Even if it wasn’t true, he still wanted to believe.“Likewise,” he managed.“Just so you know, I’m tracking her.I’ll come in when she does.Warn her to be on her toes.”Carson’s after her.Andrews as well, but now he has a big hard-on for me, too.
“You’re wasting your time, Del.Come in.”
“See you soon.”He laid the phone back in the cradle, listened as the box clicked with change.It was getting harder to find payphones; maybe they’d go the way of the dodo soon.
Night was cold out here, under the hard jewels of desert stars.Las Vegas was a volcano of light in the near distance, especially the sword of the Luxor’s spotlight.
Delgado rested his forehead against the chill glass of the box, keeping the door open with one foot.Sagebrush and diesel, plus heat simmering away from cooling pavement.He was running on nerves and instinct, rubbed raw by the aftereffects of thepushand Zed addiction.He only had one hypo left.He needed food, some kind of ballast.He suspected he’d pulled a mental muscle or two.
Didn’t matter.What mattered was finding Rowan and watching over her until she could bring him back to the Society.
Hyperventilating, he realized.Bad, the first stage of withdrawal.He wasn’t going to last much longer.
Not without her.Making himself forget had served one other purpose: Sigma was unaware of Rowan’s ability to nullify Zed addictions.Maybe Jilssen hadn’t known either; Del had certainly done his best to keep it quiet.
If they’d known, he would never have escaped them.
Something about his escape bothered him too.It had been too uncharacteristically easy.
Don’t start getting paranoid now.Focus on what matters.
What mattered right now was getting something to eat, and then driving into Vegas proper to take a look around.He’d need to figure out which casino they were most likely to hit, see if his luck and his instinct held.
Or maybe he was just chasing his own tail?
No.Heknew, a clear, deep, undeniable knowledge settling in his gut and twisting, hard.She was probably asleep in a motel room right now, with whatever backup Henderson had managed to send with her.Please, not Cath.The goddamn punk girl will get them both killed.
He stepped out of the phone booth.
First things first.Some stick-to-your-ribs road grease, and then he’d be on his way.He would have to replenish his cash posthaste.Impossible to hide without money.
Just stay safe, angel.Now that he did remember, there was precious little else he could think about.Just stay safe until I can get to you.I’m on my way.
Nice to be back in the city again; he worked best in an urban setting.There wasn’t much room to hide in small towns or the vast stretches of wasteland that were America’s heart.Mom and Pop and apple pie, and Sigma working behind the scenes to scoop up every psion that wasn’t nailed down.Wipe ’em with Zed and put them to work for the American dream.Nobody was even sure what war they were fighting now, since the Russians had started cannibalizing themselves.
It made his mouth sour, just thinking about it.
Morning dawned bright and clear, but he didn’t think she’d be out that early.There was no crowd cover.It was afternoon when he drove the Strip, obeying every traffic law.Two things became immediately apparent: he was feeling better and better about this every time he saw the Luxor, and Sigma was in town.
Please don’t tell me Rowan’s hitting the giant pyramid; the security is too good.Stick with the smaller ones, what do you say?Except the smaller ones will get sticky over the type of payoff we’re talking about.Or are you doing the horses, angel?With your precog it won’t be hard to pick a winner or two.
No, that felt wrong.It was the casinos, and in particular, the one that looked like Ramses had thrown a despotic fit in the desert again.
Great.
He almost didn’t spot the three black vans tucked into alleys at even intervals down the Strip, almost didn’t catch the crackle of psychic electricity from some of the strolling tourists.Most were free ops like Andrews; they wouldn’t bring in the brainwiped until they had a lock on her and wanted the heavy guns.
He left the car in an underground parking lot, deciding to penetrate on foot.It was problematic; they might need a fast getaway.Still, he couldn’t afford to have the Sigs recognize him first-off while driving right into their critical zone.
T-shirt, jeans, rig, and boots, not to mention the loose leather jacket.He would simmer in his own sweat before long; he wandered with the flow of the crowds on the hot pavement, tourists coming to see the big pile of neon and broken dreams.
You don’t belong in this town, angel.
She belonged in some Ivy League, ivy-covered northeast village, where the houses were old and there were bookstores on every corner.He remembered her arriving home with bags of books and stacking them in his room, rescuing plants and nursing them back to health.Remembered her house, quiet and trim and neat before Sigma destroyed everything with bullets and tear gas.Remembered watching her while she slept, a book on her chest, her face quiet and serene in the wash of winter sunlight through his window.
That had been the best winter of his life—squiring her around Headquarters, watching her learn to use her talent.Thank God he hadpushedhimself to forget.If they had caught her…
Del almost shuddered, controlled the movement.He didn’t want any passersby to register him.
