But, like I keep saying, I really was trying to help. Ive been watching your back … Yours and Beccas …
What do you know about Becca?!
Manga grimaced.
Not as much as Id like. I have a well-placed source close to Sammer, but all I really know is that he and Becca have met a few times. Sammer seems very interested in her, that much is pretty obvious, but I still dont know exactly how she fits into the picture. But right now shes not in any immediate danger, I know that much. Sammer seems totally fixated on you …
Okay, good … HP took a deep breath. Whats the Luttern labyrinth, and whos the Carer? How do they fit into the picture?
W-what?
Come on, Manga, dont act stupid. The flat next to mine, the workshop, the snakes … ?
He fixed his eyes on Manga, looking for the slightest sign of weakness. But he couldnt see any, not a flutter of the eyelids or an involuntary twitch.
I genuinely have no idea what youre talking about, HP …
And you expect me to believe that, just like that? Your credibility isnt particularly high right now, Manga …
Come on, HP, Ive said Im sorry … Even Mangas voice passed the test. Not the slightest tremor …
I dont know everything thats going on – like I said, the Game Master doesnt let anyone else see the whole picture. All Ive got are fragments. Please, tell me about the flat. Everythings connected, one way or another …
HP glared at Manga as he considered what to do.
Okay, so Manga was a liar, but the lies had actually been meant well. And they were old friends … correction: best friends.
Hed always thought of Manga as a bit of a coward, a computer geek, and – more recently – a hen-pecked husband under the thumb of his dragon of a wife. But, even though it hurt to admit it, he had been wrong. Manga was no coward, and had actually shown himself to be a pretty capable guy.
Besides, now that he came to think about it, he had actually suspected Manga from day one – in fact, from the moment he found that bloody phone on the train. So, looking at it one way, he hadnt been completely taken in. He hadnt been totally blind.
But it still made sense to keep some things to himself. Having a slight advantage when it came to information wouldnt hurt at all.
That can wait, he finally said. So, remind me again why I should go along with this idiotic plan?
Sure, no problem. The disappointment in Mangas voice was obvious. Take a look at this.
Manga reached for the table and turned the laptop so HP could see the screen.
Ive made a list of clients who have already begun to store their data down in that bunker. Sit down …
Manga pointed at one of the chairs. He opened an Excel file and started scrolling through the list.
The Highways Agency, the Tax Office, the Police, Customs, three different bio databanks, one of which already has over 500,000 DNA samples in its register. Dental records, the National Population Register, the electoral roll, and a whole load of smaller official bodies. Pretty much all telecom and internet providers signed up before the EU directive was passed, which means that all telephone records, and all IP addresses and text messages are already stored in the Fortress.
Okay, thats more or less what I thought … HP mumbled.
What?
A few weeks ago they replayed all my computer records, as well as all my texts to you and Becca. A little warning, just to let me know they were keeping an eye on me. I couldnt quite work out how they got hold of everything so quickly from so many different sources. But now I get it. All they had to do was press a couple of buttons …
Manga nodded.
Go on … HP waved one hand.
Okay, so youve already worked out the basics, but before too long the big supermarkets will be joining in, followed by pretty much every other company that runs a loyalty card scheme. Theyre all terrified that their information is going to leak, with the ensuing loss of customer confidence. But whats most interesting is probably whats hidden right at the bottom of the bunker …
Hi Ludvig, its Rebecca, sorry to call so early …
Er, no problem. I was awake anyway …
She could tell he was lying, and gave him a few seconds to come round.
So, what can I do for you, Normén? he said, in a slightly less sleepy voice.
I want to come back to work.
Er, okay. That shouldnt be a problem. Call the personnel department after nine oclock and theyll help you. Itll probably take a couple of weeks to sort out …
No, no, I havent got time for all that. I want to come back now, right away. The weddings tomorrow, and you told me yourself that you needed every bodyguard you could get hold of.
Of course, yes. But surely you can see …
He cleared his throat.
Well, as long as this business with your brother is still going on, I cant take you back, no matter how much I might want to. Stigsson would go mad if I so much as suggested it …
Ask!
What?
Call and ask him!
Im not quite with you, Normén … ?
Im asking you to call Stigsson and ask him if its okay for me to return to duty. Please, will you do that, straight away?
There were a few moments of silence.
Sure, he muttered eventually. But I already know what the answers going to be.
Me too, she thought.
The lowest level of the bunker is reserved for one particular client. The whole things top secret …
Manga looked over his shoulder, as if he were worried that someone was listening.
To be honest, I think this particular client is more than just an ordinary customer. It could be that the secret tenant in the lowest level is actually behind the whole PayTag Group. But instead of risking their own valuable brand theyre using PayTag as a front, a windscreen for the insects to smash themselves to death on, while those with the real power are sitting nice and safe in the passenger seat on the other side of the glass.
And who might they be?
Manga shrugged.
Who do you think? Which companies have the most influence within the information-gathering industry? Which ones are constantly designing new services to tempt us into saying what were doing right now, where we are, which search terms we use most often, or even – what were thinking?
HP thought for a moment.
There are plenty of candidates. Search engines, social media sites …
Youre on the right track, young Padwan …
Manga closed the laptop.
Google, Facebook, Twitter and a few more have worked out what were too stupid to realize.
Which is … ?
That information is the new currency. If you can get hold of enough information, in the end everyone will want to do business with you. Just look at Facebooks stock-market valuation. It may be lower than they were expecting, but its still three of four times the value of Ericsson.
But do you know what their assets are, HP? Have a guess! What do you think? Not telecom systems, or years of research, or tens of thousands of patents. What Facebook owns, and what makes it worth all those billions, its very greatest asset, is …
Its users, HP muttered.
Exactly! Or, to be more precise, the information that its users volunteer. Everything gets stored – comments, shares, pictures, games, likes …
Mangas face was starting to go red.
How do you predict the future, HP? By looking back at the past, thats the starting point for any forecaster. The more information you have about the past, the more reliable your predictions for the future will be. Just think …
Manga paused for breath for a moment.
What if the past, everyones past, was stored in one and the same place? State databases, medical records, patterns of consumption, social networking and search engine preferences. All of it in one massive database? All youd have to do is collate the information. Then all you have to do is type in a search word, anything you like, and youd be able to watch the trends. How many people had cancer in a particular year, how many people prefer white cars to blue ones, what age groups are most likely to commit crimes, or look for particular brands, are most active on Twitter, where they live, what music they listen to, what books they read, and what they usually buy in the supermarket on the last Wednesday before payday …
He paused for breath again.
He who controls the past controls the future, Orwell wrote in 1984, and he certainly had a point. Although Id have to say that the PayTag project is even more refined that that …
He paused again, and HP couldnt help leaning closer.
He who controls the future, HP, without any shadow of a doubt … is actually the person who owns the past. And thats exactly what the whole PayTag project is about!
HP lit a cigarette. He deliberately took his time, to give himself a chance to think.
All of this was pretty hard to digest. Besides, it was hardly the first conspiracy theory hed ever heard. Last time it had been Erman going on about the Game, and now it was Manga and PayTag.
But if there was one thing he had learned over the past two years, it was that no theory, no matter how far-fetched it might seem, could be written off entirely. No smoke without fire, at least not where the Game was concerned.
And everything Manga had said fitted in pretty well with the little demonstration he had been given on the computer in the library. Moreover, it also fitted with the little backup plan hed been working on. In fact it actually made it even better …