“Well, I’m still working on the Nammota case. Because Mr. Coleman was acquitted doesn’t mean we’ll stop looking altogether.”
“Are the suspicions back on me?” Lex questions.
“Not for now. I was doing a routine check on the two of you when I saw the police report on what happened to you, miss. We’ve recently found out there’s a million-dollar bounty on Nammota. My intuition tells me the attack, which was aimed at Mr. Coleman, if I understand correctly, is directly linked to that bounty.”
Lex and I remain silent, acting as if this piece of information surprises us. But what surprises me the most is that she’d be here, warning us about it.
“I thought I should inform you, so you can take the appropriate measures,” she continues before motioning at the door where the guards are. “But it looks like you already did that.”
“Is there a way to get some form of help?” I ask. “If people come after Lex for this, shouldn’t we get into some sort of protection program or something?”
“We could take measures, yes. But the kill order is on Nammota, so that’s who we would protect.” She turns to Lex, an eyebrow cocked up. “Are you the cyber hacker known as Nammota?”
He holds her gaze for a moment, and it’s clear she suspects him more than she lets on. With a neutral and grave tone, he replies, “No.”
“That’s what I thought. There’s nothing I can do, then.”
“So what? He’s collateral damage?” I huff, appalled. “You know he’ll be targeted because you, your colleagues, and the media accused him. For a million-dollar price, peoplewillcome after him.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Miss Walker. We would set measures for Nammota if we had a confirmed identity. But we can’t startprotecting everyone we ever suspected. It would be a waste of our resources.”
I want to hate her for this, but she’s only doing her job. And she’s being clever about it. If she suspects us, she has every right to press where it hurts, to use the situation to her advantage.
“Thank you for taking the time to inform us of this,” Lex diplomatically says. “We’ll take care of ourselves.”
“Yes, you seem to have the means to. If it ever becomes too much, here’s where you can contact me,” she says, setting down a card on my nightstand. After wishing me a speedy recovery, she salutes us with a nod and exits the room.
A long silence follows her departure, and Lex and I stare at the closed door, unsure what to make of this. I don’t think either of us realized he was still a suspect, and me with him. Especially not by someone in a position such as hers. This means we can’t slip or she’ll be right on our asses.
Lex returns to his computer, to whatever he’s been working on lately, and I return to my episode ofFuturamaon the TV. When Lex’s phone rings, I pause it again.
“Yes?” he says as he picks up. There’s a moment of silence where Lex listens attentively. “Alright. Yes. I’ll be there to pick them up in…” He checks his watch, does some rapid calculations, and focuses on his call again. “I’ll be there in an hour and forty minutes.”
He hangs up and focuses back on his computer. I should probably return to my show, but that call has piqued my interest. Whenever I ask him what he’s doing on his computer, he’s dismissive and vague. I haven’t pressed because I’ve been too preoccupied to really care. However, that call, and the fact that he’ll leave to be somewhere in an hour and forty minutes when he’s barely been away since we got to the hospital, are enough to push me to ask.
“What was that about?” I ask, doing my best to sound casual.
“Nothing important.”
“What are you picking up? Where are you going?”
“Don’t worry about it, freckles.”
“I’m not worried about it. I just want to know what you’ve been doing, Lex.”
After a few moments of pondering, he closes his laptop and comes to the bed to sit on it, one of his big hands resting on my thigh.
“Before I met you, back when I was still Nammota, I prepared a contingency plan. Something that would allow me to escape if need be. I maintained it through the years, knowing I was never entirely safe from my past catching up with me.”
“Why didn’t you use it when they came for you?”
“It all went too fast. I didn’t have time to see it coming. But I’ll be going through the plan with you. We’re going into hiding, Andrea, my own version of witness protection.”
I stare at the paused frame on the TV for several seconds, allowing my brain enough time to process Lex’s words and their implications. It feels like a lot. Like too much. But there is a bounty on us, a million fucking dollars, and that will attract all sorts of psychopaths right to our doorstep. It already happened, and I almost died.
“How long?” I ask, still a little shaken by the drastic measures Lex wants us to take.
“I don’t know. However long it’ll take.”
