| "Sans Limites (Without Limits)" | |||
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Saturday 25th May 2008 10.10hrs She yawned loudly, and shifted on her seat. The briefing had been long over, but while the others had long since been released she had not been free to leave the lounge, Gray had asked her to stay while they analysed the information. She noted his use of the word `they' as them, not her; she was good enough to take part and start the work involved in the surveillance tapes, but not good enough to be in at the finish. She realised that the SIA and Section did have a lot in common, keeping something back for themselves, she sighed once more, this was a waste of time; she wanted some fresh air, and a shower, not to mention food. Her stomach rumbled at the thought of food and she promised it that it would be forthcoming soon. Finally, Gray returned and indicated she was free to go; she gave him an icy stare as she walked passed him on her way back up to Medical, to see if Paige were awake. By the time she got up to the 11th floor, she was calmer and even smiled at the receptionist. As a result she was allowed in after giving a promise to stay only for a few minutes; she opened the door and saw that Paige was awake and lay on the bed looking like shit. "You feel as good as you look?" she asked jokingly, Paige looked whiter than pale but she pushed the concern aside, "I will be as soon as they let me leave." "The game this afternoon, you want we leave it for another day?" she asked, aware that to suggest Paige still go with her, would be borderline cruel; with her broken wrist and various bruises she really needed to rest. "Do you mind?" Saf thought about it, and then shook her head; "there will be other times, just take it easy. I need to catch up on some sleep anyway; I haven't had much for the last few days." Paige smiled, tiredly, "I knew you would understand." "You want me to take you home?" Saf asked, but Paige shook her head, "No I want to be alone, you understand?" Saf did, sometimes company was just one person too many. "Give me a call if you want anything, you promise?" Paige looked up at her, and then slowly nodded. Saf had had her time, the door opened and one of the docs let himself in. She made her excuses and left, being around medical personnel wasn't her favourite occupation at the moment. Returning to the locker room, she grabbed her leathers and climbed into them, picking up the helmet, she made her way to the garage. The bike was on the stand where she had left it, and she kicked it into life, taking pleasure in the sound it made. The roads were busy, but not jammed and it didn't take her long to get home, the garage opened on the remote sensor and she pulled the bike onto the stand and went upstairs. It was quiet, but somehow not peaceful and she sensed that it wasn't going to give her relief from her tensions. She placed the helmet in the hall cupboard along with the leathers and stripped off the remainder of her clothes before taking a long hot shower before redressing in exercise clothes. She tried some tai chi to loosen her up and calm her mind, but it didn't work, she followed the movements, but her heart wasn't in it she couldn't lose herself in the forms and instead of flowing it became stilted and in the end it just made her tenser. She kept trying, but it was no use and she paused, then walked to the kitchen and made some herbal tea. She sat on the couch and put some classical music on while she thought about the past few days. The tickets for the Patriots game she had purchased sat on the coffee table, she didn't have the heart to go alone, it had been for her and Paige; it wouldn't have been right to go with anyone else and in any case she didn't want to go now, it didn't hold the same attraction as it did before. She didn't have any alternate plans in mind, though she felt exhausted, she sensed that sleep was still going to elude her and in any case she was still too wound up but not knowing how best to release the tensions within her. Finally, she sighed and put on her running shoes, at least on the track she could just run, and not have to think, with any luck she would sleep tonight. She walked slowly downstairs, and did some stretches before jogging over to the track. Once she had settled into a rhythm she could just let herself go, relax into her stride and run. It was only when she felt the rhythm falter that she realised she had been running herself into the ground, she slowed to a stop and sank to the grass verge, breathing hard. She looked down at her watch, 15.45hrs, she realised that she had been going for nearly three hours straight, no wonder she hadn't collapsed before. She heaved herself to her feet and walked back to the apartment, feeling the muscles in her legs complaining and put the light-headedness down to the lack of food. Once inside she stripped off and hit the shower, washing the sweat and grime off her body with a cooling wash. Redressing in pants and shirt, she wandered downstairs to the lounge, and made herself a salad wrap, taking it out onto the balcony and ate it, while watching the bay traffic on the water. It was warm, sheltered from the light breeze by the walls; she relished the sun on her tired body, it made her reluctant to move, but if she sat in the sun much longer she would fall asleep and that would mean sleeping tonight would be impossible. She slowly got up, and went back inside and upstairs to the study and checked the work schedule for the Wolfe labs work. Her reports were being done for her, she presumed by someone at the SIA, and whoever it was, was good. Emails from Hazel informed her that she was up to her schedule, and not expected in next week which was a pleasant surprise, though she wondered if it was wise to be absent for so long. She spent the next couple of hours reviewing `her' work, making notes so that if she was quizzed on the contents of the reports, or the research she was `working' on she would be able to answer with confidence. The time passed quickly, she was getting to understand the material and even found it interesting, even adding her notes in the margins where she felt there was gaps. The emails she dealt with separately, requests for copies of research papers, answering questions clarifying something in one of her reports and an outline of what she was currently working on. It was a charade, but it made her at least feel as though something in her life was normal. She stopped when her stomach told her it needed feeding again and she glanced down at her watch to see that once more time had slipped by her, it was nearly 7pm. She picked up the phone, automatically dialling Paige's number; though before the last digit was entered her finger paused. If Paige were resting, was it fair to disturb her, just to ask how she was? She replaced the receiver on the base, and looked at it for a long while before standing up and walking downstairs. Paige would ring if she needed anything; she had given her word, so she would leave her to rest. She cooked some pasta and chicken with a herb dressing, but ate it without tasting it. Her mind having returned to the details of her research and being occupied the rest of her actions were mechanic, chew and swallow. She cleaned up the pans and dishes she had made, and regretted the lack of alcohol from her diet, tonight she felt like she could have done with a glass with her meal. She didn't feel like music or watching TV, instead she brought the laptop down and sat outside in the cool evening air and reviewed some of the designs for her new toy, she had the circuitry inside designed, it was purely now a matter of choosing the housing and power supply as well as when and where she was going to try it out. After the success of her sniffers, she wanted to try something new, something that could not only pick up data from a computer cable, but also from a telephone or wireless signal. This was not impossible, but trying to include all the elements in a small undetectable box, was proving difficult. Getting it together in one box was easy enough, but it was reducing the size of the electronics that had proved a sticking point, the smallest size she had achieved so far had been the size of a minidisk; but that was still too big for her purposes; it needed to be much smaller if it was to be almost invisible. Return |
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