Oswin looked back at Billie for a moment as Altier sharply exited the room - did he count as technology? Should he attempt to shut himself down, in case his existence here proved to be particularly risky to the safety of other people?
No, no. You already just did that, and it made everyone panic, including yourself. If someone tells you directly, then that’s different, but at the moment you don’t want to step on anybody’s toes.
And not just because you weigh so much.
With an artificially-produced sigh, he stalked out after Altier, looking at the shirts in his hand and trying to decide if he should attempt to put either of them back on now or wait until things were less stressful. Completely distracted, he entirely forgot about Altier’s request to grab Gracie.
Outside of a nervous glance at Bynari fueled by his attempt to access his body earlier, Oswin completely missed the rest of the conversation as he stared in utter horror at the blood seemingly gushing out of Clarissa’s ear. Her mention of it ‘looking worse that it actually is’ shattered upon contact with Oswin’s skull. She was very clearly about to die from blood loss and possibly lose her hearing in that ear as well, which was somehow worse in Oswin’s mind than dying from blood loss.
Finally the situation began to make some headway in revealing itself to Oswin, although the severity of it had not yet landed. He looked back and forth between Altier, Clarissa, and John, but otherwise stayed in place.
Billie looked at Altier with confusion and concern. She was still having mild whiplash for what she had just explained, so she needed a moment to process his words.
What does he mean, compromised?
Finally she nodded and pulled out her phone to turn it off. It was better to take precautions, just in case. If what Altier was saying was true, then what did it mean for this job? If it really was as bad as Altier made it sound, then was all of this over before it could even properly begin? Did she steal these files from the police for nothing?
When she looked up from her phone, having successfully turned it offline, both Altier and the kid were gone from the room. Before Billie could contemplate how ironic it was that she wanted to leave the med bay so much yet she was the last person left in it, she got a sudden urge to get out of there and rushed into the main area immediately. Ever since that day, she couldn’t stand staying in places that even remotely resembled a hospital.
She couldn’t help but be glad that she never got to see that kid laying on that hospital bed in med bay one in person, otherwise she would’ve risked having another panic attack.
Billie approached the group in her usual manner, trying not to draw too much attention to herself and stood to the side, not too close to them, with her hands in her pockets, listening to the broker.
It turned out that Altier was right. If the people who were hiring her couldn’t take control of this situation, then how could she really trust them with anything. All of this fancy tech and they still can’t do anything?
Then she noticed Clarissa’s bloodied ear. She quickly put together what was going on with the girl, figuring out that this was related to the ear pieces they were wearing and the horrible sound they heard just minutes ago. She likely tried to remove it and…
Billie wasn’t eager to find out how exactly these things worked if removing them drew blood. She hated the idea of a piece of tech being attached to her brain, and she hated the idea of said piece of tech being compromised even more.
Despite her best efforts not to look at Oswin the entire time, she couldn’t help but throw a short glance at him, a hit of concern showing in her eyes as she realized what the ear piece being compromised could probably mean to him, given his artificial body; however she was quick to look away immediately. Not only was she incredibly embarrassed by what she had to do in the med bay, but also her fear of looking at the kid persisted.
What am I doing? It’s not him…
Billie turned to the broker.
“What about these?” She asked pointing at her ear that contained the communication device. They have been with us ever since we were at the-
Suddenly a realisation hit her. That girl wasn’t at the diner. She hadn’t met Cass or anyone else before coming here. These things are definitely not sold commercially…
Billie tensed and her head slowly turned towards Clarissa. “Hey, you. Where’d you get one of these?” Billie’s voice was cold and serious and her eyes were locked on the girl. Even if initially her injury had been met with some concern from Billie, none of that was present in her now.
Clarissa’s eyes grew wide as she could feel a cold sweat break out. Her attempt at downplaying her ear didn’t stop Billie from noticing. Instinctively, she reached to touch her ear. She caught herself, stopping her arm midway to her ear, but then decided to check her ear anyway; the motion making her look even more suspicious despite her not wanting to look that way.
Touching her ear, she could feel the warmth of blood. Her ear throbbed from the injury. Looking at the tip of her fingers, she verified that she was still bleeding, but not as badly as earlier.
“I …” she started, noticing that all eyes were on her, “I bought it from one of the guys at school.” She said, hanging her head in anticipation of a verbal confrontation that she really wanted to avoid. It had been a rough week, and today was getting worse.
“So I heard,” Altier said, prodding his earpiece before John confirmed the idea.
“Sure. Where do the wires come in? Might as well check to see if it’s something nearby first before determining it’s fully remote.”
Altier was going to ask the same question as Billie regarding the earpieces. Seemed it would be best to get them removed or deactivated for the time being. If even they couldn’t explode his head, he still wasn’t sure how much it could read and collect his mental data. The idea of just ripping them out, like Clarissa, when they didn’t know the which model or method these things used for sending images to the brain was insane.
Altier had not fully considered the question until Billie brought it up. He didn’t pay enough attention to notice she had one until the ear was bleeding. It was a good question, but couldn’t she had rendezvoused with Cass? Assuming she didn’t work for these guys prior but John made it pretty clear she’s new. And dumb enough to rip it out.
“How many college interns do you hire? I have a fantastic guess as to how they got in,” Altier says towards John.
John answered Billie, not taking his eyes off of Clarissa. “We have a device at the workstation with Bynari, and another one in the Med Bay. If you try for the Med Bay, it’s in the top drawer closest to the door. Otherwise ask Bynari and he’ll get you setup.”
John nodded to Altier and pointed to the server room near the workstations. “Ask Bynari to let you in. There is a ladder that leads to the catwalk for the main trunk lines that come in from the surface. Be careful around the power lines, those feed the broadcast antenna on the roof.”
Looking back to Clarissa he says in a stern voice. “Talk.” She looks at him, anxiously looking between him and the group. “I want his name.”
Clarissa answers him, the name recognizable by Billie, Altier and Gracie (if she is present) “His name is Ian Jacobs.”
Ian is known around town for theft and was recently released by the OBCD after a reported assault with a firearm. Ian has been able to squirm out of pretty much anything and the rumors from this last ‘slap on the wrist’ have been nothing more than wild assumptions.
Turning to Bynari, John orders him to run a background check on Ian.
Gracie, after a very long moment of alone time, finally felt ready to go back, and thus (after getting lost for a bit) made it back to the main area. She grabbed her backpack on the table, and took in the whole situation.
Ok…the kid is fine…good…
She sighed, feeling partially guilty about leaving them behind but…y’know, he refused her help and is the reason for this so…
“We can finally get rid of these? Awesome.”
She pointed to the earpiece. She’d had enough of them. They were annoying, intrusive, and dumb on all accounts. If it was her choice, she’d remove it, then blow it up till there was nothing left.
“Where is he again?”
She couldn’t remember names, she sucked at them, only really remembering faces. Names had to be constantly used and repeated again and again, otherwise she’d forget them at the drop of a hat, and even then it wasn’t perfect.
John raised an eyebrow at the girl before looking over his shoulder to Bynari. Pointing to the workstations he said “Bynari is over there. And to answer your question, we’re under lockdown until we can secure the facility.” Then looking back to Clarissa he added, “And get some answers.” His tone taking on a sense of finality.
Bynari looked up from his work station and said “Looks like the servers have been breached, but the firewalls are holding … for now anyway.” reaching into the drawer next to him, he pulls out a handful of devices that are similar in dimension to a smartphone. Tossing one to Altier, he says “This will help us locate any sources of intrusion. I already have them set for a wide spectrum scan. If you find something, follow the prompts and let either John or myself know.” He then walks over to John and hands him a device as well. “I’ll leave the rest here for anyone else that wants to help.” Then looking to Oswin, he adds “Not sure what your prosthetic hardware is like, but if you have networking capabilities; I would recommend locking those down too.”
Altier catches the device and inspects it to see if it has a flashlight mode. His was back in the truck and he doubted they would let him retrieve it. Of course, he could try using his phone but didn’t want to risk turning it back on.
“Right. Just let me remove the earpiece first.”
He’ll go to the workstations and use the one device as instructed to get rid of the earpiece. Then place it with the others discarded ones.
“Good luck with the rat. The only thing he didn’t try stealing of mine are the platform boots,” Altier commented as he heads into the server room and looked for the ladder.
It had been awhile since he last climbed one. The boots made them completely unnecessary. That was their purpose after all, a wearable ladder. Once found, he’ll follow along the catwalk and where the lines lead, trying to find anything or anyone suspicious in the space.
After watching Altier remove his earpiece,
Gracie walked over and mimicked his actions, although more clumsily, but after a bit of finagalling, the earpiece came out. She sighed in relief-Her ear was free of the demon machine.
100 EXP! Achievement unlocked!
An intrusive thought sounded, because it wasn’t enough already to try and register everything that was going on…
And there goes one…
She felt more out of place than ever, the cold and sterile grey walls a frightful clash against her painfully colorful clothes. She shifted around uncomfortably, bouncing on her heels, internally hoping something might happen before she did.
Should I stay or should I go, da na na na na nah, should I stay or should I go…
She contemplated for a bit…then shrugged, and grabbed one, before staring at it, as if trying to burn a hole through the device.
The look on Billie’s face clearly signified that she wasn’t convinced by Clarissa’s words. She didn’t find the idea that something like that could be acquired from someone at school to be a particularly believable one.
She didn’t have anything to add, so she just waited for somebody else, preferably the broker, to comment on her words instead. Surely, he’d say something to say.
Billie quickly considered her options. She was definitely not going back to the med bay, but she also didn’t know how the device worked, and she didn’t want to ask Bynari, or anyone else, for help. She could only hope that someone else would try to remove their ear piece first, then she could use that as an example to remove hers.
The name that Clarissa gave was definitely a familiar one to Billie, but she couldn’t quite remember why. She had the lifestyle of a hermit, so she didn’t really engage with the town’s normal day to day life all that much, meaning that this guy’s notoriety went mostly unnoticed by her.
Was it something she had heard on the local radio once or twice? If so, what was so special about him?
Billie didn’t like the sound of that. Being unable to focus on the job that she came here for without the possibility to leave until the issue was resolved didn’t sound particularly appealing to her.
She ignored Bynari’s call for help with locating the source of the problem using one of the devices he’d pulled out of his table. It was unlikely that she would be of any help with resolving this computer related issue, and, considering that it wasn’t an actual part of this job, she wasn’t all that eager to do anything about it.
Billie considered the possibility that the breach could be related to the thing she had seen in the store. If true, she’d be able to verify that with her goggles, but she quickly decided against using them as the facility contained even more electronics than upstairs, so she wouldn’t have been able to get a clear picture of anything with the amount of interference created by all the tech surrounding her.
Billie watched Altier and then Gracie walk up to Bynari’s table and remove their ear pieces using the device John had pointed towards.
When both of them were gone, she took the device and tried repeating their actions, but wasn’t nearly as successful and failed to get it to work after about a minute of trying, not being nearly as tech-savvy as the two. She made one final attempt, this time shaking the device around a bit, hoping that it would help, but to no avail.
Billie looked around nervously, to see if somebody witnessed her failure and began to seriously consider ripping the ear piece out by hand instead of trying to figure out how the device worked or attempting to ask someone for help. After all, it could hurt all that much, and she didn’t even consider leaving the ear piece in as a possibility.
Her free hand slowly began moving towards her ear.
After searching the display on the device Altier is able to find a flashlight option. Tapping the icon, a menu appears (White, Ultra Violet, Electromagnetic, Infrared)
John left, leaving Clarissa to sulk as he walked over to the workstation where Billie was fiddling with the cylinder, trying to remove her ear piece. Watching her struggle, John offered to help.
(Should Billie accept his help, he’ll remove the earpiece and place it on the desk in front of him, otherwise should Billie decline his help, he will tell her how to use the device and ask her to place the earpiece on the desk next to the others)
After (whatever happens) John proceeds to access the workstation’s computer. “You said he stole several items from you?” He asks Altier. “Can you recall when that was?”
Then looking to Clarissa, he says “Bring me the earpiece.”
She sheepishly gets up from the couch and brings him the earpiece, offering it to him. He looks at it for a moment before replying “Put it on the scanner with the rest.” In a stern voice.
Clarissa walks past him and places it near the others.
A moment later, the desk lights up. A message on its surface reading “SCAN IN PROGRESS”
As John began interrogating Clarissa, Oswin decided that he should not participate in whatever drama was going on, as he was liable to start feeling even worse for other people’s benefit if he did so. He started putting his t-shirt back on, unaware he was putting it on backwards.
Oswin turned to where he heard Bynari’s voice coming from, opening his mouth to say that he didn’t know what networking capabilities meant, but the conversation continued before he could interject.
Maybe I should get the t-shirt over my head so I can actually see what’s happening…
Oswin’s head finally popped out of the collar of his shirt, staring at Altier’s boots, trying to determine what the heck he was talking about before he eventually disappeared. There was a Rat? Are we sure it wasn’t a mouse? Nah, Altire probably knows the difference between the two, even if most of the guys at the college don’t.
…Is that how you pronounce his name? Oswin tried to remember how he had briefly seen it spelled out. A-L-T-I-R-E. So Altire. Got it.
Oswin watched Billie’s efforts with a level of pity, completely forgetting that he too had one of those devices in his ear and was likely far more susceptible to whatever nefarious shenanigans might occur with it. The odd cylinder didn’t seem to be any kind of complex device, just a simple tube with a hole at the top, but Billie’s failing to grasp its function properly was painful to watch. Like seeing the dean of the college getting frustrated after two seconds of trying to use a touch screen.
However, as Billie looked about, missed spotting Oswin, and began reaching for her ear to perform what was clearly a manual removal, Oswin looked down at the blood on the floor. His expression changed from one of miserable pity to abject horror, suddenly realizing what Billie was about to do.
“No!!” He blurted out, stretching one hand out and stepping forward, as if he would somehow intervene in this process physically, which he had no idea how to do. But that didn’t matter much to him. She was about to seriously hurt herself; he couldn’t allow that. Ever.
Oswin glanced at the desk, distracted by the sudden appearance of lights. His apprehension at not succumbing to the desire to forcibly stop Billie from hurting herself was now reflected in his body language, and he was quickly returning to the state of not knowing what in the world to do.
John’s sudden approach startled Billie and she looked away with an embarrassed expression.
She hesitated to accept his offer to help. She didn’t know if she could trust him with removing the ear piece for her. He obviously knew what he was doing, but Billie wouldn’t be comfortable with allowing somebody she doesn’t know so close.
Her hand continued moving towards her ear.
Billie flinched at Oswin’s sudden movement and scream and glanced in his direction. She still couldn’t get used to his voice sounding so familiar, resulting in her heart dropping slightly every time she heard it.
What’s he freaking out about?
She followed the direction of his eyes and outstretched hand, both pointing towards her arm that she was about to use to remove the ear piece. Evidently, he somehow figured out what her intention was and was trying to stop her. She didn’t care if removing the ear piece by hand would draw a little blood, she just wanted it gone as soon as possible, but apparently the kid was against that for some reason.
“What are you-” Billie looked confused, more than anything. She couldn’t understand why he was making such a scene. “I’m not- It’s nothing…”
She lowered her arm. She figured that the kid was just scared of seeing a little blood. She didn’t consider the possibility that he might have been worried about her, not even for a moment.
After a moment of consideration, she handed the device to John with a sigh and gave him a short nod, allowing him to remove her earpiece. While he was working on that, she had to actively fight the urge to lean away from the broker’s hands and even briefly closed her eyes when they got close. The sensation of the small device assuming a liquid state and leaking out of her head was an uncomfortable one, but the usual look on Billie’s face didn’t change all that much.
When he was done, she watched him carry away the ear piece and place it on his table, relieved that she was finally free from it. She didn’t even want to imagine what it was doing in there and how exactly it attached to her body.
She briefly touched her ear to make sure that nothing was wrong with it.
Finally, Billie was able to recall who this Ian Jacobs character was.
He’s the local thief, right?
She was pretty sure that he tried to snatch her fancy hunting goggles as she was walking down the street once, and then she broke his nose. Billie couldn’t remember if it was really him though, his face was escaping her mind. After all, she was very drunk back then, so her memory of the incident was a bit foggy…
John acknowledged Altier’s response with a nod, then pulled up a file on the big screen for all to see. The image of Ian’s mugshot appeared, followed by an extensive list of arrest and release forms.
“Grand theft auto, burglary, attempted robbery, assault, assault with a deadly weapon, juvenile possession of a firearm, possession of a stolen firearm, battery …” John continued reading the list for several minutes before stopping and asking Clarissa.
“This him?” He asked, his tone indicating that he wasn’t impressed with the boy or Clarissa’s choice in associates.
Looking at the screen, Clarissa gave John an embarrassed look. “Yeah, that’s him.” She said, trying to avoid eye contact with the broker. She diverted her eyes from him and from looking at the screen. Only thing she thought of was to look at Oswin, giving him a pleading looking.
“What else did you ‘buy’ from him?” John asked, continuing his search through Ian’s file.
“I didn’t buy anything else from him, I swear.” Clarissa responded, her voice becoming shaky.
John didn’t say a word, he just kept scrolling through the file. Row after row of know associates both past and present appeared on the screen. Several listed as incarcerated. The. Something catches your eyes. Under court cases, an image of a woman listed as his defense attorney appears on the screen.
It was the same woman from the diner this morning.
No name appears for her in the files, but the name of a law firm from Tulsa is listed.
Billie stared at Ian’s portrait for a moment, trying to remember if it was really him that she encountered that one time or not. His face seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t recall if it belonged to the person she was thinking of.
Hearing John read the list of crimes the guy committed, Billie wondered what that had to do with anything. He didn’t really seem to be the kind of person to attempt to hack into these people’s base. Definitely not smart enough, she thought.
She seemed increasingly unimpressed as the list went on.
Billie side eyed Clarissa, her expression clearly showing that she didn’t believe the girl’s words one bit.
As the picture came into view, Billie adjusted her glasses and squinted her eyes, to make sure that she didn’t confuse the woman with someone else.
There was no mistake, it was the suspicious woman from the diner.
“Who is she?” Billie asked, pointing at the screen.
John gave Billie a questioning look before attempting to find more information about the woman. After a moment he replied “I’m not sure. The file doesn’t provide a name, just that she is listed as Ian’s ‘court appointed attorney’.” He said, walking away from the workstation and looking to the large screen. “Since we’re on lockdown, we don’t have access to current data. The file we’re looking at is a least 6 months old.”
Oswin’s hand landed instinctively over a heart he didn’t have. Thank goodness. I was so worried that… Actually, I had better stop thinking about it. Let’s think about nice things, like uhh… Flowers are cool, so are um… Oh yeah, robots. Like me. Sort of.
Is this me calling myself cool?
After the ear piece was safely extracted, John began speaking, and this time Oswin could not keep himself from listening along. Perhaps it was for the best, as John continued he found himself creeping closer and closer to Billie for support.
Wait wait wait.
Oswin’s eyes squinted at the screen. Grand theft auto? Like, the video game? I didn’t realize that was a crime… You can get arrested for playing that?
Oswin noticed Clarissa’s impassioned plea only a moment too late, turning with his eyebrows raised towards her in surprise. Was I supposed to do something there?
A glance at the now much closer Billie revealed that whatever it was, it clearly wasn’t important enough to derail the conversation over. Still, he couldn’t help but feel he missed something he was supposed to do.
“Her!!”
Oswin pointed at the screen, now practically right next to Billie. He looked about the room, as if John and Bynari and Clarissa would know what the heck he was talking about. It didn’t occur to him that maybe blurting out all possible sensitive information that he happened to possess might not be a good idea just because he was surprised, but when none of the people not currently considered to be members of that secluded group known colloquially as his ‘friends’ appeared to understand, he elaborated further.
Oswin turned with the same impressively smug expression towards Billie that he had expressed at the diner for a brief moment.
“When I first came into the diner- the Burgertory one, I- why is it called that?” He looked at John, as if he would somehow know the answer. “It doesn’t make any sense. It should be something like Purga-Burger. So people know it’s in Purgaburg- Purgatory. Purgaburger.”
“…Oh right uh,” Oswin blinked out of his thought process as he realized the room was undoubtedly staring him at him in utter disappointment. “When I first came into the diner, she was looking at a tablet at one of the booths. She had the coldest eyes I’ve ever seen.” Oswin’s body couldn’t shiver, but it looked like he was trying to suppress one all the same. “Eventually I just walked past her. I didn’t look at her again after that,.but I think she was gone when I left.”
He looked up at Billie multiple times during his explanation to see how good of a job he was doing, and now awkwardly waited for someone else to either interject or talk about the info and make him feel like he contributed.
Should I stay or should I go, da na na na na nah, should I stay or should I go…