Chapter 1

As I stepped out of the levi-bus, I stared at the steel ceiling above me.  Looks like it might rust today, I thought grimly.  I checked the batteries on my umbrella.  Stepping onto the nearest sidewalk, I let the walkway take me half a mile before I got off in front of my building.  I say building, but it wasn’t a building in the second millenium sense.  It was more like a cave, a hollowed out area in the steel world below the lunar surface.

As I approached the door, I held out my arm for the scan.  The door scanned my arm, then beeped.  I began to reach for the knob, then stopped.  Beep? I thought.  Normally the door buzzed when I scanned my arm.  I tried again.  The door beeped.  I looked at my arm, the bar code seemed fine.  I looked back towards the scanner, I saw no tampering visible.  However, I adjusted my eyes just in case.  I turned on the x-ray filter and zoomed in on the lock mechanism.  There!  One of the wires in the lock was cut, sliced down the middle by a high precision laser. I turned the multi-tool in my left index finger to magnet and connected the two pieces, then I switched the setting to solder and fixed the break.

I switched my eyes back to normal visual range and faced the door.  It was coated by a thin energy field, like all the doors in the complex, so I couldn’t see through it.  I knew somebody had tampered with my lock, and had probably entered my office, but I didn’t know if the culprit was still there.  I turned the neu-stim in my right index finger to heavy stun and scanned my arm.  The door buzzed and slid open.

What the fluck happened here?  At first glance, there seemed to be no damage.  All the furniture was intact, and there were no abnormalities on the reality level, but a quick visual switch revealed that the virtual contents of my office were trashed.   All of my documents were either corrupted or deleted, and the virtual furniture was smashed and scattered across the room.  The mess wasn’t an issue, I had backed up the room and all its contents before I closed shop last cycle.  However, someone had seen my data.  Before I hit restore, I would need to figure out who had done this, and why.

I adjusted my eyesight to my most used setting-Sleuth.  Sleuth was a setting I created, it automatically detected organic material, digital traces, and other potential clues.  I first let the automatic scanner do its job, while I diverted my attention away from my eyesight and logged into my virtual cubicle.

In my virtual cubicle, I had connected the records from the various devices scattered across my room.  I turned on the camera displays, and waited.  The video showed nothing interesting at first, but at around 2500 hours last night all the video and audio feeds went blank.  As expected. I thought to myself.  Any professional who could hack into my room would certainly be able to block a few cameras.  However, I had recently installed a new monitoring device in my office- pressure sensors on the floor.  Accurate to a high degree, the sensors would tell me what was on the floor and when, using it I could analyze an individual’s gait- extracting details about height, weight, and gender in the process.  I pulled up the screen for the pressure sensors and fast-forwarded to 2500 hours.  Then I waited.  

And waited.

And waited.

Fluck.  

Nothing appeared.  I reached over to turn off the display, but then, for the briefest of instances, a single footstep was visible.  I froze the playback- 25:23.  They must have used a levitational device, I thought.  I called out an analysis program, and set it to work on the footstep.  The analysis came back in three microseconds:

“Female, 5’6”-6’1” approximately 87 pilos, likely in late twenties based on shoe choice.”  The program then receded into the virtual data banks.

I nodded to myself and logged out of the virtual space.  I then checked my eyes to see if the scan picked anything up.  Fluck.  There were no clues.  None.  This woman was good, definitely a trained pro.  I went over to the grav-chair and sat down, allowing myself to drift in weightlessness.  I looked around the room as I thought to myself. Lady, youngish, athletic, skilled.  I mulled over the few clues I had as my gaze wandered.  What is that? I thought.  My eyes had just gleaned upon a tiny speck on the wall.  I got closer.  There appeared to be some sort of writing, but I couldn’t make it out.  I magnified my vision.  I could see the symbols- but they certainly weren’t written in standard.  I turned on the universal translator mode in my eyes and looked again.  The letters blurred and changed several times, but they eventually settled in their original shape.  Damn.  I took a picture of the letters and left my office.  I needed to find a code breaker.

Reviews

[Annabelle Lee]

I never read stories or books with my other profile because I simply didn't have the time. But this is ng. interesting. I think I'll continue reading. Nicely penned.

[Dean Lee]

Thank you!