Page 34 of Agent Zero
They were heading through suburbs now, each mile taking Holly farther away from her life.Minimalls, residential areas,Gas-Food-Lodgingsigns.The car ran smoothly; it was always weird to be driven around when you usually took the bus or the subway.Sort of magical, the pavement slipping away effortlessly underneath resting feet.
Reese shook his head, frowning slightly at the freeway.“I’m okay.”Thin midafternoon sunshine struggled through rainclouds, not very successfully.Speckles of drizzle hit the windshield, smearing when he flicked the wipers on.Seen from this angle, his profile was a little ugly—nose too long, his mouth too tight, and he really should have shaved.Right now all he needed was a glower and a cigarette to look like a villain.“I tried to get light stuff, easy to digest.Good for you.”
So you work for the Army, and you’re a health nut.Okay.“Are you vegetarian?”Autumn rains coming in, visible from a long way off once got outside the city’s tall buildings.That’s why she liked this part of the country, nothing to sneak up on you.Not like Boston, where divorce—and other things—could show up out of the blue.
“What?No.”He sounded baffled, but that frowning expression didn’t change.“Why?”
“I just wondered.”Now she could remember him getting breakfast at the diner, and bacon.Stupid question, Holly.Pick another one.“Why are we going south?”
“Warmer.Besides, easier to hide once we’re over the border.”
“Over the...”She cracked another bottle of Gatorade, even if she was going to have to pee in ten miles.Her throat felt as though she’d swallowed a belt sander, and the headache simply would not quit.Her back didn’t hurt, though.At least, not much.“Why?”
His frown didn’t intensify, but it didn’t fade, either.“Safer.Easier to hide.”
“Is that your plan?”Because I’m hoping like hell youdohave a plan.
Now he glanced at her, a shadow of amusement crossing his face before vanishing.“Pretty much.”
“Oh.”She couldn’t tell whether to be reassured or not.The rain intensified; he turned the wipers on low.Brake lights glared against the wet road.“Some plan.”
“Do you have a better one?”
“I’m not a...what exactly are you?Security consultant.Uh-huh.”It probably wasn’t a good idea to sound so sarcastic, but her bravery was going up with her blood sugar.“You work for the Army, or what?”
“For the government.A division you’ve never heard of, let’s say.I started out in the Army.There was an accident.”
At least he was talking.Holly watched his hands on the wheel.“What kind of accident?”
“IED.Roadside bomb.I’d never walk again, they said.Then they told me about the program.”
Funny, he seems to be walking just fine.“What program?”
“Experimental.It would get me back on my feet, and there were other benefits.”Reese didn’t shrug, but his tone said he might have wanted to.“In return, I’d work intelligence.I suppose that’s what you’d call it.”
No way.“You’re a spy?”
“I’m an agent.I solve problems, I troubleshoot, I gather intel, I liquidate?—”
Wait a second.“Liquidate?”
He was silent.
Everything she’d eaten settled in a cold lump, her stomach suddenly informing her that enough was enough, thank you.The nausea, an old familiar friend, filled Holly’s throat.She capped the Gatorade, very carefully.“So am I a problem?Something to...troubleshoot?To liquidate?”
“No.”
She waited, but that was it.He turned the dial for the heater, touched the defroster.Left it alone.
“So what am I, then?”she persisted.“Collateral?As in damage?That’s what she said.”
“Who?”Sharp interest now, and he was stealing little glances at her without turning his head.
I can’t even begin to explain.“I don’t know.I wasn’t...I couldn’t think.It was too bright.”Return the subject.Paperwork for a cremation.See if he bites.
Holly shuddered.The pressure in her stomach drained away.
“It’s the drugs.”Casually, as if it didn’t matter.Maybe this sort of stuff happened to him all the time.“If you remember more, tell me.It might help.”
