Chapter 1

The Professor

Derek fidgeted then caught himself. He had been about to check his phone again. Secret service are used to waiting but he had been sat in some congressional back hall for over an hour. It was very odd. He had been reassigned this morning to follow some physics professor and his itinerary was all over the place. There were no threats he could see but “the boss” wanted him more secure. He had been in and out of meeting rooms all day. Some around Washington, some in New York, the back to D.C.

He began to hear raised voices. He stood up debating if he should enter. The door flung open and out came the professor sweating with a little fleck of spit at the corner of his mouth.

“You’re an idiot! Short-sighted slimy ass-hole!”

Derek followed him down the corridor. He studied this man. He was young and slender. Skinny even with shaggy brown curly hair. Some-one had brought him a suit to wear not long after Derek had been assigned to him and while it was an improvement Derek felt it gave him the air of panicked best-man. He walked with a simmer almost twitchy rage at present and Derek calmly ushered him down an access stair well to his S.U.V.

He sat opposite the professor as he muttered about some signal and took of his shoes.

“Can we stop to get Band-Aids?”

“Sorry? What?”

“Feet!”

He said waggling them in the air.

“My God-damn-feet! It’s something you never think about, I mean you work and study and research and then something amazing, something world shattering happens and you never think, what am I going to wear to tell the President? Or what then? You know? I mean I have weak arches and these are new shoes and I don’t even know how they knew what size to get me. I mean. You know?”

Derek squinted. He raised his com and mentioned to the driver that they needed Band-Aids on the plane. Derek figured it was a tactical decision. This guy couldn’t run if he could barely walk and who knows what might happen.

“That was real decent of you dude. Crazy day huh?”

It began to rain a little and Derek tried to stay focused. He had baby-sat some really difficult clients before. Diplomats, and dignitaries, royalty (though they often had they own teams) and he was certainly not his worst client. He did as he was told. Didn’t talk too much or pretend he wasn’t there. He didn’t argue and he wasn’t drunk.

They were stopped at traffic lights and Derek got this feeling. A prickle, something.

“Put your shoes on.”

He said it slowly and deliberately. The professor gave him a questioning look but he caught Derek’s tone and bent forward just in time to avoid the spray of bullets.

“Move, move, move. Shots fired. Repeat: shots fired.”

The car jolted into action as the professor ran his hand over the imprint the bullets had caused in the armoured glass.

“Get down. Keep down!”

The professor retreated hurriedly tying his shoes. As Derek barked into his coms. He was a team down, and the coms were being buzzed.  The car sped down the wet road and the grey of urban dusk. They weren’t far from the air strip. They weren’t far from a safe house either. Derek motioned to the driver. Safe house was an easier place to control the variables.

The impact of the truck was sudden. Everything seemed to slow down as the world span, glass and light seem fractured. Then blackness. The door was being prized open by someone dressed as fire-fighter. Derek could see the gun. Yet he was too groggy. His head was bleeding.

He checked over at the professor. Working on his words carefully.

“Professor, when that door open, I’m going to shot that man. You have to run, do you understand, you have to run.”

The professor was silent and grey but nodded. The professor took out a pen and wrote something on it, leaning forward and slipped it into Derek’s pocket.  

As soon as there was a chink of light Derek fired. The fake fire-fighter fell and the professor pushed against the door stumbling out into the street. The professor ran and ran. Derek did what he was trained for.

Back up arrived. Then an ambulance. He reached into his pocket. It said.

52 hertz. Follow the signal. They are coming.