Before We Fall

Chapter 20

"Passport, please." I walked to the woman and showed her my passport. She looked at it then handed it back to me.

"Thank you." I smiled at her then walked away from her.

As I walked to the food court, I kept glancing around. Looking for Clint. We had separated at the door and I still haven't seen him yet. I grabbed a coffee and sat down at one of the many tables. My leg bounced up and down as I waited. My phone rang and I quickly picked it up.

"Where are you?" I asked him.

"I'm right behind you. Don't turn around. You're going to stay right there until it's time to board, okay? You're doing great. Do you see that corridor to your right?" I looked at it. "You're going to want to find someone who's walking that way and tag along. Keep your head down and I'll see you on the plane."

"Clint?" All I heard was the dial tone. I slowly looked behind me as I hung up the phone.

My flight is called and I stand up, leaving the coffee there. I tagged along with a mother and child once I saw a newspaper. I picked it up and read a little then looked around worried. I placed it back and continued to walk to the gate.

"Boarding pass, please." The man asked. I handed it to him and he looked at it. He handed it back to me and let me through. I get onto the plane and found my seat. I looked around and saw Clint looking around worried. His eyes caught mine and he relaxed. I sit down in my seat and buckled myself in.

The cabin was dark as I stared at the seat in front of me. I couldn't relax, I wasn't used to flying. I turned in my seat and looked back at Clint. He was looking at his hands then looked up at me. I turned away from him and leaned my head against the back of my seat, waiting to this flight to end.

I walked up to the teller and handed her my passport. I looked around and caught Clint's glaze. I turned back to the teller as she asked me a question.

"Business." I told her. I glanced up and saw Clint walking behind her. He walks on and the teller lets me through. I meet Clint outside and we both get into the cab that he had waiting for us. I told the cab driver the address.

"We're almost there." I told Clint as I moved my eyes to him. He glanced at me as he placed a hand on my knee. He rubbed it gently, keeping it from bouncing. The taxi stopped and we got out. Clint paid the driver and moved next to me.

"I've never been here at night. I don't know the rules." I told him.

"There are no rules, okay? You belong here. Come on." He led me to the gates where a cop was standing. "Evening. Dr. Walker and I are here to open up the lab."

"Dr. Walker? Dr. Walker, hey. It's me, Joseph." A man told me.

"Joseph. Hello, how are you?" I asked him, keeping up with the conversation. Clint eyed me as he tried to follow along.

"I'm good. I'm good. Welcome back." He told me.

"Thanks." I said.

"I'm sorry. I don't have you on my list of arrivals." Joseph told me. I glanced at Clint for help.

"Oh, that's because we had to change our schedule." I lied to him.

"Yeah, we took an earlier flight. Joseph, I'm Dr. Brundage, by the way." He lied to him.

"Please to meet you. Umm...Dr. Amloway isn't here. He went to Singapore. He just left yesterday. No one told me anything." Joseph said.

"Oh, we understand. Well look, we're going to be here all week and we have a lot of work to do. So we need to get in there tonight. Get started, okay?" Clint asked him.

"Yeah of course, it's just...." Joseph trailed off.

"You can call Dr. Almoway if you want. I don't want to put you on the spot." Clint kept going.

"Oh no. We don't have to do that." Joseph said to us.

"Okay, great." Clint smiled.

"It's just the two of you?" Joseph asked.

"Yes, just us." I told him. He nodded and let us in. I led Clint down on the runway in the factory. I used my card to open the gate and I looked back at Clint. He didn't follow me in the gate.

"Clint?"

"Hmmm?" He looks at me.

"You okay?" He nods once and then walked into the elevator with me. I looked at him after I pressed the floor number. The doors opened and I swiped my card again. I opened the door to LAB, C, then closed it once Clint walked in.

"This is it, huh?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay."