Lies I Told(9)

“Zombocolypse,” Parker finished dryly.

I couldn’t help laughing.

“We don’t know,” my dad said. “And obviously, Warren doesn’t know, either. It’s something he’s been preoccupied with for years, according to my sources. Part of his paranoid delusions.”

I didn’t bother asking how he knew so much about Warren Fairchild. He just did. He never told us how or where he got his information.

“You said he’s been preparing for it,” I said, trying to read between the lines. “What do you mean?”

“Word is he’s been stockpiling.”

Parker narrowed his eyes. “Stockpiling what? Food? Water?”

My dad nodded. “And gold. Lots of it.”





Seven


“Gold?” I was trying to get my head around the idea that Warren Fairchild, member of one of the richest families in America, would stockpile anything. “But . . . why?”

“Money would be worthless in a catastrophic event,” my mom explained. “A lot of things would be. Warren is covering his bases, hoarding not only food and water, but gold for trade.”

“How much?” Parker asked.

“Last time we heard, he had about seven hundred bars weighing one kilo each and worth about thirty-five thousand dollars,” my dad said.

“Thirty-five thousand . . . ,” I said softly. “That’s not very much. Not for everything we’d have to do to get it.”

Our last job had gone well, but rent on the house in Playa Hermosa had to be setting us back big-time. Not to mention the new furniture, landscaping, cars, clothes, and everything else we needed to look as rich as everyone else who lived on the peninsula.

“Thirty-five thousand each,” my dad clarified. “In total, about twenty million dollars at the current price for gold.”

Twenty million dollars. The number echoed through my mind. It wasn’t the money. It was what it could buy. Freedom. A chance to be a real person. Someone who didn’t have to lie and hurt people and leave them behind every time I finished a job. Who could keep one last name for more than four months and could go to college, not to get close to some rich kid but to make friends, to learn and experience things. To build the kind of life I really wanted instead of chasing the big houses and offshore bank accounts that preoccupied our mom, the danger that fueled our dad.

“Twenty million . . . ,” Parker finally said. “Are you sure?”

My dad raised his eyebrows. He was always sure.

Parker nodded. “Right. Well, now I know why we’re in Playa Hermosa.” He looked around the room, the rich plaster walls, the big windows, the plush draperies. “And why you sprang for this place.”

“Have to look the part,” my dad said. “Especially with this one.”

“So what’s next?” Parker asked.

My dad leaned forward in his chair. “The Fairchilds have a pretty high-tech security system. The details are under lock and key. We know that the feeds are monitored around the clock by Allied Security, but other than that, we’ve got nothing.”

“Do we know if the feeds are monitored by computers?” I asked. “Or by real people?”


“By people,” my dad answered. “I have Parker on that part of the puzzle, but we need to get information about the rest of the system.”

I didn’t expect him to give me more detail. Parker and I were insulated, given only the information we needed to focus on our part of the con. It was a way to hedge our bets if one of us was picked up by the police. Sometimes I wondered if even my mom knew everything.

“Do we have any idea where he keeps the gold?” Parker asked.

My dad shook his head. “That’s why we’re here.”

“How do we even know it’s on the Fairchild property?” I asked.

“We don’t. Not really. But it’s a safe assumption. If he’s as paranoid as my sources tell me, he wouldn’t keep something out of reach that he’s stockpiled for a crisis. My guess is a panic room or safe hidden in the house.”

“And if it is off-site, getting close to the Fairchilds will help us figure out where it is,” my mom added.

I thought about it, trying to stem the tide of fear washing through my body. This was different from what we normally did. Bigger. Scarier. But looking around the table, I knew it didn’t really matter. This was the only way we knew how to live.

I took a deep breath. “Okay, what’s the plan?”

“I’m going to work on the details of the Fairchilds’ security system while your mom and I get to know Leslie and Warren Fairchild. In the meantime, you need to get close to Logan. See if you can find out anything off the record. Anything we might not have in the file.”

I had a flash of memory: Logan looking back at me in the hall, his eyes clear of the duplicity and guardedness I saw in my own when I looked in the mirror.

I swallowed a wave of guilt. “Okay.”

“What about me?” Parker asked.

“Keep working Allied. We need to make sure no one has a visual on the place the night we make our move. Until then, try to get into Logan’s group; befriend him and the others if you can.”

Parker glanced at me before turning back to our dad. “If I’m going to be buddy-buddy with Logan, why does Grace have to come on to him?”