Yanny picked up the remote control from the small table and turned off the TV. Ralph was already asleep, snoring on the couch. It was just after two in the morning and he hadn't been able to keep himself awake. She looked at him for a moment, then scanned his body with the thermal camera in her left eye. She noticed that he was losing some body temperature as he slept. Then she went to the bedroom, got a light blanket, and carefully covered him so as not to wake him. Satisfied with her work, she went to the kitchen. The day before, she had thoroughly cleaned the countertops and put them back in order. She knew Abigail would like to see the apartment in an almost sanitized state. Yanny thought as she ran her index finger over the sparkling clean sink. There was nothing left to do but wait. Ralph and she had received no further instructions from the others. It had only been agreed that if there was no news for three days, they would contact the police. But it had been clear from the beginning that the police would not be able to do anything. They would not send out a search party to look for a handful of hired agents in the most dangerous area of the city. Besides, it was simply impossible to predict where Harry, Yuri and Abigail would end up down there in the subway shafts. Right now, they could be anywhere. Yanny went over to the refrigerator and opened it, took a bottle of orange soda out of the door, opened it and smelled it. The smell was tantalizing beyond measure, and yet she stopped, did not drink. It wasn't the same to drink without the others. It was no fun, would bring her no pleasure. She watched the carbon dioxide rise in the bottle and finally capped it again. She wondered what the three were doing? Were they in danger? She made a quick assessment of her thoughts of the day. In the last 18 hours alone, she had worried about the others 54 times. Especially about Harry. He still hadn't fully recovered for the start of this mission, even if he had denied it. She knew that for a fact because she had scanned some of his vitals out of further concern for him, even though she had promised herself not to do so. She blushed at the thought. Why she had not been able to keep that promise, she could not explain to herself. It was probably some kind of permanent malfunction that this humanoid body brought with it. She could barely remember the distant past when her central processing unit, the chip in her head, had been installed in a colonist ship. That information had been erased from her databases. But it had certainly worked more reliably then.

She couldn't help but smile as she suddenly remembered the moment when Harry had taken her hand on the Sea Lord to pull her away from the sleazy ring announcer, Travis Campbell. It was a fond memory for her. She remembered exactly how she had felt at that moment. Cared for and protected. Only now did she realize that she was still holding the bottle of orange soda for no reason, so she opened the fridge again and put it back. It was really strange. She missed her friends and was worried about them. But she missed Harry in a different way and worried about him in a different way. It wasn't less, it wasn't more, it was different and she couldn't define it, couldn't come to a final conclusion for herself. Ever since she had this body, she had been able to feel, and these feelings did not lead to a definite conclusion. There remained an inner conflict about what could not be expressed in simple numbers. An uncertainty that confused her again and again. It was useless, she could do nothing in any direction at the moment. She was most useful to the others when she stood by the phone until they called. Yanny had tried calling Abigail on her cell phone every two hours as a test, but no connection had been possible.

The cyborg thought for a moment and then quietly walked from the kitchen across the living room to the bedroom, closing the door behind her so as not to disturb Ralph. Maybe she could work on her new project, at least use the time productively. On the small dresser in the corner next to the entrance was the computer Abigail had found in a storage room on the Sea Lord and brought with her. It was the red case with the silver symbol showing eight circles connected by lines of equal length. The symbol emitted a faint pulsating light, as it always did. Yanny had plugged it into the wall a few hours ago and connected it to the teletext Internet with another cable. The monitor and keyboard were unplugged. She would not need those peripherals for a little test. If this was really old technology, it would be easy to communicate with the computer. Yanny opened the top drawer of the dresser and rummaged through it, then took out a hair tie and tied it into a ponytail. Then she took a LAN cable that she had laid out next to the computer, plugged it into the socket provided on the device, and sat down on the bed with the other end of the cable, which was actually much too close to the dresser due to lack of space. Then she felt the back of her head and plugged the cable into the socket there. Done, she was now paired with the thing.

"New device detected," the system monitor inside her reported. "How to proceed?"

"Connect, lower the activation of the microphone in the right ear by 40%. I definitely want to hear if the phone rings and not be too distracted by this connection."

"Microphone activation lowered," the toneless voice replied. "Connecting." After only two seconds, the connection to the computer was completely stable and Yanny began the first system checks. Everything seemed to work fine, this thing had enormous processing power and could be controlled by her without any problems. After she had familiarized herself enough with its operating system, it was time for another test.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"System monitoring: activate firewall and connect computing unit to teletext Internet," she gave the mental command to her inner self.

"Connecting to teletext Internet," the system monitor confirmed, and out in the living room the modem began to squeak, crackle, and squawk.

"Oops... I hope Ralph doesn't wake up," Yanny muttered. All that came from the living room was a sleepy grunt from the old punk.

"Connecting to teletext Internet now. Select display style," the system returned.

"Display style? Please define," Yanny replied. This computer seemed to interpret the network differently than the new technology computers with their 8-bit pixel images and angular serif fonts.

"The display option is freely selectable, a coherent three-dimensional environment is strongly recommended," the system voice explained. Yanny, who had her eyes closed, raised her eyebrows at the explanation. Three-dimensional environment? Coherent in itself? Well, given the choice, she wanted to see something she had never seen before. After all, she had never left the city for the countryside since the beginning of her humanoid existence.

"Display style *forest* please," she instructed.

"Display style loading..." the system replied. Moments later, she found herself in an empty nothingness, standing on a floor consisting only of faintly glowing grid lines that seemed to extend into infinity in all directions. Her body also glowed dimly, flickering slightly as she raised her hand to her face and slowly moved her fingers.

"Where am I?" she asked into the void. Before the last word had faded, a whole landscape suddenly built up around her. Tall trees grew into the blue sky, with picturesque white clouds drifting overhead. Grasses and bushes sprang up in seconds, and the chirping of birds and crickets surrounded her. Then the warm rays of the sun shone down on her from between the treetops, and as she looked down, she saw two dancing butterflies fluttering around each other.

"Three-dimensional environment fully loaded," the system monitor reported.

"It's really beautiful," Yanny said, taking cautious first steps on the forest floor. This simulated environment actually behaved quite naturally. As Yanny moved slowly through this nature, she tried to touch leaves, tree trunks, branches, mushrooms... everything felt completely real. It was absolutely amazing. Hopefully, she could somehow find a technical solution to show this place to the others as well, once they returned from their mission.

"Firewall medium security," the system monitor suddenly reported, completely emotionless. Yanny paused. She hadn't given any instructions to lower the firewall settings.

"Reset firewall to high security, report requested. I gave no instruction to..." Yanny began with a questioning tone.

"Changes are being made to the firewall settings, one moment please," she was interrupted by the system monitor. Yanny stopped and looked around. She was still surrounded by beautiful large coniferous trees that gave off a pleasant resinous scent. In the distance, she could make out a bright clearing.

"Report still requested," Yanny inquired again, growing impatient. Something was wrong here. Not all technical devices always worked properly, she was well aware of that. It was just a... feeling.

"Firewall cannot be reset to high security settings," the system monitor reported. Yanny sighed. No matter, it was time to finish the test anyway. After all, she had learned a lot about this computer and how it worked, so the experiment had been a success. She would deal with the software bug later. But then she was surprised. Had something moved in the clearing? She took a few steps forward when the outline of a large man suddenly appeared. He was over two meters tall and had a very strong, muscular build. His black hair was coiffed in a severe side parting, and he wore an unfamiliar black uniform.

"This can't possibly be part of the *forest* display style," Yanny whispered. She inevitably tried to zoom in on the figure, but was unsuccessful. Of course she was. This was not her own body, these were not her own synthetic eyes. He was simply too far away to see any detail. Yet somehow this man looked familiar. But it wasn't his appearance or the way he moved. It was something else, something that seemed to surround him. Should she dare to approach him? While she was still hesitating, the man began to move slowly in her direction. He had noticed her. She narrowed her eyes, trying to get a better look at him. She couldn't. At the same moment, she suddenly heard the phone ring in the real world. She had to disconnect; it was almost certainly a call from Abigail. The man marched unflinchingly through the trees toward her, picking up speed. She had to get out of here, fast!

"System monitor: disconnect immediately, shut down computer," Yanny ordered.

"Disconnecting, one moment please," the system monitor confirmed. Even as the environment around her dissolved and her right hand in the real world slowly moved to the jack at the back of her head, she could hear this man speaking to her. Only a single sentence reached her.

"I see you."

Then she pulled the cord from the back of her head and hurried into the living room to the phone.

The series continues with the title:

The Hunt Begins