Silvertroll

Velty

Alicia raids the upstairs bathroom holding the broom like a spear. The tiles of the floor are wet, the robovac is idle next to the tub. 

"Velty," it says.

She aims the broom and thrusts, stabbing the machine through its carbon fibre shell. Alicia walks out holding the robovac like a speared crab. She finds Phlox in Julian's room under the computer desk. "I found it in the bathroom." 

"Take a look at this," says Phlox.

Alicia bends down to take a look. She sees a XUSB drive stuck to the desk's underbelly. "It's a dead drop," she explains. "Julian stuck them everywhere. The house is full of them." Alicia tosses the robovac down and heads back to the bathroom. Phlox follows her until she ends up watching Alicia fiddling with the toilet. Another XUSB drive is mounted behind the cistern.

"Why would he do that?" asks Phlox.

"Some kind of game the kids used to play."

"Does he play Hellscape?"

Alicia nobs, "I think."

"Then he used the house as part of the game. It's normal, they all do it."

Alicia turns her attention back to the XUSB. "There must be a reason why that robovac was in here."

"We need to access the game to find out what's in those dead drops. Do you have any AR glasses?"

Alicia shakes her head, "God no."

"Do you have a laptop?"

Alicia grimaces, "The Caveman destroyed it. Hang on." Alicia exits and goes back to Julian's room. She sits down to operate the computer rig. On the screen, the words - Wrong Password - appear after her first attempt to log in.

"The password's been changed," explains an annoyed Alicia.

Phlox steps up beside her and points to a pair of AR glasses on the shelf, "You can use these."

"I'm not using those things."

Phlox takes them from the shelf and puts them on her face, then links them to her phone. "I normally wouldn't be doing this either, but... Fuck it." Cautious and alert, she looks around the room. She sees red beacons pop up everywhere. They are all tagged with the name...

...Silvertroll.

"Not good," she says.

"What?" Alicia watches her, waiting for a response.

"It has access to your security system. Cameras, microphones. Silvertroll sees everything."

Alicia gets up and conducts a frantic search of the room. "What do you mean?"

"We are not safe here."

Alicia looks at her, "Oh, I'm not afraid, darl." She looks up at the ceiling speakers, "I'm an officer of the law. Hear that dickhead. I'm going to lock up. No, fuck that, I'm going to put my fist into your face really hard."

"You shouldn't be saying that because..." explains Phlox.

Alicia ignores her and shouts, "I'm going to crack open your skull."

"Okay. Stop. Silvertroll can use what you say against you in court."

"You're dead, mother fucker," yells Alicia, more defiant than before.

Phlox appears a little shocked, "I can now see how you and the Caveman got together."

Alicia pulls up her taser. "Okay, we can do this. What was Velty again?"

"The private blog site," replies Phlox, nervous as hell.

Alicia sits back at the computer rig, placing the taser on the desk, staring at the error prompt. Phlox leans over her shoulder and asks, "What's wrong?"

"Julian's account, I can't log in."

"Then try logging in with your own account."

She does and the attempt is fruitful. Alicia opens the browser of navigates to the Velty homepage. The login field is pre-filled with Julian's credentials. She pulls out the codex from a pile of paperwork and turns the pages saying, "Velty. V for Velty. Here it is." Alicia types into the keyboard.

Phlox watches, her confusion visible. The screen lands on the Velty user dashboard. "Oh my god, I'm in." Alicia almost weeps. "I'm inside Julian's private journal."

Phlox leans closer to read, "Mnemnon is the AI project that Saltash claims he developed independently from Coeus, yet something tells me this may not be the case. Inferior by all accounts, Mnemnon has proven to be malicious and destructive by every measure."

Alicia takes over reading, "Heather suggested we break into the lab. She's confident the core of the algorithm is hidden there. I don't want her to go up against her father, but what can we do? We are forced..."

The screen goes black. An error message pops up...

- Account Locked-

"What the actual fuck?" says Alicia.

"We've been locked out."

"How?"

Phlox looks up, at the two cameras on the ceiling. "Silvertroll."