"Thank you very much for coming. You said one week, right?" the car rental manager asked Amy, who was sitting opposite him. "Yes, just one week, and please can we speed this process up, I don't have much time to waste," Amy said slightly impatiently.
"Alright ma'am, but you know these things can't be rushed. The best time I could offer to you is 3 days, give or take" the man said, looking at the young woman from head to toe.
"How much is the rent for a day?" Amy asked. "For a full-size SUV, it's $50, for a small compact car, it's $20, and for a minivan, it's $35." The man said. "I'm sorry to ask, but how old are you?" the man could not bottle up his curiosity.
"24, look, I'll take the minivan. You said it's $35 a day, right?" The man nodded. "Good, which means, it's $245 a week. How about this? I give you $1000 for the minivan, and you'll give it to me right now." Amy asked and leaned back on her chair.
The manager became thoughtful, he looked at Amy and raised his brow with suspicion, then straightened his back and smiled "You have the cash, here right?"
Amy opened her purse and counted ten bills of $100 and slid them across the table towards the man. The man took the money, raised the money up and carefully examined it, then he looked at Amy for any reaction, but was disappointed.
The man flashed a smile, before resuming in his usual demeanour "Follow me" the man instructed as he stood up, prompting Amy to do the same as they both exited the office.
After a short walk, the man arrived at a large garage. He then strolled inside a bit before stopping beside a small minivan. "Here it is, spotless. I want to see it in the same state as it is now okay, here are the keys" the man said as he handed the minivan's keys to Amy.
"Don't worry Mr Christopher, your ride would be as spotless as ever. It's been great doing business with you" Amy said as she shook Mr Christopher's hand.
Amy drove out of the garage with the minivan to the Hotel to prepare the car.
When she arrived at the hotel, she alighted off the car and went to her room. She placed all her recording equipment and her PC inside a backpack and headed downstairs to the minivan. She then took the microphone and placed one each at the base of her left and right-side mirror, one at her shirt, and an amplifier in one of the empty slots in the car.
She began testing it to make sure it worked as expected and placed her camera on the dashboard. Voila!
Amy took a deep breath and silently prayed that she makes it alive till she meets her boyfriend. Moments later, she began her journey to James house.
20 minutes and a gas refill later, she arrived at the building where James resided. She gasped in awe as she admired the architecture of the house. 'Damn this is one beautiful home' she thought.
Amy began adjusting the radius of the microphone and connected her laptop to the satellite of the AIRC company. The company personally flew a satellite to space as an excuse to fully connect to their commercial robotics, self-driving cars, and the smartphone they were manufacturing, but the dark truth was that they used this same technology to spy on government agencies and politicians, anonymously hack into other satellites, and the likes.
As Amy connected, her screen displayed a 3D version of earth, then Amy typed a coordinate on the search bar, which caused the program to zoom into the earth until it stopped at the house where James resided. Amy then activated an [X-ray Image Capture Module], which enables her to see anything or anybody through obstructions.
Then she began observing. She saw six—no seven people in the house. One figure was in the room doing something she could not fully discern. Amy then turned on the microphone to hear what was going on inside.
"Mom! Nicolas is having a runny nose again, where's the handkerchief?"
"Mommy, Toby colour family!"
"Alright alright, I get that the contract is annulled, but you should've still discussed it with your client"
Amy then began to record the audio with the laptop as she consciously searched for James' voice, she wanted to know what he was doing at the moment.
"No, not here? That's what I was saying…. but the storage is not large and fast enough for this thing… of course, I want to turn it into an intelligent android, is there anything wrong with that?… I know that it remains two days and a couple of hours before my memory comes back, that's why I want to surprise my forgotten self with this piece of tech."
Amy was confused. Who was James talking to? She rechecked the room and saw nobody with him. Was it his imaginary friend children usually do these days, or what?
Amy then began writing down something on the laptop's notepad.
Client [James Smith] is presumably mentally imbalanced.
The entire family is at home on day one.
She then saved it and closed the notepad and waited. An hour later, she saw the gate slowly open, revealing a Jeep coming out of the building. Amy promptly started the car and tailed behind the Jeep.
Amy could not see the occupants inside the jeep, but whoever it was, either the parents would be driving, so she was okay with that.
Amy followed the Jeep until it stopped at a gym centre. The occupants then alighted off the jeep, revealing a middle-aged woman in yoga pants and a man with shorts.
Amy promptly began writing to the notepad.
Client [Parents] attends a gym centre on day one(Wednesday).
They likely visit this location weekly.
Suddenly, the woman turned back and looked in the direction of the minivan, causing Amy heart to leap. The woman stared for a while before calling the man's name, then she began telling the man something while pointing at the minivan Amy was residing in.
Then to confirm her fear, the man started walking towards the minivan.