Surveillance (• • Correspondence

or • • Correspondence, • Forces)

As we near the end of the 20th century,

surveillance cameras are almost everywhere. Big Brother

watches speeding cars on our freeways, potential criminals in

retail stores and Sleepers everywhere from ATMs to supermarkets.

Where does all the information go? And more

importantly, what happens to all that data? That little red

wire on the back of a camera could be hooked up to just about

anything. By accessing the electronic flow of all this data, an

agent can watch over any area monitored by a video camera.

Obviously, this Procedure is famous with the Watchers, but

just about any member of the Union can make use of it.

Time-Motion Managers often use this Procedure conjunctionally

with Forces 1. By monitoring fluctuations in

local energy, they don't need a video camera. They can often

"hear" or "feel" this data (through nervous system implants,

of course) instead of seeing it. Any room with a telephone

might be accessible (even if the phone is "on the hook") or

any device with a microphone might do the trick.

[Any location with a video camera (or microphone or

telephone...) is fair game for the Surveillance Procedure.

Monitoring a location described vaguely in a mission briefing

requires four successes; as the team learns more about the

target, the number of successes required goes down. If the

team is very familiar with the location, two successes are

sufficient. Alternatively, agents using Surveillance apparatuses

can maintain "line-of-sight" on a building where they

believe a Reality Deviant is at work; two successes would then

be sufficient to monitor what's occurring inside.]