“She’s not …” Simon shook his head—what did it matter, anyway? “Are we free to go?”
“All good.” Tarik winked at Shanna and carefully packed all the stuff back into her bag. “And hey,” he called after them as they walked away, “don’t forget to send me the address of that Wiccan shop you mentioned!”
In the waiting area, Simon settled on a seat in the row overlooking the runway. Chris sat at the end of the same row, drew her knees up, and stared at the airplanes parked on the tarmac. On the other side, Shanna had chatted up a group of passengers, her cheerful voice drifting over to Simon as he pulled out the new phone he’d bought.
“Oh, Hawaii! I’ve never been,” Shanna was saying. “Feels strange to go much further away before I’ve gone to closer places.” The other person said something, and Shanna laughed. “You painted it yourself? That’s so cool. The best part about owning a surfboard, I’d argue. A little bit, yeah. And some knitting, crochet, macramé … this one I did myself …”
Letting her voice slip into the background, Simon focused on the task at hand: finding out everything he could about what was happening at Aries by scouring the internet. He didn’t know ifthat would help him make sense of either his supposed death or the assassination plot, but currently, there was nothing more to be done. Someone must be spying on one of his employees, which is how they heard Simon was still alive and, unlike everyone else, didn’t believe it was a prank. That meant it was better for him not to contact anyone at Aries. Like Shanna had said, he had to disappear.
He withdrew as much cash as he could from a line of ATMs on the way here. Using his credit card in New Zealand would be a risk, and due to his death conundrum, it might get canceled any day now. He didn’t mind leaving a trail to San Francisco. If another assassin was sent after him, that would draw them away from Gran Dolores, and the Bay Area was big enough they could go around chasing ghosts and false leads until Simon returned, hopefully with answers.
“Aww, he’s so cute,” Shanna exclaimed. “I have a golden retriever. Jinx. He’s staying with my grandma while we’re traveling.”
Articles.Nothing special, as he scrolled.Aries stock is up. Aries unveils the Ariose 15 Series. Aries CEO going to the Moon …
“Excuse me? No, I’m not,” Simon said at the phone. The article was several months old. Must have been him again. Raleigh. Well, when Simon came back, he’d let everyone know he wasnotgoing to the Moon.
Aries amidst stealing scandal.
Simon stopped scrolling.
This one was only two weeks old. Simon gulped as he rapidly scrolled through the article, soaking in the keywords. Making a contract with some scientist, rumors Aries wanted to steal her software …
“No, no, no.” He leaned forward, drawing the phone closer. Why didn’t they explain—there, another article on the topic. Fresh, only from yesterday.
Dean Everett, CFO of Aries Tech, explains the recent allegations. “No member of the current management had anything to do with this. I’d ask you to be patient with us during this tough time of losing Mr. Montague, and I assure you, we will provide all answers and proof that Aries was not trying to cheat anyone out of their payment or property. I’m calling a press conference for next Monday, where I’ll give you a full rundown and address your concerns …”
“Leona, set a reminder for a week from now,” Simon said into the phone.
“Reminder set,” the smooth, even voice of his digital assistant replied.
“Hey.” Shanna stood a few feet away, inspecting him with a slight tilt of her head. “Everything okay?”
He almost wanted to tell her. Pour out his worries—that something was going awfully wrong at Aries, and he couldn’t be there to help. To set it all right. To tell everyone he would never do something as vile as steal other people’s products. At least he still had Everett, who was clearly trying his best to control the chaos.
And as for Shanna … Simon already knew no one would ever care about his company as much as he did. So there was no use in confiding.
“Everything is fine,” he said. As she moved closer, he stopped her with an “Uh-uh!” and turned off the phone. “Just in case of your … you know.”
She sat down. “I’ll try my best not to destroy all of your tech.”
“Met someone you know?” He nodded toward the passengers she’d been talking with.
“Oh, no. New friends. Old ones wouldn’t have remembered me, anyway.” Her voice was light, as if she were used to the process. “Lovely people, though.”
“And Tarik?”
“He was nice, too. Mentally, I think he needs to relax more before he attempts spells, but I can see why he’d be high-strung all the time. His job doesn’t particularly allow for relaxation.”
Simon raised an eyebrow, remembering Tarik’s sudden change in emotion as Shanna talked to him. “And you definitely didn’t put a spell on him to let you go through the security check?”
She gave him a side glance. “Friendliness is not a spell. You should try it sometime.” She leaned to look past him at Chris. “Maybe she should, too.”
Only a slight flicker of Chris’s darkened eyelashes indicated she’d heard her. “Look at the A340,” she murmured to herself, more than them, and continued to stare at one of the airplanes. “What an awesome bird.”
Simon hadn’t thought to check the seats they’d been assigned until they boarded the plane, and as Shanna and Chris reached their row, another man was already occupying the aisle seat.
“Hi!” Shanna greeted the stranger with a smile. “Yup, that’s our row.” They maneuvered around so Chris got the window seat, then Shanna turned to Simon, her eyes widening.
