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“Hey, this is Gary, you called last night. We found the Wallachs. They saw the media request and called us. They have a Realtor named Marilyn Wong who’s handling it. She’s shown it a couple of times but hasn’t rented it yet. They gave us her mobile number…”
Lucas took the Realtor’s information, yawned, sat up, decided to clean up before he went looking for her. He did call Rae, and Devlin picked up and said, “Rae’s phone. Lucas?”
“Yeah, I got a call from Austin…”
He explained, said he could meet Rae in fifteen minutes, if she was awake.
“She’s in the shower. Give her twenty minutes. I’ll go tell her. You want me along?”
“Probably not necessary for the first contact…come if you want to.”
“I’ll pass…I’ll get the other guys up, we’ll go get some breakfast.”
“That’s fine. Probably get everybody together afterwards, figure out the next move. See if this Ms. Wong has anything.”
—
Rae met himat her motel door, yawning, equipment bag over her shoulder. She asked, “Get some sleep?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Do McDonald’s again?”
“They’ve got some kind of breakfast downstairs…”
“Yeah, but…”
“Gotta have those Egg McMuffins, huh? That’s fine. You know where we’re going?”
“Not yet. Bring your iPad.”
Lucas and Rae tended to agree on food and got four Sausage and Egg McMuffins for the two of them, along with fries and Diet Cokes. They sat in the car and ate and talked about the hunt.
“I think if we don’t get her today, we’re in trouble,” Rae said, chewing.
“If I was a cheerleader, I’d say, ‘Then let’s get her today.’ ”
“Mr. Gloom.”
“Well, what we’re talking about…”
“Yeah, I don’t like to think about it.” But it was impossible not to think about it. After a moment, Rae asked, “What about Scott’s whole theory? I believe in global warming and all that, but are we reallykilling the earth? Is it even barely possible that getting rid of half the people is the only way to save the rest of them?”
“I don’t believe it,” Lucas said. “I read some pop science websites, and it seems like there are a bunch of different things we could try before we go off killing half the people on earth.”
“Yeah…maybe. I know for sure that we shouldn’t kill five billion people on one guy’s say-so, even if he is some kind of genius.”
“Dr. Evil,” Lucas said.
“But not a funny one.”
—
They talked aboutmutual friends: Virgil Flowers, who’d worked with Rae undercover on an organized-crime heroin sting, and Flowers’s emergence as a thriller writer, whose second novel had made the bottom of theNew York Timesbestseller list; Andres Devlin, and Rae’s relationship with him, which she said had become serious; Bob Matees, who’d been shot to death on assignment with Lucas, and who’d been Rae’s Marshals Service partner and best friend forever.
“Andres would like some kids,” Rae said. “He’d like daughters. When he said that, I thought, ‘Well, maybe.’ But we’ve still got some talking to do.”
“He’s a good guy, and wicked smart, and so are you, so your daughters would be, too,” Lucas said. “You wanna share your fries?”
“No.”
