Part 49 (1/2)
Daniel hesitated for a second, then carefully placed the ammo in one of the duffels. He came to stand next to her.
”Alex, you're using a lot of second-person p.r.o.nouns there. Are you... talking about us splitting up right now?”
”You'll be safer outside the country, Daniel. If you laid low in a quiet little place somewhere in Uruguay, they might never find-”
”Then why can't we go together? Is it because they'll be looking for a couple... if... if Kevin talks?”
She hunched her shoulders; it was half a shrug, half a defensive motion. ”It's because I don't have a pa.s.sport.”
”You don't think they'll be waiting for Daniel Beach to try to board a plane?”
”You won't be Daniel Beach. I've got a couple of Kevin's ID sets. It will be a long while till they get around to asking him about false ident.i.ties, if they ever do. You'll have plenty of time to catch a flight to Chile tonight.”
His expression was suddenly hard, almost angry. He looked like Kevin, and she was surprised at how sad that made her.
”So I just save myself, then? Leave you behind?”
Another almost-shrug. ”Like you said, they'll be looking for a couple. I'll slip through the holes in the net.”
”They'll be looking for you, Alex. I won't-”
”Okay, okay,” she interrupted. ”Let me think some more. I'll come up with something.”
Daniel locked eyes with her for a long second. Slowly, his expression softened until he looked like himself again. Finally, his shoulders slumped and his eyes closed.
”I'm sorry,” she whispered. ”I'm sorry this didn't work. I'm sorry that Kevin...”
”I keep hoping he'll walk through the door,” Daniel admitted, opening his eyes and staring down. ”But I can feel it in my gut-that's not going to happen.”
”I know. I wish I were wrong.”
His eyes flashed up to hers. ”If our positions were reversed, he'd do something. He'd find a way. But there's nothing I can do. I'm not Kevin.”
”Kevin would be in the same position we are. He wouldn't know where they were keeping you. If he did, he'd still be impossibly outgunned. There wouldn't be anything he could do.”
Daniel shook his head and sank down onto the bed. ”Somehow, none of that would have stopped him.”
Alex sighed. Daniel was probably right. Kevin would have some secret informant, or another camera angle, or a way to hack into Deavers's system. He wouldn't give up and run. But Alex wasn't Kevin, either. She couldn't even poison Carston while he was still oblivious. He wasn't anymore, she was sure of that.
”Let me think,” she repeated. ”I'll try to figure a way out.”
Daniel nodded. ”But together, Alex. We leave together. We stay together.”
”Even if that puts both of us at risk?”
”Even then.”
Alex threw herself back onto the bed, hiding her face again with her arms.
If there had been some perfect escape for them, she would have tried it earlier. The whole reason she was here in the first place was that the escape option had failed. Now the attack option had failed. It didn't leave her feeling very optimistic.
It was funny how you didn't realize how much you had to lose until it was gone. Yes, she knew she was in deep with Daniel; she'd embraced that disadvantage. But who would have thought she would miss Kevin? How had he become her friend? Not even a friend, because you chose your friends. More like family-the brother you tried to avoid at family gatherings. She'd never had anything like that, but this must be what it felt like, the pain of losing something you'd never wanted but had come to count on anyway. Kevin's arrogant self-a.s.surance had made her feel almost safe in a way she hadn't for years. His team was the winning team. His invulnerability was the safety net.
Or used to be.
And the dog. She couldn't even think about the dog or she'd be incapacitated. She wouldn't be able to make her brain work toward any kind of solution.
Again, the image of Kevin on her table flashed across the black insides of her eyelids. If only she could know that he was already dead, that would be something. If she could believe he wasn't in agony right now. Surely he was smart enough to have had a way out. Or was he so certain of himself that failure was never part of the plan?
She thought she knew enough about Deavers from his moves up to this point to be sure he wouldn't waste an opportunity if there were any way to find an edge in it.
She honestly wished the situation were reversed. If she'd been the one caught, she would have been able to take a quick, painless exit, leaving Deavers and Carston no information about the others. Whatever Kevin had done wrong, however he had failed, he was still the one best qualified to keep Daniel alive. And Val, too, for that matter. Val would have the easiest escape in the short term, but neither Carston nor Deavers seemed like the type to give up on a witness.
If Kevin were the one in Alex's place, trying to come up with a plan, what would he do?
Alex didn't know. He had resources she knew nothing about, resources she couldn't duplicate. But even then, running would have to be his only option. He might come back to try again later, but it wasn't like he could keep going after the potential vice president's kill team today. Now was the time to disappear and regroup.
Or, in her case, disappear and try to stay gone.
That obnoxious image of Kevin on the table wouldn't leave her head. The problem with being a professional interrogator was that she knew, in intimate detail, all the options for what they could be doing to him now. It was impossible not to mark the pa.s.sing minutes, imagine how the questioning was progressing.
Daniel was quiet. The packing hadn't taken him long; they hadn't spread out here, gotten comfortable. They'd known from the beginning that they might have to leave at any moment, whether because of another disaster or simply wearing out their welcome with Val.
She could guess what he was feeling. He wouldn't want to believe things had gone so wrong. He wouldn't want to believe Kevin could be dead or that death was the best outcome for Kevin now. He would remember how Kevin had come through the roof in the middle of the night to save him and feel guilty that he couldn't do the same. More than guilty-helpless, weak, furious, culpable, cowardly... All the things she was already starting to feel.
But there was nothing she could do about Kevin. If she and Kevin switched places, there would be nothing Kevin could do, either. He wouldn't know where they were keeping her. The bad guys wouldn't choose a location that either Alex or Kevin would know about. They had thousands of options open to them. And if there were some way to know where their hideout was, they certainly wouldn't be careless about the security there. Kevin would be just as helpless as she was.
She shouldn't waste time thinking about the impossible. She needed to focus.
She had to operate under the a.s.sumption that Kevin was still alive, and the bad guys would soon know both she and Daniel were also alive, and nearby. They would know Val's name and address. They would know the make, model, color, and probably plate number of the only two cars they currently had access to. It was time to distance themselves from as many of those facts as possible.
Alex sat up slowly. ”We'd better load the car and get moving.”
Daniel was leaning against the wall beside the stack of bags with his arms crossed over his chest. Red rimmed his eyes. He nodded.
Val was nowhere to be seen as they ventured out into the great room, both weighed down with bags. The s.p.a.ce seemed colder, bigger without the dog in it. Alex walked quickly to the front door.
They didn't speak in the elevator or as they walked to the car. Alex dropped her bags by the trunk and fished the keys out of her pocket.
A hushed sc.r.a.ping sound broke the short silence. It sounded like it was coming from close beside or maybe underneath the car.
I'm an idiot, Alex thought to herself as she dropped into a crouch next to the bag that she desperately hoped contained the guns but most likely held medical supplies. She knew how precarious their situation was, yet she'd walked into the parking garage unarmed.
She'd relied on Kevin to hold out longer. Stupid.
Daniel had the heavier bags. She could tell as soon as her hand rested on the bag in front of her that it contained first-aid gear-first aid she wouldn't have a use for now. At least she had her rings and belt. So she'd have to be close. No resisting at first. That was, if they didn't just shoot her immediately.
Not even a full second pa.s.sed as she made these calculations. The first noise was quickly followed by another, a low whine that definitely came from under the car. The sound took her back to a different panicked moment, by a dark porch in Texas. It wasn't a human sound.
Alex crouched lower, leaned her head down so it was almost touching the asphalt floor of the garage. The dark shadow beneath the sedan pulled itself closer.