by Jamie Davis
“Shut the front door! You’re the one that took the Sapiens rally video that’s getting shared everywhere?”
“I didn’t record it, but I did spread it to the initial news sites. I was there when it happened and saw the whole thing.”
“Oh, my God, you watched and saw Eric murdered right in front of you? Shelby, honey, that’s horrible.”
“It was awful, Ramona,” Shelby muttered through a fresh flow of tears. “There was nothing I could do. All I could do was sit there and watch, knowing what was coming.”
“Wait. Back up. You said a second ago that you just left your house and saw Sapiens First people there. How do you know your parents are dead?”
“They have to be. I heard the officer talk about bringing bodies out. You know my mom and dad, Ramona. I can’t see them killing anyone. It has to mean they’ve been killed. I wasn’t there when it happened, and managed to get away.”
“Are you being followed now?”
“They’re not right behind me if that’s what you mean, but I have to believe they’re looking for me.”
“Okay, Shelby I’m cutting off this call right now. Hang up! Don’t open this connection again. I know how to get through to you now, but I’ll do it through a more secure link. Wait for my call.”
As soon as Ramona said that, the call cut off, leaving Shelby sitting in silence, listening to the faint rumble of the pavement under the tires as the automatic navigator drove the car south into the night. Hearing Ramona talk about Eric again brought back all the memories of that horrible day.
Shelby opted not to put on any music. Instead, she sat alone in the darkness of the car’s front seat, lit only by the dim lights of the dashboard’s control center. Her mind spun through memories of her parents and Eric.
The autonomous vehicle continued south as Shelby broke through the tears once again. It was time to consider her situation. She had food with her if she had to pull over and hide out somewhere.
She was in her parents’ car. That was a problem in many ways. She’d already disconnected the car’s interface from everything but the Mantle. She couldn’t disconnect that unless she wanted to take manual control, which she wasn’t all that comfortable doing.
There was also the license plate that could be recognized by automated traffic cameras or other surveillance sources. Hopefully, when Ramona called back, they could figure out an alternative to keep the car on the road and connected to the Mantle without Shelby having to take over behind the wheel. She hated driving.
Shelby sat watching the lights on the highway go by for nearly a half hour before a call finally rang through on the old cell connection again, this time over Shelby’s cerebral implant. It surprised her because she wasn’t aware her implant even had a chip for that type of signal.
“Hello? Is that you, Ramona?” Shelby said as she opened the anonymous, audio-only call, hoping it was her cousin.
“Shelby, I need you to tell me everything you’re doing right now. Is anything around you still connected to the Mantle or any other network?”
“I don’t know, Ramona. I think I’ve disconnected everything I could. I’m no longer hooked in through my implant and I’ve tried to do everything I can to anonymize my parents’ car.”
“Wait, you’re in your family’s car?”
“I had to get away. I’m not a very good driver, Ramona, and I didn’t want to disconnect it.”
“That’s not good. It has to be connected to the Mantle if you’re not in manual mode. That causes a huge headache.”
“I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Okay, wait a second while I try something. Is it the same car I saw the last time I was up visiting?”
“Yeah, of course, what else would I be driving?”
“I’m just asking, Shelby. Give me a second. I’m almost done.”
Shelby waited for what seemed like forever. All she could hear was a strange clicking sound from the other side of the phone connection. It took her a few seconds before she realized it was the old-style mechanical keyboard Ramona bragged about using all the time. She’d said it kept her connected to the roots of computer hacking from back in the day.
Ramona came back on the line. “All right, I think I got it to work. I’m going to send you something in a burst over this connection to your implant. It’s probably going to hurt because this cell connection isn’t set up for that kind of bandwidth. It’ll also make a God-awful noise that only you are going to be able to hear.”
“Okay? I guess I’m ready.”
“Here comes.”
Whatever Shelby expected based on Ramona’s description, she wasn’t ready for what happened next. A loud screeching, warbling sound blasted inside her head. It was the audio of raw data being transmitted via an analog audio carrier. Shelby first tried to plug her ears by slapping her hands over the sides of her head. She realized after a few seconds that wasn’t going to work since the sound was transmitted directly into her auditory nerve via her implant. A throbbing headache began almost instantly. The pain was so severe that she squeezed her eyes shut and cried out in pain.
“Unnnh, it hurts!”
“Almost done. Hang in there, Shelby.”
In the end, she almost blacked out from the pain before the horrible screeching stopped. As the throbbing receded inside her head, Ramona’s voice sounded over the connection. “Shelby…, Shelby, are you there? You’re not answering me.”
“Uh, yes, I’m here. I wasn’t prepared for that.”
“Yeah, well that was the only way I could get the file to you. Check your implant and see if there’s a file there called ‘anonymous car.’”
Shelby checked her downloads menu in her implant’s database and found it. It was a surprisingly small file considering how long she’d had to endure the pain. The transmission of data using analog audio probably wasn’t terribly efficient.
Shelby highlighted the file. “I found it. Now what?”
“I want you to open up a connection to the car’s local network port. Don’t hook into the car’s whole system, just the local port. Once you’re hooked in there, you’re going to activate the program and direct it to install itself inside the car’s firmware system. Got it?”
“Yeah, give me a second while I set it up.”
Shelby followed the instructions her cousin gave her and soon had the file installed inside the car’s systems.
As soon as the final data check verified the file had transferred, the car swerved to the right, nearly clipping a neighboring vehicle as it careened towards the shoulder. Shelby reached up and grabbed the steering wheel by reflex. She straightened out the car’s path just before it hit the guard rail, pulling it back into the far righthand lane on the southbound highway.
Shelby tamped down the terror inside as she struggled to control the vehicle at normal highway speed. She stared straight ahead, holding the steering wheel in a death grip, trying to keep the car inside the lane.
After a few seconds, Shelby said, “Ramona, the car is no longer in auto-mode. It almost drove off the side of the highway before I got control of it.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you about that. Give it a second. The onboard computer’s going to reinstall a new hacked identifier and re-access the wireless system. It’ll make the Mantle think it’s another car belonging to a retired accountant who lives in Florida. It’ll be untraceable back to you.”
True to her word, Shelby felt the vehicle take over automatic control again, picking up speed and rejoining the other cars passing by in the automated lanes. She took her hands off the steering wheel.
“Okay, the car is running itself again.”
“All right, now you’ll have to re-enter the destination into the nav computer. Do it manually using the interface on the dashboard. Don’t send it from your implant because I haven’t been able to change your implant’s identifier yet. I can’t figure out a way to do it from here given the narrow bandwidth connection we have. That might have to wait
until we get you to my place.”
Shelby was glad she didn’t have to experience another of those painful burst transmissions. “Do you think you can replace my identifier ID?”
Every implant had a unique identifier serial number that helped the Mantle keep systems connected to the network and organized. The problem was, that also made it easy to search out people and determine their location if you had the right resources. That was why she’d disconnected her own access point once she’d got back in the car near her parents' house.
“I can do it for sure. I haven’t done it to anyone other than myself, but I know people who have done it and I’ve already reached out to them. I’ll have the process nailed down by the time you get here. Based on what I can see now through the connection to your vehicle’s new identifier, you’re about three hours away from my house. Why don’t you settle back and get some rest and I’ll keep working on my end to come up with some solutions to keeping you off the grid while we figure out what to do next.”
“Thanks, Ramona. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“No problem, Shelby. I’m sorry about your parents. They were always pretty decent to me even though I was so weird.”
Shelby didn’t respond, she just cut the connection. She had thought she’d cried all the tears she had left inside her at her brother’s funeral. Now she laid her head back against the headrest, closed her eyes, and let the tears flow as the car drove on into the night.
Shelby didn’t realize she’d drifted off to sleep until the car hit a bump in the road that jolted her awake. She checked her internal chronometer. She’d been out for nearly two hours. Shelby realized instantly how worried Cass must be about her since she’d hung up back on the street in front of her parents' house.
She decided to take a risk and use the old cell connection system to reach out to Cass. She wasn’t even sure if one of the old towers was still active near Cass’s Sapiens enclave but it was worth a try.
The connection rang only once before Cass picked up. “Shelby, is that you?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“Oh my God, I was so worried about you. Why did it take you so long to get back to me? I was certain they’d caught you and had taken you into custody, or worse.”
“I’m fine. I had to call my cousin to help me get off the grid. I was driving my parents’ car and I knew they’d be able to track me down once they realized it was gone from the house. Then, when Ramona was finished with that, I just sort of fell asleep. I was tired and my head still hurt from the burst download she sent me to hack the car’s system.”
“I don’t know what that means but I’m glad you’re all right. Where’s your cousin live?”
“Somewhere in the woods in northeastern Pennsylvania. I’m not exactly sure where, but I did have the location in my database so I was able to program the vehicle to drive there. I’m going to stay with her while we figure out what to do next. She’s a pretty good hacker and should be able to figure out a way to keep me from being detectable on the grid. I’ll stay underground for a while until I figure out what needs to be done next.”
“That’s probably the best thing to do, Shel. I hope, though, it doesn’t mean you can’t call me once in a while.”
“We’ll see. I have to wait and see what Ramona recommends. She’s managed to pretty much scrub all evidence of herself off the system, so I’m hoping she can do the same for me.”
“What happened when you got out of the car, Shel? What did you find? Why were the police at your house?”
“My parents are dead. Sapiens First got to them while I was out at the store. I guess that means I’m lucky to be alive but I’m angry I wasn’t there to help them.” Shelby explained what she’d seen at her home before she’d left.
“Shelby, I’m so sorry. You have to know there was nothing you could have done to save them. If you’d been there, they would have killed you or kidnapped you. I think they are closer to catching both of us than ever before. If they’re sure you were the one who sent the video, it’s only a matter of time until they figure out that I am connected somehow, too. That has to be why Simon Cantwell came to our house today.”
“I can’t worry about him right now, Cassie. I’m going to go to my cousin’s place and I’ll be off the grid for a while. I’ll call you when I can. I love you.”
“I love you, too. Please, please stay safe.”
“I’ll try the best I can.” Shelby cut the connection and closed her eyes again. She was only about an hour away from Ramona’s. Her mind drifted back to the last time she’d talked to her mother before she headed to the store. Shelby replayed that conversation over and over again in her head as she drifted back to sleep.
Chapter 15
Cass sat up in bed after Shelby called. She’d been lying there awake staring at the ceiling worried about why she’d been unable to connect with her girlfriend. Cass had feared the worst until the call finally came through. Now that it was finished, and she knew Shelby was safe and had a plan to stay that way, Cass felt a lot better.
Realizing she wasn’t going to be able to fall asleep right now, Cass got up and headed down the hallway to use the bathroom. Maybe she could fall back to sleep afterward.
The house was quiet. It was late and everyone was already asleep in their rooms. At least, Cass thought they were.
As she passed Elena’s room, she noticed the door was ajar. She stopped and peeked inside. Elena’s empty bed looked like it hadn’t been slept in at all.
Cass stepped back out into the hallway and accessed her auditory implant, dialing up the sensitivity to listen for sounds of anyone moving around the house. She picked up the sounds of her father snoring in her parents’ room. That was normal.
There were no sounds of anything else out of the ordinary, though. No one was up but herself that she could hear. Either Elena wasn’t in the house or she was quieter than usual.
Where had she gone?
Cass turned and headed for the stairs. Maybe she was outside in the driveway getting something out of the car for some reason.
To be sure the kid hadn’t fallen asleep on the couch downstairs, Cass did a quick search of the first floor. Elena wasn’t there, either. Nor was she in the driveway or anywhere in the back yard.
Cass came back inside and was just about to go and recheck Elena’s room, when she noticed something through the front window of the living room. There was a car parked on the street in front of their house. Its lights were out, but the engine was running. Cass dialed in her night vision to try and see who was in the vehicle. The tinted windows defeated even the excellent vision via her implant.
Shaking her head and suspicious of what was going on, Cass headed out the kitchen door into the driveway. From there she could see the rear of the vehicle. There were several years of Enclave High School parking stickers plastered to the back window.
Cass scanned the license plate to check it against public databases but then remembered she couldn’t access anything outside the enclave right now.
“Damn, this better not be what I think it is,” Cass cursed under her breath.
The parking sticker gave her an idea of what was going on. If her suspicions were correct, Cass was more than slightly annoyed with her little sister.
Her thoughts were confirmed when Cass overheard her sister’s voice from inside the vehicle. The enhanced auditory sensor system from her implant picked up the snippet of conversation without any problem at all. It was definitely Elena along with the voice of some boy Cass didn’t recognize in the car.
“Phil, stop. I think it’s time for me to go inside.”
“You don’t want me to stop. Why else would you ask me to come over here and park out front this time of night?”
“I just wanted to see you.”
“Well, here I am. Come on, let’s fool around just a little bit more.”
“Um, I guess so. But just for a little while. I have to get inside before anyone figures out I left.”
With that, the voices fell silent again.
Cass clenched her fists and marched across the yard to the rear of the sedan, yanking the door open. Inside the backseat was her little sister and Phil Turner, one of the current seniors at Cass’s former high school. She recognized him right away. She’d always thought he was a pompous jerk. Seeing him half undressed with his shirt off, tangled up with her sister in the back of his car didn’t change her opinion of him.
“Elena, get out of the car.”
“Cass, what are you doing here?”
“We’ll talk about that when we get in the house. Get out of the car. Don’t forget to grab your sweatshirt off the floor before you do. For goodness sake, Elena, what are you thinking? You’re only fourteen.”
Elena grumbled something Cass couldn’t make out, muttered an apology to Phil, and climbed out of the car. Cass could see her sister was embarrassed. By her stance beside the car after she pulled on the sweatshirt over her bra, Elena was also angry. She stood with her arms crossed, glaring at Cass.
Phil sat up and pulled his T-shirt on. He smiled up at Cass. “Hey, Cass. I guess I finally got to fool around with at least one of the Armstrong girls.”
Cass shook her fist at the boy smiling up at her from his car. “You pig, if you think you’re going to do any more fooling around with Armstrong girls, you’ve got another thing coming. Wait until I tell my father.”
Elena grabbed her arm. “Cassie, you can’t tell Dad. He’ll be super pissed.”
“Fine, I won’t tell Dad. You will. If you want to be the grown-up kid at home, then you need to start acting like it. Go up to the house. Phil here is going home.”
Phil got out of the back seat and shut the door, then climbed into the front of his car. Before he closed the door, he glanced back at Elena. “I can’t believe I wasted my time with a little kid like you. I thought you were grown up enough to know what I wanted from a girl. I guess you’re just too young.”