1????????????Soul Bound
1.2??????????Taking Control
1.2.2????????An Awakening Epiphany
1.2.2.17?????Need to know
Jasic and Cosic were arguing over something at a table outside. Harun was over in a corner, showing something on his phone to Vedad. Daris was playing Alquerque on an antique-looking board against Bahrudin, who was standing proudly behind the bar. Alquerque was an ancient Arabic game, but it had only recently seen a revival so the board was almost certainly a modern copy, despite its beautiful enamel look. With modern fabrication techniques, imitations were usually of higher quality and looked more authentic than the originals did.
She didn’t want that to happen with her. For the role she played online to be seen as more ‘authentically her’ than the personality she presented every day in arlife to her customers. But was her arlife “Nadine” the real her? Wasn’t that too a role she played?
Did “no more masks” mean she had to tell everything to everyone? No, she decided, some types of secret were ok. What she wanted to stop doing was pretending to be a type of person she wasn’t; pretending to feel emotions she wasn’t feeling, or to be weaker than she was because that pandered to the expectations of others. Doing it as a stratagem to mislead an enemy was ok. Doing it with friends as part of a social game where both sides knew the truth and were just having fun was ok. Doing it in ways that gradually ground down her feelings of self-worth, day after day, that wasn’t ok.
Nadine: “Elder Bahrudin, I have some good news, and I would like to have a quiet word with you and Daris in confidence.”
Bahrudin: “Miss Sabanagic, how is your job going? Daris here knows something I think, but he is being very reticent.”
Nadine: “I have been working very hard at it. I don’t know how long it will carry on, but it is starting to pay off. I will tell you a bit more about it in a moment, but the good news is that I am now able to give you the respect and compensation that you are more than due. For it is only because of your noble efforts here that I have been able to make the time for it.”
Nadine: “Elder Bahrudin, I would like to formally offer you a paid position as part-time assistant manager at Kafana Sabanagic, with hours and wages to be agreed if you are amenable to the idea in principle, for at least the next 6 months.”
Bahrudin stroked his moustache thoughtfully and then nodded.
Bahrudin: “It will be good, I think, to be able to tell my wife that I am not just ‘lazing around’ up here. Though have I not earned a measure of relaxation at my time of life? But, like a sword, a man should not remain idle long, lest he go rusty and break in times of real need. I accept your offer in principle and look forward to having a long conversation with you about the details.”
Nadine: “Could you look into training someone up, to take on an afternoon shift? Yesterday, Daris kindly stepped in to help me, but that was an imposition, and I have a feeling that there may be random calls upon my time in the future too.”
Bahrudin gave Daris a measuring glance, to which Daris responded by trying to look capable and reliable.
Bahrudin: “Though it is many decades past, I have not altogether forgotten my years as a master sergeant. I think I can handle a recruit.”
Daris gulped.
Nadine: “I will leave the matter in your hands, then. Now, as to the job I have been working at: I have been using my singing skills in an online game, as a means of publicising a charitable endeavour run by some old friends of mine. We are trying to spread a bit of hope, give people in communities like this one access to some powerful new tools they can use to improve their daily lives.”
Bahrudin: “Miss MacQuarrie is part of this?”
Nadine: “Indeed. But unfortunately there are some vested interests who do not wish little places like ours to get stronger, to voice our opinions effectively and work together with like-minded communities around the world. They’d rather we be passive; subservient; tamed.”
Daris: “That’s why I couldn’t tell you anything, Bahrudin. Ms Sabanagic’s character in the game has become really famous, and Harun recognised her. Ms MacQuarrie became really worried. She explained that those vested interests will try to hurt Ms Sabanagic in arlife, if they find out that she’s the player behind the character. We all swore to her that we’d keep the secret. We’re going to keep our eyes out for strangers and if anyone tries to blow this place up with a bomb, we’re going to fight them.”
Bahrudin: “Daris, you couldn’t hit a barn door with a shotgun, and if anyone wants to blow this place up they’ll use a drone. You’d never even see it coming.” he took a breath and then continued, “But you’re a good man, and a brave one. You did right not to tell me.”
He turned back to Nadine.
Bahrudin: “Do you and the redoubtable Ms MacQuarrie have a plan?”
Nadine: “Security is absolutely not my area of expertise. But I have friends who do know about this sort of stuff, and they tell me that the important thing is information. As long as anyone here who knows the secret doesn’t talk about it online, or over a phone or, really, anywhere near untrusted cameras or electronic devices, I should be fine. If enemies start guessing that I’m in this particular area the only hope is to notice the increased search activity and leave before they narrow it down enough to take action. I’m totally against anyone here picking up a gun and risking getting shot at. It is the information war I need help fighting.”
Bahrudin: “Optimism is a wonderful thing...”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Bahrudin added, after a beat “...for your enemies to have. You can’t afford it.”
Nadine: “You sound just like Wellington. ‘Contingency planning keeps you alive’. ‘Don’t plan for what you expect them to do, plan based upon what they are able to do, and then assume you’re wrong about that too.’ ‘Avoid relying upon luck. Think about what will happen if they are stronger than you expect, smarter than you are, or have an information source inside your organisation. Always plan for the worst’. “
Bahrudin gave a strange smile, like he was hiding his thoughts. “Then perhaps this Wellington and I should have a chat.”
Nadine: “Would you? That would be such a relief to me. Heather can arrange it. Daris, do you know if she’s left for Jasic’s high barn? I have a packed lunch for her.”
Daris: “She left half an hour ago, and she did speak with Jasic. I don’t know where she went.”
Bahrudin: “You didn’t need to know. Ms Sabanagic, if you wish to win an information war, that’s the first thing to remember. ‘Loose lips sink ships’. Never give more information out than you need to, even to your allies. Compartmentalise. When you do need to give out information, give it only to those who need to know it. For example, you could have confirmed directly with Ms MacQuarrie where she was, and then found an excuse to later tell me in private when Daris wasn’t listening, ideally without him even realising there was information he hadn’t been made privy to. It isn’t a case of hurting his feelings, fooling him or not trusting him. It should be your standard practice, and you should do exactly the same to me when there is information Daris needs to know that I don’t need to know.”
Nadine nodded contritely, feeling rather like a recruit herself, then internally swore at herself for falling back into a role. Yes, she didn’t know this stuff, but she hadn’t had cause to know it before. She had nothing to be ashamed of. Would she feel this way if a music teacher had told her something about music composition she had not previously known?
She braced her shoulders, looked Bahrudin directly in the eyes, and said: “Thank you Elder Bahrudin. That is useful advice and I shall do my best to remember it in the future.”
Bahrudin: “Careful organisations often develop coded language or impenetrable jargon, for those cases when it is time critical that a message be passed and splitting a group up can not be done inconspicuously, or in case there’s someone listening in that you are unaware of. For example, if the three of us now agree to use the phrase ‘bird watching’ to refer to Jasic’s high barn, then it would be harder for a hypothetical enemy who had compromised Vedad’s phone and turned it into a listening device, to work out what was going on.”
Vedad, who had been approaching them, arrived at the bar and asked Bahrudin for a refill of his coffee. Bahrudin served him with fine flourish, no sign at all of being rushed and while doing so commented to Nadine:
Bahrudin: “Ms Sabanagic, thank you very much for making a packed lunch for me. If you are ready to take over the bar, I believe I will head off for a spot of bird watching. It is a choice between watching our local golden eagles, or being berated by my wife again.”
Vedad: “Your wife is fiercer, Bahrudin. Go watch the eagles.”
Bahrudin plucked the lunch she’d made for Heather off the counter and departed, and Vedad returned to talking with Harun.
Daris spoke up, admiringly: “That man, he lies like a cheap rug.”
Nadine looked down at the Alquerque board.
Nadine: “It is why he beats you at games, Daris. He doesn’t just read the board well. He reads the players like an open book, while they find it hard to read him.”
<hr>
She spent the next hour serving lunch to passing tourists and other regulars as they dropped by. In the breaks between customers she thought about identity. Balthazar had talked about reminding herself of who she was by re-establishing her connections to the things that help her identify herself. Cook to remind herself of her family’s love? Immerse herself in her local arlife culture, to remind herself of her roots? Sing to remind herself she was really good at at least one thing in life, whether or not others valued it?
Was vessel-Kafana now part of her identity? Did people change their identity as they went through life? If part of her identity depends on others, does that make her a gestalt? How did expert systems cope with copies being spawned off them?
She didn’t have answers, just an endless string of questions. She shook her head. Maybe someone else would have answers. Right now, her time would be better spent sympathising with Jasic about his wife, and learning more about Inspektor Dodik, who was notably venal even in comparison to the other local police officers.
Eventually she handed over to Daris and headed upstairs for her appointment with Wellington.
*flip*
She entered the Burrow to wait for Wellington, and started to update the thread about her local police with the information about Dodik. Then she remembered Bahrudin’s advice. Who actually needed to know? Bulgaria was the one who’d offered to look into it, so perhaps she should just message him.
Damn. What did it mean that Bulgaria had known in advance that the note about Pierrot had been a trap? Had he let her walk into it and end up being tortured by that collar, when he could have prevented it? That wasn’t like the man she’d known when she was a student, but people change. This wasn’t something she could leave unresolved. She needed to talk with him, and the sooner the better, preferably in-game where he couldn’t get away with lying to her. She composed a note:
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To: Bulgaria
From: Kafana
Subject: touching base
Dear Great Uncle Bulgaria,
I was sorry to hear about Tlaloc. Did you know him personally?
I’m going to be online later today, to try to remove the curse from Vittoria, and sing at the wake for Antonio. It might do you good to attend. Also, there’s something I’d like to discuss with you - can you meet me in-game when it ends? My tiara has the details.
On another matter, you offered to look into the activities of my local police. I spoke to one of my regulars whose ex-wife is now married to one Inspektor Dodik. He described him as being “so bent, he makes trombones look straight.” which sounds promising.
Kafana
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Minion: [Kafana, incoming call from Wellington in orglife mode. Do you wish to flip?]
Kafana: {Put me in my standard orglife dress and stage background, please, then yes.}
Minion: [Default noted.]
*flip*