IoT Noir: Digital Remediation
Kiko-Lyn watches as from the underwater harbor floor a gas bag inflates and pops up two bags: one small on a helium balloon and one large at five meters long with positive buoyancy. The smaller balloon rises up to head height and trails a ladder and rope to a floating bag behind it. Kiko-Lyn has a few of the flock link on the control handle as a flexible chain whip and lashes out to wrap the rope and pull in the balloon.
“I’ll secure the ladder while you pull up the goody bag,” says Kiko-Lyn to Ninan who has joined her. She starts pumping the suction grippers at the end of the ladder, securing it to the concrete pier. She thumbs on a charge and the electro-thermal fiber ladder stiffens. Below a portable dock inflates in a Large U from the near side of the big bag. Ninan hands her the smaller waterproof bag he’s pulled up from the end of the rope. Inside are two wet suits, two remotes, and an Iridium Extreme video sat phone with a push-to-talk tag. Kiko-Lyn holds it out and pushes the connect button.
There is a significant delay while the sat comes into alignment and the connection is answered. That’s anticlimactic, she thinks. Where is the elevator music? As if reading her mind, Ninan looks at Kiko-Lyn. She shrugs and smiles quizzically. “These details,” she waves at all the stuff, “were not included in her drop box message. Just the cache location and the trigger key.”
Ninan looks down at the inflated dock and long, floating bag. He grins, “I have an idea what it is.” He begins to climb down. Just then the sat phone connects.
“Kiko-Lyn. I’ve been so worried since you missed your check-in from the clinic. As you’re calling from this number, you must have activated the contingency plan and gone on the run. Are you OK? Is Ninan with you?” blasts out Rachael.
“Ninan’s here and we are both fine. Getting here was dodgy but we have a clear window for now. Just don’t know for how long. We kept everything non-lethal. There are about a dozen sleepers in the zone behind us. Some will need medical. Rachael, we used the one-time anonymous transaction pin you posted. We are flush with cash, but likely left an image at the ATM.”
“That’s all ok. Greg Bear has this run registered at Interpol as a kidnapping escape and rescue. That may or may not hold under challenge. I’ll have him call in emergency services for your assailants. Upload the evidence videos when you have the transport connected. If you can clear to international waters and make land at a friendly island we can retrieve you without legal interference.”
They are interrupted by an enthusiastic shout from below. “I hear that Ninan has found the present,” says Rachael. “Tell Ninan that Jorge knows all about his current hobby and suggested this exit approach. So Doug Bear arranged this drop hidden with underwater deployment. You came out earlier than expected and it’s barely been in place.”
Kiko-Lyn looks down at the dock on the water. Ninan has pealed back the waterproof bag from a four meter black glass, flattened cigar shape with pointed ends. Laid across the board is a dismounted mast and ruffled sail along with a built-in storage locker and removable center board.
He looks up at her. “It’s a two person Samsung Galaxy Windsurfer Longboard. Full automatics. Navigation suite. Iridium real time data link.”
“I take it you can sail her.”
“Well this is neither a model configured for tricks nor speed like my RS:X. Too big. This is designed for island hopping. Way out of my price range. But it can run overnight with the auto sailing feature.” He begins shipping the mast and fitting in the daggerboard. “This large daggerboard has retractable fins which can be both peddled or run off the solar electric motors. Body is synthetic sapphire over reinforced carbon fiber. The deck is half embedded display and half solar cells. Avanti wing sail with the upper half covered in flexible perovskite solar cells. Carbon-fiber composite mast.” Ninan clips the port and starboard shrouds to aft fittings on the board, leaving the forestay loose until later. Guy wires run from the mast back to fittings toward the rear of the board.
Kiko-Lyn shuffles in the goody bag and tosses down a remote. It flexes into a bracer and he snaps it around his cyber wrist and turns on the windsurfer. After scanning the menu, he selects "ocean harbor" configuration.
As the windsurfer wakes up and deploys Kiko-Lyn flashes on a film clip from the old Waterworld movie. Two sections at mid-rear which have the port and starboard cables attached slide out and deploy as small pontoons, trailing fine mesh net platforms. The platoons begin inflating and their external surface becomes banded stays. The air pump also inflates ridges in the flexible sail to form a stubby, swept-back wing-shaped foil. It is about twice as wide at the base as the tip. The mast rises almost five meters. At the mast top is a round Iridium Pilot antenna hat. The bottom half of the sail has a huge oval transparent window with a clear weave of carbon fiber tubes. Readouts of direction, wind speed, and time flicker across the middle band of flex-display. The bright embedded displays in the board surface wake up and light up the black board with multicolored images. As the connection with Iridium syncs, weather maps of the harbor and surrounds are displayed.
Ninan points down like a kid in a candy store. “Boron nitride graphene lithium-ion gel batteries are full with power for several days. This display is navigation and now shows a satellite weather map overlay. This shows wave height and periodicity – just harbor chop for now. This display is underwater sonar. This is a radar return from a small dish integrated into the top of the mast. Better turn that off.” He taps an app on his remote. “I see wind speed and standing current.” He looks up at Kiko-Lyn. “It has inboard graphene water desalination filters. With sufficient food we can make the Philippine Islands. Clip on your remote bracer and we can monitor each other’s vitals. No getting lost if either of us goes overboard.”
“Fat chance of that if we keep the cling set on our hands and feet.”
