Redemption Song (Daniel Faust #2)(20)

“Got it. Which one?”

“It’s…one second, have to check my notes—”

“Pix? Time. Not on our side.”

“Here we go,” she said. “398215X.”

I could hear employees shuffling around in the narrow hallway outside the door, dutifully leaving the building. If any of the guards poked their head in to check the server room, I was done for. I pushed the thought out of my mind and focused on checking labels.

“Found it!” I opened my briefcase.

“Unscrew the faceplate.”

I was glad she’d packed a Phillips-head screwdriver for me. The metal plate quickly gave way, exposing a snakes’ nest of electronic guts.

“You’re looking for a ribbon cable,” she said, “with a gray box on one end. You’re going to need to hook up the dongle I gave you.”

I was no engineer, but she walked me through it step by step. With the job done and the faceplate back in place, there was nothing left to do but make my escape. I held my breath and stepped out of the server room, not sure what I’d find on the other side.

What I found was an empty hall and a propped-open fire exit. Crowds of employees milled around in the parking lot, cradling coffee cups and chatting, with another pair of dogs making slow, lazy passes around them. A siren heralded the arrival of a pair of fire trucks, and the crowd parted like the Red Sea to make room.

That was my chance. I blended in with the crowd, easing my way through the knot of people and out the other side, staying clear of the dogs. The Wardriver was a short jog away. I hopped in the front seat, and Pixie tossed me the keys.

“You drive,” she said. “I’m working.”

I put Carmichael-Sterling Nevada in the rearview mirror and brought the rickety old van up to a slow cruising speed. I waited an entire thirty seconds before asking if she was done yet. I thought that showed restraint on my part.

“So far, so…good!” She pumped her fist in the air. “Perfect. I’m in. I can’t get any old data, but any email that passes through their network from this point on is going to make a tiny detour to my computer first.”

“You’re a genius, Pix.”

“You’re biased. So what now?”

“Now you watch for anything that has Lauren Carmichael or Meadow Brand’s name on it. Me, I’ve got to go work on my other big problem.”

“Problem?” she said, walking up from the back of the van and slipping into the passenger seat.

“Somebody wants me to do something I don’t want to do, and they’re holding a gun to my head. Same old song and dance.”

Pixie shrugged. “Can’t you, you know, do some magic?”

“Wish it was that easy. Their magic’s bigger than mine.”

We rode in silence for a while. She shifted in her seat. Thoughtful, and not liking her thoughts.

“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I’m sorry I brought you into all this. I’m sorry I told you the truth.”

“What you told me,” she said, “is that things are bad all over, and we’ve all got to work together to survive in this world. That we’ve got to take care of each other. I knew that when I woke up this morning. All you did was raise the stakes.”

We stopped in the parking lot outside my apartment. I passed her the keys and the steering wheel, and she left me standing alone in the afternoon sun. I didn’t want to go home. No answers there. While I was sorting out my options, my phone rang.

“Hey, it’s Ben, Emma’s husband? Emma gave me your number, I hope it’s okay that I called.”

“Sure,” I said. “But if it’s an accounting problem, I can’t help you.”

He laughed. “No, nothing like that, it’s just…well, I heard about what’s going on. The task the prince gave you. I’m sorry, man, that’s rough. I mean, I don’t know what I’d do in your shoes.”

I paced the lot as I talked, kicking up loose gravel.

“Sitri’s writing wolf tickets,” I said, “and that’s his business, but I’m not buying any. Back down for one bully, you’ll back down for all of them. I’ve known that since I was a kid.”

“What are you going to do, though?”

“I’m thinking about paying the good father a little visit. Sniff around a little, see if anything seems off.”

“Good luck, Dan. If I think of anything that could help, I’ll let you know.”

I hung up the phone. I knew Ben’s hands couldn’t be all that clean. He’d married Emma, after all. Still, I couldn’t help but like the guy. He reminded me a little of Pixie, weirdly enough. A decent person knee-deep in the weird, just doing the best he could.

That was exactly why I’d decided to keep them both at arm’s length. I had a bad feeling about Sitri’s game, a lingering feeling of doom in the pit of my stomach, and I didn’t need any more decent people getting hurt on my account.

Time to go to church, I thought with a bitter smile. Hope I don’t spontaneously combust when I walk in the door.

? ? ?

Our Lady of Consolation stood on a lonely corner with a vacant lot on one side and a half-dead strip mall on the other. The parking lot sat empty, but just a few blocks away the skyline of the Vegas Strip lit up in preparation for another roaring night on the town. The church couldn’t compete with that kind of action.