The Code || #TravelBrilliantly ||

"You know what to do."

Paige stared at her boss's unprovoked face. Since joining under his direct supervision, her life had become a whirlwind of broken rules and relentless nights but the most arduous was forbidden passion. She regained her thoughts and nodded.

"Well, then we're done here. Another project is setup for you."

She stood up from her chair and brushed her loose strand of hair behind her ear. She decided to head home but had one last stop.

She arrived in front of the high rise condo and made her way into the enclosed glass building. She entered the Penthouse Suite and made her way into the bedroom while memories filled her thoughts.

Laughter, emotions, his touches. She had never allowed herself to fall for anyone. Her life was always focused on her career, but somehow Brent managed to change her perspective on love. It was never her intent to fall for him.

She gathered her belongings and didn't have the heart to speak to him in person. Instead, she found pen and paper and wrote him. She folded the letter and placed it on his pillow along with the key to the penthouse.

A month had passed and Brent continued calling her to no avail. She managed to avoid him every time when he waited outside her apartment.

Instead she focused on her current project, but in between she found herself following him. Her heart wasn't ready to move on. She found him sitting in the patio of one of their favorite restaurants. The server brought out coffee for him. "Two packs of sweetener." She whispered. Surely, he opened two packs of sweetener into his coffee. She also noticed he was wearing the tie she had bought for his birthday. A cheap gift, but it became his favorite.

Her eyes shifted its focus on the red light centered at his tie. Her heart palpitated heavily. She followed the direction of the red light and found her target. She stepped out of the car and pulled out her gun and took aim at the shooter. As she pulled her trigger, the shooter pulled his as well. She saw the shooter go down, but as she turned to look at Brent, the bullet had grazed his shoulder.

She ran towards him, and she could tell by the look of his face that he had seen a ghost when he saw her. She jumped over the fence and pushed him down to cover him. A vehicle drove by and started shooting at them. She knocked the table for protection. Brent was speechless but words finally escaped his mouth, "Paige. What the hell is going on and what are you doing here? I've been trying to find you, and this is how you come to me?"

She didn't look at him. She spotted a motorcycle, grabbed Brent by his arm and pulled him up. "We have to leave." She sat on the bike and nudged her head for Brent to get on.

"You can't be serious?"

"There's no time. Trust me, please."

He stared into her almond eyes that he had achingly missed. He straddled on and wrapped his arms around her. As they left, another vehicle came after them. Bullets whizzed pass them and when she finally came to an open intersection, she parked her bike perpendicular to the oncoming vehicle.

"Are you sure this is smart?" Brent's voice was worried, but she ignored him and took out her gun and aimed at the driver. Once steady, she pulled the trigger. The driver's head fell forward and the vehicle went out of control, but not before the other passenger aimed his gun at Brent.

Paige pushed Brent back with her shoulder and the bullet lodged itself into her shoulder. She fired back with success as the body slumped over and the vehicle crashed.

They drove into a building to hide. He climbed off and looked at her wound. She pushed him back, "It's nothing."

His lips then met hers with desire as she gave in. He didn't want to release her but pulled away.

"What the hell was that?"

She closed her eyes briefly and explained, "You're the CEO of a multi-billion dollar AI company. You have what every country wants, and they'll do anything for the code."

"And you? For Christ's sake, I thought you were a teacher. I went to your school to find you, and they said you were nonexistent."

She paused. "I work with an agency."

"FBI?"

"I was hired to protect you, but . . ."

"But you fell in love, as did I. Why didn't you tell me the truth?"

"There's more."

Paige ripped off her sleeve and Brent was aghast at what he saw.

He studied her open wound and saw the mechanism. "You're an AI?" It was too similar to what his company had been working on but failed at. "You're our own product?"

"Technically, I'm Charlie's."

"He's been dead for five years?"

Paige placed her hand behind her ear and opened a slit. She pulled out a flash card and handed it to him. "I was programmed to give you this the moment you knew who I was."

He took it from her and inserted into his watch. A holographic image of Charlie appeared.

"Brent, if you're watching this, then Paige's identity has been revealed. I'm very much alive but was sent to the future by accident from my latest project. Unfortunately, the future is in dismay with threats. Your current AI model is the key to this apocalypse, but Paige holds the code that unlocks it all. She's your original creation, a protector and companion. Most importantly a time traveling pod. You failed many times; however, I found the missing code. That's why I have sent her back to you. At your command, she will provide you the code only once and then her system will shut down. She'll self-deactivate as precaution so the code can never be compromised. Save us all and I wish you well, Brother."

Brent couldn't believe it, he just found her. How would he be able to let her go to protect the future?