There was a long pause while Delgado gritted his teeth and rubbed his head. “All right. Fair enough. I want to watch, though, okay? I want to see him go down. You owe me that much.”
Anders nodded. “Try to get some rest. General Remar and I are going to locate Manus and Gallagher. I’ll contact you as soon as we have.”
CHAPTER
43
Manus lay on his back in one of the beds, one eye closed, the other open just a crack. Evie had been in the bathroom for almost an hour, presumably composing her message to Hamilton’s editor. And then she had come out and sat on one of the chairs in the small room, keeping watch through the window as she had said. Now Manus was waiting for her to do what he thought she was planning next.
He knew they were already at cross-purposes. And while he respected her determination, he also thought confronting the director head-on was suicidal. They had no good options, but Manus was sure returning the thumb drive and a promise of silence would be the least worst of the realistic possibilities. If he could get the drive, he would do what he had to, and hope Evie would understand after that it was for her own good. And Dash’s.
He thought about where she had told Delgado she had hidden the drive. There was no way to be sure, of course, but Manus sensed it was someplace she had in fact considered and then rejected. The best lies were generally the ones closest to the truth, and in the confusion and terror of the Sprinter, a smart person like Evie would have reached for something familiar, something real.
Besides, the director had said her cell phone geolocation records indicated she hadn’t been home since retrieving the drive. Manus had searched her car — and, he thought with a jolt of fury and disgust, Delgado would have been no less comprehensive in searching her person. A good hiding place had to be both secure and accessible, with familiarity also a plus, and for Evie, the senior center would have been all three. If she had hidden the drive somewhere in the women’s room, she had chosen an exceptionally clever spot, because Manus had searched the room carefully on just this kind of hunch. Or she’d chosen poorly, and the drive had been discovered by a third party. It was also possible she’d placed it somewhere in her father’s room. Regardless of the exact location, Manus had a feeling the senior center was the place.
He waited another half hour, then deepened his breathing. He couldn’t hear it himself, but he could feel it and knew it would be audible to Evie. A few minutes went by, and then he was gratified to see her walk over to Dash’s bed. Manus couldn’t see what she was doing without turning his head, but he thought he knew.
A minute later, he saw them heading to the door. The boy had on his backpack; Evie was holding her bag in one hand and the laptop under her arm. Manus imagined the conversation she must have had with the sleepy child: We have to go, Dash. We’re going to meet Mr. Manus later. For now he needs to sleep. No questions, okay? I’ll explain everything soon.
Something like that, anyway.
The moment they were gone, Manus got up and watched through the window as they headed into the front office.
She was on her way to get the thumb drive, as he’d expected. And he would be there waiting for her.
CHAPTER
44
Evie and Dash walked into the front office. There was an old guy sitting behind the desk — the one Marvin had described, presumably — watching a small television that appeared not much newer than he did. He looked up and said, “Help you?”
“I just wanted to return the laptop,” Evie said, trying to sound blasé.
“Oh,” the man said, apparently realizing she must have been the person for whom Marvin borrowed it. “Sure.”
“And if you could call us a cab.”
“At this hour? You must have an early flight.”
“That’s right.”
The man looked at her swollen lip and his expression darkened. “Say, how’d you get that lip?”
“Hmm? Oh, just a stupid accident.”
“A stupid accident, huh? That big fella hit you? There was something about him, I could tell.”
“What? No. No. Nothing like that.”
“You protecting him? I’ve seen this kind of thing before. Now you’re running off with your little boy to protect him, too. Sneaking out while the big bastard is sleeping off a drunk. And probably not for the first time, is my guess.”
“Look, I appreciate your concern, but it’s really not like that.”
“The hell it isn’t,” the old guy said, picking up the receiver of a landline phone. “I’m calling the cops.”
“No!” Evie said, alarmed at how quickly and weirdly her simple plan was being hijacked by this codger. “No, please, I promise you, it isn’t what you think. Please.”
The old guy paused, the receiver halfway to his ear. Then he shook his head as though doubting his own judgment, and put the receiver back in its cradle. “You sure you know what you’re doing?”
The question was obviously pro forma, but nonetheless for an instant it caught Evie off guard because, good God, could she have any less an idea of what she was doing?
Then she got it together. She nodded and placed the laptop on the counter. “Quite sure. And really, thank you for your concern. Even though I promise you it’s misplaced.”
The old guy looked at Dash. “You all right, son?”
In his sleepiness and confusion, Dash hadn’t managed to read the man’s lips. He looked at Evie, and she signed a translation. Dash turned back to the old guy and gave him a tired thumbs-up.
“Oh,” the old guy said, nodding as though this explained everything. “Deaf, is he? Like his father?”
Evie smiled. The smile felt overbright, but at this point she had no idea how else to react.
“That cab,” she said. “If you could.”
CHAPTER
45
Remar closed the door behind Delgado and turned to the director. He tried to keep the concern — no, the outright distress — out of his expression, but he doubted he was notably successful.
“I know,” the director said, pacing. “It’s bad.”
“Bad? We’ve got a thumb drive all about God’s Eye floating around with no idea where. We’ve got your junkyard dog helping the woman who took it. Oh, and gutting our own operatives while he’s at it. Have you ever thought about how much Manus knows? How badly he could incriminate us if he turns? Or make that, now that he has turned.”
Of course, there was some nuance Remar was deliberately leaving out. Manus was the director’s man, having done God knew what on the director’s orders. The truth was, and as far as the world would be concerned, Remar had nothing to do with Manus. Everyone knew the director was a fanatic about operational security. It stood to reason that whatever existed between the director and his personal contractor was between them only.
The director stopped pacing and tugged at his chin. “I don’t think he has turned, actually. As I said, I think he wants to get us that drive. But he doesn’t want the woman harmed, either. I think he’s going to cooperate. Possibly even contact us. At which point, we thank him for his troubles and have Jones’s detachment put him down.”
Remar didn’t respond. There was something so cold about the matter-of-fact way the director had put it. Whatever else Manus was, his loyalty had always been exemplary. To hear the director so casually describe… euthanizing him was unnerving.
“Well,” Remar said, “I’m glad we have a plan, anyway. There’s just one thing missing. Where the hell are they? Gallagher is fundamentally a civilian, but Manus is CIA and Spec Ops trained. Between the two of them, they know a hell of a lot about our capabilities. Sure, eventually we’ll find them, but I don’t think ‘eventually’ is quite going to cut it here. Unless you’re planning on just waiting for Manus to call in?”