Avatara

"Every medication has side effects."

Those were the words of my family doctor, Dr Pearson, a year ago, when I expressed concerns about starting on the contraceptive pill for my heavy periods. A lovely man in my opinion, slight of frame and mild mannered, who had a reputation of being very attentive to his patients. His advice was not dismissive and I really felt listened to. With his white hair, white shirt with a green cardigan, clean shaven face and friendly smile; I felt he could have been my grandfather in another life.

But now I swap medication for another word- invention.

'Every invention has side effects.'

After the 19th century chemist Alfred Nobel invented dynamite, it ended up being used for tunnel blasting and road building. But people quickly realised they could use it to blow each other up. Nuclear power gave people lots of energy but then Chernobyl happened. Sunbeds give you tans but can also give you cancer. Inventions have side effects.

I panted, out of breath on the side of the road. My breathlessness being a side effect of frantic running. My frantic running being a side effect of my need to escape my evil boss who I foolishly thought would want my invention to be used responsibly.

So out of breath I could not speak. I don't know how far I ran and I didn't know that I could run that fast. I felt lost, so I looked around for landmarks. It can be easy to lose your bearings in London, with its winding roads and streets very different to the next. But I saw the Barbican station and entered the tube. I couldn't tell if I was being followed. I just hoped I wasn't.

I got home. Not much time. Sheldrake Enterprises knew where I lived as I must have been on secret secure human resources list. Grimm could search for me and catch me here. Memories came flooding in and a few things that did not make sense to me before became clear to me.

Grimm often held senior meetings without me, even if it regarded Avatara. He would have Spector in the meeting instead of me, when talking amongst his other cronies. His style of attire not exactly military but influenced by it. The excessive numbers of security personnel, mostly idle but stern. I realised that sheldrake was not a workplace but a fortress. A power base concentrating power for the benefit of one man, Byron Grimm.

These thoughts pervaded my mind as I packed a few essential items and abandoned my flat. A toothbrush and toothpaste. Laptop. A few clothes, a jumper, few shirts, blouses, trousers, skirts and u.n.d.e.r.w.e.a.r. A bunch of u.n.d.e.r.w.e.a.r; hopefully I had a bra. I could forget my Avatara equipment; I could not leave that behind, and I just felt like I would need it.

I called a cab to take me to a hotel I picked at random on the other side of London. With only a stuffed large holdall I exited the rear entrance of the building, down some concrete steps with a black metal handrail. Over on the side of it a pile of black bin bags left by some less than courteous residents. A brown banana skin on the top of one of the bags. Another hallmark of London: uneven paving stones that I nearly tripped on as I came off the steps. I walked up the short narrow road to the main road on the other side to meet the cab. A quick scan around the area to see if any stranger looked at me, giving a sign of tracking me. I didn't see anyone but I couldn't tell. It was too busy.

"The Brown Wolf Hotel?" said the cab driver.

"Yes, thank you," I replied.

Brown Wolf Hotel, based in the area of Abridge, is actually based in Ess.e.x county, not London, though it is still inside the official borders of the M25 motorway. A village town of one or two thousand people, relatively quiet and secluded. I thought I would be safe here and yet still close enough to the city of London, to decide on what to do next. I had the seeds of an idea that could help me stop Grimm. I just needed somewhere to concentrate.

The hotel had a coffee coloured facade and had two floors of normal wall, and a third floor mansard roof with dormer windows. There were two bright lanterns on either side of it, with pedestrian crossing on the bend of the road in front of it. It's an expensive, exquisite hotel but given my stressful escape, I wanted to at least have some feeling of comfort.

Once in the deluxe room, I switched on the lights, closed the curtains, sat on the bed with my back to the headboard and opened my laptop. I connected to my virtual private network that I had created. I rented online network space in dedicated air conditioned server room based in Milton Keynes. It hides my location from the government or hackers and encrypts my data.

I paused, thinking over the quality of my idea and whether instead I should just go into hiding indefinitely. I should leave the country, I thought.

There's a bit of commotion outside the room and I hear two loud deep male voices. I could palpably feel my heart thud in response. However, it dies down and it's quiet again.

Byron Grimm would still find me. And what about my mother? Is she safe? Granted she lives back in Yorkshire but maybe there is a motive to get to her now? She didn't even know the type of work I did.

And the more I sifted through my memories, the more convinced I became that Grimm would stop at nothing to achieve his plan. The intensity in his eyes and concreteness of purpose, said it all.

I just wanted a really good salary, so I wouldn't have to worry about money so much. They told me that sheldrake's Q division was an R & D facility devoted to developing technological solutions to counter terrorism and fraud. I had my ideals but you have to be practical in real life right? Artists, scientists and inventors often get tapped up these days by sponsorsh.i.p.s, influencers were hired because of their twitter feeds and entrepreneurs sell out to investors. You can't think about making a difference in the world with an empty bank account.

I shook my head feeling resigned. Who am I kidding? I am a sell out. Just a workaholic bore with no friends. That's why I hadn't called anyone for help if you hadn't noticed. I am one of those child prodigies who accelerated ahead in class by several years. I got my first degree aged eighteen and doctorate at twenty one but in all that time I made no friends. People like that are not relatable; freaks aren't they? I am weird.

I realised that I had been going over my thoughts for the past ten minutes, and had not typed anything on my laptop. So my plan now was straight forward, get online, go into the dark web and find hackers good enough to help me crack into Sheldrake servers and destroy the Avatara kernel.

So, for the plan to work it would need three of us. Three highly advanced hackers are required. I doodled this in my calculations on a scrap piece of paper. One of us would need to hold open the gate of sheldrake servers while preventing the intrusion alarm systems from activating. That would require continuous relays of coding monitoring loops that need to be maintained while the two of us go in. The second person would have to run 'the key,' I created. That would probably have to be me, as I am the only one I could trust to do that. I deliberately designed the Avatara kernel to run in a fragmented way, meaning it worked as a cloud of entangled cl.u.s.ters rather than a defined unit. I did this to protect it from being altered by anyone other than myself. The only way to unify and alter the kernel is by using 'the key.' The key is made of twelve, two hundred and fifty six bit symmetric key algorithms, each on their own virtually uncrackable. You need all twelve of these keys (that I have in safe keeping) to take control of the kernel.

Finally, one of us would need to install and activate a 'logic bomb' code that would destroy the Avatara kernel and stop Avatara from ever being used by anyone.

And we would have to be able to do all of these things within a twenty minute timeframe, after which the gate the server would f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y overwhelm the override and shut, kicking us out of the system and probably activating a major security alert. We probably didn't have twenty minutes, realistically ten?

I had to go to the dark web to find them and I knew the risks. They would be mercenary types and could be criminals, who normally steal personal information, credit card details or specialise in weapons or drug smuggling. If we get caught we could all go to prison.

But when you're desperate, you find yourself doing things you wouldn't normally do. So, I placed calling cards on hacker rental sites requesting for people who can jump through corporation firewalls.

That evening, sitting on the hotel bed with my laptop, I didn't find anyone; not offering any money didn't help, which I quickly realised my plan unworkable. So I offered an option to obtain a share in a lucrative new technology that we would steal from the corporation and I offered one thousand pounds if qualified individuals would meet me for a one hour meeting. I switched off my laptop and tried to sleep.

But the next day I got five replies but two of them had inadequate evidence of the abilities I required. And another asked for more money just to turn up for the meeting.

This left two of them. Two guys with the necessary skills. One called himself Walker and the other one called himself Knightmare. Obviously, none of us used our real names and I gave my name as Skyclad, which is a nickname I use for online gaming.

"Don't worry about the money for the initial meeting," Walker said to me via message.

"This sounds like fun," Knightmare said.

But I faced a big problem. I couldn't meet them in real form because they could have been dangerous. So I gave them copies of the Avatara application and told them we should meet in central london. But by giving them the app I had essentially given myself away before the meeting and now the 'genie was out of the bottle,' I couldn't turn back. We agreed to meet within the next three days.

Because I was alone that I went to the dark web to find them, and after finding them, I only had one other thing to do. To find a new place where I could base myself to take on Sheldrake Enterprises and stop the evil ambitions of Byron Grimm.