‘You know,’ Fiona said, with an impatient frown. ‘Your personal profile is automatically updated all the time, from surveillance and from your interactions – purchases, interpersonal connections, interactions with official bodies, social services, health, police…’ She waved a hand and repeated, ‘You know.’
‘Yes, I know!’ Hope said. ‘But I haven’t done anything wrong.’
‘Look, Hope,’ said Fiona, ‘like I say, it’s all automatic, and it hasn’t rung any warning bells yet, but I’ve been concerned about you, so I’ve been having a look. Which I’m perfectly entitled to do, by the way. And I have to say that it’s getting very close to the tipping point where social services and child protection would be required to take an interest.’
‘That’s ridiculous!’
‘Would you think it was so ridiculous if I told you that a lot of the negative situations being flagged up come from the police?’
‘The police?’ Hope heard her voice rise incredulously. ‘I haven’t had any encounters with the police.’
‘Oh yes you have, Hope. That letter you dropped into Jack Crow’s house, that brought you to police attention, even if it only wasted a lot of police time. Then you confronted him three weeks ago, at the May Day rally in the park. He was obliged to report that.’
‘Obliged?’ cried Hope, by now outraged. ‘To report me?’
Fiona nodded. ‘Yes, obliged. He uploaded the part of your conversation that took place while he had his glasses on. The word “Naxal” came up, I understand, but let’s leave that aside. He found your whole line of argument disturbing. As if you hadn’t joined the Party for any kind of sincere reason. As if you had an ulterior motive.’
‘Damn right I had an ulterior motive,’ said Hope. ‘I was hoping he would help me with this compulsory-fix business. What’s wrong with that? People join parties to advance their interests, including their bloody business interests if North Islington CLP is anything to go by.’
‘Yes, yes, Hope, I can quite see that. But you have to consider what happens when the police intelligence gets hold of something like that. It raises a little flag, you know? And then the intelligence has to cast its net wider, it has to start looking for other traces of you, using face recognition and tags and so on. And then it starts making connections. Joining dots.’
She slipped her computer out of her breast pocket and laid it on the table. ‘Here, let me show you some of the dots they joined. Just put your glasses on.’
Hope did. The devices linked. She saw a dark background spidered with red lines linking her with Maya, with a woman she didn’t know, with Hugh, Nick, Jack Crow, various sites: ParentsNet, SynBioTech, the health centre; phone and street-camera photos of all these people and locations and more… it just went on and on, the viewpoint zooming and swooping through the web, while Fiona’s murmured voice-over kept up a running commentary.
‘You see, it starts with that disturbance outside the nursery, and all of a sudden you’re part of a flash mob initiated by that woman Maya, who has lots of warning flags against her, nothing actionable but still, not good… You go skipping off with her to a dodgy little place, an unlicensed café no less, where you take off your monitor ring, and later it shows cotinine traces, very bad sign, Hope, as you should know. That links up with the alcohol incident, it adds up, you see. Then there’s the two incidents with your MP, both with some vague terrorism connection, questions raised, nothing more, and then it gets really interesting. This woman here, Geena Fernandez, is picked up and questioned about a terrorism-related offence. She’s already connected to you because she’s shown an interest in your case, she works at SynBioTech, the company that makes the fix, she’s a close friend of Maya’s, and – she visited your husband at work yesterday! So…’
Fiona disconnected Hope’s access to her personal profile. The network swirled away, to be replaced by the normal view through the glasses. Hope found the overlay distracting – right now, still tuned to Fiona’s avatar, it was telling her about all the accomplishments on the health visitor’s CV – so she took them off.
‘… that’s it, that’s what the police and social services databases are quietly thinking about you right now. Nothing strong enough yet to alert a human operative, but definitely moving in that direction. I’m sure there are perfectly innocent explanations for every one of these links and nodes, but…’
Fiona let the word hang, like a virtual link.
‘But nothing!’ Hope said. ‘It’s just ridiculous. Terrorism? Come on.’ She fluttered her hands towards herself. ‘Look at me, sitting here in my pinny! A terrorist in a frilly apron!’
‘I think the correct term for that is “domestic extremist”.’ Fiona paused, for a laugh that didn’t come. ‘Nobody’s going to say you’re a terrorist, Hope. No need to be all dramatic about it. No, the point is that it’s all building up to a profile that doesn’t look like someone capable of providing a safe environment for a child.’
Hope had a flash of fury. She had to press her hands firmly to the table, so as not to slap Fiona across the face. She took a few deep breaths, then sipped now-tepid coffee from the mug, clutching her hands around it. She had to relax her hands a little, so that the mug didn’t shatter.
‘All right,’ she said. ‘I know how these automatic systems work, they’re as mindless as the one that’s doing my job for me today while I get on with the housework. No doubt I’ll have to make some corrections and allowances for it tomorrow. And that’s how it is, you see? All that needs to happen about the profile thing is for someone with a bit of sense, someone who knows me, someone professional, to squash all that nonsense and say I’m a good mother.’
Fiona nodded soberly. ‘Yes, that would certainly weigh in the balance. But you see, once the system raises the problem to the level where it alerts the services, there are procedures in place. Wheels are set in motion. Guidelines are followed. Matters would be quite out of my hands, I’m afraid.’
Hope felt cold all over. ‘You’re saying… they could take Nick away from me?’
‘I’m sorry, Hope, but yes. Best practice might indicate intervention first, investigation later. On a precautionary basis, of course, with no aspersion cast or intended, certainly not by me. I know you’re a good mother.’
‘Well,’ said Hope, trying to keep the exasperation from putting too much steel in her voice, ‘why the heck can’t you say so now, and smack that stupid system back down where it belongs?’
‘There’s the problem,’ said Fiona, sounding genuinely sympathetic. ‘There are no procedures in place for that. All I can do is log my own reports, which are of course part of the profile. The trouble is, they’re part of your profile already. And as you’ve just seen, they haven’t been enough.’
‘Oh God,’ Hope groaned. ‘This is just… oh God.’
She closed her eyes and rested her forehead on her hands. Tears trickled on to her wrists. After a moment she felt Fiona’s hand on her shoulder.
‘There, there, Hope,’ she said. ‘It’s not that bad. It’s not at the danger level yet. I’m just telling you all this because I’m on your side, really I am. And, well… you know the one thing you could do that would clear all that nonsense away, without so much as a word from me. You know what to do, Hope.’
Hope didn’t look up. ‘I know, I know.’
She stood up and blundered towards the work surface by the sink, groped for the roll of paper towels, tore one off and blew her nose and wiped her eyes.