The Ghost Shift by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910859025
Publisher: Canelo Books
Published: 2017-11-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 32

Lockhart drove south on Interstate 280, taking the curves south through the hills toward San Jose. He usually felt at peace on this road, savouring the journey to Silicon Valley with the window down and the sun shining, free of the San Francisco fog. Today, he was weary and despairing.

He’d killed Lizzie, or he’d let her die. In his mind, it made no difference. It had been his role to protect her, and he had utterly failed. The truth was, he’d admired what she had wanted do. He’d made a half-hearted effort to dissuade her, but they had both known his heart wasn’t in it. She’d told him he would have done the same in her place and he’d thought: You are my daughter. He had worried about her, but deep down, he’d thought of her like himself – that she was charmed.

He had won her in a bet and lost her recklessly. Don’t be so cocky. Luck won’t always be on your side, Sedgwick had warned him years ago, but he’d laughed about it afterward. His talent was to make things work, even if there were bumps along the way. That was why they put him in the field, no matter how much they frowned on him. No one was better at improvising when the book didn’t say what to do next. It had worked for him all his life, in Beijing, Kenya, Vietnam.

He’d thought she was the same.

All this time later, he didn’t know which one Lizzie had been – the one who had slept or the one who had been crying. When Lang had grasped what Lockhart meant, he’d shaken his head, disgusted at the idea. But it was hard to dismiss. They had been alone, beyond the reach of the law. Lang’s task was to cover up the crime, and this was as good a way as any, Lockhart had struck him where he was most vulnerable – his pride. They would be sent to an orphanage as far away from Beijing as possible, down in the south, Lang said. Your wife will receive a call.

For years, Lockhart did not doubt that he’d won his bet, even if he had nobody to tell. Lizzie had had the best life a child could want. She’d won the lottery of life, from a Chinese orphanage to a U.S. suburb. He had sometimes wondered what had happened to her twin, feeling a twinge of guilt that she lacked the opportunities Lizzie had. But that had been the deal and, as China grew and became wealthier, he stopped worrying. Lizzie knew a girl at school who’d been adopted from Guangxi, and Lockhart heard that things were getting better there.

Now he’d lost everything. His life no longer felt like a series of lucky events, but stations on the way to an inevitable tragedy. The affair was over, and he would never go back.

He looped slowly through the Los Altos Hills, descending on the far side toward San Jose. At Sunnyvale,

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