Lee’s earpiece chimed as she was settling the family in the FBI transport. Tapping the viewscreen, a text pops up. [trapped scapegoat jose alpha virtent tell no one]
Joshua’s ocular overlay displayed a message waiting icon. Worried, he spoke outload, “Display pending message.” [Leaving zone detected. Zone purge will begin in 1 hour.]
“Agent, I’m sure we’ve got bigger fish to fry, but I’ve received a 1-hour warning of a purge of some sort.”
“I can’t initiate the evac from here Joshua. We don’t know what’s been infected with spyware.” Lee’s fingers moved quickly on the screen despite what she said. [MH.P3.LOST.]
The engine started as Lee selected one of the preset destinations. “From here on, no speaking. Put all your devices in the bin. They’ll be returned when we arrive.”
Joshua nodded and began. The kids however were a problem. Jess smiled, “I’ll tell you what, give me your phones and I’ll tell you a Halloween story real quick!”
It didn’t take long for the devices to be stashed and story concluded. In fact, there was still a few minutes before the timer went off and Lee performed a quick 180 heading out of town the other way. About a sixty seconds remained when Joshua gave a thumbs up indicating they’d left the area the device had indicated before they put it in the Faraday cage.
Two hours later, and dozens of death-defying turns to the delight of the kids, the car was pulled over in an abandoned field. A vintage mustang with keys sat gleaming in the sun. Everyone was shocked when Lee exited the vehicle without any protective gear. She wrote on old paper with an old pen: [Leave anything electronic in the car. We’ll get you new stuff at the facility, but we need to be off grid. Get in the beast over there.]
