“What do you know?”
“Atticus Montgomery was taken to the Cathedral City Asylum early this morning. He’s been admitted as an inpatient for attempted murder.”
“So he did fuck it up?” I growl.
“Possibly. I’m getting mixed signals from the intake surveillance over at the asylum. And the private room cameras are on a closed circuit. I won’t be able to directly access him until he wanders into view of an exterior one.”
“Shit.” I look at her for a few moments, running all this shit through my mind. “What do you think happened?”
“I don’t know. If I had access to the top floor of Blue Corp, I’d know. But I don’t, so we’re in the dark until Atticus Montgomery lets something slip.”
“Fuck. Well, I gotta go into town and talk to Thomas. He’s not gonna be happy. We have a deadline of Friday for the news conference. I’m taking the bike to avoid traffic. Keep me posted.”
I don’t wait for an answer, just hop on the bike—now repaired, thanks to Sheila’s little bot army—and kick the starter. It growls to life and I take off down the tunnel, the gate lifting at just the right moment to let me pass through without stopping.
I was smart to take the bike because thirty minutes later when I finally make it into town, it’s the lunch rush hour and I have to weave in and out between cars the whole way into the Merchant District. I park the bike in front of M-Street Bar and the door is opening before I even get within ten feet of it.
“Hey, Lincoln.”
I nod to the doorman, but my eyes are on Thomas and Case, both of whom are sitting at the bar drinking. They turn simultaneously as they register my voice and then Thomas turns away as Case says, “Finally.”
I take a seat on the other side of Case, not that Thomas scares me or anything. I just don’t feel like being too close to him right now.
“You wanna explain this monumental fuckup, Lincoln?” Thomas says, his words coming out as a low growl.
“What do you want me to say? Atticus didn’t follow through.”
“Why?” Thomas sneers. “Why the fuck didn’t it work?”
“I don’t know, asshole. I’m not the boss of him.”
Case rolls his eyes. “Lincoln, stop, OK? Just think, man. What happened last night?”
“I watched him go in the building.”
“We know he was in the building, Lincoln,” Thomas says, his voice way too calm for my comfort level. “What we don’t know is why he’s at the fucking Cathedral City Asylum on a judge-ordered psychiatric hold. Now how the fuck are we supposed to complete this job when he’s locked up?”
“We have to assume the worst,” Case says. “We have to assume the Old Man is on to us.”
“Sheila’s inside. She can get info from the system connected to the internet. But the interior cameras are on a closed circuit. She can’t access them.”
“So we just have to wait,” Case says. “We just need to sit tight and be patient until she finds something useful.”
Thomas gets up, gulps the whiskey sitting in front of his stool, then slams the glass down on the bar top so hard, it shatters. “So our whole plan, the one we’ve been discussing for fifteen fucking years, hinges on that sorry motherfucker in the psych ward?”
We don’t answer him, and he doesn’t wait. Just grabs his coat and walks out, slamming the door behind him, because the doorman has made himself scarce.
Case lets off a long breath of air. “He’s pissed.”
“Yup,” I say, catching the whiskey that Mac slides down the bar to me and taking my own gulp. “But we’re stuck until someone makes a move.”
“We’re going down, man.”
“We’re not going down, Case. Jesus, you two are pansies. We’ve got this. We’ve got Sheila, we’ve got me, and we’ve got Molly.”
“You told her?”
“No.” I laugh. “But she’s not stupid. And she’s covering for me. She knows about the others and she didn’t report me. In fact, I spent the night with her.” I get a little lost in that thought.
“You better be careful, man. Because once she figures this all out, she’s not gonna like you very much.”
“That remains to be seen,” I say back. “I can handle Molly.”
“You don’t even know her, dude.”
“Better than you do,” I say, turning my head slowly to eye Case. “So just stay the fuck out of it. We’ve got a good plan, every player is in place, and no matter what, this shit is happening. It might not happen by the book, but in a few days this whole town will be upside down. Thomas will get what he wants and I’m gonna get what I want too.”
Case is silent for a few seconds. And then he picks up his glass of whiskey. “Whatever you say, asshole. Whatever you say.”