With These Eyes (9 page)

A bit of time had passed and an image of
Isabelle and Tonati enjoying their dinner filled the view-screen of
the book-mobile. The heat vision of the drone showed a
bright-orange outline on Isabelle's plate where her dinner had
been. Isabelle took the last bite. She placed her fork and knife on
her plate with the handles pointing right - she was finished.
Isabelle picked up her research folder. She rifled through the
documents until she reached one that consisted of about 20
double-sided sheets filled with drawings and formulas. The paper
described a curious concept it named as
Quantum Energy
.
Isabelle was fascinated by this idea. It seemed to pull large
amounts of energy out of thin air.

Tasha's eyes were virtually glued to
Isabelle's image. Isabelle felt her pursuer’s prying electronic
eyes on her skin. She knew whoever had been following her didn't
just sit around waiting. She was aware of the possibilities that
digital electronics offered an outsider who wanted to spy on the
consumer of such technology. Although Isabelle lived her life as
close to nature as practical, the need to stay 'connected' to the
world via digital communications and her use of modern-day
conveniences, such as her robotic vacuum, offered plenty of
opportunities to have her privacy invaded. It was difficult for
Isabelle to concentrate. She looked at her television's cable box.
She had a hunch that its sensors did more than read the remote's
signal. For a moment, Tasha felt like she was looking directly into
Isabelle's eyes. The hunted had gotten conscious of the hunter's
methods.

Isabelle rose from the sofa. "C'mon Tonati,
it's time to get to sleep."

The puma's ears perked up and he jumped to
his feet. Isabelle grabbed a snowboarding hat off her trophy shelf
and together they headed for the large glass doors in the kitchen.
In passing, Isabelle reached for the faucet and pulled the lever
towards its
hot
setting. A steady stream of water flowed
into the drain. The faucet was still running at room temperature
until the hotter water arrived from the water heater at the far end
of the house.

This left little heat signature for Tasha to
take note of Isabelle's actions. Tasha's main display offered a
piercing overhead view of Isabelle in the kitchen. A plume of heat
could be seen escaping to the outside. Tasha knew it meant Isabelle
had pushed one of the large sliding doors open.

"Give me a medium-wide view of the exterior,"
Tasha barked in her drill-sergeant tone.

With a sharp "Aye!", the Trooper behind the
digital flight controls repositioned the drone. He sent a command
that prompted the lens on the heavenly spy ship to zoom out and
present a wider view of Isabelle's house and garden. The false
colors of the infrared vision showed Isabelle and Tonati in orange
and yellow against blue and black architecture and plant life.
Intensely yellow blobs identified light sources around the
house.

Isabelle and Tonati walked towards the part
of the property that was Tonati's area. California law dictated
that a big cat like him was to be kept caged or chained. A law for
which neither cat nor woman had much regard. Tonati had been around
Isabelle from the time he was a cub and proven that he was
intelligent enough to live around people without physical
restrictions like chains or imprisonment. He understood that most
humans were deathly afraid of the fact that he could tear them to
shreds. He had seen in the jungle that most people will shoot and
kill a puma simply out of fear. Tonati felt safe on Isabelle's
property; it was his home. He didn't seek to expand his territory
beyond the fence where dangerous people with guns could attack him
in the street. Isabelle knew how utterly sad a chain made Tonati.
She was enough in rhythm with her animal that she had every bit of
confidence in his intelligence, so she allowed him to roam free at
home. Along the way to Tonati's enclosed arena were the house's
heat pump and natural-gas water heater. The running faucet in the
kitchen had just caused the thermostat to turn on the boiler's
flame.

Inside the command post, Tasha was unsure of
Isabelle's intentions. The heat pump, which was supplying the
house's interior with heat for the cool February night, looked like
a rainbow-colored box on Tasha's display. From the cold elements of
the condenser to the heat from the motor's friction, this single
landmark presented such a large range of temperature that the
false-color pallet of Tasha's display was presented in its
entirety. Adjacent, the water heater stood like a bright yellow and
orange pillar with the brightest and hottest parts being the flame
on the bottom and its exhaust at the top. Tasha's watchful eye
could not find anything suspicious in Isabelle's walk around the
house and expected little but routine.

Isabelle took a step to her left, which took
her against the water heater. She let Tonati continue on without
her. In the blink of an eye, Isabelle stood with her back against
the large vertical tank. Tasha's attention briefly strayed from her
viewer to answer her ringing cell phone. One of the girls from the
night before had forgotten her diary and wanted to pay her another
visit. Tasha could have let the call go to voicemail but she
enjoyed this kind of brief exchange with her civilian circle of
acquaintances while she was on the hunt. Suddenly Isabelle's image
was gone from the screen. Tasha snapped her phone shut in
mid-sentence. The voice of an angry warrior filled the
bookmobile.

"Trooper, give me a twenty on the
package!"

The Trooper to her right responded. "She's
walking right next to the..." He paused. "She was just there!"

Neither of them could see any trace of
Isabelle. Just Tonati, the heat pump and the outline of the water
heater were registering on the infrared monitor.

"Give me a broader view," shouted Tasha.

The pilot of the spy drone zoomed out
further. He maneuvered the unmanned craft around in different
directions as it hovered above.

"She must still be by the water heater. I
think our girl is trying to hide in its heat plume. Bring the bird
in close. I don't care what the neighbors think they see."

Isabelle quickly put the snowboarding hat on
her head. Her hands pulled down its brim. It revealed a full-face
mask that just left her eyes and nose peek through the layer of
insulated fabric. The pilot lowered the drone to get a look under
the overhang which housed the water heater. Isabelle could hear the
buzzing of the little craft's rotor get louder and then come into
view. Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw the drone's
helicopter-shaped outline against a moon that was almost full. With
feline speed, Isabelle’s hands disappeared into her pockets. Inside
Tasha's command post, the image from the drone's heat sensitive
camera had become the center of attention. On the enormous plasma
display towered in bright yellow and orange colors, the outline of
the water heater. A column of heat was rising from the exhaust. As
it dissipated, the color gradually faded to red and green. A stream
of cold air from the heat pump created a blue fog that rose like a
geyser. Isabelle's well-clothed body had become indistinguishable
from the insulated tank of the hot water heater. The flame's
exhaust did a nice job of masking her breath which would have
otherwise given away her location in a single exhale. Isabelle
could see the glimmer of her kitchen-lights reflect in the drone's
lens. Once again, Isabelle and Tasha were looking at each other's
eyes, but neither of them saw the adversary's face.

With her teeth grinding, Tasha gave the order
to reposition the drone at an altitude that kept it out of the
naked eye's view. There was no need to draw the wrong kind of
attention with a fruitless search. This was the sort of moment that
would give Tasha an excuse for action. The fact that she didn't
like to lose sight of a suspect was only surpassed by her love for
the hunt. The time had come to take the next step.

"Purple Scout, enter the compound and get me
a visual on the package."

Tasha did not care to address her Troopers by
their names or even learn them. Troopers were as much a resource to
her as any of the gear she used to get the job done. She strictly
functioned on chain-of-command and used every opportunity to make
sure her Troopers knew she was their superior officer. A tall fence
covered in vegetation stretched the perimeter of Isabelle's
property. Stealthy as a Ninja, the Trooper scaled the boundary.
Without as much as snapping a single twig, the camouflaged Trooper
appeared on Isabelle's front lawn. On his earpiece, he could hear
Tasha's voice.

"Floor-bots show no activity. Motion sensors
and all cams in the house report negative contact." It was her way
of saying she couldn't find Isabelle.

One of Tasha's Troopers was accessing
Isabelle's home security system to make a few changes. The system
status changed to
Silent Access
. The intruding Trooper was
at the front door.

"Clear to proceed inside, Purple Scout."
Tasha's orders came in.

To get her homeowner's insurance as required
for any Apophis- Bank mortgage, Isabelle needed to have a security
system installed when she moved in. The security firm
Nortech
had long since become a subsidiary of Apophis. This
gave Tasha access to the alarm panel and a skeleton key stored
digitally with the security patrol for emergencies. It was standard
practice for Tasha's Troopers to recreate all of a suspect's keys
from file.

As soon as Tasha had given the order to
proceed, the Trooper produced the key to Isabelle's front door from
his pocket. A beat later, the shiny piece of brass slid into
Isabelle's lock and two turns of the Trooper's wrist unlocked the
door. He turned the handle and swiftly stole inside. The alarm
panel on the wall read
Silent Access
as a sign of Tasha's
override. What Isabelle believed was the security system's motion
sensors doubled as covert surveillance cameras. Various high- and
low- grade images from digital appliances added to the mosaic of
views that framed the drone's heat-sensitive image on the video
wall.

It would have been difficult for Isabelle to
hide from Tasha's numerous electronic prying eyes inside the house.
Tasha was convinced Isabelle was outside. She was getting
impatient. A few brisk commands later, Purple Scout was on his way
to investigate the garden. Within a few moments' time, he was in
the kitchen - still not fast enough for Tasha. She continued to
bark commands and updates into the talk-back system which occupied
the Trooper's ears. His concern not to miss any of his leader's
instructions prevented him from noticing the running water as he
hurried to the open sliding glass door in the kitchen. Purple Scout
slipped outside while Tasha's voice continued in his ear
canals.

"Last contact was 20 meters north." The
Trooper turned left and walked towards Isabelle's hiding spot.
Suddenly, the mostly blue and black background that depicted
Isabelle's garden on the infrared display showed an orange shape
shooting across the night.

"Heads up, Scout! The puma's charging you
from 12 o'clock!"

Tasha's warning on the intercom was followed
by a transmission from the Trooper who would have much rather faced
a human opponent. His eyes scanned the darkness. "There's no one
here, Tiger Eye. Ready to discharge my weapon if the cat gets much
closer."

"Negative!" responded Tasha quickly. "Retreat
and report to command post for debriefing."

As quickly as he could, the Trooper ran
towards the kitchen. He slipped in through the glass door just
before Tonati could reach him. Without a sound, the Trooper made
his departure. Isabelle's house completely separated the front from
the backyard. This was the only way she could get away with letting
Tonati roam free. A delivery boy faced with a puma would have
easily called Animal Control. In their fear, their Troopers would
have wasted little time before putting an end to Tonati's brilliant
life. Isabelle's instinct had lead her to safety. She knew this
night was not going to be comfortable. Tasha's infrared eye was
boring through her head. Isabelle had become one with her
environment to the point where all of Tasha's cunning and
technology could not get past the protection that Isabelle's world
offered to her.

A frustrated Tasha kept her platoon on their
toes and combing the neighborhood for any trace of her prey. It was
going to be a long night, and down the street a dually pick-up
truck was delivering a fifth-wheel camper into its parking spot.
The trailer would provide Tasha's Troopers with basic overnight
facilities while keeping her options more flexible than allowing
off-site showers or rest. Troopers would sleep in three-hour shifts
while others would keep watch and continue their search for the
package: Isabelle. Unhappy about the fact that her prey had managed
to escape the dragnet, Tasha preferred to pick up the trail after a
good night's rest. She was confident Isabelle had not gotten very
far. No matter to where Isabelle may have escaped, Tasha was
certain her automated surveillance would find her. That would
happen the moment Isabelle's voiceprint showed up on a phone call
or her biometrics features were caught on one of tens of millions
of cameras around the city. A Trooper pulled up next to the
bookmobile in his off-road vehicle. After a short ride with the
Trooper, Tasha had arrived at the overnight trailer. She exited the
truck, muttering distractedly to the man in the driver's seat.

"Scour the canyon behind the house until you
find her."

She had her doubts Isabelle would be naïve
enough to hide in the bushes, but it was a good way to keep the
platoon on-edge and to save the catch for herself.

A warrior less-than-victorious climbed the
steps that lead to the trailer. The setback brought anticipation
for the day ahead. Tasha enjoyed the challenge a worthy opponent
posed for her. She wasn't used to a suspect slipping off her radar
with the apparent ease that Isabelle had demonstrated.