Survival

been too small. All he could do was carefully place each part next to his head, seeing if it crackle-beeped in his ears or not. Eventually he found the area and examined it carefully, putting his glasses on to do so. He had near perfect vision with his glasses on, if there was something there, he would see it. It took him around twenty seconds to find it, a tiny Nano-bot sat in the sleeve, clinging to the fibres within it. How the hell did this get there? It must have been Tom. He quickly threw it in the trash can and stood up to get to the rendezvous point. In the corner of his eye he noticed that the men behind him also turned. Now he knew he wasn't imagining it, they were tailing him. His walking got faster, and eventually he decided to sprint to the corner he was heading to. He had to tell them he was being followed, but he shouldn't be phoning anyone, as it could give away more information. He got to the corner and turned, standing against the wall wondering what to do. It was worth the risk he thought, it had to be. They may call the extraction off, but at least then the others would be safe. He dialled Jarrah and the phone rang for what seemed like forever. Finally, Jarrah answered confused.

“Why are you phoning on this?” He said anxiously.

“Sorry man, I just needed to get through to you, they're following me, and they had me tracked”

“Tracked how?” Jarrah asked.

“I found a Nano-bot in my jumper; it must have been tracking me for the last few days and sending information back”

Jarrah sighed, this wasn't a good thing. If it had been sending information back for days, they could have been compromised in so many ways.

“If you found one, the chances are there are more on you, you know that yeah?” Jarrah said, “Look, I will speak to Cheryl, unless we get back to you with any other instruction then get to the extraction point. Hopefully the team there will be able to check you for any more”.

Jarrah put the phone down in a rush, leaving James jumper-less and fraught. He was right, there could be more on him, they wouldn't have just put one in the jumper, and any others could have spread. Why did Tom do this? He had known Tom for years, ever since he had met Gina. He wouldn't have done anything to betray her; it just didn't make any sense. He continued quickly, aware that the same two men had appeared around the corner. His walk once again turned into a run. He was less than a minute from the extraction point, and he was determined to get there as fast he could. He turned another corner, then another and saw the vehicle ahead waiting, one guard stood outside, the other sat in the driver's seat. They saw James running towards them and the driver jumped out the car and raised his gun in James' direction. The guard stood outside raised his gun at the exact same time.

TOM AND GINA'S HOUSE

Tom sat there confused, holding his phone in his hand. He had been sitting like this for a good ten minutes. Gina had turned her phone off, it wasn't like her. Why was she doing this? They would have been safe; she didn't have to do anything except keep her head down. There was a knock at the door which Tom didn't register straight away. It was by the third knock that Tom came to properly, his incoherent thoughts suddenly taking a back seat. He got up and answered, confronted by two men in suits.

“Hello Tom” one of them said. Did he know these men? He didn't recognise them.

The one who greeted him had a weather worn face, wrinkles that held stories and lines of experience. The other shorter gentleman seemed half his age, with slicked back hair that no one had had for around thirty years.

“Can I help you?” Tom asked.

“It's about Gina” Slick back replied, “May we come in?”

Tom knew he shouldn't let them, he didn't recognise these men and they were probably trying to find Gina, but for some reason found it impossible to resist.  They entered and sat down, seeming to know the house, as if they had been there before.

“We understand Gina has contacted you” Story face said.

“How did you know that?” Tom asked surprised.

“That doesn't matter Tom. We know it must be a shock, so we're here to help. We need to find Gina” He replied.

“Why? Is she in trouble?” Tom asked, sensing that she must be. These two men were clearly agents of the Elite.

“Only if she gets away, we need to borrow you for a minute” Slick back said.

Borrow him? What did that mean? He objected to this straight away.

“Well we have two choices” Story face said, "Either you do it voluntarily or we do it by force”

He said it with a glint in his eye and Tom knew that he wasn't kidding around. But Tom had been around a bit; he knew how to handle himself. He could take out Story face with one punch, he was close enough, and then it was just a matter of pot luck with Slick back.

“I wouldn't do that Tom” Slick back said.

How did he know what he was thinking? This alarmed him, but despite this, Tom jumped to his feet and started flinging his fist towards them. He stopped in mid-air, his fist hovering motionless, and the rest of his body frozen. His thoughts were racing around, scurrying from one side to the other trying to understand what had happened to him.

“You had to make it difficult didn't you” Story face said shaking his head.

He pulled out a small device and held it to Tom's head; it seemed to be scanning his brain. What was it looking for? Could they scan thoughts now?

“See, it doesn't hurt, and all