“How’d you like to keep it?”
Zane had been about to sip his scotch, but the words caught him off guard. He froze, the muscles in his shoulders going tense. Dealings in the criminal world were a dance as regimented as a waltz. Everybody knew the steps, and any improvisation was cause for alarm. Slowly, Zane lowered his glass and set it on the table with a faint click. “What does that mean?”
“It means I’ll give you those,” gesturing at the case, “and you keep your money.”
“And you get?”
“A favor.” Tom Eliot leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, a confessional pose, man-to-man. “My name isn’t Tom Eliot. It’s Nick Cooper.”
“Okay.”
“What I’m about to tell you…” He paused, held it, sighed. “Trust isn’t a big part of our business, but I think I can trust you, and I need your help. You know I’m an abnorm.”
“Of course.”
“What you didn’t know is that I used to work for the DAR.”
“So that’s how you were able to rob their lab.”
“No, actually. I’d never been to one before. The labs are on the analysis side. I was response. Equitable Services.”
Zane almost controlled his reaction.
“Yeah. We don’t exist. Except, of course, we do. Or they do. I left under…well, being gifted at an agency that hunted my kind caused some friction. The specifics don’t matter. What does matter is that once I left, I became a bad guy in their eyes.”
“I know something about being a bad guy.” Zane smiled.
“That’s why I think I can trust you. See, they’ve named me a target. They’re trying to kill me. And sooner or later, they’ll succeed.”
“And you want me to…what? Take on the DAR?”
“Of course not. I want you to help me become someone else.”
Zane picked up his drink. Sipped at it. “Why not go to Wyoming?”
“And live with the rest of the animals in the zoo?” He shook his head. “No thanks. I don’t like cages. And nobody is going to put a tracking device in my throat. Not ever. So I need a new name, a new face, and the documents to go with it.”
“You’re asking a lot.”
“Those semiconductors?” He gestured to the case. “That’s virgin newtech. No one, no one, outside of the DAR has seen that architecture. You play your cards right on those, you can make a fortune. And they won’t cost you a dime. You’re one of the biggest smugglers in the Midwest. You really going to tell me you don’t have a hacker and a surgeon in the family?”
The tri-d switched to footage of the Exchange explosion, the same loop of footage he’d seen on the tri-d billboard back in March. They had played it endlessly for the first months, followed by clips from President Walker’s speech, especially “For them, there can be—will be—no mercy.” Then as it became clear that John Smith wasn’t going to be quickly caught, it had slipped out of rotation. But it still ran every time anyone wanted to say anything negative about abnorms. Which was pretty much once an hour.
“Sure, I have the resources. But if I do this for you, then what?”
“I told you. You get those for free.”
“I could just kill you.”
“You sure?” He smiled.
Zane laughed. “You got balls, man. I like that.”
“We have a deal?”
“Let me think about it.”
“You know how to reach me. Meanwhile, hold onto the money and the semiconductors. Call it a good faith gesture.” Cooper brushed off his pant legs, then stood up. “Thanks for the drink.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The rain had let up, and by the patch of slightly brighter gray in the western sky, it looked as if the sun might even be trying to shine. Cooper retrieved his weapon from the trunk, then steered the Jaguar off the crumbling streets of the warehouse district and into traffic. The car was a beauty, though he missed the raw muscular rumble of the Charger.