Chapter 16

As Alice stepped into the large room there were about fifteen men and women waiting for her. She recognised most of them but there were some new faces and she could feel, as she looked around quickly, that there was a palpable tension amongst them. The young woman guided Alice towards an older woman, who was sternly looking at her. Alice’s attendant addressed the grey haired woman with a humble tone, “Miss Alice, matriarch.”

Alice’s eyes grew bigger at the moment she heard the word matriarch. It was one of the highest rank that a woman could become in her Archon career. The fact that the woman was addressed by her rank made Alice clear that the matriarch wanted to know Alice who she was dealing with. She was surprised by the strong and low voice as the woman retorted friendly, “Thank you Pill.”

Her sharp grey eyes studied Alice and said with a measured tone, “I’ve heard the remarkable story and I think that Mr. Haruz is taking an enormous risk to collaborate with the most wanted rebel group.”

Alice knew she had to keep her calm and responded with a ringing voice, “I think Mr. Haruz understands that at this moment the threat of the aliens outweighs the risk. As does my group, matriarch.”

The matriarch chuckled and remarked coolly, “I still can’t believe that there’s a giant weapon circling around the earth. Surely we would have spotted the equipment brought in orbit.”

Alice smiled and said, “It is large in numbers, matriarch. As Mr. Lunn prefers to say: massively small.”

The old woman looked at her for a few moments and sighed before she answered, “All right. Here is what I have agreed with Mr. Haruz: I’ll work with you for seven days to keep this charade from the public. After that, you better run and hide.”

She knew that the matriarch needed to enforce her superiority on her and decided to let it be for now. Her main priority was to win the battle against the aliens and she didn’t want to spend her energy thinking about what could happen after that.

“Understood, matriarch,” retorted Alice solemnly.

“Right,” the matriarch continued with a more friendly tone, “It seems that you’re willing to show your cutting edge technique to bypass the security of our camera network.”

Alice breathed deeply because she heard the slight sarcasm in the old woman’s voice and what she was about to reveal might stir up the already frail situation. She knew there was no point of return as soon as she had exposed the incredible simple leak of the Archon’s video network. It had been a painstakingly kept secret since the rebels had found the blatantly simple trick to access the Archon’s video system. It was child’s play, once the security of the network was breached, to modify any video feed at will.

Alice looked around the room and spotted a perfect place where she could hook up her device.

As she pointed at the free spot next to a terminal which stood on a large desk she asked, “May I?”

“Do you need to use the terminal?” The matriarch asked in disbelief.

Deliberately slow Alice took a small device out of her pocket and said, “No, I just need to connect this to the network.”

A man spoke up, “Matriarch, I don’t think it’s wise to allow her to connect this device to our network until we have had the chance to study it.”

“What does it matter? I assume it’s just one of the normal network connectors which are all over the city,” objected Alice.

“It is,” retorted the old woman clearly annoyed by the remark of the man, “Please proceed Miss Alice.”

Surprised by the matriarch’s response Alice replied subdued, “Thank you matriarch.”

She connected the shiny black box and as she waited for the red light to turn green she switched on her tablet. As soon as she had a connection she was already hooked into the secure camera network. She quickly browsed through the feeds and found what she was looking for.

She noticed that the matriarch was watching every move she made and decided to give the lady a first-hand demonstration of the powerful tool she and Lunn had developed.

“This is the feed of the camera by the entrance,” Alice explained.

Alice let the video run which showed the scene that she stepped into the corridor. With a few swipes she had modified the recording and played the video again. It showed the entrance and the movements in the background but nothing else: she had erased herself from the footage.

Shocked the matriarch commanded the man who was behind a control panel with a snappy voice, “Show me the last five minutes of camera Zulu forty-nine!”

“At once matriarch,” blurted the man.

Within a few moments a screen lit up and it showed the video feed of the same camera that Alice had manipulated.

“Set the fast forward speed at three,” the matriarch ordered.

The picture sped up which made the passing people in the background rush by. Alice was quite pleased with the result because, even with her trained eye, she couldn’t see anything which indicated that the video was tampered with.

“This is unbelievable!” exclaimed one of the other women in the room.

“How is it possible that the system didn’t raise any alarm during the tampering?” a man exclaimed, “and how did you get in just like that?”

Alice smiled weakly as she said, “We’ve found out that we can use the hardware of a camera to access your network. It actually provides all the needed clearances to what I just have done. The setup and the design of the surveillance network is amazingly clever except for one thing: any old camera will provide the access.”

“You mean that the hardware of your device is based on one of our cameras?” asked the same man again.

“Yes, normally a camera is only streaming video data into the network but the hardware comes with many more functions.”

The old matriarch stared with disbelief into the eyes of Alice as she asked, “Do you have access to all the cameras?”

Alice saw the pent up frustration exuding from the woman and answered quickly, “Well nearly, the priority one cameras have a much better security protocol.”

She saw the woman visibly relax as she started to pace back and forwards in the limited space of the room. She suddenly stopped and asked her with a tone of wonder, “For how long are you able to access this network?”

Alice had to think about that question because Lunn had used this technique already when she started to work for him.

“I don’t know exactly,” Alice responded with a soft voice, “Mr. Lunn was using it already when I became his head of security. A rough guess: as long as you are using those cameras.”

The matriarch gasped and turned to Alice while having a sour expression on her wrinkled face.

She growled, “If we were in a normal situation I would have killed you slowly right here in front of my crew. You do understand that we have to address this, this,” the matriarch stopped, probably to find the proper words to express her agony.

“This severe and outrageous felony.” she continued, “I have to report this to Mr. Haruz immediately.”

At the time that Alice had sent reports to Haruz as a spy, she never had told him about the extensive use of the camera security breach. It was simply too dangerous risking exposing herself because there were only a few who knew about it. Now, it finally would come to Haruz’s attention and she hated the fact he would hear it from another person rather than her. She suddenly remembered that she had agreed with Lunn that they would have dinner with Andena and Haruz later this evening. Somewhat relieved Alice retorted with a hushed tone, “I think I can demonstrate this to him personally later this evening,”

The old woman stared at her with burning eyes and said coolly, “Suit yourself, Miss Alice. I hope for you he won’t take it too badly.”

Alice wanted to change the subject hoping to lighten up the tense situation. As she looked down to the floor she asked with a humbled tone, “May I make a suggestion matriarch?”

Alice knew she still was performing on a dangerous high level of manipulation. She was aware of the rank and age difference between her and the matriarch and it was clear that the woman had trouble to accept that Alice had a higher position than her.

The matriarch’s lips were reduced to a small line as she assessed the situation. Alice was extremely pleased about the fact that she was dressed to kill and that she had taken the trouble to check her makeup before she had left The Coffee Café. It gave her just that little more self-confidence to deal with such a powerful woman. They both were as tall which made the ‘battle’ even more apparent.

The matriarch seemed to realise that disputing Alice’s position might have an adverse effect and said with an authoritative tone, “Helpful suggestions are always welcome, Miss Alice.”

Alice was pleased that the precariously tense situation hadn’t escalated and that they now could focus at the purpose of her visit.

“Thank you matriarch,” Alice retorted appreciatively, “We are facing the challenge to mask a massive amount of regular commuting for the coming days. This regularity is actually the problem because of the powerful detection software you are running. Within two days alarms will be raised unless we manage to modify the video feeds.”

A woman in the group protested, “But that’s impossible! We can’t just check all the feeds and modify them. It will take ages to find the right recordings.”

“Now I understand your remark about precise timing, Miss Alice,” said a man enthusiastically, “If we know exactly when a person is passing a camera, we can easily do it.”

Alice was relieved by the reaction of the man and said warmly, “I’m glad there’s an understanding what needs to be done. Now, the trick is to reduce the amount of video manipulations as much as possible which means that we need to figure out the best routes for our people.”

There was a small smile on the matriarch’s lips when she said, “I think that is up our street, Miss Alice. I’ve already received a list of people involved from Mr. Haruz and we will have a working schedule ready by tomorrow morning.”

Alice was delighted by the sudden swing of moods and said exuberantly, “Excellent! Assuming that everything went well at our headquarters, every person involved should have gotten a receiver so we can communicate with them as well.”

She retrieved four communication devices out of her bag and handed them over to the leader of the group. She said, “It’s a simple communication system where everybody will hear what has been broadcasted. In the beginning it might be a little hectic but try to keep the messages sparse and as short as possible.”

The matriarch studied one of the devices and said with a sincere voice, “Thank you. I think we’ve started at a wrong foot Miss Alice.”

Alice chuckled softly before she responded, “I think that your reaction towards me was expected but I’m glad that we see each other as an ally now.”

“I assume you have more of those video manipulation sets at hand?”

“Yes matriarch, I’ll bring them tomorrow and I’ll give a short instruction how to use it.”

The woman nodded and said, “Perfect. As soon as the schedule is ready we will broadcast it around.”

Harrold moved with eager steps closer to the massive field situated next to the Archon’s main office building. It was still light but he couldn’t wait any longer: he had to see Meleda. This afternoon was hell for him. First, he had to deal with Alice who had indirectly accused him for eavesdropping her telephone call. He thought it was outrageous that he had to defend himself.

The lunch at the Coffee Café was even worse because the young couple couldn’t stop touching each other which constantly reminded him at the time he had spent together with Meleda. Their fierce reaction to the fact that the aliens were about to attack the world, made him feel very uncomfortable. It brought the fear, he only recently had managed to stow away, back in full force. At that moment he wanted to leave the café, away from the uncontrolled emotions which were palpable in the already stuffy room. He’d stayed because he couldn’t just leave without creating even more upset. In the end he could get away using the excuse that he had to check the progress of the new build android robot. He was glad, yet sad as well, that Alice was too much taken aback to give him an astute remark as he had left her with the upset couple. He knew that she eventually would confront him about his behaviour that afternoon but he couldn’t care less.

He was startled at the moment that two vines had wrapped around his middle and they were pulling him closer to the gorse.

“Harrold,” said a soft female voice which he immediately recognised as Saida, “what brings you here?”

He knew that he had to be open and reveal his true intentions and said with a tremulous voice as he was pulled into the field, “I want to see Meleda.”

Saida looked at him with a compassionate smile as she chuckled softly.

“Do you miss her?” she asked.

The directness of that question took him by surprise. It was obvious that he wanted to see her but he doubted whether he truly missed her.

“I’m not sure,” he said realising he was talking more to himself than to her.

Saida sighed as if she was disappointed by his response. She asked coolly, “Then why do you want to see her? I can assure you that she is responding to the treatment as expected.”

“I,” he started but then he was distracted by the horrible thought that he might never see her awake.

“What if the aliens will succeed to conquer us?” he asked softly.

Saida took his hand and walked slowly to the building situated in the middle of the field. The walk seemed short and before they entered the building she squeezed his hand softly as she said, “There is a great chance that you people will defeat the Ocronins.”

He wanted to ask her about her bold statement but she guided him into Meleda’s room. It was an unreal sight, seeing her lying there, completely covered with vines except for her face. He still had trouble to see her like that as if she was laid out for paying the last respects. The pale blue lights, which were mounted on the walls, made it all look even more sinister. Meleda’s pale skin looked nearly translucent and her hair was tightly tied back which made her face look much more bloated than normal. She looked like as if she was sleeping peacefully although her lips were pressed into a small line. Her serene expression made chills running down his spine and he started to doubt whether she was still alive. With a pounding heart he moved closer to her face and was relieved to hear her breathe. Harrold looked back at the place where Saida was standing but he found himself alone with Meleda. He still had trouble to come to terms with the fact that she had dumped him because of her disease. The agonising months he had suffered, not knowing the reason why she had done that, had created a thick wall to protect him from any other harm. Meleda’s emotional plea nearly had breached that wall and he suddenly realised that only his stubbornness was withholding him from forgiving her. He sighed, knowing that he probably won’t see her again unless they miraculously manage to slay those bloody aliens.