by Erinn Price
I shrugged, there was nothing on it that he should not see and maybe he would see something I missed, “Sure.”
“Wait, let them leave first and then we can watch it from the beginning.” Matthew stated. He took his shirt off and got in the bed, placing the glasses on his bedside table.
“Who, what?” I asked. Then I heard a knock on the door.
“Enter.” I heard Mathew say. He lay back against the pillows, with his hands behind his head and seemed to have a satisfied grin on his face. He managed to look immensely pleased with himself and I just wanted to hit him again. With his ability to so quickly change his expressions and personality, he was impossible to understand or to know who he truly was.
A person pushing a cart entered the room and went to the table by the couch. I saw Matthew had managed to clear the area of any evidence that he had slept there. How he had known the person was on his way so early I did not know, another mystery.
“Coffee, tea or orange juice?” the server asked.
“Orange juice please.” Matthew and I answered at exactly the same time. The server poured two glasses of orange juice and then took out a covered tray from his cart which he left behind as he exited the room.
“Let me get that first then we can look at those recordings.” Matthew said, as he got up and fetched the glasses of orange juice. He passed one to me before returning to get the covered tray. Settling back on the bed, he lifted the cover of the tray. There were scones and small cakes on the tray, even some fruit.
“A morning wake-up treat. For a full breakfast, we can order in or go to the deck where they set up a buffet.” Matthew said.
Having a sweet tooth, I grabbed one of the plates with an assortment of cakes on it and placed it on my bedside table.
“Hey, what about me?” Matthew asked.
“You can eat the fruit and scones.” I told him. Then, as he continued to stare at me, I took one cake off my plate and placed it back on the tray. “There! Happy now?” I asked, to which Matthew made no reply.
We both settled back, Matthew wearing the glasses and I began to play the recordings. There were five days of recordings to play, but I had removed the sections where there was no talking, or they were doing everyday activities. There was a fake rescue on the third day when the people monitoring, must have realised my parents must have become aware. It did not seem to help as they still said nothing much on the next day, it seemed my parents were aware the rescue was fake. The most important recordings were the ones that Alexis or I were in and asking about our grandfather. I was amazed at how real and natural it looked. If I did not know that I had never had such conversations with my parents, I would believe what I was seeing. How my parents had figured out so quickly that it was fake, I do not know. It was obvious that both had known it was fake from day one. I let it play through without saying anything.
“It is all fake? You and Alexis were never there? The only real participants are your parents?” was the first thing Matthew asked. At my nod, he said, “Play it again.”
I did as he asked and settled to watch the recordings again, maybe this time I would see something I missed before. Unfortunately, as before, nothing stood out to me and there was no additional information, or rather misinformation.
“So, you notice anything?” I asked Matthew.
“Your parents know from the start that it is fake. Even after the fake rescue, they still know the next day that it is fake. I just do not know how.” Matthew said.
“How do you know that they know it is fake?” I asked Matthew. I knew because of the false information concerning the necklaces, but Matthew did not know about that.
“Every day their first word starts with an N and on the first day you can see your father’s eyes widen slightly as he speaks. It is as if, at that moment, he just realised something.” Matthew said.
I restarted the recording and watched that moment closely and Matthew was right, the very first morning, my father’s eyes widen slightly before he speaks and says, “Nothing ... better than waking up next to you each morning.” Now that I was paying attention, the slight pause between the ‘nothing’ and the rest of the sentence was weird. I played the other days and Matthew was right, every morning their first word always started with an N. Somehow, almost immediately on waking they realised they were in a virtual world and not the real world. The word starting with an N was to let the other know it was fake.
“What is up with the necklaces?” Matthew asked. I was not surprised he had noticed that, of all the things they could have had me ask, asking about the necklace stood out. It showed that it was important to them. Alexis asked about our grandfather and stories about him. My parents answered with very little detail.
“I do not know, but they are very important. Mom lied when she said ours were identical, mine looks completely different to hers.” I told Matthew.
“I do not suppose you have it with you?” Matthew asked.
“No. It is back at home, in my jewellery box.” I told him.
“Damn. They could get it and then we may never find out what is so important about it.” Matthew said.
“No. Even if they did break into my apartment, they would never know which necklace it is. They would be looking for one which looks the same as my mother’s, when it looks completely different. Truth be told, my necklace does not even look like it is worth much. I do not know how mom’s necklace and mine could be linked.” I answered Matthew.
“Well, we will still need to get our hands on it somehow.” Matthew said, and I nodded in agreement.
“Richard may have some ideas to get it to us without The Shadow Organisation intercepting it.” Matthew stated.
I sighed and closed my eyes. It was just another problem I would need to find a solution to. Without knowing who the mole was, it would be too dangerous to get Richard involved. He might unknowingly let the mole know what was going on. Richard could not personally go to my apartment, as he and it would undoubtedly be under surveillance. Not able to think of a solution immediately, I filed it for future concerns and moved on. I needed to see what was happening back at the hospital, I would not activate the nanos by my parents yet, but I could listen to any recording my NND’s had made. It should give me an idea of what was happening and maybe even give me more information.
When I started listening to the first recording, I seriously wanted to hit myself over the head with something. Matthew must have seen something on my face or my body tensed as he immediately asked, “What is wrong?”
“They are speaking in German.” I said, shaking my head.
“Who?” Matthew asked, confused.
I linked him to the recordings through the NND patch behind his ear. I had not removed it, as it might still prove useful in the future to be able to talk to him through it.
“The people at the hospital and the ones following us.” I replied.
“Well, of course. They would use operatives already in the country, not outsiders.” Matthew replied, still sounding confused.
“Yes, I realize that now.” I sighed and added, “They spoke in English before, before we went on the run.”
I saw Matthew’s eyes widen as the full implication of what I had said sunk in. “They spoke in English before, to allow you to understand what they were saying.”
“Yes. Which means I was meant to hear everything and they know we are going to Egypt. Everything was a setup, I just thought I knew exactly what the setup was.” I lifted my hand and covered my eyes, as if that would make it all disappear, “I cannot believe I did not realise it sooner.”
Then, I remembered that I had begun to realize it at the nightclub, when that man had hit on me. I just had been so focused on what lay ahead, that I had not allowed the realization to fully materialise.
“Do not worry about it. It is easy to miss things like that during an intense time. It does not change anything, we still need to get the diary, get your parents out, get your necklace and find the artefact behind all
this.” Matthew stated.
There was silence for a while and then Matthew said, “Well, the good news is that your parents are still alive. They have moved them but are still hoping to get something out of them. They do know we are heading to Egypt, they just do not know how, or where.” Matthew informed me. “They also do not understand how we managed to evade them so completely and they can find no trace of us. Gary and a few others have been ordered to Egypt immediately, to try pick us up there.”
I looked at him in confusion for just a second, till I realised I had left the recordings playing and that Matthew was still listening. “You speak German.” I stated.
“Amongst a few other languages.” Matthew informed me.
I had expected Matthew would get angry about me making such a stupid error as not realising they were speaking in English. Instead, he seemed extremely understanding and seemed almost happy that I had made the mistake. His demeanour towards me suddenly seemed much more relaxed and friendlier. I really did not understand him. He had been gruff and rude to me at times and even standoffish, unless we needed to act like the couple we were pretending to be. Then when I make a mistake he becomes nice. I did not have the energy to try figure out what was going on with him. I would just watch him carefully.
I activated my dad’s hospital tag NND. It showed that there was no one near and apart from their monitoring equipment, there were no other signals close. I tried to get a read on their location but ran into some difficulties, it seemed they were still moving. I would need a signal booster to compensate for the movement. I searched along the network and saw that both hospital beds had been converted and linked to my system. However, they were being moved, they were still on the original hospital beds, which made things much simpler for me. I had a small camera form on the leg of dad’s bed and waited to receive the images. It might help me see what was going on
After a while an image came through. It was dark, but I could make out a small compartment. The compartment held my parents’ beds side by side with their health monitoring equipment above and below the beds. This allowed space on either side of their beds for someone to move past. I saw a large metal door which looked like it would slide open.
“A train coach, they are on a train.” Matthew said.
I realized he was correct as he spoke, “There must be an underground connection to a train track from the hospital.” I said. “My parents are still on the same hospital beds and it might have looked suspicious pushing two people in hospital beds to a train station.”
“Maybe. How they got them on the train is not important right now. We need to know where the train is and where it is going, if you hope to have ArcCorp rescue them.” Matthew informed me.
I nodded and changed the camera NND to have legs. I had it move off the bed and to the train coach, fortunately there was plenty of material for my nanos to use to replicate, which I set them to do immediately. While that was busy happening, I moved the camera to one corner and had it climb to the top of the train coach. This would allow me to see a picture of the whole coach. The replication nanos would eventually move to the outside of the coach and become a booster for my signal. It would take a long time as the train was made from Aluminium foam. Converting too much aluminium would weaken the structure and the ‘foam’ composition, in between the two layers of aluminium, would not maintain any structure and collapse. My nanos would have to convert small sections of the train coach at a time. I had looked up the safety structural composition and limits of Aluminium foam, when I discovered that was what the train was made from. Not knowing much about that material, I had to be careful to ensure I did not cause the train to collapse because my nanos interfered with the structural safety of the train.
“If you ever get bored and are looking for a career change, let me know.” Matthew said.
“Huh?” I asked, still checking my figures to ensure I did not make a mistake.
“If you ever want to get out in the field and to become an operative, let me know. Your capabilities are impressive. With you as tech support any team would be a super team, never mind elite.” Matthew said.
“They would not mind having to baby-sit me?” I asked.
“Yeah well, I am revising that. I might have been wrong, thinking you needed baby-sitting.” Matthew informed me.
“How magnanimous of you.” I replied. He did not say that he had been wrong, only that he might have been. I nearly hit him over the head with the bedside table when he nodded his head, agreeing with my statement.
“Will we get an alert, when your system is able to determine exactly where your parents are?” Matthew asked, ignoring or not noticing my murderous look.
When I had not replied to him after a while, he turned and looked at me. He reached and passed me the cake I had placed back on the tray earlier. “Here, eat this, you look like you need some chocolate.” He told me.
At that stage, I was pretty sure I could murder him and get away with it. It would just take a bit of planning and no one would ever know I had done it.
“Well, I will listen to the rest of the German recordings later and see if I can learn anything new. For now, there is nothing much we can do. I suggest we go get a proper breakfast and then enjoy the cruise.” Matthew said. “I am sure once we reach Egypt things will be hectic and we won’t get a chance to just relax and enjoy.”
There might not be much we could do currently, but there were still plans I could make. I also needed to find the best way to get my grandfather’s diary. I would use a weasel INSL to find the grave but from there how to actually get the diary, I had not figured out. Seeing as I could research and eat at the same time, I followed Matthew. Maybe enjoying the sun and relaxing, would help me think better.
Chapter 8
In about two hours, we would arrive in Alexandria. I had checked online and found out that one of the hotels we could stay in, was close to the Montaza Palace compound. The nanos on my parents’ train, were also near to having reformed enough materials, that they could form a signal booster device. The device needed to be big and stable, to ensure it could give me an accurate location for the moving train. I also had it set to form underneath the train, as anywhere else would be too obvious and easily noticeable. The postcard INSL that I had sent to Richard, had still not been received, so I could not contact him yet. He should get it sometime today. All that I could do personally, was to go to the Montaza Palace and send my weasel INSL in, to search for my grandfather’s grave. Till I knew where the grave was and what it looked like, I could not make any further plans to get hold of the diary.
“We have a problem.” Matthew told me, as he entered the room. He had stayed outside after lunch, to mingle some more, while I had returned to our room.
“What?” I asked him.
“Something has happened, and they are going to use some mind reader device to force the information from your parents. The scan will damage their brains, leaving them in a vegetative state.” Matthew said.
My eyes widened in horror. My mind scan technology just checked emotional responses to questions and in a way a person’s integrity. It sounded like this device forcibly extracted information from a mind, scarring and damaging it along the way. I could not let them do this. I immediately sat back and linked to the nanos on the train. The beds my parents were on, were already converted and it was a simple matter to begin changing them to lonsdaleiterium. Which was a synthetic material developed, combining lonsdaleite with tranium, a very rare metal found twenty-two years ago in 2102, in a meteorite. I knew the structural composition of tranium, which would allow me to have my nanos make lonsdaleiterium. I wanted to make as much as possible and have it ready to form cocoons around my parents. The mattresses would stay, but the beds would transform into cocoons, surrounding my parents and protecting them.
“Do you have a time frame for when they will begin the scan?” I asked Matthew. I did not want to form the cocoons till the last minute. The more time I could buy, the better. For
ming the cocoons now, would let the Shadow Organisation know that we were aware and also show them some of the capabilities of my nanos and my nano network devices.
“They will pick up the scan device at the next changeover.” Matthew told me.
“Changeover?” I asked Matthew.
“Not sure what it means, maybe it means when they stop?” Matthew asked back.
“It doesn’t matter. Can you continue to monitor and let me know the moment they receive the device?” I asked him.
“Of course.” He said.
While I was busy, I wondered if I should have layers of different materials form the cocoons. That way, if they had something to cut or break through the first layer, they would have to change tools for the next. It would take them longer to break through my cocoons’ protection if I did this. Deciding the extra time, it would take to form the cocoon with different layers would be worth it, I set the nanos to do so. I checked, but Richard had still not received the postcard. I would have to protect my parents to the best of my abilities, till he did.
Once we disembarked from the ship, we quickly made our way to the hotel near the Palace compound. Matthew was quiet and did not stop to chat to the people from the ship, who tried to catch his attention. Watching him, I noticed that he was scanning and watching everything. The easy, relaxed person had disappeared, and the operative had taken over. I was thankful, I doubt I could have handled his fake cheery-friendly persona, with the worry I felt for my parents. Matthew checked us in and took my hand to lead me to our suite. I knew it was for show, we were still pretending to be the happy couple, but I was grateful for the small comfort it offered. Holding his hand, made me feel less like I was alone.
I had the signal booster begin to send a signal and to trace not only where my parents were exactly, but also the path they were taking. If we could figure out what track they were on, Richard’s forces could get ahead of them. Not knowing when things were going to happen, I made myself fall asleep. It was a few hours later that Matthew woke me up.
