Sam wanted to get the location from her first.
The location.
The reason everyone was interested in Dani.
“I don’t think the handoff is the reason Orbits came here,” Quinn said.
“Then what is?”
He shared his thoughts with Nate.
“Whoa,” Nate said. “Getting paid and taking whatever everyone’s looking for — that’s major double-dipping. If it’s true, Orbits’s got some balls. There are so many ways that could get messy.”
The only problems now were, they didn’t know where Orbits was or where the handoff would take place. Quinn called Orlando.
“Did you find them?” she asked.
He told her what had happened, and his theory about why Orbits had brought Dani here. “We could hunt around all night and not find them,” he said. “The one thing we do know is that they’ll be at a specific place at nine a.m., and there is a way to find out where that’ll be.”
She said nothing for a moment, then, “The Wolf.”
“Exactly. There can’t be too many chartered jets flying from Minneapolis to somewhere in eastern Kansas at just after seven in the morning.”
“No, there shouldn’t be. I’ll let you know as soon as I find out where she’s headed.”
Now that he wasn’t focused on telling her what he needed, he realized he could hear a background hum over the line. “Are you in a car?”
“Maybe.”
“Where are you going?”
“Are you trying to keep tabs on me?”
“No, I was just—”
“Nate doesn’t keep a lot of food in his house. I’m hungry, okay?” Her tone dared him to question her.
“Okay. Sorry. I didn’t mean anything.”
Softer now, she said, “I know. I love you. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
“I love you, too.” He hung up and said to Nate, “Let’s find someplace to get some sleep.”
Orlando could feel Ananke staring at the back of her head as she put her phone away. “Go on. Say it.”
“Say what?” Ananke asked.
“What you’re thinking. That I just lied to him.”
“Did you? I hadn’t noticed.”
“Because I’m not lying,” Orlando said. “I’m starving. We’ll stop on the way.”
From the driver’s seat, Daeng said, “Riggo’s taco stand or In-N-Out?”
“In-N-Out, please. A double-double and fries, animal style.”
CHAPTER 36
Orbits and his men camped out in a shuttered café along the road, north of Meriden.
In anticipation of the coming day’s events, Orbits only slept in fits and starts, and was up and dressed at six fifteen. He checked the girl first. She was still asleep, the ill-fitting T-shirt Parnell had given her twisted around her chest, exposing her belly.
Careful not to disturb anyone, Orbits made his way out to the field behind the building and relieved himself. After zipping back up, he scanned the horizon. There were a few scattered clouds to the east, but otherwise the sky was clear.
A beautiful day. He took that as a good omen.
At precisely seven a.m., he reinstalled the battery in his phone and called The Wolf.
“Topeka, Kansas,” he said without preamble. “If you have a good pilot, you should make it there by eight thirty without a problem. I’ll call you then with further instructions. Oh, you should arrange for a car.”
“Just tell me where to meet,” she said. “There’s no need for—”
“I’ll call you in an hour and a half.”
He hung up and removed the battery again.”
“Do you have him?” The Wolf asked.
The man sitting across the aisle looked up from his computer and grimaced. “His signal’s scrambled. About the best I can say is that he’s in the Kansas-Missouri-Oklahoma area.”
“That’s a huge help,” she said, unsmiling.
“I’ll, uh, go over the data again. Maybe I can fine-tune it.”
“You do that.”
She turned her attention to the hunter in the seat in front of him. “Bianca,” she said. “Would you mind telling the pilot that our destination is Topeka, Kansas?”
A throwback to a bygone era of families in station wagons on cross-country journeys to take in the wonders of America, the motel at the north end of Topeka had one story with two wings forming an L around a parking area, and the prerequisite fenced-in swimming pool.
Quinn had woken the night clerk at two a.m. to get a room. Theirs was at the very end of the back portion of the L, farthest from the road. By the time six a.m. rolled around, he and Nate were both up, showered, and dressed.
Nate made a quick trip to pick them up some coffee, then, while they waited for Orlando’s call, they silently went over their gear, cleaning weapons and making sure everything was ready if needed.
“It’s seven,” Nate said a little while later.
Somewhere nearby Orbits was telling The Wolf where the meeting was to take place. At most, Quinn figured it would be another ten or fifteen minutes before Orlando could pin down The Wolf’s destination.
At fourteen minutes after seven, someone knocked on their door.
“Get rid of them,” Quinn told Nate.
His partner walked over to the door, opened it a few inches, and turned back to Quinn. “We, um, have a visitor.”
As Nate swung the door the rest of the way open, Quinn pulled his gun from his shoulder holster.
“Not exactly the greeting I was expecting,” Orlando said.
“What in God’s name are you doing here?” Quinn asked.
She stepped inside so Nate could close the door again. “What do you think I’m doing here? You and boy wonder need help.”
“I never said that.”
“You never not said that.”
He frowned. “I actually did.”
“Must be the hormones. I don’t recall that.”
“You could have just sent Daeng.”
“I brought him with me. He’s in our room.”
“Your room?”
“We landed a couple hours ago, tracked your phone here, and figured we’d get a room to freshen up. He and Ananke should be here in a minute.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“Thank you.”
“I didn’t mean it as a compliment.”
“But I’m taking it that way. Now, would you mind?” she asked, pointing at his hand.
He slipped his gun back into its holster, walked over, and pulled her into his arms. He couldn’t lie to himself. It did feel good to have her here.
When they separated, Orlando said, “So, do you want to know where The Wolf is headed or not?
The car Stafford and Parnell had stolen was a gray Honda Accord. Though it wasn’t that much larger than the C-Max, it was considerably more generic and had less chance of being ID’d as stolen by a local.
Orbits told his men to take their gear out to the car and wait while he prepped the girl for the exchange. As soon as they were gone, he made a big show of filling a syringe with a sedative.
“Before I give this to you,” he said to the woman, “we have one last matter to discuss. I found the door.”
No reaction.
“You know,” he said, “the door those numbers under your tongue lead to. We’re actually only a few miles from it.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I went and took a look at it last night. It was buried under some dirt so it took a little work to clean it off. You know what I found when I did?”