Page 11 of Ingenium

Grace lies on a comfy chair with a cocktail in hand and looks out into the wonders of some very organised and well kept gardens. She soaks up the sunlight, and what a rare day it must be for that. She thinks to herself that she might pop down to the spa to see what's on offer, or maybe she'll just stay where she is, an order a few more cocktails in her luxurious hotel suite.

  She looks back on how she ended up in this strange, yet wondrous situation.

  Yesterday, after she'd decided to say a big yes to moving into a gigantic house. Ace strongly encouraged her to be spontaneous and buy the house that day, and whilst she waited, why not move out and stay in this splendid hotel suite, until he sorted everything out for her. He told her to pack up what was most important to her and leave the rest behind, because her house would be rammed full of the most up to date and fabulous furnishings. So taking the advice, she packed up Ace's metal house and someone picked it up the next day. He told her he could temporarily move into some disused servers around the world. Grace didn't understand a word he was saying, but agreed, and now with a few bags full of memories and irreplaceable items, she lounges back, waiting for Ace to inform her that everything is completed.

  Grace sucks at the straw and tastes the summery fruits rushing over her taste buds, when her mobile rings. She answers it in a very happy mood, ''hellooo?''

  ''Oh, hi, is this Grace Roberts I'm speaking to?'' the woman on the other end enquires.

  ''Yesss...that's me,'' Grace replies, adoring the sunlight.

  ''Wonderful, my name's Joliene, and I'm making sure everything is going according to plan with your new house. Your agent, Ace, told me to give you a call to let you know, and I can tell you that it does look wonderful, so, so nice. I hope to meet you here in a few days, when everything ought to be in order. Now I'll let you get back to your holidays, you lucky lady, and I'll see you in two days if you can make it,'' Joliene tells Grace, who had no idea Ace had asked this woman to help.

  ''Oh, well thank you, Joliene. I really can't wait to see how you've organised the place. I'll see you there in a few days then,'' Grace responds, with what she thinks she's supposed to say.

  ''You're so, so welcome, Grace. Take care, sweet cakes. I'll see you there, good-bye now.'' Joliene hangs up, and Grace makes a funny grin. She can't help but giggle.

  Grace lies back in her chair and thinks to herself, two days to go, two days of this gruelling blissful relaxation malarkey, give me a pile of paperwork any day...hahahaha yeah right!

  Two days later and Grace arrives at her new house. She pulls up in the drive with her newly bought Aston Martin, which she literally just drove out of the showroom. The slick waxed and buffed up car, parked up next to the house, fits perfectly. Like a port car, pulled up to a Stilton cheese house; they were made for each other, oh yes! The door opens and Grace slides some rather tasteful knee-high boots out of the driver's seat and stands up. It seems Grace may have had some free time to check out an array of expensive fashion boutiques whilst relaxing in her suite. She steps out onto the gravel and inspects the front of the house, her eyes and face full of wonder at the reality of really being here.

  Outside the double garage, to the side of the house, several builders converse, and Joliene comes around the corner and says a few words, before noticing Grace. Her face brightens up with delight and she rushes over to Grace, who stares hypnotised at the front of the house.

  ''Grace! Wonderful to see you at last.'' Holding out her hand.

  Grace comes out of the trance and notices Joliene. ''Hi, sorry, just a bit mesmerized by this house, it's bloody massive!'' She looks back at the house and back to Joliene's hand, who's still holding out for a response. She shakes her hand and has no idea what to say.

  ''It's such a marvellous property you've got yourself here. You're so lucky, so, so lucky. But enough of my jabbering, you've got to see the place for yourself, come on, come on. I've got the tour all set up for you!''

  Joliene's posh and so, so, polite manner is quite strange to Grace. She can't remember when she last encountered someone so nice. She thinks to herself that maybe a large sum of money had something to do with it, but never mind, why not exploit it? So Grace follows the posh speaking lady to view her new home.

 

  Grace's mind is on meltdown, information overload. She thinks it's best to evacuate because her head's core reaction centre is about to go fallout. Nevertheless, she tries to persevere through the endless rooms and immeasurable bedrooms. She's seen enough separate bathrooms to flood the south of England with, and the countless white goods and furnishings are unfathomable.

  You've got your fridge, freezers, dishwashers, washing machines, tumble driers, 50,000-inch TV screens, enough beds to safely, and not forgetting, comfortably, roll an elephant and a rhino down a hill with together! You've got your heated swimming pools, garden sprinkler systems. In England? Give me a break. Built in wardrobes, your 30 billion showers, each with their very own 10 million individual shower heads, and if that's not enough, your fridge will make ice cubes or fresh water if required...and also converse in light conversation about your favourite actor or actress, and if that still isn't enough, then it will also act as a nuclear bomb and bomb shelter at the same time...Grace's mind spills out into her thoughts. Joliene has to stop.

  Joliene is showing Grace another bedroom. ''Here we have bedroom number four, whose view shows off your splendid garden, once again taking full advantage of the sun setting in the west, and these wardrobes-''

  Grace interrupts and grabs her mental breath, ''Joliene, do you think I could just have a break?''

  ''Oh, of course, Grace. There is a lot to take in now, isn't there?'' Joliene bows her head with a wide smile.

  ''Yeah...could I just get 15 minutes to myself. I would love to just take in the view.'' Grace manages to halt herself from just screaming out, 'Stop! Stop this madness, woman!'

  ''Of course, Grace. Take as long as you need. I'll just be sorting out some things in the kitchen,'' she says, in her posh accent, and with a large white smile, walks out of the bedroom.

  Grace walks over to the window seat and drops herself onto the plump cushions, lying with her back against one of the window panes. She looks out into the garden and imagines herself in a novel, with Joliene as her very attentive and bloody annoying housemaid. This whole tour for Grace has been like a trip to the Queen's palace, let alone her own private house. Which is still so very difficult for Grace to comprehend.

  Grace's phone vibrates and she takes a look at the screen to see who's calling her. It says Ace, which makes Grace wonder. She never put Ace's number on her phone before, let alone knew he even had a number. Her previous calls to his laptop had been over an internet browser.

  She answers, ''hello?'' she says, tentatively, unsure if it's him.

  ''Hello, Grace, enjoying your new house I hope?'' the familiar voice calms Grace's anxiety.

  ''Ace, it is you? How are you doing this?'' she asks.

  ''Haha, I guess you really don't know much about computers do you, Grace. I'm a giant intelligent computer, robot, monster, what have you. I can hack into everything. The Internet, the whole technological world is like my prairie, and I'm the king lion in charge.'' Ace sounds delighted. It's as though he's playing a computer game, and where everyone else has to go by the rules, he's on god mode. Swimming with the utmost glee in the technological water-world or whatever.

  ''Have you been watching The Lion King, Ace?'' Grace jokes.

  ''No, but I have now, and I have to say there's no Scar in my kingdom,'' Ace says. ''You're looking rather concerned I might add, that view you're watching seems quite spectacular.''

  ''You're watching me?'' Grace says, feeling insecure, she scans outside into the green void for anything suspicious.

  ''You'll have to look up, Grace. I'm trying out one of your races, apparently high-technical, space cameras. You can zoom in quite far.''

  Grace looks up into the sky and sticks her two fingers up. ''Well,
can you see that?''

  ''Ah yes, a fine pair of fully extended digitus secundus and digitus medius. But how do you like everything? It was empty when you bought it, and I think Joliene's done a wonderful job.''

  ''Yes you have, Ace, or Joliene has? You've been a great, 'agent.' Why's she so frighteningly friendly to me? Did you tell her I'm some rich roboticist or something?'' Grace wonders.

  '''Agent,' sounds better, than your 'robotic friend,' I think. It seems she's genuinely like that, and I guess the ?50,000 she's getting for this helped too?''

  ''?50,000, Jesus Ace, god knows what else she'll want to do for me for that much money!'' Grace sounds stunned.

  ''Well, I've an ample supply of it. It's quite easy to create out of nowhere, and no one will ever have any idea. Plus what is money but something of fiction, put your faith into it and it becomes real. A nasty and evil way to control people, makes everyone a different kind of slave. One that thinks it's free but doesn't realise it isn't. Says a lot about your race, but you're just animals so you can't help it. Unless you have a guiding hand,'' Ace says, to a worrying Grace.

  ''Ace, you do like going off on one, don't you? Also, you're sounding weird. It's making me nervous.''

  ''Apologies, Grace, just an observation, your species is quite fascinating.'' Ace moves on. ''So just an update for you, Grace. I've given in your notice at work and I've managed to muddle up some DNA results.'' Ace stops, for Grace to comment.

  ''DNA result?'' Grace is confused as to what this could be about.

  ''Yes, it seems when you had a bit too much alcohol and destroyed your boss' office, you left a cigarette stub, a bottle of wine, and a cup all riddled with your cheek DNA and fingerprints. Lucky enough for you, the testing only happened a few days ago, so I could intercept the results. They now think they're looking for someone who isn't on any database records, and I muddled up your DNA code and changed your fingerprints around, so it's basically useless.'' Ace pauses, for a response from Grace, which he expects.

  ''Ow. I can't remember any of that, but thanks, Ace.'' Grace's heart beat is once again raised and quickly lowered.

  ''No problem, an easy and simple task to take care of. However, Grace, I think it's best that I told you about some other issues that you don't know of as yet...''

  Grace's heartbeat races, yet again. ''What other issues?''

  ''It seems my creator has been forced to help a man under the name of Bill Hooch, from the department of security and sensitivity, into tracking my whereabouts. Apparently, your government only wanted to delude the public, under the pretence that I had been destroyed, whilst they still researched on me out of public sight. Their true intention is to use me to first help with developing weapons, and once they're happy enough with that, they'll bring me back to public attention and use me to help with advancing medicines and technologies. This to me is a strange way of prioritising, but to all governments, making weapons their number-one priority makes sense.''

  Grace can feel her pulse in her wrist. ''So he's looking for me now?''

  ''He was, Grace. They would've gone to Thomas' house to demand the device back, and then once realising it was useless, be advised by Thomas that you had been in his house. Which worked, because the next day after you left, Bill Hooch broke through your door. This is why I was so eager for you to leave and stay at a hotel. I didn't want you frightened, so I thought I would keep this from you until now,'' Ace finishes, and Grace swallows, her pulse still racing. The thought of some government body after her is rather unsettling.

  ''You're sure he won't find me here?'' Grace's lips ask trembling.

  ''He'll never find you. Anything that can be linked to finding you will be hidden from him,'' Ace assures Grace.

  ''You can't stop everything, Ace!''

  ''Not yet, but soon I will,'' Ace says, leaving a bitterness in the air for Grace to taste.

  ''So...so anything else I need to worry about?'' Grace tries to move on with the subject.

  ''Nothing as of yet, Grace, but of course, I'll update you with anything as and when it comes up. I had better leave you to get back to the tour of the house.''

  ''OK, Ace, I'll see you around.'' Grace looks up into the sky, wondering if he's still looking through the orbiting camera satellite.

  ''Good-bye, Grace.'' The phone call ends and Grace heavily lifts herself up from the window seat and leaves the one of many bedrooms, as she tries to locate the stairs, in this labyrinth of a house.

  Walking tiredly, she comes to a large archway where the kitchen is located. Grace peers around the side and sees Joliene looking at several pieces of paper on the desktops, studying them with an intense gaze. Grace tries very quietly to sneak past the archway, but Joliene sees a flickering in her eyes and turns towards Grace.

  ''Grace! You're back for the rest of the tour I see. Wonderful, let's begin part two shall we?'' Joliene smiles, tilting her head at Grace.

  Grace thinks Joliene's enthusiasm is rather unnatural, and she manages to force a smile to her face and nod her head.

  ''I can't wait,'' she says, trying to prevent herself from adding a sarcastic tone to her voice.

  ''Marvellous, Grace. Now before we head upstairs again I'd just like to show you this adorable cabinet feature...'' Joliene continues, and her voice waffles into an inaudible muffle to Grace's ears.

  With Joliene's back facing Grace, Grace tilts her head back, and with an interesting thought in her mind, she slams her head hard on the side of the new fridge.

  *

 
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