Egress Point

Chapter 10

In the morning Arebecca was woken by the noise of a kettle boiling. She pushed herself into a sitting position and swept her hair out of her eyes. Em was dressed and ready for university.

"The shower's free," Em said tossing a towel onto the back of the sofa. "Just push the silver button above the taps and don't touch anything else. Otherwise you'll either be frozen or burnt. Feel free to use my shampoo."

The shower was warm enough. Arebecca wasn't too fond of Em's toiletries. They were a little too pound-shop and not enough luxury-brand. She dried, put her old clothes back on and wrapped the towel up round her hair. There was something missing from the tiny bathroom. She went back to the living slash sleeping area.

"Do you have any moisturiser at all? And a hair brush?"

"I've got a brush on my desk at uni," Em said looking around. "And I'm sure there was one around here." Her eyes settled on the sofa. "Hang on."

Em dug her hand down the side of the chair and pulled out a brush along with a handful of loose change and fluff. The brush had seen better days, in fact it looked more like it had been last used on a moulting animal. It was covered in several types of hair. Em looked from the brush to Arebecca's disgusted face. She put the brush down on the arm of the chair.

"Don't you *ever* feel like looking good?" Arebecca asked.

"Universities are very forgiving places to work. Some people care, some don't, we all get along. It's my work that needs to look good." Em paused. "And I haven't gone out for a while now."

"You have no beauty products in your bathroom at all. Am I really going to have to out looking like this?"

"Hang on." Em went to the wardrobe between the kitchenette and her bed. She rummaged around on the floor and pulled out a clear plastic case.

"Mum got me this for Christmas. It's probably quite nice." She handed it to Arebecca.

Arebecca held it up and shrugged. "I suppose hair straighteners are pushing my luck?" She smiled and went back to the bathroom. Ten minutes later she reappeared, hair tied back, feeling much better.

"What do you think?" She did a little twirl.

"Er, nice." Em said.

They both laughed and Arebecca curtseyed.

They were interrupted by a chirping noise. Em went over to where her phone was charging on a little shelf by the front door.

"Hello?" Em didn't say anything else for a while. She did glance over at Arebecca a couple of times.

"I can't help," she said eventually. "I did email and speak to her, but I wasn't any use. She was trying to connect with a guy I met once online, but I don't know him in person and you know how hard that is."

Arebecca noticed a change in Em's body language. She got fidgety and turned away from Arebecca when she spoke the last line. There was silence again while the other person spoke.

"Well, I am quite busy right now. Yes, I know it's important, and I've told you the whole story."

The conversation ended. Em stayed by the door. Arebecca saw that her face was flushed and she had a sheen of sweat on her forehead.

"I am not a good liar," Em said. "That was my old boss from GCHQ."

"She asked about me?" Arebecca guessed.

"You could say that. She's in charge of analysing intelligence for MI5 and MI6. She was asking why I'd been emailing and talking to a known terrorist linked to the recent attack in Barcelona."

"What?" Arebecca was horrified. "You can't believe that was me!"

"Of course it wasn't you. This is Max's work. He said he'd report you to the police. He's managed to link you to some very bad people. And now I'm linked to you." Em shook her head and blew out a deep breath of frustration.

"I'm so sorry," Arebecca was nearly crying. "I didn't mean to make things hard for you."

"It's not you I'm annoyed with, it's Nick and Patey. Mostly Patey. That call was warning, by the way. My old boss helped me out before, and she's just given us a choice. Wait for the police to show up, or go sort things out ourselves."

"I'll tell the police everything," Arebecca said. "I'll tell them you had nothing to do with it."

"It won't stop them arresting us and holding us for weeks and weeks. Or longer. And if Max has done a good job of convincing them it might be hard to undo his work. Especially without any idea what he's actually done. Damn Patey, always gets what he wants. I'm not going to trust the UK government to get this right. And I can't do it. We need Patey. He's going to fix this himself. Come on, we probably don't have much time. Grab your bag."

"Where are we going?" Arebecca asked.

"Paris."