Tell Me No Spies (35 page)

“You’re not leaving
me, you can keep me in sight while you stand in line,” I argued.
“Just go, okay?”

He shuffled
uncertainly, frowning, before he blew out a breath and squared his
shoulders. “…’Kay.”

I turned my attention
to the phones and swore. Three out of the four numbers on my list
were long-distance. And I couldn’t use my credit card.

I spotted Dave’s
receding back in the crowd and considered calling him back, but
there was no way we’d have enough change between the two of us to
make even one long-distance call.

I rolled my stiff neck
and shoulders, trying to release the tension. Fine. I could make
the local call, anyway. That was a start. I plugged in the coins
and dialled.

Long minutes later, I
clenched the phone receiver tighter in my sweaty fist. I’d grossly
underestimated the logistics of phoning up one of my dad’s old
high-school friends and catching up on three goddamn decades. My
heart leaped into overdrive at the sight of Dave’s panicked
expression as he forged through the suppertime crowd toward me,
takeout bags apparently forgotten in his hand.

“Sorry, my call’s out
of time, nice talking to you,” I blurted, and hung up fast.

“Cops!” Dave hissed.
“Showing your picture over at the other phones!” He threw a wild
glance over his shoulder. “Coming this way! Run!”

Pulse pounding, I
scanned the food fair. Running would be crazy. They’d spot me
instantly. I did the only thing I could think of on the spur of the
moment.

“Come and get me when
they’re gone,” I told Dave, and strolled into the men’s
washroom.

Inside, I kept my eyes
on the floor and shuffled rapidly into a mercifully vacant cubicle.
Then I sat and jittered on the toilet, trying not to listen to the
noises around me.

It seemed like hours
later when a tap on the cubicle door made me jump.

Dave’s gruff and
welcome voice came from the other side of the door. “Come on.
What’re you doing in there, anyway?”

I pitched my voice
lower and hoped it wouldn’t tremble. “What do you think, Dad?
Jeez!”

“Well, hurry up. We
gotta go.”

“All
right
.
Jeez.”

His mutter receded.
“Damn kid’s probably doing drugs in there.”

The resulting male
murmur of sympathy was cut off by the sound of my flush, and I
slouched out of the cubicle to wash my hands, head down. My hands
were barely dry when Dave grabbed my arm and pushed me ahead of him
out the door. I jerked petulantly out of his grasp and did my best
surly teenage shuffle out of the mall beside him.

Back at the car, I
dropped into the back seat and sprawled limply, trying to get my
breathing under control. Hellhound pried the takeout bags out of
Dave’s fist and eyed us both with concern.

“What the hell
happened?” he demanded.

Dave took a few deep
breaths and massaged the centre of his chest. “Cops. Looking for
Aydan. Had her picture and everything.”

“
Shit
!”
Hellhound swivelled a glare around the parkade. “Why aren’t ya
drivin? Get us the hell outta here!”

“It’s okay,” Dave
said. “They gave up and left.” His sweaty pallor was relieved by
the flush that climbed his face. “They weren’t gonna look for her
where she was hiding.”

Hellhound glanced from
Dave’s face to the smile that was forming on mine. The corner of
his mouth twitched up. “Where?”

I gave him the full
grin. “Men’s can.”

He snickered. “Woulda
liked to’ve seen that.”

I heaved myself up to
pat Dave’s shoulder. “Nice work, Dave. You were perfect. What
happened?”

Dave grinned,
relaxing. “When you went into the can, I just sat down and started
eating. They went around asking everybody, but it was a picture of
you with your long hair, so nobody’d seen you. Cops finally just
gave up and left.”

I turned to Arnie.
“You should have seen him playing the grumpy dad, pretending I was
his no-good kid. He was great.”

Dave groaned and
massaged his stomach. “Just ate three burgers, though, ‘cause I was
afraid to just sit there doing nothing. Feel like shi… crap.”

Hellhound grinned and
offered him a fist bump. “Sometimes ya gotta take one for the team.
Way to go.”

Dave sat up straighter
and beamed while Arnie and I devoured our meals.

“One thing I don’t
get, though,” I mumbled through a mouthful of burger. “Why would
they be looking for me in a mall? They can’t be looking all over
the city for me, can they? No way the city police would have time
for that.” I met Hellhound’s frown. “Would they?” I asked.

“Nah.” His scowl
deepened. “But it couldn’t be coincidence. Maybe they’re tappin’
the phones? Did ya say your name or anythin’?”

“Well, yeah, I had to
say my name, but… they couldn’t tap all the phones all over the
city, could they?”

Hellhound swallowed
the last of his burger and crushed the bag into a ball. “Fuck if I
know. Sure as hell looks like it, though.”

I sighed. “Yeah.”

Dave glanced nervously
around the parkade. “Now what?”

I consulted my watch.
“It’s eight o’clock. Just enough time to go and see if Spider’s
online yet before Arnie meets his contact.”

“Where do you want to
go?”

“I think a library
this time,” I said. “That internet cafe was too small. If I hadn’t
had Weasel with me, I’d have gotten caught for sure. At least the
library gives me more places to hide.”

“Okay.” Dave backed
the car out and headed for the exit.

I pondered while we
drove.

Arnie twisted around
in the seat. “What’re ya thinkin’ about?” he inquired. “Ya got that
look again.”

“I’m thinking about
how Richardson showed up minutes after I made contact last time.
That makes me nervous.”

“Yeah,” Arnie said.
“Think Webb’s trackin’ ya?”

“I don’t know. Maybe
he told Kane what we were doing, and then he’d pretty well have to
help them track us.”

“Can’t risk doing this
again, then,” Dave said.

“I have to.”

“No, ya don’t,”
Hellhound said. “Lemme go see my guy tonight first.”

“No. That would be
stupid if Spider already has the information we need. No way I want
you going in again for nothing.”

“Aydan…” Hellhound
began, but I cut him off.

“Look, I’ll be quick.
Last time I dawdled around searching those names after I talked to
Spider.” I blew out a sigh while we waited at the red light across
from the library. “This time, I’ll just get in and get out. No way
Richardson will have enough time to get here.”

Dave shot me an uneasy
glance in the rearview mirror. “You sure?”

“I’m positive. It
takes time to track an IP address,” I said with more hope than
certainty. “And then they’d have to get in touch with Richardson,
and he’d still have to drive over here.”

Hellhound scowled but
didn’t argue, and Dave drove into the parking lot.

“Dave, can you park
somewhere where the car can be seen from a window?” I asked.

We all scanned for a
parking spot. “What’s your plan, darlin’?” Arnie inquired.

“This time, I want to
leave you in the car, ready to drive, and put Dave next to the
window where he can see you. Ideally, we find a spot where Dave can
also see the entrance. Then he can signal me if there’s anything
funny going on, and I can have a bit of advance warning.”

“But I don’t know this
Richardson guy,” Dave said. “How will I know whether to signal you
or not? And how would I signal you anyway?”

“I know Richardson an’
a coupla Kane’s other guys, too,” Arnie volunteered. “I can signal
Dave if I see anybody I recognize.”

“That’ll work. Dave,
you can just, I don’t know, sneeze or something. I won’t be able to
watch you because I’ll have to keep my eyes on the screen.”

“Sneeze?” he asked
doubtfully. “Okay…”

“There.” Arnie
pointed. “Good spot just opened up.”

Dave wheeled the car
into it, and we all took stock of the sight lines.

“That’ll work,” Arnie
said with satisfaction. “Ya sure ya don’t want me to come in with
ya?”

“No, you’re still a
little too, um, distinctive.” I eyed his blackened face in the
orange glow of the streetlights. The grubby bandage on his forehead
added to his disreputable appearance.

He grinned, his face
still asymmetrical from his swollen cheek. “Hey, my shirt’s clean.
Not like ol’ Dave, Mr. South-End-Of-A-Northbound-Bear.”

I couldn’t help an
involuntary glance at Dave, who flushed but kept silent, apparently
recognizing the truth of the sobriquet. The trip through the woods
hadn’t done anything to enhance his appearance or his smell. With
his torn, grimy clothes, gray-stubbled chin, wild hair, and Eau de
B.O., he could easily have passed for a homeless person. And in
fact, I realized, that was exactly what he was at the moment.

Hell, we all were. I
regarded my own dirt-smudged jeans and T-shirt with disgust. I
probably didn’t smell any better. And my hair was starting to
itch.

I shuddered.
Definitely another trip to the gym tomorrow.

The library staff
watched us suspiciously after we entered. I could hardly blame
them. I’d probably be wary of a couple of vagrants, too.

I stationed Dave near
the window, within earshot of the computer terminals. “Here,” I
whispered, and handed him a book. “Just lean against the shelf with
the book open and turn a page occasionally. Watch the door, and
watch Arnie for a signal. Sneeze if I need to get out of here.”

He eyed me worriedly.
“…’Kay. Don’t know how good a sneeze it’ll be, though.”

“It doesn’t have to be
good, Dave, just loud.”

He nodded and took up
his position, leaning against the bookshelf with all the casual
grace of a wooden board. I considered telling him to relax, but
then decided he actually looked quite authentic. Exactly like a
homeless guy who was trying to look nonchalant while he warmed up
in the library. I gave a mental shrug and made for the
computers.

Luck was with me this
time, and I slid into the chair in front of an unoccupied terminal
immediately. I’d just logged into the World of Warcraft site when
an explosive sneeze made me jerk around in my chair. I had
half-risen, heart pounding, when Dave caught my eye and frantically
shook his head. He jabbed his chin toward the table next to him,
where a large man with a florid complexion was busily plying a
handkerchief.

I subsided into my
chair, air hissing out from between my teeth, and tried to release
some of the tension from my shoulders. My hands shook while I
navigated the site.

I was perusing the
players when another sneeze rattled the windows. I stifled a curse
and twisted around, but the angle was wrong and I had to stand
again before I saw Dave’s disgusted headshake.

The woman at the
adjacent terminal shot me a curious glance as I settled back into
the chair, clenching my teeth on the profanity that begged for
utterance.

My back crawled with
expectant tension, but silence reigned, and I turned back to the
screen to find Spider’s character.

Whisper. “Spider.”

“come in now! J trying
to get you!”

“Same old, same old,”
I muttered. “I know,” I typed. “Have you found N or D yet?”

“no. come in now!”

“Is K all right?”

“Atchoo!”

I sprang to my feet
again, feeling like the star of a Whack-A-Mole game and hoping the
mallet wasn’t about to crush my head. A brief but glorious vision
of twisting the big guy’s nose off evaporated at the sight of
Dave’s frightened face. I bit back an obscenity and made for the
concealment of the bookshelves nearest the door.

My heart leaped into
my throat at the sight of the two uniformed police officers
striding through the entrance. I pulled my hood up over my head and
loitered beside the stacks, head down while I watched from under my
brows.

The two officers split
up, heading directly for the two pods of computer stations. As soon
as their backs were turned, I eased out the door and scuttled
across the parking lot, keeping my face averted.

As I slid trembling
into the passenger seat of the Caprice, Hellhound swore, and I
followed his gaze to Dave, who was clearly visible with his back
pressed against the library window. The two policemen loomed over
him. While we watched, he shook his head vehemently, and one of the
officers frowned and took him by the arm.

“Shit, shit, shit!” I
chanted. “Shit! Goddammit…”

“Get down!” Hellhound
yanked my shoulders toward him, and I toppled onto the seat, my
head in his lap.

“What’s happening?” I
demanded.

“They got him.” A
suspenseful pause. “They’re bringin’ him out. We gotta go.” He
reached across me for the shifter, then stopped. “Wait a
minute.”

“What?” I hissed.
“Tell me what’s happening!”

“They’re just talkin’
to him. An’ lookin’ around the parkin’ lot. I don’t wanna drive
away now, or they’ll see us for sure. Just stay down.”

I peered up at his
intent face, barely breathing, and he glanced down at me with a
leer. “While you’re down there, darlin’…”

“I don’t think so.
Getting arrested would be bad enough. I don’t intend to get caught
playing the skin flute into the bargain.”

His head snapped back
up to watch the action outside again, and he spoke absently. “Why
not, darlin’, it’d make a helluva good story afterwards. An’ it’d
make me happy. Wait, what the hell?”

“What, what!”

He didn’t reply
immediately, and I clamped a hand on a sensitive area of his
anatomy. “Tell me what’s happening, now! Or else!”

“Easy, darlin’, ya do
any damage down there an’ you’re gonna miss it as much as I do.” He
paused. “They’re leavin’. Gettin’ in their car now.”