“We’re called auditors, not assassins.”
“Of course you are. Such a bland government title for something so horrible.”
He eyed me. “Yeah, well, it’s not exactly the same as painting pretty pictures of people having sex, but it pays the bills.”
I glared at him. “Is that what you think I do? Paint dirty pictures?”
“Of course not. They’re supposed to represent true love, right?” He said it sarcastically. “The fact that the people are naked just helps raise the collectible value.”
Despite my gratitude for his saving my life, I didn’t like his tone. It was hard enough to get respect in the art world without somebody else labelling my work pornography. Although, I suppose without that notorious reputation, I wouldn’t have gotten half as much press as I’d received since getting out of school.
We headed down another floor and I tried not to twist my ankle as we quickly rounded each corner. “I don’t care what you think.”
“If it’s any consolation, the work of Sophie Shaw will be very sought after a couple decades from now. I saw one recently for nearly a hundred grand.”
A hundred grand? I remembered what Anna said to me earlier that evening. That if I was dead, my paintings would be worth way more. Looked like she was right.
“Adam, you have to—”
“Shh,” he commanded. We’d reached the bottom of the stairs of whatever building we were in. He had a gun drawn and, with his back flat against the wall, he peered out of a window to the side of a set of doors.
“They’re out front,” he said. “This is the back exit. I think we have the chance—”
“Adam!” an angry voice bellowed from above us. “Where the hell are you?”
It was Harris. He was awake and he sounded mad as hell. The sound of hard-soled shoes thundering down the stairs echoed around us. Without waiting another second, Adam pushed the door open with his shoulder and we burst outside.
“Stop!” Harris shouted.
I heard a gunshot. Then another.
“Watch out,” Adam snapped, wrapping his arm around me to pull me out of the way. Part of the door frame splintered off as the bullets made contact.
Relying on instinct only, I ran with Adam away from the building and down an alleyway. Several alleyways, in fact, until I was hopelessly lost. It was dark and cold and my feet were burning from running in my heels. I was exhausted and scared and shaking like a leaf.
“Please, stop,” I begged. “I can’t go any further.”
“No, you’re right.” Adam looked around, before putting his gun away. “This is a good place.”
“A good place for what? I need to go home. I need . . . I need to go to the police.”
He shook his head. “They can’t help you.”
“What do you mean they can’t help me?”
“They’re in on this. Theyknow.Maybe not all of them. But the right people know about auditors from the future. It’s fully condoned. They understand why the future must be kept pure. If you go to them, they’ll hand you right over to Harris and the others with no questions asked. They get the list of any problem cases just like we do.”
“The present and the future working together for a common goal.”
“Pretty much. The only thing separating us is twenty years.”
“What about the past – all the horrible things that happened then? Why didn’t you kill a few bad-asses – dictators, serial killers – who hurt a lot of people?”
“Because it wasn’t in the Books, of course,” Adam replied simply, his jaw tight. “We only take care of the glitches. Otherwise, the past and the present stand as they are. As theywere.”
“So you’d kill me but you wouldn’t go back and kill Hitler because that wasn’t your assignment.”
“We have to operate within a two decade time frame, but even if we could go back further, you’re right. We wouldn’t have killedhim without a direct order like yours. But Ididn’tkill you, did I?”
