Power Hunt (ArcMed Book 1) (ArcOn 3)

by Erinn Price

  “Oh, please they would have known. There is no way you could not have let them know you were there.” Matthew said. “You would have set the alarm off in the lift or the lab, likely they had already sent a task force to collect you, way before I found you.”

  “They did not know I was there, you on the other hand they knew about. I do not know when that tracer was placed on you, but it had been there for a while.” I replied sweetly.

  “Not true, it had to have been in the last two days. The equipment at ArcCorp would have picked it up if it had been placed before then.” Matthew said. “So, sometime after leaving ArcCorp to make my way here.”

  “Then it seems even more likely that we have a mole at ArcCorp, unless someone spotted you by accident and managed to place the tracer.” I said.

  “No, it was a private plane, we landed in secret and then I made my way to the hospital. Richard had told me that you thought there was something strange going on there and I wanted to see if I could find what it was.” Matthew said.

  “So, the most probable time it was placed on you was between when you left ArcCorp main compound and when you got off the plane. Think of people you ran into during that time.” I said.

  “No, my shoes were in my luggage so anyone who could have gotten to my luggage, could have placed the tracer.” Matthew replied, with a frown.

  The planes are kept at the back of the compound, so anyone inside would have been able to place the tracer.

  “Well then without more information, we cannot narrow down who the mole is. Can you contact Richard without anyone else picking up the signal?” I asked Matthew.

  “I am not sure, without knowing who the mole is and what security clearance they have it might be dicey. I do not yet want the mole to know we are onto them.” Matthew said. “It may be to our advantage later to be able to use them to spread false information.”

  I nodded at Matthew, “That makes sense, but we still need to get a message to Richard to let him know we are still alive.”

  “Richard knows to give me three days before sending in the cavalry. So, we have three days in which to let him know we are alright, to prevent him from sending ArcCorp in full force and starting a war.” Matthew said.

  I thought he was joking, but when I glanced at his face I saw he was deadly earnest. If he did not contact Richard, Richard was likely to send in all of ArcCorps’ forces to find his brother. I could not fault him for that, because I would do the exact same in his shoes, even if it did start a war. I settled down to try to get some sleep. If we wanted to get away cleanly, I could not afford to allow myself to get overly tired, I needed to sleep when I could. I saw Matthew was doing the same, when he settled back and closed his eyes, he would know how important sleep was in situations like this.

  It was still raining when I woke up a few hours later. I was still tired, but I had slept long enough to be functional.

  “So, do you have our route all planned out?” Matthew asked, when he saw I was awake. He was back to being surly and angry.

  I rolled my eyes but was determined not to let him get to me, well not any more than he already had. I still did not know what his problem was, but I would not let it interfere with what I needed to do.

  “As a matter of fact, I do.” I heard a huff come from him as I said this. “Look, like I said before, there is no reason for you to come with me, I am perfectly capable of looking after myself.” I was very pleased to note that I could say this with utter confidence. Prior to the last few days, I would have been very happy to have someone to count on and make the decisions, not having the confidence I could handle it. Fortunately, the last few days had shown me that I was more than capable of coping and making decisions.

  “No way sweetheart. My brother would kill me, if I let you get into to trouble and you are definitely going to get into trouble.” Matthew said, smugly.

  “If you are coming along, then you follow my directions.” I said, to him.

  “Naturally, that way when things go south we all know who will be at fault.” Matthew was so confident that I would mess up, like he was eagerly looking forward to it. If it was meant to make me doubt myself, he failed, instead I was even more determined to show him that I did not need his help.

  “We will go to Egypt via Italy. The Shadow Organisation will think we would want to take the fastest route home and they also do not know we are going to Egypt.” I decided not to let him know that I had let it slip that my grandfather was buried in Egypt. I had forgotten that it was not in any record anywhere where he had been buried. Normally, with famous explorers, their burial place is known, and my grandfather had been a famous archaeologist and explorer.

  “They will find us way before we get close to Italy and the Mediterranean Sea.” Matthew said. “Facial recognition and identification checks will pick us up, way before then.

  “No, they will not.” I said, with a mischievous smile. “My nanos will make sure of it. We will be wearing masks the whole way, and obviously have fake IDs.”

  “This I have to see.” Matthew laughed, “I cannot believe you organised fake IDs for yourself, and how are you going to get me through?”

  “Easy.” I said with confidence and had a set of NNDs move to my face. I decided the best way was for Matthew to see.

  I saw his eyes widen, as the nanos covered my face and then slowly begin to converge on specific areas. I just had to have key facial points not match mine and then any facial recognition software looking for my face would be thrown off.

  “This will bypass any facial recognition software set to look for me.” I told Matthew.

  “All very good and well, but the black things stuck to your face are a bit obvious and people will notice.” Matthew said.

  “Just wait.” I told him, as I used my system to check that the current nano configuration on my face did hide enough of my features to not be a facial match to me.

  When I was sure, I had the nanos change and mimic my skin and tone, so that it blended in seamlessly with my natural face. While this was happening, I was watching Matthew’s reaction. I saw a slight widening of his eyes when the nanos began to change colour to look natural.

  “That is handy, why does ArcCorp not have this capability yet?” Matthew asked.

  They did, but not to the extent of what I was able to achieve with my nanos. I was using the nanos directly linked to my system to match me. ArcCorp could do it with the nanos they had, but the procedure would take a lot longer and not end up looking nearly as natural.

  “I am still working on it.” I told Matthew

  “Well, this is all good for you, but what about me and our IDs?” Matthew asked.

  “You really are impatient.” I shot back at him and then had a ND form on my hand.

  I did not let Matthew see, but I had the ND make a shallow cut on my hand and let some of my blood mix with the ND. I needed more control over the nanos for what I needed, than just my normal nanos, thus the necessity of my blood. I moved towards Matthew and placed my hand on his cheek, the INS disk immediately split and moved to cover the key areas of his face, the ones I would change.

  “That is cold.” Matthew complained, as the nanos moved over his face.

  “The bottom layer will transfer the heat from your skin to the top layer of nanos. It will help keep you cool as well as have the correct heat signatures if anyone was to look at your face using infrared cameras.” I replied, as I set to my task.

  I moved the nanos to change the contours of his face, using the facial recognition program I had overlaid on my normal vision. This allowed me to see which areas I needed to change so that there was no match to his original face. Once I was happy with this I changed the colour and texture of the nanos to match the rest of his face, without my internal nanos linked with the others, I would not have been able to do this perfectly and it likely would have been noticed and taken much longer. With my personal nanos involved it was easy. Once it was done, I patted his cheek, taking back my personal nano
s. They closed the shallow cut as they re-entered my blood stream.

  “I would suggest changing our hairstyles and colour. We won’t be recognised by facial recognition programs, but as we still do look a lot like ourselves, visual recognition will still be possible.” I said.

  Matthew nodded and said, “Agreed, but what about IDs?”

  I took my ID out of my bag and placed it on my hand, then sent nanos to the card to change it. Being microscopic, the nanos easily slipped under the plastic covering to the card underneath. I played around with a few looks till I found one that I was happy with and which changed me enough. My auburn hair was changed to a more mahogany colour and my hairstyle now included a full fringe. I have never had a fringe before, but it changed my face the most and with the other changes I looked sufficiently unlike myself. I reformed the brush in my handbag into scissors and cut my hair to match the ID photo, now I would just need to colour it. Just using a dark brown or even black dye would be fine for my hair colour to match my new ID closely enough.

  “What? How are you seeing what you are cutting?” Matthew asked.

  I rolled my eyes. Of all questions he could ask, he asked that. I picked up the glasses he had taken off to sleep and placed them on his face. I then tapped the side and sent him the image I was receiving from the tent to him. I saw him look at the tent and then at me and then back to the tent. From the visual he could see where the image was coming from, but there was nothing there just the tent. Just to mess with him, I moved the camera around to show me different angles. I made it look like I was inspecting my haircut and not just messing with him.

  “Oh.” Was all he said.

  Searching the network, I found a suitable couple and changed my ID to the woman’s name and numbers. The couple was meant to be in the country but had cancelled their flights at the last minute. It would take anyone a while to find out we were not them and hopefully by then we would not need the disguises anymore. I chose them because they still had hotel reservations, any new reservations might kick up flags. The longer we could ‘borrow’ reservations already made, the better for us. The couple was booked in a hotel in Switzerland, an express train ride through Italy and ending with a Mediterranean cruise, which matched the direction we wanted to go. It was simple to hack into the system and reroute payments. I did partial refunds according to the policy of the hotels and cruise line company, to the couple’s bank account. Making it seem like it was from the businesses, when it was from my account. I deleted the emails from the woman informing the hotels of the cancellations. There had been other groups and people which would have allowed us to use their reservations, this couple had just been the easiest and best match. My final act was to change the Mediterranean cruise details to one which visited Egypt for a week before returning. It included tours in Egypt and hotel bookings. The Tour Group booked a group of rooms, making them available for use on a first come first serve basis. Any bookings made would show under the tour group, not individual names, which also hid our trail. It would give us a week before we were expected back for the return trip.

  “I am very glad you are on our side. Anyone ever tell you that you would make a great evil villain?” Matthew asked.

  “What?” I asked, confused. It was only then that I realized he was still linked to my network and had just seen everything I had done. Shrugging, I added, “Being good with strategy and planning ahead does not make me a villain.”

  “No, but your hacking skills and ability with your little gizmo’s,” he waved around, indicating, the tent, the ID and his face, “added to your strategy and planning capabilities, would make you a fantastic villain.”

  “Well then, lucky for you I only use my powers for good.” I said.

  I made a copy of my ID and then had my nanos change the copy to match the male’s. The picture looked like Matthew, but the details were that of the male of the couple we were going to pretend to be, to get to Egypt.

  I handed the ID to Matthew who took it without saying a word. I knew what he was thinking, false identities, hacking banks and emails, sounds like villainous tendencies. Well, if I had to use my villainous side to keep my family safe, I would do so without losing any sleep over it. We needed to get to Zurich tonight, that was where the hotel booking was. Then tomorrow there was a first-class train booking from Zurich to Napoli, Italy. In Napoli we joined the cruise that would take us to Alexandria, Egypt. The boat trip would take two days, as the boat cruise speed was at 30 knots. There were faster boats and slower ones, but this was the one booked. The Egypt bookings were open ended, meaning we had seven days to decide our own schedule. We had 5 vouchers for hotel stays and one voucher for a two-day Nile river cruise, but we could decide when and if we wanted to use it. For a honeymooning couple it was perfect as there was no pressure, it allowed the freedom from tight schedules to really enjoy your holiday. If I had to book my perfect holiday it would be something like this, where I had the freedom to choose where to stay and for how long. Maybe someplace you really enjoyed, while another not so much. With a tightly-scheduled package you had no freedom.

  The two-day boat trip seemed like a waste of time, when time was of the essence now, but since we were on the run I figured staying untraceable was the most important thing. Our adversary might know my grandfather’s diary was in Egypt, but they had no clue where and they would not discover it. The Egyptian Royalty was put back in power about 50 years ago and though it was not widely known, my grandfather had a hand in it. He never gave us many details, saying somethings are better not known, but I did know it involved some artefact. If this was the same artefact the Organisation was looking for it may prove very difficult to acquire. The Royal family had the artefact hidden and protected somewhere and I could find no trace or mention of it. When I had heard my grandfather and Egypt was involved, I had immediately considered this artefact and started looking for it, using my network. I did not look deeply, only things easily available, as I did not want to let anyone know someone was looking for it. With little to work on it would be impossible for me to locate its whereabouts. I was hoping my grandfather’s diary may give me clues about where to look. It would be difficult to get to my grandfather’s body and to dig up his grave without being caught. I would need to work out a plan on how to accomplish it. The two-day cruise would give me that time as well as let me check in on my parents, sister and try to trace whoever the mole at ArcCorp was. It would also give me time to go over the recordings of my parents I had gotten from the lab at the hospital. There might be important information on it.

  First thing though, we needed to get to Mainz, from there we could catch a train to Zurich. I calculated how long it should take us to get to Mainz station and then added an hour for safety. From there it was easy to hack into the system and book us space on the train from Mainz to Zurich. I converted some nanos into the fake passes and we were set to go. I had the tent and other dog reform into two rucksacks and was glad when Matthew made no comment, even though I could see in his eyes that he was dying to. The cat I set to follow us, no one would take notice of a roaming cat and it could easily get where ever we went. With the backpacks, we made our way out of the park and headed towards Mainz and the train station. We stopped at the first store we saw and bought hair colour. Matthew had to buy peroxide as well, as his hair was black, and he needed to change it to blonde. I tried not to smile when I saw Matthew give a look of disgust at the products he needed. He ended up getting a peroxide cream, suggested to be the best for changing dark hair to lighter shades, and two hair dye colours. He needed two in case the first dye did not work correctly, which could happen. He ended up with blonde hair dye and a dark ash blond. We could colour our hair on the train as we had a private compartment with its own bathroom. The trip would take about four hours, so it would be more than enough time to dye our hair. I could not wait till Matthew had to colour his hair, from his disgruntled looks I knew he was not looking forward to being a blonde.

  We arrived in Zurich without
any problems, unless you could call Matthew’s hair a problem. I really was struggling not to laugh when I looked at him. His hair came out a mixture of red, orange and blonde. He thankfully did not have enough time to use the second box of dye, else who knows what his hair would have come out like, though I doubt it could have come out worse. Though he would not admit it, I think he did not read the instruction correctly and did not apply it evenly. I had the wig, that I had forgotten about reform into a baseball cap which covered Matthew’s hair. I went to the reception area and booked us in, the fewer people who saw Matthew the better for us, we did not want anyone to accidentally say something which could lead someone back to us. His multi-coloured hair was enough of a strange sight for people to remember and comment on. I left Matthew in the room, while I went to get what we needed. Luckily, a quick search online told me how to fix his hair. After getting the right toner, peroxide cream and more dye, I returned to the room. This time I insisted on helping Matthew and would not listen to any argument from him, though truth be told he did not argue much. I think he knew he needed the help even though he would not admit it. As funny as it was, we could not afford to have Matthew draw so much attention as his having multi-coloured hair would. I did take a picture, without him knowing. I was sure Richard would appreciate a copy of the picture. As teasing material went, this was priceless.

  After Matthew’s hair was dyed to an acceptable Ash Blonde, I chased him out the bathroom. I was dying to have a nice relaxing bath. Firstly, because I needed it and secondly it would help me think. I had often found, when trying to solve a problem, that having a bath helped. Relaxing in the bath, I wondered how my sister was doing and how her coronation went. The thought of my sister and her coronation led to a way to let Richard at ArcCorp know we were okay. A way no one, but my sister would likely understand. In the morning I would send a message to my sister, using the customer support contact she had been given by Richard for the gnomes to use. She had told me about it in passing, when informing me about the coronation, but I had not paid much attention to it. The Gnome race, she belonged to in the game ArcOn, had experienced many problems and prejudice. It had become noticeable when she received a stupid reply to a query she had posted to the normal support line. Richard had picked up the poor reply and then to prevent it from happening again, gave Alexis a direct email address. Checking the email address, I noticed that it could only be accessed by the ArcCorp body Corporate. This meant it did not go through the normal channels, but even so. I would send a coded message to Alexis. I would do it just before we boarded the boat. I also needed to get in direct contact with Richard with no chance of the signal being intercepted. For that I would need to get a set of my personal nanos to Richard. I had personal links to my parents, the cat and was still linked to both backpacks, one more would make six. It would be better to deactivate both backpacks from my Integrated network and just keep the cat. For now, my parents and the link to Richard were the most important, but I did not want to leave Matthew and me completely blind, thus I was keeping the cat. I had not accessed my parents lately as I knew they would likely be monitored heavily. In a day or two I would peek and let Richard know where they are. I grabbed one of the robes for use and left the bathroom.