by Erinn Price
It did not concern me, that they would likely bug the place and have cameras placed. As long as they thought they controlled me and my actions, they would not watch me too closely. It would allow me to work right under their noses without them being aware of what I was truly doing. Giving them the appearance of control and acting how they wished and expected, I could do as I wanted. Then when I did break away, they will be left without really knowing what happened. I just had to choose when to break away.
I placed another of my trackers on the underlip of the nurse station counter, it should be safe from discovery there. I had placed two of them in my parents’ room, one along the door and two more along the corridor between the room and this station. These trackers would give me an infra-red image of the area, allowing me to see any people in the vicinity. It would enable me to break into the room later without being detected. I just had to time it for when there were no people around to see or hear me. I would not be able to get my parents out, but I needed their blood to mix with mine. It would allow my nanos to integrate with them and for me to be able to monitor them. I could not get their blood without the nurses and doctors noticing, that was why I would need to break in later. Once my nano system integrated with them, through their blood, I would be able to introduce my nanos into my parents’ bodies and still have control over the nanos. I could program and reprogram them as I wished. It would allow me to monitor my parents’ conditions, make adjustments and treat them if there were any problems.
I left the hospital and made my way to a restaurant, I had seen earlier. I was aware of being followed, but as this fell in with my plans, I did not mind. The restaurant had an exposed internet connection through its online-booking system, which I would be able to exploit. I allowed my nanos to overlay the restaurant’s connection to my left eye. This allowed me to see the interface with my left eye, while keeping my right eye open for looking at the menu. I looked over the menu, making my selection for a late lunch while I hacked into the restaurant’s connection. Once I was in and my actions masked behind the restaurant, I accessed the public transit information and looked at the timetables for buses, trains, barges, express shuttles to and from the Castle area. Tomorrow, I would need to get my escape routes in place, so my break-in would need to happen the next day. I wanted to integrate my parents into my system, as soon as possible. I worried about what they were doing to my parents and the long-lasting effect it would have on them. The sooner I got to them and was able to stabilise and support them, the better. I ordered steak and chips with a cold drink, when the waiter asked me. I also booked various transport tickets using fake names. Depending on the night and what happened, would decide which transport method I used. I booked all available methods for the time period I was looking at to break into the hospital. I also booked various times for getting back to the castle. I did not know how long I would take at the hospital, so I needed to have various times available to use to get back. Using my nanos to fabricate a fake ID would not be a problem and I would only need to fabricate the ID for the tickets and transport I ended up using. I had brought a lot of material with me, for my nanos to use to make whatever I needed. The majority of the items in my luggage were made from reusable components. My nanos could break them down into base components and then reform them into the objects I specified. I finished booking my transport, then called up information on the area. The Netherlands or Belgium would be my escape route. I felt it would be safer to head for one of those countries, than to leave for the US from Germany. They could watch all the international travel from Germany, but covering Belgium and Netherlands as well, might stretch them too thin. I stored all the information on routes and transport in those countries, for future possible use. By doing it now, it would save time, I might not have in the future. Once it was needed I could call it up and use it, but for now it would not help making any plans. I would have to play things out and use the information accordingly. If I did not get caught breaking into the hospital, I did not have to do anything. The plans I was making now were for in case I did get caught and needed to get away in a hurry.
As my meal arrived and I started eating it, I sent a message to ArcCorp informing them of my concerns. I had no definite proof, apart from my feelings and the inconsistencies at the hospital. I knew this would not concern ArcCorp, they knew me and trusted me. Just on my feelings they would act and ensure Alexis safety and be on standby for me. I knew they would also be able to rescue my parents if, and when that became necessary. With Alexis and my parents taken care of, I knew I could play the game planned for me with confidence. Whatever they wanted from me, I could go all out and not be worried they could use my family against me.
With that done, I was able to enjoy my meal and relax. I knew the hospital would contact me with the arrangements for my accommodation at the cabins near Eltz Castle. For now, there was nothing else I could do. Tomorrow, I would put the final touches in place for my break-in the next day. I was confident that I would be staying at the cabins tomorrow night. The people behind all this would ensure that, so that they felt they ‘controlled’ me and where I stayed.
Chapter 2
The nurse phoned me earlier to let me know that she had managed to book me a cabin on Eltz Castle grounds for the week. She had even managed to arrange for someone to fetch my luggage from my current hotel, so I could begin my ‘sightseeing early’, without having to worry about my luggage. I knew it was so that they could search my luggage, but considering they knew exactly where I would be staying, they would be able to do so anytime. I might as well make use of their ‘kindness’ while I could. The items in my luggage looked like any normal items and all functioned like they were meant to. That was the beauty of the compounds and nano technology I used. The items could be broken down into base components and then reformed into whatever I needed. Obviously, I just had to have enough of the base materials. I could not make a car out of components from a hairdryer. The hairdryer components would not have enough base material to do that. I had given her my hotel details as there had been no reason not to. Any game required you to sometimes give a little to set things up to win in the end.
I had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and gathered some of the brochures in the lobby. I might as well ‘play’ the tourist, to the hilt. I was not sure yet if they would bother to follow me today, seeing as they knew where I was heading, but just in case I needed to act how they expected. Having the brochures would not hurt and it was amazing how much relevant information they sometimes contained. I wanted to investigate areas and destinations in the opposite direction of my planned one. It did not make sense to just have one escape route planned. My limited time, support and resources, meant that I had to concentrate on one plan, but I could still put limited contingencies in play, just in case. Luckily, there were a few museums and old churches for me to visit. With my families’ history in archaeology and history, it would not seem weird for me to visit these places as part of my ‘tourist’ cover.
My grandfather had been an archaeologist and my grandmother a naturalist. They had met when my grandmother led the group protesting the planned excavation of a site where ancient ruins had been found. My grandfather was leader of the group wanting to excavate. After much fighting, my grandfather had been able to show my grandmother that they would not disturb the beauty of the site, instead the ruins they unearthed and subsequent findings inside, had led to the site being labelled a Historical area. This ensured the protection of the surrounding area from any development, which was perfect for my grandmother. My grandfather’s methods were also light impact and did not make use of heavy machinery which would damage the area. Instead, he and his team did the painstaking work manually. The ruins they uncovered added to the beauty of the area and the site was now a controlled tourist attraction. This meant that it was not overrun and destroyed by tourists, but payment for the tours helped preserve and protect the site. My father was a scientist, specializing in new technology and my mother was a historian
. My mother specialized in ancient languages and uncovering new facts concerning past technology and science. My mother studied past civilizations’ architecture, their medicines and their sciences. My father developed new materials, components and items for the advancement of humanity. Currently, I knew he was working on improving materials to strengthen them and allow them to withstand tremendous force and strain. I did not know what for, yet.
My sightseeing today would be in an easterly direction. I wanted to drop some beacons that could act as decoys when I needed them. My escape route was via Eltz Castle and then Belgium to the west. I activated my nanites through thought, I converted two tubes of lipstick specifically for this. As I walked to the first church, I reconfigured my lipsticks into small round disk shapes. I managed to make eight NNDs from the lipsticks, which would be enough. For now, they were plain black disks, but as I placed them, I would reconfigure them to camouflage better. They needed to be slightly larger as I wanted to have the ability to reconfigure them into mini cameras. If I was followed, I wanted to capture images of the people hunting me. As I entered the church I placed two disks against the wall. Immediately they changed to the colour and texture of the church surface. Having seen this church had a spire, I wanted to use one NND as a signal booster and receiver, it would amplify the signals from the other disks I placed, giving me better pictures and range. I ordered one disk to move to the top of the spire and the other to move to halfway up the church tower. The position of the second disk would allow it to move around without being noticed and this way it could cover 360 degrees.
I entered the church and fell in with one of the tour groups, listening to the construction of the church and how as it had been one of the rebel safe points. It was one of the few churches that had not been destroyed during the rebel uprising. Most of the other churches had been destroyed as the old government had controlled most of the churches and used them to spread their control over the population. The tour was interesting and gave me a bigger picture of the history of the area I was in. I had never really been able to study history, concentrating more on sciences and biology, so my historical knowledge was lacking. Even though I was interested in history, I had never been able to indulge that interest.
I had mapped my tour so that I could roughly place NNDs on historical buildings about one-hour walking distance from each other. Cameras and cell phones were not allowed to be used in these buildings, one for the safety of the paintings and the other for security reasons. This would allow my disks to hack into the security systems easier, as there would be no other signals interfering. I did not worry about my nanos being detected. Technology to detect my nanos, did not exist, but even so I was still careful.
After placing the fifth disk I stopped for lunch. I found a cute little café that had no internet access, which was perfect for me. It meant fewer signals to sort through. Working along the link of the disks I had placed I found the one I had placed on the nurses’ station in the hospital. I had set this one to record any conversations near it. Accessing the recording, I set search parameters pertaining to me. The network would search the recordings for any mention of me or my parents, it would be a rough search and the result may have nothing to do with me or my parents but narrowing the search in this manner meant I did not have to listen to hours of recordings. As I waited, I ordered a light lunch and took out some of the brochures I had picked up.
The only result my search returned was from 10 minutes earlier. I sent the recording of the conversation to my phone. Accessing my phone messages, I listened to the conversation.
“Do I have time to go to lunch?” a female asked, I did not recognise the voice.
“Yes, Gary reported that Morgan was in a café and has just ordered lunch. It will take at least an hour for her to get back here after she has eaten.” I recognised this as the nurse who had told me about Eltz Castle.
“Can I get you anything Adele?” The other woman asked, I now knew the nurses’ name was Adele.
“A chicken salad and soda please.” Adele replied.
I ended the recording and put my phone back in my bag. I had not realised they were following me today, stupid of me. I should have known they would. I activated my interface over my left eye. Reconnecting to my nano network, I activated the information gathered by the disks in the hospital. I searched for any incoming signals, around the time the nurse would have been informed about me stopping for lunch. As I had a time frame I could narrow the search to just the time it would have been. I quickly found the incoming signal. Since I had not been attuned to that frequency I could not hear what was said by Gary, but I now had the signal information for those following me. The signal was coded and buried within a cell tower signal. It was very sophisticated and if not for my advanced technology I never would have found it and been able to decode and trace it. To anyone else, even those specifically looking for the signal, it would just sound like white noise. This meant that along with apparently having control of a hospital and who knew what else, the people behind all this had access to advanced technology. Thankfully, it was not as advanced as mine, but it was still way above the current level of technology in public circulation. I knew they were not government or in any way associated with the law, so they had to be some underground group. Whatever happened, I could not leave my parents in their hands, but above that I could not let them get hold of any of my technology. Seeing their technology, I now believed their aim was to obtain my technology. Since no one knew of the capabilities of my nanos, they had to be after one of my other inventions or advancements. I just needed to figure out which.
The signal also had a tracer program imbedded into it, which might come in handy in the future. Not wanting to use the tracer system, I simply followed the signal frequency to its source. The man following me was a tall, muscular man. He was dressed casually and looked very relaxed. I watched him for a bit, having had the NND I had placed across the street from the café reconfigure into a camera. He was highly trained, was my conclusion. Somehow, he was able to blend in with his surroundings and become unnoticeable. He was not invisible, but one did not notice him. Your eye would pass over him. I knew this because it had happened to me earlier, now that I was looking at him through a camera and was concentrating on him I noticed him. He was sitting three tables away from me, but till then I had not seen him, even though I had been looking around and taking note of my surroundings. I had my nanos map the man’s system and then accessed one of the disks left in my handbag. While I ate, my new disk made its way to the man. If anyone looked and saw the disk, they would think it was a spider. No one saw it as it moved specifically to avoid detection. The disk adhered to the sole of the man’s shoe. I gave it a set of further instructions, in case it got out of range of my network. It was set to record conversations as well as being a tracker. When the time came it would be useful to immediately know where he was, without needing to search for him along their system. Pleased with the morning’s work, I finished my lunch and then got up to make my way to the express train system. It would take me forty-five minutes to get back to the hospital from here. I would visit my parents, then make my way towards Eltz Castle. As I wanted to place some more disks along that route, I would play the tourist again. I also needed to find a florist as I wanted to buy a potted plant for my parents’ room. Flowers would not work as they would die and be replaced. A potted plant had a better chance of being ignored and staying in the room. I wanted objects that would stay in the room and be easily replicated. I would scan the plant and ensure that my nanos could replace it. I thought about it for a bit and decided to play it safer. This group was large and they had advanced technology, if things went bad, my parents would need more protection than a plant.
Fortunately for me, there were numerous shops on my route to the hospital from the train station. I managed to buy a huge teddy bear, a plant and a card. Analysing them had shown that all three objects would easily be broken into base components that my nanos could use to rebuild
and then replace the objects. The teddy bear might lose a bit of its size in the conversion, but not to such an extent that it would be noticeable. I would wait till the next day to replace the items. I was concerned that they might test the items. If they did, it would give me a better idea of what they were after. We were at the stage of the game where we were testing each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They had an advantage here, as they knew exactly who I was, while I still did not know who the main player or players were. It meant I had to play a defensive game and protect my assets. The fact that they had my parents was a major disadvantage to me, but for now, it seemed they were not playing that angle. They were likely going to keep my parents as a trump card, or to keep me in line later on. For now, I was letting them lead. I needed to learn more before I did anything that might force them to use my parents. I needed to keep my parents out of the gameplay for as long as possible.
I smiled at Adele as I reached the floor and wing my parents were being kept in. “Thank you again for arranging for me to stay on the Eltz Castle grounds.” I said to the woman.
“No problem, I hope you like it.” Adele answered with a smile. Now that she had me where she had been ordered to place me, she was much more relaxed and natural.
“I will let you know tomorrow. I plan to go there after I have seen my parents, give myself some time to settle in.” I replied.
“Nice bear.” Adele said, indicating the teddy bear I was carrying.
“I think it is more for me than for my parents, I just feel so helpless. I wanted them to have something in their room when they wake up.” I replied.
Adele nodded, “Well, everyone loves teddy bears, I am sure they will appreciate it.”
I smiled at her and walked to my parents’ room. I placed the teddy bear in the chair by my dad’s bed. He was closest to the window and my mother to the door. The plant and card I placed on my dad’s bedside table. There was a camera in the corner and the card and plant would be out of its view. Just an edge of the Teddy bear would be seen. I did not attach any technology to the items yet, I would wait till after they had been tested. With this setup, there was no way they would not test everything I bought into the hospital. I kissed both my parents before leaving the room. I was very aware of the fact that no one had entered the room with me. Likely they were trying to give me the opportunity to do something if I wanted to. I did plan on it, just not now, when they were obviously wanting me to.