In the Details

Jan smiled, pleased with herself and the job she had done. The schedule she had received that day seemed too much for any one person, but she had done it. She was certain that each job was perfect in every detail.
Mark arrived home from work exhausted. So much so that he didn’t clearly recall how he had gotten to the front door where he was currently turning the key to open it. It didn’t seem odd to him that he never remembered the trip home, because that’s the way it always went. The door opened to a modestly furnished apartment where Mark lived alone. His small work salary afforded him few luxuries and he had no real decorative flair. It could have been anyone’s apartment. He walked in, shut the door and made his way into the apartment.
Jan’s face paled. A snapshot of the kitchen table flashed through her mind. There was a small ring of moisture on it where she had set her water bottle. In the rush to get things done and out before his arrival she had left a trace. Knowing it was to late to do anything about it, she rushed to the observation room to report her mistake. Hoping against all hope that they would go easy on her.
Jan arrived in the observation room to find that the director was already there. She watched the monitors silently with the others as Mark made his way slowly through the apartment. They watched as he loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top button on his shirt. They watched as he removed his sports coat and laid it across the easy chair as he always did. They watched as he made his way into the kitchen and opened the fridge to get a beer. They held their breath as he popped the top, took a sip and set the can on the table. Incredibly, the can covered the ring and Mark had given no indication that he had noticed.
The director turned from the monitor. “A note will be made in both of your records.” With that he left the room. Jan exhaled along with the man who job it was to watch for things like this. That meant he too had missed the trace. She turned to the man and gave a weak smile. He nodded and she left.
Mark had noticed the ring. He had noticed it the moment he had entered the kitchen. He now realized that he was trained to notice these things and it bothered him that he had not noticed so many things, like what had happened to him on the way home from work that day. He should have noticed every person, every car, and every mundane detail and catalogued them. Each thing should have been noticed and reviewed on the journey home, but he could not remember having done so. And so at that moment, when he had noticed the ring, he knew that something had gone horribly wrong. He also knew that he couldn’t do anything to indicate what he had just realized.
That night as Mark lay in bed drifting to sleep, he briefly thought through all of the things he had not been noticing, making notes to himself for the following day. He drifted quickly knowing if he lay awake thinking too long it would be noticed.
It didn’t take long for Mark to begin noticing things the next day. In the shower he noticed the unusual evenness of his tan. At breakfast he noticed the canned bland flavor of this food. He also noticed an odd flavor in the orange juice that he knew should not be there and immediately realized that he was probably being drugged.
At work he realized that once again he had no memory of the journey. He put the realization of the drugging and lack of memory together and began to postulate on the reason why they would want him unconscious for the trip.
The director sat with the rest of the members of the board in a small, featureless room gathered around an unadorned table. “Mark 3710 has shown a slight decline in productivity,” he reported. “We have reason to believe his mind is becoming occupied with details outside of his daily tasks.”
The highest-ranking board member asked for his recommendations.
“I hesitate to suggest a total reprogramming. Action of this sort has caused us to permanently loose production quality in other agents; however, I do believe if we let this go, we continue to see a reduction. I suggest we work to plant a rational explanation for what we believe to be the inconsistency.”
“Have we tried this method before?” another board member asked.
“No. The plan we have devised is simple and straight forward. I suggest we move forward on it immediately before any more time is lost.”
The plan passed. He had been certain that the board would want to know more about the discrepancy. He did not want to have to fire any of the workers involved, but knew that he would have had to if the board had inquired into the matter further. It was hard work; the Marks were trained to notice everything. They had too. How else could they keep everybody safe? The watchers must watch.