The Memori Project by Martin Ashwell

Author:Martin Ashwell [Ashwell, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Martin Ashwell
Published: 2018-12-08T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 33

UPPER WEST SIDE, DAY TWELVE, 1:25 P.M.

HELLER HAD SPENT THE morning making steady progress on his shot list. It wasn’t a rigid schedule since he wanted to allow some flexibility for capturing conversations or events as they arose. But it did provide a framework for the slower days in the lab, in between shooting the set-piece interviews and waiting for equipment tests to ramp up.

Today he’d focused on some additional wide shots of the Cage and the lab. The work allowed him to hang back from the rest of the team, observing them from a distance as they went about their business.

He’d seen Du Prey only twice today, hurrying between rooms with various pieces of equipment wedged under her arms. Both times her face carried a serious expression, as though something were playing on her mind. He hoped she wasn’t having second thoughts.

It wasn’t until lunchtime that he got a chance to talk with her. She emerged from the kitchen just as he was heading back to the Cage. She looked up to acknowledge him with the briefest of smiles.

As they brushed past each other, she whispered a single word, as though she were reading his mind. “Tonight.”

When their eyes met, he responded with a smile and a nod. He couldn’t risk anything more than that.

But her simple statement was all he needed: things were moving forward.

Normally such a signal would have put him in a much better frame of mind. Not today, though. As he returned to his desk, he was unable to shake his unease about what he’d asked her—recruited her—to do.

It’s out of your hands now, he reminded himself.

After clipping the solid-state drive from the Sony into the card reader, he sat back as the data began its steady transfer onto the RAID array. Even through the Thunderbolt 2 interface, it would still take a few minutes.

While waiting, he opened a browser window and scanned through the messages in his personal e-mail account. In between the usual alumni notices, special offers from online retailers, and social media alerts, one message stood out.

The source seemed innocuous enough—David Bennett, a fellow alum with whom he was connected on all the usual social media platforms. The subject line—a request to meet up while he was in town—also appeared innocent. Mr. Bennett, however, happened to be a particularly well-crafted digital creation, courtesy of his friends at the Agency. And the wording of the request—ordered in the way it was, with a predetermined trigger phrase—carried a very special meaning.

Heller closed his laptop, slipped his satchel over his shoulder, and made his way downstairs. Once outside, he found a quiet spot a few doors down from the Bel and called a number from the burner phone he always kept in a hidden compartment in his bag. The female voice—it was always a woman—spoke slowly and deliberately. After committing the instructions to memory, he acknowledged receipt of the information, slipped the phone back into his bag, and set off on foot.

It would take him five minutes to reach the rendezvous point.

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