The Operator
Page 104

“Did you set the GPS?” she asked, pointing it out with her chin.
Silas exhaled heavily, still not fully awake. “No.” Thick finger extended, he toggled through the touch screen to find the destination. “And again no. Where the blazes is Nokewa?”
Lips pressed together, she drove past the exit. Her computer told her it would recalculate, and the screen shifted to show her getting off at the next exit.
Silas ran a hand over his sleep-mussed hair. “I thought this was an unregistered car.”
“It is,” she said, then jumped as her phone rang. Uneasy, she looked at the screen. The number was coming from . . . Uruguay? Clearly it was being rerouted to hide its location.
“You going to get that?”
“Reeves. Answer the phone,” she said loudly, and when nothing happened, she said it again, this time using a fake accent. “Reeves. Answer the phone.”
This time it worked, and her grip on the wheel tensed. “Hello?”
“Peri Reed?” a woman said, the sound of wind and ducks behind her.
Shit. “Sorry. Wrong number.” Peri reached for the disengage button.
“This is Helen Yeomon. Bill works for me,” the woman said, and Peri jerked her fingers back. “I’ve heard you’re wanting out and not averse to causing a significant amount of damage to achieve it. Would you be available to talk with me about it?”
His head going back and forth, Silas touched her knee.
“I’m not coming back,” Peri said, her voice holding all her determination.
“That’s why I want to meet,” the woman said. “I’m loath to lose you, but I understand that when it’s time, it’s time, and perhaps after we talk, I’ll be better able to convince Bill that this is the right direction for everyone. Do you have the morning free?”
Do I have the morning free? She looked at Silas in disbelief, but he was pointing at the screen. They’d found her car. Set her GPS. They couldn’t gain control of her vehicle, but clearly they knew where she was. “You want me to follow your bread crumbs so you can bury me in a salt marsh?” she said, sifting through the options. “Not a high enough payout for so great a risk.”
“Risk?” Helen made a disparaging noise. “If you want to risk Bill sticking his nose into it, we can meet at my office. I thought you’d prefer open space and many exits. Bill is unaware I’m meeting with you today, and I promise to keep it that way.”
But a marsh, a true marsh, wasn’t open or easy to exit. And still, even as she thought it, the curiosity wound through her. Hesitating, she looked at Silas for his opinion.
“We should stash the Evocane,” he mouthed, and she held down the toggle that would normally put her flashers on. The car’s onboard monitor whined, lifted, and slid back to show the car safe. Silas turned awkwardly in his seat to open the through-hatch to the trunk, pulling her short-job bag forward and onto his lap. There were only four doses left now, after she’d shot up last night at a rest stop.
“I’m trying to find a gracious compromise,” Helen said as if growing impatient. “That, and perhaps stop throwing good resources after bad. Bill is very good at what he does, but he doesn’t know when to let go. Can I expect you and Dr. Denier this morning?”
His thick fingers were nimbly filling two syringes with Evocane as Silas shook his head no, but Peri liked Helen’s no-nonsense approach. “You understand it’s not my habit to take people at their word,” Peri hedged.
Helen chuckled. “Neither do I. But we both got where we are by taking risks. I’d like to meet you. See firsthand what Bill has developed with you. You’re important to me. If I meant ill will, I would’ve given Bill your car’s address and had him bring you in, but as it is, I’d rather have a quiet chat. I hope you decide to come.”
With a click, the connection ended from Helen’s end. Focus distant in thought, Peri used her thumb to open the safe, but she frowned when Silas put the syringe of accelerant and the two Evocane syringes he’d just made inside. It wasn’t truly secure. Anyone with a Mantis catalog would know it existed, and she didn’t like putting them together like that.
Taking the accelerant out, Peri twisted the knob off the drive shaft and dropped the syringe into the column, leaving only the two syringes of Evocane in the safe.
“That’s not very secure,” Silas said as she recapped it, twisting it slightly to make sure it was aligned properly.
“It’s also not in the manual,” she said, and he nodded in understanding.
“Which is why I want you to carry half the Evocane,” he said, handing her the original vial with only two doses left in it. “In case we have to run.”
She dropped the heavy glass into her jacket pocket, seeing the wisdom in it even as she loathed carrying it to a meeting with the money behind Bill. Peri looked at the screen as it slid back down. The GPS wanted her to exit. Without a word, she did.
Silas straightened in his seat, clearly uneasy. “This is so bad for my asthma,” he said, the familiar phrase coming from him startling her.
“She’s like eight minutes away.” Peri gestured at the road ahead of them, silent and empty at the early hour. “If she wanted me dead, there’d be a car behind us ready to shoot out my tires. You see anyone back there?”
Grunting, he turned in the small seat to look. “I still don’t like it,” he muttered when he spun back and began searching the glove box. There was a set of needles and a ball of yarn in there, and Peri’s head started to hurt. “You got any more weapons in here?” Silas muttered.
“I wouldn’t take one even if I did,” she said. There was a stop sign before the right onto an even smaller road. “They’ll only confiscate it. All the Glocks stay in the car.”
Clearly peeved, Silas leaned back into the seat, big arms over his chest. “What does Jack say?” he asked, and she felt herself warm.
“He hasn’t weighed in,” she said, not sure whether that pleased her or not. “But this woman is holding Bill’s purse strings, and I want to talk to her.” They had left the cluster of commercial buildings beside the expressway behind, and it had gotten wild surprisingly fast with winter-bare trees and scrub. Carr Pond? she thought as they passed a “Natural Resources” sign. “If I can convince her that I’m not going to go work for anyone else, she might get him to back off. Bill is a dick. If anyone can get him to back off, it’ll be the one paying his rent.” And then maybe I won’t have to kill him.