S.P.E.C.T.O.R-Chapter 559: Deployment of the subspace relay is now complete

After departing Prima Flemming, Adam had cloaked the shuttle so that they couldn’t be located before setting course for Dubai.

Not long after departing, Spector suddenly spoke up through the shuttle's intercom.

“Deployment of the subspace relay is now complete.”

“Initiating activation sequence.”

“Initiating galactic scan for forms of communication”

“Forms of communication detected exclusively on Earth.”

[Justiceistruth (Earth): Well, I guess that confirms there is no other life in our galaxy.]

[DeverinianLordMalacoss (Deverinian 9): Not necessarily. It simply means that any other life in your galaxy has failed to reach a sufficiently advanced technological level.]

“Syncing subspace relays automated invitation program with the stream chat.”

“Limiting invites sent by the subspace relays' automated invitation program to members of the stream chat.”

“Limiting access to the universal subspace network by making it read-only.”

“Upgraded stream chat member CEOHopkins access to the universal subspace network to full access.”

“Does the stream chat now have access to the universal subspace network, then?” Tephe asked curiously.

“I don’t see anything different on my phone, but then again, Mr Spencer isn’t live for me right now,” Emma replied.

“Come on, Emma, you're part of the group now. Stop calling him Mr Spencer and call him Adam already,” Lorelie said with a smile as she hugged Adam’s arm.

“Is that ok?” Emma asked.

“It’s fine,” Adam replied.

“Ok then, Adam,” Emma said with a smile before adding, “But you have to call me Emma from now on.”

“Sure, Emma,” Adam replied as he returned the smile.

[Gunlovergirl (Earth): Lucky.]

“So why doesn’t Emma have access to the universal supspace network?” Stace asked curiously.

[StealthAssassin9 (Earth): Yeah. I also don’t have access yet.]

[Noobkiller9000 (Earth): Same.]

“Because I temporarily paused the subspace relays invite sending program so as not to cause a time paradox,” Spector replied.

“Time paradox?” Eri asked in confusion.

“A time paradox is a theoretical contradiction of cause-and-effect that arises from the concept of travelling back in time, where altering the past creates a scenario that makes the trip back impossible, such as the grandfather effect that Adam explained previously.

While it is unlikely that granting the stream's viewers access to the universal subspace network at this time would create such a paradox, it would still change the future in ways we can’t anticipate and therefore, I decided it was best to wait until we return to our present time before sending the invites.”

“I see,” Rowena replied in understanding, while Stacey, Lorelie, Tephe, Eri and Emma all tried to understand what Spector had just said.

“Then what about Emma here?” Aphrodite asked before continuing, “Isn’t the plan to take her back to our present time with us? Wouldn’t that be taking her into the future?”

“That is correct and while travelling to the future is normally impossible since it hasn’t happened yet, it has happened for us and the time anchor I left in the future will allow us to bring her with us.

Also, since Miss Hopkins has never left Earth, which is far outside the known universe, there is very little chance of damaging the timeline.”

“That’s a thin line you're walking,” Aphrodite remarked with a smirk.

“We are now above Dubai,” Spector suddenly announced, causing the group to momentarily drop the topic and look towards the viewscreen, where they saw a city whose night sky was illuminated by skyscrapers and was situated next to the ocean of the Persian Gulf.

“So that’s the Burj Khalifa,” Adam remarked as he looked at Earth's tallest building.

“Seen bigger,” Stacey stated in an unimpressed tone as she glanced at the Burj Khalifa.

[[Justiceistruth (Earth): That’s what she said. Kek.]

“How many floors does it have and which one is the restaurant on?” Rowena asked.

“It has one hundred and sixty-three floors, while the restaurant is on the hundred twenty-second,” Emma answered.

“I’m assuming we don’t actually need to visit the restaurant in question to access the security footage?” Aphrodite asked.

“Correct,” Adam replied before adding, “Since it’s all one building and there is most likely one mainframe, Spector just needs access to that.”

“So the roof again?” Tephe asked.

“Unfortunately, it lacks a helipad or another suitable place to land the shuttle, like the Blue Lagoon Club and the roof itself is regularly used as a sightseeing destination and for stunts,” Emma explained.

“What sort of stunts?” Rowena asked curiously.

“The most common would be base jumping,” Emma replied.

“Base jumping?” Rowena asked curiously.

“Base jumping is where you jump from fixed objects before parachuting to the ground,” Emma answered.

“Parachuting?” Tephe asked.

“A parachute is a device that slows the descent of a person towards the ground,” Adam explained before using his uniband to pull up a video of a parachute in action.

“Kind of makes them an easy target, doesn’t it?” Stacey asked.

“Well your not wrong,” Adam conceded before pulling up another video that showed people gliding through the air in special suits while saying, “That’s why wingsuits were invented, although most still have parachutes since landing a wingsuit without a parachute is extremely dangerous.”

“Wow, it’s almost like those humans have wings,” Tephe remarked.

“Except they use them for gliding instead of actual flying,” Rowena observed.

“So are we landing the shuttle in the car park again?” Aphrodite asked with a smirk.

“You just want to cause more chaos, don’t you?” Lorelie stated with a sigh.

“Well, you have to admit that it made things interesting back in London,” Aphrodite replied while winking.

“We’re not even going to bother landing this time,” Adam replied as he took the shuttle's controls.

“We’re not?” Emaa asked in surprise before adding, “Then how do you plan to get the information?”

“I will pilot the shuttle to hover next to the building while Spector hacks into the building's mainframe using its internal wi-fi network as an access point,” Adam replied.

“Wi-fi?” Lorelie asked.

“It’s what we call a building's internal wireless network here on Earth,” Adam explained.

“Kind of a weird name,” Stacey replied while the other women, except Emma, all nodded in agreement.

Adam just shrugged in response as he flew the shuttle to a stop next to Burj Khalifa before Spector suddenly spoke up through the internal comm.

“Burj Khalifa wireless network detected.”

“Accessed Burj Khalifa wireless network.”

“Attempting to bypass network security.”

“Bypass successful.”

“Accessing security footage and searching by location, time and date.”

“Security footage located, displaying now.”

As Spector finished speaking, a holographic screen appeared in the middle of the shuttle for them all to see.

“I still can’t get used to these holographic screens suddenly appearing,” Emma remarked with a sigh.

“You will,” Lorelie said with a smile as the group focused on watching the security footage in question.

The footage displayed showed a beautiful Middle Eastern woman sitting at one of the tables next to the large windows that overlooked Dubai.

“A woman?” Rowena stated in surprise before adding, “I was expecting another man.”

As they watched, they saw the woman typing something on her phone's touchscreen.

“Is she our culprit?” Adam asked.

“Affirmative. The time and date of her phone usage correspond with that of the website on the dark web,” Spector replied before zooming in on the phone’s screen and enhancing the image as she added, “Also, we can see that she is using the website in question.”

“Who is she?” Adam asked.

“According to the restaurant's database, she is Nada Keita,” Spector answered.

“Daughter of Ayana Keita?” Emma asked in surprise.

[Whostolemyduck (Earth): So it’s the Keita family's princess.]

[Tessisdabest (Imperial Down): Princess?]

[Whostolemyduck (Earth): It’s more of a nickname than an actual title. Ayana Keita is the head of the Keita family and Nada is known to be her favourite child and so spoils her rotten.]

[Gunlovergirl (Earth): Still, I wonder why Nada Keita hired that sniper? Could it be that she and Robert Flemming are working together?]

[Noobkiller9000 (Earth): Doubtful. The five families only work together when it benefits them.]

“Have you met her?” Lorelie asked while turning to Emma.

Emma shook her head before saying, “No, I’ve only heard of her since I’ve seen some of her modelling photos in magazines and she’s also the spoiled favourite child of Ayana Keita.”

“A model, huh?” Rowena asked as she gave the image of Nada a critical stare before adding, “I suppose she is attractive by this world's standards and she has decent body proportions.”

“Why would a member of the Keita family be helping a member of the Flemming family?” Adam wondered allowed.

“Maybe they're romantically involved,” Aphrodite suggested with a smirk.

“Doubtful. The families are opposed to one another,” Emma replied.

”Couldn’t two of the families create an alliance through marriage?” Eri asked.

“While that was something the families did in the old days to gain more wealth and power, the act has pretty much become nonexistent in modern times. Also, they never married their rivals since they couldn’t fully trust them not to try and take over the family from the inside,” Emma explained.

“True, traitors and spies are far more difficult to deal with than an enemy you can see,” Rowena remarked.