Free The Eye of Moloch by Glenn Beck Page B

put the deactivated device into one of his pockets and its battery into another. “First off, you need to be careful what you wish for. Second, there are four l ’s in hillbilly. And third, I imagine the reason your mother is up your backside so often, as you say, is because she damn well needs to be. Every year you get older, the mistakes you can make get bigger, and the consequences get harder to survive.”
    Before the boy could speak Hollis held up a hand to quiet him. “I don’t need to hear a thing you’ve got to say right now, but you need to hear this. That phone’s got a microphone and a camera, so it can see and hear whatever’s around it. It can recognize a face, understand words, and match a voiceprint. It’s got an accelerometer, so it knows when you sit, when you stand, and which way you’re walking. It’s got a GPS receiver that tracks where you are within a five-foot circle. And whether you know it or not, you’ve signed over your permission to strangers to monitor and make a record of all those things every minute of the day. Google’s a quarter-of-a-trillion-dollar company but they give away almost every product they make for free. Don’t you know what they’re selling to make all that money? They’re selling you.
    “You wouldn’t trust your best friend with what that phone knows about you, and yet you trust all those strangers lurking out there in thecloud, who’ve all said time and again that privacy is a relic of the past and a man’s wish for it is a cause for suspicion. If you’re dumb enough to believe that way, then go right on ahead. But you will not imperil me or mine with your foolishness.”
    The boy sat silent, and when he worked himself up to speak again his voice was timid. “Are you going to tell my mom?”
    “No, I’m not. You’re going to tell her, all about it, and then I’ll be having a talk with both of you after dinner. Now get on back home.”
    Hollis turned away to look out across the water.
    When the boy had left him alone Hollis stayed and thought and waited, but no trace of the serenity he’d felt just before would be returning. The unsullied vastness of this sovereign land shrank before his eyes, retreating to within its fragile, unprotected borders. This ranch was an island of peace and personal liberty, he’d allowed himself to think, a place of safety, and maybe even a glimmer of hope for a better future. But an island is another thing he’d failed until then to consider.
    Surrounded.

Chapter 11

    U pon his return to the main farmhouse Hollis stopped by to ask a favor of the fellow he’d been told was in charge of security and technological matters. Then, without identifying a specific offender, he made it clear that some strict remedial instruction should be given to all residents right away, particularly regarding the safe use of electronic communications during this sensitive time.
    On his way to see Molly he took a shortcut through the kitchen. As the evening meal was being prepared the large bright room was a gauntlet of elbows, steaming pans, and jovial clatter, and few took much notice as he edged his way by. Near the swinging doors to the dining room, though, he did catch the eye of Cathy Merrick. By the carefree wink she gave him it seemed she hadn’t yet heard the latest news from her wayward son.
    Hollis arrived at Molly’s room to find her alone, kneeling at the foot of her bed in prayer, hands clasped beneath her chin.
    From his watchtower on an overstuffed easy chair in the corner, the dog whuffed to announce to his mistress that she had a visitor.
    Molly breathed a few more earnest phrases and finished, then turned her head toward the door and got to her feet. “That’s you, isn’t it, Hollis?”
    “It is.” How exactly she’d known that, he didn’t pause right then to wonder.
    She took a small step and beckoned to him with open arms. There was a sweet, brittle smile on her face that seemed burdened underneath by some awful