ELEVEN

Sheriff Carney leaned back in his office chair, staring at his computer screen. That’s the way his vision was going these days; he couldn’t see anything unless he held it at arm’s length or more.

He’d already enlarged to maximum size the icons that represented file folders, and that didn’t help much either, unless he put on his glasses. But then he’d have to worry about taking them off in a hurry if someone stepped through the door. He wasn’t going to betray the slightest hint of weakness in this town.

Now the fugitive was dead, already taken away by the undertaker. But the Outside agent remained in town, and the search was still on for the girl. If Carney could find the girl, things would get back to normal.

Carney tapped an icon on the screen. He was old enough to know that there’d been a time when people used keyboards to command the computer. Now it was icons only, symbols that represented computer actions or files. Keyboards were useful only for those who could read. Multimedia helped curb the need for literacy, making everything simpler. Just tap the right icon, and information was delivered by sight—moving images or still photos—or by sound. Easy and effective. Complete comprehension, without reading.

Input for computers was delivered the same way. Personal vidpods recorded visual and audio information, if needed. It was just a matter of uploading whatever was in the vidpod on to the computer, or vice versa.

Outside, as Bar Elohim always preached, unlimited computer access could lead to all sorts of evils—sedition and pornography at the top of the list. Inside Appalachia, however, all computers were consistently linked to the government mainframe, and personal computers were personal but not private. Bar Elohim and his representatives effectively monitored and managed the hard-drive content throughout Appalachia. Bar Elohim kept people free from temptation and instead made sure they were linked to the right information, the kind they needed. Before Carney’s time, people who were caught trying to get past the Internet block to access the Web Outside were sent to the factories. Now, cybersecurity was impossible to break; Appalachia was a locked system.

This morning, Carney had logged in to the town’s mainframe, interested in the routine video surveillance that the town’s hard drive stored for five years. Cameras were interspersed through town at strategic locations, ensuring very few blind spots. They deterred crime and made it easier to solve, on the rare occasion it took place.

Carney had been searching the video surveillance for the face of the man whom Dr. Ross had declared dead. Now the man could only be found immortalized in electronic bytes, but it was Carney’s job to find him there too.

The night before, as local law, Carney had been obliged to provide a place for the fugitive. In the process, he had seen the man’s face up close.

Carney’s ability to remember a face was strong, and he knew he’d seen the man before, a day or two before the arrival of Mason Lee and the Outside agent, but he couldn’t place the when and where.

It didn’t matter. In Cumberland Gap, he had the public surveillance cameras to help.

Carney thought through the past week, the places he’d visited. That would winnow down the amount of surveillance video he’d have to review.

Icon by icon, Carney went through different times and locations. He had no sense of impatience. Billy was out of the way, and it would be worth Carney’s effort to confirm the fugitive had been in town and whom he had visited.

Carney wondered when Bar Elohim would make it law that everyone in Appalachia have radio-chip implants. The chips were about the size of a grain of rice and held enough computer information to store the person’s background and medical information, but most importantly, to track them electronically. The mainframe could keep record of every person’s movement over the last year. But Bar Elohim knew, obedient as Appalachians were, that this could spark rebellion, even beyond the actions of the Clan. God’s Word, after all, plainly showed that this would be the mark of the Beast. So the radio chips were restricted to convicted criminals and the children of criminals, the factory kids.

Public surveillance cameras were the next best thing. It took Carney only half an hour to find Jordan. There, in front of the bank, just two afternoons earlier.

Yes, that’s where he had seen that face.

The video showed Carney stepping out of the bank, just as the man walked down the sidewalk. On the video, Carney watched himself quickly appraise the man and the man ducking his head after noticing Carney’s uniform.

Got you.

Now it was easy. Carney could backtrack the man to another surveillance camera and pick up that footage. From that surveillance camera to the previous one. And so on.

Carney reviewed the videos until he found the time and place that the man had stepped into town alone. Then he watched as the fugitive approached the house. Mitch Evans’s house. The livery owner.

Carney rocked his chair in satisfaction. The Outside agent was looking for a girl, and Carney now had an idea where to set the trap if she slipped past them.

If he was the one to catch her, it would be worth it.

The bigger question was why she’d be worth so much.