Chapter 27. Heart and hands.
Clover and Mandy were asleep, hardly an hour before midnight. Their heads next to their laptops. On the screens rows of hexadecimal coding flashed by. The soft beeping coming from Mandy's Powerbook woke her in an instant. Only seconds later the high pitched beep of Clovers laptop followed.
"Okay, Apple won this time Mandy," Clover capitulated yawning and stretching. "Which fish have we caught?"
But Mandy kept silent. "So, who is it?" Clover asked once more.
"Clovey? will you please check your data?" Mandy timidly asked.
Clover looked in astonishment at Mandy. Then checked her decrypted data.
"Holy , the , it's him that took out Sam and Alex! I'm booking a Concorde to Washington to tell him the truth." Clover didn't even notice the piece of cold pizza, she had been sleeping on, that stuck to her cheek.
"Concorde stopped flying, Clover!" The confident voice of Mandy, got Clover back to reality. "Contact miss Q, she'll be on the ball. We have enough evidence to nail him till the twenty-fifth century. You know, I like your wicked smile, but I'd remove that pizza from my face before contacting her. "
Clover looked in the mirror. She shrieked, tomato sauce in her hair, bloodshot eyes, bags under her eyes, a piece of pizza... She rushed to the bathroom and came out clean, but still tired. She got into a dark tank-top and blue-jeans, still IT-grrl, but with a fashion sense.
"Hello miss Q," Clover still sounded dead tired, but anger could be heard in her voice. "We found our culprit. The data are on their way, Mandy is taking care of that. I want a piece of that miss Q."
"Mrs Ewing, that's no language for the face of 'Elle Magazine'." Terry reprimanded.
"I don't care, he has to keep his dirty paws off my friends!" Clover replied.
"I think you ladies need a good nights rest. I'll contact you when I have news!" Terry closed the line.
"She wants us to have a good nights rest when our friends are in danger! Is she out of her mind. Do you know where they are Mandy?" Clover shouted in anger.
"They are at the Queen Astrid Base. The professor is in charge and David is on his way. Brittney takes care of security." Mandy replied.
"Then we'll take care of the " stated Clover. "I'll order a taxi. A fast taxi." She was already phoning to the reception of the George V. She knew that she could ask almost anything and they would be able to comply. After a quick make-over they both looked good, not at their best, but still a lot better then most women.
By the time they arrived at the reception desk, the taxi-driver was already waiting. Clover looked the man over as if she was about to devour him, also to read his name tag. The taxi-driver, who was used to worse, stayed absolutely calm.
"Okay Daniel, Brussels and then I'll tell you how to drive. Just make it fast, the tickets are on me!" she instructed the man. He smiled widely as they followed him out. A white Peugeot 406 was waiting for them. Mandy raised an eyebrow and took a closer look at the car. She was going to have some great fun on the road. Her smile was radiant.
The car took off.