53 Preparation & Travelling

28.05.2034

Even though, Ben had this thought, he still had to make some small preparation before traveling to France.

Ben checked on both companies. Sold all the stocks that he still had. Looked after his family and made them promise to not leave Stuttgart in any case. He also asked his close friends where they were staying, just to make sure that there weren't any changes in this timeline, which could cause their deaths.

After finishing all that, Ben somehow wanted to warn the world but knew it wouldn't change anything. The first problem is that only lunatics would believe it. Secondly, even if he tried to post it anonymously, there was always a way to find the poster.

The more details in the post, the more it would help and persuade the reader, but it also meant there would be more people, who would look for his identity.

Thanks to Louis, Ben knew exactly how dangerous hackers were for anonymity.

Before Ben went out of the house, he sent a message to an American number: "Will my packet be there?"

Ben took the car of his parents and drove to Italy? Why Italy? Italy was the only country where it was possible for the smuggler to transport by shipping. Italy was still under the influence of the mafia-syndicates. To try to smuggle weapons through France, Germany or Spain was just a dream for smugglers.

It was very easy to pass the border if you were a civilian with a clean Criminal file and non-suspicious act in the past. The border guards could see every little info about you. What you posted on the internet, your social activities, your grades, your family history, your economical situation, and even things like what you search on the internet.

This would be a problem for any criminal as you could not fake your entire life and even less hack in the server of the EU. Ben would not be able to transport guns through the border more than one time. This time he could fake the reason for his travel, but with each time the chances to be controlled would exponentially increase.

For most people, such a suspicious act of crossing a border so fast would have a risk of being controlled. But Ben was different. He had great grades, no economical problems, and a good social life. If they had known that Ben had contact with guns in Arizona, they probably would have controlled him. Ben was slightly worried that they could look at his transactions, but he had taken some precautions. His account was not directly linked to him and even if they did find out, the transactions came from well-known companies and would not be suspected of illegal activities.

Ben took approximately 12h to arrive at Naples. In Naples, Ben received an address from another unknown number. Going in the district of the Mafia named Camorra.

Camorra is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 17th century. It is only active in Naples and the surrounding area, but it had as behemoth great connection with other mafias. The eruption of Mount Etna had given the gangs a new opportunity to take over territory and find new members. The people, who lived in Sicilia, were now able to come back home, but the island had economically and mentally a hard-time. Ben didn't have too much difficulty to find the smuggler he was looking for.

To make the pick-up easier, Ben additionally paid the person another 100 Euro to help him transport the boxes inside his car.

When he was alone, Ben opened up the boxes. What he saw in each of them would be frightening for a normal person. What he saw were boxes filled with a gun, a sniper rifle, ammunition, and many different grenades. Ben was excited that everything was here.

Now he only had to pass the borders to France and he would only have to do the exciting part. Killing & Levelling up.

Going over the border didn't cause any troubles, he was only stopped to be asked where he went. Ben didn't even have to lie and so answered in English: "I came to see the FERMI event in Sergy, is there a problem?"

The border guard wasn't surprised, the FERMI event was by far the most promising scientific cooperation of the whole word. The funds the FERMI project had burned were enormous, but it promised almost unlimited resources and high scientific value.

It would also give a solution to the future problem of overpopulation. It was, without doubt, the hope for humanity's future.

At that moment, Ben saw a police officer with a sniffer dog coming in his direction.

Ben's heartbeat went up. He didn't change his expression and asked friendly:

"Officer, do you need something from me? I have already driven over 10 hours and I still have at least 3 hours to drive till Sergy, so I would like to go."

While Ben said that he was preparing for the worst.

´I can't be taken to prison. Should I just step on the gas? No, I wouldn't escape. Should I try to kill them to win a bit of time? With the chaos of the calamity, it should be possible to go underground. I have enough money to bribe a whole town. Or is it only possible in the movies? What should I do? If they want me to go out of my car, I should take his gun and just shoot him! I have to stay strong. Their lives are nothing compared to my future. I need to accomplish so many things. I can't be stopped here and now…´

"Then I wish you a safe journey. Ah. I would recommend you to not follow the A1, but to take E80. They are many traffic jams due to roadworks-"

Ben didn't respond for three seconds. His brain was still waiting for any sign of the police dog. Ben thanked the officer and drove away as if nothing happened.

The police sniffer dog can be used in practically any location, in any weather, and at all lighting conditions. It provides valuable services even in inaccessible places. Tools used by offenders such as sprays or irritants cannot fool the sensitive dog's nose.

He even perceives materials that are welded into foil or rubber.

Still in this situation, Ben's fear was unjustified. Sniffer dogs had to be trained for every area of criminal activity. They were not only rare but also had special jobs. The dog, which Ben saw was a Drug sniffer dog. They were mainly used at borders and even though they could sniff the explosives, they didn't know that they had to look for them.

Explosive-sniffing dogs were mostly used for investigations into capital crimes, at the airport and the port.

Being again on the road, Ben still couldn't believe that it was going to happen. All these years he had trained and prepared for the new era and now the day was tomorrow.

…

At 23:00, Ben arrived in Sergy. He checked in at a hotel named Novotel Sergy Centre for a night. Thankfully he had reserved a month in advance. Every hotel in Sergy was at full-capacity. Even Ben, who at that time was living in a student hostel, didn't know that it was such an important and large event. At that time, he fought that the project would completely fail as it was in his opinion too life-changing and seemed to come out of a science-fiction book.

Ben went soon to bed and woke up at 4 am. He still needed to find a place, where he could observe the event from high above. Ben knew that breakfast was only ready at 7 am, so he had 3 hours to find the perfect place. He first went near the building, where the portal would be presented. From there he looked around and found three possible places. After inspecting each, Ben decided to use the touristic tower.

As the project would take all electricity from the region, the tower was closed to prevent anyone from being locked inside the elevator. This was the perfect place for Ben. Going back to the hotel, Ben drove the car near the tower. He looked around and saw nobody, which wasn't strange at that hour.

Ben took the entrée and broke in by throwing a large rock, which was placed as decoration.

Ben didn't destroy the cameras as he just planned to delete all the data.

For that, he just inputted a USB-stick inside the computer. This hack also known as BadUSB was a virus, which Ben had copied from the darknet. It deleted everything on the computer.

Having finished that part, he transported the boxes to the peak. As it was almost 7 am, Ben went back and took his breakfast.