Page 16 of Exit Strategy
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“So, you’re not a very good bodyguard?”
“I’m an excellent bodyguard. The cartel decided to not pay me the last few months of my employment. When the angry people with guns showed up, I had no reason to fight them. I took a few things, tossed them in my truck, and left. Called in a few favors and got a new job, working for Arik.”
“Oh,” she said.
“So, this is what I have to offer you. I have a cabin, outside of Indigo City. It’s off the grid, and no one will find you there, if you don’t want to be found.”
“It’s just a cabin?”
“It’s just a cabin, a little Thoreau, but not without some comforts,” I said. “I have books, a kitchen, that sort of thing. It’s not a wooden box with no electricity or running water.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad, actually,” she said.
“After that, it’s figure out a new plan. I know people who know how to do new identities, start new lives, that sort of thing.”
“Like a private sector Witness Protection Program?”
“Just like that,” I said. “There are entire industries operating like that, in open secrecy.”
“That is a lot to take in, really.”
“It is. Private doctors, people dealing in merchandise like guns and body armor, custom cars, handling finances, tech stuff, they even have their own email system, Cryptonet. If they don’t have them yet, I’m sure they’ll have cryptophones that can’t be tracked or monitored by the government – ghost phones, I guess.”
“That’s insane.”
“That’s the world we live in. You’ve just become aware of it.”
“Who recommended you to my husband?” she asked.
“I can’t tell you who, but I can tell you that he’s a professional assassin.”
Callie’s face paled even further.
6
Callie…
I was quiet after that, trying to let everything that Kurt had told me sink in. It was terribly hard to think with how thoroughly my brain had been rattled in my skull, but it wasn’t the first time I had had a concussion and it probably wouldn’t be the last. It was a grim thought, knowing that I was likely on borrowed time, but I had learned, time and time again, just how long New Eden and Arik’s reach was.
There was no escaping. Not for long, anyway.
To his credit, Kurt didn’t feel the need to fill the silence between us with a bunch of questions or chatter. He just let me be, which was nice in a way, and scary in another. Arik seemed to always be talking, mostly about himself, and usually at a mile a minute to make it harder for the people listening to pick up on his grift or his bullshit.
It was hard to ask questions when you can’t get a word in edgewise. Kurt’s strong silence was pleasant but still unnerved me because when Arik was quiet, he was calculating, and when Arik calculated, typically something cruel followed.
God, my head throbbed and ached. It didn’t help that I couldn’t sleep. I mean, all I wanted to do that first nightwassleep, but any time I drifted off, it seemed like it was all too soon Kurt was gently shaking me awake. I knew he wasn’t trying to be malicious – he was trying to protect me or save me. I’d been through this once or twice before. Wake up every hour on the hour to make certain Iwouldwake up.
I knew that I was fundamentally changed by the injuries to my head, the previous ones at any rate. I didn’t know how much more change I was in store for with this one. It didn’t even surprise me anymore that I found myself wishing I wouldn’t wake at all.
I didn’t think I could take anymore, and simply not waking up? It seemed like the kinder way to go versus what Arik would do to me, and possibly what he would do to Kurt when he caught up to us.
“I’m so sorry,” I said dully, and Kurt startled from the other bed and looked up from his battered paperback and over at me.
“For what?” he asked.
“For dragging you into this. For what he’ll do when he catches us. For what New Eden will do.”
