One thing was for sure, though. Her life would never be the same after meeting up with Mike.
He'd provided her with a map of all the security cams in the area, with vision cones. She called it up on her cell as she walked across the hotel lobby. For a second, she looked around. This lobby was so attractive-slate floors, huge flower arrangements in beautiful enameled vases, contemporary light gray couches with pastel throw pillows. It was a policy of the hotel to offer guests tea or coffee, and many of the tables were covered in porcelain tea and coffee sets, with fruit bowls, croissants, small bowls of yogurt. People were chatting and smiling and eating and drinking. Exactly the kind of scene that always brought a smile to her face.
Now, she wondered if that was going to disappear from her life forever. If she'd be a person on the run for the rest of her life, a lighthearted cup of tea with a friend unthinkable.
No. Stop that, she told herself.
She couldn't deal with the future right now; the present was fraught enough. Before her lie what Nick and his teammates would call a mission. Priyanka's mission, now hers. Nick and men like him risked bullets to keep people safe. She could do this.
With a wrench, she took her mind off Nick. Last night had been her gift to herself-a night of passion with the most intriguing man she'd ever met. But it was over and danger lay ahead of her. Be careful and focus, she thought. There was so much at stake.
She walked out of the hotel and instantly felt the difference, leaving the past behind, facing this new, uncertain future. Outside was a pedestrian street, with pretty shops and flowering shrubs in planters.
Happy people, looking at shop windows, planning breakfast in one of the numerous elegant coffee shops. No one paid her any attention at all.
It felt like slaloming, staying out of the cone of the cameras, but Mike's map was a miracle. It moved as she moved. It was a street view, so if she watched where she stepped, she knew she couldn't be followed by cameras. Or, as he explained, if he were caught, nobody could back trace where she'd been.
The restaurant, conference venue, hotel and a big department store, Conrad's, comprised the city block. The department store continued via a skywalk to the next city block.
Mike had given precise instructions on how to get to the meeting place. Kay reached the second cross street past the department store, turned left and immediately found a narrow street with no cameras at all, and halfway down to the right, a service alleyway.
It was a sunny day but dark in the alleyway. To the right was the offshoot of the department store and to the left was a tall office building. The back of the building was windowless up to the third floor. He'd chosen well.
Kay slowed down. Mike was supposed to meet her here. She glanced at her cell phone. There were coordinates and, as if that wasn't enough, a big white X where Mike was supposed to be. This map, too, was a street view. The X was where a row of Dumpsters were lined up. She couldn't go wrong, the view exactly matched what was on her screen, but in real life there was no one where the screen X was.
Mike wasn't there.
The appointment was for 9:30 a.m. The digital time at the top of her cell went from 9:29 to 9:30.
No Mike.
Oh God, now what? The flash drive in her pocket that Priyanka had given her felt like both a thousand-pound weight and a searchlight beaming into space. What was she going to do with it if Mike didn't show?
And if Mike didn't show, that meant-well, it wasn't good. Mike Hammer was a pen name he used for his investigative journalism, given his love of '30s noir detective novels. The Hammer of Justice, they called him. His avatar on the blog was a stylized white profile against a black backdrop. Kay had no idea who he really was, though there were rumors that he had been a big shot in either a law enforcement agency or intelligence service. Careful probing on the net showed that his identity really was a secret. But Priyanka trusted him, and that was good enough for Kay. She was risking everything for this.
But, if Hammer had changed his mind, if he had been detained, arrested or-God!-killed, she had no idea what the next step should be. None.
All she knew was she was holding information that at least two people had been killed for and she had no idea what to do with it. There was no Plan B.
She stopped, heart pounding, then walked forward slowly. They were in the heart of the city, but with no traffic and surrounded by high buildings, it was so quiet she could hear her own footsteps.
Just as she was crossing in real life the big white X on her phone, a man appeared, a tall, thin shape suddenly materializing in front of her.