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I studied him carefully, saying nothing. When we first met, I hadn’t trusted the guy. But he’d come to be a loyal member of the team and a good friend. And as a mostly-redeemed thief, he did know a lot about con artists. “She could have started off seducing him and then fallen for him for real,” I countered. “It happens. Her story could still be bullshit.”
Gabriel nodded. “It could. But she knows she’s putting his life in danger. If she really cares about him—and I think she does—and her story’s just a hoax, why wouldn’t she tell him the truth and send him back to us to keep him safe?”
I stared at him and, for the first time, a thread of doubt began to twist in my stomach.
No. That was crazy. Yeshevskaya was lying. We were on the right side.
The doubt twisted again. We’re on the right side...aren’t we?
46
COLTON
We raced down the road, then down a track that led to an old industrial area. Hidden among the buildings, we finally stopped for a moment to catch our breath. I leaned against a wall, panting, then turned to face it and rested my overheated forehead against the deliciously cool concrete.
“We’re going to need transport,” said Tanya. “We’re losing time.”
She was right: we’d been due to arrive at the location of the weapons cache, or whatever the hell it was, about an hour before Maravic could get there. Every minute we were on foot, he caught up.
I looked around. Beyond the industrial area, the ground sloped down towards a town. “Come on.”
We hurried down the slope but it still took us a half hour to get into the outskirts of the town. “We need to find something to steal,” said Tanya.
The problem was, it was an upmarket commercial area and the cars were all modern ones with electronic locks and immobilizers. There weren’t many old beaters we could easily hotwire. Plus, it was broad daylight and it was all big, open parking lots with people strolling around: there were no quiet back alleys. And we were running out of time. I suddenly felt tired of always being the ones struggling and stealing and scraping along while our enemies had billions. “Fuck this,” I muttered, and marched towards a Ford dealership.
“Where are you going?” asked Tanya, chasing after me.
“To get us some transport.” The team paid well, and I’d been letting the money just pile up in my bank account. I let the others think I was frugal, claimed that I just didn’t want to replace my old, rusty wreck of a truck. But the truth was, I was scared of spending money. I was raised poor and it felt like, if I dared to use the money, someone was going to come and take it away. But I wasn’t going to let people die just because I was superstitious.
I pushed open the door of the dealership. “I want an F150 Raptor,” I told the salesman before he could even open his mouth. “I want all the extras and I’ll pay an extra five percent if I can drive out of here in ten minutes.”
The salesman gaped at me, then ran to his computer to start looking at what he had in stock. Tanya grabbed my arm. “They’ll want ID! Bank details! They’ll know where we are!” We’d been paying cash for things this whole time because we knew they’d be watching our cards.
I shrugged. “They already know where we are. For once, it doesn’t matter.”
“But they’ll know our license plate!”
I nodded towards the parking lot. “We’ll swap it with someone else’s before we leave. The cops will be looking for the wrong truck.”
She stared at me, then slid her arm around my waist and snugged herself into my side. “Smart,” she acknowledged, and my chest filled with pride.
The clerk had enlisted a couple of friends and they were frantically racing through the paperwork. Once I’d called my bank to confirm that, yes, it really was me and I really did want to buy a car, I scribbled a signature on some forms and the salesman was walking me out to a brand new, cherry red F150 pick-up. Less than ten minutes had passed: it’s amazing how fast things can move when there’s money on the line.
I climbed behind the wheel, slammed the door and looked around in amazement. I was used to glimpsing the road through rust holes in the floor. Now I was sitting in a leather seat that felt like a favorite armchair, behind a console that looked like a spaceship, with enough power under the hood to spin the earth when I hit the gas. In inhaled reverently. I understood now what people meant by that new car smell.
Then I glanced at the woman sitting next to me and I couldn’t help grinning like an idiot. It was the first time I’d been able to stop and take in the fact that we were together, now. We were fugitives, we were hopelessly outnumbered and the whole country was about to go to hell...but right at that moment, I didn’t care. I was happy.
