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“No,” she said. “Pansy has it. She gave me an unencrypted copy on a second device. Jesus. ”
He whispered something under his breath in a language she didn’t even remotely recognize, and hit the hands-free call button on the car steering wheel. It took an agonizingly long moment for the call to go through, and of course, when it picked up, it was an automated message. Patrick waited through it impatiently and, as soon as the beep sounded, said, “Manny, Pansy, if you haven’t checked the thumb drive for trackers and bugs, do it now, right now. Call when you know. McCallister out. ”
“You know, if I gave them something with a tracker in it…”
“Manny will freak the fuck out,” Patrick said grimly. “And move. And it may be days before we hear from him. ”
“If ever,” Bryn said. She felt a rising tide of panic again. “He’d know I didn’t do it deliberately. Won’t he?”
Patrick visibly composed himself, and relaxed the tense muscles in his arms and back. “He won’t blame you,” he said. It sounded confident, but it was a lie, and Bryn knew it. “Pansy will calm him down. ”
“Patrick, if they came after me, they must have gone after them first. ”
“Address,” he said, after a short, dark pause, and when she gave it, he headed in that direction.
Chapter 10
The warehouse looked just the same to Bryn’s eyes, only now, at night, it was lit up like a spaceship. Manny must have paid a fortune, not just in electricity, but in halogen bulbs. Patrick drove up to the gates and got out to show himself to the camera.
Nothing happened.
Bryn tuned the radio to the AM channel she’d used earlier, but there was nothing but static. No voice, even an unfriendly one, to indicate there was anyone at all inside the warehouse.
Patrick pressed the button on the control panel and said, “Manny, I know you’re in there. Let us in. Please. ”
Nothing. Not a whisper. Bryn got out of the car, too. There was little traffic this time in the neighborhood, so it was quiet enough to hear the low-level buzz of the lighting.
“Those two couldn’t have gotten in here, even if they did find the place,” Bryn said. “It’s Fort Knox. ”
Patrick slammed his hand down on the control again. “Manny! Answer the goddamn radio now or I’m calling the police and telling them there are shots fired and a hostage situation inside. You can try to explain it to them. ”
The static went on, and on, for what seemed like eternity, and then the speaker clicked and Pansy’s voice said, “I’ll meet you at the gate, Pat. Stay in the camera’s view. ”
It took about ten minutes, and when Pansy came out, she was driving a big SUV, something with lots of power and thick, bullet-resistant glass—it looked like it was on loan from the Secret Service, or (more likely) a South American drug lord. Pansy was tiny in comparison when she hopped down from the cab and walked over. She was wearing a holster clipped to her blue jeans waistband, but it was empty. She held the matching semiauto pistol down at her side—ready but not threatening.
Bryn thought she looked incredibly tense.
Pansy said, “Two men showed up at the gates after you left, Bryn. They drove around, cut the fence, and got as far as the elevator, but they couldn’t hack the scanner. Gave it a damn good try, th
ough. After they left, I looked at the thumb drive, and there was a tracking device built in—GPS enabled. We killed it, of course, but I’ve spent the last couple of hours trying to talk Manny down from running for Belize. ”
“They came after me, too,” Bryn said. “But I didn’t have the drive anymore. ”
“Then they were surveilling you before you got here. Once they realized we were a hard target, I guess they went for you first. ” Pansy sighed and holstered her weapon. “These are not amateurs. If they’re advance for some kind of serious cleanup crew, we’re on the radar now, and they’ll be back for you, and for me and Manny. I’m sorry, but we have to move. There’s no choice. ”
“Please don’t,” Bryn said. “I didn’t mean for this to blow back on the two of you—you have to know that. ”
“I know. ” Pansy looked grim, but also grimly determined. “Look, I like you. I trust you. But the fact is that I made the call to bring you here, let you in, and take something from your hands that compromised Manny, and that just doesn’t fly. Just because he likes you doesn’t mean he won’t walk away. And just because I like you doesn’t mean I won’t let him. ”
“Promise me you’ll call when you’re settled. ”
Pansy shook her head slowly. “I can’t,” she said. “Jesus, Bryn, Manny’s sliding over the edge with this thing. He’s scared, and I agree. Seven people dead already, plus the three on the video…mercs sniffing around the perimeter…These are not people he wants to mess with. He loves the intellectual puzzle of working with you, but he’s not going to take risks with our lives. Not for you. ”
“Wait,” Patrick said, as she backed away from the still-locked gate toward her SUV. “Six months ago, before he started modifying the formula itself, he had a separate drug developed to block Protocols in the nanites. Is it shelf stable?”
“As far as I know,” Pansy said. “There’s a box of it in the back. ”
“Then get me the box, and the formula for that, until he feels safe enough to get back in touch,” Patrick said. “It’ll do for now. Please, Pansy. It’s her life at risk, too, and she can’t run. ”
