I grab my phone off my bed, calling Marks. She answers after a few rings. “Yo,” she says through the line.
“Is this secure?” I ask.
The plan when we met up yesterday was for her to make sure my phone wasn’t being monitored by Z. I have my phone back, but when she was messing with it is when everything went sideways. I’m not sure if she was able to do whatever computery tech smart things to it to see if he was and get him out.
“You think I talk on nonsecure lines?”
“I don’t know. Your ass disappeared like Houdini.”
“Who what?”
“Never mind,” I tell her. “I need to get out of here.”
“You and me both,” Marks mutters.
“Are you still here?” I honestly don’t know where Marks is from. She doesn’t talk about family except for a mention of her dad here and there. Marks bounces all around. Tova says she is never quite sure where she is. It sounds interesting but also lonely. I can relate; maybe that’s why we clicked so easily.
“I’m always around.” I hear her blow and pop a bubble. “And I’m dodging work, so you need out of the Marino compound?”
“The farm.”
“Same shit.” Not sure that’s true, but I’ll take her word for that.
“Why are you dodging work?”
“It’s kind of work, and I don’t want to. Last time my handler threatened me with prison.” I can hear Marks’ eyeroll.
“Prison?” The hell?
“It’s not his first time to threaten me with it. The fucker has to find me first.” Marks lets out an evil-sounding giggle. I didn’t know an evil giggle was a thing, but she has nailed it.
“You really think they can’t find you?” I ask out of curiosity.
“I could go dark, but it’s not easy to simply disappear. I have an out plan, but when you resurface, which most do, you’ll be found.”
“How does one go dark?”
“You’re not going dark.” The hell?
“It’s a pain in the ass. You have to disconnect from everything. Like walking out the door with nothing.” I grab my purse off my bed.
“Everything?” I hold it closer. Okay, I love nice things. Hey, we all have our vices.
“Yeah, everything.”
“Okay, can I just go gray?”
Marks bursts into laughter. “What’s going on, and I’ll see what we can do.”
“Z.”
“I had a feeling you were going to say that name. I will say I was surprised to see him lose his shit. That’s not the Zero I know of.” A wave of jealousy fills me, and I push it down. It’s not really about Marks; it's about people getting to know more about Z than I do.
Once upon a time, we told each other everything. At least I did. I was probably naïve. I’m sure he was hiding things back then, and I don’t really know Z. The Z I thought I knew would never fuck me and then take off leaving only a fucking note! I take a breath, getting my shit back together.
“I want to go back to Europe, but I don’t want Z to stop me.” Marks goes quiet. “Hello? Is that not possible?”
“I tend to be rather blunt.” Marks finally speaks.
