James was still deep in thought when he noticed that something was amiss. Ever since he boarded the cab, be noticed that a small bus was tailing them throughout the journey. This made James nervous.
He previously assumed that the bus was going in the same direction as his. But six had passed, and they were still tailing the cab. Even the cab driver seemed to notice something was wrong.
"Sir, sorry for being inconvenient, but please can you divert to this road on your next left?" James asked, while subtly looking at the side mirrors. The cab driver glanced at James questionably. "Why?" He asked.
"Uhh… I… am enjoying this journey so much I want to extend it more. Please divert to the left road, I'll pay you extra" James said with a hint of anxiety. The cab driver glanced at James once more and shrugged. "It's your loss man", he said and turned his steering to move to the left road intersection.
James stared at the mirror, but he didn't see the bus again. With a sigh of relief, James slumped to his seat and closed his eyes. Maybe he was a bit paranoid for a moment.
Although he knew that leaving the safety of his home would spell doom for him, he could not spend another moment with people that despised him. The same pattern would not happen again.
Maribel called James phone again, but James rejected the call for the twenty-fifth time. 'I don't want to talk to you. What's so hard about it?" Although James was mad at her, he still felt bad.
Tomorrow was her birthday, and his actions would probably ruin her mood on her special day. But staying back would still ruin her mood too. She had already seen James as a bad apple, something that one should not be touched at all.
James shook those thoughts from his mind and chose to focus on his study regarding his project regarding storage development. He was making rapid progress. Right now, he has figured out a way to permanently store information without magnetic interference affecting it at all. One could place their SSDs next to their microwave without any issues.
Although it might not seem more like an upgrade, it would be a very important invention for astronauts who uses hard drives in space. Radiation is a huge problem to contend with in space, so this invention would mark a new era to distant photography of space.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Night has arrived, and James finally reached his destination. He alighted from the cab and paid the driver, before heading to the hotel he had lodged online. After some process, the receptionist gave a room key to James, and James carried his two backpacks and went to his designated room.
He planned to leave Canada tomorrow to his home town, Boston. He made this decision to be as close to his parents as possible. There is no place like home, that notion rung in his mind.
James was resting his body for tomorrow when he heard commotions from outside the hotel. Normally James did not care that much about it, but his intuition was warning him that something was amiss.
To quell his uneasiness, he enhanced his senses to the limit and strained his ears to listen to whatever was going on downstairs. However, what he heard next jolted him to the core.
"Come on ma'am, co-operate with me, otherwise my patience to you would run out. What is the room number of the boy whose full alias is James Nicolas Smith?"
Suddenly, James became fully awake as he had an adrenaline rush. He immediately took his first bag which contained all his electronics and research and ran out of his room, leaving his clothes inside.
'How did they find me?' James thought as sweat began to form on his forehead. James began to regret leaving his house. He tiptoed to the room five doors away from his room and knocked gently.
"Hello", he whispered gently at the door, but no one answered. He knocked frantically before a burly man opened the door wearing a frowning expression. Apparently, he was interrupted from his sleep.
"What do you want kid?" The man asked groggily. "Sir, please help me. There are people downstairs that want to kill me. Please let me hide in your room for now", James pleaded.
The man eyes cleared, hearing what James said. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" The man asked with widened eyes. "There are people trying to kill me. Please help me!" James spoke hurriedly and attempted to push his way inside of the man's room, but the man blocked his way.
"You said someone wants to kill you. Look I don't want to be entangled by your problems, so please leave", the man then attempted to close the door, but James held the door and pleaded.
"Please I'm begging you, I will die if they find me please!" James pleaded with tears on his face. He then heard the receptionist shakily tell the room number of his room. Then he started hearing footsteps from the stairs.
"Please, I'm begging you, you are my only lifeline, please let me hide inside for a while", James made repeated attempts to rush inside of the man's room.
"Get outta here you cursed kid!" The man shoved James to the floor and slammed the door. James quickly stood up and searched for an exit, luckily, there was an exit just down the hallway. He rushed and entered the elevator, before pressing the button to the last floor.
When the elevator started moving with a soft hum, James relaxed a little and checked his bags. His CPU and the documents relating to his study was neatly packed inside, which was a relief for him.
Unfortunately, his clothes were still in the room, but he didn't mind. He have more than enough money to buy himself new clothes by the time he reached his destination.
But wait a minute. How did they find him, after all these years? It was not possible for them to have located him all the way to Canada. Was it the chip inside of him that was tipping him of the location? If yes, then why did they decide to strike now?
James naturally did not have the answers to these questions, so he had to wait until he left this hell hole.
The elevator dinged, and the doors opened revealing the receptionist room. James ran to the receptionist to call for help, but what he saw shocked him to the core.