by JM Addison
Chapter 23
Mara was basically homeless… again. As she drove aimlessly through the early morning hours, there were two important things that kept nagging at her thoughts: First that Chris might not be dead afterall and second that some one or some thing other than Viiradium was deeply involved and also responsible for what was going on. Of course this information was supplied by the hired killer who apparently had every intention to silence her for good. But for what reason would he have to lie? For all intents, he was merely giving information to a person that would be dead soon anyway.
Her ultimate course of action would be to find Chris. Exactly how, she had no idea. Of more immediate concern was her current situation. She evidently couldn’t trust the police. Even the one guy she thought she could finally trust turned out to be another pawn in this grand game. It was too bad. She actually thought she was falling for the guy. How stupid! Even if he didn’t give the information out voluntarily, giving it to him had almost cost her the one thing she still had, her life.
Going anywhere near the office was out of the question. Her apartment, Chris’ place or even out to her mother’s farm were all bad choices. Especially now that word that she was still not dead would surely reach her pursuers. They would be watching everything. The police too, would be on the lookout. That meant that the little car would probably have to go. It was rather unique and easy to pick out of a crowd. She could probably find another place to hole up, but that wouldn’t help her find her brother. One thing for sure, she needed a place to settle down, to relax. To plan. To Think!
Eventually she found herself in the neighborhood of the campus again. As she thought about it, it made good sense. There were all the facilities here she needed. It would have been much easier with a student alumni card, but she was young enough to be a student. She was dressed like one. She could use the library – including the computers she used the other day – to try to do more research (although she didn’t know what she would be researching). There were the recreational areas with showers, cafeterias that would be a source of relatively low cost meals, and that just left a place to sleep. At this time of the night she thought that it would be unlikely to get into a dorm unnoticed. There would probably be a need to ‘sign in’ or something. But there were student lounges around for studying or watching TV or whatever – with couches. Would it be all that unusual for a girl to be found sleeping on a couch while trying to spend the night preparing for a big exam? A place with thousands of people near her age would be a good place to hide – for now.