Altered Reality by Eliza Green

Author:Eliza Green
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: adventure, apocalypse, conspiracy, alien, colonization, futuristic adventure, dystopian trilogy, dystopian future society, dystopian adventure, control and domination
Publisher: Eliza Green

Chapter 16

Earth

Inside his private Nottingham apartment, Bill Taggart connected a small signal disruption device to the Light Box hardware unit on his main wall and was suddenly reminded of the first time he’d gone to Laura’s apartment and exceeded her visitor quota. It had triggered a visit from the security officers, and if Laura hadn’t played along so well, the officers might not have bought his excuse so easily. Their kiss hadn’t been planned—but seemed to fool the officers, and him, well enough.

She’d already filled him in on her idea to get young Callum Preston to manipulate the ESC’s sentient programme. Bill idly wondered if the boy had any experience in building devices. Ever since the creation of sentient programmes, many people had assumed their programming was simple and harmless, but the sentients’ ability to learn was extensive and quite sophisticated and they now had a range of behavioural responses that were as diverse as a human being’s. Bill made a mental note to quiz Callum about sentient manipulation.

When the disruption device was finally in place, Bill looked up and air-punched in a code that corresponded with digits on the Light Box screen. While he waited for Laura to answer, he loosened his tie and took a few gulps of coffee from his mug.

Her face filled the screen. ‘Hi,’ she said urgently but quietly.

Bill frowned as he studied the space behind her. ‘Where are you?’

Laura looked over her shoulder. ‘I’m in the cleaning closet on Level Four. One of the bloody roving cameras caught me on Level Two.’

‘Are you sure that’s safe?’

‘As safe as I’m going to get. I’ve never seen them use the closet. What scares me more is what the camera said to me: “We know what you’ve been up to. We will be watching you even closer from now on.”’—Laura imitated the camera’s tinny voice—‘That’s why I’m in here, shaking like a leaf.’

‘I’ve heard them say something similar to other people. You know how seriously they take their jobs,’ he said, trying to reassure her.

Laura nodded. ‘Yeah, maybe you’re right,’ she said. ‘But even its tone of voice changed, like there was suddenly a real person speaking to me.’

‘Well maybe you should stay out of this.’

‘No!’ Laura said quickly, then added more quietly, ‘Forget what I just said. Everything’s fine. I need to do this.’

Bill pursed his lips. ‘Just to be on the safe side, let’s keep this brief. Tell me you’ve found our pilot.’

She hesitated and looked as if she was listening out for something. ‘I have. There was one name on the list that stood out from the rest,’ she whispered. ‘Jenny Waterson. I have her private communication code if you want to call her.’

‘Tell me about her first,’ Bill said. He watched Laura tap on her screen and tuck a stray lock of hair behind her right ear. Some information popped up in a neat little box in one corner of his screen.

‘Okay, Jenny Waterson. A pilot for twenty years,’ she read. ‘Worked for Calypso Couriers, a World Government subsidiary company.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.