“Know how many surveillance cameras they put in train stations? You’re on too many radars for that.”
“Jamie...where is all this coming from?”
“What do you mean? I thought you liked thinking things through.”
“I do. But I’m the risk-averse one, not y—” She chewed on the corner of a fingernail. “I have an idea.”
“An instinctive one, I hope.”
“Strictly logical.” She set the phone browser to invisible and did a web search. “One thing about Big Brother—whenever he’s watching, you can be sure an army of anarchists and libertarians is staring right back.” After a minute she showed him the screen, smiling. “You see? I have complete faith in other people’s lack of faith in authority.”
He glanced at it. “A map?”
“Showing all the fixed ANPR cameras in the UK. Thousands of them.”
“ANPR?”
“Automatic number plate recognition.”
“You’re such a revolutionary, Samira.”
“Believe me, I didn’t used to be. And I don’t like it. When all this is over, I shall go back to being the woman who drives a mile under the speed limit, takes out her trash a day early and overpays her taxes.”
“You’re an exemplary citizen. Give me a look at that map?” She held it in front of him. “This is a circuitous route. It’s basically England to Scotland via Alaska. Is there no other way to make it look like we’re in Edinburgh?”
“No.” She drew away the phone. “It’s the simplest way to end this.” Hang on. Why wasshethe one trying to talk him into this? “Jamie, I’m sensing reluctance.”
“No, it’s just...it’s a long way.”
“You don’t want to go to Scotland.” She lowered her tone to teasing. “Worried about bumping into someone you know?”
“No more so than in London.”
His voice and expression had gone grim. Thunder from a blue sky. She really had touched a nerve—but why?
“You’re worried about something,” she ventured.
“Not a care in the world.”
Like hell. “Jamie,” she said, gently, “none of this is what I want to do, either. I just want for everyone to be safe, and unfortunately, that’s been left up to me.”
He nodded, his expression remaining dark. What was going on under there? “And me.”
“I...can’t tell you how relieved I am that you’re here with me. I can’t do this without you—Iwouldn’tbe doing it without you.”
Silence. “So we drive to Scotland in a stolen car, evading police and killer goons,” he said, eventually, a little too loud, a little too cheerfully. “Then break into the secure files of a leader of the free world, steal mysterious documents and transmit them across the world without being caught by web spy software—or anything or anyone else. What are we waiting for?”
Suddenly, he threw the car into a U-turn. The newspaper he’d bought slid off the dash onto her feet. She clutched her door handle, looking around breathlessly. No police. No Peugeot.
“What are you doing?” she said.
“Going to Scotland. We were heading south.”
“Oh. Good... I guess.”
“We must be the most reluctant defenders of truth and justice the world has ever seen.”
She laughed. “I was secretly hoping you’d tell me my plan was terrible and we should just go and hide.” Hiding out with Jamie. A cozy cottage somewhere, like in France. Nothing to do but...
