Phantom Instinct (9780698157132) (24 page)

H
arper cleared the jackknifed gasoline tanker fifteen minutes later, swerving back into traffic when Aiden spotted the emergency flares and the CHP motorcycle officer in the road with a flashlight, directing traffic. Her pulse felt as quick as the engine's rpm.

Aiden checked the side mirror. “Go.”

She put the pedal down.

The road rose into crenellated ranges of hills and mountains that formed the northern barrier of the Los Angeles Basin. The MINI, though quick and light and responsive, still had only four cylinders. It was screaming as she downshifted into fourth and began the climb. It had heart but not a huge amount of power, and she had to shove her foot hard against the pedal to keep the car from losing speed on the uphill.

Thirty-two miles left. Twenty-three minutes.

We're not going to make it.

It was only a whip of a thought, but she must have hissed through her teeth, because Aiden looked at her.

“Just drive,” he said.

“You think they won't kill Piper if I'm late?” she said. “Don't kid yourself.”

She tried to loosen her grip on the wheel. Her fingers were close to cramping. “They'll punish her to punish me. They'll start killing her slowly. And they'll let me hear it. If we don't get there on the dot, she's gone.”

They wound through hills and swung onto Highway 14, deeper into ranch land and scrub country, farther into the ranks of hills. The headlights thinned. The moon rose and spread an eggshell layer of ghostly light across the landscape.

Twelve minutes. They crested another hill. The lights of Los Angeles were deep behind them, a yellow fuzz radiating from the horizon. Harper pushed the car flat out across the broad summit of the grade. Ahead, the road sliced through a canyon down a long slide to the desert floor. They were entering the Mojave, the desolate and ever-distant top corner of the county. They were well beyond the jurisdiction of the LAPD now, into the realm of desert rats and exurban commuters and the far-flung outposts of the sheriff's department.

Aiden said, “Exit's in two miles.”

“Eleven minutes. How far once we get off the highway?”

“Maybe five miles.”

“Come on, baby, come on . . .”

“The road looks a lot rougher once we turn off.”

“Of course.”

“You grew up out here, didn't you?” he said.

She nodded at the sage and chaparral. “No. This is New York City compared to where I grew up.”

The black stripe of the descending highway unrolled for miles to the desert floor. From there, it ran straight north through Palmdale and Lancaster, electric outposts of well-gridded streets and civilization. China Lake was a hundred miles farther on up the road, past the next range of mountains, out in the white nowhere at the edge of a dry lake bed.

“At least here, we're within range of help if something goes wrong. We can see the city down there. We don't have to rely on a highway patrol officer happening upon us from fifty miles away.”

“You think help is going to be close at hand?”

“I'm a Pollyanna,” she said. “It's within arm's reach.”

He put his hand against the back of her neck and held on, reassuringly. She kept driving.

Aiden held on to Harper's neck, feeling her pulse boom. Under the blue-white glow of the dashboard lights, she looked spectral.

“Pollyanna kicking ass,” he said.

The engine was screaming. They were going ninety-plus on the downhill. The road was good and she drove it like she meant to get every ounce of speed out of the car, sure and slick and confident. He didn't doubt her driving ability.

Her knuckles stood out on the wheel, forearms corded. Half in a mutter, she said, “If they hurt Piper, I'll kill them.”

“Are you actually willing to trade yourself for Piper if things go bad?” he said.

“That's what I told Travis.”

“I mean
actually
.”

“I'll do whatever it takes to keep Piper safe. I'll do whatever they want.”

“Two different things.”

She paused, lips parting. “I'll do whatever I have to.”

The road cut through a bulldozed canyon, heading sharply down the long grade. The canyon walls sped past, gray in the moonlight, rock upon endless rock. Nothing upon nothing. Her face was set, lovely and drawn. She had no idea what she was promising.

“If you do whatever you have to, then I'll help you, no matter what,” he said.

Again she glanced at him, a brief, searching look. Her eyes were clear and harder than sapphires. She nodded, sharp and definite.

He glanced at the clock. Seven minutes. Ten miles. He wasn't worried about her driving. He was worried about her intentions.

“They want you. Once you're in range, they'll try to take you,” he said.

“How far to the turnoff?”

“Half a mile.” He turned to her. “They have no intention of letting you drive home with their hostage.”

She scanned the road for the exit. It wasn't lit, no streetlights, just a green sign and an arrow. She lifted her foot from the gas pedal.

He said, “Did you hear me?”

“Yes. I know.” She downshifted and slipped into the exit lane, hanging on as it curved. “I know, Aiden. So we have to get Piper out before anything else happens. To her or to you or to me.”

“Excellent. You have a plan to do that?”

She braked and veered around an outcropping of rock. “I don't.”

Of course she didn't. She had been driving like a maniac just to get there, had hardly even been breathing.

“But I will.”

She held the car steady as the road narrowed and the good pavement turned to rough old asphalt, crumbling at the edges. “We'll think of something.”

He looked at her, and against every wish and hope, he felt a fresh moment of doubt about her goals, and her heart.

As though maybe she'd tricked him into coming along with her on a mission to meet up with people who were . . . what, her confederates, even now? People she wanted to kill, with his help?

Was he meant to be the reliable witness she would use later on, to exculpate herself?

His chest felt hollow. His head was beginning to ache.

No.

Don't do this, Garrison. Stop it.

He pulled back from thoughts that were leaching into his mind like lye. He counted to ten.
Clear your thinking.
Analyze it, and see if you're going down a road that's illogical and self-defeating.
You're being paranoid.

He noted how upset and shaky Harper was—or had been, at the start. Now she looked intense and ready to go over the edge.

She looked fierce. He watched her, and felt her intensity in the darkness of the car. Was she acting?

No. She couldn't be. She was tuned as tight as a saw blade and ready to cut. Her rage and fear were too real and raw. He knew that Harper was a trickster, a thief, and that she had managed to hide her intentions from Zero and Travis on the day of the armed robbery. She couldn't be
that
good an actor, to fool him this late in the game. Could she?

He said, “What do you know about ambushes?”

“Not much.”

“Have you ever taken part in one?”

“No. I've been jumped before. By these guys.” Her face looked pained and driven. “But I know all about double crosses.”

He didn't have to ask her to spell that one out. She was an expert at it.

“One mile ahead,” he said. His phone rang.

She gunned it.

Near the crest of the pass, just before the highway leveled out and began the long descent to the Antelope Valley, Sorenstam held her phone to her ear, listening to Aiden's number ring. He picked up.

“You there yet?” she said.

“A mile away.”

“We have six minutes left in the hour my lieutenant gave me,” she said. “If you don't want me to turn back, you—”

“Harper has four minutes left in the hour Travis gave her. We're booming. Just catch up. If you—”

The call went dead.

“Dammit.” She redialed but got a
No Service
message. “Stinking desert. They're out of range.”

She handed Oscar her phone. “Keep trying him.”

He wiped his nose and pressed
REDIAL
, then shook his head.

“Tell me something,” Sorenstam said.

He looked at her with suspicion.

“Harper's employee swipe card. She gave it to me. She suspected that it was used by the shooters to get into Xenon.”

“Why would she think that?”

“Why would you think it wasn't?”

He gave her a sidelong stare. Shook his head.

Sorenstam said, “Harper says Zero paid you a visit intending to murder you.”

“That's harsh. That word.”

“Kill you? Eliminate you? Exterminate? Waste you?”

He raised his hands. “I get the picture. Just don't make me picture it.”

She did a double take. Half laughed. “Harper said there's only one reason Zero would be after you. To shut you up because you forged a copy of her card.”

“I ain't saying nothing about that.”

“Mr. Sierra, I don't care about your role in the swipe card forgery. I just need some corroborating evidence, so I can know once and for all whether Harper is telling the truth, or trying to mess with me and the department for her own reasons.”

“Harper has no reason to mess with somebody like you.” He was sunk in the seat, but straightened. “She stopped rolling on my side of the street years ago. She went legit. Hell, she's the only person I could think to turn to when I needed help today.”

He nodded and then realized this might not send the message he'd intended. “Wait, that came out wrong. She's the person I trusted—not because she's still working for Zero, but because she went straight. I knew Zero wouldn't expect me to reach out to her.”

“So what's up with the swipe card?”

He went quiet again.

Irked, she told him to scroll through her recent calls and find the number for Spartan Security Systems. It was past the close of business, but she had him dial Tom White's direct line. She took the phone and put it to her ear. It rang, then the call was forwarded. When it was finally answered, the connection was fuzzy and intermittent.

“This is Tom White. Detective, what can I do for you?”

“Any luck recovering data from that swipe card?”

“Afraid not. Our data forensics team has come up empty.”

“Even though you have the employee number?”

“It's been a year since the fire. They don't think there's any way to match it.”

“There must be some corresponding data left to compare it to.”

“Detective, there's no record of where any swipe cards were used that night. Every device they touched was damaged or destroyed.”

He sounded more definite now than he had thirty seconds earlier. She wondered if he was trying to let her down easy, or to give up too easy.