Doves

Chapter 12

 "Are you sure you're ready to do this? This is gonna set off all the alarms, raise all the flags." 

 "Yeah," I nodded, "Let's do it."

 We vaulted into the window, infiltrating an empty house. We'd been watching it all day; no one came or left, no one walked through the front room or moved the curtains or closed the windows. It was empty. The only con was that the computer was in the front room, right in view of the window. While using the computer, we would have our backs to the window, where the world could see our silhouettes. 

 Auto and I knew that as soon as we plugged the flash drive into the computer that it was going to send a signal straight to Surveillance, but it was a risk we were going to have to take. We took the plunge. Auto inserted the flashdrive into the computer. We printed off the first things we came across, just a fist full of pages of information, evidence.

 We had made a plan for the interview. I was going to talk to whoever they sent from the news station while Auto monitored the area around us. Hopefully, if things worked out, Auto would be able to warn me if any squads came storming into the area, or if someone was going to try to turn us in.

 To help the plan, we had invested in track phones that we could ditch anytime. They were older models, not any kind of smartphone, just a standard flip phone. We were hoping that these would be harder if not impossible to track. If everything went well, Auto wouldn't even have to call me to warn me about anything.

 We had chosen a cafe that we had discovered was very popular, hoping it would discourage anyone from just trying to shoot us out of the blue. I sat at the table, constantly scanning the roads for police cars and the crowds of people walking around for anything suspicious. So far, so good.

 The reporter was running late. I was starting to wonder if they had driven by and seen me waiting and recognized me. What if someone had already called the cops on us? Paranoia was starting to the better of me. I called Auto and talked to him for a few minutes, trying to persuade him to let us just go ahead and call the whole thing off. I tried to convince him we could effectively post this stuff on someone's blog and get the info out that way. 

 Auto refused to let me back out on this one, assuring me that the reporter had probably just hit traffic, that he could see a huge back up on one of the main roads from his position on a roof above. We made a deal that if no one showed up in the next hour, we would leave and disappear again.

 Forty-five minutes later, when I was starting calm down, hoping against hope that no one would show up, a flustered young Asian woman approached my table. "Were you the...er...man with the Terrorist information?"

 A pit opened in my stomach. Well, if I wasn't locked in before, I couldn't leave now. I forced a small smile as I told her that I was indeed the "man" with the information. She quickly sat down, or rather perched on the edge of her seat, and pulled out a notepad and pen from who-knows-where. This was going to be interesting.

 "My name is Lisa Smith. If you'd like, would you please start from the beginning." It really wasn't a question.

 "Yes, ma'am," I said. She took out a tape recorder, and began recording. She motioned to me and I began to recount everything that had happened; leaving out what had happened when I was confronted with Viper, of course.

 It was a challenge to keep the story in the third person, but I managed well enough. When I had finished, Lisa continued writing down notes. "I'd like to ask you some more questions, but first, if you'll excuse me," Lisa stood up and headed for the ladies' room.

 I fidgeted nervously, waiting for her to come back. Hopefully she wasn't calling anyone or giving Auto and I away to the cops. I swear, if she was just stalling...A television in the corner was on the news channel, talking about Auto and me again. I tried to use it as a distraction.

 "The hunt for the terrorist boys is still underway. Police are baffled by the sudden disappearance of the two, but promise that they will find them before they flee the state. The Hollow Point Police Department has hired a top notch Commander to lead their further investigations. Commander Connors has never left a case open, he has solved every crime he has been given. He has vowed that the terrorist boys will be captured no matter what. And now we move on to a school fire at Hollow Point High, where earlier citizens claim to have seen some sort of..."

 Great, I thought, Auto's gonna need to know this. Before I could pull out my phone and call him, Lisa returned. "So, Mr..." she started, clearly trying to get a name, "Could you tell me how you came across this information?"

 "No, ma'am, I'm afraid that's something I can't tell you."

 She scribbled on her notepad. "Alright," she said, "Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?"

 "Actually," I began, removing the crumpled pages from my jacket pocket, "I'd like to show you something." I spread the pages on the table in front of her. "This is what was on that flash drive. This is a plan to kill a whole lot of people. You see these?" I asked, pointing to diagrams of the nanobots, "These have been put into water systems all over the world. America, Asia, Europe, you name it, they're there. These are weapons."

 Lisa got out her camera, taking snapshots. I encouraged her, adding, "The very same used against the Middle East a while back."

 "I don't know what the government plans to do with this stuff," I continued, "But a few days ago, they could have killed anyone on the planet. Foreign dictators, terrorists, anyone suspected of anything, anyone they thought could pose a threat to the power Surveillance has. If you think about it, it's actually a terrifying prospect. I mean, Surveillance could off anyone they wanted." I paused, "...But now, Auto and Lucius have the only copy of the codes in the world, they're the only ones that have the power...and when Surveillance gets them back...I mean you can only assume that...I mean, we're—."

 Lisa's head came up slowly, I couldn't tell if it was disbelief on her face, but she quickly masked her emotions with a thoughtful expression. She scribbled something more down on her notepad. She stood, holding the papers out to me. "Keep them." I told her. That would make it easier to get them out there, right? "And make sure everyone knows about them." She nodded, putting her notepad away and picking up the tape recorder.

 "Thank you for your time, sir. If you ever need anything, just call. You know who to ask for."

 With that, she stopped the tape recorder. I was about to thank her for coming when the phone in my pocket started buzzing. Lisa walked out of the cafe. I took out the phone. It was Auto, of course. Either we were fine and he just wanted to check in, or all hell was about to break loose.

I answered it.

"Auto?"

"Run."