Mosaic: Room to Surveil

Monochromatic monitors painted the walls. Illuminated in a bizzare grey light, his elderly pores held the red tinge of inflammation from a dull razor. Strapped into the chair in the centre of the room, it would rotate and tilt at a frenetic pace.

Kilometres of cables coalesced to this temple of surveillance and light. Images beamed in from the city. They changed to colour upon the detection of movement, and the chair focused his attention to suspect or anti social behaviour. Adjacent screens would dim to allow focus.

Bounding boxes illustrated the moving figures and particularly interesting ones had dossiers. He had no time to read any of them. A complex mechanism of turntable motor and squeaking brakes moved the chair. Sometimes there was also the smell of warm grease and oil, as the mechanisms slowly succumbed to entropy.

He looked now upon a woman in a business suit. Her black hair was slicked back into a flawless ponytail. No flyaway.. nano strays. She walked along the street, moving further and further out of shot. The resolution of the footage was sharper than reality itself. She walked with a posture that defied her attire. No corporate suit stands that straight. She had a red box. She left the frame, and the motors whirred, turning him many degrees and tilting the chair slightly upward to give him a vision of the woman approaching the camera.

A cosmetic appearance, he thought, as the camera began to track details no one would care about - until they did. Based on the formulation of the minerals in the foundation, using various techniques of spectroscopy, the entire supply chain could be tracked.

Not important for cosmetics, but perhaps important for the weave of material in the roller case She wheeled behind her, held by a manicured hand and chipped nail polish. Chipped. Why?

He pressed a brown button. It set into motion a sequence of events that manifested in changes in the image on the screen. The woman was now accompanied by a dog. The dog was curious, wore a collar, and sniffed at her roller case. It sat down. She looked concerned. He pressed a blue button.

It set into sequence a string of events that manifested in changes on all the other screens. Blue and red lights filled the room. The woman was encircled by enforcement officers. She tried to run. She didn't get far.

There was a knock at the door. His shift was over. The straps holding him into the chair loosened and he rose. His replacement took his place. It was his turn to watchthe screens. He watched as the man he had relieved left the vicinity on the screens.

The woman was guided into the back of a police van. The sirens and flashing lights diminished. The screens went grey again. The new man watched the screens and waited.