by Erinn Price
“Still no change?” I asked Adele.
“No, but that is not a bad thing. With head injuries it takes time. They are stable and till we know more, as long as they don’t deteriorate, it gives us time. Worse would be to rush into anything and maybe do more damage.” She replied.
I do not know if she was warning me or did not realise what she said pertained to me. I looked at her but could see nothing in her expression.
“Please let me know if there is any change, no matter how small.” I said to her.
“Of course.” Adele replied easily, the moment of before gone. I still was not sure if it had been a warning or not, but I decided to pay more attention to anything Adele said, just in case.
I left the hospital happy that my plans were starting to fall into place. When I made my move, I knew I had done everything I could to be safe and to protect my parents. Now came the fun part, finding out exactly what was going on. The rest of the afternoon went by quickly, as I placed a few more disks along the route from the hospital to Eltz Castle. My escape route would be using the waterways of Germany, then Belgium and then boat to the United Kingdom. It was a slower route, than using express trains and flying, which was why I doubted they would be watching those routes. The floods of thirty years ago had made travel via waterways throughout Europe possible. In some stages the river was manmade, to link up the different rivers. This enabled one to travel throughout Europe via boat. It was popular with tourists and those not in a hurry to get to their destination. Most people used the express trains to get from country to country or flew.
The change from the city to the Castle grounds was startling. It was like stepping back in time. The trees dominated the area and it was green everywhere you looked. Although countries were trying to have more forest areas, it was a hard battle. Even my country was struggling as there simply was not enough housing for everyone displaced to make more park areas. It was why developing new materials and building methods was so crucial. Along with land we were hard-pressed for natural resources. Many of the old materials, like plastic was near impossible to break down into base components for reuse. Nanos were already being used to break down items, but they were nowhere as good as mine. Unfortunately, mine were only as efficient as they were, because of the direct link I had with them. Enabling me to be able to control them with my thoughts. I knew my technology would be a tremendous help to humanity, but they also had the potential to be used to cause unimaginable harm and destruction. I knew the moment I released my technology or made it available to anyone else, the potential of it falling into the wrong hands was guaranteed. The only way I could prevent it, was by not allowing anyone else access to my technology. It tore me up, that possibly the greatest hope for mankind was also its potential destruction. There was no way I could allow anyone access to my technology, even knowing all the good it could do. I had to find another method to help, one that did not have such a terrible capacity of destruction.
Sighing, I turned my thoughts away from the dire state of Earth, currently there was nothing I could do about it. One thing at a time, and for now my parents and this situation needed all my concentration. The bus I was on went all the way to the castle. This road was the only road that led directly to the castle and this the only bus allowed in. Cars had to be parked at the bottom of the pass and were not allowed onto the grounds. One could hike from the parking area, but for those not used to hiking or wanting to get to the castle easily and quickly the bus was the best option. You could also travel by barge to dock right near the castle. You had to reserve a place on the boat way in advance, as it was a very popular trip to and from the castle. Personal boats were not allowed as the riverway was narrow and only one barge could use it at any time. The barge ran back and forth from 6 A.M in the morning to 8 P.M at night. It was about a 45-minute trip from the parking area to the castle using the barge. The bus was about 15 minutes as the road went directly there.
At the castle reception area, which was to the right of the castle entrance path, I was given the rules and regulations. After 9 P.M I was not allowed to wander around, I was only allowed to be in my rented chalet. This was for security and safety. The castle forest was also a wildlife sanctuary and bears and wolves had been repopulated in the area. The castle and areas around the chalets were guarded but wandering around after dark was just asking for something to eat you. Members of the Eltz extended family line were also still living in sections of the castle and these sections were off-limits to tourists. It was fascinating that after all these hundreds of years members of the family still lived in the castle. I got a guard as a guide who showed me the pathway to my chalet, which was towards the back of the property, it was more secluded, but had a stunning view of a river. This was a small river and not very deep or wide. As the chalet was to the west of the castle, it did mean I was on the side I needed to be to use my plan of escaping through Belgium. My chalet was stunning, it was built to look rustic from the outside and to blend in and look more natural in the forest setting. As it was a retreat, there was no tv or internet connection provided. Luckily, with my technology, I was able to connect to a network from anywhere. I did a scan and discovered an audio bug placed on the lamp next to the bed. The rest of the room was clean. Following the tracer signal I saw it was active towards my left and my right. This suggested that both chalets on either side of mine were occupied by people watching me. It would make sneaking out a bit more difficult but not impossible. Sending out any kind of signal from here would be picked up. As I had already let ArcCorp know that I felt something was up, I did not need to send any message out. Also, I did not know any more information. I could access my network, without them being aware. Even though it was a ‘dead’ area, there were still signals going through. It was a simple matter to mimic those signals and allow me to download any information I wanted. I saw there was a message from my sister and opened it.
Surprised laughter escaped me when I read the message. It was an invitation to a coronation ball, for my sister. Somehow, my sister was going to be crowned Queen of the Gnomes in the virtual game ArcOn. How she had managed that in four days I do not know, though I suppose in the virtual world that would be between thirteen and sixteen days. It was still a short time to become a queen, but along with being resourceful, my sister was extremely lucky. Things just always seemed to fall right for her. I wished I could make it to her coronation, if only to tease her. She had not informed me she was a Gnome, but had told me she was a mage, though she had not gone into specifics. I knew there would be an interesting story behind her not only being assigned to the Gnome race, but also how she became queen. I was an Elf mage in the game and would have been on the Elven council if I played more. Between work, my inventing and other hobbies I was not able to spend so much time in the virtual game. ArcOn, was the virtual game designed and run by ArcCorp, I had been trying to get my sister to play it for a long time and it was only due to an injury that she finally began to play. I was dying to reply to her, but I did not want those watching and listening to take any notice of my sister. I was sure she was safe and that ArcCorp would protect her, but I did not want to put that to the test. It did make me wonder what ArcCorp would do, if I had requested help, instead of just informing them that I felt something was wrong. I know they have response teams and some sort of military backing, but I had not looked too deeply into that. That section of ArcCorp was heavily guarded and even with my technology there was a chance that just enquiring about it would alert ArcCorp of what I was doing. Unless it became crucial for me to know what they were hiding, I would let them keep their bigger secrets. Knowing would not have any impact on me currently and I was confident they had their secrets for a reason.
I was still smiling about my sister becoming Queen of the Gnomes when I fell asleep. Knowing that the next day was going to be an important and busy day, I went to sleep early.
Chapter 3
I woke up and just stayed in bed, thinking for a bit. My body was a mixture of n
erves and excitement. I had thought that I was not much like the rest of my family, but this was making me think differently. Alexis thought that she was the odd one out, not following an academic path, but truth be told, she was a lot more like my parents and grandparents than I am. At their cores, they had adventurous spirits, bravery and a care of others. I do not have that adventurers’ spirit, I am more than happy to stay in my safe lab. I do not have a need to explore, see places or try new things. My inventions and work are my passion. I also tended to work better by myself, than with others. I had never been one to socialise and tended not to get on too well with other people. With this situation though, I was beginning to feel that maybe I did have a bit of an adventurous spirit. I just never was motivated before. I had other things more important to me, to occupy myself with.
I carefully considered my luggage, I would need to take some of it with me. I planned as if the worst-case scenario would happen. For tonight, that would be them discovering me somehow and me having to go on the run. If all went according to plan, they would not even know about my nocturnal visit to the hospital. I did not know what I would need and having some backup base materials to reconfigure into whatever items I needed, would be handy. The rest I would have to leave behind, I would just need to ensure that any active nanos were set to self-destruct if discovered. My best option was to reconfigure the items into drones, even here there were often drones flying overhead. The drones belonged to the government and private security forces. They were meant to ensure the safety of the public, but everyone knew they were for spying and controlling. The new government had overthrown the old government in the rebel uprisings and they were now paranoid that people were plotting to overthrow them. The fact that they had made no changes and were still controlling and subjugating their people, made this a strong possibility. The previous government had refused to adopt the mind scan technology and the new leaders had still not adopted it, so the possibility for corruption was still rife in the country. Belgium had, which was why I had planned my escape route in that direction. I took out a lipstick tube filled with nanos directly linked to me. They would reconfigure items into what I desired and become part of my INSL. The tube was handy, as when the nanos self-destructed, all that was left was a black liquid. If time was not an issue the nanos would just go inert and the other nanos would reconfigure them into something else. This would continue till just one nano was left and this one would self-destruct, leaving no trace behind. I separated the nanos into four sections, three would stay behind and convert some of my clothing and shoes into the drones. Once I left, I would first watch to see if any surveillance on my chalet remained. If not, they would convert the items into the drones. If there was, they would form into what would look like rats, leave the chalet and then find an area in the forest to convert into drones. I could leave them as rats, but with drones I would have a better viewpoint and be able to cover a larger area. The fourth section I programmed to give off a heat signature that would be mistaken for me, making them think I was still in the chalet if they checked with an infra-red device.
Though I had everything in place, in case things went wrong, I hoped that my escape plans would not be needed. I still knew nothing of what was going on and wished to learn more before I was forced to go on the run. I knew trying to evade them was going to happen at some stage, but I wanted it to be when I was more informed. Breaking into the hospital, was to ensure my parents’ safety, but I was hoping to do it without the staff realising. Till I knew more, I needed to seem to be exactly where they wanted me to be.
I left the chalet and followed the safety path. The path had railings and emitted a signal, which humans could not hear but it was annoying to animals. Since there was so much wildlife around, the predators tended to stay away, as much easier prey could be had elsewhere. Wolves and bears were occasionally sighted close to the pathways, but to record no visitors had been attacked while using the walkways. A few years ago, some teenagers had been killed but they had gone off into the forest area without a guide or guard. It turned out they had been dared to do it by friends. Such a waste over such a stupid thing. Sometimes I really could not understand people, probably also a reason I was content working in my lab. I knew the bus was scheduled to arrive in thirty minutes, which gave me more than enough time to reach the reception area of the castle and catch it. I did not want to wait two hours for its return if I missed it.
The first thing I did when I got settled on the bus was to check the surveillance on my chalet. All signals were clear. I activated the drone program, with one change. Instead of three drones, I set it to one drone and two wolves. During my walk to the bus I had decided it would be better to only have the one drone and having something on the ground would be more useful and less conspicuous than more drones. I had left the bedroom window open so all three could get out of the chalet, when there was no one near. Having that settled I turned my attention back to my immediate surroundings.
I nearly gave a gasp of surprise, when I saw two signals sitting close to me. I should have expected it, but for some reason I had not. It was obvious that my two followers would be on the same bus as me, considering they only ran every two hours. It was so tempting to turn around and look for them, but that would have been a bit obvious on my side. As it was, I sent a set of nanos to the second signal. I had already tagged the first guy with my nanos the previous day, but not the second one. Now, I could not only track both through their own signals, but through my nano network as well.
As I made my way to the hospital, I checked the signal of those following me the whole way. I was pleased to see I had no gaps in my coverage, the disks I had placed allowed me to track them continuously without any gaps in the signal. From the train station, I stopped at a restaurant I had noticed previously. It advertised a grilled mackerel dish, which was perfect for my plans. Even though I did not like fish much, for today it would have to do. I entered the restaurant and watched as my one follower entered as well, while the other went to the pastry shop across the street. I placed my order and then did a search on the hospital. I wanted to see if any of my NNDs there had recorded anything pertaining to me or my parents. There were three hits, the first one was just my follower letting the nurse know I had left the chalet this morning. The second one was more interesting.
“The parents are not giving up any more information. No matter what we do, we cannot trick them into thinking they are in the real world.” The woman speaking gave a dramatic sigh, “This would have been so much easier if they just co-operated.”
“Did we get anything while they were unaware?” I heard Adele ask.
“Just that the grandfather had given the mother and Morgan matching necklaces, that have something to do with what the Organisation wants.” The first woman replied.
“Nothing on the diary?” Adele asked, “And what do the necklaces have to do with anything? I could hear what sounded like a desk drawer being opened and then. “It does not look like anything special.”
“It isn’t as far as we can tell. All tests on it showed nothing out of the ordinary.”
“The second one is the same?” Adele asked.
“We do not know, we searched for it, but she does not appear to have it with her. They are planning to send a team to search her house if we do not get any new information over the next few days.”
This news upset me, because Alexis was at my house. I did not want them anywhere near my sister, I had to prevent them wanting to search my house at all costs and keep them away from Alexis. I would first see if I could dissuade them from their plan. If not, I would have to get ArcCorp directly involved and have them move my sister to a safe location. Which would likely be the ArcCorp main compound, which had housing for employees as well as guests.
“I am starting to wonder if the sister knows anything at all, she has not reacted in any way or done anything. They even tested the items she bought for her parents’ room and it all came back as normal.” The other woman said.
“She seems naïve and unaware, if you ask me. She did not even seem to suspect anything. I do not think she even noticed the inconsistencies the Organisation told us to make obvious.” Adele said, “I think that one lives in her own little world and notices nothing outside of her interest. I have heard these genius types are like that, they think we are beneath them and that whatever they are working on is world changing and more important than anything else.”
“Well, if that is true, she will be easy to control and to make do what we want.”
“Gary and Evan are complaining that they are bored, that it is like babysitting a child. They can walk right next to her and she does not even notice them.” Adele laughed, “Must be a really nice world she lives in, if she is that unaware and unconcerned. They thought she would be a challenge and warned us all to be extra careful and aware, when this mission started.”
“Well, we will see how she reacts when we give her, her parents’ items.”
“Oh, damn it. I left the father’s items in the lab. Let me go fetch them quickly, she would think it odd if we only give her, her mother’s items.” I hear the squeak of a chair being pushed back as Adele speaks.