FOOTAGE

     Tapping away endlessly at her keyboard, her stress began to crater over the edge as her tolerance waned. The words connection timeout appeared across the prompt screen yet again as Laia slammed her fists down on the table.

“Darnit!” She hollered out.

     “I thought you said this would work?” Mirai intimidatingly hawked; the two of them now occupying the living room.

     In a tired voice, Laia pushed back, “I can--” she balled up her fist and dropped her head, steadying her breathing. “It will work, but I can’t move fast enough. The security system is unbelievably advanced.”

“It’s a drone. What did you expect?”

“I didn’t expect to be hacking one. Even if we get in, I can’t guarantee we won’t be traced in an instant!

“How’d you know there was drone surveillance over Inagi anyways?”

“This is a special jurisdiction, and the Inner Council doesn’t like that. I heard noise about them surveilling the place before, but this is the first I’m confirming it.”

“Maybe it has footage from the night Yukue went missing?”

“Drones don’t store footage. We would need to know where it’s transmitting the data back to and that’s hardly important. There’s only a slim possibility it was over the house when Yukue went missing.”

     Mirai then looked at Laia with an open glare. “I’ve been told these things can cover a wide range. All I need is something to work with.” Leaning in more closely to the computer screen, “What exactly is the roadblock?”

     Refocusing on the task in front of her, Laia explained, “I’m not fast enough. No human is fast enough for this. It’s most likely an AI reinforced security block. Imagine you sticking a camera down someone’s throat to see what’s inside their stomach. If that person was to bite off the cable that’s passing through their mouth, you would lose your connection to the camera despite it already being inside.

“My only option is to get in so fast, that I can access and cut them off from their control of the mouth before they manage to bite the cable off. Except this security system is twice as fast as the signal from a human brain to the muscles in its jaw.

“In other words, you’re better off just sneaking into the hospital.”

“Something tells me it’s better if we stay out of it.”

“You’re chasing your own insecurities, Mirai.”

Mirai quietly stepped away from the table and called out to Muffin which rematerialize before them.

“The AI was scheduled to activate, so maybe Yukue was planning on having me see the footage today and not yesterday.”

“What footage?” Laia queried.

     Mirai unwittingly blocked her out as she stepped towards Muffin and requested to see the footage once again.

“There is no video file currently present in my internal databank.”

“Stop.” Mirai hawked. “Show me the files on your system. All of them!”

“As you wish…”

     Mirai swiped her eyes left, right, up and down. Stepping in closely as she deeply analyzed the image before her. “This doesn’t make sense,” she bellowed in shock.

     Laia quietly stood to the side as she struggled with finding the right position to address Mirai.

“Tell me that you remember watching the video Yukue left us yesterday…”

     Her trembling voice struggled to escape her mouth. Overwhelmed by the agonizing aura emanating from Mirai.

“I don’t, Mirai…”