52

 Mike gets in the driver’s side of the van and Jack joins him in front. The rest of you bundle into the back of the van. Mike drives through the small port city to one of the outlying suburbs. A run-down area with abandoned cars and houses everywhere. You finally park in front of the second to last house of a block of terraced apartments. Plywood covers window frames edged with jagged, broken glass. Kate leads you inside, locks the doors and arms the alarm system. She flips a light switch and the dim light reveals a dark and dirty apartment. “Our safe-house. We’ll leave for Geneva tomorrow,” she says as she looks at the security monitor.

A look of fear contorts Kate’s face. On the monitor, a black SUV pulls out. Two men in hats and trench coats emerge from the car. One lights a cigarette, both men eye the apartment while having a quiet conversation. “How did they track us?” you wonder out loud. There could be only one way. “Professor!” you yell. You run over to the startled professor. “I am sure he has a tracking device on him!”

Kate, Emily and you frantically examine the Professor. He has his arms horizontal to the floor, like a child being dressed by three fretting parents. Inside the collar of his tweed jacket, you find a small pin-sized device. You remove it and squash it under your heel.

“This way!” Kate yells. Mike and Jack, heavy with equipment, open a wardrobe against one of the walls. It reveals a bolt-hole to the next apartment. You all climb through the hole and Kate closes the closet behind you. The next apartment also has a bolt hole behind a mattress stacked vertically against the wall. You exit the third apartment by the backdoor into a small garden and then into the street.

Kate grabs you by the sleeve if your flight jacket. “We need to split up! Go to the airport. I have booked you on the next flight to Geneva, we’ll meet you there! Go! Now!”

Across the street there is a train station with some taxis parked in front. Further down the road there are some more apartments that may offer a hiding place.

The agents burst through the door you just came from, about a hundred yards behind you now. Kate, Jack and Mike start running away from the station and the apartments, but the agents ignore them and heads straight for you.

If you:

Get into a taxi, go to chapter 18

 

Run further down the street, trying to lose them, go to chapter 19