Prodigy (Complete)

Chapter Nine

Alex went into another fast-paced frenzy as she manipulated several screens at a time. Within minutes, she tracked down what she was looking for.

"Okay, I found it!" she announced proudly.

"No way, load it up."

The three of them huddled together and watched with anticipation as Alex synced up the video feed.

"So the incident report says my mother was arrested at around 10:30 p.m., so if we load it before that time, we should be able to watch the entire event."

"This is incredible. I can't believe we're actually doing this," Aris said with excitement.

"I suppose there's some benefit to having big brother watch our every move – we can use their technology to watch back."

There was no telling what the cameras caught, if anything. The video showed a vacant street and not much appeared to be happening. It was dark and there were no pedestrians or motorists. All was calm until a pregnant woman in her early twenties entered into frame.

"Oh my gosh, that's your mum," Milo gasped.

The woman was distraught and clearly in pain as she hobbled down the street. She kept looking over her shoulder as if some knife-wielding maniac was chasing her. A solemn tear rolled down Alex's cheek as she watched on helplessly. It was almost too hard for her to watch, but her interest trumped any other competing desire.

The woman headed into the alley just as the incident report had stated. It was dark, but with the bright streetlights and the camera angle, they could see enough. The woman pressed her back up against the building and slid down. She continuously looked down the alley to see if anyone was coming. There was no sound on the video, but it was obvious based on her facial expressions she was about to go into labour at any moment. She took out her access pod and inserted a cord into her arm.

"Check it out," Milo said. "She's actually plugging in."

"What do you think she's doing?" Aris asked.

"I'm not sure."

Sensing the inevitable, the woman looked out into the street one last time before she was about to deliver her own baby. As she did, she noticed something – a surveillance camera pointing directly at her. The woman then appeared to be doing something with her access pod. Alex and her friends watched with a gripping fascination. Nobody said a word.

A few moments later, the woman turned toward the camera as much as possible. Whatever she had downloaded seemed to be relevant for what she was about to do. She raised her hands to the camera and began using sign language.

"What's she saying?" Aris asked.

"How the hell should we know?" Milo responded.

The woman obviously knew time was not a luxury she had, so she made her message brief. She refocused her efforts on giving birth. The sight was somewhat disturbing to watch, but none of them turned away. After what looked like a painful and horrific experience, baby Alex finally entered into the world and came to rest on a navy blue blanket. Milo nudged Alex's shoulder to point out the blanket.

Baby Alex was quickly wrapped up and placed on her mother's chest. Even in the woman's anguish, she seemed happy. Alex paid close attention to how warm and affectionate her mother was being to her. It warmed her heart to see her mother's love and affection, and to know she was not abandoned.

Alex was fighting her emotions, but when the two guardian transport vehicles arrived, she lost control and began to cry. Based on what everybody saw, the only crime that was committed was baby Alex being pried away from her mother's weak grip to be taken away.

The video continued to roll, showing a vacant street corner as if none of it had happened. Milo put his arm around Alex and told her it would be okay. Alex took a moment in her friend's embrace and dried her eyes.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine now," she sniffled. "Now, let's find out what that message said."

"I was hoping you'd say that."

It did not take long for Alex to download the data on sign language. She reloaded the part of the video where her mum had signed into the camera, played back the video, and translated out loud.

"My sweet baby, please forgive me. I will always love you. If you get this message, know that you will be in my thoughts forever."

After she spoke the message, Alex began to cry again. This time she did not hold back. She got up and sat on the couch. Milo joined her.

The video continued to play and Aris took over the controls. He reversed the video until Mara was out of frame. Familiar with the neighbourhood, he checked the adjacent surveillance cameras. Another angle showed Mara come into frame, hobble down the street clutching her stomach before exiting stage right. Aris then tapped into another surveillance camera, which happened to capture the origins of where Mara had come from.

"Hey you guys, check this out," he said enthusiastically.

Alex and Milo got up and walked over to the screen. Much to their amazement, Aris had found a new camera angle displaying more footage of the incident. They watched a pregnant Mara exit a window of an apartment building and make her way down a rickety fire escape. Once on the ground, she ran out of frame.

"Do you have any other angles?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, but it doesn't show much, just her running. Wait, something's wrong," Aris said.

"What is it?"

"The screen went blank."

"What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything."

Suddenly, a message appeared – 'SECURITY BREACH – UNATHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED – ACCESS DENIED'.

"Aris, what did you do?" Alex asked in a panic.

"I don't know, I was just searching for another video clip and then for some reason it kicked me out."

"Did you enable your trace scramblers?"

"My what? You're speaking another language to me right now."

"Your trace scramblers, Aris," Alex said firmly.

"No, of course not, I don't know what those are."

"We have to get out of here," Alex insisted.

"Why, what's going on?" Milo said worriedly.

"They know we were in the system. It won't take long before they track us down." 

Alex quickly ran into her bedroom and began shoving several items into a bag.