Kurt banks on the assumption that Miranda will need more Oxxypro and will therefore have to head for the nearest town: Ryefield.
As well as a pharmacy, Ryefield also has a major rail junction. And on Tuesday, there will be a firmware upgrade taking place on the rail network, which means the surveillance system will be down. No doubt Miranda will want to take that opportunity to get hundreds of miles away.
"I'm Miranda, of course. Don't you remember me?"
In theory, Miranda could be anywhere south of the Mazy River now. In practice, she needs more Oxxypro. When she was at the pharmacist in Drowsington, she was posing as a regular customer and had a fake prescription for a month's worth of supplies. However, my intervention wasn't quite as useless as I had thought - Miranda only managed to get away with a few pills, according to the pharmacy stocks.
She'll be going to Ryefield. It's the nearest town south of the river that has an Oxxypro pharmacist. I know it's possible that she might try pharmacists further afield, but those are much more distant and she's been running very hard lately. There's another reason Ryefield is likely as well.
"You must have run hundreds of miles by now."
"Yes, isn't it fun? You live in a different world, in those air-conditioned capsules sliding between stations. It's a shame you aren't running with me."
"I will be, sooner than you think."
With the amount of travelling I've been doing via rail, I've become very familiar with its timetables and systems. One thing that caught my eye was a firmware update that's happening on Tuesday, which is being run on all trains and security systems. I almost missed the notice; Perplex City Rail aren't making a song and dance about it because it won't affect passengers at all. What the firmware update will mean for Miranda and I is that it'll effectively knock out the Missing Persons system - at least on the trains - for most of Tuesday. In other words, Miranda will be able to get on any train and travel for hundreds of miles in any direction without me knowing.
Miranda's smart. I have to assume she knows about the firmware update, and she'll make full use of it. And that's why she'll be at Ryefield. The town doesn't just have a pharmacist, it's also a veritable transport hub. There are five different lines leaving Ryefield that go to any number of destinations over thousands of square miles. If she can get a train from Ryefield, then I wouldn't be surprised if she could get to her destination within hours. She's sure to reach Ryefield in time for Tuesday, but I'll be there in only a few hours.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going home."
