Chapter 165Gossip to Grow

The men looked disappointed and took another look around. The one asking Sandra frowned in annoyance and looked at the other one.

"I told you this was a bad idea. We're not even sure she'd know about the library."

"It's just an idea, she thirsts for knowledge, she always has. It was hard enough keeping her from learning as it was."

"Alright alright, you made your point." He turned back to Sandra. "We're really looking for her, miss. Could you keep this picture and call us if you see her? The number is on the back."

Sandra looked up as if she hadn't been listening in. "What? Oh, of course. Can I make copies to hang around the library?" Helpfulness personified.

The man shrugged. "Sure." He turned back to the other. "Come, let's go. We've still got more places to look."

The other man followed him with a sigh. "Why can't Jason just look for her himself. It was his project to begin with."

They were at the revolving door when the other man turned around sharply. "Idiot! Do you want him to hear you say that? You'd suffer a fate worse than death."

The other man nodded subserviently and followed through the doors. Sandra looked up at me when she was sure that they didn't see her. Her eyes asked met he question silently.

'What was this?'

I nodded to her and moved away. I took Nuru with me downstairs and walked back to her desk. The marvels of the Library forgotten for a moment, Nuru looked worried but kept her questions to herself. She had half-heard the conversation below and she had a furtive look in her eyes. She didn't feel safe.

Something had to be done. I turned around and gave her an unexpected hug. She froze a bit until she recognized what I was doing and allowed her arms to wrap around me. A deep held back breath finally escaped between her lips. I let the seconds slip by unnoticed and released her after a few more. She looked at me with thanks in her eyes. I just smiled and grabbed her hand again, leading us back to the desk.

Sandra looked up from her work when she noticed me, in the corner of her eye, walking closer. She smiled slightly worried.

"Eh, Amy, care to explain what this is all about? I've never had two fbi-looking guys asking for people like that. Not even the police. Is Nuru just visiting or is there something else happening? Please explain, I'm a bit worried if I would get involved in this. Please tell me you're not doing anything dangerous?"

I took a deep breath. "I can't explain everything, but you're not in any danger. It's really nice of you to protect us though, thank you for that. I'm... probably involved in something dangerous for others, but not for me. It's, again, too hard to explain. But let me reassure you, you're perfectly safe."

She blinked again as she processed everything. "Okay.", she said quietly. She smiled and picked up the picture the man gave her. "Here, I'm not going to copy it anyway, and if a colleague finds it, it would only cause problems. I don't think they'll be back the way they were talking, could you hear way up there? I've got another little extra though. We've got study-booths that, a few of them, have the possibility of being locked. She can use them if she likes. I can give you the key of one of them and explain my manager it's just for a short while. It's been done before with students who have large projects so it shouldn't be a problem."

Wow... The girl could really talk sometimes. "Thank you, Sandra. Maybe I'll let her visit tomorrow. I'm really happy with the key, it'll help her feel a lot safer here."

She smiled proudly. "It's no problem really. Oh, Amy?"

"Yes?"

"Please don't do dangerous stuff."

I giggled. "I'll try not to. We'll be going home for now."

She shrugged. "Suit yourself, we're still open for another hour though."

I smiled. "Yeah, but it's hard to concentrate with things like these in your head."

She nodded. "Tell me about it, I'll probably have dreams of detectives and stuff. Serves me right for reading them really."

Even Nuru had to laugh out loud. Sandra could be really cute, in a nerdy kind of way. We waved at her and walked to the exit, hesitating for a moment before we walked through. Some things were still playing in my head, like who was this 'Jason' they were talking about. He sounded important, in charge. But the question was how high up was he.

We got a phone number though, so we could find out where they were, hopefully.

I guess it was best now to bring Nuru back to Hitori's place.

Maybe then I could visit my old home again...