"Is that guy eyeballing us?" Farrah asked Renee and Daniel as they waited for their luggage at baggage claim. She tried to seem like she was just looking around the airport.

“Do you mean, is he checking out your ass? Or do you mean is he watching us for something else?” René asked.

“Despite your ass being worth checking out, he was watching me when I came in,” Daniel said. “So I’m going to lean to either he’s into the group thing, or we need to get gone and hopefully lose him in the crowds.”

“We can always come back for whatever’s in the checked baggage, if you think we should bail now.” Renée offered.

The three of them met each other’s eyes in turn, and they all nodded.

[System.]

Abraxas system

“System. Can you identify the Caucasian male in blue jeans and a tan jacket on the left-hand edge of my field of vision?” Daniel asked.

[Subject logged for further identification. Subject not on file. System will continue to track subject within limits of passive operation.]

"Holy crap. Well that's useful." Daniel said. "Okay, let's get out of here." Daniel confirmed. "I got a rental, and it's in short-term parking. We’ll ditch it shortly and make plans from there."

The girls nodded and they headed out of the terminal, grim determination on their faces.

“He’s definitely following us,” Farrah confirmed, catching the guy’s reflection in the glass of one of the doors they passed.

They climbed into Daniel’s rental. Farrah rode shotgun, and Renee hopped in the back. “Let’s give this a try.” Daniel said coolly as they exited out of the airport short term parking lot, into a wet gloomy Vancouver day.

Farrah watched the mirrors for tails, as Daniel watched the road. “Yup, there he is.” Renee sighed. “He’s three cars back in the right lane.”

Daniel checked his mirrors, switching lanes, “Shit. Oh well. I’ve got a plan.” He winked at Farrah.

They swerved this way and that, “I don’t like this!” Renee stated from the back seat.

“Why are we headed for UBC?” Farrah asked a few minutes later, after they turned onto SW Marine Dr. “Shouldn’t we be getting away from him? Like to Prince George or something?”

“Trust me, I have a plan.” he answered.

An hour later, Daniel pulled the car into the Vancouver Aquarium Parking lot. “You girls have passes?”

“Seriously?” Farrah stared in disbelief at him.

Renee piped up from the back, “Oh! I do!” She laughed. She rummaged in her purse some more, “Don’t worry Farrah, I have coupons too!”

Farrah ignored her, “This is your plan?” She asked Daniel as they calmly walked to the gates, “Sightseeing?”

Daniel just let a smile spread across his face. They joined the queue of visitors up to the seasons pass holders desk. Daniel took the opportunity to turn around to watch their guest, pretending he was just addressing the girls. “Yup right in line.” He confirmed.

“Hello and welcome to Vancouver Aquarium.” greeted the young kid behind the desk, “My I see your passes?” They each put their passes up as it was scanned.

Daniel noticed the man following them speaking to someone on a cell phone. At that moment the clerks phone rang. “We’ve got to move.” He rushed the girls forward, they didn’t ask questions, just followed quickly, without looking back.

“Excuse me! Sir? Excuse me!” They heard the voice of the clerk calling after them.

“Keep moving, but calmly.” Daniel assured them.

“Sir!” Staff was in front of them, and they heard the first clerk behind them. They stopped resigned, turning around “You forgot your pass” The clerk smiled handing over Daniel’s Aquarium pass.

“Oh. Um, thanks.” He smiled sheepishly, and pocketed it. “Lets, um hurry to meet my mom, she’s waiting.” They rushed on.

After a few minutes, they reached an outside area of the Aquarium with high fences, “Where are we going? How do you know we can get out?” Farrah asked trying to keep up.

They went behind some bushes, reaching a low area of the fence, where they could stand onthe pump case. “Remember that girl I told you about that I dated in high school, with the dolphin tattoo?”

Renee laughed, “Samantha?”

Daniel wicked, “Yup. She worked here. Snuck me in all the time.”

He hopped the fence, and the girls followed.

***

“So, that was all an act?” Renée said, as they headed up the Sea to Sky Highway towards Whistler.

“Pretty much.” Daniel replied. “I was afraid they might wait until we got together here to do anything, so I made a plan just in case.”

“So whose truck is this?” Farrah asked, looking around the older Jeep Grand Cherokee stuffed with camping gear.

"Do you remember Jake? That outdoorsy prepper guy?" Daniel asked, without taking his eyes from the road.

The girls nodded looking at each other. “I thought he lived down in Texas, or something.”

“Yeah, well, his cousin lives up here. And likes to cross-country ski. I met him during biathlon training, and that’s how I got connected with Jake. I knew he had this rig kitted out for backcountry camping so I asked if I could borrow it for a week or so, and offered him some cash and let him borrow my car.”

“You let him borrow your Challenger?” Renée gasped, with her eyes wide. “Crap, how much trouble are we in?”

Daniel shrugged. “Better safe than sorry.”

“Well it’s a good thing Enterprise picks you up. That was a neat little swap back in the park. I wonder what that guy is going to do when the Enterprise guy comes and picks up the car and takes it back to the rental place?”

“Here’s hoping it takes him a long long time to figure it out. I don’t think he could have seen us hop into this, especially not if he was watching the entrance, waiting for us to come out.”

“So, have you two learned anything new?” Daniel asked, changing the subject and tapping the icons that re-established their local private web.

“Well, I don’t think I’ll ever need to pay to have my nails done again.” Renée said, holding up her hand. She flexed her fingers and showed off her nails. They were slightly longer than normal. She tapped them on the window glass. They sounded more...solid. “I wanted to try something I could check, something obvious to me that no one else would notice. Apparently it can strengthen bones and teeth and…nails.” She grinned, apparently quite pleased with herself. “I’m sure if I spent some time I could turn them into claws.”

“I got hit by a car.” Daniel said casually. The two women gaped at him. “Abrasax listed off a bunch of systems that apparently save me from any damage. I’m still sorting out exactly what they do, but it looks like a baseline system of reinforcement that the nanotech does throughout our bodies. Kind of like wearing motorcycle gear all the time.”

“I wonder if…” Renée said. “System.”

[Abrasax.]

“Can the system strengthen and reinforce our skin and tissues to make us bulletproof?” René asked.

[Abrasax systems can be reinforced to provide varying levels of protection. Increased levels of protection come with decreased levels of speed and mobility.]

“What about tasers?” Renee asked

[Abrasax systems are generally resistant to electrical effects. Resistance to directed energy weapons, such as tasers, can be increased.]

“Crap, can you imagine a SWAT team or special forces unit with this kind of technology? They could be unstoppable.” Daniel said, eyebrows raised.

“I wonder if that’s the kind of stuff that guy Damien would have been equipped with?” Farrah asked.

“Just what the world needs, another arrogant asshole, but this one’s bulletproof.” Renée said, sinking further into her chair.

“Somehow, I don’t think we’re going to get out of this alive using brute force.” Daniel said. “If we are going to survive this, we’re going to need to be smarter and go in directions they can’t anticipate. System?”

[Abrasax]

“What percentage of the tutorial have we finished at this point?”

[Tutorial is 74% complete.]

“Is that for all of us?” René asked.

[Tutorial completion has been approximately equal for all three subjects.]

“Do any of the tutorial components involve activities that would compromise the status of stealth systems?”

[Tutorial completion requires activities that will compromise stealth. In order to limit observability external steps must be taken to shield effects.]

“What do you mean ‘external steps’.” Renée asked.

[Completing tutorial in remote locations, in shielded buildings, or underground will limit observability.]

“How much space will we need to complete the tutorials?What would a shielded building be constructed of?”

[Any open space approximately fifteen meters by ten meters by ten meters high will suffice for tutorial completion. A shielded building would be one with a metal roof and insulated walls and ceilings to prevent admission of heat and electromagnetic radiation.]

“So, a decent size warehouse or storage garage. Or really big cave.”

“Or someplace way away in the bush where no one is looking.” Farrah said thoughtfully. “System. Can you tell if we are being watched by satellites or drones or whatever?”

[Abrasax system can detect many forms of surveillance. However in passive mode, detection is far more limited than in active mode or in networked active mode. Passive mode precludes awareness of satellite patterns.]

“Well then, for now we’re looking for a building.” Daniel finalized. “Could you pass that bag of trail mix?”