67 I will protect you

Just as they finished breakfast, Sara remembered the thing about Philip and Mimi that was putting weight on her mind and decided not to delay any further. She got her laptop and found the chat logs she took from Philip's phone.

"I want to show you something. But I want you to listen until I'm done before coming to any conclusions. Or going crazy."

Aiden nodded in agreement.

Sarah showed him the logs with only two rows of information:

#1: <date/time>, <206-xxx-xxxx>, message: "I failed"

#2: <date/time>, <425-xxx-xxxx>, message: "Useless. Keep trying"

Sarah took a deep breath before speaking. "I'm not sure if you remember, but this date in the log here is the day when after class Philip was persistent not to let me go, and you showed up to the rescue."

Aiden's face darkened, and he was about to speak.

"I asked you to listen what I have to say first, OK?"

Aiden closed his mouth.

She took this as an OK. "I was curious. Why is he so persistent? I was very clear that I'm not interested, so why is he not giving up? The only thing I could come up with is that there is something else going on. I ended up checking his phone, and the first message in this log is from his phone, he sent it right away after we left. Second message is a reply he received about half an hour later. This is Mimi's number." Sarah paused for few seconds before continuing. "This was the only text exchange between two of them I could find, but if he got a new phone, then any previous messages would be lost. Also, they had several calls between them, and they are all short. My best guess is that they just called each other to agree on where to meet, and any talks they have, are done in person. But all of those are mostly guesses. What I do know is that Philip is working with Mimi to get to me, and I don't know for what purpose."

Sarah stopped talking and looked at Aiden. His face was still dark, lips pressed into a thin line.

She looked at him innocently and blinked few times. "I'm done. Now you get your turn, if you want to say something."

He took a deep breath. "Was I not clear that you should stay away from him?"

"Technically, I didn't go near him."

Aiden was serious. "Don't act like you don't know what I mean. He is dangerous. Two of them are dangerous. You need to stay away."

Sarah was defensive. She wanted to reason with him. "But how can I leave it at this? Even if I stay away, they are obviously coming after me."

Aiden didn't say anything. His stern expression didn't change.

Sarah looked at him. "You know more about this. Am I right?"

He still didn't respond. "I knew it... I should not have said anything... I will do what I want without telling you."

"What do you want to do?" There was a trace of panic in his voice.

"To begin with, find out more about this!"

"Don't!" Aiden sounded desperate.

Sarah was getting agitated. He wants her just to drop the issue, without any explanation. "You said that they are dangerous... Do you really think I'm someone who will just sit and wait for them to hurt me?"

"They can't hurt you." Aiden hugged her. "I will protect you."

"But you can't protect me all the time." Sarah complained.

"I can." He tightened his hug.

Sarah sighed realizing that there is no point talking with him about this anymore. He will not tell her anything useful and will insist that she hides behind him. But at least she told him, that is something.

"I should start working." Aiden let her out of his hug.

"You can go to the study, I don't need to do anything there, so I will not disturb you." Sarah could see that his mood is not good, but she is not happy either. Maybe they just need some time apart to clear their minds.

"OK" He kissed her on the forehead and headed to the study room.

In the study room, Aiden sat at the desk and powered his laptop. He took few deep breaths to calm his nerves, while rubbing his temples. 'I can't tell her all the ugly stuff I know about them. She will ask me how do I know... I want her to look away from this, but I know that she will keep on digging no matter what I say. Maybe I can tell her what I know without her knowing it's from me?' He thought that Omega might be convenient at this point. 'In this way I can provide her with information, and at the same time her opinion of Omega will improve. That will be useful if she ever finds out that's me.'

At the same time, Sarah was in the kitchen, thinking about her conversation with Aiden. 'Well, at least he didn't get very angry. I need to find some time to go through data that facial recognition run provided. Those files are on my drive in dorm. I also need to go and get some things from there.' She looked at the time, it was just pass 10 in the morning. 'My packages will not arrive before noon. I can go to the dorm and get my things from there by then.'

She opened the door of the study room and peeked inside. "Hey, I will make a quick run to the dorm to get some things."

"Let me join you."

"No need. I will just go to my room without additional stops. You stay and take care of this place until I come back." She blew him a kiss and left without giving him a chance to object.

Sarah took the elevator straight to the underground level. Her car was parked few spots to the left. 'How convenient!' She likes that her designated parking spot is close to the elevator.

Within fifteen minutes she was in her room in the girl's dormitory. She took a box out of her closet. It was half full of electronic gadgets. Sarah added to the box number of devices such as a scanner, few hard drives and then filled up the rest with cables and other small gadgets from her desk drawers. She got another box and filled it up with clothes. 'This will do for now, I will be back some other time to get more things.' She put two boxes in the car and drove back to her apartment.

In the underground garage, Sarah was contemplating if she can take both boxes in one trip. They are quite heavy and difficult to hold onto. She didn't want to make two trips unless it's necessary. Sarah decided to give it a try to carry them in one trip. She stacked boxes one on top of the other and wobbled toward the elevator while balancing top box on top of the bottom one which she held in her hands. She managed to push the button to call the elevator and got inside when the elevator door opened.

She was trying to push button for 12th floor, when she heard a voice. "Looks like your hands are full, neighbor from 12A. Let me help you." Sarah looked toward the source of the voice, and saw next to her King, her neighbor from 12B. He pushed button for 12th floor and looked up at her. His eyes magnified under thick lenses of his glasses were staring at Sarah, and he had a silly grin on his face.

'He was going down, right? Why didn't he exit the elevator? Garage is the last stop going down.' Sarah saw him reaching for the top box she was balancing.

"Let me help you carry this. It looks heavy for a young lady like you to carry it by yourself." He was happy to help.

Sarah wanted to refuse, but he was already holding the box.

"Uhm, thank you" Sarah mumbled.

They reached 12th floor. Sarah opened the door to her apartment and placed box from her hands in the hallway, right at the entrance. She reached and took box from King's hands. "Thank you for your help." She didn't wait for him to respond. Sarah quickly entered her apartment and locked the door behind her. 'Why is he making me feel so uncomfortable?' Sarah was trying to shake of unpleasant feeling she has after her interaction with King.