Right Through Me (The Obsidian Files #1)(105)

Chapter 30


“If you want him to bring the safe, you have to show him the girl.” Asa sounded irritated. “He’s not stupid.”

“Not an option,” Noah said again, implacably.

Asa squinted up at the ceiling. “You keep telling me how hard it’s going to be to outwit this genius psycho. And now you tell me that we’re supposed to trap him without bait. What the f*ck do you want, Noah? Miracles?”

“We’ll send him a video of her,” Noah insisted. “If anything fails, he’d cut her to pieces. She cannot be there.”

“I hear you, and you have a point, but still.”

As he spoke, Asa’s curious gaze kept flicking to the glow in Noah’s unshielded eyes. Noah had taken his lenses off, figuring what the hell, he had nothing to hide from his brother at this point. Besides, he wanted to take a good, long look at Asa’s sig.

He’d been surprised to find it as atypical as Caro’s, though for opposite reasons. Asa’s sig was unreadable. Shielded, as if he were generating some sort of interference. When Noah tried to read his brother’s energy pattern, all he saw was an eye-watering shimmer. Like heat rising from hot asphalt on a desert highway.

Which was very interesting and thought-provoking, but not worth a good goddamn when it came to making guesses as to his brother’s mysterious agenda.

“He won’t go for it,” Asa said.

“Noah,” Caro said. “I should be the one to decide if I—”

“No.” His harsh voice smashed down on the suggestion.

He locked eyes with Caro. Her color was high. Pissed at him, but he was pushing all that aside for the moment. Focusing on the task at hand.

Asa blew out a frustrated breath. “You’re not being rational.”

“That’s how it has to be,” Noah said. “You’ll have your favors to call in. You know we’re good for them.”

“Yeah?” Asa challenged him. “How do I know? The last thing we did together before we bashed each other’s brains out was that fill-a-basket con, remember? We scored bread, lunchmeat, milk, some M&M’s and Tylenol for Hannah’s fever. And you were an awesome liar that day. You’re one of the best liars I’ve ever known.”

“He’s not lying now,” Caro said. “He couldn’t lie to you.”

Asa looked amused. “Sorry, beautiful,” he drawled. “You’re not impartial, so your opinion is worthless.”

“Let’s cut the bullshit,” Noah said. “Mark’s sniffing around out there. Sooner or later, he’ll catch our scent. We need to make contact soon. Give him something concrete to focus on. Something of our choosing. On our schedule.”

“The financial outlay for this enterprise will skyrocket if you insist on being unreasonable,” Asa said. “And no matter how many guys I hire or what gear they get, our probability of success is about to fall off a cliff. You’re being an *, Noah. Not that this surprises me.”

“Are we going to get to work, or not?” Noah asked.

Asa opened up a slim silver laptop. “So you want him to trace these messages back to me, correct?”

“That’s right.”

Asa nodded, staring at the screen with an abstracted frown. “So I have to make it hard for him. Really hard . . . but not too hard.”

“Right,” Noah said impatiently.

Asa pressed a small tab of gummed paper over the vidcam on the laptop and tapped a few keys, humming to himself. “Oblio.chat,” he murmured. “Creating an account . . . username, Keyholder. What a super-nerd gonzo gamer username. Couldn’t you think of anything better?”

“Not at the time. I was rescuing Caro,” Noah said. “Give me a f*cking break.”

“Logging on,” Asa murmured. “Let’s see if this guy is . . . shit.” He looked up, eyes sharp. “He’s waiting for us.”

Dread fluttered through the color patterns of Caro’s sig, quickly calmed and stilled. Caro joined Sisko and Noah to peer over Asa’s shoulder. Mark’s opening was terse.



took you long enough



Asa typed back.



been busy with the girl. She’s so happy to be saved! and grateful = on her knees to me kickass aphrodisiac.



“What the f*ck do you think you’re doing?” Noah snarled.

“My job,” Asa said calmly. “I’m destabilizing him. Pissing him off. Wounding his pride. Manipulating him into making snap decisions that are not in his best interests.”

Noah sat down next to him, staring at his screen. “Is that a good idea?”

“We’ll find out soon enough. What’s important is that I’m being me, and not you. Which is why I put a sticker on the camera.”

“I noticed.”

“He’d feel something was off if you just used me as a mouthpiece. Shut up and let me do my thing. He’ll find me when he does his research. I’m a smart-ass by nature, and people know it. You’re not.”

“Yeah, I remember that,” Noah muttered.

“I just bet you do,” Asa said. As they spoke, Mark had typed back.



not interested in games. name your terms.