imperfect (34 page)

“
Dr. Hanson sent me a list
of Revealer addresses in Klisbury,” Kristi said. “I think we should
first find a safe house. He recommended staying at the Filches
while we’re here.”

They emerged out of the train station and
regrouped themselves. The crowd thinned out once outside and they
were able to find a secluded spot to talk without being overheard
by any curious ears.

“
Who are the Filches?”
Chelsa asked.

“
A couple that lives only
ten blocks from the train-station. They have been part of the
Revealers for over ten years and have offered to let us stay at
their place while we’re in Klisbury,” Kristi said, remembering the
information Dr. Hanson had sent her while she was on the
train.

“
The Filches.” Troop
obtained a thoughtful expression. “That name sounds recognizable. I
believe they’re a pair of talented hackers that often help my mom
get undisclosed information for her cases.”

“
We’ll probably find their
talents handy then,” Finn said. “Let’s start walking.”

The Filches lived at a modest brick
apartment in an older section of Klisbury. The building seemed
weatherworn and tired, but overall had a neat appearance. Jane
Filch welcomed her last minute visitors without even batting an eye
to the leopard that accompanied them.

The room they were in upon
entering the Filches’ home was comfortably furnished with two
sofas, a plush rug and a couple cots folded up in the corner. It
seemed so
normal
for two supposedly rebel hackers. There were no walls covered
with monitors or desks buried beneath mountains of electronic
hardware; there were no visible sensors or cameras.

“
Thanks for taking us in,”
Finn said.

“
No problem. My husband,
Nick, will be back soon. He has to wrap up some work at his
office,” Jane said.

“
Is there anything we
should know?” Chelsa asked.

“
Not much except curfew at
Klisbury is nine in the evening to five in the morning sharp. If
you need anything, just let me know.”

It was a bit before six, so there was a
decent amount of time to spend.

“
I’m going to take a look
at New Genes Lab,” Kristi said. “Does anyone want to
come?”

“
I will.” Troop stood up.
“It’ll be good to take a look at the lab before breaking in. When
do we plan on entering the lab anyways?”

“
The sooner the better.
Hopefully tonight or tomorrow.”

“
I think only Troop and
you should go scout out the lab,” Chelsa said. “The more people you
have the more attention you’re going to attract.”

Jane, who had left the room moments ago,
stuck her head back in.

“
Sorry, but I couldn’t
help overhearing your conversation. If you’re planning on breaking
into New Genes Lab, you might find these handy.” She held out two
small containers filled with a liquid. “They’re contact-cams. Newly
developed Revealer gadgets that allow you to secretly video tape
everything you see.”

“
So they’re basically like
contact lens cameras?” Kristi clarified.

“
Right on. If you wear
them while checking out New Genes Lab, you can record a lot of
visual information you would normally forget. They can make a huge
difference between a successful break-in and a failure.” Jane
pressed a case into Troop and Kristi’s hand each.

“
Thanks,” they replied in
unison.

“
That’s what I’m here
for,” she said. “To make sure everything goes smoothly.”

Troop went to the bathroom with Kristi to
put in the contact lens. The wiring and cameras in the lens were so
microscopic Kristi wouldn’t have noticed them at all if she hadn’t
known they were there.

She blinked her watering eyes a few times.
She had just inserted a contact-cam into her right eye and it felt
a bit awkward. Once Kristi got used to the feeling of having a
contact on her right eye, she attempted to put in her left one.

“
Darn it,” Kristi said
after three fruitless tries.

“
Here, let me try. I
already got both of my lenses on.” Troop carefully took the contact
lens she was having trouble with from the tip of her
fingertip.

“
Don’t blink,” he said. As
he said the word, he delicately placed the contact onto her left
eye with lightning quick speed.

“
Hey!” Kristi said in
surprise.

She blinked as soon as the contact-cam was
securely in her eye to mitigate the discomfort.

“
You’re welcome,” Troop
said.

“
You startled me. But
thanks.”

“
Should we bring anything
with us aside from our slates?”

“
I don’t think so. The
less we have to carry the better.”

Kristi exited the bathroom and told Chelsa
and Finn, “We’re leaving now. See you later.”

They nodded to show they heard.

New Genes Lab was
an
imposing building located near the edge
of the city. A meticulously mowed lawn surrounded the entire
perimeter of the building, preventing any chance of being able to
sneak inside the lab without being taped by the surveillance
cameras that dotted around the property.

Troop and Kristi strolled along the sidewalk
passing in front of New Genes Lab, not daring to move any closer to
the building for fear of attracting the wrong type of
attention.

“
Did you get a good look
at the cameras?” Kristi asked Troop under her breath. “Perhaps the
Filches can figure out the best way to evade the them if they know
the cameras’ model.”

Troop followed her words and focused his
gaze on the closest camera to them, which was only fifty feet away.
They circled the property, taking note of the number of windows,
stairs, entrances and anything else of interest.

New Genes Lab was a five-story,
square-shaped building constructed of steel and black tinted
windows. Overall, it looked very much like a black cube crouching
in the middle of a vividly green patch of green surrounded by a
seven-foot high chain linked fence. Even just thinking about how
they were going to enter the lab made Kristi’s head hurt.

“
Maybe there’s another way
to solve the case without trespassing into the lab,” she
said.

“
If there’s another way to
solve the case, we obviously aren’t aware of it.” Troop shaded his
eyes from the glare reflecting off the glossy building. “So far,
breaking and entering is the best lead we have to follow. If Stevey
used to work at this lab and something traumatic involving the
Accidents happened here causing him to go crazy, our best starting
point would be here.”

“
Yeah, but if this place
made Stevey go whacko, what do you think it will do to
us?”

“
It can’t be that bad,”
Troop said, sounding like he was both trying to reassure himself
and Kristi at the same time.

“
Is it just me, or has
that red solar-car been following us for the past few minutes?” She
threw a glance to her right. Yep, the solar-car was still there,
with its blacked-out windows all rolled up.

Troop eyeballed the car. “I think so. I’m
going to take that as a sign to go.”

They finished circling the lab and walked
back onto the main road.

“
Do you want to grab some
dinner?” Troop asked.

“
Do we have enough
time?”

“
Yeah. There’s still over
an hour before curfew.”

“
Okay then. That sandwich
shop seems like a nice place.” Kristi pointed to Solomon’s Sandwich
and sent Chelsa a quick instafication notifying her that they would
be back in about an hour.

A little bell tinkled, announcing their
arrival to the waitress who was chatting with her friend. She stood
up and came to them.

“
How many?”

“
Two,” Troop
said.

“
This way.”

The waitress led them to a booth and flicked
on the smart-glass imbedded into the table, displaying the
menu.

“
The shop will be closing
in about forty-five minutes, alright?”

“
We’ll be quick,” Kristi
promised, then slid into the booth across from Troop.

The waitress wandered off to finish her
conversation, leaving them to decide what they wanted to eat.

An old couple sat a few tables away from
Troop and Kristi. Across from the couple was a single, middle-aged
man who seemed pretty engrossed with his sandwich and soup; the
couple was talking to each other animatedly, so Troop and Kristi
basically had the whole restaurant to themselves.

The waitress came back to them a few minutes
later once her friend left. “Have you decided what you would
like?”

Kristi motioned for Troop to order
first.

“
Can I have the hummus
sandwich with a side of tomato soup?”

The waitress noted his order and turned to
Kristi. She still hadn’t made up her mind about what to order, so
she said, “I’ll have the same.”

“
Be back in a few
minutes.” The waitress turned off the smart-glass and marched into
the kitchen.

“
Any ideas on how to enter
the building?” Kristi asked, wording her question carefully so not
to give away what they were planning on doing in case any snooping
ears were around.

Troop’s face took on a concentrated look. He
answered slowly, as if measuring each word out carefully,
“Sometimes the best way to hide is in plain sight. Covers. We could
use covers.”

“
That’s definitely an idea
we can work off,” Kristi said. “So my next question is: when and
how will we get our covers?”

“
Send an instafication to
Hanson. He said he has plenty of connections and chances are he
will be able to get us some covers. Also—”

“
Here are your sandwiches
and soup,” the waitress interrupted Troop’s sentence.

Kristi bit back a word of annoyance.

The waitress set down the food and went to
attend the couple that had finished their meal. The couple, well
into their sixties or even seventies, floated out the sandwich shop
with a light spring in their steps; arthritis and osteoporosis were
symptoms of the past.

Troop picked up where he left off, “Also,
our host may be able to help us with the security problems. The
cameras may be problematic.”

“
I’ll send a message to
Chelsa asking if she knows anyone who can help solve our security
problems.” Kristi unlocked her electro-slate with her fingerprint
while Troop munched on his sandwich. After selecting Chelsa’s
contact, she wrote her a quick note:

Hey Chelsa,

Can you ask Jane and Nick
if they can penetrate
New Gene Lab’s
security system with their hacking skills?

Chelsa responded within a few minutes:

They said probably yes, provided you can
provide them with the necessary information. Exactly what type of
hacking do they need to do?

Kristi replied:

I know there are definitely cameras and ID
scanners.

Chelsa answered:

Jane wants you send her the footage you got
with the contact-cams. If you use your electro-slate and “search
for nearby devices” with it, the contact-cam will appear on the
list of connected devices to the slate. To access the film from the
camera, type in the password 6h8*_aH. Then send me the video and
I’ll show it to Jane and Nick.

Kristi did as Chelsa instructed. After
pulling up the files from the contact-cam onto her electro-slate,
she selected the correct time frame of the clips and sent them to
Chelsa. She glanced up from her slate in time to see the
middle-aged man leave the restaurant.

The waitress noticed him leaving without
paying for his meal and called out, “Sir! You have to pay for your
dinner before you leave.”

The man ignored her and strode outside
without giving a glance back. The waitress let out a huff and
started after the unpaid customer.

“
Do you think we should
help the waitress?” Kristi asked.

“
I don’t know. My
conscience is telling me to go help her, but we should avoid
attracting attention at all cost.”

The chef from the kitchen came out to the
dining area and said, “We’ll be closing up soon.” He looked around
the room, searching for someone. “Where did Tallia go?”

Kristi presumed that Tallia was the
waitress. “She went to chase down a customer who left without
paying.”

The chef let out a snort of disgust. “What
has society come to these—”

Ka-BOOM!

Something exploded in the restaurant.

Kristi instinctively covered her head and
curled up into the fetal position. Debris rained down around her
and the sound of the explosion rang in her ear. Once the ringing
had stopped vibrating her eardrums, she peeked at her surrounding
through her fingers. Dust swirled in the air, raised by the ceiling
collapsing inwards.

She was trapped beneath the booth. Part of
the wall separating the kitchen from the dining area had collapsed
on top of the table where Troop and she had been sitting at.

“
Troop! Can you hear me?”
Kristi yelled.

She broke off, coughing violently. The dust
coated her lungs like a swarm of fire ants.