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“Ugh, what are you looking at?”
“These?” Walker asked innocently. “Photographs of Einar’s victims.”
Kopano shook his head, suddenly hot despite the air-conditioning. He pulled at his collar and loosened his tie. He was dressed like a salesman—dress shirt, tie, slacks. The women both wore white tunics, khakis, and headscarves. Walker also wore a light brown jacket to conceal her sidearm.
“Put them away,” Kopano said, waving his head. “You already know what happened to them. Now it’s just morbid.”
“Reminds me what kind of monster we’re dealing with,” Walker said. “Also, think it might be motivation to get our friend the sheikh to work with us.” She held up one of the photos—a squadron of men in body armor, ripped practically limb from limb—so that Ran could see it. “What do you think of that plan, Ran?”
With a quickness that surprised Walker, Ran slapped the photo away. “Get that out of my face.”
“I need you motivated, too,” Walker said, sliding the pictures back into their envelope. “That’s all.”
Kopano cleared his throat. He had decided that if Ran was going to be the malcontent, he would try to be the diplomatic one, maybe get on Walker’s good side. She didn’t seem like such a bad lady, kidnapping and chip implantation aside. She was letting him drive, after all.
“You really think those pictures will . . . motivate the sheikh to help us?” Kopano asked, giving Walker a chance to explain her plan and act all in charge. He found that adults liked that.
“They would motivate me,” Walker replied. “Knowing there was a psycho Garde out there killing people? That he knows where I live? That I could be next on his list?” Walker shrugged. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and catch Einar in the middle of trying to murder the guy.”
“You have a strange definition of luck,” Kopano said.
“Anyway, it’s the best lead we’ve got. We haven’t been able to pin down the identities of many of Einar’s former . . . employers. Only got this one because his daughter—Rabiya, right?—got taken by the Harvesters. She told them who her father was while she was trying to talk them out of killing her.”
Staring out the back window, Ran spoke without looking at Walker. “While we are here, you should arrest the sheikh. He works with the Foundation.”
Kopano watched Walker out of the corner of his eye. She had a way of changing the subject whenever the Foundation came up. She even avoided saying its name when discussing Einar’s victims, even though membership was what they all had in common.
“One thing at a time,” Walker said simply.
Kopano tapped his hands happily on the wheel. “Then that means you will arrest them, eventually.”
“I’ve got no jurisdiction to arrest anyone or—hell—even be in this country,” Walker replied. “Point is, the world is more complicated than you two make it out to be.”
Ran fell silent again. They had left the city behind, trading the grid of tall buildings for a highway that cut through the desert. Even this highway seemed opulent to Kopano, with its equidistant palm trees and patches of soothing emerald green grass.
“I think my dad would love it here,” he said. “He used to tell me about the world being complicated too, Agent Walker. It’s how he explained ripping people off.”
Walker stared at him for a moment, then turned to look out her own window. Kopano drove them on in silence.
Led by the GPS, Kopano steered them off the highway and onto a private road. The pavement glittered—Kopano swore it was laced with gold flakes. No one said a word until the palace came into view, the building rising out of the desert like something from a fairy tale, all sandstone columns and parapets, a parking lot out front cluttered with luxury cars shaded by groves of olive trees. Kopano shook his head—the audaciousness and splendor were like nothing he’d ever seen. Even his dad couldn’t have imagined this place in his wildest dreams.
“Someone actually lives here?” Kopano asked.
“Crazy, isn’t it?” Walker replied.
As the grandeur of the palace wore off, Kopano noticed the guards. There were dozens of them, some posted outside the front door, others on the roof and its walkways. They all wore white thobes and carried huge machine guns.
Kopano swallowed. “They know we’re coming, right?”
“They know,” Walker said flatly. “Operation Watchtower arranged to free up some of the sheikh’s questionable international assets in exchange for fifteen minutes.”
Ran leaned forward to peer up at the many guards. “Are you sure about this?” she asked. “We were not exactly kind to Rabiya when we last met. They may hold a grudge.”
“Not kind to her?” Walker asked. “Way I heard it, you saved her from getting burned to death by a bunch of religious yahoos.”
“Yeah,” Kopano said. “But then we forced her to teleport us . . .”
“And she got home safe, eventually,” Walker countered. “We’re here trying to catch the guy who got her into all that mess. They’ll cooperate.”
“If you say so,” Ran said.
The three of them got out of the car. Immediately, Kopano sensed eyes upon them. Eyes and guns, all the guards shifting or stopping in their patrols, angling their bodies towards them. Kopano let Walker take the lead, the woman walking confidently towards the palace’s double-door entrance, but he put himself between the gunmen and Ran, making sure that his skin was hardened.
“That’s far enough.” A guard stepped out from the shade of a tree and held up his hand. Unlike the others, his thobe was black and he wore a golden pin on his lapel—a boss of some kind. He approached the trio with his rifle ready but low.
“I’m Karen Walker. We have an appointment with the sheikh.”
“You have an appointment,” the guard said. He gestured at Kopano and Ran. “These two may not enter. Their kind cause nothing but trouble.”
Kopano frowned at that. Ran stared dead-eyed at the guard. Walker looked over her shoulder.
“Stay here,” she told them.
“What if you get in trouble?” Kopano asked.
“I’ll be fine,” Walker said.
Kopano and Ran exchanged a look, but what could they do? If something happened to Walker in there—if she was killed—they’d be shocked into unconsciousness and probably soon be dead themselves. That was a lot of trust to place in someone.
“Be careful,” Ran said coldly.
The guard led Walker into the palace, leaving Ran and Kopano alone with the dozens of steely-eyed guards. Kopano shifted uncomfortably.
“This sucks,” he said. “I wanted to see inside.”
There was movement up on the wall. Among the dour guards and their identical thobes, Kopano spotted a flash of color. There was a girl up there in a golden hijab and a leopard-print dress. Kopano couldn’t be sure at this distance, but he guessed it was Rabiya. He raised a hand to awkwardly wave. She peered down at him and Ran for a moment, then disappeared back into the palace.
“Everyone’s so friendly,” Kopano said.
Ran frowned at him. Then, she licked her thumb and rubbed at a spot on his collar.
“You have something on you,” she said. “Is this . . . blood?”
“Damn, good thing Walker didn’t notice,” Kopano said with relief.
He reached into his pants pocket, moving cautiously in case any of their hawkeyed guards thought he was reaching for a weapon, and flashed Ran the bloodstained microchip that he’d pulled out of his head.
“What . . . ?” Ran said.
“I got it out,” Kopano said. “The chip.”
Ran’s eyes lit up. She moved in closer to Kopano, speaking quietly.
“How did you do it?”
Kopano demonstrated passing the fingers of one hand through the palm of his other hand and wiggled his eyebrows.
“I don’t know what I should do with it now,” he said, pocketing the chip again. “Smash it, maybe, or . . . ?”
“No!” Ran hissed. “T
hey might notice it has been disabled. Keep it on you at all times.”
“Okay, right,” Kopano said. “Smart.”
Ran tilted her head and flipped her hair back so her scar was in view. “Can you do mine?”
“I, uh . . .” Kopano swallowed. “I don’t know. Doing myself was one thing but what if—I could touch your brain on accident or I don’t know what else. It’s a big risk.”
“A risk I am willing to take to get this thing out of me.”
“Okay, but maybe I don’t want to risk accidentally lobotomizing my friend.”
Ran frowned at him. Kopano frowned back.
Before anything else could be said, there was a small commotion at the palace gates. Rabiya emerged from within, flanked by guards who struggled to match her purposeful stride. Kopano and Ran both tensed up as she approached.
