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law
enforcement agency or the FBI.
    What a day.
    Any other time she would have been thrilled to meet Eric
Martin, to talk to the man that almost single-handedly changed the world.
Today, however, seeing him made her want to run as fast as she could in the
opposite direction.  Whatever happened, Alice had to convince him that she had
nothing he wanted.
    No one would ever suspect that the information was now
neatly stored in her brain, and she wouldn't give anyone a reason to. If anyone
found out her secret, she would never be safe again.
    I have to find a way to prove to EngineerCorp that this
was all just one big misunderstanding.
    This is going to take a while…
    Grateful for the warm cocoon of the bath, Alice sunk
further into the water and began to formulate a plan.
     
    ***
     
    Eric sighed deeply.
    I should have questioned why she was acting so
strangely.
     He never would have dreamed that girl could be responsible
for the breach, but if he had taken the time to investigate further, perhaps
they could have detained her long enough for him to find the truth.
    It's of no consequence. She won't be able to hide
forever, and I could use a challenge. 
    There's something simply refreshing about field work. It
can get so boring, being surrounded by people that cower beneath me. Here is a
seemingly insignificant young girl, daring to oppose my authority... I'm going
to enjoy the opportunity to remind her exactly who she's dealing with.  
    He picked up a picture frame from a nearby table. Alice
stood with a man and a woman, presumably her parents. The resemblance was
clear, although the picture was obviously several years old.  They stood in
front of a lake, taken sometime during the fall. The trees in the background
were fiery reds and oranges.
    A voice broke his reverie. "Sir, we've searched the
house. The girl is nowhere to be found, but we've found some things in her
files that might interest you."
    The man handed him a stack of papers.
    "Good. Keep searching. I want everything electronic
confiscated, and anything that might give us a clue to where she is."
    He turned to look through the papers in his hand,
dismissing the man. 
    The top paper was an old newspaper article dated from over
a year ago. It was detailing a fatal car accident on a remote stretch of
highway not far from Asheville. As he scanned over the article, he came across
a picture of the couple that passed away. It was the same man and woman from
the photograph. The last sentence of the article said, "Mary and John
McArthur, survived by their daughter Alice."
     The next paper was a high school diploma, dated five years
ago. That meant Alice was fourteen when she graduated high school. That
document was followed by a bachelor’s and master’s degree, all within the
expanse of four years.
    Smart girl. The more I learn about her, the more I am
intrigued. 
    There was a healthy stack of awards for various academic
achievements. She graduated at the top of her class in both high school and
college. A community service award described how she had designed a custom
management system for the city to manage its public records electronically. At
the bottom of the pile was the title for a Ducati.
    Eric found himself almost impressed, despite his prejudice.
He glanced up as his men were loading the last of the equipment into the SUV.
Grabbing the papers, he exited the cottage and went to join them. There was
nothing left for them to do, and he had far better resources on the
EngineerCorp campus.
    When they arrived, they would sort through the evidence and
decide exactly what they were dealing with. In the meantime, he leaned his head
back against the headrest and closed his eyes.
    Yes, I am going to enjoy this.
     
    ***
     
    Several hours after they returned to the campus, the
engineers presented Eric with a summary of their findings.
    There had been quite a few computers and servers found on
the premises. After running diagnostics on all of the hard drives that