Option to Kill (Nathan McBride 3) (21 page)

Other than this Opus reference and Voda’s cell number, the phone didn’t appear to have much usable info, but he knew the FBI would be able to dissect it more thoroughly. He’d research the Opus cigar business more deeply, but right now he wanted to concentrate on the paper from Marchand’s office. He unfolded it and placed it on the coffee table.

Staring at the columns of numbers, he tried to see a pattern, but nothing jumped out. The parenthetical column seemed the most random. Three of the numbers were in the thirties, two were close to five thousand, but the last number, 116, didn’t seem to have anything in common with the others. Since none of the Bolivian passports had the name Hernandez on it, the list became even more cryptic. There were no dollar signs, but that didn’t mean anything.

It sounded like Lauren was working on a gourmet meal. Whatever the case, she seemed to know her way around a kitchen. He heard drawers opening and closing and a few pots and pans clank. It could’ve been louder, though — she was making an effort to minimize the noise.

He closed his eyes and leaned back. A little sleep wouldn’t hurt, but he couldn’t dismiss the image of another girl being in danger…

Chapter 18

Wearing a white nightgown, a young girl sits on a bed, her hands balled into fists. Her crying is soft but sounds forced. A mass of black hair hides her face. Without warning, she whips her head, revealing a beautiful but intense expression — like an angel on a mission. Her hair waves from an invisible source. He looks more closely. One eye is blue, the other is gone — its empty socket weeps black fluid. She stands and takes a step forward, bringing a pale hand up, pointing at him…

“To the dryer.”

Nathan awoke to Lauren’s startled face.

“Are you okay?”

He whipped his head around, orienting himself. “How long?”

She finished his question. “Were you asleep?”

He nodded.

“About ten minutes. You were having a nightmare, weren’t you?”

He nodded again. “Not too bad, though. Lauren, in the future, it’s best to wake me from a distance, okay? Just yell my name, but don’t ever touch me while I’m sleeping.”

She sounded a little irritated. “Well, okay…I said I made some mac and cheese for us and moved my clothes to the dryer.”

The girl on the bed still haunting him, Nathan sat up and ran a hand over his face. “You made mac and cheese from scratch?”

“It’s easy. Come on.”

To his surprise, she had two place settings arranged on the dining room table. “You keep this up, and Angelica might be out of a job.”

“I didn’t add a lot of butter. It’s not good for your arteries.”

“Amen to that.”

“I had to use jack. You didn’t have any cheddar.”

He tried a bite. “This is really good. Thank you for making it.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Tell me something. Why did you pick
Treasure Island
? There are several thousand books in there. Why that one?”

“I’m not sure. I guess I was thinking about my ring.”

“What about it?”

“I don’t know. I guess it’s kinda like pirate treasure, only modern.”

“Treasure…”

Nathan got up from the table and hurried into the living room.

“What’s wrong?”

He looked at the typed list of numbers, focusing on the fourth column, but didn’t see what he was after. “When you said
treasure
, I thought about a map. I thought there might be coordinates, but the numbers don’t work.”

“Why don’t the numbers work?” she asked.

“Because GPS coordinates don’t look like this.”

“What are they supposed to look like?”

“Latitude and longitude numbers are followed by minutes and seconds, but these numbers don’t work and there’re no decimals for the seconds.”

Lauren seemed confused, but he didn’t feel like explaining it further.

“San Diego has a latitude of thirty-two degrees,” he said slowly. “That’s one of the numbers, but its longitude is one-seventeen west.” He smiled when he saw it. “They’re reversed.”

“What?”

The answer had been staring at him the entire time. Using the grocery pad, he wrote the oddball column of numbers in reverse. Starting with 32, he ended with 4871.

32 34 4702

116 37 4871

He inserted the symbols for degrees, minutes, and seconds and then added decimals to 4701 and 4871 and found himself looking at a beautiful set of GPS coordinates.

32º 34' 47.02"

116º 37' 48.71"

“The numbers work now?”

“Yes. San Diego’s at thirty-two degrees latitude, but it’s one-seventeen west longitude, so these coordinates are east of us. Not too far, though. Grab your plate and follow me.” He took her into his study, turned on the computer, and opened the Google Earth program. Zooming in on the San Diego area, he moved the mouse east. He watched the longitude side of the GPS coordinates increase until it reached 116 west, then kept going until it read thirty-seven minutes.

“How do you know where to go?”

“See those numbers at the bottom of the screen? See how they change as I move the mouse?”

“Uh-huh.”

“All I have to do is move the mouse until both the latitude and longitude numbers match the numbers on the paper. If you move off the satellite image, you can drag it using the mouse, like this.” He showed her how to scroll across the picture and use the directional and angle features in the upper-right corner. “To zoom in or out, use the wheel on the mouse.”

“This is supercool. Can you spy on people?”

“It’s not a live feed. You’re looking at an older compilation of pieced-together photos.”

“Can I do it?”

He leaned over her shoulder after she sat down. “Keep going south until you see the number next to thirty-two switch to thirty-four. Then move east until the longitude numbers start to align.” He ate a few more bites.

She was a quick study, but he had to remind her to zoom with the mouse wheel. Within thirty seconds, she had the coordinates located.

“They don’t match perfectly.”

“Don’t worry about that. I have a GPS reader that’s accurate to under one meter.”

“What is this building?”

“Judging from the size and shape, I’m guessing it’s a motel. Only one way to find out. You up for a little road trip to Tecate?”

“I’m not going like this.”

“Do you know how to use MapQuest? I need to check the dryer.”

“Not really.”

“Type ‘mapquest dot com’ in the address bar. Hit ‘get directions,’ then type in ‘La Jolla, California,’ in the first box and ‘Tecate, California,’ in the second box. I’ll be right back.”

He opened the dryer and felt Lauren’s pants. They were still damp, so he closed the door, added five minutes to the timer, and returned to his office.

“It says it takes an hour and five minutes.”

“Good job. We’ll make it there a little faster than that.”

“Can I drive?”

He half laughed but realized she was serious.

“I have no doubt you could do it, but your presence behind the wheel would be difficult to explain to a CHP officer. ‘I’m sorry, Officer, but my daughter wanted to drive’ isn’t going to be an adequate explanation.”

She looked disappointed.

“Trust me.”

“Can you really get my mom to call?”

“With absolute certainty? No.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t want you worrying about that right now. We’ll be facing a big set of unknowns in Tecate. I want you to think about everything I’ve taught you tonight.”

“Like being superquiet.”

“Yes. I may ask you to stay in the car when we get there. If I do, don’t argue about it, okay?”

“I won’t. If you were going to ditch me, you would’ve done it already.”

“That’s right. So there no need to worry about that anymore. Your mom wants us to stay together. And thanks for making the chow.”

“I thought you liked it.”

“
Chow
isn’t a derogatory term.”

“Oh, it made me think of dog-food ads on TV.”

“Lauren, honestly, it was the best mac and cheese I’ve ever had.”

She crossed her arms and smiled.

“Did you wash a towel? I saw one in the dryer.”

“If you put a dry towel in with a small load, it speeds up the drying process.”

“I didn’t know that trick, but it makes perfect sense.”

They ate the rest in silence. He liked that about her — she didn’t fill their conversational voids with small talk.

Nathan nodded toward the laundry room. “Why don’t you try on Angelica’s shoes and check on your clothes. I’ll take care of the dishes.”

Before leaving the house, Nathan checked the duffel for the GPS reader and found it next to the handheld thermal imager. He’d show Lauren how to use them during the drive to Tecate. He hoped she’d get some sleep. Sooner or later she’d hit a wall, especially after being physically drained from multiple adrenaline rushes. They’d run for their lives more than once, and the evening was far from over. Nathan didn’t like retreating from danger — he’d prefer to face threats head-on — but Lauren’s presence forced a change in tactics.

He thought about leaving her with Angelica, but based on everything he’d learned about Lauren’s personality, she’d never accept it and would probably leave, even if it meant being alone on foot with no place to go. She might even walk down to her La Jolla Shores home — right into Voda’s hands. Besides, Jin had made it clear she didn’t want Lauren out of his sight.

Fully dressed, Lauren walked into the living room wearing Angelica’s shoes. “They’re a little loose, but I don’t think they’ll come off.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded.

“I need to make another stop at First Security to pick something up. You can wait in the car. It shouldn’t take more than two minutes once we get there.”

“Okay.”

“I meant to tell you this earlier, but you did a good job at your stepdad’s warehouse. You handled yourself well, didn’t panic.”

“I was really scared.”

“You did fine.”

“It’s weird — I thought about myself like you said. You know, like, having a tough girl inside me?”

“Works, doesn’t it?”

“Sort of. I think it takes some practice.”

“That’s one thing we’ll try
not
to practice too much.”

Chapter 19

Nathan made the detour to First Security brief. Figuring it wouldn’t hurt for Lauren to be similarly protected, he grabbed a smaller ballistic vest. She asked about the big case he placed in the backseat. He told her it was for surveillance once they arrived in Tecate.