Prodigy Eternal (book 2)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The city of Tokyo had provided Alex exactly what she was searching for — a chance to face challenges and grow on her own. She had undergone many transformations, both physically and mentally, and was becoming a more complete person. Her brain was not back to normal, but she was feeling much better. She tried not to think about her immortality as it was a hard thing for a person to process. While it was sad for her to leave Tokyo behind, she was excited to see her homeland again.

During the private flight home, Alex and Milo snuggled up close to one another. They were on a large sofa, watching a news announcement regarding the election.

“Alex?” Milo said, pondering a thought.

“Yes?”

“Watching this broadcast reminds me of that whole situation last year with your father. Remember how you submitted a video exposing the truth?”

“Yeah.”

“What if you made another video, telling everyone the truth about Van Buren?”

“People will think I have a vendetta against world Leaders.”

“I’m being serious. You’re not some crackpot who mumbles to pigeons in a park — you’re the famous Alexandra Gray! You even have a global holiday named after you.”

“What’s your point?”

“If you want to catch a fox, you don’t chase after him—”

“No, actually that’s exactly how you catch a fox. See, there’s a breed of dog called a foxhound that hunters use to chase a fox into a hole…”

“Really, Alex?” Milo said sarcastically. “Even after losing your brain power, you still know how to catch a fox?”

“I just looked it up this morning.”

“Oh… well anyway, as I was saying — if you want to change the world, you don’t try to build infrastructure, you start by changing the minds of the people. The people are the ones who harness the true power in society, and The Fox realizes that. So all we need to do is have you be the voice of opposition. It may be enough to derail the election. Either that or we can just hack the minds of the people like The Fox did.”

“We won’t have enough time to hack the system since most of the people have already voted. Besides, in order for that to happen, we need to have everyone shut off for a few hours like last time, and that is unethical and unsafe.”

“So it’s a no go on the video?”

“I suppose the video is a good idea,” Alex said. “The people have a right to know, and like you said, coming from me they’re more likely to believe it. I can even show them surveillance footage of the blackout. There’s no way The Fox had time to remove it all from the digital archives.”

“Even without proof, surely you have enough influence to overthrow a world Leader — heck you probably have enough influence to become world Leader, especially considering your family ties.”

Alex went to the back of the plane to record her video. Holding the access pod at arm’s length, she began to record her message.

“Hello, this is Alexandra Gray,” she began. “As many of you know, I’ve been living overseas for the past year, trying to remain out of the public eye. But now I am forced to return to the great city of Megalopolis to address a matter of global significance.

“The reason for this video is that the Leadership election has been compromised by the candidate, Arlon Van Buren. He operates under the pseudonym, The Fox. He’s a callous and maniacal hacker who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. A few weeks ago, he hacked the minds of everyone connected to the grid and implanted data that would make them vote for him. Some of you may have experienced this as lost time, but you were being influenced without your consent. As the polls show, there has been a significant and inexplicable increase of supporters for Arlon Van Buren. Some people have been able to override this programming, but it may not be enough to impede his appointment.

“In addition to rigging the voting system, he has done countless heinous acts to my friends and I, including extortion, theft, abduction, torture, and attempted murder. Currently, he is holding my mother captive and I will do whatever is in my power to ensure her safe return. I hope you join me and overthrow this tyrant. Thank you.”

Yuri, Glitch, and Link were busy locating all the footage of people around the world in suspended animation. Hacking the database was relatively easy for these elite hackers. Once they obtained the videos, they sent them over to Aris to edit together along with Alex’s recording. The entire process took several hours, but by the time they landed, the video had been sent out to all the major news networks.