They listened to the recording of Gina's last conversation, there was nothing they could make out that would allow them to trace where she was now. They repeated every word she uttered slowly, trying to find any hidden meaning, but nothing. They listened to any background noise, still nothing.
“We need to go back further, there must have been something in the last few days” Slick back said rewinding Tom's thoughts frantically.
It took them a few minutes, but they finally found something. There was a number they didn't recognise that Gina had phoned, someone called Danny, he wasn't on their radar. A few more swipes left and right through Tom's memories and they managed to find more connections to Danny, and noted down his number. There were too many hushed words when she was speaking to him that meant that he had to be involved. They shut Tom's final memories down and started typing away furiously. They were trying to trace this Danny, hopefully he still had his phone on. They were in luck, not only was it on, it showed he was still in the city and they could get to him quickly. With a few more keystrokes they were able to connect to his signal.
“Okay, let's find this guy” said Story face, “Keep listening to see if he gets any calls while we make our way there. Can you loop it back and get some kind of video feed from there?”
Slick back said he'd try; it wasn't always successful, as it depended on the strength of the signal and where the phone was. If it was in his pocket, that would be completely useless as it would be the video equivalent of butt dialling someone. He was in luck again though, he was able to get a clear video signal of the room he was sat in, and there was someone else there too. A Quick facial recognition scan showed it to be another person of interest, a Nano-bot engineer called Ben, he could be useful. They had great engineers and Nano-technology, but their own Nano-technology was flawed, the more expertise they could get the better. He radioed through to his office to put a track on any friends flagged up by these two. Slick back decided it would be prudent to keep a close eye on all of them.
Story face continued driving towards Danny and Ben's location while Slick back watched the video feed closely. He watched as the phone was thrown into a microwave and the feed cut off.
“Shit” he screamed, “They killed their phones, we need to get there right now”.
Story face put the pedal to the metal in a desperate attempt to reach them as quickly as he could. They reached the location where they had last had a signal and screeched to a halt. There in the distance was the pair of them walking in the opposite direction.
Slick back pulled a series of weapons out from the side of them, made a call for back up and then clambered out of the van, Story face following.
“Let's stay well back”, Story face suggested, “They're probably going to a meeting point, hopefully we can find more of them there”.
Slick back nodded and they followed Danny and Ben, keeping a considerable distance between them so as not to be spotted. They were joined by four soldiers part way along the journey, all six of them in stealthy pursuit.
BEN AND DANNY
Ben and Danny turned another corner and could see what looked like a camp ahead of them. It was set up under part of a tall bridge, the highway above humming with the sound of the vehicles racing along it. They had no choice but to walk towards and through it, not the best idea, but their pick-up point was further on, and this was the only way to get there.
“We'd better be careful” Ben said, “There could be anyone in that camp. It used to be pretty bad down here, homeless drunks, drugs, you name it. I have no idea what it's like now”
“Is the meeting point far?”
“No, it's probably two hundred metres past the camp, it would have taken another hour to get there from the road on the other side” Ben told him.
Well I guess that explained why they had taken the route through the slums, Danny thought, as they got ever closer. They were fifty metres away when they saw people beginning to walk in their direction, curious as to whom they were. A little closer they realised they had weapons pointed at them, not the thing they wanted to see. They held their arms up in the air to show they were no threat, and slowed their walk down. The men and women holding the guns ran over to them, looking them up and down suspiciously.
“We're trying to get out of the city, somewhere safe” Ben said, wanting to convince these people they could be trusted.
They had their guns still firmly fixed on them and Ben wasn't sure if they were just going to be shot for the sake of it, or whether these people were reasonable human beings. One of the women shouted back to the camp and an elderly man appeared and started to make his way towards them. He approached them with the same distrust written across his face as the others. He pulled out a small contraption and held it in front of Ben and Danny. It made whirring sounds, neither of them knowing if that was a good sign or not.
“What's that?” Danny asked nervously, still not sure which way this was going to go.
“It's a scanner, it can tell me if either of you are wired up to the net or not” he replied with a thick drawl, “and you two gentlemen are very lucky”.
“We're not implanted, we just need to pass by and get
