The Rescue(51)

“No towels here?” he said.

“None that you’ll want to use,” said Sandra.

“I added a set of cheap sheets, too,” said Katie. “You might want to put those over the—uh—existing linens.”

Decker grimaced, glancing uneasily at the beds. He’d slept in some dives before, but this one actually had him nervous.

“Now for the good stuff,” said Katie, removing a concealable holster and a sturdy brown belt.

“Is that for the cockroaches?” he said.

She drew the pistol from the holster and racked the slide, leaving it locked back.

“Sig P320 compact. Nine millimeter. Right out of the box. Untraceable.”

“That was nice of Harlow,” said Decker.

“Harlow doesn’t know about this,” said Katie, glancing at Sandra. “Let’s keep it that way.”

Sandra shrugged. “I didn’t see anything.”

Katie tossed the empty pistol on the towels, along with five loaded pistol magazines and two knives—a fixed blade in a hard plastic scabbard and an easily concealed foldable knife.

“Just in case,” said Katie.

“There’s always a case to be made for their use,” said Decker.

“Don’t make me second-guess my judgment. Harlow said no weapons.”

“Well, she’s no fun, is she?”

“I think she’s just trying to keep the number of ‘accessory to a homicide’ charges against her to under a dozen at this point.”

“Funny,” said Decker. “What else is in the goody bag?”

“Money,” she said, tossing him a thick envelope.

A quick thumb through the stack of twenty-dollar bills left him uncomfortable with the bounty. “This is a lot of money. You don’t have to—”

“Five thousand dollars.”

“I can’t take that much money.”

“I’m not taking it back with me. We can charge you a high interest rate if that makes you feel better.”

“I can’t see how I’m going to pay this back,” said Decker. “This is more than likely a one-way trip for me.”

Katie stood there staring at him for several uncomfortable seconds while Sandra studied the room.

“I’m not going to tell Harlow you said that,” said Katie, dumping the rest of the contents on the bed. “We don’t expect you to pay any of this back.”

A wallet with ID and credit cards, a US passport, and a satellite phone sat in a tight pile on the stained comforter. Decker didn’t bother to ask why they hadn’t given him a cell phone. With Aegis and the FBI looking for him, there existed a better-than-even chance that serious domestic spying muscle would be flexed to find him.

“You’ll want to buy a laptop and a data transfer connection for the sat phone,” said Katie. “I didn’t know what kind of system you like to use.”

“Happen to notice a Best Buy within walking distance?”

Sandra tossed a set of keys at him, which he plucked from the air a few inches from his face. “The SUV outside is rented for three weeks. You’re not listed as a driver, so watch yourself on the road.”

“Who exactly am I?” he said, reaching for the wallet.

“Raymond James,” said Katie. “Longtime Nevada resident. American citizen. The IDs are top-notch. Credit cards give you twenty thousand dollars of additional spending power. Use them when it makes sense. You know the drill.”

“What did you mean by ‘we don’t expect you to pay any of this back’?” said Decker. “And the other part.”

She looked at him puzzled for a moment before nodding slowly, an understanding smirk appearing on her face.

“We’re partners with Harlow,” said Katie.

“Full partners?”

Up until now, he’d just assumed they were on Harlow’s payroll.

“Me. Sandy. Harlow. A few others,” she said. “We form the core partnership. Each with our own areas of expertise.”

“Huh,” said Decker. “What’s your specialty?”

“Can’t you tell?” said Katie.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Saving my ass?”

Katie broke out in laughter.

“I was going to add ‘does all the dirty work,’ but I get the feeling all of you are highly capable of that,” said Decker.

“Covert field operations. Behind-the-scenes stuff,” she said. “You’d be surprised how invisible this scar makes me.”

“Shrapnel?” he said, thinking she was ex-military.

“One of Penkin’s thugs,” said Katie. “I left college and came out to LA nine years ago looking for my little sister. They put me in the hospital for a month. I was pretty naive back then.”

Katie’s face didn’t betray her emotions, but he sensed them. In fact, he was very familiar with their heaviness.

“Did you ever find her?” he said, knowing the answer.

“Like I said, I was pretty naive back then,” she said, turning to Sandra. “We need to get on the road.”

Sandra nodded and opened the door.

“What’s your specialty?” said Decker.

“Hiding people,” said Sandra, stepping into the night with a devilish grin.