A cute teenage girl with electric blue hair stopped chewing her gum long enough to give them her long practiced plastic grin. "Welcome to McDonald's, what can I get for you?"
"I'm looking for Mike Tobin, is he here?"
The girl dropped her phony smile and blew a bubble until it popped and then tilted her head back towards the grill area. "Hey Mike, you got visitors," she yelled.
"Be right there," a voice called back.
The blue haired girl tilted her head, indicating they should wait off to the side and then said, "Next."
Nathan was reminded of the old man back in San Diego and smiled as he and Paige moved out of line and waited.
Mike turned out to be maybe a year or two older than the blue haired girl. He had short cut brown hair and a tattoo of a rose on the right side of his neck with the thorny stem wrapped completely around to the other side.
"Mike?" Nathan asked.
"Yep."
"You are supposed to have something for me."
The boy looked from Nathan to Paige and then back. "You are supposed to have a hundred bucks for me."
"It's fifty and that's if it is still sealed, otherwise it's nothing."
Mike grinned and Nathan saw he was missing a tooth. "Hey, I had to try, right?" He pulled an envelope out of his back pocket and held it up for Nathan to see. Along the back of the envelope were a series of animal stickers, it was clear the envelope hadn't been opened.
Nathan pulled out his wallet. "I'll make it a hundred if you can tell me what the woman who gave it to you looked like."
"Okay or how about fifty and you tell me what's in here," he said fanning the envelope.
"No deal. I can't tell you what I don't know."
The kid grinned again. "Far out. You don't even know. This is crazy cloak and dagger shit, isn't it?."
Nathan held two fifty dollar bills up. "So?"
"Oh, yeah sure. Umm, tall like maybe six feet or so. No clue how old she was, but definitely older."
"What does that mean? Older? Older than what?" Paige asked.
"I don't know, older then me. I don't know at least thirty, thirty-five. Like I said, I don't know, just definitely older."
"What else?" Nathan asked.
"She was cute as hell, blondish hair in a ponytail. She had glasses, which really worked for her. You know the whole naughty librarian look."
Nathan did his best not to shake his head. "Anything else? Was she with anyone?"
"Nah, she was alone. She was pretty intense though. I got the feeling she was hoping you wouldn't show up, like she didn't want to do this. Whatever this is. What exactly is this?"
Nathan didn't answer. He simply snagged the envelope out of the kid's hand and then gave him the money.
Mike stuffed the cash into his pocket. "Thanks, did you want fries with that?"
Both both laughed and then Nathan looked at Mike and said, "Yes."
A couple of minutes later they were back in the car. Nathan popped a straw into his shake and then popped a french fry into his mouth. "Do you want to?"
Paige shook her head. "No, you do it."
Nathan passed her the fry container and wiped his fingers on his pants before he pulled the envelope out. He opened it, ripping most of the animal stickers in two. There was a single sheet of paper. He opened it and read it. Then read it again.
"Well?"
He started to hand her the paper.
"Just tell me."
"Well it's not the secret of life. It's a web address, phone number and some instructions."
"What?"
He held the paper up. "See list of supplies below. Do not call until tomorrow. Before calling, check out the website listed below. This is a one time only phone number so be ready to listen."
CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE
"What the hell? Why would someone drive almost two hours just to go to a place that is on practically every corner?"
"Are you sure you didn't recognize anyone inside?" Linda asked.
They had arrived at the McDonald's just in time to see Paige and Nathan get back into their car and then drive off a few minutes later. Cameron had parked and rushed into the restaurant, quickly checking the patrons.
"No. I checked everywhere, even both restrooms. If they met someone there then they must have left before we arrived. I didn't see anyone alone, every person was there with at least one other person and none of them seemed the least bit suspicious."
Linda took the phone out of the small console shelf and dialed.
"Jimmy, has there been any activity on Mr. King's phone?"
"Negative, Linda, not since that call a few hours ago. Could you tell Mr. Kassar I am sorry again? I really don't know why I couldn't intercept any clear audio. Maybe it was a weak signal or some kind of interference. I'm trying to clean it up, but I'm not too hopeful of getting anything useful. They are on the move again though, I am tr..."