We crossed the first floor and went up the stairs to second-floor hallway.
Nicole had not seen what Lewis had already found. A hallway with maps stuck to the walls everywhere. She cast her eyes everywhere, across maps of South America, Australia, India, as well as detailed street maps including San Francisco, Cape Town, Denver. And that was just in a two-foot stretch.
“It gets better in here,” Lewis said, pushing open the door to Thomas’s room.
Nicole went in first, seemingly mesmerized by the walls, done up just like the hall. She said nothing as her eyes roamed over the maps. At one point, she reached out toward a map of Australia and, almost dreamily, touched her index finger to Sydney.
“And look at this,” Lewis said to her, pointing to the computer monitors. Each of the three screens offered a different vantage point of the same street. “Where is that?” he asked me.
“I have no idea.”
Thomas said, “Lisbon.”
“Lisbon,” Lewis repeated. “This is Whirl360, right?”
Thomas nodded.
“Whose computer is this?”
“Mine,” my brother said.
“Why are you looking at Lisbon?”
“I look at everything,” he said.
“What do you mean, everything?”
“He means everything,” I said. “He looks at cities all over the world.”
“Why?”
“It’s a hobby,” I said.
Thomas shot me a look, obviously wondering why I was lying. Then, to Lewis he said, “You already know, don’t you?”
“Excuse me?”
“About the maps disappearing, and how I’m going to help the black-ops people.”
Nicole said, “What the fuck?”
“You’re the bad guys,” Thomas said, like we were all kids playing cops and robbers.
Lewis cracked a smile. “I guess we are. So, let me ask you boys this. Which one of you was looking up Orchard Street on here?” He looked at me. “I thought it was you, since you’re the one who came knocking on the door.”
I felt a chill. It was starting to become clear just how much trouble we were in.
“The neighbor,” I said.
Lewis shook his head. “Motion-activated camera. Trained on the apartment door.”
So now we knew. “Oh,” I said.
“Got a picture of what you were holding in your hand.”
“Oh,” I said again.
“So who was it?”
“I found it,” Thomas said, a hint of pride in his voice. “I saw the lady with the bag over her head. Ray went to check it out for me.”
Lewis looked at Nicole and said, “Well, I guess that answers your question.” When she raised a questioning eyebrow, he added, “About whether we’re taking one of them or both.”
FIFTY-SIX
“WE should take that with us,” Nicole said, pointing to the computer tower that was connected to Thomas’s monitors.
“Good idea,” Lewis said.
“No,” Thomas protested. “No, no!”
“Thomas,” I said, nudging him again with my shoulder. “There’s bigger stuff at stake here than the computer.”
“But it’s mine!” he said. He was horrified, watching Lewis start to unplug the wires that ran out of the back of it. “Stop it!”
Calmly, Nicole said to me, “Are you going to be able to control him?”
“Yes. Just let me talk to him a second.”
Nicole allowed us to move a couple of feet away. I faced Thomas, leaned my head in close enough that I was nearly touching his forehead.
“Listen. We’re in a tough spot here. I can always get you another computer. A way more powerful one. But the only way I’m going to have a chance to do that is if we cooperate with them. You hearing me?”
“It’s mine,” he said.
“I need you to hold it together, Thomas. Can you do that for me?”
He raised his head, looked into my eyes. “You’d have to get me one that’s just as fast.”
“I’ll get you one that’s even faster,” I said, making a promise I knew I was never going to be able to keep.
Lewis pulled the disconnected tower to the edge of the desk and asked me, “So what were you doing there?”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“My brother asked me to check it out. He was on that site, he saw something funny in the window, and he asked me to check it out when I was in the city.”
“Oh,” Lewis said. “So, it was just a huge coinkydink.”
I smiled nervously. “Pretty much.”
“You’re telling me your brother’s just goofing around online, sees this thing, and you decide to go all the way into the city to check it out.”
“Yes.”
Lewis looked at Nicole. “That’s all it is. Just a bit of innocent Web surfing.”
“Great. I guess we can go home now.”
“Yeah,” Lewis said, and came over, putting his face to within an inch of mine. His breath was hot on my cheek. “When we get where we’re going, you’re going to need to come up with a better story than that. You’ll have lots of time to think of something on the way.”
“Where are we going?” I asked.
Nicole said, “Tape.”