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Foss shook his head: “What kind of fucking morons would spend nine thousand dollars for a bike?”
—
And after thelast look, Scott said, “We better get moving. They could almost be here by now, if they know about Clarice’s chalet. Clarice can drive the SUV, and Randy and I will ride along. Danielle will follow. Rose can follow us down the hill in the RV. Then she turns north, and we turn south, and stay in touch.”
They’d decided that Turney would try to find campgrounds to park in until the three men were fully recovered, which shouldn’t take more than four or five more days. From there, they’d go wherever seemed best: Denver, possibly, or Salt Lake, or Las Vegas or Phoenix. Those going south would head for the nearest airports, to spread the viral media. They all had genuine passports under different names, but with real photos and real drivers’ licenses to back up the passports. That had taken three careful months for Scott to accomplish. He’d started by renting an apartment in a large complex with poor mailbox security; by spotting people who lived in the complex and had never been abroad and who seemed unlikely to go, at least in the short term; by getting their birth certificates sent to the apartment building and stealing them; and then by submitting passport applications with photos of the Gaia saviors.
The driver’s licenses were a little more complicated, but not much. After spending time in some risky Santa Fe bars, he’d found a man who could get them. He’d been told that in any state where there was a large illegal population, there’d be at least one legitimate employee of the DMV who would be selling real licenses. They’d cost him a thousand dollars each of Catton’s money, but then, it was Catton’s money.
As they were walking out, Catton said, “You know what? I’m goingto take my rifle. I’ll leave it with Rose, she can throw it in a river somewhere, in case I survive, and someday have to answer for Jane. I mean, they don’t know who killed her…”
“Who’s Jane again?” Turney asked, as she took the rifle.
Catton ignored the question and asked, “You know how to use this thing?”
“Oh, sure,” Turney said. “I’m from New Mexico. We’ve got a real nice shooting range in Los Alamos, and not a heck of a lot else to do.”
10
The address that Letty got from Greet, for a Twining Street, didn’t exist in Taos, but there was a Twining Road in Taos Ski Valley, which was twenty miles farther north. Letty and Hawkins agreed that was probably the address they wanted—why would a woman with a multimillion-dollar house in Santa Fe want another one, only an hour and a half away, in a smaller town? A ski resort made more sense, although, Hawkins said, “You can’t always tell with rich people.”
They stopped at the Taos supermarket where Rose Turney had used her credit card, cornered the manager, and Letty showed him her DHS identification and used her iPad to show him a blown-up driver’s license photo of Turney, and a blown-up passport photo of Scott.
The manager didn’t recognize either one of them, but he called his cashiers over, one at a time, and a woman named Karen Benton saidshe recognized Turney, who she said had been in at least twice. “She was a friendly sort—you know, chatty. She was asking about the town and all.” She hadn’t seen her that day or the day before. She didn’t think Scott had been with her.
“She’s not a regular—what’d she do?” the cashier asked.
“She’s a missing person,” Letty lied. “If she’s okay…then we’re not so worried. She didn’t mention where she was staying?”
“Nope. Not to me.”
The store had a Starbucks, and they got a coffee and a tea, and from the bakery, a plastic box of four cherry turnovers. “Ah, more fat and sugar,” Hawkins said. “Just what I needed to keep the waistline growing.”
“I haven’t had anything to eat since breakfast,” Letty said. “I may eat all four. And you’re about as fat as a rake.”
“What’d you have for breakfast?” Hawkins asked.
“Sugar and fat.”
—
Back in thecar, Hawkins said, “Okay, we’re definitely on their trail, and they’re probably up at this ski valley.” He added, “If Turney’s infected…that supermarket…”
Lucas called from Santa Fe: “We’ve got a problem. We checked a shed and found some security service signs, which look like they’d just been pulled out of the ground. There was a camera on a phone pole we didn’t see going in. It’s possible there was a silent alarm. If it went to a cell phone, they may know we were at the house and that we’re coming after them.”
“That’s called stepping on your dick,” Letty said to Hawkins.
Lucas: “What?”
“I’m explaining American idioms to the MI5 guy,” Letty said. “What do you want us to do?”
“Hang on there. We’ll all go up to the ski resort together. I keep thinking about that rifle—we know they’re willing to use it, and Rae and I have armor. Also, Greet is checking on the security service and cell phone alert.”
“We’ll be at the Albertsons Market, right on the main drag at the south end of town,” Letty said. “Or around there. I’ll get some satellite overheads of the house on my iPad. And, a cashier at the Albertsons says Turney’s been in, but she hasn’t seen her in the past couple of days.”
“I don’t know what that means. Anyway, we’re rolling, see you in an hour and a half,” Lucas said.
“Or a little longer,” Letty said. “They’re rebuilding part of the highway, it’s gonna slow you down. We were almost two hours coming up.”
