It’s Saturday, January 25th, 8pm.

James has arrived back at the hotel in Saarbruken with his painting.

“Ayyye you got it man. Nice,” says Thomas in a sanguine manner.

“Well that’s not all. I managed to get the I.D. Tech into an investigator back in Paris.”

“No way. What do you intend to do?”

“I plan to spend some time listening to his thoughts. I won’t let him know that I am in his mind. I think that’s the safest play. Maybe we can take the day off tomorrow and see what kind of information we get from this Philip guy.”

“So Philip’s the name of the investigator?”

“Yes he handed me his business card.”

“So how’d you manage to run into him?”

“He was on the street asking people if they saw me, as well as handing out pictures of my face.”

“Wow, looks like your makeup artist did a fantastic job.” Thomas laughs.

James opens the UPS box carefully and uses a kitchen knife to cut through the tape. He flips the flaps back and takes out all of the stuffing he put into the box. Low and behold, the painting is revealed in all of its glory.

“So James…” Michael pauses. “Weren’t you going to sell the painting in Paris? I mean we’re in Germany now.”

“Yes but there’s black markets in every country. I can find another black market here by searching in the police database. Anyways guys I’m gonna hit the hay. I’m honestly sleepy from the ride in the taxis.”

*Sunday, January 26th, 6am*

James emerges from his sleep clearly distraught. He’s had another nightmare. He wipes the cold sweat away from forehead.

James walks out the building and has another cigarette. He ponders his dream. But then he realizes he has to get back to business. He goes back into the hotel and boots up his computer. He’s going to be reading the thoughts of Philip.

He starts reading the text as it’s being uploaded to the computer.

“Chicken wings… yummy i love chicken. Oh and friend rice….”

James thinks to himself. It’s too early to be eating. He reads more of what’s being uploaded to the computer.

“Flying squirrels… jumping kangaroos”

James realizes the investigator is still sleeping. He’s reading the text for a whole hour until the following text.

“Oh jeez it’s 7pm. Gotta get to work in an hour.”

There’s a bunch of ramble for an hour until….

“Hey Dennis.”

“Oh hey Philip.”

James switches on the ocular vision mode of the software. Philip is in an office cubicle. He’s in front of his computer. The investigator’s desk is littered with papers.

An hour flies by until a tall slender man with brown hair and eyeglasses approaches Philip.

“So Philip, have you verified any of the sightings of James?"

"Yes boss. They all came back negative."

James wonders what Philip's boss' name is. Maybe he will find out.

"Okay keep digging through the leads."

"Yes Sevro."

So his name is Sevro? He's never heard a name like that. James runs this name through the police database but nothing pops up. It seems he's apart of some special forces for his identity to be hidden on the database.

James begins to think to himself he needs to know where this building they are working in is. He realizes he made a mistake of not turning the ocular vision on while Philip was driving. James sighs a little and then thinks he will just record what he sees on the way home.

Hours fly by and nothing of value is recorded in any of the conversation Philip has with the other investigators.

"Well guys, looks like it's 4pm let's call it a day."

Philip is walking out the building to his car. Another employee is at the front entrance and says "have a good one Philip."

Philip turns around and says the same. But little did he know he just looked at the building they are working in and the picture of it is saved on James' laptop.

"Now I just need to know the street names" James thinks.

Philip pulls out onto the road and is forced to stop at a red light. The street sign reads 'Varouche Avenue'.

"Perfect that's all I need to know. I'll just look at the satellite images of this street on google maps."

Then the unthinkable happens. The laptop screen turns pitch black.

"What the hell. I can't see anything. Oh my God what's happening?"

Philip stops the car in the middle of the road and calls an ambulance.

"What's going on????" James thinks.

Philip then makes a call to Sevro.

"Sevro I've gone blind. Could this be because of the I.D. Tech?"

"Stay where you are Philip. It appears James has tapped into your vision."

The life is sucked out of James when he hears all of this. "Could this be from the fact that I used ocular vision mode for a greater length of time than was used in the art heist?"

It appears Sevro has hanged up the phone. Sevro has realized he can no longer say anything else or he will be giving his plans away to James.

"Damn it all. Just when I had the information I needed too," James says in an angry manner to Thomas.

"It's okay James you weren't prepared for this sort of thing. It happens," Thomas replies.

"They're going to move their investigation headquarters now. And worse, I won't be seeing Sevro again."

A look of anguish rolls over James face. He's lost this fight today. Will he win in the future?

James disconnects the ocular and thought feature of the software and puts down his headset.

"This was my only chance to get ahead by a mile. I blew it."

"Listen man. You didn't know the prolonged use of this function could cause blindness. It's not your fault," Thomas says as he's trying to reassure James.

*Monday, January 27th 8am*

"Sevro, we've scanned Philip yesterday. He has the I.D. Tech in him."

"As I thought… Damn it James. Question is how did he manage to do that?"

Hours fly by….

"Sevro, it's my fault. I should have never accepted that tea at the coffee shop."

"What did the man look like?"

"Well for starters he was holding a fairly big cardboard box in his hands. As for his face he had a beard that had gray hairs. I never would have thought…."

"Philip I'm so sorry this happened to you. It's not your fault."

"His disguise was impressive. I'm honestly speechless. He's a genius I tell you. Will I ever see again, Sevro?"

"It might take some time for your vision to return. Thankfully you won't have permanent vision loss. However if used many times this could have lead to something permanent."

"Well that's good to hear. I just want to be able to see my wife and kids."