The main panel o Fletcher's screen is blank. The side door into SWINTON’s node is still open. Fletcher pages through it at dizzying speed. Hidden Caller I.D., + Swinton’s living room reappears onscreen, but from the way he is looking expectantly at the camera, it’s clear he is not getting a reciprocal image. More legends are opening in the panel beside Swinton’s apartment. License Real Invasive Mode Options underneath scroll blindingly fast to settle at License: Current Real: No Invasive: 1 Mode: Options AA City Scan Urban Outfitter’s Taxi Driver NY Waterways S, G, & E SpySat1 Watchtower Reverse Directory The Hidden Reverse Caller I.D. legend flashes and disappears. Swinton blinks. SWINTON I’ll be more polite this time. This part of Fletcher's screen windows into a sub-panel with the heading Watchtower Reverse Directory Search . . . FLETCHER I wasn’t slow picking up. I was watching you. The sub-panel shows: Sentinel Reverse Directory Search . . . #902, Xanadu Building, 3025 Park Avenue. SWINTON I hate not having the last word, particularly with machines. It’s the worst of my quirks… Urban Outfitter’s Taxi Driver brightens as Diane selects it. A quick diagram of New York has opened next to Swinton’s window, with his apartment a glowing dot on the waterline. FLETCHER It’s not a quirk, it’s a very typical human reaction. You are like most people. SWINTON That’s another thing humans don’t like to hear. The CityScan icon is flashing. The schematic New York has disappeared, to be replaced with a picture of Swinton's apartment from the outside. His balcony is only a few feet above the water. The point of view seeems to be looking in through a sliding glass balcony door. A legend at the bottom of Fletcher's side panel reads: Image Compiled From: KWXY traffic helicopter (Time left on this license: 76:13) Security cam, Park & 30th Don’s Water Taxi #3324 The time left on the license is ticking down by seconds. SWINTON Someone killed a house of mine. Brutus, send a picture. I’ll pay you a lot to find the murderer. Enough to keep you in licenses and upgrades. Push back the day you become obsolete by six months, or a year. The exterior shot of Swinton’s apartment on Diane’s screen shivers and reforms, slightly altered. The traffic helicopter number has been dropped from the list. The water taxi number is switching rapidly. Fletcher looks at the side panel. It reads: Night Watchman ™ could not be deployed. License has lapsed. Confirm payment renewal? FLETCHER Who was the house? Trojan Horse™ deployed. License: Current Real: No Invasive: 2/3 Mode: Time: 11:54 SWINTON I’d like to explain that in person. Are you willing to meet me? I promise to be better behaved. FLETCHER When and where? SWINTON If you’re worth hiring, that’s for me to know, and you to find out. Swinton kills the commlink connection, and the main panel of Fletcher's screen goes blank. Fletcher is working fast. She expands the canal view of Swinton's apartment. It's dark in there. Swinton's silhouette paces away from the chair where the gecko light is sitting. Fletcher creates another side panel. It reads: Trojan Horse ™ Active …And suddenly there is another interior view of Swinton’s apartment, with full audio, looking out from his vidscreen. Compiled From: monitor camera Compiled From: monitor pickup trans phone Swinton paces through the clutter of plants and sculpture. He opens the doors of a plant-covered liquor cabinet and takes out a bottle with Wormwood on the label. He pours a finger of booze into a shot glass. SWINTON If you’re worth hiring, you should be able to hear me again. If not, no loss. Fletcher's side-panel flares. Fifth Column (Pat. Pend.) deployed. License: Temp Real: No Invasive: 3/4 Mode: Time: 5:00 Swinton drinks as he crosses to the balcony doors. SWINTON I hope I’m not just standing here talking to myself. That would be embarrassing. He closes the drapes. But your agency tells me that you're really, really good. A message appears in the side panel: Warning! You have fewer than 10 minutes of use left from Trojan Horse ™ before your current license expires! To renew your license, contact a Watchtower Intelligence immediately. SWINTON Brutus, shut down all communication functions. The interior view blinks out, and the sound quality gets suddenly worse. Side panel shows: Fifth Column Active License: Temp Real: No Invasive: 3/4 Mode: Security system Fire alarm (IR) trans phone …And the apartment interior is back; this time seen from the security camera over the door. SWINTON Had a fellow tell me once he could listen into my house through my speakers. All run by the house computer, he said. Speaker’s just a membrane that trembles to make noise, doesn’t matter which side the tremble is coming from, he said. Oops—forget about you. Swinton grabs a tea cosy, walks to the door, and drapes it over the security camera. Security Camera drops off the Fifth Column menu, leaving only Fire Alarm (IR). On Fletcher’s screen, Swinton now appears as only a blob of heat. Two much smaller, fainter blobs mark the gecko lights. SWINTON There’s something very intimate about a voice in the darkness, isn’t there? My brother and I never got along very well. We were . . . very different. But sometimes . . . we would lie together in our room after lights-out. In the darkness, he was nothing but a voice. It made it easier to forget the rest. Oops. Trans phone, of course. Hm. Swinton opens a drawer. SWINTON Sleep tight. He switches off the phone, and pitches it in. Silence. trans phone has dropped off the list of audio sources. Diane doubles back to Taxi Driver’s schematic of New York and locates the glowing dot of Swinton's apartment. AA is flashing quickly on the side panel. Taxi Driver disappears beneath: Architect’s Archives Diagram for: Xanadu building, 3025 Park Place. Diane zooms in. She now has a screen diagramming Swinton’s apartment and the ones next to it. FLETCHER Monitors? Blinking X's display the location of monitors in the neighboring apartments. There is one on the wall Swinton shares with a neighbor. Diane drags Fifth Column’s icon onto that monitor as a message flashes on the side panel: You have used this prototype to penetrate multiple targets in a non-training exercise. A notice has been sent to the License Office and Scanner Darkly Corp. Please be a courteous user. FLETCHER Volume: maximum. Ambient noise: an episode of Kill Switch is playing in the background. FLETCHER Filter for original target. The background fades, giving way to Swinton's voice, somewhat muffled and distorted. SWINTON —So the thing to do, really, is to shut down power to the whole apartment. There. Swinton’s apartment is pitch-black, nothing showing but the dim blob of his body in infra-red. SWINTON Still with me, dear? If you are, let’s meet tomorrow morning, say seven A.M. at the Down and Out Cafe. The usual clientele won’t be awake and we should have the place to ourselves. If you show up for the rendezvous, you’ve got the job. Fletcher smiles. The side panel flashes: Warning! You have only one minute remaining on this trial license for Scanner Darkly’s Award-Winning Fifth Column ™ To purchase Fifth Column,™ click here. Fletcher stops smiling. FLETCHER Back to work, doll. You don’t have a choice.