Mike Reauchip sat in the lounge outside of the conference room, diligently typing away at his laptop.  He had glanced up as Angela passed him on the way out of the building.  After having glanced up for a moment, he had returned to typing, with a grin on his face.

Mike continued his rapid keystrokes, and glanced out at the Mercedes in the parking lot.  Yes, it did indeed have an OnStar sticker on the dash.  Good, this should go pretty smoothly, he thought to himself.  A few more keystrokes, and then a triumphant punch of the 'Return' key.

He waited.

"I'm so glad you asked," said a calm voice. It continued, still chillingly calm, "You see, since you have taken it upon yourself to use unnatural means to play with life, I have decided to take you for a little ride.  Don't worry... your life is not in any danger, so long as you listen to me.  This is the Binary Fusion Navigation System at your service."

Mike, no... Binary Fusion looked on with delight at his laptop screen.  A GPS tracker and OnStar navigation module in one corner, Angela's personal info in another, and Angela's complete research, thesis, and presentation transcript and slides at the ready in another window.  Also on the screen was a menu that had what seemed to be access to every computer-controlled device in Angela's Mercedes, and with such a luxury vehicle, this was nearly everything.

'Binary Fusion' spoke again. "Ah yes, light jazz.  I enjoy that myself every once and again myself.  How about track 4 though? That's my favorite from this CD." Binary Fusion hit the right arrow key on his keyboard three times.

"A fine listening choice after a tough day of presentations and getting cozy with high-level executives, wouldn't you say? Biotechnology is it? Mm-hmm, a very distinguished field. Highly respectable... most of the time.  We should all strive to learn more about ourselves.  Funny I should say that, I've learned quite a lot about you, Miss Wetworth."

All of this was said with an air of complete nonchalance.  The tone was not threatening, but the message was clear.

"Please make sure your seatbelt is fastened, Miss Wetworth, we'll be merging onto the highway shortly."

To those few still milling about the conference room lounge, Mike Reauchip appeared to be doing no more than having perhaps a videoconference.  He looked at what remained of the refreshment bar.  I could go for some fresh-baked cookies right now, he thought to himself.

Binary Fusion looked on his screen as the Mercedes entered the highway.  He merged it effortlessly into traffic, as if he were in contact with the steering wheel and pedals.  He began to speak once more, just as calmly as before...

"My dear Miss Wetworth, we need to talk about this business of using your technological means for such insignificant personal gains as money.  Now, don't get me wrong... I couldn't care less about the million dollars you took to keep those dirty little secrets of yours safe."

The car continued along the highway, its destination the outskirts of the city.

"I'm glad that you decided to fill your gas tank this morning, we may have to drive a while."


Back in the conference hall lobby, Binary Fusion was meticulously packing his things into his briefcase, and had transferred all of his data on Angela and her car to his palmPC.  He walked outside, pushed a button on his watch, and waited.  A few minutes later, a blue Jetta pulled up to the curbside.  He opened the door and settled himself in the driver's seat.  Nobody had driven the car to this location, Binary Fusion simply called it from his home office to pick him up, as it were...  He opened his briefcase once more and connected the laptop to the car's console with a firewire cable.

Inside Angela's car, Binary Fusion's voice spoke again.  "Now, if your notes are correct - and I'm sure they are coming from someone of your caliber - your main research facility was actually offsite, and you only brought the work to BioGen when it was ready for refinement and preparation for final testing.  I'd like to see this secondary laboratory of yours, so I hope you'll be kind enough to give me a tour."

Binary Fusion instructed his Jetta to follow a similar route to Angela's car, which was now some 20 minutes ahead of him.  This would give him plenty of time to calculate his next move.


((edited for spelling only, no actions were changed!))

Last edited by Imaginary Bad Bug (01-17-2007 04:01:03 PM)