1: Crowd
March 2011
Letty took a few deep breaths to steady herself. She didn't want to let nerves overcome her at this crucial phase. Once she was breathing normally again, she expertly tapped the keys on her netbook, setting it to copy the entire contents of the hard drive she had wired it up to.
Someone knocked on the door of the cubicle.
"Sorry, someone's in here," Letty replied in her best New York accent. Whoever it was went away and she breathed a sigh of relief. The netbook said there were eight minutes to go until the entire hard drive was going to be copied, and Letty thought that they were probably the most nerve-wracking eight minutes of her life. She could hear people going in and out of the bathroom, but because she couldn't see them, any of them could be an enemy. Most of them just seemed to be regular women working in the office, so she was left alone after that, staring at the flashing blue bar and wishing more than anything that it would hurry up. To pass the time she sent a quick email to her best friends Jemima and Beatrice, reminding them that she'd be back soon and was expecting a big welcome. She briefly considered sending it to George too, but he never checked his email account so she decided against it.
When it finished copying, she unplugged the hard drive and netbook and shoved them into her bag. After flushing, she stepped out and washed her hands, purely for appearances. She'd been too nervous to actually use the toilet.
"All good up there?" a voice whispered in her ear.
Letty pressed down on the tiny button behind her ear so she could respond. "It's all copied. Now I just have to replace the hard drive and get out of here."
"Good job," the calm voice of John Jones, her mission controller replied.
Letty stepped out of the toilets and tugged at the hem of her dress. It wasn't really warm enough for a dress, and the weather in Chicago could be variable at this time of year, but it was too late to change now. She strolled back into the office and was hit by one of the strangest sights she thought she'd ever see; a vista of downtown Chicago and the strong blueness of Lake Michigan from more than a thousand feet up, but the river which normally wound its way through downtown had been dyed a bright green colour in honour of St. Patrick's Day. She wished she could take a picture, but she didn't have a camera on her.
Nobody in the office looked at her as she made her way to a walled-off area. Children weren't exactly common in downtown offices, but she'd been to the office before and anyone trying to ask her if she was lost was usually met with a tongue-lashing from the boss.
The desktop computer was as she'd left it, so it was easy to slot the hard drive back into place. She produced a tiny screwdriver from her bag and screwed everything into place, before closing up the case and leaving the desktop exactly where she'd found it. With luck, nobody would ever know she'd been inside it. She did a last minute check to make sure nothing was out of place.
"Come in, Letty," John's voice said, and Letty paused in the office to answer.
"What's up?"
"We've got movement down here at street level. Our guys have entered the foyer and they're practically guaranteed to eyeball you if you go down now."
Letty felt panic rising, but she forced herself to stay calm. "Advice?"
"I'll manufacture a diversion in exactly four minutes. You come down in the lift and I'll time it so you can slip past," John said quickly.
"Roger," Letty replied, smiling inwardly at the way John called elevators 'lifts'. She headed for the nearest one, ensuring her netbook was safely stowed in her bag. Nobody used the elevators much during the day, so she got one to herself and pressed the button for the ground floor. Descending a thousand feet in a windowless box always made her stomach jolt, but the ride was usually very smooth. The only problem was, the thick walls of the lift cut off her communications, so she just had to hope that John had the diversion going.
The elevator doors slid open and Letty stepped out, trying to walk as if she didn't have any cares in the world. There was a commotion on one side of the lobby which Letty assumed was John's diversion, but she didn't pause to watch. She headed directly for the nearest exit and felt a breath of cool air as she pushed her way out into downtown Chicago. A train rattled by on the raised tracks, its brakes making a racket, and she headed due east, having to impatiently wait at a crosswalk before she could put distance between herself and the building.
"... hear me?"
Letty pressed her finger to her ear. "Sorry, can you repeat? There was one of those trains."
"Someone's spotted you and is following you out of the east doors. Try and get in a taxi and head for O'Hare airport; have you got the fare?"
"Got enough," Letty replied, dicing with death as she ran across the road and narrowly dodged an oncoming car.
"Try and lose them; we don't want them to follow the taxi."
John didn't have to tell her. Letty had seen first-hand how dangerous the people they were dealing with could be, and she didn't fancy being dragged out of a taxi and made to answer questions about the sensitive data saved on her netbook.
She didn't want to run because it looked suspicious, so she just walked quickly. She had no idea where the nearest taxi rank was and hailing one in the street was dodgy at the best of times. It was only when she heard a shout from behind her and saw two men in suits sprinting flat-out towards her that she finally broke into a run. She'd worn flat pumps because they were the only thing that went with the dress, but they were impossible to move quickly in, so she kicked them off and ran in socks. The pavements were probably covered in all kinds of horrible stuff, but it had to be better than being caught.
The men were going to catch up if she ran in a straight line, so she ducked to the right and followed the line of the trains, weaving in and out of the metal supports before making another hard left. She could still hear shouts behind her so she didn't slow down, and she picked up speed on the relatively clear pavement.
The next turning took her across another road, but mercifully there wasn't any traffic. The street ahead led past the front of a hotel and she briefly considered ducking inside; they couldn't grab her there. The only problem was, they could wait outside for her…
Looking ahead, she saw a distinctive green sign with 'Michigan Ave.' on it and she had a brainwave. She flashed past a surprised hotel doorman and into the lobby, which was mostly done out in marble. Her socked feet skidded on the polished surface and she was sure she was going to topple over, but she regained her balance and hit carpet, which allowed her to speed up again. Her brainwave was this; the hotel was on the corner of a smaller street and Michigan Avenue, which was the major street in Chicago. The hotel was therefore guaranteed to have an entrance on Michigan Avenue, and she was right. She sped through it, slowing down only to push it open, and then she found herself on the pavement again. There was no sign of the men, but it didn't take a genius to work out where she'd gone. She set off up the street, weaving in and out of shoppers and business people out for lunch, trying hard not to trip over anything.
Her plan was to run up the street until she came across a crosswalk which was on green, but she spotted a couple of suspicious-looking men coming out of a street ahead. They had obviously been running and while they might not be after her, she couldn't take the chance. With nothing more than a brief glance to her left, Letty sprinted out into the flowing traffic, feeling like she was playing a giant, scary video game. A van nearly splattered her, but she dodged at the last second and took advantage of a break in the traffic on the other side to dash madly for the safety of the pavement. She made it in one piece, although she felt like she'd suffered a couple of minor heart attacks in the process, but there was no time to rest. She carried on up the street, looking around desperately for a taxi, but there were none in sight.
With nowhere else to go, she cut to the right and sprinted at full pelt through the park. People gave her odd looks as she went, but she didn't notice them, concentrating only on where she was putting her feet. The panic was coming again because she knew she wasn't going to be able to find a taxi. She turned a corner and suddenly skidded to a blissful halt. She'd run straight into the huge crowds of the St. Patrick's Day parade and, as she pushed between people and disappeared into the mass, there was absolutely no chance of them finding her amongst the thousands lining the route.
"John?" she asked, pressing on her communicator.
"Loud and clear," he replied.
"I'm just near Buckingham Fountain in a huge crowd. I've lost them, probably for good."
"Excellent work. According to my laptop your nearest taxi rank is north, so just follow the crowd until you get there," he said.
"Meet you at the airport," Letty said, pausing for a moment to get her breath back. She checked and her netbook was still safely in her bag, but the pause in her movement meant someone stepped on her foot in a ten-hole boot and made her bite her lip. Talk about a close call. She turned her head and looked up at the office tower she'd just departed, marvelling at how far she'd come in such a short time. There had to be a navy shirt in this.
