In a luxurious hotel located around five minutes from the abandoned building.
Linden and Lyra are inside that hotel. To be precise, they are in the most expensive room inside the hotel. Lyra decided that it was better to observe from this place as they might notify the magic circle builder if they had stayed in that building.
"Luckily, there is still a room available," said Lyra. She is sitting on a table with a cup of warm coffee in her hand.
"Do we need this super expensive room?" asked Linden.
He walks around the room, observing every single detail of the room. He also checks all the amenities provided. He wanted to know if this room was comparable to its outrageous fee.
"Well, this is the only room they have left."
"Senior, you forgot the last part. This is the only empty room in the 'suite room' category. The lower categories room still have many empty rooms."
"Don't let it bother you. It is not you that paid for this room. Just enjoy this place," said Lyra. She sipped her coffee once again.
Linden can only sigh. He wonders if he will become like Lyra in the future. Looking at his promised monthly wage, it is a possibility.
'I mean, that amount of salary is too much. I may have one or two very expensive things that I want to buy. But after that, I don't think I have something to use the money,' thought Linden.
Lyra suddenly stands up. The cup of coffee at her table has been emptied. She then walks toward one of the doors in the room. She installed the equipment used for the dimension door and made the ordinary door into a dimension door.
"Huft, okay. Linden, help me bring the computer from the office. We will use it to monitor the building. We will use this place as a temporary base," said Lyra.
"Okay," agreed Linden. It is still work time, and he has nothing to do anyway.
***
"Hmm?" Linden tilts his head. He looked at the box that usually houses the brain of a computer, the CPU. "This is weird. Where is the cable?"
"Cable what?" asked Lyra. She just came back from the office. She brought a big monitor with her using both of her arms.
"Power cable, display cable, and other cables?"
"That thing has no cable. It can connect to this monitor wirelessly. It also has a battery to power itself," said Lyra. "Just put that box on that table."
Sometimes Linden forgets that he is dealing with equipment from a different era. There is a super tiny camera that can send real-time images to his PDA. And those images are coming in a very high resolution. A wireless computer with a battery should be a normal thing.
Lyra walked toward a medium-sized table located at the side of the wall. She put the monitor on the table and beckoned Linden to put the black box beside the monitor.
"Turn it on, and…" muttered Lyra.
The screen on the monitor displayed a line of text, 'No Signal' for a brief second. But it quickly changed and showed a login screen.
Linden noticed that there was no keyboard or mouse. He thought maybe there was another way to control the computer. A touchscreen, perhaps? Or it could be controlled using brain waves? Who knows how advanced the technology in front of him is?
He decided to keep silent and observe Lyra.
"Ah! I forgot the mouse and keyboard. Linden, get it from the office!" said Lyra.
"So it indeed needs a keyboard and a mouse, huh!?" said Linden.
"Why are you suddenly shouting? Of course, it needs a mouse and a keyboard. It is a computer," said Lyra calmly.
Linden's mouth moved rapidly. He was searching for a word to convey the shock that his mind just received. But in the end, he didn't find any good phrase. So he sighed and walked toward the dimension door.
***
Lyra is operating the computer and linking it to her PDA. The images from the planted cameras are shown on the big monitor. In total, there are 12 cameras installed around the building.
She uses a wireless mouse and a wireless keyboard to operate the computer.
Linden decided not to think too much about the mouse and keyboard again. He picks up a chair and sits beside Lyra. He planned to observe what will Lyra do with the computer.
But before he can sit, Lyra says something.
"Ah- When you were picking the keyboard and the mouse, there was a notification to our PDA. It said the data from the relevant security cameras has been sent. You can analyze it. Maybe there is some clue there."
"Is that so? Then, I will do that," said Linden.
He brings his PDA and sits beside Lyra. He found that the images are provided by three security cameras around the area. But too bad, no camera shows the entrance of the abandoned building. Only cameras from nearby intersections are found.
Each photo has the timestamp of when it gets taken. And only the image from the last six months was sent to his PDA.
Looking at the images provided, Linden knows that most pictures are useless. But there are a few that might be useful. That is a picture with someone in it.
So, Linden sorted the useless picture, the image without anyone, into another folder. The somewhat helpful pictures are then sorted again into two categories, day and night shots.
Linden didn't do that manually. There is a function on his PDA to help Linden sorts those images. He only needs to select the parameter, and the PDA will automatically sort it. Of course, some images can't be sorted by the PDA and need to be confirmed by Linden, but those cases are small.
Finished with that, Linden sorts the image again. This time, he sort it by how many times an individual gets their picture taken.
"There are eleven persons that wandered around the area more than fifty times in the last six months. From that eleven, six strolled the area mostly during the night," muttered Linden.
"Senior, is there a way to identify someone based on a picture?" asked Linden to Lyra. He wanted to know the six people that wandered during the night.
"There is a way. Do this and that," replied Lyra. She pointed to where to tap at the PDA.
Not long after, data of the six people are sent to Linden's PDA. All detail from the name, birthdate and place, and address. Even detailed information like birthmarks is listed there.
"This is scary…" muttered Linden.
Of the six people Linden suspected, five are long-term residents in this place. The last one was a visitor that left this area around two months ago.
"Senior, I think we should investigate these five people."