Mind Trace (8 page)

Huh?

Alice jolted up, panicking. She had no idea where she was;
she surveyed the room around her. It seemed to be some sort of small hotel
room, but a glance at the knob-less door made her realize it was nothing more
than a glorified prison cell. There was a twin-sized bed against one side of
the wall where she was currently, across from a small desk. Off to the corner
were two doors. She assumed one was a bathroom.

She swung her legs over the edge of the bed,
experimentally.  Alice swayed, still feeling slightly unstable. Thankfully, she
was still dressed in her clothes, including her shoes. 

Okay, move slowly. I need to figure out what's behind
those doors.

As she leaned forward, she heard a sharp click, followed by
a whirring noise.  The door was unlocked, and slid smoothly into a recess
within the wall.

In the doorway, two men dressed in the same tactical
uniform of the day before came into view. She knew exactly twenty-two hours,
seventeen minutes, and thirty-two seconds had passed since she was unconscious.
Apparently, one of the new abilities she had was an inherent and accurate
ability to keep track of time.

I guess I don't need a watch anymore…

The two men entered and stood on either side of the room.
Another man followed behind with some kind of mobile restraint vehicle, resembling
an elaborate chair on wheels.

Okay, I don't know who those guys are, but they're crazy
if they think I'm going to get in that thing.

As her mind was racing, Eric came into view. He still
looked as handsome and immaculate as ever, sporting yet another fitted suit.

Does he have an endless supply of those?

Not that it matters, but I must look awful right now...

 "Given the sedatives still lingering in your system,
we thought it best if you came along in this," Eric said, gesturing
towards the contraption between the two men. "And, it also prevents you
from entertaining any kind of foolish ideas."

"I'm fine, really. There's no need for any of that,"
she replied, trying to sound convincing.

Seeing that he had no inclination to agree with her, Alice shot
up off the bed before anyone could assist her.  She misjudged the effect of
being sedated for nearly twenty-four hours, however, and her knees buckled, dropping
her promptly to the floor.

"I can see that, clearly," Eric replied mockingly.

Two of the men rushed to her sides and each took a firm
grip on either arm. Her mind weakly began to access data on different ways to
break free from holds, but she knew her body was in no condition to follow
through on anything. The men guided her to the chair, swiftly closing all of
the clasps on the various restraints.

One of the guards took a position behind her chair,
steering her from the room. The group moved down the hallway, Eric taking a
place on her left side. He narrated as they walked.

"You are quite a fortunate young woman. Do you realize
where you are?"

More accurately than you know.

Eric did not give her a chance to respond. "We are
deep within the sublevels at EngineerCorp, which house some of the most classified
and important projects we manage. Most people do not even realize that this place
exists, as the rest of the campus above ground is impressive enough. There are
nine different levels below ground, and we are on Level Five. The majority of
this level is filled with housing suites, conference rooms and observation
areas."

They maneuvered down so many twists and turns, she would
have gotten lost if she did not have the entire blueprints downloaded in her
head.

He's doing this on purpose, hoping I will be too lost
and confused to know where I am.

They entered an elevator at the end of one hallway,
activated by a retinal scan. To the left of the elevator, a guard stood in what
appeared to be a security station.

As the elevator closed and they began moving, Eric
continued his monologue. "Security is of the upmost importance. There are stations
on each level by the elevators, and regular patrols on each floor."

His eyes came to rest on her, as if to drive the point
home.

"I also have seven special ops teams on stand-by. You
met a few of them yesterday.  So don’t worry, you will be perfectly safe here."

Safe
?

That was a joke. Alice knew that he might have used the
word "safe," but really meant
trapped
. He was just using this
grand tour as an opportunity to make her see the futility of planning any sort
of escape.

While they were waiting in the elevator, she surveyed the
men that were with Eric.

Hmm. Your average security guard type. Nothing exciting
there. That third man…he's somebody important. Someone you don't want to mess
with.

He stood next to Eric, and gave off the vibe that he was as
close to his equal as there would ever be. No one could really compete with
Eric Martin, of course, but this man did demand respect. Her mind began to fill
in the rest of the details from his personnel file. Grant Finnigan, forty-eight
years of age, former Navy SEAL, decorated with more awards and achievements
than even he could recall. He had been working for Eric since the company was
founded. Unofficially, he was Eric's second-in-command, and he was completely
loyal to him.

He had thick, black hair, peppered with gray. His face had
some wrinkles, but his body was in excellent condition. His arms were thickly
muscled, and she could tell, even through his uniform, that the rest of his
body was too. Of course, he would not have needed that to look intimidating.

One look at his face would tell you everything you
needed to know.

The elevator dinged softly, signaling their arrival on the eighth
floor. The doors opened onto another hallway, almost identical to the one they
left. 

Eric was silent for a few moments before saying, "You
know, Alice, I never expected this. How could someone of your age and
experience hack into one of the most secure networks in the world? What would
possibly prompt you to take on such a task? It’s very curious. Of course, we
shall find these details out shortly."

They had arrived at a large, steel door, with one tiny
peephole near the top. After yet another retinal scan, the door opened and she
was wheeled inside.

On the schematic for the complex, this room wasn't
labeled.

 Now, I know why…

In the middle of the room was a wicked-looking chair, not
unlike the kind found at a dentist's office. It was also covered in restraints.

Where do they get this stuff? Is there a catalog of
torture devices?

Alice was doing everything she could to control her
emotions, not letting anyone know how terrified she was. Her heart was pounding
in her ears, while her overactive imagination did its best to derail her
composure.

Above, and directly next to the chair, were multitudes of
medical devices. Knowing what each of them was for, she shuddered and did her
best to ignore the knowledge.  Alice was trying resolutely to stay calm,
although she was finding it increasingly difficult. Eric had been silent since
they entered the room, watching her closely.

"Alice, we are going to try to get some answers.
However, if you refuse to cooperate, we may have to take more
unconventional
means. I am going to do my best to avoid those unpleasantries, but I will need
your help to do so."

Does he actually believe he's doing me any favors? How deluded
can a person get?

He turned to the men surrounding Alice and said, "Move
her to the chair."

No, no, no. This can't end well...

Whatever fog had been lingering in her brain had abruptly
cleared. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wanted to believe that all of
this was for show. That she would be too scared to risk the consequences of
withholding information. 

Please, please don't be some kind of sick, twisted
torturer. Surely, he couldn't have gotten this far in life if he was?

She remained as unmoving and listless as possible, trying
to give the impression that she was still weak from sedation. When her last
restraint was undone, she leapt forward from the chair, only making it about a
foot before all three men tackled her and regained control. They promptly moved
her to the terrifying device, and she was effectively restrained before she had
a chance to react.

Once she was secured, two of the men took position by the
door. The third exited the room, presumably to stand guard on the other side.
Eric pressed a small button on a console near the door, and a few moments
later, a nondescript man in a lab coat emerged through the door.

Lab coats? Definitely not good.

"Alice, this is Dr. Eichmann. He is going to monitor a
few things while we talk. We are developing a new type of polygraph machine
that takes into account much more than any conventional detector. It monitors
brain waves to determine if certain key areas show activity, indicating if a
person is accessing memories or creating new ones."

Alice did her best to watch what Dr. Eichmann was doing,
but she could hardly move under the restraints. He moved swiftly around her,
hooking up several probes at different points on her head, along her arms, and
on her chest.  She could barely make out the monitor on the edge of her vision,
now showing multicolored graphs of activity. Once he was satisfied with his
work, the doctor excused himself, saying he would be in the next room if he was
needed.

Eric motioned to the guards on either side of the door,
telling them to wait on the outside. Then, slowly and deliberately, he pulled a
chair up next to Alice and settled down where she could clearly see his face.

Breathe. Just breathe. I just have to play it cool,
answer his questions as best as I can, without giving him any reason to suspect
anything else. I have to relax.

Alice cleared her throat, and tried to sound calm. "I
think all of this has been a big misunderstanding. I'm sure we can talk this
out, and come to some sort of agreement."

She grew bolder as she spoke; listening to the sound of her
own voice made her feel less helpless.

"I'm even willing to overlook this obvious display of
barbaric behavior."

This is ridiculous. I'm strapped down to a chair in some
secret underground lair. Who am I kidding? I have no ability to bargain with
this man.

Eric was silent, allowing her to speak. His blue eyes were
impassive, revealing nothing.

Alice went on. "I'm not sure what you think happened
here. A couple days ago, I received an email from whom I assumed to be
EngineerCorp, asking for a field test against SteelSafe 2.0.  So, I decided to
take up the challenge.

"I happened to find a way past the security, only to discover
that it was your live servers, which somehow initiated a full server dump. The
sudden surge of data across my Ethernet cables proved to be too much for my
system, and burned them up before any data was downloaded.

"I became concerned about the situation, and thought
it was a good idea to leave town for a few days to let the whole thing blow
over... and give everyone time to figure out what actually happened, before
anyone did anything rash. 

"When I saw you in town, asking about where I lived, I
panicked, which I think was a reasonable response, given the circumstances. So,
yes, I am sorry that I hacked into your server, but I only did so because I was
deliberately misled. Fortunately, I didn't compromise any of your data; you can
find the burnt wires at my house if you don't believe me.  Search my computers,
my hard drives; you won't find anything!"

 She caught her breath and looked up at Eric, straining to
see his reaction.

What's he thinking? Does he believe me? I know I talk
too fast... Did he even understand what I was saying?

He sat very still for a moment, and then spoke. "We
did find the cables you spoke of. And that is one nasty-looking burn on your
hand, if I might add. It must have hurt a great deal. We were able to verify
that you were in contact with them at the time of the incident."

She winced slightly as he examined her hand. He laid it
gently back on the armrest and looked at her, deeply sighing.

"Alice, I might be more inclined to believe you if we
hadn't found these…"

Eric held up the security system transmitter that she had
made, along with the drawings.

She mentally cursed.

The drawings! How did I forget about those? Apparently
having a computer in your head does not make one immune to distraction and
exhaustion
.

"We were able to determine that this device has
components directly derived from our security system. My engineers have not yet
had a chance to examine it fully, but they will. There is no way you could have
created this without at least partially downloading information from our
servers."

"And these drawings…" he flipped through the
small stack of papers. "Parts of these designs are based on theoretical
sciences that have not yet been completely explored. I do not even have a
person in my employ that can fully interpret what these devices are capable of.
This uses far more advanced physics and math than I have ever seen. That seems
awfully extraordinary to me, even for a person of your experience."

As Eric was talking, Alice felt a knot growing in the pit
of her stomach.  How could she have been so careless? She should have been
quicker, realized that they would come for her.

I could have avoided all of this...

Garrett doesn't even know where I am, or have any idea
how to help me, not that he could. What can I possibly do now? I can't answer
any more of his questions without implicating myself. The less I reveal, the
better off I am.