Out of the Shell

10 - Two Minds, One Goal

November 23, 2404
09:00

"So, Vena, tell me more about yourself," I asked as we were walking toward the Institute.

Vena scoffed. "What's there to tell you?" she asked, in the same soft and quiet voice. "What am I to you?"

"Oh... uh, I--"

"No, no. I didn't mean that in a rude way. What do you see me as?"

I looked at her. "I see a little girl with a unique personality."

She smiled and laughed a little. "That's being a little too nice. I don't have an actual gender or age. I was created by the Institute over 250 years ago."

"Right..." I said quickly and quietly.

"Watch," Vena said. I stopped walking and looked at her. She approached a wall to a building, then slowly slipped through it. As she did so, she became very dark until you couldn't see her, as an electronic screen would look like. Then, she came back out of the wall, this time fading from dark to light. "See?" She smiled.

"How do you do it?" I asked.

"Slip through the wall?"

"No, I meant... how have you been able to survive so for so long?"

Vena sighed as we continued walking. "It's not something I'm proud to admit, but it's all just from erasing people's memories. When someone gets an idea and brings it to the Institute's attention, the X branch would cease to exist. Including me. We weren't made to live. We contain extremely sensitive data in our modified IDMs. It connects with every citizen's IDM."

I thought for a moment. "So, if someone was determined enough, could they find your information just by searching through their IDM?"

Vena nodded with excitement. "Correct. It would be a difficult process, but it is not impossible to achieve."

"I see."

We arrived at the front of the Institute. It looked the same as when I had first been here.

"Hold out your wrist," Vena said. I held out my wrist. She put something on it that resembled a watch. "When we walk inside, head to Room 263. Find M-263, then go to Room 2. When you go to Room 2, connect this watch to the computer in there, and I'll work my magic. Understood?"

I nodded my head.

"Great." She held her hands together, then disappeared into a cloud of dust and code. It all went into the device on my wrist. I waited a few seconds and then walked in.

"Hello, how can I help you?" the man at the front desk asked.

"I'm here to visit someone in Room 263," I replied.

"263? I'm sorry, but that room is unoccupied. Nobody has been in there for a while.

"What about Room 2?"

"That room is reserved for staff only. Amielle Valentine... is that your name?"

"Yes, it is. I've been here before."

He clicked through some things on a computer. "No, no you haven't. Look, what are you really here for?"

"I just need to see Jason Clarke. Isn't he in Room 263?"

"Clarke is in Room 404 right now. You may go up to see him."

"Great, thanks," I said with a passive-aggressive tone. I walked through the door to the left and went on the elevator.