“How do you know?”
“Because Nolan checked—” She stopped, appalled.
“Nolan opened the box and took out the instructions,” Reese said, sounding grim.
“But he put them back, I saw him,” Trudy said. “He slipped them behind the cardboard and closed up the box.”
“He palmed them, Trudy. He got the codes.”
Trudy thought back. “He couldn’t have. I was watching him, right up to…”
Reese looked at her patiently.
“Right up to when you called to me in the checkout line,” Trudy said, clutching the Mac closer and feeling miserable. “I looked away to talk to you. Did you see him take them?”
“No,” Reese said. “I was looking at you.”
Trudy felt ill. “Can I have the box back? At least I can give the doll to Leroy for Christmas.” She bent, keeping the doll in one hand, and picked up the shopping bags with the cow and the Twinkletoes in them.
“Look,” Reese said. “I need your help. Nolan’s a bad guy, and he’s somewhere in this warehouse with those codes, and he trusts you. You call to him, get him to come out to us, and we’ll take it from there.”
Trudy stepped back. “You’ll hurt him.”
Reese shook his head, moving closer. “You watch too many movies. Spies don’t hurt people, they just swap information. And that’s all we’re going to do. Take back the codes.” He smiled at her, his baby face reassuring. “Just call out for him, Trudy. He’ll come to you. He likes you. Then you can take the doll and go home, and you’ll have done a good thing for your country, too.” She hesitated and he said, “Of course, I’ll have to check the doll before you go to make sure there’s nothing else there.” He held out his hand for the MacGuffin.
Of course you will, Trudy thought, and looked around him at the door. Could she shove him out of the way and get out?
“Come on,” Reese said. “Who are you going to trust, me or the guy who lied to you and stole the instruction sheet?”
Good question.
She stuck the Mac under her arm, looped the two remaining shopping bags over her wrist, and opened her purse.
“Trudy?” Reese said.
“I’m gonna go with the guy who lied,” Trudy said, and Maced him.
*
Reese had stopped screaming by the time Trudy found the staircase again, which comforted her some. If he was really a CIA agent, she’d just Maced a good guy, but on the other hand …
Actually, there wasn’t an other hand. She’d just Maced a good guy.
“What the hell did you do to him?” Nolan whispered, and she jerked back, almost dropping her last two bags.
The Mac she kept her grip on.
“I Maced him. How’d you know I’d be here?”
“I figured this is where you’d run to once the other guys blocked the door. You were supposed to get out.”
“Yeah, well, you were supposed to be the good guy,” Trudy whispered back. “You took the instructions, you bastard.”
“Yeah,” Nolan said. “So?”
“So you’re not a cop,” Trudy said. “You’re a double agent for the Chinese, you rat—”
“He told you that?”
Trudy stopped. “That is pretty far-fetched.”
“Trudy, he’s the double agent for the Chinese.”
Trudy glared at where she thought he was in the darkness. “Do you guys just make this stuff up as you go?”
“MacGuffins are made in China,” Nolan whispered. “They marked one box last year and sent it over to that toy store. We just found out that it went missing and never got picked up, which is why we had the toy store staked out.”
“We who?” Trudy whispered back. “No, wait, I know this part. You’re the CIA. And I’m pissed off. Do you really think I’m going to believe this crap? That the Chinese secret service puts codes in dolls? Why don’t they just e-mail them?”
“Computers can be hacked.”
“And Major MacGuffins can’t?” Trudy looked at the doll in her arms.
“One sheet of paper, all the codes,” Nolan said. “On microdot. Very efficient. Except they lost them last year.”
“So this is about last year’s codes?” Trudy shook her head. “Why would you want last year’s codes? This story needs work.”
“Because with last year’s codes we can decipher all of last year’s transmissions that we intercepted. Which is what’s going on right now.”
“Right now.”
“I took them out of the box and passed them on,” Nolan said. “If you’ll give the doll to Reese, he’ll realize it’s over and hit the road.”
“Evidently not,” Trudy said. “He knows you’ve got the instruction sheet and he doesn’t seem to be leaving. I’m not buying any of this, you know. But I also don’t care about any of it. As long as Leroy—”
“I know, I know, he gets the doll.” Nolan sighed. “I can’t believe I promised you that. I’m going to end up getting shot for some stupid doll.”