Avatara

Friday 30th May 2030 in Pimlico, London, United Kingdom.

I did not sleep well last night. To be honest that has been the case since I went into hiding. It's not easy to conceal yourself from a government intelligence agency. Maybe it would have made sense to leave London. Travel to the countryside. In another country. I could hunker down in some rabbit hole type home somewhere. I even saw a place like that on the internet, it was in Switzerland, I think.

Even then Grimm would eventually find me. He will find me soon enough. So that's why I wanted to attack first by bringing the fight to him. That's why I stayed in London. I thought he would not expect that but he discovered my meeting so quickly. The surveillance tech at Sheldrake must be better than I thought. But I will not run from my problems. Grimm is evil and has to be stopped. But how?

My radio alarm had gone off and the morning news played.

"Hi all, welcome back to London retro radio! Yes...I know what you all think. What in the hell happened last night over the Thames?"

The government would probably investigate what happened last night. They would have access to surveillance footage from CCTV cameras. I hadn't considered that. There is also the iron dome the surveillance network that monitors communications in the central London area. I don't know if they can obtain good video footage through it yet though. The CCTV cameras would not be high enough to catch me in the sky but then there is also the chance of being picked up by satellites. Or Drones. Sheldrake must have caught up with me using their drones to capture footage. There are so many resources at Sheldrake. The foolish government has given Grimm so much power at Sheldrake and I don't think they have realised that mistake yet. My head hurts. I'm feeling pressure all around my head. This is a side effect of using avatara, sometimes you get headaches, dizziness, poor sleep and a foggy mind. 'This, this, argh, pulsating pain in my head; now I can't think properly, I need paracetamol, and a Nurofen.' I could see that cheap phone I used as backup contact for Knightmare and Walker on the bedside table. I needed to destroy it asap.

"People flying around, a rain of bullets…explosions right in the heart of our capital!!"

Time to get out of bed. The worst part is standing up. And there it is, that feeling of dizziness. I move slowly stretching out of my arms to steady myself. Just walk from the bed, past the sofa chair to the fridge. It's only a small place. A paracetamol, Nurofen and a glass of milk. Oh gosh, it does not help this place is messy. My scientific papers on the floor and the u.n.d.e.r.w.e.a.r on the furniture. My mum would have a heart attack if she saw this. I would call her but she would only do her worry mongering. She can always tell if there is something wrong in my life but the tone of my voice. It's best to keep her out of this. Ok, I'm at the fridge and I have got the milk. Don't get me started on the smell. Mouldy cuc.u.mber. I'll deal with that later.

"Hollywood is filming in our city again and they didn't tell anyone!"

You can't believe anything in the media these days, especially the news broadcasts. The government has their hands in everything, trying to control everything. They censor a lot of information these days. Pulling strings in the media to tell the public what they want them to hear. To keep them comfortable and ignorant. Hollywood filming a movie that led actual property damage? That's a ridiculous story. How could anyone believe that? But people do. They believe it because they want it to be true.

Do you know that feeling when you want to have a quick glass of milk but you haven't got a clean glass to drink it with? Yeah, that's the feeling I have now. I'll just have to drink it straight out of the carton. That's the thing with suddenly moving to a new place, everything is just all over the place. A new place, all over the place. Oh gosh, my head is clearly screwed, I better swallow these tablets.

The milk and medication has helped but I think I am going to stay in today. I'm so tired and I need to regroup. I need a new strategy but what would it be? Yesterday, was such a screw up. Knightmare and Walker were the only hackers good enough to help me and I could not even tell them my plan. Now I will have to shut down Sheldrake systems on my own.

That cheap backup phone is beeping. That's odd. All right, don't think Grace, just check it. Throw it away afterwards.

It's from Walker.

"Hello Skyclad! Let's meet at Piccadilly Circus. There's something I need to tell you in person."

Walker wants to meet me in person so soon? He's so keen. I hope he is not a creep. Ok, I'll go, maybe he has a good idea on what to do next.

I sent a text back. "Be there in 30 mins, I'll meet you at the memorial fountain."

Yeah, that should do it. A short and sweet reply. Meeting around lots of other people is good, just in case he is a weirdo, I can run away.

Piccadilly circus was busy that day. I hopped on the tube at Pimlico station, taking the Victoria line and switching at Green Park station. From Green Park it is only one stop to Piccadilly circus by the Piccadilly line. It only took me twenty minutes to get there, so I found myself there early waiting for Walker. To be honest, I spent my train journey daydreaming about Walker. I wondered if he looked as good in real life as he did in avatara form. But more importantly, I wondered if he was a nice person, who cared about people instead of money and power.

I stood at Shaftesbury memorial fountain waiting patiently. I would have sat but because there were so many tourists around in large groups, flashing cameras, putting their phones in the air to take selfies, there was nowhere to sit.

There were a group of breakdancers starting a show for the tourists on the pavement. This is typical of London. Entertainers start performing, tourists form a circle and clap, after the performance is over the tourists either pay into the hat on the ground, or they just run off not paying anything. I checked my back pocket and realised that I had two pounds. I decided to give a pound after the show if it was good.

These guys were just about to start when I noticed an old lady in front of me. At first she smiled but then her face went very pale when she looked beyond me, and she started panting and trying to scuttle away. I turned around to take a look at what she was looking at and that's when I got the fright of my life.

"Booooooooo!!"

For a moment my heart stopped beating...