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.Ariel was already in the vehicle, her soft features visible through the thick plexiplastic."Oh, should I leave them the ignition code, too?" I called, my anger registering."No," he returned, looking at me as he pulled himself into the van, "they already know it—you had it on record at the storage facility, you know.Come on."I wasn't going anywhere.I wasn't going to leave my car here, with people I didn't know, while I was running away from the most efficient and effective police force in the world, running for no reason I could discern—"Drew, please." Sha was standing beside me then."I'll explain it to you, what I can, anyway.I don't know why Alexi is doing this, but your friend is right.They tried to kill us—you, too.Please, come on."The urgency in the voice, coupled with the desperation, was almost enough to make me surrender.But the fingers that curved over my hand, the palm that connected with mine, took away any opposition.I was in the van before I knew how to think.Derek drove the vehicle well, with the familiarity of a public employee.We made it back to the highway with no difficulty."Get some sleep," he ordered, looking in the rear view mirror at our two passengers."You'll be answering a few questions very soon." Then he looked to me, that half-grin back on his face."Welcome to a life of crime, Mr.Attorney.Or, should I say, more blatant violations of the law?"I was too disoriented to respond.The drive was long, but probably not as long as it seemed; there's something about looking over your shoulder constantly that takes the pleasure out of—well, everything.Sha and Ariel resisted at first, but it wasn't long before the motion of the van and the apparent stress of the past day or so lulled them into a light sleep.It was then that Derek decided to let me in on his thoughts."So you met this kid once, at a party at Conzack's, and now we're pulling him away from FedRegs."I glanced at him, feeling the return of the animosity."I went to meet him.You were the one who pulled him away from the FedRegs and suggested we run."He grinned quickly, not looking at me."Elliot said you were an obstinate, shallow son-of-a-bitch.Did you do any follow-up on the kid at all?"I shrugged to hide a certain embarrassment."As you said, I met him once, at a party.What's to follow up?"Derek's voice was matter-of-fact."He's barely twenty, attended a computer-net school—from which he graduated with honors.He's never applied for a driver's license or a subway visa, has no record with any state or federal institution, has never applied to college—even though he graduated from high school two years ago—has never been in any government building—hell, Drew, if I didn't know better, I'd swear that the kid has never left the building that Conzack lives in.The last medscan record on him was made when he was twelve years old—when his father died.And that was done at Phaedon Laboratories, his father's medical research company.His medical records are all with Phaedon and classified—not too unusual; they do that with all their employees.But even now? He's had as little interaction with the public as possible—enough so to be questionable.And now, he's breaking into your computer to give you a secret message that Borthwick doesn't even remember.We pull him out of the middle of a FedReg operation, within minutes the police are looking for you—and you don't think something's up?"I focused on the passing scenery, noting how much the area had grown up.Or overgrown, as it were."I'm not in the habit of analyzing every call for help that I get," I answered."He sounded pretty desperate."Derek agreed."So it would seem.The question is why?"It was a good question, too.After a while of trying to come up with an answer—and getting more confused in the process—I let my mind drift to other things.Like how Derek knew where to find a vehicle that was government-issue but not in the hands of the government.He smiled at the question, but there was a hardness in his eyes that I had not seen before."You learn a lot of things when you work for the police—just as you learn a lot of things as an officer of the court.I'd be willing to bet that, if we needed someone to bust into an account, you'd know where to find him.""Probably," I agreed, "but he wouldn't trust me.Not the way those guys trusted you."He shrugged, his attention not leaving the road.The further we got from the city, the more holes and cracks there were in the pavement.Very few people traveled this far away from home anymore.Eventually, the road gave way entirely, degenerating to dirt, then to no path at all.That didn't stop Derek; he pushed the van to its limits, driving along the countryside with amazing skill.By the time he stopped the vehicle, our passengers were wide awake and looking as confused as I was.Derek parked in a dense copse of trees, about half a mile off the road."From here, we walk," he announced, opening his door."And don't worry, Drew, the dangers of direct exposure to the sun are grossly overstated."His chuckle irritated me."So where are we walking?" I snapped as I got out of the van."There's a cabin close by," he answered, looking around."We can stay there until we have this thing figured out."The cabin was, literally, nowhere.No one was going to stumble across it accidentally, that was for damned sure.How Derek knew where to find it began to nag at me—this certainly wasn't anyone's idea of a vacation spot, not even someone like Derek.From the outside, it looked like it had long been deserted.Vines grew up the sides, the roof was falling in at one corner, boards were missing in the floor of the porch, and the door hung on its hinges.We had to trudge through waist-high grass to get to it,and I worried about snakes and other deadly creatures.But Derek led us on without pausing, just a call over his shoulder to be careful on the stairs.He did stop, though, at the door.Examining it carefully, his fingers reached tentatively to the door frame, touching gently at the uppermost corner."What's the problem?" Even as I asked, it occurred to me that I didn't want to know."Boobytraps," he answered tersely."Whole place is wired.It's a safe house.""That's an oxymoron," I said, stepping back to the edge of the porch.To their credit, Sha and Ariel joined me.Eventually, Derek found whatever he had to find, and the door creaked inward.The inside was, at first, as bad as the outside—dust, spiderwebs, decaying furniture, the smell of disuse and rot.Derek led us into the hallway, then into a larger room off to the right.Here, the smell was less acute and there wasn't as much dust."This room and the one through there," he gestured toward another doorway, "are clear [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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