Page 44 of Pride
“They want help to find their missing Sinner and to eliminate the Syndicate.”
She nodded. “And I suppose a truce. To be honest, they never did at the start. It was only when the chips were stacked against us that they gave the directive to assassinate you. They don’t see you as the enemy anymore.”
“Because they have a bigger enemy.” He searched his mother’s shrewd face and noticed Sloan doing the same. “You’re not convinced.”
Mary shrugged and added cryptically, “Not yet, but I will be.”
Parker’s cell phone rang. Grace jumped to her feet, her eyes wide and expectant. It was the call they’d been waiting on. Parker hit the call button and put it on speaker.
“You’re good to go,” he said.
Wind blew through the line, gusting into the microphone.
“Envy?” Parker prompted. “Gluttony, you there?”
More wind.“Yeah. We’re here.”
Grace slumped in relief, her hand on her face. Sloan gave her a squeeze on the shoulder.
“And?” Parker rolled his new shoulder, feeling tingling as the wiring inside kept attaching to his musculature and nervous system.
“And, you were right. It’s a Syndicate base.”It sounded like Tony, his teeth chattering.“We checked it out as best we could. A butt load of replicates still in embryo tanks. No sign of Despair.”
Using their Deadly names over communications was a habit, and falling into using Despair instead of Daisy sat well with Parker. It was how it should be. With her a part of their group, code names and all.
“So whatisthere?” he asked.
“Fucking weird shit.”Evan.“And we’re freezing our nuts off. We’re coming home.”
A scuffling sound, and then Tony’s voice came through.“We’ve planted the devices you gave us, and AIMI should be patching herself in as we speak. If anything goes down, we’ll know about it.”
“Good,” he said. “Time to come home. Jet is fueled and ready.”
After he cut the call, Flint said to him, “And it’s time for you to continue the rehabilitation and calibration of the bionic connection.”
17
When Alice loggedin on Parker’s computer the following morning, a message popped up with a ping. She hadn’t even had her coffee or gone through the overnight emails.
– Cancel meetings today.
Alice frowned and replied.
– Good morning, sunshine. I slept well. Did you?
The little dots instantly appeared, which meant Parker had been sitting by his computer waiting for her. She smiled, hating the traitorous rush of endorphins in her system.
– I slept fine. Two hours.
– And unless you’ve decided to come into the office today, which you really should, you have no meetings scheduled.
