Airport Incidents

[Sage]

continued from here

Sasha couldn't come with him to Moscow, he was only slightly disappointed as she left him at the security check point. She kissed him on the cheek before he stepped through the metal detectors. He of course set the alarm off. Sage handed the security man a letter from his doctor - foreign object in his head. Nothing he can do about it.

The note was not the only thing he'd been given by the doctors there. He had more pills than he could count - antibiotics, steroids, and various kinds pain medications. Three of them he had to take otherwise he could keel over in a few days and he'd never get to Moscow. Sasha had insisted he set alarms to remind himself to take the pills since he knew how absent-minded he could be.

They still searched him with the wand and found nothing.

Once he'd cleared security Sage turned around and waved at Sasha. He might not ever see her again. Sage grabbed the laptop case and his carry-on and headed for his departure terminal. Everything was fuzzy because of the meds. He was surprised he could walk just fine. But Sasha and Bryan had programmed his wallet to navigate him to his terminal, through his layover in Amsterdam and finally get him to the luggage carousel in Moscow. The airline knew that he was heavily medicated and someone was sent to find him.

Sage had never really left Alexandria, DC didn't count, it was within walking distance - though he usually rode the train. The fact that his first trip out of Alexandria was also out of the country was not lost on Sage. He wasn't exactly afraid of flying. The idea that he'd have to take the wireless dongle from the port out and turn it off had kept him land bound most of his life. The loss of information flow was worse than withdrawal from caffeine or any thing else he'd come down from. He didn't need any drugs when all he had to do was plug in. There was no fear this time he couldn't feel anything. There was no anxiety, no withdrawal symptoms. Everything was being masked by the foggy feeling and the utter lack of anything going on in his head.

***

The flight to Amsterdam was long. Sage sat in first-class by the window, a young man sat next to him. He wore a suit which couldn't have been comfortable for the amount of time they'd be flying to Amsterdam. He was cute but Sage could barely form more than a few words after he'd taken the pain bills. So he let himself drift off into oblivion. He didn't sleep exactly, his thoughts lingered on memories, on bits of code he ran through his mind without thinking about it. It was odd not getting feedback, but Sage could almost see the results as he drifted in this space of nothingness.

He landed in Amsterdam with only a slight fog to his head. He had managed to eat and drink before they landed and was relatively ready to start the next leg of the trip in four hours. Thankfully the man who'd sat next to him was also going to Russia. Sage smiled. "Why did you wear a suit all the way from DC here?"


The man looked across the seats at Sage and frowned. "I'm meeting business partners on this leg of the trip, I wasn't sure if I'd have time to change."

"Are they late?"


The man shook his head. "Not yet. Our flight doesn't leave for four hours. But I've been late before and I didn't want to take that chance this time."

"You make this trip often then?"


"Yes. Moscow is our main head quarters so I travel back and forth a lot."

"What do you do?"


"I'm a software developer."

Sage grinned. "Fancy that."


"What do you do if you don't mind me asking?"

"A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Currently I'm being employed to white hat for a software company. They are developing a new firewall and I'm the lucky one who gets to break it."


The man raised his eyebrow. "You wouldn't go by the handle of Phaser would you?"

Sage laughed. "You know a hacker isn't going to just say yes to that right?"


The young man moved closer and leaned in to whisper, "That little fuck head is toasting all our work."

Sage chuckled knowingly "Isn't that his job? So you write better code so hackers like him don't break in. Or at least give them something to work really hard to get in?"


"The guys not even human. They say he's an AI."

"So your company is stupid enough to pay a supposed AI hacker top dollar all because he's noted as one of the best?"


"So you are saying he's not an AI?"

"Not to my knowledge. He lives and breathes as best as the next man."


"You know him?"

"I know of him. I've worked with him."
Sage could barely keep from laughing. It wasn't everyday you get to hear people bash you to your face or see the awe in their face when they speak of your work. Today must be his lucky day.

***

The last leg of the trip was just as uneventful as the first. Once Sage had gotten on the plane in his first class seat by the window he downed another pain pill. He was slowly going to become an addict if he had to keep popping them like he was. He was not eager to go under the knife while wide awake. Those memories still woke him up late at night. It was the worse thing to wake up to.

Sage found himself at the carousel before 4 pm. Apparently Nox was not one for being early. He sent Annoying little brother a regular text message telling him he was the arrival area since that's where he ended up while walking around.

Sage sat down a little bleary eyed from all the travel to wait.


Edited by Sage, Oct 5 2016, 07:59 PM.