patrol

[thinkering]

When Lorica's been a Ward for a few months they start pushing her to go out on patrols. She still hasn't finished the suit for her dad, although hers is good until it gets field-tested and she knows what to add - and there are other projects she'd like to spend PRT money on - but she's playing the game, so she goes patrolling. She's an exemplary member of her little team, mostly because by luck she gets along with the fellow who's appointed leader; they start letting her go alone with a little flock of scout robots.

She's doing a sort of aerial parkour, flying but touching down on roofs and jogging along occasionally to get a closer look at anybody wandering by, in a zigzag over a nest of side streets. Her suit's a little louder than she'd like, some kind of joint deterioration. She can fix that when she gets back in.

Comments

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"You realize I'll be checking it for tracking devices."

[thinkering]

"It is a tracking device, among other things, or at least it's supposed to be. You can check to see if it's broken like I said, of course."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"Very well. I will, of course. When and how should I contact you?"

[thinkering]

"Send me an email. Try not to sound like a spambot, my filter is still learning." She reaches into a pocket in her suit and pulls out a drone that looks like the rest of her little flock, with one broken foot and a few scratches, and offers it to him.

[tenn_ambar_metta]

He reaches out and takes the robot, keeping as far away from her as he can. "How do you know I won't just dispose of it?"

[thinkering]

"I'm hoping the permission to disassemble it will help," she admits.

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"You honestly think I'd need permission?" He smiles slightly. "You're not wrong, though."

[thinkering]

"Have fun taking it apart," she says, and she waves and jump-flies back up to the rooftops.

[tenn_ambar_metta]

He waits until she's gone before vanishing into the alley.

[thinkering]

The robot proves to be broken as described, if he cares to check.

[tenn_ambar_metta]

He checks to see if the robot is broken. It is, but the salvageable software is interesting. He files it away for later - the general structure could quite possibly be useful for one of the automated suits.

After a few hours of work, he sends an email. The subject line is blank, the body contains a date, a time, and set of coordinates.

[thinkering]

Lorica's bot determines that this is Not Spam and Lorica sees it next time she checks her messages. She isn't obliged to be in school at the described hour, fortunately; she just needs to claim a day off from Wards-ing and pocket her radar screamer in case she needs fatherly evac and put her kit on and go.

[tenn_ambar_metta]

The coordinates are for the base of a hiking trail - not particularly far from civilization, but currently deserted. Aiden's sitting on the ground, legs crossed, playing with a mechanical object. He doesn't notice her approach.

[thinkering]

"Hey. This looks impressively not like a trap. Kudos if it is and thanks if it's not."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"Wha - oh. It's not. Why would it be?" He seems genuinely confused. "Here, this way. I'll need you to get rid of anything with a GPS. Any kind of tracker."

[thinkering]

"...I can leave things with GPS here, I think I can detach them all, but I am not going anywhere without the ability to summon my dad."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"I wouldn't ask you to."

[thinkering]

"Okay then." She starts taking various components of her suit out and off, and unpockets a little robot and sits it on the pile of the lot of them. "Those are the things that know where in the world is Carmen Sandiego. Now what?"

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"Do you have any abilities that would allow you to retrace your path without tracking devices?"

[thinkering]

"Garden-variety human memory - don't believe my Thinker rating, by the way, it's a joke - and I guess if I wanted to I could extend the memory loop on joint motion and literally retrace my steps, but I haven't done that and wouldn't want to try it without my computer and it only matters if I'm walking wherever. Forgot my ball of yarn, damn all the luck."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

He leads them to a vehicle. It looks roughly like a car, with no visible steering device. He taps a few keys. The windows darken, and it starts moving.

[thinkering]

"Nifty."

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"It has its uses. This will take about an hour. The route isn't direct, so don't try to extrapolate anything about the distance."

[thinkering]

"I think I can be reasonably sure we aren't going to Mexico," she says dryly.

[tenn_ambar_metta]

"You already knew I was in or near the city."