No One Left Behind, Except for Me novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Captain Comes to Oslo

I told the chair I would go into the room by myself.

"He is not here to see Dr. Dahl," I said. "He came to see me."

"I do not like it," she said.

"I'm not asking you to like it."

Her eyebrows rose a little behind her glasses, and then she nodded.

"I will stand at the door," she said. "I will not interfere unless it goes badly."

Mikkel caught my sleeve in the corridor.

"Natalie."

"You said you'd stand wherever I say," I said. "Stand here."

He let go, and he stayed.

The seminar room had a long window over a snowy courtyard and a ring of twenty chairs.

Twenty students were sitting in them with coffee cups, in sweaters and wool socks and every accent in the world.

Tate stood at the front in his dark suit with his arm in its brace.

He had hung his overcoat on the back of the lecturer's chair, to look easy.

He turned and smiled the old smile, the one he used on coaches.

"Nat," he said. "There she is."

The students looked at me.

"I'm so sorry to interrupt your orientation," Tate said to the room, warmly. "I'm an old friend. I've known Natalie since we were six."

"What do you want, Tate?" I said.

"I flew nine hours to talk to you. That's all." He spread his good hand. "Last Saturday got very out of hand."

"It got out of hand on November fifteenth."

"I'm not here to fight." He looked around the circle. "I'm here because someone's going to ruin a lot of lives over a misunderstanding. Her friends. Her team. Her future."

A woman by the window raised her eyebrows.

"There's a video going around," Tate said. "It's been edited. A record from my school's server was changed by a researcher who happens to be dating our trainer."

I went very still.

"I'm asking you, Natalie, as someone who loves you." His voice dropped and cracked on the last word. "Take it down. Tell the Institute you were upset and that the file was Dr. Dahl's mistake. I'll tell everyone it was a communication problem. We all walk away."

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