Chaos At Christmas – Episode 23
Chaos At Christmas by Ewan Smith
« Previous Post- 1. Chaos At Christmas: Episode 01
- 1. Chaos At Christmas – Episode 23
He shook his head with a sigh. “I don’t know what it is about that man. He’s like a force of nature. I find him impossible to resist.”
“He’s certainly enthusiastic about his technology.”
Lionel frowned. “Talking of which, someone earlier made an odd reference to the infra-red cameras. It was to do with you and Geraint and the sensory garden. Do you have any idea…”
Ferelith hurriedly sat up. “None at all, Dad. Anyway, about the laundry rota…”
As she left Lionel’s office, she resolved to spend the day cracking on with all the items on her To-Do list and to keep well away from any gossip. She couldn’t work out whether she wanted to see Geraint or not. The trouble was that she wasn’t sure what he thought of the silly rumours about what had happened between the two of them in the sensory garden.
It had felt awkward the night before when Holly and Bree were laughing about the whole thing. But neither she nor Geraint had mentioned it when they parted afterwards. Now she didn’t know what she ought to say when they did get together. The whole thing was a mess.
She had adopted the little security room behind reception as her office and, as she made her way there, she felt rather grumpy. It was all Lyle Cranford’s fault, him and his experimental technologies. So she wasn’t best pleased to find him there when she arrived. He was tapping away rapidly at the keyboard of the computer which controlled the security system.
His face lit up. “Ferelith, the very person. I’ve got everything set up here. Let me show you how it works.”
She was baffled. What she wanted was tell Lyle that she had a To-Do list as long as her arm and no time at all to waste on being shown how complicated things worked. But instead, without quite knowing how it had happened, she found herself sitting next to him at the desk while he demonstrated the new system.
“The software is linked into facial recognition data banks all around the world,” he said eagerly. “Because I’m a well-known figure, I’ll automatically be recognised. But the guests and staff at the hotel will have to be logged on as approved people and that will be your job.”
Ferelith blinked.
My job? Hang on a minute. I already have…
There was a ping from the computer and Lyle let out a whoop. “Here we go. The system has identified its first unknown face.”
Ferelith frowned. “But that’s Erik on the front desk.” She didn’t think that he would be best pleased by the image either. He had been caught in mid-sentence and there was a very odd expression on his face, as if he had just swallowed a bee.
“Of course it is,” Lyle smiled. “So you type Erik’s name into that box there and click on ‘Approved’.” Ferelith did as he had instructed. Lyle smiled. “Simple. Now, whenever the system sees Erik, it will recognise him.” There was another ping. “What about that person?”
“It’s Gabrielle, the barista.”
Lyle smiled. “You know what to do.”
“Yes but…”
But Lyle was getting to his feet. “Excellent. The system is up and running.” He rubbed his hands together. “Now for some breakfast. Your kitchen does the most amazing scrambled eggs. I’m becoming obsessed with them. Bye Ferelith. And thanks!”
She looked slack-jawed at his disappearing back. There were so many things that she wanted to say, most of them involving her telling him that already had more than enough on her plate. But it was too late; he was gone. The computer pinged at her and then again. She gazed at the screen with a sour expression.
Ferelith was soon hard at work putting names to the different faces identified by the system. However, she quickly came upon a problem. While she knew the names of the members of staff, it was a different matter when it came to the guests. She recognised most of their faces but, for many of them, she had little idea of their names. And the computer was now pinging at her regularly demanding to have them identified.
She got to her feet in frustration. It was no good; Lyle would have to find someone else to do the job. But as she appeared in the reception area, Holly and Bree spotted her and raced over. “Hi Ferelith,” Bree said eagerly. “Did you sleep well last night?”
Holly grinned. “Did you dream all night about the lovely Geraint?” She clutched her heart and adopted a very silly expression.
Oh Geraint, how I love you,
she sighed plaintively.
“Enough, girls,” Ferelith said, giving them one of her looks. But then an idea came to her. Her eyes narrowed. “Are you doing anything at the moment?”
Holly looked at her suspiciously. “Why do you ask?”
“There’s something you could help me with.”
The two girls took to the work with great enthusiasm. They were fascinated by the idea of the facial recognition system, especially when they learned that it was on their GroupChat phones.
They bombarded Ferelith with questions about it which she was mostly unable to answer. But they did help with identifying the guests. “That’s Auntie Cath with Uncle Stewart…look at Rodney’s face; he looks like a squirrel…that’s my Nana, I’m not sure what her real name is…”
The girls were full of fun and Ferelith found that she was enjoying herself with them. They even stopped teasing her about Geraint when Holly had a sudden thought.
“Let’s see how good the system is at identifying us, Bree,” she said eagerly. She lifted her phone. “Make a face.” Bree twisted her face into a hideous grimace and Holly took a photo. She knew how to upload the image onto the facial recognition system and, within seconds, it had been approved.
The girls fell about laughing. “It recognised you even though you looked like a gargoyle!” Holly hooted. They tried to outwit the system by pulling the most horrible expressions but their faces were recognised each time.
Then all at once Holly became still. She gripped Bree’s arm.
I’ve just had a brilliant idea.
“What that?” Bree asked.
Holly glanced at Ferelith and the corners of her mouth twitched in amusement. There was a wild look in her eyes as she jumped to her feet. “Come on, I’ll tell you outside.”
“Hang on a minute, girls,” Ferelith called. “What are you up to?” But it was too late. They were gone.
In fact, most of the guests had been identified by then. The computer only made the occasional ping and Ferelith was able to get on with her To-Do list. She was designing labels for the presents which Father Christmas would be handing out to guests at the Christmas Eve party. It was vital that no one was missed and she was deep in concentration when the computer surprised her with a different sound, a sort of dong.
She glanced at the screen. The facial recognition system had recognised a face but this time it was someone who wasn’t supposed to be at the Manor. Ferelith gazed at the image in shock. She got to her feet and poked her head round the door.
Erik, is George Clooney staying at the hotel?
His left eyebrow lifted visibly. “Not that I’m aware of, Miss Ferelith. Why?”
“Because according to the new system, he’s in the games room at the moment.” The computer donged again and Ferelith hurried back to it to it. “And so is Halle Berry.”
It didn’t take her long to find out what was going on. Of course, Holly and Bree were responsible. Some of the teenagers had brought along celebrity masks to wear at the Christmas party. The masks were very realistic, too realistic for the fool-proof new facial recognition system which was turning out to be not so fool-proof after all.
