The Fastest Available Route

 

“This system is operating in a limited capacity.”

“I know you can help,” Dyna said between breaths. “You’re a lot more capable than Ruby says.”

“Understood.”

“Is that a yes? Great. I need to find… a police car. I don’t know the license plate or any other identifying information. The officer said his name. It was something like Olive. Don’t remember exactly. There is a guy in the back seat who walks with a limp and has machinery attached to the right side of his head.”

“Understood.”

Dyna rushed to the storage facility’s entrance. A large fenced gate had closed over the road, but a large button clearly meant to be pressed from the window of a car opened it up, allowing Dyna out onto the main street. Which, from a quick glance around, was probably somewhere on the outskirts of Idaho Falls. Aside from the storage facility, about the only thing around was a large white barn-style building with thick black letters reading Falls Livestock Auction. A faint few orange street lamps dotted the road around both buildings, providing a bare minimum of light.

“I could use transportation as well. And can you send a message to Emerald and Ruby? Let them know that they’re chasing the wrong person. The guy in the police car has the artifact.”

“Understood.”

Unlike the last time Dyna got help from Beatrice, there wasn’t much around. No cars parked outside shops. No shops with security cameras. No people meandering about. There was a whole lot less to work with here. Dyna doubted she would be able to just happen across another car that left its engine running and its doors unlocked. Idaho Falls could be the most relaxed city with regards to security practices, but there still needed to be cars around in order to drive them away.

“How far away is Ruby? She was supposed to be on her way here already, right?”

“This system is operating in a limited capacity. Please stand by.”

“I don’t know that I have time for that. The guy is getting further and further away. I don’t know where he’s headed…”

“Understood. Please stand by.”

Beatrice’s calm, cool voice didn’t sit well with Dyna. She was tense. Her nerves tingled. Part of that was probably the cold air gnawing at her cheeks, nose, and eyebrows, but the other part was a desire to do something. To not fail again. She wasn’t a very good psychic. She wasn’t a very good artificer. But she could at least help out in recovering the artifact. Even just tracking down the guy…

Dyna blinked. An idea struck her.

Pulling out her mirror, she glanced down at the reflective lenses. They showed off just herself at the moment. Not from any odd angles either, it was just an entirely mundane reflection. Dyna looked up to the roof to try to find the perspective she had seen up there, then rotated slowly until she found a far more mundane security camera than those down in Psychodynamics.

The other people watching her weren’t watching anymore, apparently.

Which was fine for her purposes.

That guy with the prosthetics, Grafton. His perspective had appeared in the mirror once. That meant it could happen again. So far, her mirror had always needed someone to be the focus of another’s perspective. A person under their observation. Either herself, Emerald, or Harold had worked. But…

Assuming the man was still in the police car—which Dyna had no reason to doubt given that it would be a great way of avoiding traffic if needed—then there was a person right there able to act as a psychic beacon.

Closing her eyes, Dyna concentrated. Her fingers rubbed against the eye-shaped necklace she wore. She had bought it as a good luck charm before arriving at the institute. Just a little thing that she got because of her initial excitement. It hadn’t brought much luck, but it was an eye and she needed an eye on the officer right now.

As soon as the thought crossed her mind, the lenses of the mirror turned dark. Dyna wasn’t quite sure how she knew that with her eyes shut, but opening them, she quickly found the mirror’s glass switch from dark to an image.

Dyna saw the interior of the police cruiser. The perspective came from the back seat. The officer, likely still controlled, drove on in the front. Dyna couldn’t see outside the vehicle all that well. Not in the dark. But from what she could see, they didn’t seem to be driving that fast. Probably to avoid attracting attention.

While Dyna couldn’t see outside the car to try to guess at their location, she could see the inside. A computer sat right between the driver seat and the passenger seat. The same one that she had noticed earlier with the map. A GPS device. Holding her mirror right up to her eyes, she squinted at the display.

“I know where they are and which way they’re headed. Still don’t know a destination. How far is Willow Street and… I think that says Kennedy. How far is that from where I’m at?” Dyna asked, quickly giving the name of the Mountainside Self-Storage. Even in whatever limited capacity Beatrice was supposedly acting under, she should still have access to a map.

Sure enough, Beatrice gave an answer. “Approximately two point eight miles.”

“That’s it? That’s not far at all.”

“It is for someone without a vehicle.”

“Where’s Ruby?”

“Unknown. This system is operating—”

“Yes, yes. Limited capacity. I get it. You should really fix that. Hook up more servers or whatever.”

“Understood.”

Dyna bit her lip, looking down at her mirror. Although obeying the speed limit, the police car was getting further and further away while she stood still. Ruby had been on her way since Dyna arrived at the storage facility. She could wait. But… who knew how long that would be.

Blinking as another idea hit her, Dyna looked back to the facility. “People store cars at places like this, right?” Just from where she stood, she could see a few recreational vehicles parked on one side of the buildings.

“Warning: Your life is not in immediate danger. The Carroll Institute may not approve of your intent.”

“They would rather have the Aztec Calendar wind up in the hands of people who will almost certainly misuse it? Cross called it a portent of apocalypse. Shouldn’t we really make sure that thing stays locked up?”

Beatrice didn’t respond. Such things probably were not her decision to make. In fact, Dyna wasn’t sure how many decisions Beatrice could make. Dyna didn’t know exactly what Beatrice was, but it was obviously some kind of computer system. An artificial intelligence. Not an avid reader of technology news and information, Dyna wasn’t wholly certain what that meant, but Beatrice felt person-enough for her.

Deciding that asking forgiveness later was the better option between stealing a vehicle and letting a portent of apocalypse find its way into Id’s hands, Dyna quickly rushed back into the storage facility and to the area where the recreational vehicles were stored. Would they all be unlocked with their keys in the ignition? She doubted it. But there had to be something.

“Do you know how to hotwire a car?”

“Dyna…”

“I’m just asking,” she said as she ran down the rows of RVs. They had several doors. The two usual ones and often a door on the back or side. All she needed was for one person to have forgotten to lock one door.

She quickly found one. A door that opened. Not because someone didn’t lock the door, but because it didn’t seem to have a lock in the first place.

It was an old school bus. One of the shorter ones. Someone must have purchased it and converted it into a motor home. Most of the seats had been removed, replaced with tables, a makeshift kitchen, and a bed. Dyna felt a bit bad about intruding on something that someone had obviously put a lot of work into, but…

The apocalypse was at hand. With that in mind, she felt she could justify just about anything.

Unfortunately, while the door had pushed open, it did require a key to actually get moving. “So, do you know how to hotwire a bus?”

“Information of that sort is readily available online.”

“That’s a yes, right?”

Beatrice waited one short pause before speaking. That short moment of silence somehow conveyed a bit more disappointment than Dyna would have expected from a computer. Still, she ended up saying, “Yes.”

“Walk me through it?”

“Understood.”

Apparently, this being an older bus worked out well for Dyna. Modern vehicles almost always contained safeguards against hotwiring. Things that would lock the starter or set off alarms. It did require a few tools, but this being a converted home, Dyna was able to find a pair of scissors and a knife in the kitchen area. A spark of two wires together had the engine rumbling.

And still no sign of Ruby.

“Can’t you call her?”

“I attempted several methods of communication. Ruby may be in a high stress environment at this time.”

That could be. Especially if she noticed the police car and decided to chase after it. A quick glance at the mirror, however, showed no sign of alarm in either of the occupants. Which could mean that Ruby was just ignoring the ‘glorified secretary’.

Shaking her head, Dyna put her hands to the wheel.

It was strange. She had already done the hard work. Thanks to her actions, the bus probably needed at least a few hundred dollars worth of repair work. But now that it was time to actually get moving, she felt a bit more tension in her stomach.

But the longer she hesitated, the further away Grafton got.

Dyna hit the gas. The gate in to the facility had closed during her tinkering. A few more seconds went down the drain as she had to get out of the bus, run around to the button, and then rush back into the bus. She drove through, then paused.

“I don’t suppose you have eyes on the police car.”

“This system is—”

“Yeah, yeah.” Dyna held her mirror up to her face again, squinting to try to see the GPS map in the police car.

“Based on the previous location you gave me, the vehicle in question could be at any one of seventy-eight thousand points in the nearby area. Assuming they continued to follow the speed limit. Failing that, two-hundred thirty-seven thousand—”

“That’s way too many. They’re traveling westward on Lincoln? I think.”

“The Idaho Falls Regional Airport is the highest value point of interest within Idaho Falls along the path you have outlined.”

“That makes sense. Id has a laboratory, but it probably isn’t in the city. It’s too close to the Carroll Institute. Taking a flight out would be the fastest way of getting away from here.”

“I can direct you. Take a left. Drive for one point two miles then take another left. This is the fastest available route.”

“Got it. Text Ruby and Emerald too.”

“Understood.”

Dyna pulled out of the storage facility and onto the road. Then she floored it. The bus didn’t exactly fly down the street. Dyna hadn’t ever driven a vehicle quite so large before. It certainly felt heavy. Between a bus and a police cruiser, she had no doubts about who would win a race. If Grafton spotted her, had the driver switch to a highway escape route, and then went even a little over the speed limit, Dyna would never catch up to him.

Perhaps it was good that he had gotten such a lead. It would allow her to catch up without tipping him off. In fact, keeping hidden until he was out of the vehicle entirely was probably going to be her best bet at catching him. That meant the airport, assuming that was his end destination. And it would leave her with only a short time between him getting out of his car and getting into a plane.

“Take a left now. Continue straight for two point nine miles. You are on the fastest available route.”

“Thank you.”

Glad she had someone who actually knew how to navigate Idaho Falls keeping her on the right path, Dyna followed along. Though she did wish that Beatrice could take the wheel entirely. That would let her peek at the mirror and ensure that Grafton wasn’t going somewhere else.

As it was, a red light allowed her the opportunity to squint through the mirror again. She considered blowing right through it, catching her up even faster than speeding would allow, but the thought of plowing into someone else’s car forced her to stop. Not only did she not want to kill someone, but wrecking the bus would only stop her from reaching the airport in time.

The good news was that the police car was still on the same path.

Dyna wasn’t quite sure what Grafton’s plan was. He had a fairly distinctive appearance. Was he just going to walk into the airport like any old traveler? It was possible. If he was as strong of a mind controller as he seemed to be, he could probably just make everyone ignore him. Dyna felt it was most likely that he would take a private jet. Maybe he would just drive straight to it, then have it take him directly to wherever Id was actually based.

Which raised a question. Was it better to let him leave with the artifact if it meant getting more information on Id’s whereabouts? Could they get information?

If not, the idea was moot anyway.

“Can you track flights, Beatrice?”

“Not at this time. This system is operating—”

“What do you need to operate at a higher capacity?”

“Authority.”

“How?”

“A nine of thirteen majority vote from the administrator council or an emergency escalation of system privileges granted by either White or Doctor ████████.”

Dyna grimaced at the burst of static from her phone. It was resting in her lap, set to speaker phone so she could drive without hindrance. For a moment, she thought the connection had been cut off, but Beatrice kept talking.

“White’s escalation authority has been temporarily revoked pending review of the most recent escalation incident, ordered by the administrators. The administrators have never passed a vote for system escalation.”

“And Doctor… who? I didn’t quite catch his name.”

“Doctor ████████,” Beatrice said with the same burst of static as before, “is currently unavailable.”

“So we’re stuck then. No other way?”

“Emerald has granted me level two autonomy for the duration of the ongoing situation. Had she not, we would not be speaking.”

“Well, thank goodness for that I suppose.”

“I am sorry. The tasks you have for me cannot be fulfilled.”

“Don’t… beat yourself up over it. It isn’t your fault, I guess.”

“Understood. Turn onto Mapleberry and continue straight for five point one miles. Your destination will be on the right.”

“Thanks. Can you connect me to Emerald and Ruby? A group call?”

“Ruby has failed to respond to my communication thus far. My analysis indicates that she is indisposed. Emerald is unlikely to respond. My analysis indicates that she is indisposed. In addition, Emerald’s artifact is known to disrupt communications.”

“Try anyway, please.”

“Understood.”

Dyna waited, focusing on the road. The road she was on at the moment wasn’t exactly a highway, but it didn’t have much in the way of stop signs or traffic lights. That let her travel even more over the posted speed limit. Having been unable to check the mirror for a few minutes now, she mostly had to hope that Grafton was still on the way to the airport.

“What do you want?” An obviously irritated Ruby startled Dyna by shouting over the phone.

It took Dyna a second to respond. “Where are you?” she said after a moment.

“Dyna? I thought you got kidnapped.”

“It was a fake kidnapping.”

“What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know,” Dyna snapped. Ruby should have known that if she had read even one of Beatrice’s messages. The girl probably blocked Beatrice. That sounded like something she would have done. “How fast can you get to the airport?”

“With Ruby connected, I can calculate the time,” Beatrice cut in. “Ruby is currently sixteen minutes away from the Idaho Falls Regional Airport, assuming she begins travel immediately.”

Ignoring Ruby’s sudden groan, Dyna asked, “How far am I?”

“Four minutes. You are on the fastest available route.”

“Ruby, where is Emerald?”

“I don’t know. Doing her own thing. She was smiling at me when she told me to come find you… I didn’t argue or ask what she planned.”

“Okay. Get to the airport. I’ll… try to stall him until you get there? Beatrice can direct you if—”

“I don’t need—”

“Let Beatrice help you. And answer her calls.”

“I blocked her months ago. This call appeared as if you had called. Annoying secretary…”

“Then unblock her!” Dyna snapped. “And get to the airport as fast as possible. Or that Aztec calendar is going to be flying out of the city and we won’t be able to get it back.”

“What? How? Emerald and I—”

“If you wouldn’t have blocked Beatrice, you would probably know.”

“Fine… I’m on my way.”

“Good… Good…” Dyna said, noting a passing sign that let all travelers know that the airport was just ahead. “Please hurry.”

“I’ll be there. Don’t wait up for me.”

Glancing at the mirror—not looking close enough to see the map, just quickly glancing to see what was going on—Dyna frowned. Grafton was getting out of the police car. She could see the airport’s front entrance in his perspective. But he left the officer in the car and, shortly after walking away from him, the mirror turned dark.

“I don’t know that I have time to wait,” Dyna said.