AWOL 2 by Andrew Lane

Author:Andrew Lane
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781848126664
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2018-09-06T14:49:33.372000+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

From just outside the impressive security fence of the Goldfinch Institute, where she had parked the hire car, Bex watched and listened as Kieron dealt with Todd Zanderbergen’s subtle attempts to question him.

The car’s air con made it chilly enough that the hairs on her forearms were standing up, but whenever her hand touched the driver’s side window she could feel the thudding heat of the sun bearing down on the car’s metal skin. It was an odd juxtaposition. Still, at least the heat here was dry. Not like the humidity that she’d recently experienced in India and Pakistan.

Last week. She shook her head in disbelief. It had only been a week ago that she’d been in those two countries. And now she was in America. Sometimes she just wanted to sit back and wonder at this lifestyle of hers. One day she might be able to stop and settle down, but not yet.

As Todd instructed Judith to give Kieron the tour, Bex’s thoughts whirled as she watched her old friend Tara Gallagher scanning Kieron’s fingerprints and DNA on the Institute’s computer system.

She understood that the news that he was being checked out so thoroughly would freak Kieron out, but she needed to tell him. Todd Zanderbergen was a charismatic man, and he’d already offered Kieron the biggest bribe a teenage emo could wish for by offering to take the boy to the Lethal Insomnia recording studio. There was a distinct risk that Kieron might get star-struck and give something away. She needed to remind him that there was danger all around, but she didn’t want him panicking. It was a fine line to walk.

‘I think it’s safe to go on the tour,’ she said. ‘Give Zanderbergen the USB stick with the non-disclosure agreement. He’ll virus-check it before he uploads the file, but the virus on the computer is more sophisticated than he’s expecting. While he’s checking you out, the virus will be modifying his system just a little bit. And while you’re on the tour, I’m going to take the opportunity to head back into Albuquerque and do a little bit of investigating of my own. I hope that’s OK.’

‘You ready to go?’ she heard the PA – Judith – saying to Kieron.

‘Absolutely,’ he said. ‘It beats hanging around.’ Bex realised that as well as answering Judith he was also talking to her. He was really getting the hang of working with the ARCC.

She made that little mental leap in her mind that allowed her to push to one side the things Kieron was seeing through the ARCC glasses and acknowledge what was happening in the real world around her. Everything was quiet, and her car was the only one on the tarmac area just outside the metal gates, but the security guard was standing outside his cabin, watching her. Maybe he was just bored.

With a slight pinch of her fingers she reduced the size of the virtual screen showing her what Kieron was seeing and pushed it to a corner of the lenses.

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