Mind Trace (30 page)

So, when I need to work, I can just go "watch
television," but really slip off the couch and go to my lab. They'll never
even know I left the room.

Garrett deftly slipped into his new routine. When he
finished working for the night, he quietly crept back onto living room sofa.
After a few moments, he made a big show of yawning and stretching, before
standing up to go to bed.

Nothing else to do tonight, not until I get more
information.

***

Alice woke up groggy with a pounding headache.

What is it with these people and their tranquilizers? I
get it already.

She was vaguely aware of her ankle feeling strangely light.

They took off the bracelet?

Her elation was short-lived as she realized it had merely
been switched to her other foot.

I guess they switched it when they refilled the
tranquilizers.

Sweet of them…

She scratched the itchy spot on her now bare ankle with
much relief.

Alice sat up slowly, swinging her feet around. She'd really
messed things up now. If Eric had begun to trust her, all of that had probably
been undone when she hit him, regardless of motive.  She hoped he was not so
angry that he stopped letting her work in the lab.

Her bleary eyes made out red letters of the clock next to
her.

4:30am? Wow. Apparently, being tranquilized repeatedly
makes one keep strange hours.

Alice laid awake, thinking. The scanner had been a success
and all that remained was to make the transmitter… And remove her ankle
bracelet, disable the hidden signal in her glasses, escape the facility, and
somehow reveal the treachery of a global organization to the rest of the
population, all without being caught. 

No pressure.

She gave a small laugh.

Anything's possible, and it doesn't hurt to be
optimistic… That's really all I can do right now.

By the time she showered and dressed, it was a little after
6:00am.

Still too early to expect visitors.

Alice paced around the small area that was now her home.
With nothing better to do, she decided to inspect the keypad to see if she
could have any sort of breakthrough. It wouldn't do her any good to find a way
to dispose of the ankle bracelet, only to be unable to open the cell door.

The keypad was the same as before. It still required a palm
scan, combined with the correct entry of a keycode for the door to open. 
Looking at the small keypad, she knew she could only enter three wrong combinations
before it would set off an alarm. She also knew that any attempt to open the
door would most likely be logged, but she didn't care.  Alice placed her palm
on the scanner anyway, just to see what would happen.

A small beam of greenish light scrolled up and down the pad
as it scanned her palm. A few seconds later, the small display flashed "Access
Denied," before going dark again. She half expected it to say, "Nice try,
Alice," but there was no such message.

As she lifted her hand off the scanner, she experienced a
strange sensation. There was a strong buzzing in her head, and she could almost
feel the air around her hand vibrate. She quickly pulled her hand back and it
abruptly stopped.

That's strange…

She tentatively lowered her hand to the scanner again, this
time moving much slower.  Once she was a few inches away, the strange buzzing
began again, but not as intense. She experimentally moved it around the area
where the terminal was, and found that it increased when it was near the
scanner and the terminal.

Alice knew from the blueprints of the building where the
data lines were positioned inside the walls, and ran her hand along the wall,
tracing the wires. The strange buzzing sensation increased each time her hand
hovered over them, and subsided whenever she moved her hand away.

She pulled her hand away again, stepping back. Alice stared
at the wall as if the answers would simply spell themselves out in front of
her.

What does this mean? Is this yet another new "feature"
I have to get used to? It's almost like I can sense data transmissions, but
that's impossible.

Even if it wasn't impossible, what would I do with such
an ability?

Looking down, she noticed she was exclusively using her
right hand, the hand that had been burned. She stepped forward again and tried
moving her left hand along the wires. She waited as long as she could manage,
but nothing happened.

Okay… It's probably just my body's strange way of
protecting itself from being electrocuted again. It's just sensing electrical
fields so it can tell me what to avoid... Self defense. Yeah, that's it.

That reason sounded as good as any, and she was not
prepared to accept any of the more unbelievable explanations.

As she was standing there next to the door, she made out the
faint noises of someone passing by in the hall. She jumped back fast when the
door in front of her opened. 

It was the entourage of guards that brought her breakfast.
The man in front seemed as shocked as Alice was to see her standing there so
closely. He gathered his composure and cleared his throat.

"Please stand back, ma'am."

She obediently went to the other side of the room and the
man brought in her food. He gave her a curt nod before departing.

She ate her breakfast in silence, pondering her new skill.
Alice wondered if she would ever truly know herself again. She was aware that
certain changes had occurred, but it seemed that she was constantly being
reminded that she was not the same person she once was.

Three hundred and twenty-nine seconds after she finished
her breakfast, the door to her room opened again. It was the normal set of
guards, ready to bring her to the lab for the day.

I guess Eric is in a forgiving mood...

She was sure that he didn't trust her, but apparently he
valued her work more than he desired to punish her.

Everything was getting so complicated. She was consumed by
worries and was running out of time. Either her secret would be discovered, or
she would soon lose her perspective. Alice had to break free before she did
something she would regret, like start to believe that Eric wasn't really a
monster after all. 

***

Once Alice entered her lab, she redoubled her efforts. She
made an acceptable amount of progress on the hovercraft, then poured herself
into completing the transmitter. It was becoming a habit now, working on one
thing while pretending to work on another; skillfully hiding her progress
behind computers and other equipment, out of the watchful eyes of the cameras.

When she had done all she could with the equipment she
currently had, she passed her work through the wall and began composing a list
of materials she would need to finish the next phase. It took extra time to
integrate the items into something that could be justified, but it was no
considerable task for Alice.

She finished writing down the last item and set the paper
down. She reread the list, idly tapping the pen on the table, when it clumsily
flew out of her hand and rolled into the dark recesses under the desk.

You have to be kidding!

Alice sighed, pushed her chair back, and crawled under the
desk to retrieve the lost pen.  She finally spotted it in a cluster of wires
near the back wall. She thrust her hand forward into the wires without thinking,
and her brain was suddenly jarred with an intense buzzing that permeated her
skull.  She reflexively jerked back, catching her forehead on some sharp area
beneath the desk in the process.

She backed gingerly out from under the desk and sat on the
floor rubbing her head. When she pulled her hand back, she saw blood. 

This day just keeps getting better.

Alice was deeply disturbed by this new development in her
abilities. Was she going to react like that every time she came into contact
with data streams? That was going to make her job a lot more difficult. She did
her best to staunch the flow of blood from the cut on her head while she sat
there, imagining her possible future.

Alice didn't get very far when the main door flew open, and
several guards entered. 

"Is everything okay, ma'am?" One of the guards
asked her before the group rounded the corner to see where she was sitting. She
should have known they would come running when they noticed her on the floor.

"I'm fine, I just bumped my head," she responded,
irritated. 

Then the first guard saw her and the blood on her hands and
it seemed that everyone panicked all at once.

"Radio for medical, we have a situation here, in the
McArthur lab."

"Notify Martin."

"Where's the nearest med kit?"

Does no one care that this isn't life-threatening?

Alice rolled her eyes, and raised her voice to address the
bustle of guards. "I'm fine, like I already told you! It's just a scratch.
Please tell 'medical' or whomever it was you just called that they won't be
needed. And Eric definitely does
not
need be informed."

She might as well have spoken to the wall, for the good it
did.  Alice shook her head and reached for the nearest worktable to pull
herself up.

"Ma'am, please. Lie down and wait for the medic to
arrive." 

A uniformed man was standing over her with a grim
expression.  He was attempting not to seem menacing, but he wasn't remotely
successful.

"This is ridiculous! I'm not dying! Everyone is
overreacting!"

Her head was still bleeding, but it had lessened now. She
pretended to look defeated, as if she had accepted the guard's order, and
surrendered to wait until the medic arrived. When he relaxed slightly, she
leapt up with considerable speed and backed up, away from the guard.

"Wait, what? I told you to stay there!" he
growled. "Gonzales, Milligan! Over here, now!"

He slowly approached her, as one would approach a rabid
animal. The other two men came around the other side of the table, fencing her
in. Alice couldn't believe everyone was making such a big deal out of a simple
cut.

What is wrong with these people?

Even though she knew reasoning with them would do no good,
she tried anyway.

"Look, I really am fine. I just need a bandage or
something and I can get back to work. Really. There's no need for any of this."

"Just calm down. We'll determine that for ourselves,
if you don't mind." 

The first guard spoke to her slowly and calmly, but it just
sounded patronizing in her ears.  She had just begun to plan some way to fend
off the guards, when three more people entered the room. They were wearing dark
blue scrubs and immediately began scanning the room. Their eyes all fell on
her, taking in the situation.

While she was distracted by the medical team, the guards
took the opportunity to tackle her to the ground. 

"Watch her head!" she heard someone yell.

Alice struggled madly, but there were too many people
holding her down. Her thoughts swirled around in her head.

Am I missing something? Was I mortally wounded by the
table and just didn't notice?

The medics came over, bringing a stretcher. Before she knew
what happened, she was strapped into the stretcher, and unable to move. They
put a mask over her face and she found that thinking was becoming difficult.
She was still conscious, but she felt lethargic and her head felt thick.

Her internal clock was conscious of the time passing, but
her immediate consciousness was not. Alice was vaguely aware that people were
looking at her head, treating it, and then it was scanned several times by
different machines.

After a couple hours, her awareness began to return to her.
Alice looked around and found that she was now in her own room, lying on her
bed. Eric sat in a chair next to her, staring at her intently. He had an almost
worried expression on his face, which looked out of place on his normally stern
features. 

Through her weak thoughts, it occurred to her that she
should feel nervous about seeing him again after what happened during their
last encounter.  Alice was determined to show that she had every intention of
being professional about the whole situation.

As she regained the full use of her facilities, she
prepared what she felt was an adequate explanation for her actions, and tried
to sit up to begin her rationalization.

Eric had other plans and suddenly, he was there.

"Don't get up. You need to take it easy, Alice."
He gently pressed her back into the pillow. 

Once he was reassured she would not try to sit up again, he
sat down in the chair once more.

"How are you feeling? Are you alright?"

Alice stared at him, unsure of herself. She expected him to
be angry with her, or at least wary, but it seemed he had overlooked the entire
affair. His unexpected concern shattered all her planned responses and she was
left dumbstruck.

"You'll have to forgive my staff. They were only following
orders. Any kind of injury, no matter how small, is to be taken seriously. I
was informed that you were quite agitated
by the attention."

His blatant dismissal of the ridiculousness of the
situation angered her and she responded, "It was completely unnecessary. I
just bumped my head!"

He gave a short laugh. "Well, you'll be surprised to
know that you had three stitches today."

"What?"

Once again, she was derailed. She reached up immediately  to
feel the side of her forehead. Her fingers grazed the stitches and she
shuddered, pulling her hand back.

"You checked out fine. We ran a few tests to make sure
nothing else was damaged, but it was only the abrasion. How did this happen,
exactly?" He raised an eyebrow and looked at her quizzically.