Hack by Mark Pawlosky

Author:Mark Pawlosky
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Girl Friday Books
Published: 2022-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28

January 1, Maryland’s Eastern Shore

An alarm tripped inside Cal Walker’s head as he rolled slowly past the dark-blue sedan parked out front of the Sand Bar with the lone, mustached man sitting rigidly inside. It could mean only one thing: his enemies were a helluva lot closer than he feared.

Walker’s eyes flashed to the rearview mirror, and he exhaled deeply when the sedan remained stationary and didn’t pull out to follow him. Only then did it occur to him, It’s not me they’re tailing, it’s Nik. But they—whoever they were—would quickly discover Nik was no longer in the bar and that he had left with another customer out the back way and was likely in the car that had exited from the back parking lot. St. Mary’s was small, and there weren’t a lot of locals driving Priuses, and he mentally kicked himself for not ditching the Prius sooner. It would only be a matter of time before they tracked him down.

“Can I get up now?” Nik, still curled up on the floorboard, called out.

“What? Oh, sure. You can sit up.”

“How much farther?” Nik said after he unfurled his body and craned his neck to get the kinks out.

“Not far now,” Walker replied. “Tell me, Nik, did you notice anyone following you on your drive over?”

“Not particularly, but I remember thinking there was only one other car on the road besides me. Then again, it is New Year’s Day.”

“This car, was it behind you the whole way?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

Walker then told Nik about the dark-colored sedan parked out front of the Sand Bar with the single male occupant and his suspicion that Nik had been followed from DC.

Nik generally dismissed Walker’s paranoia. Cal tended to see spies lurking in every doorway, Nik believed, but having once nearly been run over by a couple of thugs who didn’t like him nosing around in their business back in Kansas City, he was inclined to give Walker the benefit of the doubt this time. “You see what the guy looked like?”

“I got a quick look, but I didn’t want to stare and be obvious,” Walker said. “He had a prominent light-colored mustache and, if I had to guess, I’d say he was mid- to late forties.”

“Colonel Mustard,” Nik said offhandedly.

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Walker said.

“That’s the nickname we’ve given the guy who I saw the night of the Trident explosion. He had this giant yellow mustache. You know, a push-broom mustache, so we named him after the character in Clue,” Nik said.

“Whatever,” Walker said.

“You see the color of his mustache?”

“Too dark. Here we are,” Walker said and pulled into a parking lot, killing the car’s engine.

Nik hopped out the door and heard gravel crunch underfoot when he stood. In the near distance, he could make out sailboats bobbing in the bay. “So this is your hideaway. Which one of these junks belongs to you?”

“The one at the far end,” Walker said, motioning to the tall-masted sloop. Walker unlocked a gate that led out onto a dock where the boats were moored.

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