82

 Exhaustion wins out. You book two rooms for yourself and Emily into a hotel close to the airport.

After a quick shower and snack that you order from room service, you fall fast asleep. Four hours later your alarm go off. Still half-asleep you look bleary-eyed at your clothes. You have been wearing the same set of clothes for two days and it shows. Sweat stains and dirt cake you Jacket and jeans, socks are your crusty and smelly. After taking a few minutes to make yourself look a little presentable you go downstairs to find Emily waiting for you. She also looks worse for wear.

It’s a short ride on the bike to the airport. You breathe in the crisp morning air, the chilly air is invigorating and the rising sun melts away any remaining sleepiness. You park the bike in the first spot you can find and leave the keys as you doubt you will ever need it again and head for the check-in.

The terminal is quiet this early in the morning.  A few travellers are milling about, mostly businessmen and families. There is no-one queueing for your fight yet. You check in and head through security. The guards wrinkle their noses at you as you pass. Your clothes must be in worse condition than you thought.

Thankfully, passport control is also deserted. You take your passport from your jacket pocket and you and Emily present your passports to the bored official. He scans it and the machine emits a beep. He picks up a phone and speaks softly into the receiver. From a door to the side, another official emerges. “Follow me, please,”

You look at Emily and she returns your worried look. The official leads through the door into a corridor with several other doors on each side. He open one of the doors, revealing a small room, with a desk and three chairs. You and Emily take a seat.

“Phones, please,” He asks and hold out his hand. You both give him your phones.

He places the phones in his pocket and holds his hand out again. “And the memory stick,” You glance at Emily, she just shrugs and you hand him the memory stick. He leaves, locking the door behind him.

The two of you sit in silence, staring at the clock on the wall. After an hour the door unlocks and a man in a black suit enters the room. Black reflective sunglasses covers his eyes.

“I’m agent Jones from Military Intelligence,” He says. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

Feeling like you have no choice, you retell the whole story. You can’t really tell if he believes you as he never removes those sunglasses.

“Fascinating!” He says as you finish your story. “As we have the information now, we are letting you and Emily go, provided that you keep quiet about what has happened. Your other friends are in a bit more trouble. The professor has also agreed to  coöperate with the government to further develop the technology. You are free to go”. He gets up and leaves you in the room. You get up as well and exit the little room.

You are both relieved that you have escaped unharmed and that the information has not been stolen, but you wonder if it will be used as the professor intended.

The end.