She gets the information from them and uses her computer to confirm that Connorâs reservations have been made. Then she gives Connor a key to his room and says, âI hope you enjoy your stay here.â
Connor replies, âThank you.â
Connor takes the key and goes to his room. Connorâs room is on the first floor of the Bedstay hotel. Connor is now inside his room. He feels very nervous and paranoid about having this R-1 file. He believes that he needs to hide the file somewhere because he thinks that it may be tracked by Joelâs crew. If they can track the file, they can track him as well.
Connor looks out of his bedroom window. He sees a library across the road from the Bedstay hotel. Connor says to himself,
Thatâs where Iâm going to hide this file; if they find the file in the library they wonât find me
. Connor walks out of his room, exits the Bedstay hotel and walks across the road to the library. Outside, he sees a sign on the entrance door saying that the library is open from 7am to 10pm.
Connor enters the library. Itâs very quiet; there are a few inhabitants of Balaxia around reading books, and some students studying. The receptionist is at her desk on her computer, surfing the net. Connor walks around thinking about where he should hide the hard drive. He looks up at the roof and sees that itâs made from acoustic drop-ceiling panels. Connor says to himself,
I could lift one of those panels and place the hard drive on top of another, but I need to be able to do it somewhere where I canât be seen.
He walks over to the toilets.
Connor enters the toilets. There is nobody in there. Connor goes inside one of the toilet cubicles, climbs onto a toilet and raises a panel of the acoustic drop-ceiling; then places the hard drive on top of another panel. Connor lowers the acoustic drop-ceiling panel he lifted, setting it back in place. He climbs down from the toilet, exits the toilets and the library, walks across the road, enters the Bedstay hotel and walks up to his room.
Connor is now in his room. He decides to give Dylan a phone call. He takes the planet communicator out of the box. The planet communicator looks like an iPhone. Connor takes off his jacket and reaches into one of its inside pockets and pulls out his small notepad and pen. He finds Dylanâs planet communicator number and dials it.
Connor puts the planet communicator up to his right ear and hears Dylanâs planet communicator ringing.
Dylan answers his planet communicator in his IT room in his house and says, âHello?â
Connor says, âDylan, itâs me, Connor.â
Dylan says, âWhere are you now?â
Connor says, âIâm staying at a hotel in the Big Rock.â
Dylan says, âGreat, man, you made it. I went into work today and they brought me in for questioning. They asked me questions like, âHas Connor been acting strangely lately? Did Connor say to you that he was going to go to the First Dome? Do you know where Connor is? Did Connor tell you about what he planned to do in the FBI building? Has Connor been in contact with you?â I denied everything, I said the last time I spoke with you was a day before you took holiday leave.â
Connor says, âThey might be on to you. Did anybody follow you? Have you checked your house for bugs?â
Dylan says, âI swept the house for bugs as soon as I came home from work. I told Trish to stay at her motherâs for a while, to keep her out of danger.â
Trish is Dylanâs wife.
Connor says, âDid you get Gabrielleâs phone number?â
Dylan says, âYeah, I did, hold on a second.â
Dylan found Gabrielleâs phone number while he was at work today and stored it in his phone. He takes out his phone and finds the number.
Dylan says, âGabrielleâs office phone number is 567-768-390-1289. She works in Red 1 law enforcement, 27 th precinct.â
Connor writes
Glen Cook
Robin Hobb
Emily Carding
Curtiss Ann Matlock
Marcia Clark
Brenda Jackson
Dan Jones
Lia Fairchild
P. E. Ryan
Michael Pollan