The acrid electronic smoke still lingered in his nose. He panted as he ran through the doors of the train station, carefully yet quickly glancing over his shoulder. He slipped through the front entrance, but did not take the main revolving door. You can get trapped too easily in those, he remembered his mentor telling him. Instead, he entered through a side door, sticking close to the shadows.
Once inside, he finally took a few minutes to regain his breath. He hadn’t realized it yet, but he had sprinted the entire way from the safe house to the station. He faded into the shadows and checked for followers. There were no familiar faces, nor any unknown people that made him feel uneasy.
Once his pulse was normal, he started thinking logically again. He had his wallet but he realized that the gun was gone from the holster under his arm. Damn. Where had he lost it? Was it during the run? Or was it still sitting on the old mahogany desk in the safe house? No matter, he convinced himself he didn’t need it.
He continued with the inventory, feeling his coat and pant pockets. Some loose coins, a pen, sunglasses and, his cell phone. So not all was lost. He might not have his gun, but he had the next best thing, a way to stay one step ahead while on the go.
He pulled out the HTC Tilt 2 and powered it on. It hadn’t been damaged and seemed to have a full charge. In that respect, he was lucky. He noticed his knuckle was bleeding. Sucking the blood off, he was pleased to see that he had full reception, even hidden in the corner of the train station.
There just hadn’t been enough time to grab the laptop. He had barely been able to transfer the file to a secure off-site location that only he knew about. He had poured lighter fluid on the keyboard and had set it ablaze before he heard the tires screeching outside. The automated text message had given him about a six-minute head start. This had allowed him to set the laptop on fire and watch it melt down. He had taken the hard drive out prior to igniting it, and had passed some industrial strength magnets quickly over it, securely committing the contents of the drive into oblivion.
A few squirts of lighter fluid to the rug and curtains had guaranteed a difficult if not impossible recovery of any items in the room. As the footsteps pounded up the stairs and crashed through the front door, he had already hopped from one rooftop to another and down a fire escape to the alley at the end of the block. He had practiced the routine many times in his head and for the most part, had done everything according to plan. But he had to leave a bit faster than he had wanted to and had to travel light. He remembered the training…”Lose the laptop” they had told him…but NOT the gun.
“Damn,” he swore again.
He stayed another ten minutes as a shadow within the shadows, checking everyone who came into the station. Just as he thought that he could move into the open, a pair of men with suits too small for their broad shoulders came through the doors of one of the exits across from him. He started moving in the opposite direction. But then the door that he had recently passed through also became blocked.
He quickly stepped into the crowd, moving into the school of commuters heading toward the trains. As he glided with the pack, he pulled up the website of the train station on his cell phone and quickly purchased a ticket to be picked up at the Will Call window. He knew that Will Call was off the beaten path, unlike the main ticketing window where they would most likely be waiting for him.
He stepped up to Will Call and said his name. The ticket was handed to him and he melded back into the shadows to wait…
– TO BE CONTINUED –
About this article: This post is the FIRST installment of an on-going series for the AT&T Lose the Laptop Challenge. This is the FINAL month and we are all “gunning” for the GRAND PRIZE of $5000. Remember to VOTE (for me, especially). By voting, you too can win $5000. There were 3 subjects during the previous 3 months: Travel, Social and Shopping. Please take a look at my previous posts. Over the next few weeks, I will be tying it all together so I hope that you will follow the progress and adventures of the hero.
Disclosure Text : I have a material connection because I received a gift or sample of a product for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was/am not expected to return this item or gift after my review period. More information can be found in my About page as well as here. More information about the “Lose the Laptop” program is available here.
HTD says: What will happen to our hero next? Check next week for Part 2 of The Mobile Spy.
2 Responses
That dude is toast, those 2 meat heads are gonna eat his lunch!
Exciting !– and it certainly made ME look up HTC Tilt 2!
(Not a techie, I had never even heard of it! amazing!) HiTech Dad looks like the new
Thomas Perry!