Sweet Melody

She really should have chosen a different target.

A buzz from my watch warned me that my primary phone was moving away from me and, for a moment, I was stunned. The security force normally did a more effective job of keeping thieving riff-raff out of this exclusive private enclave.

But I quickly recovered and within seconds, I had my backup phone out. I tapped a button on it and I felt the micro drone taking off from its compartment in my rucksack. And, on the screen I could observe the little punk who had lifted it and was now fleeing the scene of the crime.

I was going to set off the micro explosive that was built into the thing but then I saw that the thief was just a kid… a girl. She was quite young, probably about fifteen though it was hard to judge because she was quite tall but really skinny. She had dark skin… but probably East African rather than West. So I gave into my better nature and chose not to pepper her hand with shards of shattered glass and plastic.

Instead, I summoned a couple of more serious surveillance drones from their docking station which was up on my apartment terrace. It was only a couple of hundred yards away, most of that straight up. I quickly programmed them to follow her and kicked off a remote, low level wipe on the phone to delete all the data it held. This would also ensure that the system could only be accessed using a low level password. Then I set up a delayed action explosion to be triggered if anyone tried to break into the thing physically.

With that, I headed for my meeting on the DLR… the light railway network that operates in the east of London. I selected a carriage that was protected by an unofficial private security team. It was worth paying their surcharge to avoid any further aggravation.

I run a company that specialises in providing semi-autonomous drone arrays to address security requirements and, today, I had a meeting with the inventory markdown team from a national supermarket chain. We were discussing options for installing a network of drones to monitor their stores in order to detect theft… by either customers or staff. This was a potentially significant development for my company because it would be the first time we would be running drones inside buildings.

I was more than satisfied with the way the meeting went. In addition to using drones for observing customers inside the store… potential thieves would not be able to conceal their activities from mobile observation platforms as they could from fixed… we discussed options for using an AI system in conjunction with facial recognition software to identify potential thieves. We agreed to set up trial configurations in a couple of their local stores.

On that happy note, I returned to my apartment and made myself a celebratory cup of coffee. Then I stepped out onto the terrace to take in the magnificent view which stretches out over one of the royal docks, the river Thames and much of East London. The terrace has a high, glass balustrade so you are even protected from the wind which can be quite uncomfortable up on the twentieth floor.

And, as I enjoyed my drink, I thought back over the last couple of years.

After a stint in the infantry in which I had become very familiar with the use of drones in security applications, I had retired to civvy street where I founded the company. I had managed to hit a sweet spot in the market and, within a couple of years, I was employing almost a dozen people, mostly ex-military. We all worked remotely and I rarely met the other guys in person apart from our ‘quarterly review’ meetings. Here, I was required to provide a ‘state of the union’ address to avoid the tax implications if it became too obvious that the event was just a fine dinner for the boys… and the two girls… with free-flowing beer and wine!

And, the year before, I had felt sufficiently financially secure to buy myself this rather prestigious penthouse apartment.

I was feeling so good about life that I decided to phone Susie. She had an apartment in the same block… not quite as prestigious as mine… slightly lower down and facing away from the dock… and we enjoy a relationship which is probably best described as ‘friends with occasional benefits’.

But, when I reached for my phone, I saw that it was my back up and was reminded of what had happened that morning. So, after arranging to meet Susie for dinner down at La Cantina, I went through to the apartment’s second bedroom which I used as my office. There, I could use the large screen to look at the footage from my surveillance drones and see what my little thief had been up to during the day.

She surprised me by making her way into school after leaving the scene of her crime. It was nearly ten o’clock by the time she arrived but nobody seemed unduly perturbed by her wandering in so late. As far as I could judge, attendance at the school was entirely voluntary with pupils coming and going throughout the day. I suppose that the kids considered that it provided a warm… and relatively safe… alternative to hanging around on the streets.

The surveillance drones I had been using backed off and hovered, swapping out occasionally to recharge, and their sophisticated facial recognition software had no difficulty in picking her up as she left school. She hung around in a park for a while, chatting with friends, and then headed up to a café up on the Barking Road. The place looked distinctly seedy… with handwritten signs in a mixture of English and Arabic. It was certainly not the sort of place that I would have allowed any daughter of mine to visit, particularly as it was starting to get dark!

By hovering low, the drones managed to observe her selling my phone to a guy who appeared to be running a secondhand phone business from a booth at the back.

He handed over a small wad of cash and she left… it was a relief to see that she had managed to get out of the place without being harassed.

I’d have to go along and collect the thing in the morning. I would probably have to pay for it but the fact that I had video footage of the guy in the act of ‘receiving stolen goods’ would probably encourage him to negotiate reasonable terms.

She made a brief visit to a burger chain and then headed home… a flat on the fourth floor of a five story tenement block. It was about a mile and a half from my own place but it seemed to be in a different world… definitely on the wrong side of the tracks and in a much more rundown area.

She had her own key to let herself in but then, I noticed, she didn’t even bother to lock the door behind her. I was distinctly irritated by this and it took me a moment to work out that I was starting to feel slightly protective towards the little thing. Mind you, I had already decided that I was going to be paying the little punk a visit… and the unlocked door would make that much easier.

I was shaken out of my thoughts by a phone call. I was late for my appointment with Jerry, down in the gym. “Sorry!” I said. “Some kid lifted my phone and the alarm didn’t go off on my spare. I’m on my way.”

“Don’t worry!” he replied with a laugh. “You’ll pay! By the time you get down here, I’ll have finished my own workout so I’ll be able to concentrate on you!”

I’d known Jerry since our military days and he was a fitness obsessive. He now worked for my company and, though he wasn’t quite the brain box that some of the guys were, there was nobody in the world I trusted more. Before he had started with me, he had worked as a fitness coach and, if he had decided that I needed an intensive session as a punishment for being late, I was in big trouble!

The gym was down on the bottom floor of the apartment complex with a rather pleasant view out over the dock but, unfortunately, for the next hour, I didn’t really have the chance to enjoy it as Jerry reduced me to what basically amounted to an aching puddle of sweat.

I was putting myself through some final stretches when I became aware that Susie had appeared. She must have worked out where I would be but, just at the moment, she appeared to be enjoying Jerry’s company. He wasn’t satisfied with her technique on the rowing machine… she was going to damage her back.

I vaguely wondered whether I ought to feel jealous about Jerry’s interest in her… I try to keep myself in reasonable shape but I certainly could not deny that he was the much more impressive physical specimen. However, I didn’t really have that sort of relationship with Susie and I just couldn’t summon up those sorts of strong feelings.

As it happened, there was no need for me to worry and Jerry had to hit the road so I stayed with Susie, enjoying a protein recovery shake and giving her encouragement as she completed her own workout.

And, when we had finished and showered off, we went up to La Cantina together, as planned, where we shared a pizza and a couple of glasses of wine.

I told her about the fact my phone had been lifted and she went off on one of her familiar, pre-prepared presentations about how misleading crime statistics were. She had some sort of high-powered rôle in the press department in Downing Street [White House equivalent] so that was what she did for a living. I must admit that I wasn’t really listening but I rather got the impression that she was trying to convince me that I hadn’t really had my phone lifted!

Nonetheless, as was so often the case with Susie, one thing led to another and we found ourselves enjoying the aforementioned benefits.

So it was well worth pretending to listen to her lecture!