The guard that brought Jack into the room pushed open the door and said, "What, ready to leave so soon?"
"Look," said Jack, pointing at the room next door where Isabell was still yelling. "That man just keeled over."
The guard looked through the window into the other room, then turned and dashed out of the room. As the door closed, he yelled, "Wait there!"
Not like I can go anywhere, thought Jack. He was locked in the room until the guard let him out.
While he and Madison watched silently, a female guard entered the other room, spoke with Isabella briefly, then unchained her from the desk and escorted her out of the room.
A moment later, the guard that had brought Jack, along with two other people, rushed into the room. One of them checked the man’s pulse, then started yelling and pointing, before dragging the man to the floor and beginning what looked like CPR.
Nora had combined the Somnusol and Herzbrecher so that by the time the man regained consciousness he’d be in so much pain he’d be inarticulate. She didn’t understand why they’d bothered to use separate injectors, since combining the two drugs was more efficient.
Isabella had just muttered that Damian was an idiot.
A few minutes later, two paramedics arrived in the room and soon the man was carted away on a stretcher.
He and Isabella had interrogated the man, but he didn’t know the details of the plan, just induce a fake heart attack so she’d get sent to the hospital. It was possible the man would not suffer the fate intended for Isabella, so Jack used a new technique he’d just developed to follow the man.
It was only when the possibility came up during his conversation with Isabella, and he tried thinking of a solution, that he realized he’d missed an important capability.
Approximate level snapshots were super cheap. An Approximate level snapshot with a radius of fourteen thousand kilometer would only cost 140 EP.
Videos had a frame rate of 30 frames per second. So he could essentially film the entire planet at 30 fps for only 4200 EP/second. If he reduced the radius to 1000 kilometers, the cost dropped to only 300 EP/second!
And, with a question to Jeeves, he’d learned that he could update an existing snapshot, instead of creating new snapshots. That meant he could effectively remote view anywhere in the world, like he was right there. Just, no audio.
In the past, he’d discounted using simulations for long-term monitoring because he needed to include the sun in any simulation that was going to last more than eight minutes and that meant a snapshot size of at least one hundred and fifty billion kilometers.
But after learning he could update an existing snapshot, he had also asked if he could do the same with a simulation.
What he learned was that he could do so as long as the current simulation state didn’t deviate too far from the actual physical world state.
So, for full video and audio, he could just use snapshots to update the simulation thirty times a second. The result? Be a ghost, a fly on the wall, anywhere in the world, at a cost of only 4200 EP/second. And if he just wanted to snoop about the local area, the cost was a pittance.
So, when the paramedics carted the man away on a stretcher, soul space Jack followed along using his new remote-presence technique. It wasn’t remote-viewing because it provided him with sound and scent as well.
He briefly thought about calling it his super-snooper technique, but felt silly using such a name. So he settled on calling it his remote-presence technique.
The paramedics loaded the man into an ambulance, which then drove a short distance to a nearby field where a medivac helicopter waited.
The man was loaded into the helicopter and soon they were in the air and headed towards the nearest hospital. Jack followed along in observer mode, suddenly worried that the helicopter would crash and the potentially innocent pilot and crew would be killed as well.
A few minutes later, a large drone popped up right in front of the helicopter and the pilot swerved violently to avoid it, tilting the helicopter almost ninety degrees.
When it swerved, the door on its side burst open, and the stretcher slid out, then tumbled towards the ground hundreds of meters below. The two crew members were strapped into their seats and remained inside, mouths agape in horror at what had just happened.
Jack watched as the stretcher tumbled through the air before striking the ground.
Even though he’d intentionally kept his view high in the air, his stomach still churned at what he saw when the stretcher struck the hard ground blow. He would probably have to swear off watermelon for a few years until that image faded.
Happy that no innocents died, he ended the remote-presence technique. The man had participated in a plot to murder Isabella, so Jack felt no guilt for being involved in the man’s death. Just mild nausea from the sight of it.
When he told Isabella about what he saw, she said, "That took some planning. There’s no way Damian thought of that all on his own. And making sure the innocents survive has FIS stink on it. I bet that Agent Jackson was involved."
"Why would an FIS agent want you dead? Is he dirty? Working for rivals?" he asked.
"Maybe, or maybe he just thinks he’s doing the world a favor. One dead criminal at time. The FIS have been sniffing around my father’s businesses for years, but have never managed to gather enough evidence to press charges, let alone secure a conviction. I bet they gnash their teeth every time they think about how untouchable we are."
"So you’re saying it’s possible that this is really just some rogue FIS agent gone vigilante, manipulating your idiot brother Damian so he can carry out some unsanctioned justice?"
"Yep, given what you just told me, that seems likely. If you can confirm it, let me know, and I’ll get rid of him."
"No. You’re not a murderer now, and I don’t want that kind of heat on you. You’re a lot less useful to me if the FIS are on a witch hunt trying to track down a cop killer."
"Yes, master," she said, looking contrite. "If you don’t want me getting rid of him, then what should we do about him? He may try again."