1 hour later.
It took them nearly an hour to travel from their hotel to the city of Cambridge, and they arrived there with just thirty minutes to spare before midnight.
Upon arrival in the city, Aron directed the driver to drop him off at the University Arms Hotel, which was conveniently located in close proximity to both Cambridge University and the surrounding community.
“We have arrived, sir,” the driver informed him.
“Thank you. And please find a place to rest as I won’t be returning until morning before we head back,” Aron said, as he handed the driver a thousand-dollar to spend for his rest during the waiting period.
After getting out of the car, he promptly started walking towards the community located outside the University of Cambridge.
As Aron approached the community, he looked for a secluded location and the moment he discovered one he immediately entered.
Upon entering the secluded spot, Aron uttered the word “STEALTH,” activating a rune of concealment that rendered him invisible to anyone who was not skilled in the art of magic.
Once he was confident that the rune had taken effect, Aron left the secluded spot and seamlessly entered the housing community without being detected, despite walking through the streets.
The walk did not take long, and before he knew it, Aron had arrived at his destination: the house of Steven Hawking.
Aron took a moment to survey his surroundings before proceeding with his plan. He knew that he needed to ensure that there were no witnesses to what was about to happen, as he intended to enter through the door without alerting anyone.
With the concern of someone looking to his side out of the way, Aron approached the door and rang the doorbell, just like any other guest would. However, he was no ordinary guest; he was an invisible guest.
Ding!! Ding!!.
After waiting for approximately three minutes, the housemaid finally arrived at the door and opened it.
Upon opening the door, she looked around to see who had rung the bell and saw nothing despite him standing before her, but she could not see anyone as Aron was concealed by the stealth rune.
As the maid was about to close the door and return to her room, Aron extended his hand and touched her head, immediately casting a sleeping rune before she could even react.
As she began to fall, Aron quickly caught her and carried her inside the house before closing the door behind him. In just a matter of moments, he had successfully entered the house undetected.
After carefully placing the maid on the living room sofa, Aron retrieved a helmet from the box he was carrying and placed it on her head. He then said, “Nova, it’s time for you to shine.”
[Roger that, sir,] replied Nova, as she immediately activated the virtual reality helmet and began downloading her brain data. After analyzing her memories, she searched for the location where Professor Steven was sleeping.
[It’s done, sir,] Nova informed Aron before turning on the phone and displaying a map of the house, which was made from the house maid’s memories. The map showed him the way to Professor Stephen Hawking’s room.
After removing the helmet from the maid, Aron stood up and headed directly to the room where Stephen Hawking was staying, following the directions shown on the phone.
As he entered the room, he found Stephen Hawking sleeping peacefully on his bed, with his wheelchair parked beside it.
Aron took a moment to observe Stephen sleeping peacefully in his bed, before repeating the same process he did with the maid. He cast a sleeping rune on Stephen to ensure that he remained asleep no matter what happened, and then he placed the virtual reality helmet on Stephen’s head.
This time, Nova didn’t require any instructions from Aron as he had already put the helmet on Stephen Hawking and the cameras inside the room allowed Nova to see what was happening. She immediately activated the helmet and downloaded Stephen Hawking’s brainmap.
[Done,] Nova informed Aron as soon as she completed the process.
When Aron received the confirmation that the process was complete, he removed the helmet from Stephen Hawking and carefully placed him back in the same position he found him in.
After securing the helmet, Aron left the room and quietly closed the door behind him, leaving no evidence of his entry.
As Aron made his way out of the house he passed the living room and saw the maid still sleeping on the sofa, he suddenly remembered that he needed to move her room to prevent her from becoming suspicious or paranoid.
He set the box containing the virtual reality headgear aside and lifted the maid, guided by Nova who knew where she had been sleeping before opening the door. He carried her back to her room and laid her down on the bed, making sure she was comfortable before quietly leaving the room and closing the door behind him.
Aron left the house without any worries about leaving behind any physical or digital traces. He had already taken care of the physical evidence by putting the maid back in her room and leaving her sleeping peacefully.
As for the digital evidence, Nova had used the memories she had collected from both Hawking and the maid to fabricate a perfect replacement using previous footage in the system with some small edits. This ensured that there would be no signs of a break-in or any suspicious activity in the security cameras.
After leaving the house and closing the door, Aron breathed a sigh of relief that nothing had gone wrong during his mission.
Once he composed himself, Aron picked up his box and made his way to another house in the same community, as he had other objectives beyond Stephen Hawking.
Aron had a busy schedule ahead of him, with several houses to visit and repeat the same process he had done in Professor Hawking’s house in about fifteen other houses he planned to visit.
Including that of Professor Peter Wothers(a renowned chemist), Professor David MacKay, Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly( clinical biochemistry and medicine), and Professor Sir Tom Blundell(structural biologist), among the many.
As he continued executing his plan, something important was occurring elsewhere.
……..
Eden.
Felix woke up with a headache from having consumed too much alcohol at yesterday’s party.
Despite his splitting headache, Felix felt satisfied with himself for managing to set up a meeting with the dictator scheduled for next week.
So, he decided to hold off on calling Aron to share the news, as he was aware of the time difference between their locations. He figured he would have plenty of time to inform Aron later and begin planning for the meeting with the dictator.
But the throbbing headache from the hangover kept interrupting his happiness.
He got up and went to the bathroom to freshen up and prepare for the meeting they were going to have at noon. They planned to discuss their approach towards negotiating with the dictator in their upcoming meeting.
Fortunately, there was no need to start the investigation into the dictator at the moment since Aron had already provided them with all the necessary information. They only needed to reach a consensus on the approach to make their task more manageable.
.
.
The meeting
“So, what approach should we take during the meeting?” Felix asked, looking at Barry and the other team members in the meeting room they had booked at the hotel.
“I suggest we offer him the bribe money upfront and directly state our needs,” said the rookie team member, who was there to gain experience and may have made a naive suggestion.
When Felix heard the rookie’s proposal, he didn’t get angry, but decided to explain why it was a bad idea. “If we offer the bribe money upfront, the dictator will become even greedier since we’ve paid before receiving what we came for.
It’s like giving a chef all the ingredients and payment for a meal before they’ve even cooked it. They might end up giving you a mediocre dish because they know they’ve already been paid.” he explained calmly, making sure the rookie understands where he made the mistake and doesn’t repeat it again.
When Felix finished explaining the flaw in the rookie’s idea, the room fell silent and the rookie realized he had nothing else to contribute. He decided to sit back and listen to the rest of the meeting, like a passenger in a car being driven by an experienced driver.