Act 1: The Price of a Head
an excerpt

Again, Carmelita shrugged, engrossed in another paper. “It’s dialed into the autodrive,” she told him absentmindedly, reaching for the pen she’d tucked into the side pocket.

“Isn’t that… dangerous?”

“How would it be dangerous?”

“What if someone else got a hold of the cars beforehand?”

“And did what?”

“Changed their destination?”

“You’re paranoid,” Carmelita accused.

“It keeps me alive. And it keeps my briefcase with me.”

“So I saw.”

A pause.

“So what happens?”

“So what happens what?”

“So what happens if someone gets to the cars before we do?”

“Nothing.”

“They can’t… hack into it or something?”

“These cars have programming in them that hasn’t even been released to the general public yet,” Carmelita argued logically. “In order to break it, you’d need to first get into the system and steal the files protecting the production of the car, and then you’d have to figure out all the algorithms encrypting it, as well as the ones in this specific car. In addition, it runs off something you can’t fake.”

She blinked at his semi-expectant stare. “And if you think I’m going to tell you what it is, you’ve got to be kidding.”

Now he was sulking. He wasn’t used to being refused information like this—and he was finding that it was an altogether unpleasant affair. “You start me in on a new thing and then you won’t even give me the details on how it’s run? You are a cruel, cruel woman, Miss Carmelita.”

“Drop the Miss.”

“I’d prefer not to.”

“Your decision.”

There was another long pause. “…so what happens if they do break into it all?”

He was rewarded with the sight of Carmelita’s forehead meeting her palm. “They won’t.”

“But if they did,” he pressed.

“If they did,” Carmelita stressed, “an alarm in the special ops branch of IPPAC would go off. A remote GPS device would be activated, and they’d be after us in a heartbeat.”

“What if they disabled the GPS?”

“You can’t.”

“Anything can be done,” he told her. “It’s just a matter of believing in the possibilities.” He chose not to add that he’d seen more in his life than she’d probably believe, and among those had been people that could break this so-called advanced technology just by glancing at it. People that could bend spoons with their minds had nothing on people that could make a computer explode just by winking one eyelid.