The train halted about four thousand kilometres away from the pickup station. Black alighted from the train and headed south. Now, he knew what to do and where he was going.
As a wanted fugitive to an alleged murder and fraud scandal, with a bounty of a million dollars if found and reported, Black does know that secrecy and anonymity is his last straw to survive.
He branched at a shop in the train station terminal and bought a grey hoodie, swapped his hoodie and continued his journey.
The echo system was a high tech algorithm software. It was built by Arthur specifically for the purpose of identifying patterns and inbuilt algorithm that moves the Foreign exchange market, FOREX.
Anyone can use the echo system for personal use or global use. It's a hundred percent perfect and flawless system that can predict the financial market without hitch. The negative effect of the echo system is, it can be used for selfish interest. It's powerful enough to bankrupt a country's reserve of liquidity(money).
So on a much bigger scale, if there's an international strife, a country with possession of the echo system can flawlessly predict the financial projection of the enemy country and hedge against it, therefore bankrupting the country and ruining it economy.
The echo system is like a specialized high-tech financial nuclear weapon sitting pretty and waiting for it to be beaconed upon.
Black knew this much, and now understood why his mentor was particular about not losing the device to the wrong hands.
"I now hold the liquidity of countries in my hand because someone trusted me enough to hand it over?"
"Let's see what the future holds,...." Black grinned.
The alarm rang again for the second time, and Black smacked it with his palm to keep it quiet.
"Time to work... about to be the richest and most powerful man in the world."
Stretching, he opened the door and scanned outside. The cool morning breeze swept his face, and he sniffed in the air.
"Ahhhhhh..."
He was about to go back inside when he saw a stamped envelope placed at his door mat. Black picked up the paper and opened it slowly and curiously.
In the envelope, He got a hand written note, an unusual device(the original echo system), and..."$10,000?".
"What the heck!"
3 days ago, Black had made it to the location where Arthur had told him to hideout if he was being chased. He got the information from the recorded introduction from the cafè anyways. So, it wasn't a mystery house. And Black had scrambled to stay alive, eat, and not get caught or suspected. Yeah, because he already had his face and name on media with a one million dollars bounty, of course.
Closing the door gently not to break the hinges, Black went to his bed, and stared at the money for a while, and his eyes teared up..
"No, No...My ancestors will be ashamed to see me cry. Man up!"
"BANKAI..." He said to himself while clapping his hands.
He felt the aura of being a higher person, and he laughed at himself,
"Foolish, but it works everytime". He laughed.
WELCOME.
This is the Echo system.
....
...
.....
Access granted.
'Why is this financial Armageddon not protected with a key lock?'
Black questioned himself. The device was not encrypted, it was not locked. It has open access and can also be connected to the internet.
Another brows raising issue is, once it is connected to the internet, the GPS location will be revealed if tracked.
"I thought this was supposed to be a secret weapon? Why does something this powerful has to be conspicuous?".
"How can something so powerful not be protected?"
WELCOME.
THIS IS THE ECHO SYSTEM.
I GUESS YOU ARE WILLIAM ARTHUR, ALIAS BLACK.
MY BOSS AUTOMATED ME TO BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOU VIA SOUND OR A VISIBLE AI BOT.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACTIVATE THE VISIBLE AI BOT?
"Yes..Make yourself visible..."
"Wow....wow... You're really visible"...
"Can you see me?" Black asked.
YES, I CAN SEE YOU, NOT WITH MY EYES THOUGH, BUT THROUGH THE CAMERA ON YOUR COMPUTER.
"So, According to Arthur, you're to guide me on how to trade the Forex market?".
YES. ALSO, I CAN TEACH AND PREDICT FOR YOU THE PROBABILITY OF YOUR TRADES PLAYING OUT.
"That's nice, so Let's start. Shall we?".
YES, AND NO.
"Why?" Black asked frowning.
BECAUSE, YOUR GPS LOCATION WILL BE REVEALED TO THE WEB AND ANYONE WILL BE ABLE TO FIND YOU IF I'M STILL CONNECTED FOR MORE THAN FIFTEEN MINUTES.
"That's very nice. What a way to keep you restricted."
"How many minutes have we spent?"
10 MINUTES. The bot blinked its eyes. WE HAVE 4 MINUTES 48 SECONDS MORE.
"Okay, in 4 minutes, teach me something about the Forex market before deactivating..."
THE FOREX MARKET IS AN INDUSTRY THAT RUNS A FIFTEEN TRILLION DOLLAR TRANSACTIONS PER DAY. IT CONSISTS OF CURRENCY, STOCKS, CRYPTOCURRENCY, COMMODITIES, BONDS, AND SOME EVEN CONSIDERED SYNTHETICS. THE MARKET RUNS ON ALGORITHM THAT...
Somewhere, thirty thousand kilometres away from Black's location, a team of men and women clicking fast on keyboards, running high tech programmes and simulations, GPS trackers, satellite mapping and infra red images.
All these activities and zeal directed to one purpose, to catch and arrest William Junior(Black) before he gains full knowledge about the echo system and have full access to its functionality.
They were intelligent, uniformed, fast, quick-witted, sharp, and efficient individuals at work.
"I think we have a possible location Sir". One of the workers raised the alarm for the head of the unit.
"Show me..." The head unit walked to the female worker location.
"Here... It's showing a possible 7km radius, I'm trying to triangulate and pin point his exact location in 3 minutes. We have to pin point his location before 4 minutes, because according to patterns, the echo system device deactivates within 15 minutes of being connected." The female worker, Stella said in a fast pace.
"Okay, Good. Let's hope our technology does the tracking before it deactivates. Good job, Stella" The head unit complimented and nodded. "Everyone, pick up the slack and get the machines running now!".
At Black's room, He was busy taking notes and assimilating the complex intricate algorithms and system of the Forex market and how the echo system works.
BLACK, WE HAVE 1 MINUTE 19 SECONDS BEFORE I SHUT DOWN, BUT ACCORDING TO ARTHUR, HE HAS PROGRAMMED ME TO WARN AND ASK FOR PERMISSION TO SHUT DOWN BEFORE THE LAST ONE MINUTE. THIS IS MAINTAIN MAXIMUM PROTECTION.
"Oh, Smart ass...Yeah, we will try again tomorrow. I need a coffee latte too."
SYSTEM SHUTTING DOWN IN 3...2...1.
Black disconnected the device and placed it in Arthur's safe box. The one that came along with the parcel he had received.
30,000 km away from Black's location. Stella was seen typing aggressively and whispering.
"No, wait, few seconds more... FUCK! We lost him. He disconnected. Few seconds away. Shit!".
The head unit banged his hands on the desk in front of him. The room was enveloped in silence, another day of effort, yet another miss.
"This guy is an enigma...." Stella laments.