The Spy Is Cast (26 page)

He looked from me to
Germain. “Both of you look beat. Get some sleep before you get on
the road. There’s no hurry until I find another place for us to set
up. I’ll call Webb when I’ve got a new location.” He rose. “Come
on, let’s get Aydan’s bike loaded, and then I’ll head out.”

They tethered the
Honda securely in the cargo trailer beside Germain’s Yamaha, and
Kane rode away. Germain glanced over at me and yawned. “Are you
okay with sleeping in the RV here in the parking lot?”

“I’m okay with
sleeping on my feet while I’m standing here.”

His eyes crinkled with
amusement. “Okay, whatever floats your boat. But I’m going to go in
and lie down on a bed.”

“That sounds like a
better plan.”

We climbed back into
the trailer, and he waved me toward the back. “You can have the
bedroom.”

“Thanks.” I
sleepwalked into the room and dropped onto the bed, my eyes already
closed.

A shock of alarm drove
through me. My body instinctively rolled off the bed and onto my
feet even as my eyes were opening.

Germain took a quick
step back from my clenched fists, his own hands rising defensively.
“Aydan! It’s okay!”

I blinked and focused
slowly as my brain woke up. “Wha…?”

“It’s okay,” he
repeated. “Kane’s got a new location for us. We need to get on the
road.”

“Oh. Sorry.” I
straightened out of my crouch and rubbed my face groggily. “God, I
hate sleeping in a hot place in the middle of the day. My brain
doesn’t want to start working when I wake up.”

“There’s nothing wrong
with your reflexes, though. Do you always wake up
combat-ready?”

“No. I was dreaming,”
I said sheepishly. “Sorry, the only time you ever see me is when
I’m totally messed up. I’m usually quite sane and normal.”

He laughed as we made
our way to the front of the RV. “Define normal.”

“Good point.”

We buckled in, and I
turned to him as we pulled out of the lot. “So what’s the
plan?”

“Kane’s booked us into
a campground for the night. It’s not an ideal solution, but we need
to get set up so we can relieve Hellhound and regroup.”

“Campground? As in, a
camping spot with a firepit?”

“I assume so.”

I grinned. “Then we
need to stop at a grocery store. We’re eating steak tonight.”

He returned my grin.
“I like the way you think. It was time to restock the cupboards
anyway.”

After a short side
trip for provisions, we hit the highway. The air conditioning
helped, but the sun burned in on my black-clad legs, and my eyes
tried to close again of their own volition. I fought sleep for
several miles before I finally reached into my backpack for a
cereal bar to keep me awake.

As I munched, a
thought hit me. “Hey, Carl, which campground are we in?”

“Beaver Flats.”

“So we’ll be going
right by Harchman’s.”

“Yes.”

“We can do some quick
recon on the way by, then.”

He shot me a cautious
look. “Maybe. What did you have in mind?”

“I want to check the
network. Having the RV is perfect. You can just pull over by the
side of the road where I showed you on the map. I can access the
network in cushy comfort. And if we have to leave fast, you can
just drive away and let me scream my head off. Nobody will ever
know.”

He thought it over.
“That’s a good idea. Tell me where you want to stop.”

As we approached
Harchman’s, I pointed out a spot at the side of the road. “Right
there.”

Germain pulled over
and activated the flashers, and I closed my eyes to concentrate. I
started violently at his touch on my arm.

“Maybe you’d better
lie on the bed. Just in case.”

“Oh. Good idea.” I
stepped back into the RV and flopped down on the pull-out bed.
“Except I might fall asleep.”

He grinned. “If you
start snoring, I’ll throw a pillow at you. I’m not coming within
punching range, though.”

I grimaced
embarrassment. “That might be smart.” I closed my eyes and drifted
into the network void.

I immediately began my
usual routine, rapidly checking each room. At the security room
sim, I jerked to a halt.

It was occupied once
more, but not by Harchman. This time, his wife Maria sat at the
desk of the security console. I drifted silently into the room
behind her and floated. Watching over her shoulder, I scanned the
security camera feeds. Why would she be monitoring these?

Her fists clenched
when Harchman appeared in one of the displays. Apparently he’d
discovered another female guest who wanted a house tour. Maria and
I observed the action while he guided his latest conquest through
the house. She was short, blonde, and cute, and she responded
enthusiastically to his groping.

Maria toggled the
cameras’ views to track his progress. Harchman ushered the blonde
into the real security room and, as he had done with me, grabbed
her ass and ground against her. She reacted with apparent delight,
and they went into a prolonged clinch.

Maria lunged to her
feet and left the sim at a run.

Afraid my presence
would keep the sim alive and betray me, I shot out of the sim
immediately behind her. She dashed through the portal without a
backward glance, and I heaved a silent sigh of relief before
peeking back into the room.

The sim was still
running. Excellent. I seeped back through the wall and hovered,
watching the monitors again. I was afraid to interact with the
controls but Maria had left the view of the security room up, and I
wanted to see what would happen.

Within seconds, she
appeared in the doorway of the real security room. Harchman and his
blonde gave a guilty start as she apparently yelled at them. Words
were exchanged, and then they left. Too bad there was no audio
feed. Then again, I had a pretty good idea what she was saying.

Maria glowered down
the corridor at their receding backs. Then she turned and sat down
at the real security console, again manipulating the cameras. The
camera views in the simulation updated along with her changes, so I
lost sight of her while she panned through other views.

Apparently she was
only spying on her husband, and I quickly lost interest. Germain
would wonder what was taking me, and I still had the rest of the
network to check.

I slipped out of the
sim and worked my way up and down the virtual corridors, peeking in
each room in turn. Faint sounds drifted to my ears from up ahead,
and my stomach clenched in sick anticipation. I dragged myself
toward the room in question and took a moment to gather my
composure before I peeked in.

I froze in pure shock
at the scene in the room.

Then I clapped my hand
over my gaping mouth, not sure if I was going to be able to hold
back my shout of inappropriate laughter.

A tubby, balding man
sprawled naked on a sumptuously made-up bed, smiling beatifically
while a soundtrack of meditative flutes played in the background.
His body hair had obviously decided to compensate for the
follicular failure on his head. From the neck down, the resemblance
to a silverback gorilla was striking, although he’d apparently
shaved the backs of his hands. The thick black hair ended in a
sharp line at his wrists, like a fur suit.

All of which would
have been startling enough without the three beautiful naked women
who were actively and enthusiastically engaged in keeping the smile
on his face. Their Barbie-doll-like proportions were straight out
of a porn animation. The two blondes kissed and fondled the man and
each other while the brunette rode him as if she was going for the
gold buckle at the rodeo, her ridiculously huge breasts bouncing
and jiggling like inflatable Jello.

I backed away, gnawing
on my knuckles in an attempt to maintain control. After a few
moments, I sobered and peeked in again to memorize the man’s face.
I didn’t bother with his companions. There was no way they existed
in real life. They wouldn’t even be capable of standing
upright.

Down the hallway, I
continued reluctantly with my room checks. Porn was better than
violence, but I really didn’t want to see either one. Particularly
if the porn featured fat men in gorilla suits.

All was clean and
quiet, and I heaved a silent sigh of relief and stepped out of the
portal.

I jerked into a ball,
holding my head and groaning through clenched teeth as the pain
hit. I breathed deeply and tried to relax through it. After a
couple of hissing breaths, I uncurled and massaged my temples as I
squinted my eyes open to see Germain’s concerned face.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, fine.” I rolled
stiffly off the bed and crept into the passenger seat again.
“Grossed out, but fine. There’s no sign of any prisoners, but some
fat little hairy guy is doing porn, and Maria is using the security
sim to spy on Harchman. He has a new blonde toy, so maybe he’ll
give me a rest for a while.”

Germain let that pass
without comment as he pulled back onto the highway. A short time
later, we arrived at the Beaver Flats turnoff, and we drove up the
narrow twisting campground laneways, looking for the number Kane
had provided.

Near the end of the
campground, Kane stood up from his seat at the picnic table as we
came around a curve. It was a long narrow site, and it offered a
screen of trees on one side. On the other side, visible through low
shrubbery, a couple of men lounged beside the neighbouring campfire
among an impressive array of empty beer cans.

Germain drove past the
entrance, and expertly backed the large RV and cargo trailer into
the site.

“Wow, you’ve done this
a time or two before,” I congratulated him.

“I have a Class 1
license,” he said off-handedly. “This is a pretty small rig by
comparison.”

“I guess,” I agreed.
“I’m still impressed, though.”

He shot me a grin, and
we got out of the RV. The men in the next site fixed us with vacant
stares. Kane came over and spoke in a low voice.

“Too bad about the
neighbours, but this is the best site I could get today. We’ll move
on tomorrow. Let’s go inside.”

Once we were seated
inside, Kane blew out an irritable breath. “No word from Webb yet
about the electronic device. At least if it’s a tracker, they’ll
think I’m far away. I stopped in to see Hellhound on the way by.
He’s still set up, no movement so far, but that was a couple of
hours ago. You’ll need to relieve him soon, Germain.”

Germain nodded. “I can
head out right now.”

“Take Aydan with you,”
Kane said. “I want to know if there’s anything going on in the
network.”

“Already done,” I told
him. “We checked it on the way here. No prisoners, and Maria is
using the security room sim to spy on her husband.” I didn’t bother
to mention the Barbie-doll-and-gorilla porn. The less said about
that, the better.

“The monitoring works
really well,” I continued. “There must be some kind of two-way link
between the sim and the control system, because she could alter the
camera views from within the sim.”

“That could turn out
to be very useful,” Kane mused.

“Yeah. And the sim
stayed active even after she’d left. So I should be able to pop in
any time I want.”

“I don’t think you
should take a chance on manipulating the camera controls from
there, though,” Kane cautioned.

“That’s what I
thought, too,” I agreed. “If there’s a two-way link, that kind of
activity would be really easy to spot. I wonder who wins, if
there’s somebody trying to work the controls both in the sim and in
reality.”

“Good question. You
should talk this over with Webb,” Kane said. “In the mean time,
though, we really need you to tackle that database again. We’ve
lost nearly the whole day.”

“Right,” I agreed.

I was sliding out of
the bench to collect the laptop when Germain reached out a
restraining hand. “First you have to eat. We don’t want to have to
pick you up off the ground again.”

I ignored the
involuntary growl of my stomach. “I’ll look at the database for a
while and then get supper.”

“No,” Kane said
firmly. “Eat first.”

I gave in. “Okay. I’ll
get the fire going.”

Kane frowned. “What
for?”

“We’ve got a firepit,
and we’ve got steaks.”

Kane’s face lit up,
and Germain’s fell.

“Damn,” Germain said
with feeling. “I wish I didn’t have to leave right away.” He sighed
and pulled a can of beans out of the cupboard.

“I’ll cook yours
anyway, and you can just heat it up when you get back,” I comforted
him. “How do you like it cooked?”

“Medium-rare,” he
said, brightening. “I’ll look forward to that.” He stuck his bowl
into the microwave, and I went out to light the fire.

Kane followed me out.
“Do you have enough wood?”

“Probably,” I told
him, surveying the small stack. “But I hope you have an axe.”

He reached into one of
the external cargo holds and handed me one.

“Thanks.” I split some
kindling and stacked it into the firepit. “Matches?”

“In the RV,” he said.
“If you’re going to be occupied here for a while, I’m going to go
in and have a shower. Hopefully without incident this time.”

“Go ahead. I’m going
to do some potatoes, too, so it’ll be about forty-five minutes
before supper’s ready.”

“You don’t have to
cook for us,” he said seriously.

I shrugged. “I don’t
mind. I’m going to cook for myself anyway. It’s no trouble to throw
on a bit more food while I’m at it.”

“All right, if you’re
sure you don’t mind.” He turned, and I followed him into the RV. He
and Germain hashed out the details of the night’s watches while I
collected matches and cooking utensils.

I had the fire going
by the time Germain emerged. He unloaded his bike from the cargo
trailer and waved as he rode away.