Alice:
I checked everyone off mentally as they made their choice: Reece wanted to stay with me and Damien, Brit wanted to stay too. That made 4 of us. One more, and I'd be on my fake-scooter instead of in Eddie's car for the second trip. Brit's suggestion of feigning capture was quite good, and Reece asked if I could realistically fake being a controller. I thought about that - I probably could pass as a Yeerk, providing no violence was needed on my part, and providing they didn't check on the false name I'd be giving... I didn't want to disrupt anyone's decision, so I continued to wait in silence for everyone to have chance to speak.
Torrence suggested both she and Kasey go with Eddie on the first trip, leaving 2 more spaces in the car. Wet-Hair-Girl pointed out we were on a clock here and urged the others to make their decision quickly. When she used Eddie's name, asking him to confirm she'd gotten it right, he gave a curt nod of ascention. She herself was apparently staying behind to raid the building for that list. In fact, she preempted that by starting to sneak off toward the building without further delay.
Kasey agreed to go with Eddie, and even convinced Reece he should go with them too.
"So, with Eddie is Kasey, Torrence, Reece and Autumn, leaving me with Damien, Brit, and... Say, what IS your name, anyway?" I called after the Wet-Haired-Girl, partly amused and partly astounded that nobody had even asked her this yet, including myself. I grinned sheepishly, hoping she wouldn't take offence at us not asking her name up 'til now.
When she answered, I smiled back at her, then went my own direction: The car-park.
When I got there, I scanned with my eyes and my Chee sensors but found no evidence of any CCTV or other surveillance watching over the cars. I signalled the all-clear, and tiptoed off in a random direction so if anyone WAS watching, I couldn't lead their eyes back to the group.
Eddie:
I nodded when the thusfar-unknown girl asked for confirmation of my name, then readied my wheelchair for a dash across the car-park: I got my keys out ready, too.
When I saw Alice's "all-clear" signal, I pressed the fob to activate my central-locking and unlock my car then motored my wheelchair over the bumpy, uneven terrain leading to this edge of the car-park, carelessly bumping down a kerb so hard I nearly bounced out of my seat when I reached tarmac. My central-locking was silent and invisible because I hadn't set my alarm to full-alert when Alice and I had left it, so-as not to draw any attention. As I set off, I told everyone I'd unlocked the central-locking, and I assumed they were hot on my wheels keeping up behind me.
When everyone was strapped safely into my car, and I'd managed to stow my wheelchair and get behind the wheel myself, I started the engine and we were off. I'd had to remind someone my car was British right-hand-drive, as they'd attempted to get in the driver's door themselves, but there were no other problems. As I set off, I reminded myself it was a much better idea to drive slower and not bring much attention rather than setting of at a tyre-screeching rate of knots and bringing definite Alien attention to my car. As we pulled out of he car-park, I glanced around at my passengers to see who had sat where, mostly out of curiosity but also to check they had their seatbelts on...
