Mr Smith - the movie

Heaving myself out of the bath, I grabbed a towel - then after heading through to the living room to turn the laptop on, I retrieved the memory stick from the kitchen.

As I put it into the computer, fat drops of water fell from my still-wet hair. I hardly noticed.

The laptop seemed to take forever to boot up. Once it had, and I clicked on the little disk icon, I saw a bunch of folders and a single MPEG file. Taking a deep breath, I double-clicked it.

It was a shaky, hand-held clip, showing Mr Smith in his office. Kate, I assumed, was on the other side of the camera.

"Um, er, is it on? Yes, good. Alan, hello. If you're watching this, it probably means we've had - erm - unexpected visitors." He chuckled, but there was not a trace of amusement in it.

"I had planned to take you through the whole story in person, and I'm sorry that you have to do this alone. But there we have it; things are as they are, and it's pointless to wish them otherwise.

"All the documents pertaining to your, ah, situation are contained on this memory stick. if you work through the folders in the sequence in which they appear in the menu, I believe this will make the most sense to you."

At this point, Mr Smith looked thoughtful and seemed to drift off for a moment.

"I would like you to know that both myself and Miss Wilson became involved with this project, this undertaking, with the best of intentions. If you can find it in yourself to believe that, I would be truly grateful.

"And yet, which we acted in good faith, I have discovered that the organisation with which we have become ... inextricably linked, shall we say, is extremely dangerous. I would like you to remember that. While you are useful to them, they will not hesitate to kill you. Please understand this.

"And now, I think, we probably need to go to the basement and meet you, Alan. I do hope you don't have to watch this. But if you do, please go with our sincerest best wishes. And apologies."

The camera's view angled downwards alarmingly and the clip ended - just as I heard the sound of the front door slamming.

Shit. Jen. Was it that time already? I closed the lid of the laptop, and headed to greet her.



Story begins here.