41

“No, Kate. I think it is better if we follow the instructions this time.”

“I understand. We will be on standby should you need us.”

You and Emily get into a new rental car (the costs are adding up but he Climate Peace is paying, so hey!). You drive towards the set of coordinates, too nervous to talk. Your GPS leads you through the city, into an industrial area. 

The coordinates lead to a construction site. The site is abandoned, the workers have gone to their homes and families for the evening.  A black car is parked next to a giant crane, its headlights shining brightly, blinding you.

As you approach the coordinates, you see a black car parked at the end of the road, next to an old warehouse.

Three men are standing, silhouetted against the headlights.

“Show me the disc,” one of the men shouts at you. You put your hands above your head and slowly use one hand to remove the memory disc from your jacket pocket. You show him the disc.

“Here is the professor! You can have the old fool, this data is worth more him,” he sneers. He takes out a small laptop computer and plugs the drive into the computer. The professor gives him the decryption code and the data appears.

Both the men are looking intently at the screen.

“Now is my chance!” you grab the gun from the first man, Emily follows your lead and plants a well-aimed kick into the second man’s groin. He buckles and fall to the ground in a cry of pain. She grabs his gun and aims it at him. Her knuckles white as she grips the pistol tightly.

You have the gun on the second man. “Call off your friends or I fire,” you shout, guessing that he some backup lurking somewhere.

“OK, OK! Stand down!” he orders. You hold the gun to his back and tell him to bring the computer. Emily grabs the professor by the arm with one hand, still aiming at the prone man with the other.

You pass the keys to Emily, she gets into the driver seat. You force your hostage in the passenger seat and get in the car behind him. The professor sits behind Emily.

“One move and I shoot!” you tell your hostage. You surprise yourself with the coldness and determination in your voice.

Emily throws the vehicle into gear and steps on the accelerator. The car responds with a burst of speed, putting distance between you and your adversaries.

“Pull over,” you tell Emily a couple of miles later.

“Get out!” you order the man in front of you.

“Thank you. I will not forget this,” he says softly in a thick accent.

Emily pulls off, much more gently this time. Her adrenaline, like yours, must be wearing off, leaving you exhausted and your mind foggy.

 You call Kate. She is both relieved and angry. “We should have been there! You put yourself in too much danger!” she admonishes you. “Head straight to the university, we’ll meet you there!”

Thirty minutes later you are inside the labs. The students take the memory stick from you and busy themselves with making sense of the data with the professor is the centre of attention. He answers their questions and gets into lengthy explanations over some of the aspects of his research.

You decide to leave Emily and the professor with their work and return to your job as a pilot.

Two days later, a big news story breaks that the new technology has been released on the internet.

The end, go to the epilogue.