Good.
I looked around the van and moved my head to see how much it would light the place. It wasn’t much, a person could see you of course, but if you were a few meters around the corner it wasn’t enough to give you away. “Huh. Nice. Did Prodromos make this?”
Deppy smiled a bit. “No, it was me. Her plan was to spoof the video feed. My plan is to leave everything running and trip no alarms. Our entry will get recorded, but if nobody gets suspicious and checks manually, they won’t even know we were there.”
I squinted at her. “You are taking to this life of industrial espionage like a duck to water.”
She exhaled, “It’s all up there on the internet, if you look for it.”
I checked my watch.
“Let’s do this or die trying,” I said.
“Let’s try not to die at all,” they both said in tandem.
Chapter 41
I felt damn silly, going in.
Crouching low, in my cat-burglar suit, dim lights on my head. Other than the disabling of the cameras, we followed Prodromos’ original plan to the letter. A blind spot in the back of the building allowed me to get over the fence. I was hurting various parts of my body, but the constant running from the Erinyes attacks had the flip side of keeping me in shape, even though it’s been only a couple of days.
I saw a light from an office at the second floor. I didn’t mind, the building was large enough for someone to keep working there but never come near me. I already knew that the R&D lab was on the ground floor, somewhere on the other side, away from that deadline champion.
I was coming in from the opposite side, the main entrance was the other way, so I stopped and did some mental orientation and moved my hands around to spin the path I had on my head. Yeah, I went in, to the right, so it’s my left now, and then down the hall, left again…
I suck at this.
I decided I’d figure it out once inside. I moved low and ran the way through the open space at the back of the building. The human security was minimal, we knew the patrol times. I was near the building. It wasn’t that dark, the back ‘yard’ had some big lights that made you see well enough. I was counting more on intelligence than stealth.
Not my intelligence thank God, but that of Prodromos’ research and Deppy’s steps.
I followed them to the letter. Like a rehearsed dance move, I slid to the side, behind a trendy modern half-wall that served no real purpose, then crouched all the way to its end. I jumped as fast as I could to some bushes, and stayed in there for twelve seconds.
I had no clue why I was doing all that, but Deppy had already gone through this four times and I was getting bored. I just did as I was told.
A patrol drone, one of those quadcopters, whirred and buzzed down the wall. It flew in a specific path, pivoting its camera around slowly, making sure no one was there. Two seconds too late and it would have caught me. It made an annoying sound, as if you got a thousand bees in a balloon and shook it around. I could feel the blades cutting the air, a slow breeze below it as it hovered.
Apparently, my positioning wasn’t precise.
The drone went low at the bush level, and moved with its back towards me. I wasn’t worried about it seeing me, so much as I was worried it bumping into me. I stayed perfectly still, and the blades, too quick to see as anything other than a blur, came right next to my face. It came a palm’s width away from my eyes, slicing the air. I stayed still. Then it buzzed in a higher pitch and gained height, moving on with its patrol.
I hugged the wall and moved to my right. I went around the corner, my limbs flat on the smooth surface, me doing my best octopus impersonation.
I found the service entrance. I swiped the card I stole from Dave earlier, and the door opened with a gling. I peeked inside, dim lights, nobody around.
I closed the door and moved silently down the corridor.
The second corridor was going straight down to the security desk at the main entrance. I peeked around the corner and saw a security guard staring at monitors and sipping coffee. It was another guy, not the one from before. If he glanced at my direction, he could see me as I crossed the corridor to the next one. Especially with those damn silly lights on my head, a stray reflection could shine right into his eyes even without him turning towards me.
I checked my watch and saw that time was ticking away.
I took in a breath, covered my face with my sleeve and turned off the lights on my headband. I crossed the corridor in steady quick steps, one two three and hop. That was it. I made sure to get a bit further around the bend and then turned on my headband lights again, so I was free to move my arm.
Then I got lost.
Skata.
Chapter 42
To my defence, the place was like a maze.
OK, fine, not that much. I admit it. My sense of direction is horrible. I sent a message to Deppy and she gave me directions.
I found the R&D lab, swiped Dave’s card and went inside. It was quiet now, the two or three young guys I had seen working there earlier were absent, as expected.
I held my breath for a minute, checking around for any sounds. It was clear. I closed the door carefully and went inside. I tiptoed around the gear, making sure not to bump into anything. Stuff lay on the floor, leaning at the edge of tables, it was a burglar’s nightmare trap. I decided that caution makes haste so I carefully walked around to Dave’s desk. The robotic arm behind me was inactive, computer parts at its side. It was neatly folded into a slanted pose, just like those robots in assembly lines.
I sat down, pressed a key to wake up the computer and plugged Deppy’s USB drive. I tapped the few steps she had instructed me and I saw a progress bar filling up.
Whaddayaknow.
Easy peasy.
I pursed my lips and congratulated myself in silence. As I waited, I looked around the lab. Veil phone prototypes were laid out in various stages, either plugged in devices, taken apart or simply plugged in to charge. One of those was pink, my own. I didn’t care for that. The progress bar was filling up, but it was slow. I swirled around the office chair once, then did it the other way.
I stopped myself in horror. There was a whir of servos and the robotic arm came to life. The welder tool at its tip for electronic parts threw out a few sparks. With superhuman speed it reached me, aligned the tool with my forehead and welded a straight vertical line at one side of my face, burning my skin, my eyebrow, and my eye, and then finishing deeply into my cheek.
Chapter 43
I fell on the floor hard. I managed to keep my scream of agony mostly contained, but a slight whimper came through.
The pain, the pain was manageable. I didn’t dare touch my face. I didn’t really want to know. I was shaking, tears in my eyes. Strangely, the right side of my face felt funny. Instead of the tear’s usual path at the side of my eye, an arc over my cheek and into the side of my mouth, this one fell straight down. My tear dropped on the floor, never reaching my lips. I hadn’t felt it brush my skin.
The orange robotic arm had taken it’s usual slanted relaxed pose over its base. Me, in shock, turned around to the computer monitor. There were a few minutes left still. I realised that I needed to lean my head to the right to see the monitor. I decided not to dwell on that too much.
My phone kept buzzing.
Messages were coming in one after another. My friends were telling me that someone was coming into the building, had parked and walked in.
I looked around, craning my neck to see with my left eye.
Deppy was sending me, “It’s the R&D guy, Dave. You need to leave now.”
I looked at the progress bar. It was seconds away.
Another text. “Billy will make a distraction in the front.”
I shook my head. “No. Stay put. I got this.”
The copy was finally complete and I pulled the USB drive without safely removing hardware. “Why yes, I do like to live dangerously,” I muttered and put the computer back to hibernation.
I looked around, picked up a sharp cutting tool for electronics. It looked like a scalpel.
I hid behind a stack of computers, the ones that come in closet size. Servers? Servers. I turned off my LED headband.
Dave came in his lab escorted by the security guy, chatting away. He fumbled through his desk and said to him, “No, not here either. Thanks man, I’ll call you when I need to leave. Must have dropped it from my wallet or something.”
The security guy said, “Anytime Mr. Andrews. Just make sure to declare it first thing in the morning.”
“Will do,” said Dave and sat down on his desk, cup of coffee in hand, ready for another all-nighter.
He sighed, and slapped a button to wake up his workspace.
Then he sniffed, and looked around. He checked the sole of his shoes, then stood up and sniffed behind him. He went to the robotic arm and leaned close to the welding tool, picking at it with his finger.
My burnt skin was on it.
He looked around, mumbling but alert.
I stepped out of my hiding place and stood in front of Dave.
“M-Mahi? Oh no. Oh no! What are you doing here? What have I done to your face?”
Chapter 44
“You listen now, I know what you are doing here. There is that infrasound from the phones you are planning to ship out, that makes people see monsters. One of them is dead,” I snarled, feeling my skin pull at me.
Don’t touch your face.
Don’t.
I was keeping my sharp tool in plain sight and staring him in the eyes.
Dave blinked. “It’s not me doing it.”
“Then who is?”
He gulped. “I’m not really sure. I’ve seen the reports too, we were ordered to ignore them and move along like nothing happened.”
“Ignore what exactly?” I demanded and took a few steps towards him. His gaze fell down on my feet.
“It’s a testing ground.”
“You wanna kill all the clients? That’s a hell of a marketing idea!”
“No, these are just large-scale tests I think. My hypothesis is that when enough people learn about the myth of Erinyes, and believe in it, the phones will be able to activate the,” he fumbled for a word.
“The chase,” I offered.
“The chase, and disrupt any person at all, effectively destroying his life. Sometimes, it ends up in death by shock, heart failure.”
I leaned close to him and put the sharp edge to his neck. “I know about the effective destruction of one’s life,” I said and gritted my teeth at him.
He shivered. “Look, I know what you did. You got my data. It’s fine. I won’t tell anyone you broke in. I’ll even scrub the logs. I wanna help, I really do.”
“Why would you want to help me expose your own company?” I asked in disbelief.
“Because I know that this is wrong, on many levels. I can’t guarantee I’ll give you any more information in the future, but I’ll help you for now,” he said.
I was taking in his words, trying to figure out if he was telling the truth.
“Plus, I have a crush on you.”
I blinked. “What?”
“I-I have a crush on you,” he repeated.
“You don’t even know me!”
“I do. You are all your dad ever talks about. Here, check my phone. I got your selfies saved on it.”
He passed me his phone and I said wearily, “That’s creepy Dave.”
I swiped around, my photos were on his picture gallery.
Damn.
“Yeah,” he let out a little laugh. “It is creepy. Would I admit to something like that if I wasn’t serious about letting you out of here? I’ll delete them, I swear.”
I waved his phone around. “So you won’t call security? You won’t tell my father? Or the police?”
“My lips are sealed my fair princess,” he said and locked his mouth with a gesture. His face turned sour then. “I’m terribly sorry about your face. I-I put that script but I didn’t…”
I raised a hand and interrupted him. I checked my watch.
“Stop it.” Then I gulped, and fought back my tears. I turned towards the door and stood in the frame.
“You can keep my photos,” I said, and left.
Chapter 45
As I said, I took her place.
Prodromos’ place.
I adopted the nickname, took on her crusade. Though mine is a lot less churchy and a bit more… Active.
I’ve become a conspiracy nut, because I found myself inside a conspiracy. I left school, abandoned my home. My parents have gone crazy with worry. Police are after me, but I’m just another runaway teen.
There are people out there who are experiencing the same thing as me, their guilt, their personal furies taking form and chasing them non-stop. I have to help them. The mega-corporation Hermes is rolling out this new technology en-masse, a new state of living in the modern world that blends the virtual with the real, throwing a veil on top of everything.
Deppy is my hacker. We meet from time to time, and she gives me tricks and tools to avoid the authorities, or worse, the private sector security firms. I swear she gets a kick out of doing this hacking stuff. She has applied that heuristic thingy and pinpointed people who are or will be chased by Erinyes. I asked her to try and take down all the creepypasta online about Erinyes, in a futile attempt to limit the effect. But, as every censorship attempt in recent history has proven, it is impossible to make the internet shut up about something.
Billy also helps me out sometimes. He brings me his mom’s pita, the homemade pie I like. He has helped me contact some people and try to get them out of this Erinyes chase. They are together with Deppy now, and I’m happy about it.
I kept the van. The computer gear is pretty much beyond my capabilities, but I need to stay on the move. My life now comes in intervals of a-hundred-and-nine minutes. I eat, rest, work, all inside that timeframe. Then I run.
I never admire myself in the mirror anymore. My narcissistic tendencies, as Billy would call them, have gone for good. I have a deep straight scar at the right of my face, burnt skin around it and an eye that’s glossy. I never take a picture of myself anymore. My eye is better now, I can see some shapes.
Prodromos is dead. I checked. She had wiped herself from all records and had assumed fake identities. They were so intricate that Deppy showed me how to utilise them for myself. The young woman I met never told me her real name.
I took her place. I’m Prodromos. But for now, I gotta run. My Erinyes are after me.
The End
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Erinyes Page 8
