Blood Money (15 page)

“Not half the state,” Kelton said. “Just a
few federal agents. They pulled the locals off the case,
remember?”

“Still,” Jessica said. “Don’t you think we
should be keeping a low profile?”

“Why do you think we’re wearing sunglasses
and hats?”

She punched him in the shoulder. “I’m
serious. This is insane.”

“Not really,” Kelton said, stifling a smile.
“We need a break from all this stress. Besides, you’re the one that
said you didn’t want to just sit around in a hotel room until we
heard from Walter again.”

“I know, but this isn’t quite what I had in
mind.”

They stepped off the escalator and headed
towards the line of people waiting to get on the tram.

“Trust me,” Kelton said. “Everything will be
fine. Just relax and try to have some fun.”

Because it was an afternoon in the middle of
the week, the line to get into Disneyland was relatively short; it
only took them half an hour to get through the obligatory security
checkpoint, buy tickets and pass through the front gates of the
Magic Kingdom.

They were immediately assaulted by Walt
Disney’s delightfully revisionist version of Main Street, which
opened up towards Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in the center of the
park. Hundreds of people were walking around, most pushing
strollers or hand-in-hand with their children, many of them with
faces that reflected their dogged desire to force their families
into having a good time no matter what.

“It’s been at least fifteen years since I’ve
been here,” Jessica said. Her eyes were wide and a little smile
tugged at the corner of her lips. “Everything looks almost exactly
as I remember it, only smaller.”

Kelton laughed. “Yeah, I don’t know if it’s
truly the happiest place on earth, but it always makes me feel
pretty good inside.”

“How often do you come?”

“A couple times a year,” Kelton said.

“By yourself?”

He nodded.

She cast him a glance, question marks in her
eyes. “Isn’t that a bit odd? After all, you’re a grown man.”

He shrugged. “I suppose it could be seen as
odd by some. I can’t say that I’ve ever given a moment’s thought as
to what someone else might think of it.”

They walked past the dual statues of Mickey
Mouse and Walt Disney standing at attention, side by side, situated
in the middle of a roundabout at the end of Main Street.

“Is there a reason you come back all the
time?” Jessica said. “Or do you just like the place?”

“It’s the last place I remember coming to
with my parents,” Kelton said. “It always brings back memories of
them. Dim ones, to be sure, but it’s all I have.”

Jessica looked up at him, her face solemn,
and without saying a word, slipped her hand in his, and together
they walked under the opening in Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.

They made their way through Fantasyland and
headed down the path that served as the beginning of the parade
route towards Mickey’s ToonTown. There were people everywhere, and
while Kelton thought it likely that a couple of them were agents,
intent on monitoring their actions while they were in the park, it
was impossible to tell which ones.

“Which ride are we going on first?” Jessica
asked.

Kelton pointed towards to his right.

She crinkled her brow. “It’s a Small World?
Are you serious?”

“Yeah. Why?”

Jessica shrugged. “I don’t know. I just
figured you for more of a Matterhorn, Space Mountain type of
guy.”

“Oh, I love roller-coasters, but it’s a bit
of a tradition of mine for It’s A Small World to be my first ride
of the day.”

Jessica laughed softly, shook her head.

“What’s the matter, you don’t like the
ride?”

“Not really,” Jessica said. “It’s long, slow
and boring. And that damn song plays incessantly. And loudly. The
whole time.”

Kelton smiled. She was right, of course. The
ride was pretty much precisely as she described it. Which was
exactly why they were going on it.

They reached the opening of the line at the
same time as an older, gray-haired couple. Kelton paused, held out
his hand palm up and said, “After you.”

The older man nodded his head in thanks and
they made their way towards the ride. Kelton and Jessica followed
after them. Behind them a Hispanic family of five filed into the
line, the three young children chattering excitedly in Spanish.

Everything was shaping up perfectly.

“Thanks for indulging me,” Kelton said as
they reached the front of the brief line.

“Not like I had much choice,” Jessica
said.

The young woman working the ride asked the
gray-haired man in front of them how many were in his party. The
man told her two and she sent them to row one. She turned towards
Kelton and asked the same question.

“There’s two of us,” Kelton said.

“Go ahead and take row two,” she said.

They proceeded to the second row.

Behind them, the same question was asked.
One of the children answered, “Five,” and the line operator sent
them to rows 3 and 4, filling out the rest of the boat.

The makeup of the rest of the boat was
perfect for his purposes; there was no chance that one of the other
members of their boat was an agent in disguise. He allowed himself
a satisfied smile.

He realized too late that Jessica was
looking at him.

“What’s up with you?” she said. An empty
boat came to a stop in front of them.

“Nothing,” Kelton said as they stepped into
the boat. “I’m just excited, that’s all.”

She continued to stare at him for a few
moments before shaking her head. “You are one strange dude,
Kelton.”

“Yeah, I think you’ve mentioned that
before.”

They sat down and started moving forward,
the slow-moving water pushing their boat along the track at a
crawl. The first minute or so of the ride was out in the open, in
full view of the various walkways throughout the park, but soon
enough they would enter one of the many connected buildings that
housed the majority of the ride, where they’d be invisible to the
possibility of prying eyes.

And then they were inside.

The music kicked in, a chorus of children
singing the repeating lyrics to the song loud enough to preclude
anyone not on their boat from overhearing them.

Kelton turned towards Jessica, pointed at
one of the hundreds of animatronic puppets to their right, and
said, “We need to talk.”

She started to turn towards him. “What do
you mean?”

Kelton put his hand on her thigh. “Just act
natural, like you’re enjoying the ride. We don’t know who’s
watching us.”

“Watching?” Jessica said, a fake smile
plastered on her face. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“We’re being followed,” Kelton said.

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

“By who?”

“I don’t know yet,” Kelton said. “But
someone is definitely shadowing us. And most likely listening to us
too, whenever they have the chance.”

Jessica started to shake her head, but
quickly caught herself and turned her attention back to the ride.
“I freaking knew it. So that’s why you kept me in the dark for the
last half of the day, because you were afraid they could hear us
talking?”

“That’s right.”

“Even in the car?”

“Especially in the car,” Kelton said. “They
could have easily wired it up while we were inside our hotel room
last night.”

“Wait a minute, they’ve been on to us since
last night?”

“Probably longer.”

Jessica’s face started losing color. “Are
you serious?”

“Completely.”

The ride shifted to a room that resembled
the North Pole and the song switched to what sounded like
Swedish.

Jessica took a deep breath, exhaled audibly.
After a full ten seconds of silence, she seemed to have herself
back under control. “So that’s why we didn’t meet up with Walter
today.”

“Exactly.”

“And that’s why you wanted to go on this
ride first, because it’s one of the few places where we can talk
without fear of being overheard.”

“You got it.”

Jessica pointed towards a group of puppets
dancing merrily on top of a snow-covered mountain and said, “How
the hell did they find us?”

“They’ve been on to us since I pulled you
out of the safe house,” Kelton said.

“They’ve been following us the whole
time?”

“That’s right.”

“Are you sure?” Jessica said.

“Yeah.”

“But how is that even possible with all
we’ve gone through?”

“We figure they planted a location
transmitter on you while they had you in custody.”

“Where did they put it?” Jessica said.

“In your shoe.”

The ride shifted to a South American theme
and the lyrics switched to Spanish. The kids behind them started
singing along. Kelton knew from experience that the ride—and with
it the ability to talk freely—was nearly over. Three minutes left,
at the most.

“Have you actually seen anyone following
us?”

“No,” Kelton said. “But Walter saw someone.
A few people, actually. Back at the mall, and then at the
warehouse.”

“So that’s why he had us running all over
the place?”

“Yeah. He caught wind of something going on,
and wanted to be sure that it was safe to meet up with us.
Obviously, it wasn’t.”

“But why are they just watching us?” Jessica
said. “If they knew where we were the whole time, why didn’t they
just pick us up somewhere along the way?”

“We figure they also want to capture the man
behind the plan, so they’re waiting until we meet up with him.”

“So you think they’re really after
Walter?”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

Jessica sighed, started to shake her head
before catching herself. She turned her head back towards a group
of dancing puppets and said, “I don’t know. It all seems kind of
crazy to me.”

Kelton shrugged. “It’s a crazy world.”

“I guess,” Jessica said. “But still—”

“I know we’re taking a lot of this on faith,
but all we can do is deal with the situation as best we know it,”
Kelton said. “And even if this is all a paranoid fantasy dreamed up
by Walter—which I don’t believe for a second—until he is certain
things are safe, he’s not going to meet up with us. So we have to
proceed as though we are being followed. Whether or not we truly
are is moot at this point.”

“Fine,” Jessica said, her tone flat. She was
clearly not happy. “Then how do we proceed?”

“Simple. First we lose the bug and then we
lose our observers.”

“And how are we going to do that?”

“I’ve got someone working on that part right
now,” Kelton said.

“Who?”

“A guy I’ve worked with a few times,” Kelton
said. “He owns a security firm down in San Diego. He knows what
he’s doing.”

The ride had transitioned into the last
section, where all the countries were united in a show of world
peace. Less than a minute left now before they were back out in the
open.

Jessica said, “How does this guy know what’s
going on?”

“I gave him a call while I was in bathroom
at the Chinese restaurant, after I talked to Walter.”

Jessica scoffed. “I knew you were up to
something in there.”

“Sorry I couldn’t mention it to you at the
time.”

“That’s all right,” she said. “But you are
going to let me in on what the plan is
before
it happens
this time around, right?”

Kelton fought the urge to glance over at
her. “If it’s feasible.”

Jessica shook her head. “That’s not good
enough,” she said. “In case you haven’t realized it, I have just as
much at stake in this situation as you do. More, in fact. But for
the most part, I’ve been kept in the dark as things moved
along.”

“You’re right,” Kelton said. “You have been
outside the loop. But most of the time it was out of necessity.
Especially the last few hours.”

“I understand that,” Jessica said. “But we
haven’t been operating under these circumstances the whole time.
You’ve been like this even
before
you knew people were on to
us.”

Kelton’s eyes remained fixed on the last
group of characters dancing in harmony with one another. He’d known
this moment was coming; if anything he was surprised it had taken
so long to get here.

“What are you proposing?” he said.

“That you find a way to keep me informed,”
Jessica said. “I’m sick of being led around on a leash.”

“Funny, I got the impression that you liked
that kind of thing.”

“I’m serious here, Kelton. I can’t stand
being kept in the dark. It drives me crazy. We talked about this
earlier. I need to at least feel like I have some control over the
situation.”

The end of the ride was now in sight.
Fifteen seconds left, at the most, and then they would be out in
the open.

“I guess that’s a reasonable request,”
Kelton said. “I’ll do everything I can to keep you involved as much
as possible. But we can’t talk about anything out in the open. We
have to assume someone is listening at all times.”

“Got it,” Jessica said as the flume carried
them back out into the bright afternoon light. She put her hand on
his leg, rubbed it gently with her thumb. “And that quip about the
leash?”

Kelton felt a rustle in his stomach and
groin. “What about it?”

“You’re right,” Jessica said, her mouth
turned up in a half-smirk that Kelton found incredibly sexy. “I am
into that sort of thing.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

It was no coincidence that Kelton and
Jessica were inside The Haunted Mansion at 5:58PM, about to get
onto the little one-person cars that made up the majority of the
ride.

They had gone on five other rides in the
three hours since they climbed off It’s a Small World, but they
hadn’t said a word to each other about the situation at hand the
entire time. The rides were meant to serve as decoys, partially to
put pressure on whomever was watching them, and partially in an
effort to get them to accidentally expose themselves.