebrael Journalist for Mod>Style Magazine Bill Dawson Metropolitan Police (Detective Inspector) Carl Newbold Bad guy - Infiltration Cliff Keitel Bad guy - Computer / Tech Expert Russ Stratton Bad guy - Muscle and Intimidating Looks Index Page Mod-Style Magazine Issue 213 "For People who drive their Bodies". To read any of these articles sign into your subscription and make a selection. Or visit any PrintStop equipped shop and key in our tag line for a hard copy. Note: a small additional charge will apply. 1. News Watch - What's happened in the exciting world of body mods this week? 2. Drugs Special - Will they ever fully compete with nano? What about side effects? 3. Lifestyle - Meet people for who change has become a way of life. 4. Fashion Report - SomaChange gives us a sneak peek at their autumn season catalogue. 5. Nano Slot - Keep up to date with big advances on the small scale. New products are coming. 6. Interview - A short and provocative chat with SomaChange UK Director Andy Rathbun 7. True Stories - "Released" a very personal story from someone new to body modifications. 8. Weekender - Some interesting new ideas on how to spend your next weekend. 9. Classifieds (no charge) - Buy, sell and swap here. Support our advertisers. 10. Personals - meetings and greetings for our community. 11. Back issues and subscriptions. Catch up on the changes you've missed. SomaChange Publicity Extract Welcome to the future of your body, today! Forget tiresome drugs and dangerous nano, we let you be somebody else whenever you choose. Absolutely no long term side effects and that's guaranteed. Our full body suits are available in a variety of styles and sizes. Just take a look at the catalogue on our web site and you'll be amazed at who you could be. Once you're wearing one you'll really believe you are someone else, and you can decide who it's going to be. The state of the art systems in our products will make you into who you've always wanted. You can experiment with your look in perfect safety, no matter how radically different it is from your normal style. All our suits are made with the best possible materials and have a ten-year warranty against damage in normal use. Finance is available to applicants with a suitable credit history. For full details see our web site. SomaChange Head Office Even the most law-abiding person naturally worries when he hears that the Police want to see him. I may not be the most innocent person there is but I haven't done too many bad things, at least recently. I still couldn't help spending a few minutes desperately thinking if I'd done something wrong. I ran through my latest crimes and couldn't think of anything more serious than parking my car in the wrong place. It turned out I hadn't been naughty this time and that they wanted to warn me about something that they'd just heard from their counterparts in the US. My office was rather nice, and that was only the visible portion. I'd taken full advantage of my position as Director of a high tech company to install all sorts of useful toys. There was so much technology hidden in the walls and ceiling that we'd had to put in some extra scaffolding. I've always believed in giving myself an edge. Some of it was very temperamental, the new gesture interface for one was giving me some real problems but I persisted with it. I knew our research teams were getting valuable feedback, even if it did play up a lot and annoy me. We'd actually got a product to market once because someone saw it working in my office. So the people upstairs gave me some leeway, even if the expenses didn't always go down that well. Stacy brought Mr. Dawson in and from the expression on his face I could tell that the police don't quite have the same level of facilities that we do. "Do sit down Detective Inspector." "Thanks," There was a slightly hesitant pause. He handed over his credentials and Stacy checked them out on the computer before leaving the room. I knew she'd be watching and listening, I always asked her to. "That seems to be in order. You have some information for us?" "That's right. We have reason to believe that your organisation has been targeted by a very clever gang for the purposes of industrial espionage." Something about the way he spoke had me reciting, "I was proceeding down the high street in a northerly direction," in my head. I stopped myself and tried to concentrate. "Please wait a moment, I need to call in my security chief." I waved slightly and intoned, "Send Adam in please." "Yes sir," came the voice seemingly from nowhere. A few moments later Adam walked in. He is a fairly small and compact, man in his late twenties; he looks good and obviously stays in shape. I was lucky to hire him; he's done a great job for us, keeping the competition away from our secrets. "Detective inspector, this is Mr. Eaves, he's head of security for our UK operation." "Adam Eaves?" he chuckled slightly. "I bet you get a few jokes about that. You know, working here." He put an odd stress on the word here. I cringed a little. Adam looked puzzled. "No, I haven't heard any new ones for several years at least. It's my real name anyway." "If we can get back to business perhaps?" I said. "Sure! Well like I said, the US authorities have been after this gang for some time. They've pulled off two major jobs successfully and acquired quite a bit of lucrative new technology in the process." "What do we know about them?" "We think there are three of them. They've used the same approach in both previous cases. They infiltrated the company, planted AV and data bugs and broke security. Then they grabbed all the data they could and ran off with it." "Are they violent?" "Not as far as we know, but they're quite ruthless. I don't think they'd worry about hurting people if they had to. There is one other thing, the infiltration aspect. We think they may have access to custom body suits, ones made by your company." "That can't be possible Inspector! The procedures are very strict. We make very few custom suits for known and well-vetted clients. We couldn't take the risk otherwise. The law is pretty clear." "Nevertheless, we have information that this may be the case." "Then it's very serious and we could well be at risk. What do you want us to do?" "Step up security and let us know if anything suspicious happens. We'll be keeping our eyes open as well. We want this lot pretty badly, it will do us a big favour with the Americans if we collar them." "Thanks Inspector, we'll do as you ask." After he had left the three of us conferred. As with all these meetings I dispensed with the act that Stacy just a PA. She's way too smart for that but the ruse has caught out several competitors before now. She has good looks too; some people have compared her to a model or Hollywood actress. She is definitely very lucky with her striking figure, fine features and amazing blonde hair. They're all entirely natural gifts too. This is maybe ironic given our product range. Neither of us has really made any use of our own creations. Maybe we're just a little old fashioned. She loves her boyfriend and I love my job. Yeah, well something like that anyway. "We can't rely on the police really then?" I asked Adam. "No, they mean well but they're short of money and people, and maybe sometimes imagination. We've got our own tricks we can call on." Stacy looked thoughtful, "Do we change all the codes and tip them off or is it more risky not to?" "I think we should change all level one access codes, issue new keys. We'll claim it's just routine." "Sure," she said, "It is roughly the right time for that anyway". "What about this theory of his on the suits?" "I don't see how it can be true, " Adam went on "There are stringent checks imposed on us by the police and our legal department. They're coded into the production procedures, it would be very difficult to get round them." "Could they be bypassed?" "I don't think so but maybe it is possible. I'll do some digging for you." Airport ? Carl The two men were fairly inconspicuous and were carefully managing to keep an eye on their target without being spotted doing so. "Carl, why do you always want to go into these jobs as a woman?" "Keep your voice down! Well because it usually gets me into the right place in an organisation, close to the top, which even in these times are still more likely to be men. Besides it makes me feel good, and when I enjoy myself I relax and give a really good performance." "I've noticed. Right she's checked in. We'll get the next sub-orbital flight in thirty minutes. Cliff will join us tomorrow and set up the gear." "It should be easy. We let her get settled into the hotel. Then we move in overnight. If we're lucky she'll never find out what happened." "I've got my stuff, have you got yours?" "Don't worry about it, it's all in my case. I've been studying her for a couple of weeks. I know her well enough to get through a single day with no trouble." "How come the airport scanners didn't detect the gear?" "The gadgets are all dual purpose, and they're not looking for random electronic gear anyway. We can pick up the drugs when we land, no point risking that on a plane. They'd definitely pick that up." "It's a nice touch pretending to be salesmen for SomaChange." "Which explains my case of 'samples" perfectly, it's a good plan as usual". SomaChange Head Office After we'd finished our other meetings I called in one of our best computer people. Geri was one of those people with what I've heard called 'low body image identification' by people who probably don't understand it at all. What it means in practice is you never know whether Geri or Gerald is going to show up each morning, and it doesn't matter because they both work just as hard and well. I've heard pundits say that this may become more common as people get more control over their appearance in both VR and real life situations. There's no need to stay limited to one appearance anymore and perhaps people who do may be considered strange one day. I can't help wondering if basic human nature will ever change though, mired in greed and fear. I broke off from my gloomy chain of thoughts when I heard the door chime and tried to smile. My smile became real straight away. Today she was Geri and she was wearing one of our latest models. This new body suit made her into one of the latest models. She was testing one from the new collection, our best yet I think. It's always nice to see someone happy in his or her work. "You're a little distracting today. Is that skirt length really in this season?" She smoothed her hair. "I know, this is a little different to my usual working look but it's got to be tested and I got the short straw." "And the short skirt? Well I hate to give you all the tough jobs but here's another one," I explained the problem to her and outlined what I wanted done. "The parameters you've given me make it pretty hard to do but it can be done." "We want to change all level one code keys within the next couple of days." "Days?" She frowned briefly, "Maybe I can do it." "Drop everything else to get this done. On no account tell anyone what I'm asking. The new keys must be the ones you've modified. Nobody else must know what the change is. Nobody at all, and I mean that." "I hate to come over all mercenary but that's going to be 48 hours solid work. What's in it for me?" "Well, the execs will probably crucify me for this but I'll let you keep the suit." She touched her breasts, then crossed her long legs and smiled. "It's done already. I love this hair." She flicked it over and a few ancient circuits in my male body went into overload. "Also I have this for you," I gave her a signed form authorising two weeks extra leave. "As soon as you're finished this job take that suit to the beach and give it a proper testing. I do not want to see you in any of our offices for that two weeks under any circumstances." "Ok, I get the picture. Two weeks holiday for free? Did you just become a caring and considerate employer overnight or is something major going down?" "There might be," I smiled enigmatically. "Fine, I'll get right on it and I'll be on that beach before you know it." I wondered if I was being too paranoid but everything relied on keeping my scheme quiet. This was my edge. I'd have to tell Adam of course so he could factor it in to his plans. Bower Hotel - Central London We had checked into the hotel under false names, woke after a few hours sleep and waited patiently and silently until about five o'clock in the morning. This place was great for us to make a switch; the security was really lacking. Lucky she hadn't gone to one of the more fancy places with up to date systems. They must be skimping on her expenses this trip. Outside her room I took out a small cylinder of sleep inducing gas and attached a long nozzle. I fed the nozzle under the gap in the door and we both took the antidote pills. Then I released the gas, a faint hissing could be heard from inside the room, barely noticeable in the still morning silence. Meanwhile Russ went to work on the lock. It was an old and poor design. He put the gadget Cliff had given him on the door and moved it around until it emitted a very soft beep. He held it there a minute while we waited for the gas to work. Then he pressed a button and the lock sprang open with a quiet click. We left a 'Do Not Disturb' sign hanging and went in. Once in her room I unpacked my things while Russ give her some additional drugs that would keep her quietly sedated for the next 24 hours, while I borrowed her life. I'd brought a copy of one of her outfits with me, that way I wouldn't have to risk coming back to the hotel when we were done. The photographs we'd taken had allowed us to duplicate the jewelry she always wore, along with providing all the parameters we'd needed for the suit. Cliff had also given me a modified camera and recorder, ready to deploy the spy equipment. I looked down at her, sleeping peacefully. She was quite good looking and I started to make some additional plans for how I might spend the evening when I'd finished. I knew I'd need to distract Russ somehow or he'd only complain about it. We waited a couple of hours until it was time for me to start getting ready. I took the suit out of my case and started to run a bath. SomaChange Head Office (Security Section) I could see that Andy was very worried about what he'd been told. I didn't blame him, a professional espionage gang could us do a lot of damage and we had a lot of technology that we didn't want to go missing. Some of it even scared me, mostly tech from our parent company and their military divisions. Then there was the thought that they were using our own gear against us. I had two top-flight people going over everything now to see if it was possible. This was worrying too, not only was it dangerous but could lead to paranoid thinking. Sitting in my office I took out an organisation chart. It wasn't very complex compared to some I've seen, our company wanted to make products not play with red tape. I assumed the bad guys already had access to various low-level details about us including how we were organised. Taking out a marker pen I marked the people with access to top level stuff, whether indirectly or directly. I used a different colour for those with product or research data and those with access to financial or customer data. Then I drew a box round the ones that were marked with both colours and finally a line across the diagram cutting off at the point where level one access stopped. It didn't leave me too many people to cover but enough to cause us a problem. My hunch was that they wouldn't go for the very top but for someone quite close to it that had access to both technical data and customer information. The latter could be sold to our competitors for a hefty sum and they could either keep or sell the tech data. I drew another line across the chart. I picked up the phone and started to give orders to put my plan into action. I hoped it would work. SomaChange Online Catalogue Extract Female -> Unreal People -> Small -> Athletic There are 89 choices available in this section. Please refine your search using the options below and resubmit the form. To see hair and other colour choices please use the selectors under the images. Legal Note: Items in this section are not intended to reflect the likeness of any person. Any such resemblance is purely coincidental. Female -> Real People -> Actresses -> Current Day -> Top 5 Below you see our most popular choices from this section. Make your selection below and submit the form to see more photos, options and pricing. Ordering is secure, quick and easy. 1. Adele Pollinzi 2. Lena McGalliard 3. Carolyn Drabek 4. Leia Lamedica 5. Cynthia Cronin Important Note: Items in this section are not intended for everyday street wear. SomaChange cannot be held responsible for any ill effects. For example injuries caused should over enthusiastic admirers mob the user. Legal Note: All likenesses are fully licensed from their owners and meet all current requirements under the Personal Image and Appearance (Ownership) Act 2023. SomaChange Head Office "Mr Rathbun, Ms. Gebrael from Mod>Style for the interview," came out of the hidden speakers and a panel in the office lit up with some useful additional information on the meeting. "Thanks Stacy, I'll see her now." "Ok." I sat back in my big chair and made a few movements with my hands. The office suite picked them up and various displays activated. The screen switched back to a neutral pattern, and then it became an oil painting. The door opened and Stacy showed in a small dark haired young woman with square and fashionable, glasses. *She's quite attractive,* he thought, and she's smart too, judging from her articles.* She was wearing a short print summer dress and jacket with black shoes and bag. It wasn't quite standard business wear but it looked very good on her and managed to show off both her legs and figure. She looked around and admired the view out of the windows. I guess she didn't realise that one of them wasn't really a window. The window wall was a very good illusion. As well as improving the environment it was a very useful work tool, when used as a display. I made myself concentrate and as I asked her to sit another subtle gesture brought up several screens on his side of the desk. "NanoScan V2.23 Scan commenced. BodyMatch V2.21 Scan commenced." The reassuring words glowed at me out of the corner of my eye. "Hi." I took her hand and made eye contact. She met my gaze directly. "Hello. Thanks for agreeing to this interview." "It's a pleasure, I know your magazine. I read it sometimes, and my PR people are always trying to get our company mentioned in there. I'm sorry that I can't give you more time today." "I understand, with the new collection and everything. Can I record this rather than take notes?" "Within limits. If I say something is off the record then you'll find that your machine stops working." I don't think she believed me when I told her this, but it was perfectly true. She produced a small silver box and placed it down on the table. A red light lit up on the front of it. My gaze strayed from her legs to the display "NanoScan V2.23. Sweeping in progress." "Go ahead" "Ok, first can you describe your job." "I'm director of the London office of SomaChange. As your readers will know we're one of the foremost manufacturers of full body suits, among other things. We're the biggest in the UK but our parent company is a US aerospace firm and there's a great deal of technology transfer goes on with them." "One of?" "We don't mind having competition. Though it's a pretty narrow field as it stands." The display flashed up, "NanoScan: Positive. Analysing." "How did you come to be involved in this industry?" "Most of this is off the record." He made a small wave and the red light on her box went off. She looked very disconcerted, picked up the box and shook it to no effect. "You didn't believe me did you?" He smiled and continued. "It was my son that got me into this job really." He made a gesture and pointed behind him. She turned to see the screen showing a young man in a hospital bed. "He had it pretty bad. Kept saying he didn't know who he was and that he was in pain inside. I didn't know what to do. He started to refuse to leave the house, said it hurt too much to see other people. "That must have been awful." Then I caught him with a knife; he was cutting himself in the arms and crying uncontrollably. I couldn't stand to see it, I'm his father, I wanted him to be happy and I had to put him in hospital to stop him hurting himself any more, that was when we got the diagnosis." "It must have been hard for you." "It was initially a bit of a shock. I admit that I had a lot of selfish thoughts about how it would affect my career and my own life. I felt really strange when he started telling us he maybe should have been a woman but why not? It's not the 20th century." "But not certain?" "No, part of the problem was that he didn't know for sure and neither did the doctors I think he was afraid of admitting it to himself. I had the money so he was fitted out by SomaChange for a trial run, as it were." "And what happened?" "I think she found herself suddenly able to think straight and relax and she never looked back." He waved again and the picture changed to show a rather traditional wedding scene. The bride and groom were holding each other and laughing. "That's..." "Right, nano treatments are getting better all the time but they're still risky, and if it goes wrong then it's all over. She wanted a permanent change; there was roughly an 8% chance of total failure. I sat by her bed all the time until she came out of it. Now she's married and they've filed for adoption. I could be a grandfather soon. It's a hell of a lot better than the alternatives." "Please let me transcribe some of that story, our readers will be very interested." "Your machine is about to record what you can use. It isn't quite what I just said." He looked at her again and she seemed to look very disconcerted. The red light flashed briefly and then came back on. "So you don't mind that your company doesn't offer permanent changes? Your products couldn't have finally helped your son for example?" "No, we offer people the chance to escape from themselves for a while. There are no risks or permanent effects involved." "And you are aware that figures show that over two thirds of body suit users are transgendered people or people who want to experiment with the other sex?" "Yes, but they've had a tough time so far. Why shouldn't they have some fun now technology has caught up with them? I guess your readership has quite a high percentage among them and they buy lots of our products, so be we'd best both be polite." He smiled. "Do you think this is healthy?" "I can show you letters from people, who were never able to socialise properly until they could present themselves differently, mostly men to women I admit. There's no harm in that I would say. We all play out roles every day, at the office or in a relationship, we need to feel comfortable in them." "Did you join the company early on when it was spun off?" "No, I came in fairly late. I've been here about a year. The technology we use is really state of the art. All the suit manufacturers have some other high tech industry background." "And you've had a tough time from some sections of the media and society?" She produced a magazine from her bag and opened it ostentatiously in front of him, leaning towards him at the same time and reaching for her recorder with her other hand. I couldn't help trying to look down her dress. I made myself look at the screen. The display appeared again: "NanoScan: Positive. SpyTech ActiveSensorium deployed. Countering." "Look at this letter we got last month. 'You go against God with your foul depraved behaviour and He will surely strike you down into the pit of eternal fire etc. etc." She yawned. "It goes on a bit and gets even less coherent but the argument seems to be that what you're doing is unnatural and immoral." "Well to start with, and this is personal, I completely reject the idea of a God that enjoys watching people suffer. As for unnatural, what isn't? In the Late Middle Ages it was natural to die of plague. I don't think it's immoral to change your appearance, it's not immoral to dye your hair is it? Really, I think it's the sexual aspect of it that gets these people worked up." "Well we have no problems with alternative sex at Mod>Style. Let me ask you about crime now." "Oh yes, Are we helping criminals avoid detection etc. etc.?" "Yes. Isn't that a worry? You're offering them the ultimate disguise." "To start with about 50 years ago criminals would wear dark glasses and masks to rob somewhere. Nobody said they should shut down people who make sunglasses. Secondly though anybody can wear one of our suits it doesn't meant that anyone can just become someone else in 30 seconds and not be noticed, it takes some skill to be an actor. Thirdly nobody is going to buy a 000 suit to steal from a local shop so that cuts down the field a good bit. Fourthly the technology available to law enforcement is continually improving too and the suits can be detected by the authorities." "So you claim it's not your problem then?" "I think this kind of thing gets overplayed by certain, less responsible, sections of the media. We have good relations with the police, they don't worry about our products." "Do you use the suits yourself?" "Other than product trials no. I've always been happy the way I am and I can't decide whether that makes me lucky or unlucky. Society is a bit more tolerant than it used to be but it can still be pretty painful if you don't fit in." "And you are entirely comfortable with other people using them?" "We sometimes let people find out where they might fit in best. People now have options that have never been available before. It's not surprising if that leads to people choosing new lifestyles. Personally, I welcome the diversity it brings." "Well, that's all the questions I have. Can I take some pictures for the article?" She produced a small camera from her bag. "Sorry no, we'll send you the file photos and the press pack though, you can do something with those." "I bet if I turned this camera on it wouldn't work." She smiled and pushed her hair back. "That's very clever technology. I don't think I've ever seen that before." "We're a technology company." I rose and took her hand. "I look forward to reading your article." When she had left I recalled Stacy to compare notes. "Well?" she asked me. "A very good performance indeed, Not entirely perfect though. A respectable journalist is hardly going to plant spy nano in someone's office. Also the BodyMatch program says there were several 'kinesic incongruities' detected. The score was marginal but I think we can believe it. "So who do we think that really was?" "Someone unfriendly to us. You checked with the magazine?" "She's on an assignment in London, left New York yesterday." "Proving nothing." "No. They could have snatched her here, no risks with flight security." "What are our friends watching through their nano scale spy glasses?" "We have full control of the little devils. We're serving up micro edited highlights of many previous dull days in this office. They've been spliced together and served hot with some very clever real time updates. It's really going to really cost us in computer time." "But the fakery is detectable?" "These people are good, they'll figure it out eventually, but it buys us some time." SomaChange Car Park Out in the car park 'Linda' smiled and phoned her colleagues. "I think they went for it. I've deployed the eyes. You should be getting a feed anytime now." "Any suspicions?" "Not as far as I can tell. I'll write up the article and send it over in a couple of hours. Then you can give her the amnesia shot. Once you disappear and she wakes up with a 'hangover' it should all go according to the plan." "It should work. She'll be a bit confused but she'll probably just file the article, take a pill and keep quiet about it. Nobody suspects anything, we just have to wait and collect the data" "There's something about this one that I don't like though. They have a few tech tricks we haven't seen before. Get Cliff to watch the feed very closely." "Are you coming back now?" "I need to get a few things for my next outing, then I'll be over?" "Okay, see you later." "Bye." He reckoned he had the rest of the evening to spend as a rather attractive woman in perfect safety. A warm glow went through him as he thought about it. She would be out of it until next morning easily. If he was seen by anybody it didn't matter, it might even help the story of how she got so drunk to not remember anything. A spot of shopping was definitely called for, followed by some dancing, unless he could pick someone up and go for a meal first. Let's go to Knightsbridge first; see what new stuff is in the shops. Then we can move on to a club and catch someone's eye. Oh yes, there were some very interesting things, and men, to be sampled in London. He was beautiful today and could take what he wanted of them. It was a real shame he only got to be her for a day, but they always stuck to the plan. It wasn't his fault if he bent it a little in his favour sometimes. Email Received From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Access Keys - Routine Change Priority: High Message-Authentication: Signature Attached - Key Verified This is an important instruction for all those with Level 1 access to company systems. You have all been personally issued with new security keys and all passwords have been changed. From 08:00 tomorrow only the new keys must be used. Any old keys are no longer valid and should be returned to the security team in your building immediately if you still have them. At the same time all UK buildings are to go to high alert state until further notice. If you have any questions as to what this means consult your Corporate Security Manual or talk to your local security team. Let's be vigilant people! Challenge anyone without proper identification. If you see or hear anything suspicious then report it to my office immediately. Adam Eaves Head of UK Security The Warehouse The two of us had met in the place we were using for this operation. It was an old warehouse on the outskirts of the city. The paint was peeling from the walls a little and the general ambience was a little on the gloomy side but it was an ideal place to stay out of sight. When we rented the place the guy was staring at the money all the time. He didn't care about who we were or why we needed the place. The cover story was entirely superfluous. We might just have told him we were going to use it as a hideout, though he'd probably have charged us extra for it, and removed some more lights to make it fit the mood. Cliff pointed at me, accusingly, "I knew it was too easy, they fooled us this time. We should have noticed sooner." "How did they know? My performance was pretty good. The plan went fine as far as I can tell." "I don't know for certain but I think they detected the nano." "Not the suit?" "I don't think so. How could they?" "Well they do make them, maybe they've got a way?" "If they had then they'd have grabbed you on the way in. For all they know you planted a second set of spies that they didn't detect. They wouldn't have taken that risk" "True I suppose. What have we been watching" Cliff went to the terminal and hit a few keys. "This is a sequence from yesterday and one from today." I watched them both. In the first a man at a desk picked up a pen and started writing a document. In the second he picked up a stapler." "So what?" I didn't see what he was getting at. "You will." Another few keys were hit and the first part of the two sequences ran together in slow motion. "It's the same basic video, the pen and ruler are just generated into the scene. It doesn't repeat very often, it's been very cleverly done indeed. The audio is the same and all the document fragments we've scanned are meaningless when you try and fit them together. " "So all the stuff we've collected." "Is all complete junk, yes." "Damn. Tell Russ we're activating phase two." Email Received From: London Police Incident Reporting System To: [email protected] Subject: Stolen Vehicle Report We have received and logged your report concerning the theft of your vehicle. The incident number for your report is 23/Z/N3/5732. If there are any further developments we will contact you immediately. There are currently 7463 active reports of this type in the London area. We regret that we may not have the resources to follow up on every one of them individually. Please contact your insurance company if you have heard nothing from us in 48 hours from now. Thank you, The London Police IR Team - Stacy's Flat Stacy felt good as she hung up the phone, her boyfriend was back in town and she'd see him tonight. It hadn't been easy lately as he'd been traveling on business. He'd not been in London for the past two weeks and she was beginning to feel really keen to get her hands on him again. A chime from the door interrupted her pleasant thoughts; the image that appeared on her screen didn't look familiar. She opened the door. "Yes?" "Good morning. You reported your car stolen yesterday?" "Yes." "Good, well we've recovered it and we need you to come along and make a statement." "Well, I can't really." "Please," he flashed a badge; "It would be very helpful." She allowed herself to be led to the waiting car and got into the back seat. She knew that something wasn't right when she saw the expression on the face of the man sitting there and this was confirmed when he put a needle into her leg. She went out immediately. She awoke in a small and barely furnished room. The two men from the car were waiting for her to come round. One of them checked her pulse and looked in her eyes. "No ill effects, she's coming out of it." "What am I doing here? Someone will be looking for me." "No, you just called in sick to work. You're going to help us steal some big secrets." "Ah! You're the famous 'Gang of Three', bit depleted today? 'Gang of two' sounds a bit silly though." "He's the computer man, he works remotely usually." "Ok, you're the Three Stooges. So now what?" "I take your place for a week or two until we get what we need." "And what happens to me?" "You stay right there. If you don't give us any trouble then you get out of this in one piece and unharmed." "I don't trust you." "We're professionals, we're in this for the money and we don't have to hurt you. You can't identify us anyway; we're wearing suits straight out of your catalogue. We could be anybody." "Suppose I do give you trouble?" "Well we can play rough if you want. This guy here is usually quite laid back but he can get nasty when he wants. He's going to be looking after you so be nice to him." He gave an evil chuckle. "Now, I need a few things from you." He took her necklace, watch and bracelet. "I'll get your clothes a bit later on. Now take off your ring and hand it over." "No! It's mine! It belonged to my Mother. I won't let you have it. I won't!" "Come on young lady. We've done our homework. I don't think your mother is involved with issuing access keys to computers is she?" She removed the ring and handed it over. He smiled triumphantly as he looked at it. Inside she was feeling a mixture of rage and fear. "Maybe they would be able to break the security now and it might be her fault. Damn everything. Why hadn't she suspected something back at the house?" she asked herself. "Now we're going to give you another injection and we're going to ask you a lot of questions. The drug will make sure you answer them nicely. Then you can have a little rest while I get ready. We'll start with some easy ones, like what your boyfriend likes in bed. Then we'll talk about work for a bit." SomaChange Head Office (Security Section) He sat in his office with the boxes that had just been shipped in, deep in thought. Then he packed them away in a cupboard and securely locked it with the key. Then he fastened an additional padlock to the cupboard and set an alarm, coupled to a smoke bomb. "We don't want those falling into the wrong hands now do we?" he told himself. "Any news?" he asked his terminal. "Not so far. Negative reports from all buildings." "Ok, I'm going home now. Call me immediately if something happens." He walked to his car and triggered the lock. Swinging easily into the driving seat he noticed a red light flashing. Damn, a flat tire. As he got out to start changing it the rain started, quickly becoming quite heavy. He sat in the car for a while waiting for it to stop. As was tired he allowed his eyes to close for a while. The phone woke him from his brief nap. "Mr Eaves." "Yes Ellie?" "I couldn't reach you at home." "No, I'm still here." "Mr Rathbun called, he's after any news." "I had a flat tire, I'm running behind. Tell him I'll call later." "Ok, Goodnight." "Bye." The Warehouse The interrogation had taken most of the rest of the day and night and had covered a lot of ground. His head was buzzing slightly from the effects of the memory enhancement drugs he'd taken. Now he was in the body suit and her clothes and he was putting the finishing touches to the look. This was going to be an incredible amount of fun. He looked even better than last time, and he had a willing boyfriend to go with it all tonight. He loved the way her navy skirt suit looked. It was extremely well cut and incredibly smart, the blouse was a white silk wrap under the jacket and the Italian shoes had spike heels. He played with the long hair in front of the mirror, styling it carefully to match her look. Then he grabbed her leather bag and walked through into the other room. He couldn't resist showing himself off to her. "Well, how do I look?" "Not bad, but then I always knew we make good products." "We'll see how good when I sleep with your boyfriend tonight. Hope I don't need to get a refund," he laughed. "You Bastard!" "Got to go now, I have to go to work." He got into her car and drove it to the office, mentally reviewing various things on the way. He was feeling very confident about this one. He left the car in her parking space and walked up to the door, heels clicking. SomaChange was ostentatious enough to still have human receptionists; they were very useful for showing off the latest catalogue as well as being a sign that indicated wealth these days. "Good morning John," she trilled. "Morning Miss," he replied. She waved and swept past him to the elevator and inserted her card. A green light came on. The routine was repeated at the office door and she sat down at the desk, smoothed her short skirt and smiled. Now comes the difficult bit of this operation. She switched on the terminal and inserted her card, then typed the multiple passwords she'd learnt as the challenges came up. A holding screen appeared counting down from twenty seconds. She took her hand and placed it on the desk. The screen went red. Then she pressed down with her ring. The screen briefly flashed green then cleared. "SomaChange Level 1 Access granted." Marvelous! They were in and from here they should be able to get to any other system anywhere in the company. Cliff would then be able to break into anything restricted. She relaxed and started to work out how much time she could allocate to collecting data without anyone noticing. The intercom buzzed. "Stacy, can you come through a minute please?" "Yes sir!" By now he felt totally comfortable and immersed in the role. Sometimes he could identify with it so much that he started to believe he really was the woman he'd replaced. This one was just so much fun; being so pretty and he had a real feeling for her and how she lived. Stacy's Flat After leaving work he'd gone back to her flat and relaxed for a while. He'd managed to collect a large chunk of data for Cliff today. He now faced the delicious prospect that it might take two or three weeks to collect all of it and that meant a lot of fun times were waiting to be had. He hugged himself at the thought. In her bedroom he went through her clothes to find something for the evening. "He's taking me for a meal, then maybe a dance and back to his place or mine. Mine I think tonight." He looked at several dresses and decided against them. The restaurant was reasonably upmarket, need something moderately classy. If only I had time to go shopping. He settled on an outfit and started to get ready. When the door chimed he hadn't quite finished, but he opened the door anyway and let the dress show off his new body to his new boyfriend. Later that night he was lying in bed, feeling the warm presence next to him, his long blonde hair flowing onto the sleeping form next to him. He was still unable to sleep. The information he'd got from her had helped, he knew what they both liked and he thought his acting job had been one of the best ever. He'd made idle chat in the restaurant, kissed and cuddled in the taxi and then there'd been passionate love in the bedroom with nothing the slightest bit out of place. It had been a wonderful evening and the sex had been fantastic. He'd managed to avoid feeling guilty as the guy had pushed himself inside and then he'd just surrendered to it all and enjoyed it. What would the boy have done if he knew he was only screwing his girlfriend's image? Was it being unfaithful to her if he thought it was really she he'd slept with? As he lay there he reflect that he'd never been entirely happy with a life of crime but his childhood had not been good and he'd sort of drifted into it. His parents hadn't treated him that well and sometimes mocked him about his 'sensitive nature'. He'd ended up with some jealousy towards women that at least this allowed him to work out, and they never got really hurt either. He always used this to justify it to himself when the voice of his conscience got too loud. He always managed to bury it somehow, but it always came back again. Have to think about tomorrow now. To start with I'm going to screw this guy again. He briefly considered waking him now for sex and decided against it. Then I can play with her wardrobe and take what I want. It will be hard work not thinking about this chap all day though. He snuggled in closer and caressed him gently on the back, where earlier he'd made a few scratches. The Warehouse He stepped into the room, eyes adjusting to the light. He dropped the handbag on the chair and slipped off the jacket of his expensive black trouser suit. "What are you doing here?" asked Russ "You might have been seen." "There are some things of hers that I need to know, get another shot of the truth drug ready." "This wasn't in the plan." "I know, but I have to know what she does to do her job properly. We didn't know what I'd need." "Ok, but I'm not happy. I want to check with Cliff. You're taking too many risks." "What do you mean?" "I know about your little extra curricular activity the other day?" "What? Oh." "So just keep your mind on the job for once will you?" "Just get the stuff ready first; I'm in a hurry. I have to get back for a meeting, and I've got a date tonight so I need to go shopping." "Carl, you and shopping. It's not natural the way you act." He walked over to his twin, who was sitting tied to a chair and glaring at him. "I hope he's been looking after you. You know you're a lucky woman. Your boyfriend sure knows a few things." The other man sniggered and Stacy looked daggers at them both. The man left the room to get the drugs and returned a few minutes later. He mixed several things together and then filled a syringe. "Here, shall I roll her sleeve up for you?" "Sure," the false Stacy reached out to take it from him and then suddenly grabbed his wrist. "You can if you like," she smiled sweetly at him, "But it isn't for her, it's for you." "What?" She tightened her grip and triggered the special feature in her suit. There was a brief whine of discharging electricity and the man staggered and went limp. She started to tie him up and gave him the injection. When he came round in a few minutes he'd be ready to talk. "Bet you didn't expect that?" "No I didn't, Adam!" "Smart lady!" He produced a small gadget from the bag he'd brought and fastened it to the terminal. "We've got two of them now, the other one, the tech expert, is at the end of a comm. channel somewhere. We think he's in London too, but it doesn't matter anyway. The police will be tracing him and Inspector Dawson will be getting him by the collar very shortly. I think we can say that it's all over." "Did they get anything?" "Nope. I'll explain later, you look like you've been through a lot. Let me get you untied and looked after properly and then I'll get out of this stuff." "Stuff? That's one of my favourite outfits! It cost me a fortune!" SomaChange Head Office Adam helped Stacy into the office and saw her to a chair. She was looking a little shaken and was still suffering some after effects from the various drugs she'd been given by her captors. "I am so glad to see you safe and sound". "Thanks!" He took her hand and smiled at her. "You seem a little tired though. I think you need a holiday after this." "When they got the access key I thought it was all over." "It might have been but we got Geri to fix them with capacitance sensors. We took readings when we fitted you up with them. Body suits are nowhere near an exact match to skin on this, among other things." "So when he turned up as me and used the ring to get into the system." "Adam's alarm panel lit up like a firework display and we plugged him right into the data simulation we'd used before. Then Adam went to your place in the evening, knocked him out and we did another switch. You know the rest." "How did you know it would be me?" "I didn't. I had a several suits made for me of all the likely candidates at crash priority. They're in my office; they can be junked now. It's been an extremely expensive operation though." He looked at the Director expectantly. "It would have been even more expensive if they'd got our secrets, plus we'd all have been unemployed. I'll sign off the budget on this one with a pretty clear conscience. "Great!" "Stacy, I'm giving you two weeks off to recuperate, starting tomorrow. Adam, you've done well again, take a week's holiday too. There's also a reward for the gang, which we'll split, maybe three ways and perhaps even a small bonus for the pair of you? What do you say?" "Great!" they chorused. "Oh by the way, did we check up on the journalist?" "Yes she seems to be fine, she couldn't remember anything though?" "Maybe that's best for her. Make sure she gets a decent story in three months time when we launch the next range will you?" "You're in a considerate mood today. You like her don't you?" "I haven't met her yet have I really? I just feel we should do something for her. I feel responsible somehow. Hell, maybe I will look her up." "Ok. I won't interfere with your philanthropic and entirely altruistic gestures then." Andy gave her a dirty look and she laughed. Flash - London Record Serial #5443 Subject: Three Committed for Espionage Trial You are receiving this email alert as part of your subscription to the London Record newspaper. For details of how to unsubscribe visit your membership page. For the full story, comment and background material visit your personal news centre page. Filter Match: Crime, London, and SomaChange Dateline London, July 23rd. A gang of three people were today remanded for trial at the New Bailey. The three, who cannot currently be named for legal reasons, are alleged to have stolen secrets from several high technology companies in the US and Europe and to have committed several other serious crimes connected to the thefts. Detective Inspector Bill Dawson told us "We are very pleased to have caught this devious gang before they could strike again and we are grateful for the co-operation we have received from SomaChange Systems in this matter. We shall be pressing for the maximum penalties for all three of the gang and we will also consider an extradition request to America." The Police refused to elaborate further on the events leading up to the capture. We expect more details to emerge when the case goes to trial. SomaChange Head Office Once again we were all gathered in Andy's office, I had a report on how the gang had obtained the suits. "It was a pretty clever plan really. To start with custom orders face a lot of checks." "Right, we don't want anybody making a copy of his next door neighbour so he can sleep with their wife, or husband. The major market for these are advertising campaigns, theme parks and theatrical productions." "Production is 100% automated, we use whichever of our factories has spare capacity. So they managed to get some of their programs loaded into our production systems. I guess they used bribery or blackmail for this. Their code would wait for a legitimate custom order, then alert them and they would submit a dummy order from our catalogue." "I think I see where this is going." "Right Stacy, then the software swapped the orders, changing the parameters on the custom jobs to whatever they wanted. Once they'd been produced and shipped to the bad guys, the records were destroyed." "Destroyed?" said Andy, "That's strange." "No it's really very clever. The corruption was flagged up and the data was restored from our central ordering systems, minus all their tampering. Then they cancelled their dummy order and the original one went through to whoever it was placed it." "The ordering and production systems are separate. Seems like that could be it." "Yes Andy." "What about the materials, didn't that show up to the bean counters?" "No Stacy, before the records were destroyed, the suits that had been built were flagged as rejected by QA and accounted for as destroyed. The only discrepancy was for the extra shipping and that was too low an amount to trigger anything on the audit side." "Quite devious. I assume this has all been sorted out." "Of course, we've swept and hardened all our systems. This particular trick won't work again. We have also put in some additional manual approval steps." A short time later I was sitting in my office, feeling relaxed and relieved about the way things had turned out. I was interrupted by Stacy, "I think this is for you." She handed me a card and left the office laughing. It was a postcard from Geri; it sounded like she'd been having a great time on the beach. I read the card and couldn't help laughing too. "I am happy to tell you that the latest model has passed all its tests with flying colours. I can also confirm that it is impervious to the more common household and bedroom stains e.g. chocolate mousse. See you soon, Love Geri. X. P.S. If I am not careful I may shortly be engaged to a lifeguard." I dropped the card into my in tray and wondered if maybe I had been a little too old fashioned in my thinking. I went to our web site and brought up the catalogue. Perhaps a change would do me good as well. The End.