Our people already in contact with her. Get to her go with her GET OUT. Me and Steph heading north along bay. Getting on plane and leaving country. You won’t hear from us again. Go with Dellia. Get her to CDC. Get back to Dallas and find the right people. STOP SILTE.”
After he had read the whole thing twice, Jason was silent, his mind racing with every impl ication this had on their current situation. “What is it,” Sabrina said, jolting him in his seat.
“Nothing.” He hoped he sounded calm enough for her to believe him. “Seito and Steph are safe. I mean, not dead or captured or anything.”
“Good,” she said, but Jason got the idea she was skeptical.
Secrets, lies, betrayals: when did it end? For all he knew this message was bogus and Seito, his oldest friend, was turning against him to save himself—as horrible and alienating a thought as that was. But he had to trust Seito, because Seito was a friend; if Jason couldn’t trust his friends to help him through this whirling mess his life had become then he might as well just give in and get blown away.
That was something he really wasn’t ready to do.
15
The elevator stopped, but the floor kept on moving. Mike stumbled out through the heavy door as the guard (escorts were mandatory in the elevators now) chuckled loudly. Ignoring the stocky woman, Mike leaned against the wall to level himself. After Leutz had left his office, he had finished the scotch on the table behind his desk and brought more up through the delivery unit, all while listening to everything the droning Lom had to say about the Bellowe case. As Leutz’s personal assistant, the secretary had access to information that left Mike disturbed and disgusted—and that was just the stuff they were allowing him to see.
He stared down the night-filled hallway at one of the large doors that led to a lush apar tment probably nearly identical to the one his family occupied at the end. It was no coincidence that the Bellowe family was on the same floor as him; Mike would have guessed that even if Lom hadn’t confirmed it. He felt miniscule as he clung to the wall in the dark, less like a senior-level employee and more like one of the artificial personalities now running most of Silte Corp operations across the country. Was there any difference to Leutz and Silvan? Did their incomprehensible minds even register a difference between one underling in a computer and another in a bundle of flesh? Or was everyone they controlled the same?
It didn’t matter. None of it mattered. What was important was that it was 11 o’clock and he needed to find a way to stumble the last meters to the front door. Mere’s going to be upset . He was supposed to have been home in time for dinner tonight, for once. Monika Leutz had pissed those plans out the window. Fuck her. Fuck the job. Fuck—
A door opened slowly and Carl Bellowe stepped out, wreathed in a thin veil of light leaking out of the apartment he’d just left—not his own but the one across the hall, the one Diane Salpollo lived in by herself. Carl looked startled for a moment, standing with his hand on the door and his eyes wide, but then he recovered, calmly closed the door and said, “Evening, Mike.”
“Yeah. I mean, same to me—you.”
“Had a few?” Carl said, grinning. “What, are you just getting in from the bar or som ething?”
The joke wasn’t funny and Mike didn’t laugh; instead he shrugged and said, “Is that Salpollo’s apartment?”
“Yeah,” Carl said. “She needed help with a project. You know her, always working. I just didn’t realize being her neighbor meant I’d have homework again.” He laughed a little too long and stopped when Mike didn’t join in. “Well, Mike, don’t drink too much more.” He somewhat hastily crossed the hall and entered his own home, letting the door slam behind him.
As he wobbled on down the hall, Mike wondered
After he had read the whole thing twice, Jason was silent, his mind racing with every impl ication this had on their current situation. “What is it,” Sabrina said, jolting him in his seat.
“Nothing.” He hoped he sounded calm enough for her to believe him. “Seito and Steph are safe. I mean, not dead or captured or anything.”
“Good,” she said, but Jason got the idea she was skeptical.
Secrets, lies, betrayals: when did it end? For all he knew this message was bogus and Seito, his oldest friend, was turning against him to save himself—as horrible and alienating a thought as that was. But he had to trust Seito, because Seito was a friend; if Jason couldn’t trust his friends to help him through this whirling mess his life had become then he might as well just give in and get blown away.
That was something he really wasn’t ready to do.
15
The elevator stopped, but the floor kept on moving. Mike stumbled out through the heavy door as the guard (escorts were mandatory in the elevators now) chuckled loudly. Ignoring the stocky woman, Mike leaned against the wall to level himself. After Leutz had left his office, he had finished the scotch on the table behind his desk and brought more up through the delivery unit, all while listening to everything the droning Lom had to say about the Bellowe case. As Leutz’s personal assistant, the secretary had access to information that left Mike disturbed and disgusted—and that was just the stuff they were allowing him to see.
He stared down the night-filled hallway at one of the large doors that led to a lush apar tment probably nearly identical to the one his family occupied at the end. It was no coincidence that the Bellowe family was on the same floor as him; Mike would have guessed that even if Lom hadn’t confirmed it. He felt miniscule as he clung to the wall in the dark, less like a senior-level employee and more like one of the artificial personalities now running most of Silte Corp operations across the country. Was there any difference to Leutz and Silvan? Did their incomprehensible minds even register a difference between one underling in a computer and another in a bundle of flesh? Or was everyone they controlled the same?
It didn’t matter. None of it mattered. What was important was that it was 11 o’clock and he needed to find a way to stumble the last meters to the front door. Mere’s going to be upset . He was supposed to have been home in time for dinner tonight, for once. Monika Leutz had pissed those plans out the window. Fuck her. Fuck the job. Fuck—
A door opened slowly and Carl Bellowe stepped out, wreathed in a thin veil of light leaking out of the apartment he’d just left—not his own but the one across the hall, the one Diane Salpollo lived in by herself. Carl looked startled for a moment, standing with his hand on the door and his eyes wide, but then he recovered, calmly closed the door and said, “Evening, Mike.”
“Yeah. I mean, same to me—you.”
“Had a few?” Carl said, grinning. “What, are you just getting in from the bar or som ething?”
The joke wasn’t funny and Mike didn’t laugh; instead he shrugged and said, “Is that Salpollo’s apartment?”
“Yeah,” Carl said. “She needed help with a project. You know her, always working. I just didn’t realize being her neighbor meant I’d have homework again.” He laughed a little too long and stopped when Mike didn’t join in. “Well, Mike, don’t drink too much more.” He somewhat hastily crossed the hall and entered his own home, letting the door slam behind him.
As he wobbled on down the hall, Mike wondered
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