The Terrorists' Den?

"That's incredible," Samatha said as she shook her head. "Is that the amazing thing you wanted to tell us about; that you invited us to go eat and forgotten your card?"

Zack shrugged his shoulders. "Eh, I guess you can consider it as one of the things that I was going to tell you about," he joked. "But I'm not that hungry anyway, so just order for Jean."

"Are you sure? You can always just pay me later," Samantha reminded him.

"I usually just skip breakfast, it's perfectly fine," Zack explained. He would usually wake up late on the weekends, skipping breakfast and having lunch very late. It was fine for him to not have anything for breakfast.

"If you say so." Samantha turned to Jean who now had the menu again after Zack passed it back to her. "So Jean, what do you want?"

"Uhh... this one and that one?" Jean pointed at the two cheapest items on the list. Even though she was going to pay Samantha back sometime later, she still didn't want to order anything expensive with her money. Samantha looked at the price of the two items she picked and sighed. "What? Is there something wrong with choosing these two?"

Samantha shooked her head and said, "I think you already know why I sighed."

"Well, I don't like using other people's money," Jean once again told her.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. At least you're eating something I guess. Anyway, how do we order," Samantha asked while looking at Zack.

Zack gave Samantha a confused look and explained, "Hey, just because I chose this place, it doesn't mean I know how this place works. But if I were to guess, I think we just call for someone?"

Jean looked around. There was no one else here but them. Even though the place was open, there were no employees to be seen. It was quite strange. Where were they? "Hey! Anyone here!?" Samantha yelled out.

There was a rustling sound from somewhere in the cafe and a tall man came rushing out from behind a door. "O-oh customers! I'm so s-sorry, I was uh, putting some stuff away. Anyway, what would you like?" the man fumbled with his words because he was saying everything in a hurry.

"If it's not too much of a hassle mister, can we have these three?" Samantha pointed at the two things that Jean wanted and then pointed at something else for herself.

"Oh, no at all. Give me a sec." The man pulled out a tablet and tapped some buttons and then asked, "Would you like to pay in advance or after eating?"

Samantha thought about it for a moment and said, "Advance, I guess?"

"Okay." The man tapped a few more things on his tablet and then put it on the table. "Just scan right here please." Samantha took her purchase card out of her pocket and hovered it over the screen. *Beep!* The man then took the tablet back and then clicked it a few more times and said, "Okay, all good. Your order is coming right up, please wait a few minutes dear customers."

Jean watched the man disappear back behind the door. The moment that he left, Zack tells the other two, "He felt a little odd."

"Really?" Samantha gave Zack a strange look. "That coming from you is golden."

"No, I'm serious. Did you smell that guy?" Zack asked.

Jean and Samantha looked at each other and then back at Zack and shook their heads. "No, I didn't notice anything odd with how he smelled," Jean told him.

"Really?" Zack said in a surprised tone. "He smelled like brunt oil, not the cooking kind. It's the oil that comes from machines. Don't ask me how I know. Anyway, it was pretty strong, I don't know how neither of two didn't smell it." But to be fair, the man stood next to Zack when taking the orders instead of Samantha for whatever reason, which was opposite of where Jean and she were sitting so it made sense that Zack would've smelled it but they didn't.

Jean pointed this out to Zack, "Well, he was right next to you."

"Hm, you do have a point," Zack agreed. "But then why do you think he smelled like that?" The atmosphere grew a little tense as Zack as that. From the tone of voice that he was talking, it sounded as if they were looking at a crime scene and not sitting in a cafe ordering food.

Samantha scratched her head and said, "Don't know, but why would that be important anyway. It's not like he committed a crime or anything. There's probably a machine that uses for cooking and that's where he got that smell from," she theorized.

Zack took in what Samantha said and told her, "But I don't think there is any cooking machine that uses oil. Doesn't everything run on electricity at this point? Oil is a rarity." Zack took out his phone and tapped a few things on it then flipped the screen. "Yeah see? No machines run on oil because of how scarce it is." Jean and Samantha leaned on the table to see the screen. It was an article on renewable energy and after skimming through the first few lines, they got the main idea. Everything now runs on electricity. Oil and coal and other nonrenewable energy sources have been discarded since it was too difficult to get more of them.

"Okay..." Jean saw the point that Zack was trying to make. It was unusual for anything to run on oil and for anyone to have oil as well, but what was the point in pointing that out? "Is there a reason why you're so interested in this?" she asked Zack.

"Yes there is. This is the 'amazing' thing that I wanted to talk to you guys about. I did some research and found out that there is indeed a terrorist group that is sabotaging I.C.E."

"What!?" Jean and Samantha both said out loud in unison.

"Shhh!" Zack leaned over the table and said in a low voice, "And here's the thing. After some digging, I found that their hideout is actually right next to the laboratory. The reasoning is simple; if it were too far away, they would be caught after pulling their stunts with how fierce law enforcement is. Their hideout needs to be close so that they can easily escape and hide after doing their things."

Jean looked at Zack's face. He had a serious look. In other words, everything he is saying is what he believed to be true. "And you're telling me that this cafe is their hideout?"

Zack smiled and leaned back to his seat. "Well, I'm not certain but this is the most likely place."

"And you're telling me that somehow you managed to figure this out and not the police or the government?" Jean asked.

"That I don't know why, but trust me when I say there is a very high chance that this place is the terrorists' hideout or base." Zack looked around the cafe and pointed out a few things that he thought was suspicious. "You see that, that, and that?" he said while pointing at three different things in the cafe.

Jean and Samantha tried to follow his fingers but couldn't figure out the things that he was pointing at. "Sorry, but what are you pointing at?" Jean asked him.

"Huh, were you not following me?" Zack scratched his head. It sounded as if he expected Jean and Samantha to be able to instantly identify the things that he was talking about, which wasn't possible since nothing here looked out of the ordinary to them. Or rather, everything here looked out of the ordinary since it was an old fashion cafe with things that they hardly ever saw anywhere else. With that being the case, nothing here looked extraordinary to them.

Samantha leaned her head against her hand and said, "Do you really expect us to know the things you're pointing at when we barely recognize any of the things in this room?"

Zack's face went blank for a second before realization settled in. "Ahh... Sorry," he apologized. "But yeah, in short, the things that I just pointed to are all things that are either not available for purchase anymore or/and are illegal."

"Wait there's illegal stuff here?" Samantha said wide-eyed.

"Yep, like that old handgun that is just sitting out in the open for some reason," Zack pointed his thumb sideways at the counter next to them."

"Oh, you're right..." Samantha saw the gun that he was talking about. Jean turned her head and saw it too.

"Wait, why would something like that be out in the open?" Jean asked. She saw the reason behind Zack's suspicions about this place being a hideout for terrorists. But if it were one, wouldn't they be careful to not expose themselves. Would they really accidentally leave a gun out in the open like that?

"Okay, your food is ready!" came the man's voice from behind the door. A second later, the door open and he came out back first with a tray in his hands. The man saw Jean, who was still lost in thought staring at something. He followed her eyes to the gun sitting on the table. "Oh..."

"Jean, what are you doing!?" Samantha said in a loud whisper. She nudged Jean and she snapped back to reality.

"Hm? What happened?" Jean blinked rapidly a few times and looked at Samantha with a confused expression. Samantha turned Jean's head to the man who had plopped the tray of food down on the counter and was now looking at them with the gun in his hand.

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