The Rise of the Cyborgs

Chapter 56/The casino of the forbidden fruit

Meta's POV - The Factory. 

The address Zoe had sent wasn't far. They had walked and I walked too. As I moved silently and fearlessly through the city  I felt the shadows of their presence. It wasn't difficult, but they hadn't carefully removed their tracks. I found signs of them hiding their presence from surveillance cameras. Soon I stood nearby In the shadows watching the Casino called Forbidden Fruit. I wasn't sure, but I felt I could see the disturbance of Zoe in the local Wi-Fi.

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Forbidden Fruit: Party members only casino. 

Eventually, I stood hiding behind a dumpster looking at the building opposite. As far as I could tell The casino was a gambling house which from the IDs of the people going in seemed to be for the rich party elite only. There was a real risk that's somebody who could recognise me was there. There was only one thing I could do, I use my phone to check my make up. I looked about 24 like my fake ID. Taking a deep breath I ordered a ubur to deliver me into the mouth of the lion.

The expensive looking car I had ordered arrived in minutes. I sent it to drive around the block and arrive outside The Forbidden Fruit Casino . There was both a Doorman and bouncer standing there. I'd check their phones, they had only just come on duty 20 minutes ago.

"Hi Craig," I said to the Doorman. It was a simple social hacking technique that Zoe had taught me. Pretend that you know them, hack their name, "Has Alexander arrived yet?" I asked picking up the long dress hem.

The Doorman smiled, his digital watch was measuring his heartbeat and I could see his heart rate spike as he tried to remember who I was. Alexander was the name of another important party official, would had come to the door. The door database had him high on the list of guests. 

"Yes, miss" Craig the doorman said.

I looked back at the car. "Could you program it to going to parking mode Please, Craig? I'm not very good with technical things."

"Certainly Miss" Craig said ignoring me while he looked at the interface. The request was there to distract him.

I walked up to the security man, while I did I hacked his invite list. "Now you're going to tell me you don't have Amanda Holgate on your invite list."

"Well, I don't think you are. I've been reading these names all night. I know them off by heart" The security man said pulling out his pad and scanned it.

"Oh, No you are  here." He said finding my name on his pad. He smiled while he opened the double door.

I had taken quite a risk. It was hard to believe that someone would trust a machine over their own memory, but he had.

"Thanks," I said as the Ubur sped off. 

As I walked into the casino there was a wall of warmth lined with a slight sense of desperation. It was an incredibly sophisticated crowd. Women in elegant dresses matched only by the men all wearing tuxedos and formal dress. I scanned phones and it was like down loading a raw gossip column of the great and the good. Naturally, Everyday folk were not invited to this kind of place. It wouldn't be good to be flaunting such luxury when nearby, children were going hungry.

As I examined peoples phones I got a sense that I wasn't the first. I was standing near the coat check stand. A helpful security guard dressed in a formal suit to hide him somewhat lifted the cloak from my shoulders. I held up my tiny rectangular handbag, I pretended to swipe my phone to receive the tickets digitally on the scanner. In return, I managed to get IDs for almost all of the people here. Two people who could be Zoe and Colin in disguise had left the coats there already.