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Jeff was terrified.
Maybe Mike would tell them where he was
hiding. He knew he couldn't trust
his friend. As soon as it became
dark, he opened the small basement window and climbed out. The streets
were full of rush hour traffic and he thought he would be safe among
all the commuters.
In his pocket, he had less than one dollar; not enough to take
the subway, but enough to make a telephone call, so he found a public
phone and called his parents.
His
mother picked up the phone after only one ring. 'Hi mom, it's Jeff.'
'Jeff, are you okay? Where are you?' his mother sounded strange, as if
she were
scared but trying not to show
it.
'Mom, is everything okay? Where's Dad?'
'Jeff. Tell me exactly
where you are, please. Give me your address. Your father
will come and
collect you now.'
'Mom, I'm confused.
How do you know I am in trouble? Is there someone
in the house with
you?...' There was no answer, and then the line went dead.
Jeff knew he was in serious trouble. There was obviously someone with his mother. He hoped they were police or government agents and not criminals or arms-dealers. He felt so guilty that his family were now involved. And his professor was dead too. Everything was his fault. He had been so stupid. But what could he do now? He tried to think logically, and decided that taking his story to the local television station was his best hope. He didn't think he could trust the police, and didn't want to get his family into more trouble. The men in the black suits had the machine, and his ex-friend Mike. But he was the machine's inventor, so he knew people would keep looking for him. Keep looking until they found him. Jeff shuddered. He realized he had been so short-sighted.
As
Jeff walked across the city to the television studio, he imagined that
in every car that drove past were
people who were looking for him,
and every person on
the street was going to grab him. By the time he arrived at the
TV station, he was a nervous
wreck. He walked through the big glass
doors and said quietly to the receptionist, 'Hello. I need to speak to
someone in charge of the news. I have something very important to tell
them.'
The receptionist looked at him, then down at the box he was carrying.
'I see... Please wait a moment. Could you take a seat over
there?
Jeff took a seat in the small waiting area. He watched as the
receptionist made a call. She kept looking over at him as she was
talking, but he couldn't hear what she was saying. His stomach was in
knots.
After she finished her call, the receptionist looked nervous. She kept looking over to where Jeff was sitting, and smiling at him. But Jeff felt something was wrong. Then through the window he saw a large black truck pull up outside the building and three men in black suits jump out. Quickly, Jeff picked up his box and ran through the door into the stairwell. Should he go down into the basement or up onto the roof? He had no time to think, so started running up the stairs towards the roof. When he got to the fifth floor, he heard the door to the stairwell burst open far below him. He kept running up the stairs as fast as he could.
Jeff was headed for the roof, but would he be trapped up there. What would he do? Find out in part 3.
Adjectives
terrified:
Very scared.
confused:
Not able to understand what is happening or what is being said.
guilty:
Here meaning 'feeling like you did something bad'.
short-sighted:
Here meaning 'not thinking what might happen in the future'.
Verbs
trust :
Here meaning 'to believe someone is telling the truth and will not do
something bad'.
show
an
emotion: To show how you feel by your face or body language.
be involved:
To be connected with something.
shudder:
To shake for a very short time when you are cold or scared.
contain:
To have inside.
be in knots:
To have an uncomfortable feeling because you are nervous, scared, etc.
pull up:
In this case meaning 'to stop'.
burst open:
To open suddenly and with force.
Nouns
a commuter:
A person who travels to work.
a government agent:
Someone who does secret work fro the government.
the best hope:
The best chance of success.
a nervous wreck:
Someone who is very tired because they are so nervous.
a stairwell:
The seperate space in a building where the stairs are.
Adverbs
exactly:
100% correctly.
obviously:
Clearly. Easy to see or understand.
logically:
Thinking step-by-step, in a sensible way.