Chapter 16 – Disease and liability

- “What do you want to discuss with me then?” Sam asked, even though he kind of knew what this was about.
- “Where to start?” Christina said quietly to herself, “OK, yesterday’s rioting…”
- “Yes.”
- “That is just the beginning. There will be more, much more.”
- “Oh I know.”
- “All because our president is giving false promises.” Vince added.
- “I agree with you there. Unfortunately he can’t fight the lying temptation. It’s a disease and it has befallen upon us. Most people are too weak to fight it.” Sam said.
- “So you managed to overcome it?” Christina asked.
- “Yes I have, more or less. I see you guys have as well.”
- “Yes, though Vince is not from around here, so he never had that disease.”
- “Interesting. So did you willingly come here, knowing the problem in these areas?” he asked Vince.
- “Not entirely. But I am willing to cure it, or whatever is the best word. I’m a scientist.”
- “Well I can only wish you good luck. I’m afraid there’s not much else I can do.”
- “Can’t you influence the president in any way?” Christina asked.
- “I don’t think so. He’s way too obstinate and thinks that he knows everything. I’m afraid the lies have changed all of us for the worse. He used to be a good person before.”
- “Well, we will be trying. But we wish in a meantime our leader – the president, could at least speak the truth.” Vince said.
- “I wish so too. I will try to do everything to the best of my ability. But I can’t leave you with any false promises.”
- “Sure, we understand.”
- “Thanks a lot for everything.” Christina thanked Sam Thompson.
Vince, Pete and Christina exited his office and began going back to the stairs, when that guard from before walked up to them angrily and said:
- “You said you’ll be here only for 5 seconds. So you lied to me?!”
- “No, this is not what you think…” Vince began justifying himself.
- “Guards! Grab them!” the guard shouted, and suddenly several guards came out of nowhere and ran towards the trio.
Pete suddenly punched the angry guard in the stomach and then kicked him in the face to cause him to pass out.
- “Come on guys, we must get out of here.” He shouted.
- “Pete, why?” Christina didn’t like his approach.
- “Not now.” Pete said and grabbed her so he could drag her out.
Three of them rushed down the stairs. A couple of the guards caught up with them and grabbed Christina into bearhug and headlock. Vince quickly laid a punch to each of their faces, causing them to release her.
They were running down the stairs so fast, that all of them almost tripped up at least once. Some of the guards though did trip up, causing the ones behind them to also fall down.
Lots of adrenaline was rushing through Vince’s body. He never had to run away from the guards of the White House. The idea that they could be arrested was truly scary.
They then reached the ground floor and ran in through the doors into the corridor leading out of the stairs area.
- “Come on!” Pete shouted, “before the guards on this floor get alerted.”
However they were too late, because the guards on this floor already have been alerted and were now coming in from the other end of the corridor.
- “Uh oh, we’re trapped.” Vince said.
- “No, over here.” Pete quickly said and burst in through one of the doors on the side.
Vince and Christina just followed where Pete was leading them. They ran into a computer room as it seemed and headed for another door in the room. A guard came out of there, but Pete quickly pounced on him and knocked him to the floor.
Through the door they entered some office room, and then exited through the next door into the main lobby.
- “Good job, Peter.” Vince congratulated him.
- “We’re not done yet.” Pete pointed forward, showing several guards running in from outside.
- “What now?” Christina asked.
- “The back door.” Pete said, and all three of them turned in the opposite direction of the front door and ran towards the backside of the building.
Only two guards were patrolling the back area, and one of them seemed to be sleeping on his post. Vince, Pete and Christina just ran past them both, into a small corridor with a door at the end.
- “Locked!” Vince said.
- “No worries. It’s just a basement door. They use it as fire exit, so no strong locks on here.” Pete reassured him and got his lockpick out.
He stuck the lockpick into the lock, twisted it a couple of times and unlocked it quickly. They then opened the door and ran in. The guards were close behind.
It seemed like a pretty nice area for a basement. There wasn’t much sign of dirt or dust around here. Not even a single rat. Three of them headed for the door at the end and opened it. There were three guards standing outside there, but those ones didn’t know anything, so when they saw the trio, they didn’t know they had to catch them.
- “All right fellas?” Vince said casually.
- “Yep.” One of the guards nodded.
The three of them then ran off where they wouldn’t be seen. When the remaining guards exited through the back door, they couldn’t see Vince, Pete or Christina, so one of those guards asked one of the ones who was outside:
- “Which way did they go?”
- “Over there.” The outside guard pointed in a completely opposite direction.
- “Come on.” the other guards then ran to where he pointed.
Once again, lying proved to be a liability for the guards when performing their job.
The trio managed to walk into the streets by now without the guards seeing them. They all were worried and nervous though.
- “Now we can’t be seen outside, because the guards will recognize us.” Christina said.
- “Pete, why such extreme measures?” Vince asked.
- “They weren’t gonna let us go. Trust me.” Pete said, “It was the best way.”
- “Well now we have to change our identities or something.” Vince suggested.
- “Good idea. Unfortunately we’ll have to resort to that.” Christina said.
- “And probably relocate somewhere else to live.” Vince added.
- “Woah, we can’t afford that though.” Christina disagreed.
- “I don’t know what else we could do.” Vince said.
- “Well maybe we can temporarily stay somewhere for now. I wonder where though.” Christina wondered.
- “Perhaps somewhere closer to the Redwell labs if we can. This way I’ll be able to visit it every day and work on the machine.” Vince suggested.
- “I like your idea.” Christina agreed.