They drove back to the city, much faster, ignoring the spectacular late afternoon sun. They decided to pick up Edward's friend and go back to his house. Edward thought he would have all the software to make her a fake badge.
"We still haven't solved the problem of how to get your presentation on the computer" he reminded her about half way there as the traffic began to increase.
"I know, I know" she sighed. "But one step at a time. It's worrying me too. Maybe something will come to me when we're wandering around the conference centre tonight."
"If we can wander around the conference centre" he added.
Bella had insisted on going quickly to the Saks Fifth Avenue outlet before they left the mall because she was convinced that the security guard detail would recognize her handbag. Or at least, that's what she said. Edward expressed his doubts that any man could recognize any handbag ever. He was even more suspicious when Bella pronounced the 25% off Prada handbag definitely the most subtle. They also stopped off at a shop they had found on the net before they left the café and bought a short, brown wig. Edward suggested the long, blonde one but Bella pointed out that she was trying not to appear conspicuous.
They needed to detour past their hotel to pick up her badge to make the fake one. Bella was too nervous to go up to the room alone in case they had been found however either S&D hadn't found them or they thought they had done everything necessary to prevent her from making any unwelcome appearances the next day. On the way out she briefly suggested sticking a hair across the door with saliva so that they could check if it had been opened later and she was actually half-serious. Edward ignored the suggestion. They picked Emmett up from his office downtown and headed back to his apartment, which was very new. Emmett seemed excited by the prospect of making her a new ID; he said it reminded him of college days. They took a photo of her old badge and then put it into photoshop.
"I hope you've got a good quality printer," he told his friend. "OK Bella what name do you want?"
Bella was momentarily at a loss. "I don't know" she said. "Got any suggestions?" They both found themselves looking at Emmett. "Umm" he said appearing stressed "La, la Laurel?" he suggested. "Laurel what?' asked Edward. "Laurel…Canyon?" suggested Gene. "That's a place in Los Angeles" Edward protested.
"Oh you're right" his friend said, crestfallen. "Well how about the soap opera name generator?" "The what?" asked Bella. "It's on the net" he explained "My girlfriend went through a patch of playing with it. Here. There it is. OK what's your first name, middle name, surname. Just fill it in. OK let's see the result."
"Your jedi name is Shepe Mccomel" read Bella. "My jedi name? That doesn't sound like a jedi name! It doesn't sound like anything".
"Try the soap opera name. Marie Inner. No, not so good is it? Inner? Where did it come up with that?"
"Well, it asked for the street I grew up in and unfortunately I grew up in Inner Crescent". "How about the porn name?" asked Edward. "That should have been Marie Inner. Hmmm Comet McCord. Nope I don't think so. Where did it get Comet from?" "My goldfish" she said uncomfortably "He was called Comet. He didn't last long…" "Not good" said Edward let's try another site. "Soap Opera name generator. Here we are. I put in your name and it suggests 'Chloe Berkley'. That's good enough".
Bella wasn't happy. "Chloe?" she said dismissively. "Do you know any scientists called Chloe?" "You're the first," retorted Edward. "But seriously there's no reason why someone called Chloe could not be a scientist. I wouldn't be so prejudiced" He went back to photoshop and started to change the name. "Besides, if they're looking at you that closely, you're stuffed".
"Thanks" she said "That makes me feel so much better about this".
The fake badge looked excellent when it was printed out although the blue of the logo was somewhat fainter than the real badge. "But that happens from time to time in normal print runs" Edward assured her. "It won't attract any attention".
They took Emmett out for Chinese to thank him for the loan of the car. He asked both of them lots of questions about Australia. Bella was relieved to be able to forget about everything while they recounted some of their favourite stories.
When they said goodbye, Bella thanked Emmett and he asked for her e-mail address so that he could hear how it went and keep in touch. She said goodbye with genuine regret. She could feel the ghost of an alternative life, one in which she came here with her boyfriend Edward and they caught up with his old college friend. The thought brought back the sadness of earlier in the day. She tried to concentrate on what was ahead.
They left the wig and the new ID tucked under the mattress in their hotel room, which was the only hiding place that didn't involve some sort of minor hardware DIY project. They walked the few blocks to the conference centre.
"What'll we do if we see any security guards?" asked Bella. Edward considered. "Well, it will be a chance to see if they recognize you" he mused. "We'll tell them that we left something behind in the conference today and that we came back to see if we could find it and see what happens". "And what if they let us in to the lecture room?" Edward shrugged. "We'll pretend to have a hunt around for a while, obviously not find anything and leave. Not a big deal. You worry too much" he concluded easily. "Yes" she agreed. She wished she could take his hand again but he kept them both firmly in his pockets. It was a chill night so she couldn't blame him, still she wondered if he was deliberately distancing himself from her.
They reached the conference hotel and walked in the revolving door to the grand entrance foyer. It was quite busy with what appeared to be a large tour party either arriving or departing. There were people and suitcases everywhere.
Without speaking, Bella and Edward took the escalator to the first floor, to the first convention hall. So far the convention centre level was dark and appeared to be empty. They followed the passage through a series of turns to another foyer area.
Unfortunately, when they reached the other foyer, it was not empty. Leaning casually on the rail over the next staircase was the unmistakable dark-suited outline of yet another security guard. He had his back to them.
Frantically Bella felt for Edward's hand. She pulled him to a stop and made faces at him, trying to show that she wanted to go back the way they had come. Edward shook his head at her and held her hand more firmly. He began to advance toward the guard. Without noticing, Bella found herself walking slightly behind him.
When they got about a quarter of the way down the foyer the guard noticed their approach. "Hey" he greeted them. "Centre's closed. Where do you think you're going?" Smoothly, Edward launched into his explanation. He had lost his watch somewhere; he thought there was a chance it might be where he was sitting at the conference today. Would it be possible for him to check?
The security guard looked slowly from one to the other of them. When he spoke it was equally slow. "Conference wasn't in the main room today" he said. "It was in the smaller function rooms downstairs. Why'd you think it would be up here?"
Slow, but not that stupid, thought Bella fighting a rising feeling of panic. The security guard was a few inches shorter than her companion but looked to weigh about twice as much. His neck was the size of one of Bella's thighs. Despite her panic, Bella found herself wondering how he got shirts to fit. Edward said something reasonably convincing along the lines of it being not only a very expensive watch, but having great sentimental value as it was given to him by his girlfriend on their first anniversary, and him wanting to check absolutely every possibility. Listening closely and weighing the response, Bella thought that he had done a good job; it was possible that he might be believed.
The next seconds proved that she was completely wrong. The man moved his head slightly and they saw that he was wearing a Bluetooth phone connector. "Yeah" he said into the phone. "This is station 20. Code grey activate".
"Let's go," she said in a low voice, tugging on Edward's arm. Edward seemed undecided. "What about my watch?" he said loudly.
"I'm going to have to ask you to just stay where you are for a couple of minutes." the security guard told them. He thrust his chest close to Edward's chest looking up into his face closely "And mister, I don't believe in the missing watch for a second, I think you're here for a completely different reason. But if I'm wrong, I'm terribly sorry". Edward backed away ever so slightly. "Bells" he said, still looking down at the security guard from a distance of inches. Bella looked round from behind his arm. "Mmm?" she said. She was aware that she was starting to shake.
"Run like hell!" shouted Edward throwing himself backwards and pulling her along with him. The security guard grabbed her by the shoulder but Edward threw him off. The guard turned and grappled with Edward, pulling and twisting at the front of his shirt, he managed to get him off balance and Edward half fell to his knees. Bella looked round desperately. The guard was leaning forward over Edward. She let fly an enormous kick from behind which fortunately seemed to connect with the guard's groin. She grabbed Edward's hand to help him up and aimed a sweeping blow with her handbag at the guard's head which didn't really achieve as much as she had hoped. He tried to grab the bag but she yanked at it violently enough that she was able to pull it free and ran frantically after Edward. They could hear running feet at the other end of the foyer now. There were shouts. Bella didn't look back. She hared along as fast as she could envying Edward's long-legged stride. They raced through the zig zag passageway and down the stairs beside the escalator. To her horror, Bella saw that another security man was standing at the bottom of the stairs, his arms spread to block their way.
Edward didn't hesitate. He jumped over the rail onto the escalator and taking the steps three at a time, still managed to keep moving downwards at a rapid pace. The guard ignored him, concentrating on Bella. Without meaning to, Bella slowed her pace slightly wondering what she could do to get past him. More shouts at the top of the stairs told her that she had little chance of getting away if this man held her up even for a few seconds. She resolved to try a flying leap onto him, to see if she could knock him off balance when to her surprise, a figure from her right side did it for her. Edward had leaped sideways from the end of the escalator, concentrating on her, the guard hadn't seen him coming until the last minute. Together, Edward and the security guard hit the floor just as Bella's leap took her flying past them. She landed awkwardly but during her stumble noticed that Edward had bounced off the floor and evaded the guard's tackle. He grabbed her hand again and they ran into the still crowded hotel lobby. Edward took a second or two to pick up suitcases and bags and fling them at their attackers. There was confusion and protest from the guests in the lobby but fortunately no-one tried to stop them.
Bella thought they might be held up at the door but fortunately the porters were busy hauling bags and sorting out cars and the doors themselves were relatively abandoned. Bella and Edward flung themselves out onto the street where a light rain was now falling. As they left Edward pulled a last baggage trolley in their path but by the sound of the heavy feet behind them it didn't do much good. Without considering where they were going she followed him to the right at the end of the drive and off down the street. After a half a block she realised they were headed for Union Square. This seemed like a good idea, she thought, to head for a populous area. If they could stop running for a second, they could hide amongst the crowd.
"How are you going?" she heard Edward shouting to her. "OK" she puffed "But not for too long" she added in between panting for breath. He made a sharp left turn down a small street. They were coming up to the shopping centre. "In here" he yelled.
The dodged through the doors of the centre and ran up an escalator. Unfortunately the stores were closing and the place was fairly deserted. "We can't stay here!" Bella exclaimed. Looking back she could see that one of the guards was just coming through the same door they had. All the escalators were arranged around the open central area and Bella quickly realised that they had to abandon the escalators or they'd be easily seen "This way!" she shouted and bolted for the store at the corner. This massive flagship clothing store was over three levels and she had been there the day she arrived in San Francisco, on her way to the convention centre, considering doing some shopping. Now, she tore through the racks and ran down the stairs and out the front door.
They found themselves on Market street. The lights changed and they ran across the road, not waiting to see if the pursuit had caught up with them. At the Powell street terminal a cable car clanged the warning that it was about to leave. With an extra burst of speed they dodged the traffic and leaped onto it. Bella's foot slipped off the board at the side which was become very slippery with rain, but she had a firm grip on the side pole and Edward grabbed her collar. There was a moment when her legs were flying in space but she clung on firmly and came down in a heap, falling against the footboards. Edward hauled her up to the seat and the cable car picked up speed and slid smoothly away leaving the nightmare of searching security far behind.