"How many people are going to believe him?" Danielle asked. "Sure, maybe people have forgotten what he did with Synapse, but these videos will make them remember."

"he'll still be able to buy his way out of it again."

Danielle sighed. "It seems like I'm the only one coming up with ideas. What are your ideas?"

"FIrst, I'm getting you to a hospital. I got a fake ID in the works now, it should be ready soon. Then I'm gonna see if I can find a weakness in NURV."

Suddenly, David's phone rang. It was Gary.

"I know where you are," he said. "I will find you. It would be easier on you if you simply came back to me. Make your choice. Live or die."

With that, he hung up. Danielle noticed that David hadn't said anything.

"Who was that?" she asked, her voice showing a hint of panic that she had, until this point, been able to hide.

"You already guessed it" Said David.
He walked to the window and threw the phone out, it landed on th eback of a pickup truck.
"We need to move out, it probably had a tracking device"

Danielle moaned. "Who knows what else he can track us through? We should ditch everything we're carrying. Buy new stuff. Trade the car in for a new one. In other words, we need to get rid of everything we have with us right now."

She began to stand up, but suddenly winced and fell back on the bed. "And I need to be careful about my leg."

"We better hurry. There's a rental place near here, so we can walk. I'm gonna tell my friend to close it up temporarily"
With that David left and warned his friend.

Danielle tried to follow him, but instead ended up by the window. She looked down to see where the phone had gone and saw the truck. The phone was ringing. Suddenly she became suspicious. Something wasn't right.

Meanwhile, David had warned his friend and they had gotten talking. David went back up to the room, but Danielle was nowhere to be found. He panicked. Had somebody come and taken her? He raced out of the building, frantically searching for her. The car was gone.

David ran out and looked for any tire skids.

Meanwhile, Danielle rushed up to the counter of a clothing store.

"I'll buy what I'm wearing," she said. She had already rented a car. She dumped all of her money on the counter. "Keep the change."

On her way out, she dumped her wallet in the trash after removing anything that she hadn't gotten from NURV. Then she went back to the hotel and found David in the parking lot.

"Get this on," she said handing him a set of clothes. "Get rid of everything you have."

"Already done" David said, and he held out his wallet, it was empty except for some $100 bills

"Already done" He said, holding his wallet, showing that all that was left were a few 100s, some 50s and 20s

"Get in," she ordered. "We need to let Milo know we're okay somehow. Did you think that far ahead?"

"I know a place where you can buy disposable cell phones. turn right on memorial"

They bought a phone and contacted Milo.

"You made it out of there just in time," he said. "I'm sorry, though David. I'm not sure your friend will make it out of this. Keep on the move and change rental cars continually."

"Don't worry, I know the rules. The cameras still working?"

"Yes," replied Milo after some hesitation. "I'm beginning to wonder if they know where you hid the cameras though. Some of them blink off every once in a while. When they come back, it's as if they're replaying things they've already captured."

"Can you check if the code's been messed with?

"It has," Milo replied. "In that case, I'd guess I need to get out of here. If they can mess with the code, they can trace where the signal's being picked up."

"Want to meet somewhere?"

"Sure," Milo said. "You say the place. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"How about the italian place on buffalo? It's dark, i've never been there, and they say the pizza's great"

"Fine," Milo said. "Can you be there in 20 minutes?"

"If the traffic doesn't change much"
David changed lanes and took a right turn.
"We're gonna meet Milo for lunch, you like italian?" He asked Danielle.

"Sounds good," Danielle said. "Fill me in on what just happened."

David told her about his conversation with Milo. She sighed. "I knew they'd be able to do that. It's a good thing Milo's leaving."

"I just hope he leaves in time"

They went to the restaurant and went in. Milo joined them five minutes later. He greeted them warmly, but then got serious.

"You realize that aside from Gary and his people, we're the only ones who know what's going on," he said. "That puts us in a hard spot. We have to expose him and it won't be as easy as the first time."

" Agreed, Gary learned his lesson and put a bigger PR department."

Milo put his head in his hands. "I'm open to suggestions."

It was clear that he had been having a rough day and his mind wasn't thinking clearly.

"Bad day at work Milo?" Asked David, temporarily switching subject

"With Gary on my mind, I can't think about anything else," Milo replied. "We need to make sure that he doesn't get out of jail this time."

"Hell yeah, still can't beleive he beat that murder charge"

"Yeah," Danielle put in. Then she gasped. "He has friends in law enforcement. How else could he have managed that?"

"What makes you say that?" Milo asked sharply. Danielle stood up and left for a moment. When she returned, she was carrying a newspaper. She dropped it on the table.

"Three former NURV Employees Wanted" the headline read.

"He's accusing us of stealing his ideas," she pointed out. Milo shook his head.

"All that means is that he has control of the press," he objected. Danielle frowned.

"Don't you think the police would check on a story like that?" she asked. "Instead, there are some officers questioned who said it had been confirmed."

Milo's head returned to his hands.

"Like I said, I'm open to suggestions," he moaned.

The waiter soon arrives and David ordered a pepperoni pizza
"The camera's code's been messed with, so if we try to accuse him with that he'll say that we changed it. I think the only way to do it is to grab something from his own files."

Milo nods. "Right."

"Ok, sneaks," Danielle says. "I know a lot about computers and all, but how are we going to manage getting Gary's files."

"I'm guessing the only way to is by actually being in front of his computer"

"Beautiful thinking, David," Danielle said sarcastically. "How exactly are we going to get there?"

"Calm down, Danni," Milo said sternly. She shook her head fiercely.

"No way!" she replied. "We're sitting in a restaurant with people trying to kill us. I am not calming down until we are out of this mess. So David, how are we going to get into Gary's house?"

"I can help," an elderly gentleman said. He had been sitting in the booth behind them and had apparently heard their whole conversation. "My wife and I clean his house once a week. That's tomorrow. Care to join us?"

"Do you get near his computer?" Danielle asked sourly.

"Every week," the man replied. Danielle nodded, but Milo was hesitant.

"How do we know you're not working for him?" he asked.

The man laughed. "I do work for him. I'm his janitor!"

Milo shook his head in despair.

"I remember Synapse," the man said. "A man cannot change that quickly. If you can show me evidence that he is still on the wrong track, I'll help you."

"We can show you."
David took out his laptop, the one thing he always carried himself. He had bought it some years ago, and refused to let anyone else touch it. He took it out, and showed the video of Gary and Co. conspiring

"That's enough for me!" the man exclaimed. "You just meet me and my wife here tomorrow at 7 AM. We'll get you into his house as our helpers. Then we'll assign you to his office."

Milo nodded.

"That works," he said. The man rose and left the restaurant without so much as a backward glance and left the three to talk.

"We don't know how much truth was in that," Danielle said quietly. "He might have been trying to take us in to Gary."

"We'll know better tomorrow," Milo said. "Let's go somewhere and get some sleep."

"You got a hotel where you can stay?"

"No," Milo replied. "I dropped nearly everything and came as soon as I could. I had no time to arrange anything and wouldn't want to from my apartment. Gary's probably got my phones bugged. After all, there's virtually no limit to what he can do."

"I always told you PR departments were bad news. Anyway, where do we meet tomorrow?"

"The man said to meet here," Milo said. "We'll follow his plan. But be careful."

"Agreed. Let's go." David walked out the door, and brought the car to the entrance.

The next morning, Milo, David, and Danielle walked into the restaurant at around 7. The man wasn't there yet so they got something to eat. The man showed up when they were nearly halfway through their meal and ordered something for himself and his wife. Then they got on the road and went to Gary's house.

"You brought some helpers this time?" Gary asked cheerfully. The man nodded. "My kids. My daughter, Emily broke her leg recently, so she won't be doing much."

Danielle held out her left leg, which had been wrapped in a cast. Gary smiled, apparently not recognizing her. In fact, he didn't seem to recognize any of them and there was a good reason for it. They didn't look like normal.

Danielle, aside from the cast, had brown eyes and blonde hair. David's face looked at least ten years older and he had streaks of gray in his hair. Milo had dropped his glasses and had green eyes and red hair.

"Come on in and get started," Gary said kindly. He turned to Danielle. "I'll find something for you to do."

He got her started on the riding lawn mower.

"After all," he said, "we don't want you on that leg. This may not be one of the things your dad usually does, but I'll pay you to do it this time. Better to have you working than sitting in that van all day, right?"

David was cleaning the kitchen. The old man was cleaning the bathrooms, which David was glad he didn't have to do. Once he was finished, he would clean & vacuum the computer room.

Danielle continued mowing the lawn, but she couldn't keep her eyes off the house. How was it going in there?

Meanwhile, Milo was cleaning Gary's bedroom, wondering if David had gotten to the computer yet.

David had finally gotten to the computer. The old man told him that Gary was finally out of the house. David carefully opened up the computer, took out the hard drive, connected it with a special cable to his computer and inspected it. He added identical files to another hard drive and inserted that one into Gary's computer. In one of the files he had added a bug, it would send anything Gary did to his computer.
"I'm done" He said to the old man.

Suddenly, David realized that Gary had entered the room

"Do you like my computer?" he asked quietly, his face glowing with suspicion.