Page 41 of Need to Know

“Uh hmm,” I murmured, chewing on a rasher of sweet, salty bacon.

“The Chinese government discovered an economically viable deposit of Kazakium, a rare earth metal. Specific rare earth metals are crucial in the tech industry for enhancing performance and increasing the miniaturization of chips,” he read. “The post said that a company in Shanghai Huǒhuā Labs, is developing the smallest AI chip ever created. It’s called a Téng hú, which translates to mean Barnacle.”

“Like barnacles that stick to the hull of a boat?”

“Yeah. They attach to existing AI GPU chips, extend their life, and speed up processing ten-fold,” he said excitedly. I was learning a lot about Nate in this moment. I recalled that during the script read-throughs Nate always had a lot of questions about his character’s motivation, and the details of the tech our characters used. He wanted to understand all aspects of the fictional world he was playing in. And now I saw how this need for detail was very much a part of his personality.

“Imagine what these could do if the US military-industrial complex got a hold of them, used them in weaponry, or robotics,” Nate suggested. It hadn’t even figured in my thoughts, but yes, if these chips were as useful and powerful as the information suggested they would be a lure for defence companies.

“When was that info posted?”

“Just three of weeks ago, what do you think? This looks like one of our chips, yeah?” Nate asked, tilting his phone screen for me to see. He flicked between the close-up photos he’d just taken, and then the chip on the Reddit post.

“Same numbers, same Chinese characters,” I observed. This situation felt really fucking dangerous and we were out of our depth. Nate sat back and continued scrolling through the Reddit thread. In the minutes that Nate was reading I’d hoovered up my full English and now I’d moved onto a bowl of fruit. Next a fresh warm Danish pastry was in my future.

“They’re prototypes, still in development,” Nate finally revealed. “Not for sale, so it looks like the ones we have were stolen from the Huǒhuā Labs facility,” he explained. “The post says each chip has an estimated market value of $100,000 or more.”

On hearing how much the tiny buggers were worth, I inhaled some pastry flakes, and coughed. “WHAT? Is that per chip?” I gasped. Nate passed my cup of tea to me and a sip soothed my throat. By the time I’d recovered I’d done the maths.

“We have a million dollars in chips in the safe!”

“Yeah, and as they were smuggled into Germany, if we’re caught with them in our possession we’ll be arrested for industrial espionage,” Nate warned. “If the chips do what this anonymous poster says they do, a lot of tech companies want to get their hands on them to reverse engineer,” he stated.

“And the Chinese will want them back,” I added. “Should we go to the authorities?”

Nate met my eyes, his wet hair was unkempt, his jaw displaying the prickly stubble I wanted to rasp against the sensitive skin of my inner thighs. After a moment of thoughtful consideration, he said,

“We keep our mouths shut for the time being. If the men who trashed our room are keeping tabs on the hotel, they don’t know which room we were moved to. This suite has better security, an over door camera and concierge connection. The reinforced doors got a good bar-lock too, so, unless there’s a Chinese Spiderman coming in via the balcony, no one’s getting in here. We need to rest up. We should just finish breakfast and go to bed, work things out later when we’ve got clearer heads.”

The shower sex was great and although my libido was egging me on for more, more, more, my body was wilting. I knew the immediate effects of the Rohypnol lasted for hours and would take up to five days to leave my system. If I was going to feel like shit, I’d rather do it lounging in bed with Nate.

Nate finally put down his phone and began wolfing his breakfast. I’d re-filled my plate…after all, I am a growing boy! The suite was calm; and quiet. A cool summer breeze wafted through the open French doors and the hum of the city was lulling. My tummy now full, I was beginning to relax into a food coma. I could just curl up here with Nate and snuggle, it would be perfect.

It was then that the Star Wars Imperial March ringtone sounded from Nate’s phone. We startled and glared at one another. We both knew what it meant. It was the ringtone Nate had set to identify a call from Roz Appelbaum!

****

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Nate

“I just got a call from Mason De Luca, saying that an insurance company used by the Adler Kandinski hotel in Berlin was in touch about a claim. You’ve been in Berlin for one day! What the hell’s going on?” Roz demanded.

“Oh, eh…hi Roz, yeah,” I rubbed my free hand over my brow. “I didn’t know the insurance company would contact Maritime immediately. Shit...sorry. This is a mess,” I sent a worried look at Jack then warned, “I’m putting you on speaker.”

“Hi Roz,” Jack called. “It’s been a trip!”

I glared at Jack, that comment was not helpful at all. “Something happened to us last night,” I admitted, feeling like I was talking to my school principal.

“Well, out with it!” Roz prompted.

“When we left a club last night we were, um, abducted.”

“Oy gevalt!” she exclaimed, “Are you guys okay? What the hell?”

“Yeah, we escaped, it’s all good, but when we got back to the hotel our suite was trashed. Whoever abducted us stole the hotel keycard.”

“Did you contact the police?”