toxic illusion, falling deeper spiral through time
It was still the wee hours when Isobel Nakano's eyes opened, but she didn't know exactly what time. She didn't know what had caused her to wake up. These days it could have been anything. Or it could be nothing at all.
She took a moment to orient herself, casting a gaze beyond her bed. Vast picture windows looked out over a beautiful mountain range. Even in the dark, with only the lights of the stars and moon and the muted lights of the small city nestled at its base, she could tell that the mountain's caps were blanketed with snow.
Mountains. So she was in her flat at the White Blossom resort on Atrisia.
She heard steady breathing to her right. That checked out, too. She didn't come to the White Blossom alone anymore. Even with its state of the art security system, its reinforced windows with security coating rendering it opaque from the outside, Isobel didn't come here alone. She carefully slipped out of the bed, making every effort not to wake her companion, even suppressing the sucking of her teeth as her feet touched the cold floors. Gooseflesh raced up her legs. She reached for her dressing gown and pulled it tightly around her slender frame before easing her feet into the slippers that had been discarded haphazardly nearby.
Isobel picked up her datapad from the bedside table and activated the screen to check the time. 0319. But more than the time, a message caught her eye:
>> HOLO.ENCRYPT//113M-ejj--; data=ghosted; data-uplink=secure; masking-status=active; function=security; permissions=limited;]
Alert: Facial Recognition Search - Subject Aurek-6 - Possible Partial Match. Details sent to e-mail.
Isobel's breath caught in her throat and she glanced over her shoulder briefly before going into the living room of the flat, where she had left her laptop. She perched on the sofa and powered up her laptop. With trembling fingers she navigated to her email and searched for the message. She clicked it and waited for it to flash up on the screen. There was a brief blurb about where the potential match had come from (Empress Teta) and when (that day) but she was focused on seeing whatever her team had sent.
The images were grainy, from the security cameras of a magtrain station on Empress Teta. Her eyes narrowed as she set about enhancing the image. It wasn't a great angle -- somewhere between a profile and a three-quarters view -- but it had been enough to get a partial match. A handful of green dots overlaid the image. The green dots didn't help her, particularly. Her eyes swept over the curve of the jaw, the brim of the hat, the particular hook of the nose. The one eye she could see. The man in the photo was speaking. Isobel couldn't quite make out the teeth, but the line of his bottom teeth wasn't straight across. Her dark eyes narrowed, willing the details to become more clear.
She was about to set the computer aside and go splash some water on her face to wake herself up when there was a faint blip and a notification popped up with the same tag: Subject Aura-6. Isobel opened that message. Another security camera on Empress Teta, this one at an automated banking machine across the street from a nightclub. Isobel scrolled down to the photo and was surprised at the resolution. This was a straight profile, but the resolution was high enough that she could see every bump on the man's nose, every piece of stubble, the bulge of his jaw. That was him. She would know his face anywhere, even from a profile. Cierrol Harlow.
She opened a reply to the email and sent a series of single commands: Follow him. Track him at all times. Stand by for instructions. Do not lose him. Keep me updated.
A glance towards the bedroom again. Despite her pulse racing, she set her computer to the side and went back in. There would be time for action, but for now... for the time it would take to travel between Empress Teta and Atrisia, Isobel was safe. She slipped off her slippers again and let her dressing gown slither to the floor before sliding back beneath the covers. It was still warm. She settled against the pillow and pulled the blanket up over her shoulders. Isobel was asleep a few moments after her head reached the pillow.
In the other room, her datapad vibrated silently on the sofa as reports from her surveillance teams streamed in, reporting on Cieroll Harlow's movements half a galaxy away.