Settling In

The knowledge of being in a completely new environment brought with it some inconveniences on the mind and body. They were afraid of any unknowns, and so they kept their awareness up. It was a defense mechanism of her human ancestors way back when they were still nomads. In a place where predators could be lurking in a hidden den, resting easy was not an option of the primitives, so they evolved to become very light sleepers whenever they moved. This was the widely accepted explanation of why people have a hard time sleeping a new house or apartment. The reason why sleepovers weren't as great the first time. Yet, despite all that, there wasn't a single break in Sarah's slumber.

Her senses were sharper than normal, and subconsciously attempted to wake the woman up on the slightest noise. She could feel a heavy presence over her, yet it felt so far, like she was being watched at distance. It couldn't have been her new bodyguard, as she could faintly hear him when he was shuffling about outside. As threatening as that may have sounded, Sarah's senses continually failed to wake her.

This was nothing new. Her heightened sensitivity fueled by an ancient paranoia simply made it more noticeable. The presence that seemed to watch her from the foot of her bed as she slept lingered since that day. It ate all her dreams, and left nothing but nightmares. But she learned to shut them all out. All it could do now was scream at a tower from below and hope its voice could reach whoever was up there. It was desperately begging for attention, and she was through giving it what it wanted. Enough was enough.

The dimmed light of her phone read 7:21 PM as her eyes finally opened from a dreamless sleep. That meant she slept for over 18 hours, completely missing the daylight.

Right then. It was time to get herself cleaned up and back to work.

She was quick to find the shower connected to her room. Her prosthetics weren't prone to damage from water, so she wasn't dependent on anyone when it came to bath time. After drying off, she put on a fresh set of clothes she got out of her suitcase. They weren't any different compared to the last set. When she spent most of her time in the laboratory, the last thing on her mind was what she wanted to wear. Sometimes keeping it simple was the only way to go.

Sarah was all set to go, but she decided to check around her room first since she didn't do so when she first got there. It turned out to be a good decision as she found a wrapped box on the dresser. She vaguely remembered seeing it right before she decided to pass out. Inside it was a key card. She could tell it was new, and according to the note that came alongside it, it was for the security system. Poor Henry, this would have made the night easier for him. But that's what happens when one doesn't cover all the bases. This was on Sarah, however. She should have known. No matter.

She went out of her room to go and find her bodyguard. They had security system to activate.

He wouldn't be the first one to think that. "Apologies. I didn't mean to sleep for so long." She could tell he was feeling a little drowsy. Henry was free to get some rest if he needed it, but they had to find the security room first. Sarah held out the keycard.

"I found this on the dresser. I suppose I was meant to find this before I retired." Disappointingly, she didn't. "It seems this place already has a security system and all we have to do is activate it." She started walking down the hall, looking at a blueprint on her phone. Using the master bedroom as a reference point, she traced the locked room just at the end of the hall, not that far away. The lock was well camouflaged, with only a small, rectangular strip of light being the only telltale sign that it was there.

Sarah swiped the keycard through the scanner and after she heard a beep, the panel slid open. Inside, she could see multiple monitors, control boards, switches and headsets in the fairly open room. It could easily be staffed with just one person, but it the room was big enough to serve as a bedroom for two. It was well ventilated and with air conditioning as well.

She saw a pair of doors. She checked them both. The one nearest the corner was a bathroom, just a toilet and a sink with a medicine cabinet, and the other lead to a small bedroom. "This seems... a little much... but I suppose it's good for whoever is stuck in here."

Sarah turned to the console and swiped the card over the scanner, activating the initial sequence. She turned around when Henry spoke up, claiming this room to be his. She had no quarrel with it and it was actually sensible for him to spend time here. Her lab work wouldn't serve as a very entertaining pastime.

To her surprise he had given her a necklace that was apparently a pager to get his attention before taking a well deserved rest.

With him resting, Sarah was free to finish activating the security systems in place. It didn't take long for all the monitors to light up, showing the camera feeds from all over the house. It was separated into two networks. One for the inside and one for the outside, which included a greenhouse. That would prove to be useful.

There were also a myriad of sensors strewn about the mansion and its grounds. Patching herself into the entire system, she could see that they spared no expense in making this mansion secure. That however was a little worrying. She had to make sure this couldn't be breached. It was going to take a few hours to analyze by herself. But a system crawler should be enough to find the majority of flaws.

For this, she brought the two crates over to this room and retrieved a flash drive that she plugged into the system to start her analysis. It was fully automated, so she didn't need to keep her eyes on it. She wanted to explore the house, and did so for a couple of hours, getting herself familiarized with the layout and everything that was in it. But by the time Henry would have woken up, Sarah would have been back in the security room, reading a book from the library downstairs.

Sarah glanced at Henry for a brief moment, but otherwise didn't stop reading her book. "None, unless you find fornicating squirrels to suit your fancy." She turned the page on her book. There was only a single paragraph left before the chapter ended, and so decided that would be where she stopped.

"Are there any restaurants open at this hour?" she'd asked as she placed the book on one of the crates, where tiny disks resembling land mines the size of a coin were stacked into a pile.

It was pretty late, but hopefully they could still grab something to eat before either of them starved to death. She stood up and handed Henry the security keycard, saying, "You hold on to this. I have cloned the magnetic data onto my arm, so I'll be able to access this room without it. Okay, I'm ready to go if you are."