Good Intentions - Adrian Hell #6 (Adrian Hell Series) (31 page)

Not much chance of respite and refreshment though.

We requisitioned one of the spare Suburbans, left behind by the corpses we created. It’s packed full of weapons and tech, so we’re well armed now. We headed straight here, keeping to the speed limit to avoid attracting any unwanted attention. There’s no hiding from The Order—not yet, anyway… but there’s no sense in putting ourselves on anyone else’s radar unless we have to.

Kaitlyn’s been managing really well, all things considered. Her clothes are filthy, her hair’s all out of sorts, and I think our crash broke her glasses, but given she killed two people with an assault rifle this afternoon, she looks surprisingly composed. I don’t know how much of that composure is genuine, and how much of it is the result of a very strong, focused mind, trained to remain neutral when faced with extraordinary emotional trauma. Either way, right now it’s working for her, so I’m not about to question it.

I’ve said the best thing to do is stop in a public place and call her neighbor, explain as much as we can without going into too much detail, and ask him to meet us. Given The Order can see where I am at all times, I don’t want to lead them straight to Kaitlyn’s house and endanger the lives of the people around her. The more public I stay, the less chance there is of them blowing my head off. I’m putting a lot of faith in this kid being able to help us.

And God help Horizon if he can.

We’ve not spoken much on the ride here. She insisted on driving, and we haven’t stopped once. I think I fell asleep for a little while, which I felt bad about. The way I see it, the driver can’t rest, so out of respect, neither should the passengers. I felt the same way when it was just Josh and me, back in the day. She didn’t seem to mind though, and to be fair, given I woke up from surgery a little over eight hours ago, I reckon a bit of sleep was probably long overdue.

We stop at a red light.

“Any ideas where you want to go?” asks Kaitlyn.

I think for a moment. “We need somewhere busy… Maybe not too far from your house.”

The lights change and we set off again. She takes the first left. “I know the perfect place.”

We drive for another ten minutes or so before she pulls over outside a plaza, spitting distance from the coast. It’s a circular park with a fountain in the middle, illuminated for the evening by multi-colored lights underneath the water. There are sizeable areas of grass around the edges, with a café and a restaurant covering the area, both with seating outside. There are steps leading up from the sidewalk at regular intervals around the park. Across the street is Abu Dhabi beach. The lapping of the waves is audible over the traffic. The area is busy, but not overcrowded. It looks nice.

I turn to her. “This is perfect. I’m going to stretch my legs. You wanna make the call?”

She nods. “Yeah.” She takes the cell phone from the center console and types in a number. “My house is maybe fifteen minutes from here, so it won’t take him long.”

“What are you gonna say to him?”

She sighs. “I’ll need to give him enough information about what’s really happening, so he brings everything he needs, but I’ll skim over the finer details.”

I nod. “What if he’s reluctant?”

She shrugs. “Then I guess I’ll take Lily’s advice and use what God gave me…”

She gestures casually to her chest and smiles. I look, which is unavoidable, and then smile. We both laugh, but after a moment, we fall silent.

She puts a hand on my arm. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah… What about you? This is a lot for a normal person to take in.”

“It is, but I’m doing okay. I feel better knowing you’re here.”

I smile, but only for a moment. “Listen, I know you’re the expert on the mind and everything, but I’m the expert when it comes to this special kind of shit that we’re in. I know what you’re probably going through, whether you know yourself yet or not. What you did for me, back on that construction site… You saved my life, Kaitlyn. I’m grateful beyond words, but I know what you did isn’t normal to people like you. Killing someone shouldn’t be
normal
to anybody… What I’m trying to say is, at some point, the gravity of what you did is going to hit you, okay? I just want you to know, when it does…” I return the gesture and put my hand on hers. “…you can talk to me.”

She holds my gaze. I can see tears forming in her eyes, but she holds them back. “I’m fine, honestly. Besides, it’s normal for
you
, isn’t it? You manage okay, and I know how much of an emotional train wreck
you
are!”

She smiles at me.

I shake my head. “Are these insults included in the service I pay three hundred dollars an hour for?”

She laughs. “No, they’re actually extra. I’m going to invoice you when all this is over.”

“I can’t wait… But to answer your question, Kaitlyn—no, it’s not normal for me. It’s just all I know. It’s all I’m good at. It’s the only thing I was ever going to do with my life. But that doesn’t make it normal.”

We look at each other silently for a moment. She nods. “Thank you. Now go on, let me make the call.”

I reach inside the glove box and take the handgun I stashed there. It’s a GlobaTech weapon, and kind of looks like the old SIG Sauer P226 from the mid-nineties. The grip is a little longer than most semi-automatics, to accommodate the twenty-four round mag. It’s dark gray with a matte finish. There’s a small laser pointer built into the underside of the barrel, in front of the trigger guard. As always with GlobaTech’s creations, it’s a really nice piece.

I tuck it behind me and pull my T-shirt down over it. I climb out of the car, stand up straight, and push my shoulders back gently. I take in a deep breath of humid air and look around. I assess the customers outside the restaurant and café ahead of me, and the groups of people milling around the plaza. I don’t see anything that sets my spider sense off. If anyone from The Order has tracked us here, they’re very good at hiding in plain sight.

I walk up the steps to the left of me and stroll over to the fountain. I keep my pace intentionally slow and idle. I sit down on the edge and look back at the car. I can see Kaitlyn talking on the phone.

Man, I hope this works. If it doesn’t, the only other option is Josh, and I really don’t want to involve him in this shit. He’s probably the only person alive actually mourning me. I can’t put his life on the line. I don’t have the right.

Kaitlyn gets out of the car and walks over to me. I stand to meet her. “Everything okay?”

She nods. “Yes, he’s on his way.”

“Amazing. What did you tell him?”

“I said I think one of my clients has bugged my laptop, and I was wondering if he’d be able to check for me. He was skeptical at first, but I told him this client was a bad person, and that I’m scared and feel safer in a public place. He said he’d be here as soon as he could.”

“That’s good work, Kaitlyn.”

She glances around. “Nice, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I’ve never been here.”

“I come down here sometimes at the weekend, just for a bite to eat, or to meet up with a girlfriend for lunch.” She sighs. “So, what now?”

I shrug. “How long do you think this kid will be?”

“I dunno… twenty minutes, maybe?”

“Okay.” I gesture to the café over my shoulder. “Drink?”

21:14
AST

We’re sitting on separate tables adjacent to one another outside the café. We have our backs to each other and our chairs pushed out a little, so we’re almost sitting next to each other, but facing opposite directions. We’re close enough that we can talk, but far enough away that, to the casual passer-by, we don’t look together. I told Kaitlyn to try her best not to move her lips when she talks to me, too.

She lets out a taut breath. “Here he comes.”

He’s approaching from her side, so I can’t see him. I nonchalantly lean forward on my forearms and take a sip of my coffee, and then glance absently around. I catch a glimpse over my right shoulder as the kid reaches her table.

He’s almost as tall as me, but very thin, with long limbs. He has the beginnings of a dark beard forming on his pockmarked face. His hair is thick and short, and he’s dressed casually in shorts and a thin jumper. He has a bag over his shoulder.

I look back at my table. He didn’t see me staring.

“Yaz, thanks for coming,” says Kaitlyn. “Can I get you anything?”

“N-no… thank you. Are… you alright?”

His English is pretty good, but his voice is cracking with nerves.

“I’m fine, I think. Please, sit down.”

I hear the chair scrape along the ground as he joins her at the table.

“Yaz, I really do need your help with something, okay?”

He clears his throat. “Ah… yeah… I mean, sure, I’m happy to… That’s if I can. You think your computer’s bugged? That’s crazy…”

Kaitlyn sighs. “Yes, it is a little strange. It’s… also a lie. I’m sorry, but that’s not why I asked you here. I just thought if I told you the real reason, you wouldn’t come.”

“I… I don’t understand. Is everything okay? I can get my mom to come or something and maybe she can help, or…?”

“No, it’s fine. It’s you I need. I know you’re, like, a computer genius. I figured if anyone could help, it’d be you.”

Feeding his ego… nice. But she needs to hurry this along.

“I wouldn’t say I’m a
genius
… but…”

“Yaz, this is the situation. A friend of mine—”

I get up and walk around to their table. I stand between them, facing the café. The kid looks up at me, frowning with uncertainty, and maybe a little fear. I bet I look pretty weird with my head all wrapped up and my hand in a cast…

I smile. “It’s Yaz, right?”

He nods tentatively.

I extend my left hand, turned outward. “I’m Adrian. Kaitlyn’s friend.”

He shakes it weakly. His palm’s a little sweaty. I casually wipe my hand on my shorts. “Look, what I’m about to say is gonna be a little difficult to take in, alright? But I need your help. See, I have a tracking device implanted in my neck, and I need you to disable its signal. Can you do that?”

He’s not blinked in a while. He’s just… staring at me.

“Y-you look… r-really scary… sir.”

I glance at Kaitlyn, who smiles to herself. I nod at Yaz. “I can be pretty scary when I need to be, I won’t lie. But I promise I’m a nice guy. I’m just in a bad situation. Can you help?”

He looks over at Kaitlyn, presumably for reassurance. When he gets some, he takes a deep breath and seems to relax a little. He reaches into his bag and takes out a laptop, which he sets up on the table. “Can’t you just… y’know… take the device out?”

I shake my head. “If only it were that easy. See, it’s a pretty sophisticated piece of tech. If it’s removed, it… kinda explodes.”

His eyes grow wide. Kaitlyn leans forward and puts her hand on his. “Yaz, it’s okay. You’re not in any danger or anything. We just know that some bad people can use this tracking signal to find Adrian and I, and we’d rather they didn’t.”

He shakes his head. “What are you mixed up in, Miss Moss?”

The kid clearly has a crush on her. I can see it in his eyes. His gaze softens when he looks at her, and like any other kid in the latter stages of puberty, he keeps staring at her breasts thinking no one is noticing.

I put my hand on his shoulder, to offer some additional reassurance. “Nothing too bad, I promise. And Yaz… I’ll keep her safe, okay?”

He looks at me, and after a moment, he nods, as if he’s resigning himself to the fact that this is happening and he needs to accept it. He takes a breath and starts tapping away on the laptop. “Okay, uh, Adrian… take a seat.”

I pull the chair out in front of me and sit down.

Yaz reaches back inside his bag and pulls out what looks like a small walkie-talkie. It’s a small black box with two antennae sticking out the end. He plugs it into a USB slot and resumes his key tapping. “Right, this is going to scan for the frequency your implant is transmitting on. Once we find its signal, I can identify the coding of it and, hopefully, disable it remotely.”

I raise an eyebrow. “I’m impressed. You remind me of an old friend.”

He ignores me. He’s focused on the screen. I exchange a glance with Kaitlyn, who smiles.

“Oh… oh my…”

That doesn’t sound good.

I look at the laptop, then at Yaz. “What is it?”

“Well, I’ve located the signal, but it’s got some sick encryption on it. Like, military-grade stuff. This is… insane!”

“But you can still block it, right?”

He shakes his head. “Honestly, I don’t know, sir. Wait…”

I roll my eyes. “What now?”

“There’s… It looks like there’s a second signal coming from the device. It’s a different frequency, but has the same encryption.”

I sigh. “Yeah… I’m gonna need you to disable both.”

“Wh-what’s the second one for?”

“That’s… ah… that’s the one that can remotely detonate the device and blow my head off.”

His eyes go wide again, and I genuinely think he’s about to throw up.

“So, thinking about it, if you could go ahead and disable that one
first
, I’d really appreciate it.”

“I… I can’t… I…”

Kaitlyn stands and moves round the table to his side. She crouches next to him and puts her hand on his arm. “Yaz, please… if there’s any way of helping us here… We need you.”

He stares at her for a moment, a mixture of fear and longing dancing in his eyes. Then, he snaps his gaze back to the laptop and sits up straight. “Okay… wait a second…”

This looks encouraging. Josh used to do the same thing when he thought of something.

I lean forward. “What you got for me, Yaz?”

“I’m gonna be honest, I don’t think I can hack either signal to disable it. But, I might be able to redirect it…”

I nod. “Keep talking… and pretend I’m an idiot and don’t understand a word you’re saying. Because… y’know… I don’t.”

He points to the screen, which shows a very busy display with lots of wavy lines. “Okay, so your device has a unique signature, right? Something that identifies it on the bandwidth that allows it to be found and tracked by the system on the other end of the connection. I might be able to alter that signature, so the system thinks it’s connected to something else, even though it’s not.”