Insider X by Dave Buschi Read Free Book Online

they continued to go to banned sites.
    Nothing was happening to them.  No men in grey came to take them away.  They didn’t disappear; here one day, gone the next.  In fact, Na saw the same employees each day.  Nobody went missing.  Not for the first week.  And not even into the second.
    Okay.  None of this was making sense to Na.  Perhaps, this operation was not what she thought.  Maybe it wasn’t a honey trap?  Maybe they weren’t trying to lure English-writing dissidents in order to capture them?
    As she thought about it, there was even the possibility this operation had received permission from The State to do what they were doing.  While that seemed highly unlikely to her, The State had to know what was going on here.  Right?  Wouldn’t they know this was happening with all their ability to monitor Internet traffic?
    They had to be turning a blind eye.  So if they weren’t policing it, they must be okay with it.  Maybe this fit some sort of exception?  Or maybe this operation was owned by someone with connections?
    Her mind went through various possibilities, but none of them clicked.  None of them seemed to explain this operation.  This was all Joe Cheapo to her .   Everything about this setup: the cheapo computers, cheapo fold-up tables, cheapo work space, cheapo compensation for the employees.  When they worked.  Where they worked.  This did not seem to be a state-sanctioned operation.  This reeked black market.
    Like the time they worked.  From 3 AM till 3 PM.  That was unusual.  Maybe that was how this operation kept off the radar?  Maybe the owners of this operation knew the best time to avoid the Internet censors?  Maybe these hours were a “hole” in the Great Firewall?  A time when the censors were relaxed or even turned off?
    She had to test her theory.  There was a notice on the wall, written by bossman.  It was the rules.
    No phones.  No cameras.  No bathroom breakings.  Piss and shating on fifteen-minute break.  Only!  Speak-ing English.  Writing English.  Work!
    The sign would have been funny, particularly the creative spelling and grammar, except those rules weren’t a joke.  One of the poor girls that sat across from Na had trouble one day.  Na noticed the uncomfortable look on the girl’s face.  She was obviously struggling with something.  Two hours later, about an hour to go till break, Na understood what it was.  Everyone understood what it was.  The smell was terrible.  The girl’s shame was horrible to see.
    The girl didn’t want to face bossman, apparently.  She’d chosen what she did, rather than choose the alternative, which would have required asking bossman if she could be excused for a moment.  Na had looked at bossman to see his reaction.  He obviously was smelling what everyone else was smelling.  Na saw him snort, and then she saw him do something he rarely did.  He smiled.
    He was beneath Na’s contempt.  The more she saw, the more she was disgusted by him.  The others feared him; it was obvious.  No one wanted to have to face him in the other room.  Because that was the punishment.  What would happen if rules were broken.
    Na was learning, but she was still rash.  She decided to test out her theory about the “hole”.  Even though bossman said no phones, she smuggled one in one day.  She hid it under her clothes.  While she was pretending to work, she discretely pulled it out under the table.  She had already plugged in a set of key words, and all she had to do was touch her screen to run a search.  She did the same search on her computer.  She compared the two searches.  Nope.  They were different.  No “hole”.  This was something else.
    Na didn’t know how they did it, but somehow the firewalls and government filters didn’t apply in here.  In addition to Facebook, she could access other off-limit sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media platforms she normally couldn’t pull up.
    It was