Mind Trace (24 page)

It seems odd to be healed so much already. Maybe it wasn't
as bad as I thought.

Mesmerized as she was by her thoughts, Alice did not hear
the door open. It was only after she experienced a creepy sense of being
watched that she decided to look up and found Eric staring at her. Startled,
she jumped back, almost knocking over the chair she was occupying.

Eric did not laugh or seem amused, but instead asked, "How
is your hand?"

Taken aback by his sudden concern, she looked at him
suspiciously. "It's fine…much better now."

"I can get someone to look at it if you want."

What does it matter to him if I'm comfortable? I'm a
prisoner! He's probably just worried it will distract me from working…

Alice kept her misgivings to herself. Instead, she merely
replied, "That won't be necessary."

"Suit yourself. If you're ready, your new workspace
awaits." He stood back to allow her to pass.

In the hallway, she was met with the somber face of two
guards. She turned around to Eric again, who placidly smiled and led her in the
opposite direction, guards following. When they stopped at a door, Alice could
not help but notice that the room had once been a large conference room.  It
was hastily retrofitted with a small keypad entry. 

As the door slid open, Alice was shocked to see the contents.
The amount of work that must have been done in such a short time was amazing.
While she guessed the room only had standard conference room furniture before, now
sophisticated instruments lined the walls.  In the center of the room was a
group of six workstations, each with a different set of tools or equipment. A
computer sat on one of the stations, next to a pad of engineering paper and a
jar of pencils. They seemed rather out of place in such a high-tech room.

Eric saw where her gaze fell and commented, "I noticed
you like to sketch your designs."

I don't know if I should be worried or glad that he's
gone to so much trouble.

She raised her eyebrows at him, but chose not to respond.

"This is your own personal lab. You should find everything
you could possibly need here, but if there is anything lacking, let me know and
I will see what can be done. The details of the current project are in the
folder on the desk."

He walked around, running his hand along one of the table's
surfaces. "This goes without saying…but there is no network access in this
room, nor access to any outside system. There are security cameras dispersed
throughout the area and your progress will be monitored very closely. No
equipment leaves this room for any reason, and you will pass through a scanner
each day before you leave.

"Guards will be posted outside the door at all times.
If you need to reach me, you may alert the guards through the intercom button
near the door. Keep in mind that leaving this room before you are authorized will
activate the security device on your ankle. Oh, and through the door to your
left you will find the restroom facilities.  Any questions?"

Alice frowned, feeling compelled to remind him, "I'm
not sure what you think I'm capable of, but I can assure you that I'm no
Einstein. I'll try to do what you ask of me, but there is no guarantee that I can.
It's not like I have a PhD or any formal education regarding any of these
subjects…" She trailed off, looking helplessly around.

"I'm sure you will manage. I'm counting on it."

Eric turned and exited the lab, leaving her alone in the
massive workspace.

Frustrated, Alice sat down at the desk where the file lay.
It would be more complicated now, she knew. She would have to work convincingly
without really accomplishing anything, while secretly devising a plan to
escape. 

Alice consulted the other part of her brain for help,
opening the file in front of her to make it appear as though she were reading
it.

A layout of the floor in her brain showed where she was in
relation to the elevator and her own room. Unconsciously, her heart quickened
when she discovered that the back wall shared a wall with her cell. While the
lab was in a different hallway than her room, apparently these rooms ran
parallel to the cells on the other side.  The bathroom in her cell and the one
in this room were mirror images of each other.

Given the nature of a subterranean complex, the walls were reinforced
with the strongest steel.  The wall that connected with the main part of her
cell was also coated with another rigid material developed by EngineerCorp,
designed to be bulletproof and impenetrable. Further analysis of the
construction plans showed that the material did not extend completely into the
bathroom. The area where the plumbing shared a main water line was steel
framed, but covered with sheetrock. Alice guessed that it was designed this way
for easy access to the plumbing, should there ever be a need.

The way that the bathrooms were designed, there was not a
space large enough for a person to get through the walls there, even if they
managed to remove the sheetrock. The plumbing and framing prevented that. From
a security point of view, there was little risk involved in such a design.

Even though a person could not fit through the wall, that
did not necessarily mean that
nothing
could fit through. Alice also knew
that the security feeds did not extend to the restrooms, to her great relief.
If she could manage to make a small hole in the wall, perhaps behind the toilet
or under the sink… then, she could pass tools and other things through to her
own bathroom. She would not have to worry about the scanner when leaving the
lab, because she would never be taking anything out through the main door. 

A tiny crack broke through the shell of helplessness that
she had been feeling for the past few days. 

This just might work.

Now the question remained, what would she sneak through the
wall? And what was she going to do with it once it was through?

Chapter 16

Alice finally read through the folder on the desk. She had
to maintain the illusion that she was actually working, and she couldn't do
that if she had no idea what the project entailed.

The main objective was to create a hovercraft, intended for
use with military vehicles. It was designed to help protect soldiers during
wartime, a noble quest. The main challenge, and the reason the project remained
incomplete, was designing the power supply required to run the device.  

I could finish this project, complete with prototype, in
less than a week.
 

She sighed and pushed back her chair in frustration. Her
mind was reeling with the different possibilities, aching to be put to use.

Why do I have to be presented with these opportunities here,
working for the enemy?  I can't afford to show Eric the extent of my abilities.
His ambitious desires will never be satisfied with anything less than world
domination. I couldn't live with myself if I became yet another weapon for him
to wield against those who disagree with him.

There can never be a differentiation between "good"
and "bad" projects. Ultimately, everything I create here will be
subject to his discretion, where good intentions no longer matter.

Her thoughts irked her, so she decided to explore her
surroundings.  Alice had to admit, she was impressed. She knew their
capabilities should no longer surprise her, but as she considered the amount of
effort that went into the workspace, she couldn't help but be amazed.

Alice knew where the room's original security cameras were
located, but as she scrutinized the space, she found the addition of several
more. Analyzing their field of vision and intersection, she was able to find
the closest thing to a blind spot in the room. Given the layout of the
equipment, it formed a tiny, unseen niche in between a tower of measurement
equipment and several monitors. It was not much, but it would allow her to work
on things without a camera directly observing. She took note of the information
for later use.

The lab was stocked with every kind of diagnostic, assembly,
and analysis equipment that she would ever need…ensuring that she would not be
able to use lack of resources as an excuse.

I once would have done anything to have access to this
type of equipment…

True to Eric's word, the computers were isolated from the
outside. There were research notes, textbooks, and other volumes of information
contained on the computer to make up for the lack of access.  It also had all
the software that she would need to create prototypes. They would have to be
manufactured elsewhere, but she could generate the designs for them here.

As she gazed around the room, she wondered why Eric wasn't
more concerned about giving her access to so many tools that could potentially
be turned into weapons.

Her gaze fell down on her ankle bracelet again. It was
almost like her Achilles' heel, reminding her of her helplessness. She would
have to find a way to get rid of that before she could do anything else.

It doesn't matter how many people I incapacitate trying
to get out of this room…I will be unconscious the moment I step outside the
door.

The bracelet was constructed from a flexible metal, infused
with titanium in such a way that it was almost unbreakable.  For all practical
purposes, it was. Tampering with it or trying to remove it forcefully would
activate it, releasing the sedatives.  The sedatives contained inside would
cause an average person to be unconscious for at least four hours.

The bracelet could be disengaged remotely from the server
or in-person with the wireless key. The key was designed to send an encrypted
signal to the bracelet, telling it to open in the same way a keyless remote
worked to arm a vehicle's security system.

Each bracelet was designed with a unique ID signature,
known only to the owner. The signal was broken up into two parts. The ID
signature of the bracelet was followed by a command.  If anything but a genuine
signal was received by the bracelet, it would activate.  It was an ingenious
design, impervious to interference or sabotage…at least, for the normal person.

It would take some time to find a solution, especially
without drawing attention to what she was trying to accomplish, but she had
nothing but time.

Alice lined up the tasks she needed to complete. She had to
create some sort of passive scanner to find the frequency that the bracelet's
signal was broadcasting.  Then, it was a matter of creating a device to tune
into that frequency so she could decode the signal to find the ID signature for
her particular bracelet. Alice had access to all of their encryption methods in
her own mind, so it would not be difficult for her to obtain the ID.

Once she retrieved the ID, all she had to do was use that
information to make her own wireless key, allowing her to unlock the bracelet
when she needed to. After she got it working, she could smuggle the makeshift
key into her cell through the hole in the bathroom wall to use at an
advantageous moment.

Of course, then she had to find a way to get out of the
complex without being caught…

One issue at a time. Let's not get ahead of myself.

Somewhere during all of her scheming, Alice still had to
make it seem like she was trying to complete the project Eric had given her. It
was no easy task, but hopefully having the kind of resources that she had, it
could be done.

Piece of cake, right?

Alice took a pencil and some paper and dejectedly arranged
it in front of the computer to take notes on a project she would never finish.

***

The days passed in somewhat of a blur for Alice. She spent
the majority of each day working in her lab, pretending to do research and
taking generic, non-committal notes. If Eric was displeased, he had not said
anything to her yet. She was not sure whether she should be nervous or relieved
at his lack of opinion. He simply regarded her silently at the end of each day
when she handed him the notes from her work, and read them over without outward
judgment.

On the second day in the lab, Alice began the first step of
her planning. While she was feigning to test some material on a workstation,
she dropped some tools on the floor. When she bent over to pick them up, she slipped
one of them in her pocket.

Her weapon of choice for the wall was a precision knife,
used for removing samples of materials for analysis. The blade was sufficient
to cut through substances much harder than sheetrock. She made sure the cover
was over it, and deftly slipped it into her pocket. Alice pulled her shirt down
as far as it would go, even though the knife was not visible in its hiding
place.  She pretended to take some notes at another table before slipping away
to the restroom.

Once inside, she locked the door and went to examine the
wall next to the commode. The blueprints contained in her mind covered every
aspect of the building in minute detail, including wiring and plumbing. When
she found a small space of wall concealed behind the toilet, with nothing
directly behind it, she set to work.  Her heart was hammering in her chest and she
worked to keep herself calm and her hand steady.

A few deep breaths stopped her hands from shaking so
severely that she was able to make several quick incisions in the first wall.
Alice pushed the piece of sheetrock through before making identical cuts on the
sheetrock that formed the wall in her cell's bathroom.  She verified that the
passage was clear to allow items to pass through, and then stood up quickly to
survey her work.

In a standing position, the hole could not be seen. Alice
was pleased with her efforts. She flushed the toilet for authenticity, and then
straightened out her rumpled clothing before washing the particles of sheetrock
off her hands.