Page 109 of Unlocked

"I'm movin' the meeting up. Tomorrow morning. Ten a.m." A pause, just long enough to let that sink in. "I do hope that works for you."

"That works fine," Archer said.

There was a brief silence on Davis's end, the silence of a man who had expected more resistance and wasn't quite sure what to do without it. "Well. Good, then. I'm glad we're in agreement."

"We should meet tonight," Archer said. "You and I. Before tomorrow."

Another pause. Longer this time. "Tonight?"

"Yes. I think it's in both our interests to have a conversation before we're in a room full of board members."

"Archer, I appreciate the gesture, but I'm not sure what there is to discuss that can't be⁠—"

"I have information about you," Archer said. "You and your relationship to the Curator."

The silence on Davis's end was complete and absolute and lasted just a half second too long.

"I don't know what you're referring to," Davis said.

"Sure you do," Archer said pleasantly. "And you'd like to know what I know. I'd like to meet tonight. We can keep it informal. Just the two of us."

He could hear Davis thinking. Could practically hear the calculation, the weighing of risk against the irresistible pull of information and the even more irresistible pull of being in the same room as Archer Gray the night before the meeting that was going to end Archer Gray's tenure as head of the Society. Davis had never been able to resist gloating. It was his single most reliable quality.

"All right," Davis said finally. "This evening. Where?"

"Riverside Park," Archer said. "The promenade. Nine o'clock."

Another pause. "That's rather outdoors."

"I find I prefer it," Archer said. "Given recent events, I think we're both better served by a location without cameras, don't you?"

Davis laughed, and there was real pleasure in it. "Nine o'clock," he said. "Don't be late." He ended the call.

Archer set the phone down.

The four men in the room were watching him.

"Riverside Park," Ryker said. "Why Riverside Park?"

"Because Davis has a private apartment two blocks from there. A discreet one. Not under his name. He uses it when he needs to be in the city without being seen." Archer looked at him. "He'll feel comfortable. He'll feel like he has the advantage of familiar ground."

"And why do we want him comfortable?" Cash asked.

"Because a comfortable man is a talkative man," Archer said. "And because whoever the Curator is, they are a Society member. I don't want this meeting taking place anywhere near the Society. I don't want them knowing it's happening."

"You think Davis is going to be taken out," Flynn said. It wasn't a question.

"I think the Curator is cleaning house," Archer said. "North. Lebowitz. Kelly. Daniela. Each one was removed at precisely the moment they became a liability. Davis has become a liability. He's loud, and he's compromised, and he's been making moves that draw attention to the operation. The Curator will have noticed that." He paused. "As much as it pains me to admit, I'd rather talk to Davis tonight and offer him a way out than have the Curator kill him. If anyone is going to kill that bastard, it should be me.”

The room absorbed that.

"Archer, if the Curator is watching Davis," Rush said carefully, "then meeting him tonight puts you in the same vicinity as someone who has now killed four people in the last week."

"Yes," Archer agreed. "It does, but I am counting on the Curator not wanting to draw too much attention by killing Davis on the same day as Kelly."

He looked around the room at the four men who had been with him through more situations than he cared to count. Men who had never once, in all the years he'd worked with them, given him reason to doubt their loyalty. Whatever happened tomorrow, whatever the board decided, whatever came next, that was true, and he wanted them to know he knew it.

"Ryker," he said. "I want you to prepare for the board meeting. Everything we have on Davis and his violations. The names Kelly gave us. The dates. The locations. All of it organized and ready to present."