CONLIN: Does everyone in northern Virginia have a security clearance?
APPLICANT: Yeah, it comes with your Starbucks rewards card.
CONLIN: I figured I had this gig in the bag.
APPLICANT: With all the people they’re hiring, you probably do […] I was tailored access operations at Lackland. Dude, they kept us in a cage. I can’t wait to get into the private sector. All that data they wouldn’t let us touch. Can you believe the numbers they’re throwing around here?
CONLIN: I know. They say anything strange to you?
APPLICANT: “We’re a node on the parallel backbone, sitting on the biggest fiber-optic transit in the world.” 96.8% of the world’s data, the great bit stream from which all else must arise? Right fucking underneath us. Gives me an information throbber.