by Erinn Price
“I ordered us dinner. I hope steak, salad and chips is alright.” Matthew stated, but the way he said it, it was not a question.
“What would you do, if I told you I was a vegetarian?” I asked.
“Nothing.” Was his prompt reply. “I know you are not, your file said as much.”
“You have a file on me?” I asked.
“Of course, ArcCorp has files on all their employees. Richard thought it would be better if I knew a bit about you before having to babysit you.” Matthew said.
“Why do you do that? Say things specially to irritate people, like you keep saying you are babysitting me.” I asked him, getting irritated again.
“It is the truth.” Matthew said with a shrug.
I took my plate and walked to the bedroom, “You can sleep on the couch, thanks for dinner.” I closed the bedroom door behind me before I was tempted to throw the plate of food at Matthew.
Chapter 6
I woke up early the next morning, knowing we needed to get to the train station early. The train would take just over eight hours to get from Zurich to Napoli. The train was booked for 5 A.M, which meant that we would arrive just after 1 P.M. We had to book onto the boat between 12 P.M and 3 P.M. It departed at 4:30 P.M and was scheduled to arrive at Alexandria 2:30 P.M in two days’ time. I changed my clothes slightly, so that it would not look like I was wearing the same clothing. I had some clothing reform inside the backpack, but it was only pants and two tops. Matthew’s backpack also contained a change of clothing for him. We would need to buy some more so that if we were searched it did not look too strange. Fortunately, I knew that the stores at the main station were open 24 hours and I could pick up some things there.
I opened the door and saw Matthew was ready and waiting. I looked at him in surprise as I had not told him what time our train ticket was for.
“I heard you begin to move around.” Matthew said.
“Well, our train leaves at 5 A.M so we need to leave now. I also suggest we buy some clothing at the station as having so little will seem weird.” I said to Matthew. I had the backpacks and clothing reform into two medium-sized suitcases, having realized the backpacks no longer fit. I should have done it the day before but had not even thought of it. Both suitcases had some clothing in it, but still not enough.
“Well, not sure how you want me to do that, I have no money and I doubt you want me to use my real credit card.” Matthew said.
“Oh, sorry.” I gave him a credit card which had his fake name on it but was really linked to my account. Any investigation would show it going off that bank account and as it was an American bank they would not be able to get more details. I doubted they would get a court order for the bank statements before this was all done with. That way, even if they noticed something was wrong and looked into this couple, as it was all should seem right and there should be no cause for anyone to investigate the couple we were pretending to be.
Matthew looked at the card and then back at me, “Are we adding stealing to the list now?”
“No, the charge will come off my bank account, even though it will look like it comes off his. Only thorough investigation will show that card’s transactions are rerouted to another account.”
I moved to pick up one of the bags, but Matthew beat me to it and took both bags. We quickly checked out and caught a cab to take us to the train station. I grabbed one of the bags, before Matthew could take both again.
“I think I might buy something, if I see anything I like sweetie.” I said to Matthew.
Without blinking, Matthew replied “Good idea sweetheart. My parents’ anniversary is coming up, so I might see if I find any souvenir from here that might suit, else I will get something in Egypt for them.”
I just smiled at him sweetly and gave him a peck on his cheek, “Meet you at the counter at 4:30am?”
“Sure.” Matthew replied.
What Matthew was planning with the anniversary gift I did not know, I knew both of his parents were dead from what Richard had told me. I made my way to a shop which had some dresses and loose style pants and tops on display. They were made from cotton, so my nanos would easily be able to reform them. Synthetic materials caused problems and was why I first checked what the items were made from before buying them. I bought three tops and two pants as well as two dresses. I paid for the items and put them in my bag. The nanos inside would remove the price labels and anything that made it look like I had just bought the items. Subtle changes would also be made, to make it less obvious that it came from this store. All this was in case my bag got searched when we boarded the train, as we would change countries, it was possible.
I next made my way to a gift shop and found a postcard, it would be perfect to get hold of Richard with. My nanos would replace the postcard and I would send it express to Richard. It would go to the sorting section for mail at ArcCorp, but I would have the nanos reform into a spider and make its way to Richard. I would have control over it as it would be made from my personal nanos. I had not told Matthew of my plans yet, but that was his fault. I would tell him on the train, if he could think of a better idea, great. If not, my postcard-spider was going to happen.
Once I had finished, I made my way to the ticket counter and was pleased to see Matthew waiting there.
“Get something nice sweetheart?” he asked, as I approached him.
“Yes, darling. I got these cute little dresses that I just know you are going to love.” I replied, in a sugary-sweet voice.
“With you wearing them, I am sure I will.” He replied, with a wolfish smile. I had the feeling trying to tease him in this way would backfire heavily on me.
I turned to the person behind the counter and was able to get our tickets without any problem. We had a private cabin, with its own bathroom. The cabin seats could be used as beds and there was a TV in it. There was also a private dining section for use by people who had booked the more expensive, private cabins like ours. We dropped our bags in our cabin and locked the door, both having decided to get something to eat. I activated one NND to move to the corner of the cabin, it would let me know if anyone entered our cabin while we were out. We spoke little while we ate, apart from inane ‘couple’ talk to keep up our cover, there was nothing much we could say where other people could hear us. We took our time with breakfast, enjoying the calm. Neither of us were in a hurry to get back to the cabin, where our problems were waiting for us. Eventually though we did finish and make our way back. I knew no one had entered the cabin and that it was clean of bugs of any kind.
I sat on the one bench and Matthew on the other, there was a foldaway table between us. It could be moved to allow room for the fold out beds. I reached in my bag and took out the postcard, my nanos had finished reconfiguring it. I put the postcard on the table and took out a pen I had formed. I passed both to Matthew.
“You want me to?” Matthew asked, confused.
“Write a message to Richard.” I said, to him, enjoying this.
“Sweetheart, I think the stress is getting to you. No way that this is secure or that it won’t be intercepted along the way.” Matthew said, “Also, there is not enough space to write all that needs to be said.”
I rolled my eyes at him calling me sweetheart, “We are private here, no need to keep up the pretence and call me sweetheart.” I had the postcard change to black and then back to normal.
“That is not a normal postcard and you can write all you need to write,” I told Matthew.
“But how?” Matthew asked. I just rolled my eyes at him and mimed writing.
Shaking his head, Matthew began to write, when he ran out of space he looked at me. Just to mess with him, I had the letters scroll up the card as if someone was scrolling through the message. Matthew did not say a word, he just waited for the message to scroll to the very top, he then continued to write. I did not bother reading what Matthew was writing, he knew his brother best and would know what needed to be said.
“You want to sa
y anything?” Matthew asked me.
“Yeah, tell him, not to be surprised when the postcard forms a disk and to place the disk behind his ear. We will be able to talk to him directly through it then.” I said to Matthew.
Matthew shook his head in disbelief but wrote again, hopefully writing what I had said. He handed the postcard to me when he finished and for fun I transferred the picture of Matthew with his multi-coloured hair to the postcard. I also changed the address to one close to the compound. While in transit my nanos would check the other notes and packages and if it found one going to the compound, it would attach itself to it. With the amount of mail going to ArcCorp on a daily basis, there would likely be something. Packages containing goods, equipment, as well as various papers concerning business all went to the compound mail room where it got sorted. The postcard just needed to get into the ArcCorp compound.
“So, what evil deed are we planning to do in Egypt?’ Matthew asked.
“Break into the Royal Palace and dig up a grave.” I replied to him.
Matthew started at my words, but then burst out laughing, “I guess if you ask a silly question, you should expect a silly answer. Well played and quickly answered there, you nearly got me.”
I just kept quiet and looked at him. “Okay, sorry. What do we need to do in Egypt?” he asked me, seriously this time.
“Break into the Montaza Royal Palace compound and dig up a grave.” I replied to him with a grin.
Matthew covered his eyes with his hand, “You are serious.” He took a breath and then asked, “I just have to know, why do we need to dig up a royal grave?”
“Not a royal grave, my grandfather’s. He is buried there and something I need, is buried with him.” I told Matthew.
“Your grandfather is buried in the Montaza Royal compound? That is impossible, only the Egyptian Royals are buried there.” Matthew said, and I could see disbelief in his eyes and hear it in his voice. I could understand his disbelief. The Royal family had moved into the Al-Haramlik Palace after they had regained power. The palace was in the Montaza Palace compound, in the Montaza district of Alexandria, which included over 150 acres of park and forest land. The compound was closed to outsiders as was the main residence of the Egyptian royal family. The grounds were also where the Royal family had been buried over the last 50 years.
“My grandfather was special, and he is buried there.” I told Matthew. I bit my lip and added “I just do not know how to get into the Royal compound to dig up his grave.”
“Do we have to break in? Can’t you just send your gizmos in after it?” Matthew asked.
“Maybe, but then how do I get the diary out?” I asked.
“Diary, this is all about a diary? Matthew asked.
“Well, it seems to be what the Organisation is after. They seem to think it has information on an artefact they are looking for.” I informed him.
“What artefact?” He asked me.
“I do not know. I am hoping the diary gives me more information, which is why it is so important we get it.” I replied.
“Well, first thing is that you need to find exactly where his grave is. From there I am sure you can form some gizmos to get the diary. You do not need dig up the grave, just get the book out of it.” Matthew said.
“So, break into the coffin and get the diary out without digging up the grave?” I asked Matthew. He just nodded at me. “That could work.” I said deep in thought. Matthew let me work in silence then as I used my network to search for any information on the Royal Palace and any information about what had happened fifty years ago to get the Royals back in power. I was hoping there would be some mention of the artefact, but nothing. I did find a rough map of the palace grounds which showed the most likely places where my grandfather might have been buried. It showed the Palace grounds were mainly gardens with a few temples scattered around. The main palace was towards one end, further away from where the graves would most likely be. Weasels apparently roamed the palace grounds freely as they took care of the rat problem. Forming one of my INSs into a weasel would enable me to freely search the palace grounds and not be noticed. Once I found where the grave was and what the diary looked like, I could make plans to get to it.
Pleased to have the beginnings of a plan, I looked up at Matthew to see that he had put on the glasses I had made for him. He had seen everything I had done.
“It is nearly twelve o’clock, I suggest we get lunch.” Matthew said, when he realised I had stopped researching.
It made sense to go eat and since I had given him the glasses it would be silly to argue about him using them. I just made a note to remember it if there ever was something I did not want him to know about, like how my advanced nanos worked. Lunch was fantastic and since we had an hour till our destination, we were in no hurry. I already knew the message I would send to Alexis, “Reserve two seats for Queen exam in twenty-three days.” I knew she would figure out it meant the two of us were alive and that I got her message telling me she was to be crowned queen. The date count was to let her know it was me and when I sent the message, that it was not a time coded or delayed message. Alexis used to tease me about having anything important on a countdown calendar, letting me know exactly how many days I had till certain events, like exams. It had just allowed me to organise and control things easier, doing things like that, when I was younger. I would send it just before boarding the ship.
At the station, we found a post office and express mailed the postcard, ensuring it would get sent out that day. From there it was a simple matter to catch a cab to the dock which was close by. The ship was easy to find, and we had no problem getting booked on board. Once again, our cabin was a first class one and as such, it was large and spacious. There was a full sitting room with a couch that looked perfect for Matthew to sleep on. I saw him smile when I looked pointedly at the couch. The bathroom also had a shower and a bath, while being completely private. Knowing it would look suspicious if we did not mingle and explore a bit, we both dropped our bags on the bed and then left the cabin to wander around the ship. I would have the whole of the next day to listen to the recordings of my parents and hear if there was any more information.
As we walked, I began to wish that this really was a holiday cruise. The ship was stunning and seemed to have every luxury imaginable on offer. There were shops, restaurants and even a movie cinema for guests to enjoy. You could get a massage or go for a full spa treatment if you desired. There was even a hairdresser, along with exclusive boutiques. There was a large sundeck with a pool for our use, further along there was a volleyball court. I wondered what was offered on lower decks. We got drinks at the bar and wandered around, holding hands. Most of the people were also young couples, with only a few single people and older couples. We both had full information about the couple we were pretending to be, so it was easy to answer any questions asked of us. Matthew in particular, seemed to enjoy playing the loving couple. Often taking my hand or stroking my arm. He also managed to use, sweetheart and darling in nearly every sentence. It was enough to make me want to hit him repeatedly over the head with a baseball bat. Instead, I just smiled and fluttered my eyelashes at him, trying to look doting instead of murderous. Eventually, after dinner, I excused myself saying that I was tired. Expecting Matthew to do the same, I was surprised when he said that he would stay and enjoy the company a bit longer. It should not have surprised me. As unpleasant as he had been to me at times, he had been extremely pleasant and funny in front of company. They all thought he was great and it seemed he had even made a few new friends. It just showed me how easily he lied and played a part. I did not know who the real Matthew was, if he was naturally this nice, then why was he so horrible to me at times.
Chapter 7
I was going over the recordings of my parents, for the third time when I heard Matthew ask, “What are you doing?”
He must have gone to sleep very late, as he only now woke up. Whenever it had been it had been after I had had a bath and fallen
asleep. I had not even heard him come in. I felt the bed next to me dip as he climbed onto it.
“They will knock soon to offer us coffee and tea.” He told me.
I did not ask how he knew this, instead I just answered his earlier question, “Watching the recordings of my parents. They seem to have tried to get information from them, by making them think they were in the real world, while they were in a virtual one.”
“Can I see?” he asked. I saw him get the glasses I had made for him.
