Prologue 3a/0

[Linda Reed--PCC West Campus CSC <lreed@west.cscwc.pima.edu>]

SAHMD 3A
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  "Maintain," Siller told his agents, but couldn't help 
adding, "and disclose."
  This was a vague term meant to signal his men to 
intercept the suspect and do a bump�and�run on him
to sniff out what it was he was hiding��without alerting
Siller's superior that his orders were being countermanded.

  "The Electronic Privacy Papers." agent Case said, to no
one in particular.
  "What?" Siller asked, perplexed.
  "Documents on the Battle for Privacy in the Age of
Surveillance, by Bruce Schneier and David Banisar,
ISBN: 0�471�12297�1."
  Much to agent Siller's consternation, his superior
continued, "That's what your men are going to discover
he is hiding furtively under those copies of the 'Gun
List' magazines when they disobey my orders and risk
blowing their cover."

  "It's the suspect's form of humor." Justin Case
smiled at his subordinate's discomfort.
  "He's laughing at all the spooks from various
agencies, including yours and mine, who are at the
gun show shadowing the Anthrax Twins, the Samsonite
Nuclear Warrior, and various members of the Loose�Screw
Gun Nut Club."
  Seeing the confused look on agent Siller's face, he
explained further. "The suspect is laughing because
he believes he is carrying the most dangerous weapon
available at the gun show."

  "And he's probably right..." Case said, with a far�
away look in his eyes that sent shivers down agent
Siller's spine.
  Special agent Justin Case took a tattered copy of
a paperback titled, "Paper Prison" out of his inside
jacket pocket, and stared at it��lost in a universe
that belonged far in the past, but which seemed to
be intersecting the present in a manner which bode
nothing but ill for those who continued to live in
both.

  "The future is now..." Justin Case said, in a low
monotone voice that seemed to come from a world beyond
the one in which he and agent Siller were so diligently
pursuing the 'Threat of the Day'.

  "He's carrying a book." the voice came crackling
through Siller's earpiece.
  "Never mind." Siller said, adding, "Maintain."

  "Maintain." Siller repeated inwardly, to himself,�j
crept up his spine and into the lower regions of
his mind as he observed the strange, semi�hypnotic
state that his superior had entered into.
  "Maintain."