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“We’re prepared. We have a counterspell for any spell he might possibly use. I’m more worried about you getting caught in the crossfire.”
He gave me a gentle kiss that lingered. “And now we’d better get out of here. Before long, they’ll realize they’re following the wrong person. You need to meet up with Marcia in the ladies room in the dining concourse.”
We indulged in one last kiss before sneaking out of the hiding place. We had to wait for a train to leave, and then we returned to the platform. He blended into the crowd of people getting off the adjacent train, and I headed for the bathroom. I spotted the tail lurking nearby, watching the doorway, so I guessed Marcia was inside. He didn’t give me a second glance when I passed him on my way in.
I didn’t see Marcia right away, but when I called out her name, she popped out of a stall. “Is he still out there?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Then it looks like it worked.” We traded coats again, and I gave her the hat and glasses. She gave me my shopping bags. “Did you get what you needed?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t sound very enthusiastic.”
“He’s got a crazy plan, and my warnings only made it worse.”
“If he wasn’t coming up with crazy plans, he wouldn’t be the guy you fell in love with. Now, fix your hair. You’ve got hat hair.”
She took off her wig and smoothed her hair before heading out, and I checked myself in the mirror. She was right. I did look rather frightful. I fixed my hair as well as I could and touched up my lipstick, then took a few breaths before leaving the bathroom. The shopping bags felt heavier than they had before, and I noticed that there were a couple of new ones. She’d really done her job in covering for me. I figured that was enough shopping to have validated my visit to Grand Central, so I headed for the subway, feeling my tail fall in behind me.
I changed trains at Union Square to go across town and walked the rest of the way home. I noticed my follower reflected in the glass of the front door as I unlocked it, and I wondered how long he’d wait out there before he realized I wasn’t going anywhere.
With the big MSI operation planned for the next day, I didn’t dare do anything that might make the Collegium suspicious while they were watching me, even if they were just keeping an eye on me because they thought Roger was up to something. What were they even looking for, anyway? Clandestine meetings with his secret army?
My personal phone rang, and I saw on the caller ID that it was Marcia. “Hey, just checking to see if you made it home okay.”
“Yeah, I’m home. But the subway was super crowded, and there were more people than I’m used to on the sidewalk on the way home.” I hoped she got my meaning. I went to the French doors, hiding behind
the curtains to watch the guy still standing across the street. Him lurking out there was obvious enough that I thought I’d look pretty dense if I didn’t notice it, so I added, “I think I’m being stalked.”
“Ooh, creepy,” she said. “Are you sure?”
“It’s hard to tell. But there’s a guy who’s been lurking on my street for long enough that I’m starting to think I should bring him some cocoa.”
“Maybe you should call the police.”
“Maybe I should, just to report the lurking. I don’t know if he’s actually following me.” If he’d suddenly moved out of sight, I’d have known for sure that they were listening to me, but he stayed where he was.
“Can you hang on a sec? I’ve got a call coming through on my other line.”
While she was away, I stood watching the lurker. In a way, it was nice to have my paranoia validated. It would have been a total waste if I’d taken all those precautions all this time and nobody had been watching me at all.
“You still there?” Marcia asked, and there was something different about her voice.
“Yeah. Is something wrong?”
“Did your friend you ran into this evening say anything about his plans for the rest of the day?”
“No, nothing in particular. Why?”
“I just heard from Rod, and he hasn’t been able to get in touch with him.”
My whole body seemed to turn to ice. “What?”
Sixteen
“Whoa, calm down!” Marcia said, but I noticed that she didn’t sound very calm. “I didn’t say that, just that Rod hasn’t been able to get in touch with him. He’s probably just working late and not answering his phone.”
