Chapter 12: Analysis

Catherine Chee was looking at her computer. There were project reports from her team to read and the planned work schedules for the coming week to review. That was the worst of being promoted to a supervisor’s role, she thought, you get to worry about stuff that is of no interest at all.

She tabbed across to one of the apps that sat on her desktop, telling herself that there was always a good reason for looking at tracking data, even if it was only to check that her team hadn’t missed anything.

This was why she had applied for this job, Catherine told herself. She had had a number of difficult relationships in her teenage years with men. Maybe it was because she expected to get her own way in relationships but Catherine was sure it wasn’t just that. Some men had mistaken her impassive looks for those of someone that could be mistreated; some had seen her as exotic, a trophy; some – from her own ethnic background – had thought she should behave as Chinese women traditionally behaved. None had been prepared to accept her on her own terms and none, it seemed, had been prepared to show the fidelity she felt was her right. Too many had strayed and, for Catherine, discovering their straying had been traumatic. That was what had set her to wishing there was some way to know where her man was and that had led her into becoming an expert in communications and location and to her involvement with the app developers for HoneyTrak. It was also what had led her to say “yes”, when she was approached to join the government’s communication analysis team shortly after New Order came to power.