Ledman Pickup

Nineteen

  Kandhi was headed north, but didn't get too far before she had an idea.

  "Hey You,” she said aloud, although it wasn't necessary, "try a scan in this corridor for all photo and video streams, looking for a facial recognition match on our little miss Leonora Wells."

  It took just a minute or so, and then the You came up with a green check mark.

  "Leonora sighting, eh?" Kandhi said. "Very nice. Getting off the bus. And not getting back on, eh? So, where is it? Rest stop. Trinidad, Colorado. Checking the map ... very good, right on the route. We'll check it out in person."

  "Next drop-off point,” she added, mimicking the last post on Zoey's socialnet. It was about a four hour drive that took her only three. By the time she pulled into the rest area, she was in need of a rest herself, but after a thorough search of the place she realized she had arrived too late.

  "Five o'clock or so now,” she muttered, "and the capture occurred around one fifteen. Closing in, though. We're closing in.”

  She said this last bit to encourage herself, but she wasn't fooling anyone. There had been no further post so she had no idea where Leonora actually was. If she was still on track towards Grand Island, Nebraska, she might be only a hundred or two miles or so up ahead. 'If she rides all night, we could lose a lot of ground', Kandhi thought with a shrug. She knew that she couldn't do that. 'If only that Zoey hadn't been such a loser', she complained. 'I sure know how to pick 'em I guess'.

  She checked with her You and found a Mega Giant Super Store not far away. There she picked up a new carry-on that fit the latest airline dimensions, a few days’ worth of clothes, a toothbrush and some other sundries she was missing from the old carry-on. Next she headed up the road a few miles and found a dive astoundingly named the Nitey Nite Moo-tel, which had a logo of a pajama-wearing cow. 'Any port in a storm', she thought. She literally could not drive another inch.

  'I need to eat', she reminded herself, but she needed a bath more, and after that, another phone call.

  "Hello Kandhi,” Chris replied when she reached him. "I hope you're taking a break. You know it's nothing that can't wait."

  "Well, I don't know that for sure,” Kandhi retorted, "but I can only do so much. I've got to sleep, so, yes, I'm going to do that and hope she doesn't get too far ahead."

  "You're tracking her, right?" Chris asked, "and if she gets too far, you can always fly."

  "I guess you're right,” she agreed, "but I think I came close today. I found her scanned and got there just a couple of hours too late."

  "Good, good,” said Chris. "I have to ask, though, about your theory."

  "My theory?"

  "Your ‘conscious package’ notion,” he reminded her. "How are you so sure about that?"

  "It fits,” she said. "Look, I found it had hacked the computer at the first drop off, changing itself from Air to Ground. Then it took itself offline down there in Arizona, and every post it makes to Zoey's socialnet is exactly like a shipment tracking log entry. Source, Destination, Start time, Estimated Arrival time, even its same unique bar code id is entered every time. It's been consistent since day one, so there's no way that Leonora is doing it. The thing is reaching out, it's self-scanning. I don't know how else to put it. It seems intent on transit. I think it's using this young woman as a sort of personal delivery system, but I'm not sure that it's happy about it."

  "Happy? An odd way to put it,” Chris interjected.

  "Before, it was always arriving on time. Now, it's not meeting its goal. If it's as serious as I think it is, well, I don't know what it will do."

  "You're losing me again,” Chris said.

  "What I need to know,” Kandhi replied, "Is what you put in that thing? Is it a UPD? Is it all of it? The specs only had it for the new capture/replay but it's obviously got more than that - so what did Griggsy put in there?"

  "Well,” Chris began reluctantly, "I found out a couple of things. First, well, you know, it's got some Partial Binding. That's how it reaches out. It can inject the host with thoughts."

  "I figured that much,” Kandhi sighed. "What else?"

  "Something he calls The Curiosity Factor,” Chris continued, "a new bonus feature."

  "Untested of course,” Kandhi said.

  "Unit tested,” Chris countered, causing Kandhi to snort.

  "As if that means anything,” she nearly shouted. "Developers tooting their own horn, that's all that is."

  "Well, never mind about that,” Chris replied. "This Factor is supposed to make it interested in new things, but there's no telling how interested or in what things. Mike says he only allowed for two entries in its curiosity map."

  “Sports and boxes,” Kandhi instantly thought, but didn't say aloud. "The first two things it became aware of."

  "And that's it?" she asked. "There's nothing else? Are you sure?"

  "Pretty sure,” Chris hedged.

  "It's something at least,” she replied. "Well, I've had it. I can't stay awake another minute. Leave me a note if you find out anything else, okay?"

  "Okay,” Chris promised, "We'll keep in touch. Now get some rest. You've been pushing yourself too hard."

  "Bye,” she replied, and hung up the phone. On the other end, Ginger had been standing next to Chris the entire time. She nodded and said,

  "So you didn't tell her about the Mind Control Plugin?"

  "It seemed enough info for now,” Chris replied.