Mind Trace (28 page)

The short time he had been around Alice, he discovered a
great many things. Through her eyes, he had seen a new future, full of hope.
She was so young, full of life and possibilities, even though she desperately tried
not to stand out or be noticed. She was too young for her future to be taken
away from her.

Garrett now knew that his brother had been responsible for
the constant sabotage that prevented Cyberconn from recovering.  It made so
much sense now, but it was the last possible explanation he would have
considered.

Kind of ironic. I assumed Gabriel was dead, never truly
knowing what happened to him. Now, I find out he is not only alive and well,
but spending all his energies finding ways to sabotage me.

Since Cyberconn had shrunken down to its current state and
size, Garrett was involved in a great deal of the daily operation of the
company, including monitoring the network regularly. He would have noticed any
kind of suspicious activity resulting from the large transfers of data. There
was no way that his technology was being stolen across the network.

Additionally, the server that held all of his critical
information was not even directly connected to the outside. Garrett had severed
that connection in the beginning, attempting to make things more secure.

That left only one plausible option…Cyberconn had a mole.

Most of the employees that worked for him had been there
since the beginning. The first employees to be let go, as they began to
downsize, were the ones that had worked there the least amount of time. Over
time, he was forced to let more and more people go and was left with only the
core employees.

The ones that remained had agreed to pay cuts and other
sacrifices instead of being let go. There was one exception;  his former IT
manager had been unable to support his family with the salary Garrett was able
to offer, so he decided to seek employment elsewhere. He left on amiable terms,
so Garrett had no suspicions of him. However, the person that was hired to fill
his place was someone Garrett had never been able to establish a relationship
with.

His name was Richard. He was a heavyset, middle-aged man
that seemed to be perpetually sweating. Garrett couldn't afford to be
particular and hired Richard mainly for his experience and willingness to
accept a lower salary. Richard had worked at Cyberconn for over five years now.
He behaved oddly at times, but Garrett assumed it was just part of his
personality. He did his job, regardless of his odd qualities.

Garrett never dreamed that someone within his own company could
be responsible for undermining his business. He knew he made a foolish
assumption by thinking that way, but part of him had given up on trying to
understand how bad things kept happening. The other part assumed that a company
such as EngineerCorp, with its limitless resources and intelligence, would
never need to stoop to such levels of subterfuge when it was clearly far
superior to his modest business.

Considering the facts before him, Richard seemed to be the most
likely candidate. He had access to all computers in the building and it would
be very simple for him to copy the data to an external device and pass it along
to a contact for EngineerCorp. Since it was obvious that he was not transferring
the data over the network, it would have to happen another way.  He would probably
just meet his contact and pass along the information.

Garrett was assuming much in his theories, but he had
little else to consider at the moment. Even if this theory proved correct, he
had a lot of work to do to prove it.

I don't even know how I'm going to get around without my
surveillance team watching my every move. I will figure something out… I have
to.

How closely are they watching me? Are they watching my
every move? Or just making sure I don't deviate from my schedule, checking in
every now and then?

No doubt, they know my location from the GPS in my
phone. Hopefully between that, the phone taps, computer monitoring, and
surveillance, they won't bother looking any closer.

If I am going to escape these guys, I'll have to dump my
phone... but I'll still need one. Time to go shopping.

On Saturday, Garrett took his weekly grocery trip. It was a
typical department store, the kind that had both food and general items. Garrett
noticed that the van was parked outside of the store, but no one got out of the
van to follow him.

I bet they plan to use the store's security system to
track my movements. I'm going to have to get creative.

Inside the store, Garrett walked casually down the aisles,
appearing to be browsing. He stopped on the video games aisle, where a shaggy
teenager stood, mesmerized by the demo game system. He stood next to him,
pretending to be interested in the game.

"Hey kid, this might seem strange, but you want to
earn some money?"

The teenager, not taking his eyes of the game, mumbled a
reply. "Dude, I'm not into drugs, okay?"

Garrett laughed. "No. Nothing like that. I need you to
buy a prepaid cell phone for me, and slip it into my basket when I leave the
store."

"Why don't you buy it yourself?"

"I can't be seen buying it. I'm working undercover.
There're people following me, and they can't find out what I'm up to."

The young man stopped playing for a moment, looking at him
suspiciously. "Hey, are you like, in the FBI or something?"

"Keep watching your game! And yes, something exactly
like that. I'll pay you, in cash, if you're willing."

"Whoa. And all I have to do is just slip it into your
basket?"

"Exactly. I'll park my basket next to the door for a
few moments, while I grab a drink from the machine. Drop it in then, but don't
be obvious about it. It's very important."

"That's totally rad!"

"Shh! You don't want them to hear you! Listen, I'm
going to put the cash behind this game here, and you get it after I leave."

"Okay, no one will ever know. I'll be so sneaky, you
won't even know I was there. Like a ninja."

"I knew I could count on you. Your country thanks you."

Garrett smiled to himself as he walked away. There was no
harm in the ruse, and he would get what he needed. He watched out of the corner
of his eye and saw the boy sneak over and grab the cash.

I hope he doesn't just steal the money and run. It's a
risk, but I think he's good for it.

He took his time shopping, making sure to give the boy
enough time to purchase the phone. As he checked out, he saw him lingering near
the doors, waiting.

Garrett parked his basket near the doors, moving several
yards away to the vending machine. In the cheap plastic of the machine, he saw
the reflection of the young man slip something into his basket, then vanish. A
few moments later he returned to his cart, pushing it out to his car and to
freedom.

He unlocked his trunk and began to load the bags into his
sedan. Glancing into one of the sacks, he could see the cell phone.

Perfect! Maybe one day I can find that kid and thank
him.

Garrett drove home feeling just a little bit closer to
completing his goals. He knew it would be a long and arduous process, but each
step brought him a little nearer to the end.

Nearer to Alice…

Monday came after what seemed like the longest weekend of
his life. At work, no one really said anything to him about the time he was
gone. A few people asked him what happened to his eye, which was still heavily
discolored from his encounter with Gabriel, but he made up a story to satisfy
their curiosity.

After catching up on the essential tasks he missed during
his absence, Garrett shut himself in his office. He drew all of the shades
closed and sat down at his desk. Garrett could not help but remember the last
time he had been in his office. Alice had been there too, sitting across the
desk with her awful blonde wig. A ghost of a smile teased his lips as he shook
his head and turned on his computer. He was about to search for Richard's
information, when he paused.

What if they're monitoring this computer, too? I can't
risk alerting them about Richard.

He looked around his office, and saw an old, dusty laptop
sitting on one of the shelves. He wheeled over, removing stacks of paper that
had been sitting on top of it.

Perfect. It's completely outdated, but that's exactly
why they  wouldn't have thought to bug it.

 It took close to ten minutes to come to life, but he was
able to pull up every file Cyberconn had on Richard, personnel and otherwise. He
tackled the personnel files first.

Nothing useful there. Not that I expected it to be that
easy.

From there he moved on to the timesheets, taking note of
how long Richard was in and out of the building. Employees entered from the
side door and the keypad kept a record of each person entering from their
keypad entry. It took some time, but Garrett eventually plotted all of the
information on a graph.

He scrolled silently through the graphs, growing more and more
hopeless, when something caught his eye. Acting on his hunch, he rearranged the
charts so that he could compare all of the information at once. 

Gotcha.

He had been right. Every two weeks, Richard took a two-hour
lunch. 

Richard was not the type of person to vary his routine,
making each of the variations in his schedule stand out like dozens of red
flags. Even if he was not meeting anyone then, Garrett was now insatiably
curious about what Richard
was
doing during that time. Perhaps it was a
product of madness, a result of the strange and unbelievable circumstances he
found himself in, but Garrett could not help his newfound paranoia.

Garrett was not a micromanager. He was flexible with his
employees' schedules as long as they finished their work in a timely manner. They
were not required to be back by any certain time. No one would have said
anything to Richard about his long lunches.

For the most part, Richard seemed to be set in his own
routine. Every day, he would eat at the same Chinese buffet in town. The food
there was horribly greasy and cheap, making it an economical choice for someone
who did not emphasize a healthy lifestyle. However, he was always back at the
office less than an hour later. When had that first changed?  Garrett had never
even noticed.

If Richard followed his pattern, and there was no
indication he would not, then his next meeting was that very same day. Garrett
stared at the screen, disbelieving.

I suppose stranger things have happened recently…

That gave Garrett a little over an hour to figure out some
way to escape the building without notice and follow Richard wherever he was
going.

That's nothing. I can do that blindfolded… I hope.

Garrett peeked through a crack in the blinds and looked outside.
It took him a few moments to locate, but he found the white van parked across
the street. There was no possible way to get his car out of the parking lot
without being seen. Even if he were able to create a diversion, they would
surely notice that his car was gone after it subsided. He could not afford to
rouse their suspicion.

He opened the door to his office and looked around. Garrett's
office was in the back of the building. He preferred it that way; he was able
to get more work done because his employees didn't come to that area unless they
needed something specifically from him. 

The building layout was simple and straightforward.  The
front entrance opened to a well-lit room with faded couches, several display
cases with their more successful products, and a reception area. Behind this, a
short hallway wound to the center of the building, passing the kitchen and
bathroom areas.

The center of the building was where Garrett's secretary,
Linda, was located.  The four main halls in the building all met there. The
hall with the employee entrance ended there, branching off to the labs and
production areas on the other side of the building. Opposite the hallway
leading from the front of the building was a shorter one that ended in Garrett's
office. 

Between Linda's desk and his office, a door led off to the
shipping and receiving area. There was a receiving dock there, attached to a
diminutive room that they referred to as their warehouse.

Garrett went to Linda, asking her to hold all of his calls
and not disturb him for the rest of the afternoon, as he was working on
something critically important. She gave him a curt nod and quickly made the
proper arrangements.  He smiled warmly.

Gotta love her. I can count on her for anything.

Since Garrett could not use his own car, he had to find
some other way to follow Richard. He couldn't make phone calls from his office
to arrange any other transportation, as he was sure that they had his office
bugged.

But, I bet they didn't bug the bathroom. I know I wouldn't
want to listen to that…

He snuck down the hall to the restroom and made a few phone
calls on the prepaid phone, finally finding a taxi service that could pick him
up on such short notice, far enough from Cyberconn that he would not be seen by
the people in the van. Garrett could sneak out of the door near the dock and
walk several blocks down the alley that ran behind the building, where he would
meet the cab.

He gathered up the few things he needed to bring, ensuring
that he left his real cell phone on the desk so he would still appear to be in
the building. Before leaving, Garrett turned the radio on so it would mask any
noise he made exiting his office.

He peeked out the door, and when he saw that the hall was
empty, he crept out of his office, locking the door silently behind him.

The person who normally worked the warehouse/dock area was
already gone to lunch, so he did not have to worry about anyone noticing him.
Once outside, he jogged the few blocks to where he agreed to meet the cab. He
could not help but feel his spirits lifting. With the crisp, cool air blowing
on his face, knowing that finally no one was watching him, he set off to do
something he should have done long ago.