by Erinn Price
The conversation changed to other things then, but I had heard enough. I now knew this had something to do with my grandfather and that they wanted his diary. Also, the necklaces intrigued me, and I wondered what their importance was. My necklace was at home in my jewellery box, but it looked nothing like my mother’s, so I was not sure why they thought they were identical. Mom’s was fancy and beautiful while mine was plain and not suitable to wear with anything I owned. It was something you would expect an Amazon to wear and would fit in with grass skirts and the jungle. It was a combination of wood, bronze metal and iron. There was no pattern to the combination and looked like a mess to me. Mom’s necklace however was a stunning work of art. It was four beautifully carved ebony roses, with ivory and pearl centres. Gold and silver inlays on the leaves made them sparkle. The roses were linked with a gold and silver link chain. There had to be some importance to them and mom wanted me to know it. The information about them being identical had to be to throw the Organisation off track. They must have drugged mom and dad and then put them in a realistic virtual world to try to get information from them, without mom and dad being aware it wasn’t real. Instead mom must have realised from the beginning it was not real and given true information mixed with lies. The true information was to help me and the lies to let me know she was aware and also to mislead the Organisation. Dad would likely have done the same, which was why I needed to get hold of that session. It was likely they recorded it or at least had a transcript of what happened, saved somewhere. I would need to hack into their system, not the basic one linked with the hospital, but the one of the Organisation. It would have a lot more security and be very risky, but if I wanted more information and to see if my parents gave me any more clues, I would have to do it. Chances were high I would be discovered, so it was likely I would need to use my escape route after this was done. I knew the lab was somewhere close, due to Adele’s comment. Hopefully there was a link from the lab system to the Organisation’s computers.
I finished my lunch, thankfully it had not been bad, and I had been able to eat it. While I waited to pay I used some of my nanos to ‘age’ the fish. If they did somehow test the fish, it would match the symptoms I was going to display later. Scombroid poisoning had an onset time of anything from 10 minutes to an hour. Which would match when I was in the hospital and they would see me getting sick, which would give me the perfect cover. Food poisoning was also one of those illnesses nanobots were not designed to cure, so me being ill with it for a day or two would not be unexpected.
I made my way to the hospital and straight to Adele’s station. Adele looked up with a welcoming smile on her face, as I approached.
“Afternoon Morgan.” Adele said.
“Hi, Adele. How are things going? Any update?” I asked, smiling back at her. I began to use my nanos to increase the blood flow in my face, making my face begin to turn red. I watched Adele carefully to see if she had noticed my slip-up. I should not know her name but had used it without thought. Thankfully, it seemed she was too involved with her own tasks and thoughts to notice.
“No, no changes, they are still stable, but no signs of waking up.” Adele said. I could hear a trace of sympathy in her voice. She really was a very good actress. “I do have your parent’s belonging for you, I forgot to give them to you yesterday and only remembered after you had left.”
With that, she opened her drawer and took out a box with items in it. My mother’s handbag, dad’s wallet, their watches and my mother’s necklace.
“This is a stunning necklace.” Adele said.
“Yes, it is. My grandfather gave one to my mother and me years ago, when I was still a child. Mom wears hers everywhere.” I said with a smile.
“Oh, you have one as well?” Adele asked.
I sighed deeply, “I did, but unfortunately I lost mine. We searched everywhere for it, but never found it. I was deeply saddened to lose it, it was one of the last gifts my grandfather gave me.”
“Your grandfather is no longer with you?” Adele asked.
“No, he died a few years ago, while on an expedition in Egypt. All my grandparents are dead, and they had no siblings. It is just my parents and my sister Alexis. We have no extended family.” I said sadly. They would have this information easily anyway, but it would add to their impression of me being a naïve idiot by telling them this.
“I am sorry to hear that.” She looked up as she handed the necklace to me and gave a start of surprise, “Are you alright?”
I gave her a quizzical look and said “Yes, why?”
“Your face is very flushed.” She stood up and walked to me, putting her hand on my forehead. “You feel a little warm.”
“Mmm, weird. I feel fine. Though now you mention it, I do feel a little warm.” I said sounding thoughtful. Then I let my eyes get wide, “Ohhhh!”
With that, I turned around and rushed to the bathroom. Now came the part I had been dreading. Fake vomiting would not fool them, so I was going to have to do it for real. Luckily, with the control I had over the nanos in my body, it would not be difficult. Adele was not the only one with acting talent I thought, just before I began to vomit. I stayed in the bathroom for a while. I linked to my network system to hear if anything was said.
“She is sick in the bathroom, what did she eat Gary?” I heard Adele ask.
“She had some fish dish.” Gary replied.
“Damn, sounds like she has food poisoning.” Adele said.
There was a pause before Adele said, “This might work to our advantage, it gives us a day or two with her here but out of the picture.”
“You got information on the diary and necklace?” Gary asked.
“The necklace was lost, but I learned her grandfather was buried in Egypt. It confirms that he was searching for the artefact. We know the artefact has some connection to Egypt.” Adele took a deep breath, “I just wish they would let us know more information. Maybe if we knew what they were looking for, we would be able to help more.”
Gary laughed, “You know they do not operate like that. We only get told the bare minimum and then only what we need to know in order to carry out our orders.”
“I for one am content knowing the minimum. I think knowing more would prove dangerous.” Evan said.
“There is truth in that.” Adele replied.
They stopped talking and I made to finish. I opened the bathroom door and walked to the basin, washing my face and rinsing out my mouth. Holding my stomach, I slowly made my way to Adele.
“I think I have food poisoning. I am going back to the chalet and take it easy.” I informed Adele.
“Get some diphenhydramine from the pharmacy on the ground floor and remember to drink lots of fluids.” Adele said. Adele obviously had some medical background as she knew what to prescribe for Scombroid poisoning. It was one of the quickest types of food poisoning, a majority of the others took six or more hours. Adele not only diagnosed the correct type of food poisoning but knew what to advise me to take. It made sense that they would have someone with medical knowledge working here. It would be difficult to fake information, if I had begun to ask questions.
“Thanks. Will do.” I said softly.
I did stop at the pharmacy and got the medicine, though I would not need it. As soon as I got back to the chalet, I would stop the symptoms. I looked at my watch and saw I had an hour and 15 minutes to get to the parking lot to catch the bus. If I caught the express train I would have a thirty-minute wait, which was fine. I could be sick in the parking lot, to further convince those following me of how sick I was.
I made it back to the chalet easily, though it had been an unpleasant trip. I could not fake feeling ill, so I had made my nanos affect my body. The result was exactly as if I had food poisoning for real, my body did not know any better. The moment I got into my chalet I reversed the nanos’ effect on my body and instantly felt better. I just managed to stop myself from groaning in relief. Though even if I had groaned, anyone listening would li
kely have thought it was from pain. I checked the network and saw they had no audio surveillance on me. It was just heat and watching network interaction, guess they did not want to listen to me being ill. It would make sneaking out later much simpler.
I went to the closet and grabbed a tight red dress, knee high black boots, black pants, a black long-sleeved top and a thick black coat. All these items could be manipulated into other items by my nanos, but for now they were perfect as they were. The only thing I would need made was a blonde wig and that was simple enough to do. My makeup case was in the bathroom, but a trip there would not look suspicious. I set my alarm for 8 P.M as that was when I planned to leave. It would give me a few hours to sleep now. Unlike many, I had no problem falling asleep when under stress. Even if I did struggle it would have been easy to have my nanos help me by slowing my heart rate, but that would not be necessary. Confident I had everything in place I fell asleep within a few minutes.
Chapter 4
It took me a second to orientate myself, when my internal alarm woke me. It would have been pointless if I had set the alarm on the table, alerting those who were monitoring me, that something was up. Taking a deep breath, I steadied myself for the task ahead. I got out of bed, taking the clothing and boots with me and went to the bathroom. A quick check showed me that only one signal was active, so they had to be watching me in shifts. Even believing I was sick, they were still watching me, which showed they were professional and serious. I quickly changed, putting on the red dress and then the other clothing over it. I could get the nanos to change the colour, but I felt better having them as separate outfits. I put on makeup and the blond wig the nanos made while I was sleeping. Pleased with the result, I put the coat on and made my way back to the bed. Whoever was watching would think I just needed to use the toilet. Climbing back in bed I began activating the nanos on the bed, it was simple to link them to the light, so that they could reproduce my heat signature. While this was happening, I had the coat reform over my body, covering it and hiding my heat signature. The coat was now a full-on body suit, even hiding the wig and my eyes. The nano system enhanced my vision and allowed me to see as clearly in the dark as I would during the day, with my eyes covered I just received the feed from my network and if I wanted I had a 360-degree view of my surroundings. I would be invisible to any surveillance apart from being seen directly. Knowing the person awake and guarding me was in the chalet to my left, I exited my chalet and went to the right. Not having to worry about walking into anything in the dark or running into people, I was able to quickly make my way to the castle road. I sent a small nano ball down the road, to map it and to check if there was anything on the road. The drone and wolves were also stationed along the road, looking out for any problems.
With the road mapped and the path clear I had one wolf come over and reconfigured it into a canoe shape with wheels. I climbed into the canoe and had the wheels begin to move. Using the map from the ball I had sent down the road earlier I followed the path and steered the canoe with my mind along it. Again, I was able to travel the road fast as I knew there was nothing in my way. With the help of the drone overhead I was able to miss any bumps on the road that might cause me problems. I stopped just before reaching the parking lot as the drone and wolf picked up people moving around that might see me. I had the canoe and wolf reform into dogs, so that if they were spotted in the dark and from a distance they would look like normal dogs. Only very close up and if you studied them would you see the eyes and fur were not completely natural. Using my network, I was easily able to stay out of sight and make my way towards the station. I had my suit reform into a normal looking coat and stepped out of the darkness. The station was busy, and I mingled with the crowd and made my way to one of the station bathrooms. Inside a stall, I removed the black top and pants and had them reform to add length to my boots making them thigh highs now. Now, I was wearing the blonde wig, red dress, a fancy coat and thigh high black boots. Perfect for a night of dancing at the nightclub I saw close to the hospital. Anyone watching me would think I was just another partier making my way to the club. I sent the drone and dogs ahead to the hospital, I was using the network from the disks I placed the previous days to check for surveillance. I was easily and comfortably able to manage the three INSs (Integrated Nano System), the drone and the dogs. The multitude of NNDs (Nano Network Disk) were just external computer links I could access easily, so they were no problem.
I paid for entry to the night club and made my way through the crowd to the bathroom. I was stopped on the way by a big gentleman.
“Kann ich dir einen drank kaufen, sexy?”
“Nein danke, ich bin hier mit meinem ehemann.”
Fortunately, my nanos translated what was said as well as translating my thoughts into German for me to say back to the gentleman. The last thing I needed now, was for a drunk guy to try to buy me drinks and detain me. Fortunately, mentioning I had a husband was enough of a deterrent and the guy moved on to easier prey. I paused for a second but considering I was under a time limit, I could not spend more time thinking. I had to continue forward with my plan. Something had just struck me, but I could just not grasp what it was. I would have to rethink about this later when I was not about to commit a felony.
In the bathroom, I took off the wig and had the coat change to a rougher looking coat which I buttoned up. It was long enough that it covered the boots. Underneath I had the boots reform back into a suit covering me. I would leave my face and neck uncovered for when I was at the hospital, it would look a bit suspicious if I wore the full suit here. I formed a pocket on the inside of the coat to place the wig in, I would need it as cover when I made my way from here to the train station.
I made my way back out of the nightclub and began to walk towards the hospital. Under the awning of one of the stores I timed it for when other people walked by me. I had my full body suit reform, covering me completely and hiding my heat signature. I then had my nanos hack into all the cameras along the way. They would wipe out my image as I walked, everyone else would be seen as normal, but my image would be removed. I made sure that no one got too close to me to notice my outfit, with my network it was easy to time everything. My drones and dogs showed me that there was no one on the side of the hospital I needed to go. Reaching the area directly below my parents’ room, I had one dog break down and form a ladder going up the building. I knew no one was in my parents’ room, but I hacked the camera there to ensure if anyone was watching they would not see me.
Once in the room, I immediately went to my father and formed a knife which I used to make a cut on my hand and then his. I had some of my personal nanos enter my dad’s bloodstream and begin to multiply. Even though they were no longer in my body, I was able to control them. While they were busy I repeated the action with my mother. I used the nanos to close my wounds and those of my parents. I could flush the drugs out of my parents and wake them up, but that would accomplish nothing, they would be weak, and I would not be able to successfully get them away. As much as I wanted to, for now it was safer to leave them here. I had normal nanos replicate and replace the hospital tags on my parents’ wrist. This way I would also have a network contact with my parents, if they were moved before I managed to get them out. The nanos in my parents’ blood stream were part of my INS, so I now had five integrated links active. As I was not actively commanding the ones in my parents’ bloodstream it did not strain me, but I would have to be careful not to create any more. The internal ones would deactivate if removed from the body and the external ones were not as advanced as the ones in my blood stream, so if they did get out of range, they would deactivate and breakdown. I sent another group of nanos to begin replacing the plant, card and teddy bear. I formed a few small spider nanobots and sent them out of the room. They would map the hospital for me and find the lab. From earlier, I knew how long it took for Adele to retrieve my father’s items and knew she could reach it going in the direction down the passage past my parents’ roo
m. I continuously monitored my network and all signals around me. There seemed to be no one else on this floor, so they were just using the camera and machines to monitor my parents at night. It was good for me, but not so good for my parents. If anything went wrong, it would take them too long to reach my parents. I was now very happy that I had done this, no matter what happened, my nanos would give my parents a better chance.
It took just over eighteen minutes for one of my spider scouts to find the lab. It was two floors underground and was a bit of a problem as the lift only had buttons to the ground floor. There had to be some way to get the lift to go to lower levels, but it was not obvious, and it might alert someone that the lift was being used. First, I had to hack into the system and then ensure my movements stayed hidden. There was a camera in the lift and I had a set of nanos enter the camera wiring and follow it. It led to a separate computer system and surveillance room. A person in the room had to activate the lift to reach the lower levels. I had to activate the lift, prevent the person from watching knowing the lift was moving and then exit the lift without being caught. Hacking the lift to move and hiding from the camera was simple, the live person on the other hand was another matter. I had to wait for an opportunity and hope for the best. I moved to a room closer to the lift and settled in to wait. It was roughly two hours later that an opportunity presented itself. The guard activated a secondary system before getting up and leaving the room. I quickly discovered he had activated an alarm on the lift that would go off if the lift went to the lower levels. My nanos deactivated the alarm and I quickly used the lift to get to the labs. All trace of me was removed from the camera recording. For some reason, the guard did not have any camera or view of what was going on in the labs. This meant that I was now free to walk around the level and look for any information and links to the Organisation, without having to worry about being spotted by the guard.