government or anyone else trying to shut us up. Once Eric’s seen on TV
news, his picture’ll show up on the covers of Time and Newsweek, and the
National Enquirer will have enough material for a decade, and David
Letterman will be making zombie jokes every night, so silencing us won’t
achieve anything.”
He took a deep breath, and she had a hunch that he was going to propose
something she would not like in the least.
When he continued, he confirmed her hunch. “All right, like I said, I
need to search this place thoroughly to see if I can come up with any
clue that’ll tell us where Eric’s gone. Put the authorities may show up
here soon. Now that we’ve got a copy of the Wildcard file, we can’t
risk having it taken away from us, so you’ve got to leave with the file
while I-” “You mean, split up?” she said. “Oh, no.”
“It’s the only way, Rachael. We-” No.”
The thought of leaving him alone here was chilling.
The thought of being alone herself was almost too much to bear, and she
realized with terrible poignancy how tight the bonds between them had
become in just the past twenty-four hours.
She loved him. God, how she loved him.
He fixed her with his gentle, reassuring brown eyes. In a voice neither
patronizing nor abrasivly commanding but nevertheless full of authority
and reason, a voice which brooked no debate-probably the tone he had
learned to use in Vietnam, in crises, with soldiers of inferior rankhe
said, “You’ll take the Wildcard file out of here, get copies made, send
some off to friends in widely separated places, and secrete a few others
where you can get your hands on them with short notice.
Then we won’t have to worry about losing our only copy or having it
taken away from us. We’ll have real good insurance. Meanwhile, I’ll
thoroughly search the cabin here, see what I can turn up.
If I find something that points us toward Eric, I’ll meet up with you at
a prearranged place, and we’ll go after him together. If I don’t get a
lead on him, we’ll meet up and hide out together, until we can decide
what to do next.”
She did not want to split up and leave him alone here. Eric might still
be around. Or the feds might show up. Either way Benny might be
killed. But his arguments for splitting up were convincing, damn it, he
was right.
Nevertheless, she said, “If I go alone and take the car, how will you
get out of here?”
He glanced at his wristwatch not because he needed to know the time (she
thought) but to impress upon her that time was running out.
“You’ll leave the rental Ford for me,” he said. That’s got to be
ditched soon, anyway, because the cops might be onto it. You’ll take
this Mercedes, and I’ll take the Ford just far enough to swap it for
something else.”
They’ll be on the lookout for the Mercedes, too.”
“Oh, sure. But the A.P.B will specify a black 560 S.E.L with this
particular license number, driven by a man fitting Eric’s description.
You’ll be driving, not Eric, and we’ll switch license plates with one of
those cars parked along the gravel road farther down the mountain, which
ought to take care of things.”
“I’m not so sure.”
“I am.”
Hugging herself as if this were a day in November rather than a day in
June, Rachael said, “But where would we meet up later?”
“Las Vegas,” he said.
The answer startled her. “Why there?”
“Southern California’s too hot for us. I’m not confident we can hide
out here. But if we hop over to Vegas, I have a place.”
“What place?”
“I own a motel on Tropicana Boulevard, west of the Strip.”
“You’re a Vegas wheeler-dealer? Old-fashioned, conservative Benny
Shadway is a Vegas wheeler-dealer?”
“My real-estate development company’s been in and out of Vegas property
several times, but I’m hardly a wheeler-dealer. It’s small stuff by
Vegas standards. In this case, it’s an older motel with just
twenty-eight rooms and a pool. And it’s not in the best repair. In