Direct Action - 03 Read Online Free PDF

this place?
    “Okay, now we need to get voice. Please state your full name.”
    “What is all this about?” Deckard asked.
    “We are just gathering your biometrics Mr. Deckard.”
    “You don't already have all this stuff on file somewhere?”
    “We are a private firm, Mr. Deckard. Various entities contract us and we have no access to your military or other service records,” Sarah explained politely. “Can you say your last name please?”
    “Deckard.”
    “First name?”
    Deckard opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted.
    “Never mind. It was recording the entire time and it looks like the system has enough of your vocals on file now.”
    “Great.”
    Biometrics was a game-changing technology that measured various biological characteristics. Fingerprints had been used by law enforcement for years, but today advanced sensors could also measure other unique details from person to person such as the distance between a person's eyeballs, his gait, the shape of his face, conduct voice spectrum analysis, or match DNA samples. The technology could help the government and corporations secure their property by ensuring that only authorized people were given access, but biometrics also carried with it a lot of historical baggage.
    The Nazis had used eugenics, racial hygiene, and other types of junk science to catalog human beings for extermination. Another holocaust, this time in an era of advanced biometrics, would make the extermination of the Jews in Nazi Germany pale by comparison. Big brother was watching, and even professional spies were feeling the heat. In a few years the technology would be so pervasive around the world that it would be impossible for the CIA to plant covert operatives into foreign countries.
    While Sarah continued to work on another camera to record his specifications, Deckard just had to grin and bear it. It was a high-tech cavity search, painless until it wasn't.
    Grabbing a pen and a piece of paper, she wrote something down, folded the paper, and walked towards Deckard with her heels clacking across the floor. She slipped the paper into his shirt pocket and smiled again, her blue eyes showing interest.
    “There is a Greek restaurant not far from here,” she whispered. “I wrote the address down. Meet me there in three hours.”
    “I'll be there.”
    She held the door for him on the way out.
    “See you soon!” she beamed.
    Deckard walked to the elevator wondering what had just happened.

    It was a beautiful sunny day in Washington D.C., but Deckard decided to show some discretion and chose a table in the back of the restaurant rather than sit outside. He had no pressing need to get all spooky, but if Liquid Sky had people watching and assessing him, they would lose respect for him for meeting with Sarah while using sloppy tradecraft.
    He ordered a beer and told the waiter that his friend would be along shortly.
    Taking a sip from his Heineken, he looked up as Sarah slipped into the chair across from him with a sigh. She tossed her hair back and smiled.
    “Hi.”
    “Howzit?”
    He felt like an idiot for reverting back to slang from the place where he was born. Nobody talked like that, including himself.
    “Good,” Sarah said handing him a manila envelope. “I think you are all set.”
    Deckard popped open the envelope and slid a handful of documents into his hand, a blue U.S. passport staring up at him. It was a full identity package, and on short notice too. Flipping open the passport, he noted his picture alongside the name Sebastian Rothrock.
    “Hell of a name,” he commented with a frown.
    Sarah shrugged.
    “Not my decision. Let's get something to eat.”
    Deckard ordered the lamb souvlaki and Sarah had a Greek salad. Before slipping the false identification documents away, he noted the plane ticket. He was already electronically signed in for a flight later that day. He was going to Kabul, Afghanistan.
    They talked while waiting for the food to arrive. Sarah asked a lot of