章 7: ALTERNATIVE TOOLS

I needed an ID card to access the elevator and not just any regular ID card but a special personnel ID card to gain access into the Black room(where the Blackbox was integrated) and only three people currently present in the whole building should have it, I assumed.

A flash drive to copy the Black Box program, USB cable, couple of wires to bypass some security cells and panels but if not wires any conducting material would do just the same. A screwdriver, tape, powder and a micro processor which could be found in any smartphone.

I felt like Mickey Mouse and Dora the explorer all mixed into a single body and the urge to say "this is a surprise tool that will help us later" after I thought about the powder made me to crack a smile.

With all the limitations I had with the bypassing equipments it was now left to my genius with tech systems and hardware remodification to showcase itself, and yes, those are just names I made up with no one actually majoring in them. It was a habit I caught up as a kid.

I searched around the office in a rush and was able to find most of the tools I needed but as for others I had to improvise and DIY them. For example I was able to find the tape, a multipurpose screwdriver which also had a switch blade in one of its compartments, USB cable and the flash drive in Brian's desk drawer.

Those were things I was likely to find in an office, well except for the multipurpose screwdriver which was a bit weird and out of place but luckily it was there, and as for the more office irregular items I had to fashion them out with what was available.

Since any conducting material would do the job, I grabbed the types two calendars in the office; the wall calendar and the other being desk calendar. Inside their wire coil bindings, used to hold the pages of the calendars in place, contained a metallic conductor. So with that, I acquired my wire cables and tben I also grabbed a couple of office pins because you can never have enough conductors in these types of scenerious.

Now, all that was left to find was the micro processor. I for certain wasn't going to magically find a smartphone in Brian's drawers and I couldn't just appropriate the desktop for this mission because of so many really obvious reasons. With no solution in mind, I backed up towards the wall until my back was now on it and slid my dejected body down until I was now sat down on the floor.

Enveloped by feelings of grim, with all hope seeming to have been lost, because, even with everything else I had managed to find the smartphone and the processor in it was still a major asset to have in order to increase my chances of succeeding in this objective because I was already placed on the losing end ever since the moment I made the jump into Amanda rather than Brian.

"I can't believe I didn't think about the processor before I searched for the others... SIGH" I fell my face into my palms.

At this moment, with my back literally up against the wall, I started having crazy thoughts. I contemplated on stealing one, a smartphone, from someone outside the office but if somehow I got caught by the person then the entire plan would turn to dust and I wasn't ready to take that chance. Plus, I couldn't really leave Brian's office with his secretary, Eunice, outside and ordered to keep an eye out for me.

I sat down in dread for close to ten minutes, regretting ever making the jump in the first place.

"What the hell, if I had only jumped into the right person then at least even if I wasn't able to gain access into the Black room, Brian would at least have a smartphone with him that I could have used to bypass the panel. If only Amanda had one of her own—" I wallowed in despair until finally it hit me like a spontaneous bump to the head.

Children of this time period usually have phones they use to communicate with their parents and surf the internet in search of answers for their assignments, especially financially enabled kids like Amanda was. Even I had something like a cellphone during this time and I was in an orphanage, and well I made it myself but still.

"Wendy!" I quickly remembered when Wendy, Amanda's supposed best friend reprimanded me for not calling her about the kissing stuff and it got me thinking out loud.

"What phone would Amanda have used to talk to Wendy about that, surely not the house landline or Brian's phone" I pondered to myself as I got up, pushing myself away from the wall with one hand and the other on my baby soft chin and then I ramage through Amanda's backpack on top of the chair I had been seating on earlier, all in search of a phone

*ZIP*

I quickly zipped open from one pocket to the next, one section of the backpack to the next and after all hope seemed to have been lost, in the midst of despair I was finally able to find it in a secret compartment. I found the smartphone at last.

"YES!!" I let out a little scream with both hands raised up to the ceiling in a victorious stance. Being quick to notice the situation I was in and cover my mouth soon after, I quickly went back to form and stuffed the phone inside the backpack then on I went back and grabbed the other alternative tools from the top of Brian's office desk that I had already scavenged and stuffed them all inside the backpack too and then I zipped the bag shut.

*CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK*

Things were finally coming well together, I walked over to Brian's desktop computer which was password protected at first but after like three seconds of handling the keyboard and making lots of typing noises I broke the password like a champ, without any sweat.

I tried searching for vital information that I couldn't get during my time and that might have been lost through the years of data handling but what I got were only things I already knew about which I should have accounted for because the real and essential information wouldn't be in a pawn like Brian's computer anyway so I left that idea before I paused for a minute to rethink then I came up with yet another idea where instead of the other stuff, I used the computer to write a program set on a time delay of twent-three years and upload it into the flash drive.

Exactly that was what I did then soon after that, I created a new Webster account; therealtimetraveller@webster.mail which I also linked to the program I wrote on the drive to be the receiving mail account.

My original plan was to use a time hack where after I got the code as Brian, I would put it in a time capsule and bury it at the right spot until it was time and then I would retrieve it in the future as my real self but now that I thought about it, that was a really stress filled plan which wasn't well thought out.

After I was done with the programming, I cleaned my digital footprint on the computer, wore the backpack then I climbed on top of the desk, stretching my entire body upward until I managed to reach for the air vents which I used the screwdriver which I had already set aside for this very purpose to open the cover on the wall and then I tried entering when I remembered that I had forgotten something very important. Almost as important as the microprocessor in the smartphone or at least a close second.

I forgot the powder and Brian's fingerprint, two of the most important things.

*TSK* I clicked my tongue

"I can't believe I actually forgot those two things, stupid!" I said and tapped my forehead as a form of reprimanding myself.

From the desk I bent down and opened the last drawer where I took out some chalk from their box to serve as the chalk and as for the fingerprint I went dumpster diving, well trash surfing in this case.

Using a tissue paper from the desk as fingerprint protection, I brought out the boxes that the hotdogs had been served in but since I didn't know which was Brian's and which was mine and I was running out of time to spend on thinking about it, I grabbed both and stuffed everything into the backpack.