Blind Rage (39 page)

She sighed. “Find and upload the last file, you mean, whatever it is.”

“Yes.”

She stood still, her outward calm belying the storm that raged inside her, tossing her from one side of the argument to the other like a leaf in a gale.

“What did he say this time?” she asked.

“‘Dig deep inside yourself.’”

“What does that mean?” Tess said.

She couldn’t stop the tears. She’d tried so hard to do the right thing. Had held it together while people around her were dying. Had gone further, braved more, endured more than any normal person would in her situation.

But I’m not normal, am I? Not by a long shot. I can’t even see
.

Travis hurried down the hall toward the kitchen, hoping to quickly grab a bite of something to eat. He was running late. After a night of fitful sleep on a mattress he still found too soft after years of sleeping on packed dirt floors, he’d awakened early, tired and out of sorts. Unable to fall back asleep, he’d showered, dressed, and gone to his study to make some calls to the East Coast, where the morning was already well under way. He hated the politics of the job most, and wondered how James had been able to stand the sucking up, putting on a polite smile and saying “thank you” while someone reamed you. Members of Congress complained that the company’s projects were too expensive. Shareholders complained that the company wasn’t charging enough or making enough profit. He felt like a hotshot fighting a wildfire with a water pistol.

He heard voices as he approached the kitchen, and was about to walk in when something about their tone made him pause. He stopped short and listened. He made out Oliver and Tess speaking in murmurs, as if they didn’t want to be overheard. That right there was enough to make his ears prick up. When Tess mentioned him by name, she got his undivided attention. Hardly daring to breathe, he silently moved closer, straining to hear.

Jesus, they’re talking about leaving, getting out, running away. No, wait. Tess’s pessimistic logic is holding sway.

Travis nearly sighed with relief. Until what came next sucked the breath out of him like a gut punch.

The last file! They’re looking for the last file.

It was all coming to a head with astonishing speed, and once again Travis was reminded of a wildfire burning out of control.

Tess’s cry of frustration brought him back to his senses, and he quickly turned and hurried back the way he’d come. Breakfast was out of the question now. He ducked into the living room and pulled out his phone. Moving toward the windows so he wouldn’t be overheard, Travis looked out over the lake, placid this early in the morning. On the horizon beyond the far shore lay a jagged line of mountain peaks still covered with snow.

“Hello?” a voice answered.

“Meet me,” Travis said. “Same place. Twenty minutes. Got it?”

“Sure, but—”

Travis hung up. He didn’t have time to argue. As he walked out of the living room, he nearly ran into Oliver and Tess coming down the hall.

“Good morning, you two,” he said. “Off to school?”

“Good morning, sir,” Oliver said.

“Morning, Uncle Travis,” Tess mumbled.

Travis watched the color rise up her neck into her face, a sign of her guilty conscience, not embarrassment. Travis would have loved to challenge her just to see her squirm, but couldn’t spare a moment. Besides, she wasn’t going anywhere. She’d already opposed the idea of making a break for it.

“Have a good day,” Travis said. “I’ll see you later.” Already focused on what he had to do now, he didn’t hear their replies.

Twenty-two minutes later, Travis walked into the park not far from his office and headed straight for the bench where Derek Hamblin already waited. Derek paced in a small circle, his movements jerky, hurried.

He’s nervous. Good. That will keep him off balance
.

As he crossed the grass, Travis thought about how to approach him. He considered going straight at him, but decided to bide his time and see what Derek would reveal.

“Update, please,” Travis said when he reached the bench.

Derek’s brows knit. “Jeez, man, we just met fourteen hours ago. What update?”

Travis stared at him.

“Okay, okay,” Derek said. “I’m making progress on the worm. I took another look at it last night, and I’m close to figuring out the algorithm the coder used. Once I get that, I’ll start building a bot that will follow the worm around and zap the DNA it deposits.”

“That’s good work, Derek.” Travis’s praise was sincere.

Derek straightened as he filled with pride.

“Thanks. It shouldn’t be long now.”

“Great,” Travis said. “Is that it?”

Derek shifted his weight from one leg to the other and ran his fingers through his hair. “Well, yeah. I mean, I worked most of the night. Didn’t have time for much else.”

Travis studied him and said softly, “Security spotted you last night up in the U District.”

Derek’s eyes widened, but he recovered quickly. “Duh. I live in that neighborhood.”

“You need to be more careful, Derek. Don’t forget that what you’re doing is against company policy and probably illegal.”

“Wait a minute. What’s illegal? You asked me to help work on that software.”

“Hacking e-mail accounts and personal laptops?”

“Now, hold on. I did that for you. And now you’re going to bust my chops? Besides, it wasn’t me that security was following. It was—”

Travis nodded. “I know who it was.”

Derek eyed him suspiciously, then the light dawned. “
You
had me followed.”

“See, here’s the thing, Derek. Yes,
I
followed you. But I didn’t have security follow you or Oliver. Don’t act so surprised. I saw you ‘bump into’ him. I figure you guys met up later. But that means somebody else put the tail on one of you. Might not even have been company guys.”

“You mean some third party’s involved here?”

Travis nodded. “What do you think I’ve been trying to tell you? Somebody wants those files—badly. We need to know what’s on them, and we need to make sure that whoever Tess is sending them to is one of the good guys.” He paused and scanned the park. “What do you know, Derek? Why meet with Oliver?”

Derek glanced at his shoes, then thrust his chin out. “I got an e-mail from James.”

Travis jerked involuntarily. “My brother?”

“Well, okay, some guy. Same guy that’s been e-mailing Tess.”

“Why do you think it was James?” Travis pressed.

“The way he’s been playing Tess and Oliver. He knows game theory. Plus he knows Tess, knows how to push her buttons. And if he’s the guy who wrote the code in those files, then it has to be James. The stuff is brilliant—just the kind of stuff he’d come up with.”

Travis rubbed his chin. “You know that’s impossible, right? You heard about the accident, the avalanche that wiped out the family car and blinded my niece.”

Derek shrugged and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I don’t know, man. All I can tell you is if it isn’t your brother, it’s someone who knows him inside out. Someone who knows your family history.”

Travis pondered for a moment. If the men who had followed Oliver and/or Derek the night before were MondoHard security, then it was possible Cyrus was up to something. But Travis wouldn’t put it past General Turnbull to put someone in the field, either, just to keep an eye on things.

Maybe because he has an ulterior motive. He’s been pressing me pretty hard to get the prototype back up and running ever since the accident. And Jack was the one who had proposed it in the first place
.

Travis brought his attention back to Derek.

“Oliver told you what this was all about?” Travis said.

Derek nodded.

“I don’t blame you for playing both sides against the middle,” Travis said.

“Didn’t look as though I had a choice,” Derek said.

“No, I guess not. I’m not surprised that whoever roped Tess in got to you, too. If I found you, it would only have been a matter of time before someone else discovered your talents as well.”

Travis drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m not James’s enemy, Derek. Never was. I only have his best interests at heart, and that includes the safety of my niece, above all. She’s my
family
. Do you get that? I might be their only hope here. I asked you to trust me. You want to do what this guy says, that’s fine. But don’t cut me out, okay? I’m trying to help.”

Derek rocked back and forth, thinking it through. “Okay,” he said finally. “I’ll tell you whatever I find out. But whatever you do, it better be soon. They’ll kill Tess to stop this if they can’t get their hands on the files. And she’s got the clue to the last file. I gave it to Oliver last night.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Travis said.

The BMW sat in the circle out front, sparkling clean and looking like new. Alice told me it had been returned the previous afternoon. The police were finished with it, and the windshield had already been replaced. Tess noticed its return as soon as I opened the door for her. Maybe the sound of the door latch or the smell of the leather interior wafting out clued her in. Her breath caught. Before getting in she ran her hand along the smooth roofline above the door, as if stroking an errant pet. Fred and Barney stood next to one of the ever-present SUVs, waiting until we were ready to go before climbing in. They followed us up the long drive and out onto the road.

I glanced at Tess. She caressed the corner of her seat absently.

“This stupid car is all I have left of her,” she said suddenly. “My mom, you know?”

I couldn’t find a suitable reply.

“Photos are worthless,” she went on. “Every once in a while I’ll smell something that reminds me of her—fresh dirt in the garden, or what I think is her perfume. But, of course, that’s impossible, since she’s not here and no one else in the house wears it. Not even me. I couldn’t bear it.”

I saw an opening and took it. “Look, Tess, I could tell you that you still carry your mom in your heart, but we both know that’s a crock. It’s not the same as having her here. But if she were here, I think she would definitely want you to get on with your life. And I also think she’d want you to see this situation through.”

“I’m not figuring out that last clue. I’m done.” Her voice rose as she spoke. “I don’t know who I was kidding. I don’t care who the e-mails are from—I’m not getting anyone else killed!”

None of what had happened since I’d met Tess even remotely fit into my sense of who I was. I’d gone from grad student to seeing-eye dog to action figure in four days. I wasn’t sure if any of the roles suited me, but I wasn’t complaining. Her incessant whining grated on my nerves, though.

“Does that include yourself?” I said. “Because I’m pretty sure that if you don’t finish this, they’ll make sure you can’t. They’ll kill you, Tess.”

“I’m not doing it!” she shrilled. “I don’t have to do what you say. You do what
I
tell you!”

I gritted my teeth. “Fine. If that’s the way you want it. See if I care.”

The problem was, I
did
care, and I didn’t know what to do about it. I spent the rest of the drive to school trying to figure out what, exactly, my relationship with this strange girl was. More important, I wondered what I wanted it to be.

The rest of the morning unfolded so disagreeably I found myself wishing more than once for a do over. I couldn’t seem to do anything right. Tess found fault with everything from the seats I picked in class to the way I held her arm in the hall between periods. Her mind definitely wasn’t on schoolwork. Half the time she failed to notice when a teacher called on her. And she couldn’t answer most of the questions they asked. Lunch was no better. I tried to find seats out of the way, but we still attracted attention—along with catcalls and some mean-spirited comments. The humiliation wore her down, and she took her anger and frustration out on me. I grew thicker skin and kept my mouth shut.

At the end of sixth period, Mrs. Jessup, the chemistry teacher, asked Tess to stay a moment after class. She noted again that since she had joined the class late in the semester, she needed to catch up to the other students. She outlined a plan that would allow Tess to complete the labs the class had already covered so she’d be ready for the final exam when it rolled around. Tess wasn’t happy about the extra work, and as we left the room she let me know.

“When am I going to have time for all those labs?” she said.

“Come on, Tess. You’re the one who said you could handle it. I’m the one who has to do all work. All you have to do is write the reports based on my observations.”

“But I shouldn’t have to—”

“Hey, Tess!”

Both of our heads jerked toward the sound of Toby’s voice. He was slouching against a wall, hands in his pockets. The halls were deathly quiet since the day’s seventh, and last, period had already started.

“Toby?” Tess said. “What are you doing here?”

He pushed off the wall and ambled toward us. “Waiting for you. Why haven’t you gone to the police, Tess?”

The question startled her—and me—and I saw a cloud of fear darken her face. “Police? About what? Why should I go to the police?”

“If you’ve got nothing to hide, why won’t you talk to them?”

“I already told them everything I know about Carl,” she said, a note of panic creeping into her voice.

I fixed Toby with a stare and said quietly, “Why don’t you leave her alone?”

“This is between me and Tess,” he said. “I want to know what you’re hiding, Tess. Why can’t you do the right thing?”

“We’re leaving,” I said. I took Tess’s elbow and steered her toward the commons, but Toby stepped in front of us and blocked our way.

“Look,” I said, “you need to back off. She already told the cops what she knows.”

“No, she didn’t,” he shot back. “Not about the woman’s murder down in Renton. She used to work for your family, didn’t she? You know something, don’t you, Tess?”

The color drained from Tess’s face. “How do you know about that?”

“I told you. I heard my father talking to Chief Clifford. Tad told me that the woman was your cook. Seems a little much to be a coincidence. What’s going on, Tess? I want to know.”