*
Julia's rollout of the COSA experiment to world leaders at the G8 and NATO summits was equally flawless. With the President as the project's unwitting champion, Julia placed him in front of his colleagues to quietly proclaim his excitement over the project and its potential. For those expressing reluctance, Julia prodded the President to remind them the project was 'in test phases,' and the research was required in the name of global security.
On the sidelines, she exerted her own additional words of influence.
"Monsieur le Président," Julia said, waylaying the French President during a dinner party at the G8. "You of all world leaders know this project is a crucial step in the fight against terrorism. Your support will encourage your government and businesses to participate. That's all that's required at this stage, participation."
To the British Prime Minister she emphasized the value of interconnected functions and early alerts about border-crossing hackers.
Both leaders agreed.
At the NATO Summit, smaller countries were eagerly overwhelmed given every major country appeared informed, enthusiastic, and prepared to engage and share in the results of the project's functionality and potential. As Julia told the Baltic and Scandinavian nations, "Participating is straightforward. You will want to learn how well the software works. You do not want to be left behind on technological developments. At the least you will have a front-row seat to the latest innovations and capabilities of advanced surveillance technology. Really in this day and age, you can never be too careful. You should at least know which tools are available in the event of a real fight."
By the time she completed her rounds, all 28 member states unanimously agreed the need to have a global surveillance approach to fight terrorism required an advanced interconnected global technology solution, and all committed their governments to joining the COSA framework within the year, and to participate in the experiment and analysis of the tracking results.
On the final night of the summit, Julia called Marco. "I will see you next at Eglwys Gadeiriol Tyddewi," she said with a hint of humor.
"Where?"
"We are meeting there, in the Library."
"The library? What library?"
"In Eglwys Gadeiriol Tyddewi."
"Those are not even words."
"Don't be such a nativist, get into the spirit of the location."
"Where am I going?"
She laughed. "To St. David's in Wales."
"Wales? And this mysterious unpronounceable place you apparently mentioned?"
"The Cathedral."
"The Cathedral? The library in the Cathedral in St. David's in Wales, sounds like a 'clue-risk' marriage gone wrong. Could there be a more obscure location?"
"Another uninformed comment. St. David's is not obscure at all. It's a perfect place for us to go, but not readily accessible to our potential followers. Bring reading for the haul from Cardiff. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Okay, " Marco reluctantly agreed.
The narrow roads of Wales cut through the low hills and lush green flatlands as thin pencil lines tracing the outlines of clouds floating in the sky. Every twist brought a renewed view of the territory jutting out from the west of England into the Irish Sea. Having snuck away from the NATO Summit's delegates' hotel before sunrise, Julia caught the unobstructed crisp scent of a waking day and failed to doze as planned, as her private car carried her across the length of the territory to the tip of the peninsula and settlement named for the Welsh people's patron saint, David. With Tudor perfection the restaurants, pubs and shops of a village insisting on being called a city, emerged in front of Julia as if stepping out of the postcard describing its medieval beginnings. 'The U.K. never disappoints in its maniacal commitment to the past,' Julia thought, as the car moved on towards the reconstructed stonewalls on the 1,500-year-old cathedral grounds. Despite an ends-of-the-earth location with no rapid transportation options, St. David's dared pilgrims to find its hollowed ground as the satisfying finish to an inconvenient journey. But here, Julia and her GCS group would be lost to the official media covering the summit more than one hundred miles away. Instead her colleagues would be incorporated among the pious and the curious who would assume, like them, the trip had been made only to take account of the historian's and the believer's confidence in its importance. Disembarking on arrival, she made her way to the Cathedral Library, which had been privately closed, and joined her global GCS team ready to celebrate their victory in persuasion.
"Congratulations," were the first words to greet Julia as she shook hands with the meeting participants, those who had been at the G8 or NATO summits did not need a recap of her ability to obtain cooperation for the global rollout of COSA. Within a half hour Marco and all the others arrived for their first and possibly last in-person meeting as GCS.
"What we have achieved around the world is remarkable," Julia stated, addressing the entire group. "You have all done an excellent job. COSA has been established for the long term, for the future we want to see happen. Within the next ten years, Western governments, many businesses, universities, and law enforcement will be connected, and we will be able to see the profiles of millions of citizens. As each year goes by, we will extend the functionality until the foundation is completely unseen. In the future, the average person will use COSA to go about their daily business as if the system's commands were a voice in their head. We should catch every terrorist before he acts. COSA cameras and sensors will always know when danger is near and law enforcement will be immediately alerted. This ability to use technology to change human behavior is the 21st century equivalent to the domestication of animals, the cultivation of crops, building a public school system, inoculations..." She laughed. "You get the point. We have single-handily set-up the best law enforcement tool the world could have, and we accomplished our goal without government interference or public protest. If people ever get to the point of complaining, which I do not believe they will, another story will rapidly be told about how the benefits of this system improved the lives of millions...billions of people. We may not have the opportunity to be publically congratulated for the work we have done, but we will know and celebrate our achievement among ourselves. In places like this remarkable cathedral, surrounded by beauty, arts, culture, spiritual guidance and history...we will celebrate and remind ourselves of the incredible pinnacle we have reached.
I thank you all again for your hard work, cooperation and incredible courage in the service of humankind. We go forward, equally vigilant against our enemies, against those who may seek to disrupt our work, and against those who do not understand the value we are providing by using technology to these ends. We will have to fight them, we will have to be more organized and committed to our project. But we have the advantage of already being implemented, of being in place and ready to be used by the populace. Our enemies, whoever they are, cannot be much more than a misled bunch of anarchists who will haphazardly approach us in disruptive battles. But we will be ready for them. And we will win."
At the conclusion of her words, those in the room ignored the mandated decorum of the scene and jumped to their feet as they broke out in prolonged applause. Julia nodded to each in turn, a smile of contentment and gratification etched on her face as she took the moment to stand unchallenged in a world made accessible through one light touch of a finger to an icon on a screen.