Head to the next town over

You decide that whatever is happening, some distance would be a good idea. Janice is useful, but heading straight back into the lion's den is only going to cause problems in the long run. Still, while you're her... you walk over to her laptop, opening it up while you sip her wine. A few clicks later and you've accessed the remote connection to her work account, and are glancing over her emails.

Most of them are no use. A few queries that she'll need to deal with for Ms Bell, a work schedule, nothing unusual. Ms Bell prefers for Janice to screen and send her emails, and most of the time it's just tedious day-to-day stuff; anything secret she handles on a separate account. There's also the company-wide emails about the evacuation, and updates for employees on whether they are working tomorrow (they are). But among it all is an email that catches your eye. It's from the post room, of all places, short and to the point, and hasn't been sent to Ms Bell's private secure account, but rather to her work account. Obviously someone doesn't know the right protocols.

Subject: Fire malfunction

Ms Bell,

We have a situation. The office fire triggered an emergency protocol hidden in the system. Did you know about this? The system automails something marked "CS" to a secure location by courier. But the fire caused a malfunction. It was supposed to go to the following zip, but the fire caused a glitch that autogenerated part of the address. We have no idea where in the zip the package was sent.

You double-check the email again. This is major. CS could be anything, but part of you wonders if it isn't another one of these pen devices. And the zip code... that's Tina Chan's small town. Tomorrow - or maybe even tonight if the couriers have acted fast - some entirely unsuspecting person is going to have military secrets land on their doorstep. And almost immediately after, you imagine, the company heavies. Janice would, of course, immediately contact Ms Bell on her private number. But you... you're not Janice. And, quietly marking the email as unread, you close the laptop.

Time to leave.

***

_Analytical Engine. _What the hell kind of band name is that? You don't even want to know what kind of music the kids are listening to these days. You look at the poster on the wall of the coffee house, three angry looking young women staring back at you from behind their instruments, plus a guy who looks as though he doesn't want to be there. Probably the biggest band to play this town in years.

It's a typical small town. Across the street there's an Italian restaurant that seems about the only decent place to eat. The bus passed a large shopping mall just out of town, and there's a small hospital, a college campus, even an art museum.

You shake your head, and finish your coffee. You left Janice collapsed on her bed with a glass of half-drunk wine before catching a bus. You haven't used the pens again, and your natural hair is tussled and unkempt, as if you're trying to give off a drifter vibe. It allows you to take a few moments to gather your bearings and get the lay of the land.

So far, it seems a perfectly normal town. A bunch of high school kids were in earlier, with a 'Jimmy' being told to shut up repeatedly by the other two, a 'David' and a 'Trish'. You guess the last pair are an item, given the way Trish was looking at David the whole time. They left a while ago, and now the only customer is a pretty red-head police officer, a look of bored stupor on her face as she sips her coffee and watches the street outside. Name tag reads O'Sullivan, and the barista called her Molly. As the local cop you'd be in a much better place to search for this 'CS'. Whatever it is must be important.

There are other alternatives, though. A quick walk around the town led you to an alley, and you saw a pale woman, hair cut in a luminous red bob, too much makeup on her face and nails, and dressed in a skin-tight, revealing black number. Red light district. Easy to make a switch to a new identity there.

There are other options, though. The mall looked like it didn't close until late and would give you options. And you could of course continue up that road and pay Mayor Chan a visit.

Whatever you choose though, you have no idea how you're going to locate this 'CS'. It's getting late. The only thing you can do is find the right person to replace, wait until morning and see what happens.