The virtual conference room was built within a private server deep in the Datasea. Vinzent’s virtual body rezzed into being, standing near a plush leather executive chair at the end of the long table. The room was posh, sleek, with contoured mirrored walls. The soft corners appeared seamless and lacked any door. The black marble of the conference table sparkled with constellation-like patterns that reflected the flow of information throughout the Datasea. Unsurprisingly, Archimedes was already there, sitting statue-like in another chair at the far end of the room. The image of Archimedes at the table wrapped into the infinite mirrors around them.
Looking at the unflinching image of the man before him Vinzent couldn’t help but wonder if he ever slept. It wasn’t like you could really see how tired someone was in the sea but there was something too punctual about Archimedes. Taking a moment to make himself comfortable in the plush chair Vinzent composed himself to try and speak to what he realized was an unblinking figure before him. It’s not who you are it’s how you show yourself in the DS, Vinzent reminding himself.
“We have a problem. I pulled the last week’s worth of surveillance data from the cameras at the Memory Bank, and the incidental cameras nearby, and ran them through a filter looking for patterns.” A silver disc rezzed into his hand and he threw it toward the center of the table, where it expanded suddenly into a full digital display showing scenes from outside the Memory Bank. The scenes flickered over and over, changing every three seconds.
“They’re good… I almost missed them even with the program flagging their activities.” He highlighted a dark-haired athletic man, dressed like every other guy on the street, and then a waifish young woman, a mid-ranged clone body dressed in back-alley rags. “They show up, over and over again.” It had been the slick Kit and rags combo that really tipped Vinzent off but he wasn’t going to start chirping his own praises. Even if he was rather proud of himself.
“They are also observing the area, then.” Archimedes said simply.
“Casing it, yeah, that’s what I figured,” Vinzent continued, looking troubled. “Maybe we should delay the operation…”
“Negative,” came the terse reply. “Delay without additional information may impede goals. These observers may operate with objectives contrary to current plans. Begin gathering data on this pair.” Holding up his hand the data feed stopped. Making a simple motion to come hither the images rewound until paused again. With another simple gesture the image of the woman’s neck was blown up to encompass the table. “Stock body, manufacturing code at hairline.”
“Begin there, either the pair is untrained or could not alter the body. Possibly a rented host Kit. Once their goals are understood, we may work in tandem or alter the timetables to execute before these operators.” The man went silent as he returned to running through the feed, isolating images and sorting them on the screen. “Repeating structural observations, implication, demolitions, need to remove parts of structure.”
Collapsing the images Archimedes returned the disc to Vinzent. Who was this guy? Something about Archemedes scared the hell out of him. At the same time, if he was going to war, this was a man he’d want as a general.
“Log all data on observers. Report, twelve hours.” Archimedes’s virtual body rezzed out of the conference room, leaving Vinzent to mull in silence.
