Letting my helmet fall, I grab both of her upper arms in my hands. “Madison, what the fuck were you thinking?!” I whisper back.
The excitement in her eyes dims, realizing I wasn’t actually fine with what I walked in on. “I… I’m sorry, but you’ve got to hear this—”
“I don’t. We’re going.Now.”
Suddenly outraged, she fights against me, twisting until I’m forced to let go or risk hurting her. “Stop! Listen to me!”
“No, you’ll listen tome,” I fire back, livid. “This was unbelievably stupid, Madison. You put yourself in so much danger, I’m shocked I didn’t find you dead on the ground. You want me to think you’re smart and capable? Well, fucking act like it! Every second we spend here is another second you’re at risk of being discovered. Of beingmurdered.”
She scowls back, matching my fire. “Todd confessed to me,” she hisses. “He told me that my old boss, Fred, told him I was dead and bribed him to steal my computer by offering him a promotion. That means Fred is part of this—he knows something, or maybehe’seven the General.”
I grind my jaw. “Or maybe he was just acting on orders, unaware of what’s really going on.”
She shakes her head. “No! He thought I was dead. But I haven’t beendeclareddead—someone on the outside of this would think I was just missing. Fred knows about the hit. He knows someone took credit for my death. Todd said he had specific details, like that I’d been shot. Pictures.”
I pull back. “That…” That’s actually a good point.
She sees my hesitation, and the excitement sparks back in her eyes. “He told Todd to steal my hard drive and bring it to SmarTech. And I was thinking, what if we let him?”
“He’ll tell Fred you’re still alive,” I argue.
“He’s already seen me,” she fires back. “What are you going to do, kill him to keep it a secret?”
I sigh harshly. “If Fred is the General, or knows him, we’ll be back where we started with a $10 million price on your head. Probably more. Not to mention, it will get Felix’s contact removed from the system if it’s discovered he faked that hit. The General might even put out a hit on him in retribution.”
“Oh,” she says, shoulders dropping. “I didn’t think of that.”
I watch as she pulls out her phone and starts tapping out a message to—presumably—Felix. She waits a few seconds, then scans his reply. “Tío says it’s fine,” she assures me, tucking her phone back in the pocket of her—my?—sweatpants. “His guy who faked it can just get back in if he’s kicked out, and he used an alias so they won’t be able to track him to put a hit out on him.”
I sigh. I really need to find out how Felix knows all this shit. “So you want to let Todd tell Fred?”
“I want to let him bring my hard drive to Fredwitha listening device attached to it,” she suggests, eyes bright, pleased with her own cleverness. “You’ve got some in that van, right?”
“Mac’s bringing them,” I say, realizing I’ve just lost. It’s a good idea—even I can see that.
It doesn’t make what she did any better, though, and the only thing that mollifies me is that she clearly realizes this discussion isn’t over. But she smiles at me with grim resolve and opens Todd’s door.
He straightens immediately, pretending like he wasn’t just trying to saw through the tape on his feet with the blunt edge of his bedframe. Rookie move—always start with the hands.
“Good news, T-bone. We’re gonna get you that promotion.”
Todd looks baffled, and a bit terrified by the news. “W-what?”
Madison grins. “We’re giving you the hard drive.”
The fear shifts to utter and complete confusion. “What?”
36
Wesley
An impossible choice
Mac rolls in some time later, and I bring Madison’s computer out to the van while she babysits her neighbor with the gun—her suggestion, in order to limit the number of times she’s out on the street. I disassemble her machine, retrieve the solid-state drive, and take apart one of the earpieces I have on hand to make a tiny listening device. I’m not terribly pleased with my work, since it sticks out against the wire connections and obviously doesn’t belong, but it also doesn’t look like a listening device. It ought to buy us at least some overheard personal conversations—until he tries plugging it into a motherboard, anyway.
I just hope we hear enough that it’s worth the consequences.
After Madison untapes her victim and offers him the SSD, she threatens to shoot off his dick if he tells Fred she’s alive—though she fully expects him to—and we leave. Mac agrees to bring Eleanor to pick up her car, and heads back with the van.
