Prodigy (Complete)

Chapter Eight

Alex soon discovered she may have been a little too optimistic about tracking down Mara Miletus. As it was suspected, Mara was using a modified accountability chip. The address that came up as her place of residence was a vacant lot – she was essentially off the grid so any other search would prove useless.

"Search Alexandra Gray," Alex instructed her computer.

The search populated thousands of results, many of which pertained to articles about her achievements. They needed more information to narrow down the parameters.

"We could always hack into the government database," Aris suggested offhand.

"Do you know how to do that?" Alex shot back with more interested than he expected.

"Let's just say I'm no stranger to hacking into secure locations and snooping through highly-classified files."

"Great, can you teach me how?"

"I can just do it for you," Aris offered.

"No, I prefer to do it myself. Hacking into the government database is highly illegal and I don't want to get you involved."

"It'll take too long for you to download the necessary information; I was only able to download a fraction of the file and even that took me two days under multiple sessions."

"It's a good thing she's not you," Milo chimed in.

"Where's the file?" Alex asked in a serious tone.

"It's in the cloud."

"Send me the patch."

"But—"

"You heard her, send her the patch."

Aris was befuddled, but obliged with her request.

Alex sat down and waited for the patch to transfer to her access pod. It came through quickly and within moments was ready to be wirelessly downloaded into her brain. Alex leaned back and closed her eyes. The download began and Alex's eyes started fluttering rapidly. While still conscious and coherent, it was recommended to have a clear mind and remain silent during downloads.

Even though she was just sitting there, it was still a sight to behold. Milo and Aris were used to downloading files, but to see the famous Alexandra Gray in action was something special. They remained in silence, staring at her, both showing their admiration on their faces. Alex's brain was like a never-filling reservoir, and the speed at which the data was being transferred was unlike anything they had seen before.

"How much space does she have in there?" Aris whispered.

"Don't worry, it's enough," Milo said proudly.

Just then, the transfer had completed and Alex opened her eyes.

"That was incredible!" Aris said. "You just downloaded that entire file in under a minute."

"It's not that I have a limitless capacity," she said, addressing Aris' question. My brain is incredibly efficient with how it stores and processes data. I have a condition known as synesthesia."

"Syneth—what?"

"Synesthesia – it comes from two Greek words meaning 'together' and 'sensation'. The human brain is comprised of many different compartments, each with their own function. The frontal lobe recognizes smell and is responsible for such things as a person's behaviour, characteristics, and movement. The parietal lobe helps a person identify objects and understand spatial relationships. The occipital lobe is responsible for processing visuals. The temporal lobe is involved in memory, speech, and musical rhythm. There are many other parts, but these are a few to give you an idea. For most people, all these parts perform separate and largely independent functions, but when my brain processes information, every region lends a hand. When I think of numbers, for instance, I attribute shapes, colours, and sounds to the digits. When people listen to music, they typically only use one of their senses, but for me, multiple senses are activated. I hear the music, but I can also see and smell it too."

"Really? Aris asked inquisitively. What does music smell like?"

"Mostly raspberries."

"Fascinating," he said dumbfounded.

"She's joking you dolt."

"Oh, of course, I knew that," Aris said, feeling embarrassed. "So does that mean you're some sort of savant?"

"Yes, but I don't have any noticeable side effects from the condition."

"Do many people have this?"

"I'm not sure. It has come up a few times in the medical journals – that's how I learned about it – but I've never heard of anyone other than me who currently has this condition in the same way I have it."

Alex went over to her computer with an intense demeanour. "Initiate Excalibur protocol," she instructed. A holographic image awaited further command. "Prompt Trojan sequence 40-30."

"What's she doing?" Aris asked again in a hushed tone.

"It's your patch, don't you know this stuff?"

"Like I said, it's a big file."

"Oh right, I forgot, you can't download it in full."

"Neither could you," Aris retorted.

"Just be quiet," Milo said. "May I remind you she's hacking into government servers and needs total concentration?"

Alex began rattling off a series of codes that were a mixture of broken phrases and alpha-numeric sequences. It all sounded like gibberish to the uninitiated. Various screens and images populated as she navigated the global network with blinding speed. The screens were flashing so quickly that Milo and Aris did not catch any more than a glimpse of whatever she was looking at. Alex used her hands to swipe aside the holographic projections and keep them organized.

"This is incredible to watch," Aris whispered to Milo. It was the one thing that they shared in common – admiration of Alex's computing abilities. It was almost like watching someone play a musical instrument really well; they both could not help but smile.

"Okay, I'm accessing the government records now."

Alex's pace slowed down considerably. She was now deep in the government archives – probably the only one to look at this data in decades.

She searched for any incident reports on her date of birth, involving a woman giving birth and getting arrested.

"I found it!" she announced with jubilation.

"What's it say?"

"Says here a woman by the name of Alexandra Gray gave birth in an alley near Ferndale and Willow."

"You were born in an alley?" Aris interrupted.

"Apparently," Alex responded. "It says that Alexandra Gray was arrested for the criminal act of violating the Child Rearing Act and sentenced to one year in prison. The baby, who was named after the mother, was rushed to St. Albans hospital for further examination."

"That's fantastic, Alex. I'm so happy for you." Milo said.

"Is that it?" Aris asked.

"Hey, show a little sensitivity," Milo scolded.

"What?"

"Could you two please try to get along for five minutes? I want to try something," Alex said.

"What are you doing now?" Milo asked inquisitively.

"It says here I was born in an alley."

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, I want to see it."

"See it?" Milo asked confused.

"We know the exact date and location of the event, and thanks to this incident report, we now have the precise time of day. I want to check the archives for any surveillance footage that may have captured a video of that fateful night."