Date: Thu, 04 May 2000 22:24:30 BST From: AD . Subject: 'The Project' Chapter Four Chapter four: It's March 28th as I do write the intro, that gives me 8 days to write, then post off to get proofed, and then get back to post to Nifty. Now it's after my holiday, oh well. This isn't quite as long as I hoped, but it was an excellent place to end. Thanks to Tom for proofing this again for me, and to everyone else, you know who you are. Please email me with your comments as always, trekster2@hotmail.com or trekkiead@yahoo.com Anyway, I'll get on with it! This story is complete fiction, and implies nothing about the characters portrayed within it, whether real or fictional. Do not read if you are under the legal age, or if it is illegal to do so in your country. The lift doors opened and Owen stepped in, pressing the button for the underground carpark. The lift made it's decent and almost instantly Owen noticed the light come on for the 10th floor, the floor where non other than N Sync were staying. "Merde!" Owen shouted out loud. Lance was waiting at the lift doors, realising he hadn't picked up a morning paper to read from the lobby, and thought he might as well go and get one. "Hey Lance!" Chris shouted as he'd just rose from bed. Lance turned around and took a few steps down the hall to say morning. He heard the lift doors open as he started to turn. As he turned back however, the lift doors were already starting to close. He tried to hit the button to call the lift back, but it had already started on its procession downwards. Owen wiped his forehead, realising he'd just been very lucky. If Chris hadn't have spoke when he did, Lance would have walked in the lift and seen him most likely. He walked out into the underground parking lot and walked over to his parked car. He drove out and quickly disappeared into the mass of traffic on the roads. "Morning Chris. Just missed the elevator!" "Where were you going?" "I was going to get a paper to read." "Here, someone left it at my door this morning." Chris said, quickly dashing back into his room before handing over a paper. Lance thanked him and headed back to his room in silence. He suddenly remember he said he'd call management so pulled out his cell phone and pressed the speed dial button. He had a short conversation, before hanging up the phone. He was all ready to go himself, just waiting for the others. "GET A MOVE ON!" Owen shouted in his car, as he was stuck in traffic not 200 yards from the FBI carpark. Finally he managed to squeeze through and quickly put the car in the nearest spot he came across. He jumped out, locking the door and quickly walked over to the staircase. He ran up the stairs to the ground floor and pushed upon the door onto the entrance foyer. He pulled out his ID card and walked through the scanner, but was asked to stop when the scanner started beeping. "I'm in a rush gentlemen, if you could please let me pass." "I'm afraid we'll just have to clear you sir. It'll only take a second." The guard said as he looked over the visitors list on his pad. "Ok then, thanks you Mr. Coombs. AD Ronson has cleared you." "Thanks." He said walking briskly through the building towards 'his' office As he crossed the fourth floor, he glanced into Ronson's office on the fourth floor, before heading not too far down the corridor to another large office, complete with a secretary, the same waiting room where they were before. "Good morning." He said pleasantly. "Morning Mr. Coombs. Shall I show your guests in when they arrive?" "Thank you, Suzan." He said glancing down at the name on her desk. He walked into the office, now adorned with 'Mr. Owen Coombs'. He shut the door behind him and sat down in the large spacious office behind his desk. The room had been fully equipped, a computer, full bureau complete with lots of paper in the desk. He glanced to the laptop and opened the waiting email: 'As per request - standard office suite with full accessories. Reception has been given details upon their arrival. Note security camera footage on channel 2. Video footage of them staying in the waiting room is also available. Assistant Director John Ronson' Owen opened the video feed onto the main foyer and waited for NSync to arrive. "Suzan, if you could buzz me then we arrive and have them take a seat. Tell them I'm on the phone." "Yes sir." She replied, turning off the intercom. He relaxed back into the large comfortable leather office chair behind the slightly arched polished mahogany look desk. He flicked through the neat pile of papers on the left hand side writing pad, with the fountain pen next to them. All standard office stuff, he neatened the pile back up and pushed them into one of the doors, moving his attention to the computer. He flicked through and opened a letter document that had been placed, to make it look like he was working on something, before bringing the camera few to the front. He caught them walking through after a couple of minutes, heading towards the reception desk. ********************** "Hello, we're here to see a Mr. Owen Coombs." Lance said to one of the receptionists. "Oh yes sir, I've been informed you'd be arriving shortly. If you'd like to head through the security check point, take the elevator up to the fourth flour, there's a sign for Assistant Director Ronson's office. Mr Coombs office is just down the corridor." "Thank you." Lance said nodding, before they all walked off through the security checkpoint passing through without any problems. As instructed they all piled into the elevator and headed up. The doors opened on the fourth floor, and they headed down the corridor, following the signs. After a minute or so they were on the outside door of Owen's newly created office. Lance saw the 'please press' button next to the door and did as instructed. "Please enter." The voice came through the small speaker and Lance opened the door, all the guys piled into the large waiting room. "Hello gentlemen. Let me just see if Mr. Coombs is ready to see you." Suzan said, pressing the intercom button. "Sir, The five gentlemen are here to see you." "I'll be ready in a second, I'm just on the phone. Have them take a seat Suzan." The intercom clicked off, and the guys took a seat. A couple of minutes later, he buzzed through and asked for them to come in. "Hello gentlemen, nice to see you again, I think!" He said smiling. "Yes, I'm extremely sorry about that Mr. Coombs." JC said, looking slightly sheepish again. "No worries Mr. Chasez, and feel free to call me Owen, most people do! Anyway, shall we get down to business?" Owen said, motioning towards the chairs. They all took a seat, and Owen pushed the laptop computer towards the edge of the desk. "So, what exactly do you want to discuss today?" "Well, we've come to the decision we're not really satisfied with the outcome of our talk yesterday. We think there's something else, regardless of what you said." "How about I show you the security tape of you're stay here?" "Sure." Lance said, as Owen turned the laptop round on the desk, and opened the file. After a couple of minutes, he turned it back to himself, and closed the window. "Well gentlemen?" "Sure looks convincing, and we can remember being there, but not for as long as you say." "But we remember being somewhere else!" JC said again "Ok, there's little I can do to change your mind on that. All I can tell you is that you came here from the airport and left several hours later." "It just doesn't make any sense on why no one came to speak to us either." JC continued, picking up the stick from Lance "That was a technical hitch on our side, in all honesty, no one thought about who was going to actually deal with you directly. Yes, you were in the waiting room to my office, just out there, but I wasn't in my office, and my secretary wasn't there. I was in the incident room, and presumed someone else was dealing with you. I'm very sorry about that." "Ok, ok. We're getting no where like this. Here's a hypothetical situation. How about, we're taken somewhere, we're hypnotised or something so as not to remember, and when we start to remember, you try to fob us off with a false story. You wouldn't admit that we had been somewhere else or whatever." "No, in such a hypothetical situation, no I would not." "Is this one of those hypothetical situations?" "You already know the answer I'll give, regardless of the actual answer to your question." "I suppose I do." JC said, smiling as he realised the slight stupidity of the question. "Well, supposing it is one of those hypothetical situations, what would be a reason for doing such a thing?" "That's far beyond my area of expertise, I honestly couldn't even hazard a guess." Owen replied, a slight touch of humour in his voice, but nonetheless sounding serious. "I think it's clear you're not going to tell us anything more here." Lance said taking on the serious role again. "Nothing more to tell." "How about we talk to your superior?" "Feel free." "And who shall I be talking to?" "Assistant Director Ronson, out the door just down the hall. He'll tell you what I've told you." "Ok then. I think I'll go right down then." "Feel free." Owen said, opening the door as Lance walked out. The others hesitated slightly, both Lance and Owen waiting to see who was going to following him. After a few seconds, JC and Chris left, but for some reason, Joey and Justin remained sitting down. Owen closed the door, and sat back down. "And what may I do for you?" "Oh, I just don't feel like watching Lance grill someone else." Justin said smiling, "So, I thought I'd stay here." "Fair enough. So, what is the question you want to ask me but didn't before?" "Wha.. what do you mean?" "Well, you've wanted to say something but didn't for fear of looking stupid?" "Well, sorta. Will you be honest with me?" Justin asked, he got no reply either way, as Owen sat expressionless in the chair. "There is something you're not telling us, that's obvious. You can deny it all you like and all, but there's something. Will you at least admit that?" "I can't admit to something like that. I'm not saying there is or there isn't." "That's as good as a yes I suppose. Would you like to tell us what happened?" "Now here's a different tact to the situation. If there was anything to tell you, I'm sure I'd love to." "But you wouldn't be able to?" "I'm sure in such a case there would be higher powers than someone like myself, Big Brother is always watching." "I see." Justin said. At that moment, Lance walked back in, and told Justin they had to leave. "I hope I've managed to sort out some of your problems. Here's my card again if you need to talk anymore." "Thank you for your time Mr Coombs." Joey and Justin said simultaneously, walking out the office as Owen shut the door behind them. He sank into the seat, and called Ronson on the desk phone. "I just told them you were in charge and knew more than me, assured them nothing was going on, you know the routine." "Cheers. This one's going to be a real mess at this rate." Owen said, putting the phone back down. ******************** The N Sync gang quickly arrived back at the hotel, the traffic having died down slightly since when they arrived. Lance's mind had been working overdrive on the journey back however, and he'd come up with one or two ideas. "I don't think Coombs works for the FBI." "Neither do I, not from what he said. He knows a lot more than what he's telling us, and I think he'd like to tell us, but can't. He's being watched by someone. He never answered any of my questions directly, but left me with enough idea, didn't he Joey?" "Yeah, I think he did." "I'm going to give Mark at management a call, see if he can refer us to a private investigator. I want to see who this guy works for." Lance said, immediately pulling out his cell and dialling away, starting pacing up and down the hallway outside of his room. An uncomfortable silence befell the room as they waited for Lance to walk back in. It took about 15 minutes and probably a mile of pacing by Lance, but he walked back in looking satisfied with himself. "Mark put me in touch with someone, and she's going to get back to me when she finds anything out." "Ok then. It's about 1pm now, how about we go get some shopping done?" "Yeah, get back here for 4pm." Chris said, getting up to go get ready. The others followed suit. *********************** 4pm later that afternoon: All the guys arrived back at the hotel at around the same time, heading straight for their floor. All tired from a shopping spree, and weighed down with bags, they just dropped the bags in their rooms and sat down for a while. After a few minutes Justin took a wonder down to the gym for a little exercise before the evenings appearance. After a brief excursion to the gym, Justin returned back to the elevator to return to his floor. He entered the elevator and pressed the button for the 11th floor, waiting as the lift ascended. He stepped out when the doors opened and turned down the corridor, before knocking on JC's door. Owen was sitting in his room, filling out official report forms for the morning's discussion. Everything had to be officially documented, and it usually represented a long and tiresome process. Some things just stayed in people's heads and went no further, if something was never noted down, then nothing could ever be found. A knock on his door returned him to reality from his dictation. Without really thinking, he walked over to the door and opened it on the chain. He was stunned with who he saw, as apparently was the other person. "What the... why are you in JC's room!?" Justin said, as the face of Owen Coombs confronted him from behind the door. That was one thing he definitely wasn't expecting. "Justin, well, er..." Owen replied as he attempted to explain the situation. Obviously Justin had pressed the button for the wrong floor, and due to the identical layout of the floors, he walked to what he presumed would be JC's room. He was hoping for a hoard of screaming teenage girls to come to his rescue, but no such luck emerged, he was on his own. "This is kind of hard to explain." "Can I come in?" "Do you really want to, because it's far nicer out here in the corridor." Owen said, walking out, keeping the door tight as he stepped into the corridor, and pulling it to behind him. That's when Justin realised the number on the door was 1117 and not 1017. "What the hell is going on here!! Your in a hotel room one floor above us!" Justin said, a hint of nervousness and fear in his voice, but anger was by far the predominant tone. "I guess there might have been one or two minor things I omitted to inform you of." Owen replied, trying to remain as calm as possible. "MINOR! Are you spying on us or something?" "No, I'm not spying on you, I'm here for your safety, nothing more." "What are you hiding in there, let me in!" Justin demanded. "Nothing important." If only he'd used holoscreens he's be able to turn off the camera views. Now however, Justin would see the TFT monitors, showing all their rooms. This was far from an unanticipated action. "Owen, stop hiding whatever this is, just tell me why you're spying on us. If it were because of death threats on us, you wouldn't secretly be hiding around, in fact, I'm sure you'd have been open with is from the very beginning, and not so secretive about everything. It wasn't until we started remembering stuff until you appeared on the scene." "As I said, I'm here for your safety, I can't say anything more than that." "Is that a won't, would like to, or a proper can't?" Justin said, making Owen laugh a little. "Let me tell you something. I was supposed to keep an eye on you, make sure you stayed safe. Ideally you were never even going to meet or see me . I was just going to lurk around in the background the whole time. "Tell you what. How about we just forget about this, it would be best if the rest of the guys didn't know about this. It would make my job far easier, covert surveillance. If you know I'm following you, you can very easily give it away by the odd glance around, the quick look in a corner." That wasn't bad, Owen was quite pleased with that one. "Ok, but how about I get a look inside first?" Justin said with a slight grin. Owen all out laughed this time. "You don't miss out on much do you? You still want to know why I'm not letting you inside the room. Here I was hoping you'd completely forget about it. None of the other guys will hear about this right?" "Ok, I promise. No one will hear a word." Justin said, pulling a puppy dog face, all traces of anger having disappeared form his character for this moment in time. ~God he's cute~ Owen said to himself as he turned around and opened the door. Justin's smile faded as soon as he saw the array of screens, including his own room. "Now, Justin, don't get over anxious. It's for your safety, nothing more." "WHAT ARE YOU! Some kind of pervert or something, spying on us in our rooms!?" Justin replied, his anger having returned. Owen hoped the reaction would be slightly better than this. "No, no no. I'm not. I'm just doing my job, trying to keep you safe. If I can see you, surely you cna understand how much easier it makes my job? This is covert surveillance, ideally you'd never even realised you were being watched." "You've been watching the whole time?" Owen just nodded in response. "When I, well, you know?" Justin asked, blushing. "I turned off the monitor until you were finished shall we say." "And you've not got any in the bathrooms?" Justin have asked nervously. "No, your main rooms, corridor, gym, swimming pool, conference hall." Owen paused for a second to allow Justin to collect himself. "Do you want to sit down and have a talk? I'm just a normal regular guy, close to your own age." "Ok, I just need to have a little think." Justin said, taking a seat on the sofa while Owen sat down next to him. "You know, both our jobs have a lot of similarities if you think about it." Justin just moved his head quizzically at Owen's comment. "We are both quite isolated from normal lives, you might have chasing after you, I try to disappear and not be seen. Both have the result we lead little in terms of normal social engagement with regular people our own age." "I never thought of that. How come you're in the FBI so young, as well as so high up?" "My Dad was very high up, I was essentially born into it. I didn't goto regular schools, I was run through the education system fast, not a lot of contact with people my own age. I like being where I am, but I have to wonder what I missed out on not having a regular childhood." "Wow, I never realised, I never thought even. I didn't start all this from when I was a little kid. I went through regular schools and stuff at first. It wasn't until I joined 'N Sync that I became more isolated. I've always had the other four guys though, they've been my family." "I'm still here, and have no idea what I missed out on, so I can't be miserable about something I know nothing about. I guess in some respects I could have had a hard time at school anyway." "Why?" "Do you believe in calculated risks Justin?" "I've taken a few risks in my life. Why?" "I always try to weigh everything on either side when taking risks, as well as statistical likelihoods of each alternative. I can't do that in this case. I don't have sufficient empirical data. I just have to go by a gut feeling." "That's funny, I'm sorry." Justin said, bringing his chuckling to a halt. "It sounds profound though, what is it? Would it help if I said you can trust me?" "Ever watched the X-Files, there's that line 'trust no one'. None the less, I do trust you, to a greater degree than I do most people. This is quite the opposite of when I opened the door on you not twenty minutes ago." "Yeah, I know. What is it then?" "This is harder than I expected, just putting together a few simple words. Justin, I'm gay." "What!" Justin almost shouted, producing a cringe on Owen's face. Justin quickly picked up on this however, "No, no!. I don't mean it like that. I just never thought you could be gay or anything! Don't worry, I was just shocked that someone like you could be gay!" "What's someone like me?" "Well, at first I saw you as a stuck up Brit, then a friendly posh Brit, and now you're just a regular nice guy with a weird job, pretty much the same as me." Justin said smiling. "And you turned off the monitor?" "Yep." "Darn! I can't have people turning off while I'm doing that, I must be loosing it!" Justin said, busting up laughing, as he apparently found the situation highly amusing. "Eventually." Owen added when Justin had recovered a little, causing both men to burst out laughing again. "I've not spoke to a person my age, as two friend like this, well, with anyone, for... Hell! I can't even remember a time doing it!" "I've enjoyed it too. It's always just the five guys. We're all good friends, but it's always the same people all the time, not much variety, we get into the odd argument. Everyone we talk to regularly are in the same business and stuff. I don't usually get on with people as well as this, we seem to have 'clicked' well. And don't worry about any of this, I won't tell a soul." "Thank you. Anyway, you better get back, the guys are looking for you." Owen said, pointing towards the monitors, where JC was wondering around the gym shouting Justin's name. "I might have to come here again, this could be fun watching that lot!" Justin said with a smile. "Anyway, I best be gone. Don't think I've forgotten about getting it out of you what all this is about though, that'll be for next time, if there is one?" "I'm always around if you want to talk, just make yourself known." Owen said, pointing at the monitor of Justin's room. "Gotcha. I'm going to be more watchful of what I do in front of that camera now though!" He said, before walking out the room with a little wave. Owen just collapsed back down on the sofa, knowing he'd just thrown every aspect of protocol out the window, but he couldn't give a damn. "Hey Justin!" JC shouted as he was fumbling with his door key yo get inside. He had just come out of the stairwell as Justin reached his door. "Where have you been?" "I went to the wrong floor coming from the gym." Justin said sheepishly. "Duh! Have a good work out?" "Yeah, great." "That PI got back to me half an hour ago or so about that Coombs guy." "And?" Justin said, his interest perking slightly. "She can't find a damned thing about him, it's as if he doesn't exist. She says either al his records must be classified, or there is no Owen Coombs of his age, working for the government, and it's just an alias. She's got a colleague looking at British records now, see if anything turns up there." "I'm sure something will turn up. What do you hope to find?" "I don't know, just something interesting I guess. Anyway, let's go gather the troops, we've gotta get going in a minute. You go have a shower." JC said, as he and Justin went there separate ways into their own rooms. As Justin and the others were piling into the waiting minivan, Owen was sitting in the balck Cadillac a hundred yards further down the road, tucked away behind a corner. He had a seat at the Grammies set back, so he couldn't be seen from the stage, but would have enough view around him. In all honesty, he wasn' t really required, but hey, all expenses paid. The risks were minimal, plenty of security was there. He didn't know what he'd be able to do if someone tried to take them. They were backstage for most of the time anyway, but he couldn't risk being seen hanging around the backstage area. This would just have to do. Plenty of others would make sure they stayed safe. There time to come out on stage to present an award came and past, and unfortunately, no awards graced them personally. Justin glanced around a lot during his time on the stage however, attempting to spot Owen, but without success, as one would expect. *********************** "Ne roy drugomu yamu, sam v neyo popadesh." "What, do not dig a hole for another you might fall into it yourself?" "Exactly. You are setting your son up with this situation , a little experiment to satisfy your curiosity. If he messes up the repercussions could be immense." "But he won't mess up, well, I hope not." "If he keeps them safe, he is still being very liberal in what information he's divulging." "They will have to know eventually, they all suspect, it was an unfortunate event that that occurred. Continual denial will only arouse more suspicion than a more neutral stance not saying either way completely." "And what about this Timberlake? He knows far more than he should." "And Owen seems to trust him. You know my stance on this whole issue, we can't keep it from the world forever, and these people are in the very centre of it right now and have no idea. My son will not reveal information that is considered classified. The only thing is that they now know they are being surveyed, and that is it. They know, as any person with an ounce of common sense would, that something is amiss, but they won't find this out in a hurry." "Very good sir." "Dismissed Yuri." Yuri Turin was the Russian liaison to the ISC, and a close friend of the commanders. He had been there since the days of the USSR, having been the liaison officer for almost 25 years. ************************ Owen had a good time at the Grammies, and departed at the same time as NSync, a little after 1am. It was 1:30 by the time they made it back to the hotel, and Owen sat down in his room, hanging his jacket up on the wall. He looked down at the monitors and saw Justin lying on the bed, he's eyes roaming the room, evidently looking for a camera. Justin sat up from his bed after a minute or two and wondered over to the corner where he thought the camera must be, but could find nothing, not even a place where a camera could easily be concealed. After searching the roof by standing on a chair he went back to the bed. "I give up!" "Now that's not a very good thing, you were so close as well." "You can talk to me as well?" "No, you're just imagining this..." Owen said sarcastically. "Can I come up and talk to you some more?" "Sure, you know where I am, you've got a clear path, everyone else are in their rooms." Owen said as Justin quickly walked out the room and upstairs. Owen opened the door as he arrived and let him in, both of them taking up the same positions next to each other on the sofa. "Don't you ever take that suit off?" "You can't comment tonight, you're still wearing your shirt and pants. But yes I do, especially when there's cute guys around." Owen said, giving his shoulders a quick shrug. "I guess it's not going anywhere tonight." He finished smiling. "Haha, I know you find me irresistible!" "Now don't get cocky on me boy!" "Oooh, that sounds interesting." Justin replied quickly, causing Owen to just roll his eyes. "Now, come on. Get rid of that waistcoat, now the tie, and undo the top button." Justin ordered, and Owen did as he was told. "Now, that's much better. I'll get rid of it all together in a few days and have you in some normal clothe." "No no. It has a highly practical purpose!" "It does?" "Yes, it's good for putting pens in pockets..." Owen replied meekly. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll stay right as I am, in normal clothes. Tonight is an exception." "You're right, that shirt, it just isn't you, ad the pants, well, what can I say?" "And here I was thinking your intentions were totally honourable!" Justin said laughing. "Just one or two suggestions." "Ok then, providing you do the same." Justin said keeping a straight face, and forcing Owen to put his drink back down on the table. He'd been sipping out of a glass of water at the edge of the table the whole time. "You're not joking are you." Owen said, Justin just shaking his head on response. "Ok then, you first." "Oh no no. You first." "Both at the same time. Count of three. One, two, three." Both of them took off there hirts and put them down on the floor before relaxing back into soft comfortable three seater. They both looked each other over for a second. "Now now Mr Coombs, you're not eyeing me up are you?" "What on earth gave you that impression, and you appear to be doing the same to me anyway." "This room doesn't have a camera in it does it?" Justin asked, suddenly become a little self conscious. "Nope, not that I can find anyway. Nothing's wrong with this anyway, two guys having a chat, the fact one of them's gay is irrelevant. I have no intention of doing anything, so there's no problem." "Ok, we're just two regular guys chatting. How about I ask a few questions about you then?" "Sure, ask ahead. I'll answer everything to the best of my ability." "Ok, who do you work for?" "I can't answer that, and I can't tell you , and I can't tell you whether I work for the FBI or not, you get the idea, but I think you've already made your mind up on that one." "Ok then, do aliens really exist?" "Yep, you're talking to one right now." Owen said with a straight face, if only he had a camera for the look that crossed Justin's face for just a second before Owen burst out laughing. "Jerk!" "Off. Now, personally, I believe aliens exist based on the same info you have access to and some leaps of faith. Officially however, I do not comment on that situation." "If these questions make you uncomfortable just say so." Justin said, Owen just giving a uick nod. "Have you ever lied to us?" "Yes I have." Owen said after a brief pause. "I'd love to tell you everything, but the powers at be don't agree with me. Don't get too carried away with what's going on though." "What do the powers at be want with us?" "Ok, let me think what I can say. They want something you have, but they're not exactly sure how to take it, i.e. they don't know how." "Ok, do you find me attractive?" "Woah, out of the blue there. But, yes, I do consider you very attractive." "When you caught me, well, you know, what did you do, were you sort of turned on?" "I was, and I watched for a second hoping you'd stop, before I turned away and turned off the monitor." "Are you now?" "I'm trying not to think like that, we're two friends having a chat, nothing more than that. A man and a woman can talk to each other, even if one finds the other attractive, and whether the feelings are returned or not. The fact one of us is gay, the fact one of us finds the other attractive is irrelevant." "Ok, I get what you say. Sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable, I'm just being inquisitive. I've never talked to anyone who I knew was gay before. Anyway, you can ask a few now if you like." "Sure. Any girlfriends on the scene?" "Nope, nothing's come along on that front, I don't know if it will any time soon." "Why, because of your work?" "In some respects, I can't get into a relationship very easily, being on tour half the time, not being in one place for more than a few days usually. How long will you be around?" "I'll be here for a while I expect, you're not going to get rid of me quite that easily." "Do you have a high security clearance?" "That's an interesting one. Yes, on a need to know basis mainly though. I have sufficient access levels to know a lot of top secret things, but I'm not privy to them unless I need to know them, but if I do, I will be informed. Does that make sense?" "Yeah, sort of who really killed JFK?" "I expect that could be in there. In all honesty, I have no idea though. It would fall within my security clearance, but I would only be informed if it were relevant to a mission." "I see, is that how it normally works?" "Sometimes. That's how it works for the organisation I work for, whatever that may be." "You're quite an enigma aren't you." "I think that's a compliment. Anyway, we got a bit side tracked didn't we. Here's one, what's your opinion on me now after we've talked a little?" "That's sneaky. Ok, I think you're caring, funny, friendly. You've got this dark mysterious side though that won't show itself. I think we could become good friends though if you let it happen." "I'd love to let that happen, but I guess we'll see how things turn out." Justin said, leaning down on Owen's shoulder. "I'm a little tired actually." "We should get you back to your room. I had another great chat with you tonight. I'll be around in England, but I doubt you'll see me there. Justin? Justin?" Owen glanced down, to see Justin fast asleep, his head having slipped down to his lap no, as he cuddled up against him. Owen slowly pulled himself out, supporting Justin on his hands as he reached for a pillow to put it under his head. He pulled a blanket off his bed and laid it over Justin's shirtless figure, rubbing his finger across his face before quickly withdrawing his hand and changing out his pants before slipping on a dressing down and laying down on his bed. The end of chapter four. I've wrote over 10 thousand words on my little Psion series 5 palmtop while I've been in America on the flights there and from. I've got a problem however in as much as I can't get the Psion to dock with the PC. I've had to fall back to typing up what I've got infront of me. Otherwise I'd churn out the next chapter very quickly. There's some interesting things in store for the next few chapters hopefully, probably not as much dialogue though. Email me as always at trekster2@hotmail.com or trekkiead@yahoo.com . I hope you all had a good Easter, I had a great two weeks in the US, met up with some friends, enjoyed 90 degree weather, beautiful sun. I'll probably never see that big glowing thing in the sky for a few months now:). Nah, it's not quite that bad over here in little old England. Also, sorry for the long wait for this one, it took a while at my proof readers. i wanted to make sure the american dialogue was realistic. it's not all been corrected though, so you'll just have to live with it!:) See ya all next chapter - Ad.