Project Cypher

* V2 (CH 14) - Chapter 37 - Smoke Alarm

With the first day of classes finally over, Mr. Wilkins and #017 retire to their quarters, room #113 in the student dorms. #017 takes a step out of the elevator and stares at the silent hallway for a second too long. Mr. Wilkins stares in confusion not detecting a moving being or anything that would raise an alarm. #017 stops and stares at the door of their dorm room, 113. #17 glances down at the door hinge, a tiny of piece of paper is still stuck between the door hinges, but on the floor below lay a broken piece of mechanical pencil lead.

Mr. Wilkins narrows his eyes at #017's stillness and unhappily says, "There's no one inside I already checked."

"Run another scan for me," #017 firmly reputed.

Mr. Wilkins huffs in reply and does as asked by his girl. No bugs or surveillance tools show up on his radar. "Nothing there," Mr. Wilkins replied as #017 touches the VEX watch to the biometric system and the door unlocks.

Mr. Wilkins glares up at #017, who flatly says, "Yes, but there was someone who entered relatively undisturbed. I thought you added a layer of protection to the biometric system?"

Mr. Wilkins sputters in protest. "Impossible! My detection-," Mr. Wilkins voice stutters as his system scans the log. There had been an unexpected intrusion rewritten as dorm maintenance service. It shouldn't have been possible, but somehow the system had been overwritten.

"It would seem your assurances were wrong, Wilkins. For hating such inelegant methods, at least they get the job done unlike your choices," #017 icily said. Mr. Wilkins remains silent as #017 closes the door behind her and studies the area. "There aren't obvious signs of a search, but given the state of the door, we are dealing with a professional. Did you access the elevator footage?" #017 asked as she places Mr. Wilkins onto a couch.

Mr. Wilkins is silent as he runs various security checks and complying with the request. "The maintenance figure could be anyone as the figure their gaze down and their face is never captured on film. That is if that is their actual face and not a disguise," Mr. Wilkins summarized.

"Yes, I would imagine so. Such a rookie mistake wouldn't be committed by someone of their caliber," #017 drily said as she took a seat on the couch. Glancing up at the ceiling, #017 is silent for a moment, before saying, "Wilkins, run a check on the vents and inner floors and walls of the room."

Mr. Wilkins immediately does as requested sending nanobots from his core to check every square inch. The minutes tick by until he finds almost thread-like wires set up into the vents and mechanical pencil sized erasers drilled into the wall. Without a word, he effortlessly has the nanobots directly infiltrate into the devices for control.

"Done, I took care of them. There is a mesh of wiring in the vents for unknown uses except they are not listening devices and the rest are surveillance devices," Mr. Wilkins taciturnly said.

"Yes, I imagine so. Don't destroy the feed, just merely block it as needed. I am sure you can create conversations to be projected in our instead by simply using your software system. However, I do want you to track the feedback to the source and infiltrate their systems. Afterwards, we will decide what to do," #017 matter-of-factly replied.

Mr. Wilkins does so splitting his conscious into parts and following the systems back to their place of origin. With great care, he piggybacks signals and systems to reach the place of destination. While they wait, #017 asks, "So what do you think?"

Mr. Wilkins automatically replies, "You already reviewed the listing of prisoners and agreed that there were no official extractions or records other than a massive payment to Warden Walters that could have been for anyone."