Page 44 of The Children of Eve

V:What’s his interest in Wyatt?

B:The bud lady says Wyatt’s girlfriend may have hired Parker to find out where he’s gone. It would be better not to have this man sniffing around, not right now, not ever.

V:Can he be dissuaded?

B:Others have tried and failed. He may regard dissuasion as a form of provocation.

V:Family?

B:A daughter.

V:We could remind him of his paternal responsibilities.

B:And thereby escalate potential provocation to an outright declaration of war.

V:Even weakened, we can deal with one man.

B:Parker’s not alone. He has the last of the Reapers to call on.

V:An aging hired killer?

B:Worse, one who is no longer on the market. The only thing more dangerous than a hired killer, aging or otherwise, is a principled one.

V:Then let him investigate. If he gets too close to the truth, Urrea’s people may do us a favor.

B:We can but hope.

V:And the girlfriend?

B:We can try scaring her some. That might work, or it could make matters worse. The best solution would be to reach out to Wyatt and have him talk to her, get her to call off her PI dog.

V:Which brings us back to not knowing where Wyatt is.

B:I’ll work harder on it. But you can bet that his antennae are twitching, and his buddy Emmett’s, too. I’ll pass on a message, the same way we found them to begin with. If Wyatt cares about the woman, he’ll make the call.

V:He didn’t care enough about her to stick around.

B:Or he cared enough not to.

V:This contact, when will you hear back?

B:As soon as the first installment is paid. That’ll establish bona fides on both sides. She wants confirmation that we’re not going to screw her over.

V:How much are we talking?

B:More than you’d prefer to pay, but if she comes up with the goods like she’s promising, it might save your life. All our lives.

V:Let me think about it.

B:Devin—

V:You heard me, Aldo. Don’t push this.

B:There’s a clock ticking.

V:I hear that, too.

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