Part 31 (2/2)
She shook her head. ”Some of the storage systems the radar data's on leave a lot to be desired, so that's slowed things down.”
He nodded, returning his gaze to the city.
”What did you say to Liz?” Orlando asked, coming up beside him.
He looked at her, concerned. ”Why?”
”It's just, well, she said something nice about you.”
”Oh, she did, did she? And what was that?”
Before Orlando could answer, Quinn's phone vibrated. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the display. It was a video call.
”It's Misty,” he said.
As they headed back inside, he pushed ACCEPT. Misty appeared on the screen.
”Hi,” he said. ”Was beginning to worry about you.”
”Sorry. It, uh, took me a bit longer than I'd thought it would,” she said.
”Did you find anything?”
”Yes.”
Not maybe. Not even I think so. But yes.
The others crowded around him as he said, ”Tell me.”
”First I checked on jobs you and Berkeley shared. There were six.”
Exactly the number Quinn remembered.
”You and Curson were on seven,” she went on. ”And Curson and Berkeley had ten in common.”
Twenty-three jobs. That was a lot to sift through, but better than it could have been. ”Maybe if we go through them one at a time, something will stand out.”
”Wait. I'm not through. At first there didn't seem to be any jobs the three of you were on together.”
”That's because there weren't any jobs the three of us worked on together.”
”You wouldn't have known.”
He hesitated a moment. ”A blind job?” Blind jobs were the kind where most of the players didn't come in contact with each other. Quinn had tried to avoid those as much as possible.
”Not a blind job.”
”Then I'm not following you, because we were never on the same job. I would remember that.”
”You don't remember because you didn't actually work the job.”
He frowned. ”Now you've lost me completely.”
”This particular job, you were originally a.s.signed to it, but the date was pushed and ended up conflicting with something else Peter needed you for.”
That made more sense. Though it didn't happen often, Peter had moved his schedule around sometimes. ”So what job are we talking about?”
”Does Isla de Cervantes ring a bell?”
He thought for a moment, then nodded.
Four years earlier, Peter had called him with an a.s.signment. The only thing he told Quinn at the time was the location: Isla de Cervantes. ”Straightforward,” Peter had said. ”You'll get the details next week.” Only the details never came. A few days later, Peter called back, rea.s.signing him to a job in Oslo.
But the memory wasn't why the nape of Quinn's neck was tingling. It was because Isla de Cervantes was in the same zone Nate's beacon was in.
”I remember,” he said. ”So if I hadn't been removed, all three of us would have been on this job?”
”Yes. It's the only time your names overlap on anything Peter was running.”
”Who else was on it?”
”Three others. Four, if you count the man who replaced you. Geoffrey Saban was team leader, and Oren Karper and Zach Lanier were ops.”
”And the new me?”
”Michael Stallard.”
A competent cleaner, not quite Quinn's level, but...
He looked over at Orlando. While Stallard and the first two names Misty had mentioned weren't on their potential-missing list, Lanier's was.
Orlando immediately understood what he wanted her to do. She walked several feet away, pulling out her phone.
”What was the job?” Quinn asked Misty.
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