Egress Point

Chapter 11

It was before 8 and the summer sun hadn't yet reached the pavement outside Em's flat. The morning air was cold on Arebecca's damp hair and she shivered as they set out. Soon they were walking fast down a steep hill. Em had grabbed a few things before they left. Not much, the Faraday bag, her laptop, phone charger and some clothes, all stuffed into a faded blue rucksack.

They were halfway across a patch of grass near a playground when Arebecca thought of something.

"Your passport? Did you bring it?"

"No. I left it for the police to find. I don't want them to know we're planning on leaving the country."

They kept up a brisk pace for ten minutes until they reached a small square next to the public library. To Arebecca's surprise they stopped in a coffee shop just along from the square and Em ordered a latte and a breakfast tea. She paid in cash.

"Are we safe here?" Arebecca asked. They were sitting next to a large window right by the street.

"Not really, but we need wifi, and we need a plan. And I want to see how much trouble we're actually in."

Arebecca kept watch on the street while Em tapped away at her laptop. Like Nick, she didn't use the mouse, and her fingers flew over the keys in a blur. The drinks came, but Arebecca was too nervous to drink hers. Em didn't touch her tea either.

"We'll have to go back to my hotel in London, to get my passport. And I can't travel without my father's consent, I'm too young."

Em looked up. "I hadn't thought about that. You'll need adult ID. I don't think we can go back to your hotel, I don't really want to go anywhere near London at all if we can help it. Too many cameras."

"I was thinking we could take the train to Paris. I know the Eurostar stops somewhere south of London. We could catch it there."

They spent a few minutes discussing how they were going to get to France. Em explained that her old team at GCHQ had a pretty good system of video recognition using CCTV footage from cameras all over London. Probably all airports too.

"There's a ferry crossing near here, I did a day trip once with my mum," Em said. "Plus there's others down the coast. I'll check the times. We'll need money -- I'm hoping they haven't cancelled my cards yet."

The ferry looked like the best bet. There was a crossing at 11:30am from Newhaven which they could make. If not, the next crossing wasn't until the evening. They would need to buy tickets still, for the bus and the ferry. And money was going to be a problem.

Between them they had a small amount of cash, Arebecca's dead bank card, her father's credit card, and Em's bank card. They had them all piled up on the table next to Em's laptop, along with the pouch which now had three phones inside, all turned off.

Em collected the cards and money together and pulled Arebecca's iphone out of the bag. She pushed her bank card over to Arebecca and pointed out of the window to a to a shop over the road.

"Could you go to the ATM next to that shop and take out the maximum amount -- it should be £500. The PIN is 1110. Then grab some water and a sandwich from the supermarket. I'm going to pop into the library to test something, then I'll meet you back in here."

Arebecca nodded and they left the cafe together. To her relief, the card was working and the requisite amount burst forth from the slot in the ATM. She picked up two bottles of water, a cheese sandwich and a tuna sweetcorn. She got some chocolate too. There was a bit of a queue and while she waited she looked out of the window, watching people wander across the square and in and out of the library.