Inside

“You can see the most of the lab through the window directly in front of you,” Suzuki continued, “you’re safe from those outside the office; take a video of what you see.”
First I had to make sure of what exactly I was seeing. I peered out the window and my eyes immediately widened. There were figures just like Suzuki stood up in lines, like an assembly line of robots. Courtney and I must have taken shelter in front of some boxes, which lined part of the compound we were inside now. I immediately opened my video camera and started taking video.
“Give the phone to Courtney,” Suzuki told me.
I handed it to Courtney, who pressed it against her ear, as I continued recording. Courtney nodded and said ‘yes’ a few times before starting up a computer and typing something. I assumed Suzuki wanted Courtney to get into some of the files there. It was around now that I was feeling nervous. How much time did we have before we’d have to leave? Wouldn’t we be found when we’d leave?
“Michael,” Courtney said, shaking me out of my moment.
“Suzuki wants you to send the video file. I have the address to send it too.”
I looked at the computer; it was set up for email with a whole bunch of other files. It felt like I had only been standing there for a minute or two, but maybe it had been longer. I immediately took the chip out of the video camera, popped it into the computer, extracted the file, and attached it to the email. I didn’t pay attention to anything else. Suzuki was still talking to Courtney, I could hear that vaguely behind me.
“Alright,” Courtney said, “Ok.” Then she spoke to me.
“Send it, then we need to go. We have about three minutes.”
“Ok.” I looked up for a moment before hitting send, and didn’t notice the email I’d be sending the information to. It was curious enough for me to ask about it.
“What email are we sending that to?”
There was a pause before Courtney answered.
“She says it’s to your email, the address is encrypted.”
I looked back at the email, and sent it, but felt uneasy with Suzuki’s words. The email didn’t contain my address in the ‘send to’ bar. I didn’t know much about encryptions, but something didn’t sit right with me. I thought we’d send the info to my email, I’d put the information on an external drive, and we’d delete my account before taking the information to the authorities.
I reached for Courtney to give me the phone, and after I took it back, asked, “Suzuki, who’s email did I just send that too?”
“Like I told you before, it’s to your email, but through encryptions.”
Keeping watch outside, I kept questioning her.
“But it didn’t have my email in the ‘send to’ bar at all. What’s this all about?”
There was a pause, then Suzuki said, “we’re running out of time. You need to exit and get back to the docking bay at my count.”
I nodded to Courtney and we made ready at the door.
“Three…two…one…go.”
We left the docking bay quickly and took shelter where we did before. I checked over my shoulder and noticed the guard was looking away for a moment. Our options were sparse this time around, I knew that.
“You’ll need to incapacitate the guard, Michael.”
I sighed. So what I feared I’d have to do turned out to be my only option. I held a hand up behind me for Courtney to stay put and walked quickly up to the guard. I knew I’d only get one shot at this, and as quickly as I could threw a chop at his shoulder near the base of his neck. The man went down in a second. Besides my hurting hand, I was shocked. I thought of picking up his radio, but I didn’t have any gloves. Best not leave any prints.
“You’ll have to open the door. I cannot promise you won’t be seen, but I can pick you two up.”
“Ok.” I suddenly felt nervous as I motioned for Courtney to join me. I wasn’t nervous because we might be seen, but about what was really going on. Why was Suzuki not telling us everything? Was there something about her I should be concerned about? What if, what if there was more danger to her than she let on. Courtney could tell something was up as I clicked the button to open the door.
“I think Suzuki’s not telling us everything, but we have to go. She’ll pick us up near those pillars we were at before, ok?”
Courtney nodded. “Why do you think she’s up to something?”
“Because it’s not my email.” I explained. We ran out of the docking bay, leaving the door open, and started our way back behind the pillars as I spoke in a whisper.
“The plan was use my email, then delete the email and my computer once we were out of there; then we’d contact the authorities the next day. But I didn’t recognize the email address.”
“W-Wait, Michael, what does that mean?”
I turned to Courtney, then heard the unmistakable sound of a motorcycle revving. Suzuki appeared in the docking bay, then in a moment turned into her human self. After a roll, Suzuki rose, walking towards us.
“Suzuki, what’s going on here?”
That’s all I remember.