"Dear Mr. Smithers, this is the only way I can find of getting this information to you. I do not know what it is for at this time, but these are all of the plans. I have not taken any part in anything other than finding information and I did not partake willingly. Please use this information to stop the next terrorist attack on London."
Jamie finished typing and looked at the document in front of her. She could tell it sounded bad, but this was the only way she could think of to get the information to the right place. She had been looking over the files that her parents had had her look up and find since she had gotten back from the building where Dylan was setting up his operation. She didn't know exactly what was going on, but she knew that none of it would be good. No matter what would happen, she needed to get this information to Alex, or someone under MI6 jurisdiction.
"Jamie, what are you doing?" her mother had just come back to the room.
"Nothing mom," replied Jamie as she hastily closed the document and opened a new one. "I'm just working on a paper I have due for school."
Her mother smiled, "When are you not working on something?"
"I need something to keep me busy," answered Jamie and she started working on the paper she had pulled up. Her mother went into the bathroom and started to run water for a shower. Jamie took this as her opportunity.
"Hey mom," she called through the door. "Can I go down and check out the pool and the workout room?"
"Sure honey, just be too long." Jamie smiled, saved her message to Smithers on her flash drive and shut down her computer. Then she left the room and went to find the workout room.
She didn't really want to work out at all, but it was a good reason to disappear off her mother's radar long enough for her to contact Alex and find out where and when to give him the flash drive. When she got down to the pool and workout rooms, there really wasn't much of a place to hold a private conversation. Jamie wandered around the rooms for a while in case her mother or Dylan decided to check whether she had actually gone down there and then she wandered the halls on her way back upstairs, looking for somewhere quiet.
Finally she found an unlocked housekeeping closet and she stepped inside. She took a deep breath, pressed the A button on her watch and said, "Alex? Are you there?" She released the A button and waited, praying that Alex was wearing his watch and he would answer her. C'mon Alex!, she thought and suddenly her watch answered her, "Hey Jamie. You just gave my housekeeper a panic attack."
"Sorry," Jamie said sheepishly. "I just needed to talk to you about my dad's case."
Alex could sense the seriousness in her voice, "What's wrong? Did something new come up?"
"No. Well, kind of… it's really hard to explain," Jamie replied. She was getting more and more nervous about actually telling him about her parents. Finally she blurted out what she really wanted, "Could we talk in person somewhere?"
"Sure," Alex didn't seem to hesitate in his answer at all. "There is a park right across the street from your hotel; do you want to meet there?"
"That sounds good," Jamie sighed a breath of relief.
"When do you want to meet? Right now or tomorrow or… when?"
"What about tonight? Then there will be less people to eavesdrop," Jamie suggested.
"Sounds good, how about we meet at the fountain in the middle of the park around 11?"
"Sounds great, thank you so much," said Jamie.
"Anytime," said Alex. "Over and out."
Jamie smiled a little, "yep, over and out."
Jamie opened the door to the closet and checked to make sure that the hallway was clear before she came out and headed back to her room. Tonight she would finally tell someone about what her parents were and she would be able to stop whatever they had planned. She felt better and more nervous at the same time after her conversation with Alex. She was reassured by his willingness to help her even though they had only really met two days before.
By the time Jamie got back up to her room, her mother was getting out of the shower. Jamie headed straight over to her bag and pulled out her sketch pad and curled up on the windowsill. Her mother took a book and sat on one of the beds to read, but just her cell phone rang. As she answered it, Jamie listened intently to find out who it was and what was going on. The conversation was in rapid Arabic, but Jamie still caught that it was Dylan on the phone. He wanted to take her and her mother out to dinner that night. By the time her mother hung up, Jamie had controlled her frustration with Dylan's uncanny timing and was back to sketching calmly.
"Jamie, Dylan is taking us out to dinner tonight," announced her mother. "How about you pull on a skirt or a dress or something nicer and we will head out?"
"Okay," said Jamie as she stowed her sketch book and pulled a skirt out of her suitcase. Maybe this would work out if Dylan wanted to have an early dinner.
Dinner passed without anything interesting occurring. Jamie had decided that since she was going to tell Alex everything that night anyway, she would start wearing the necklace in front of Dylan and her mother. Jamie really didn't have anything to worry about though; the adults were professionals at not letting anything slip while they were out. After dinner, Dylan walked them up to their hotel room where Jamie immediately went inside and got changed. Dylan and her mother lingered in the doorway for a little bit talking but Jamie didn't really care what they were talking about at that point. It was 9:30 and she wanted to make sure that her mother was asleep before she tried to leave to go meet Alex. Luckily her mother had had a few glasses of wine with dinner that night.
After Dylan left, her mother washed up in the bathroom, put on her pajamas and sat in bed with a book. Jamie took this as her chance to take her bag and a change of clothes into the bathroom with her. She was dressed in a tank top and shorts that she would wear to bed, but she put a pair of jeans and a shirt in the bathroom for when she left. She also left her sneakers in there. Hopefully her mother would not go to the bathroom between now and the time Jamie got back from her meeting with Alex. Jamie made sure that her watch was right and then climbed into her bed to wait for a good time to leave for the park. It was 10 and her mother was starting to nod off, soon she would be able to move.
At 10:50 Jamie got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. She was hoping that even if her mother woke up at this point, she would just think Jamie was using the toilet. Jamie pulled on her jeans and a baggy guy's button down blue plaid shirt and her sneakers. She picked up her bag with all of her gadgets and everything and snuck to the door of the room. Luckily her mother was sound asleep and Jamie made it out of the room and out of the hotel without anyone seeing her.
As she walked through the park Jamie prayed that Alex was there waiting for her and that Dylan had not found out what she was up to. She fingered the flash drive in her pocket. Alex would be able to take it to MI6 and make sure that they knew everything that she knew about the operation. She slowed down as she neared the fountain and walked around the perimeter until she saw a figure sitting on the edge.
"Alex?"
"It's me," answered the figure sitting on the fountain's edge and Jamie walked over.
"Thanks for meeting me," said Jamie as she sat down, but she couldn't help fidgeting a little and looking around for people watching them.
"Of course, you sounded a little nervous over the watch," said Alex as he watched her. "What's up? Did you find out something more about your dad?"
Jamie gave a dry laugh. "Oh, I've known a lot about him for a long time, but this is the first time I've ever tried telling someone else." Alex looked at her seriously and Jamie took a deep breath. "My dad is absolutely, one hundred percent fine."
"Well, that is a good thing, but how do you know?" asked Alex.
"He was never kidnapped by anyone," Jamie stressed, willing Alex to catch on quickly. "It was all a ruse, they just needed a reason to have an in with MI6 and your government. They are planning something and that's why I needed to talk to you."
Alex was sitting there staring at her. Jamie sighed and pulled the flash drive out of her pocket.
"I need you to give this to Mr. Smithers as soon as you possibly can," she said holding it out for him to take.
Alex hesitated, "Why? What is on it?"
"It's not dangerous, I made it myself just to get the information to Mr. Smithers. It contains all of the information my parents made me find for them concerning this operation they are running. It has something to do with the government's air or water system, I'm not sure which. There is some sort of agent they are going to release into one of those systems but I don't know what that is or what it will do. I just know that we have to stop it. You're government needs to stop this attack!" Jamie had gotten more frantic as she had talked because she needed Alex to believe that she wasn't part of the group trying to harm his country. "Please, Alex, just give it to Smithers, he will be able to open it without any worry of viruses because he has the technology to combat any of those things and I didn't put any viruses on that USB."
Alex took the flash drive and put it in his pocket, but Jamie could tell that he was still unsure of her. "Who do your parents work for?"
"Not any of the big name terrorist groups like Al Queda or Scorpia or anything like that," answered Jamie. Alex seemed to breathe out when she said that they did not work for Scorpia but she knew she had to warn him about Dylan. "Still, watch out for my uncle, Dylan, he wants to prove that he is better than Scorpia and the way that he has discovered for doing that is getting to you."
"Great," said Alex and he stood up. "Why should I even trust you anyway?"
"You shouldn't," answered a voice from the trees and both Jamie and Alex jumped. Jamie stood up and looked into the darkness. "This is working out very nicely."
Jamie looked toward the sound of the voice as did Alex. Suddenly a group of men dressed in black step forward. Jamie recognized them.
"Crap," was all she could say. It was Dylan.
