Emergence Read Online Free PDF Page B

to you, don't I?” Elaine hooked her arm inside mine. “Your car is out back. We heard about your little debacle earlier.”
    “Debacle? Moi?”
    “That’s the downside of a signature car, my friend.”
    “Yeah,” I muttered. “Guess I’m not very smart.”
    “I can work around that, making it so no one remembers the details.”
    “Oh?” I said, knowing I couldn't afford it. “Sounds interesting.”
    “You know the Headhunters are looking for you.”
    “Yeah. I figured they might be.”
    “They’re throwing serious bank to get people to cough up your location. You’re not exactly hard to find with that big mansion under your real name.”
    Crap .
    “Why tell me this?” I asked, already knowing she thought I'd get out of it. A fact I wasn't so sure of.
    “We’re friends. Plus, you have the kind of… potential I’d like to cultivate.”
    The two of us came to a smaller storage building behind the workshop with an installed garage door. Opening it, I saw the Supra had already been repaired and equipped with new modifications, which made it look more like the Delorean from Back to the Future than the vehicle I'd used on a hundred runs.
    “Oh, sure, this is way less conspicuous.”
    “No one will see any of this,” Elaine said. “Of course, you'd never be able to pay this off in a million years.”
    “Uh, okay. Then how?”
    “It's time you stopped with this penny ante stuff,” Elaine said. “There are big jobs out there just waiting to be done. Snow Bunny loved you, really loved you, and we both know why. There are other people who could use a seasoned planner and operative.”
    “You mean go full-supervillain. Wear a costume. Become the Freelancer full time. Ditch the house and wife.” I tried not to hide my terror about the fact she knew I was snitching.
    “Would that be so bad?”
    There was no answer I could give other than the one she wanted. I took her hand and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. “It's an interesting offer.”
    “Why don't you take it for a spin?”
    I’m not above admitting I'd used sexual attraction in negotiations before, usually to keep the receptive ones from betraying me to take their part of the score. Less need for Mihailo that way. I felt guilty about it with Elaine, but I needed to get the hell out of Motor Hills. The car was a necessity now.
    “Sure,” I said, pressing her against the side.
    She smiled, opened the door, and pulled me in.
    #
    In the movies, 007 sleeps with countless women, and the men in the audience are supposed to feel envy. In truth, when you use sex as a weapon you end up feeling kind of like an asshole.
    Or maybe it was just me.
    Still. I had the car. That’s what mattered.
    Driving to the suburbs, I contemplated my next move. The future was curiously opaque, as if there was a signal missing from my psychic satellite network. This wasn't the first time this had happened. It usually meant the involvement of something powerful.
    I needed to get Lisa and get out of town. It was going to be a pain in the ass leaving everything behind, but I'd made preparations. Every criminal should keep an awareness that nothing lasts forever. I should have been more careful, sure. I'd wanted a taste of the sweet life. The kind my father had never been able to experience. The kind my sister had died trying to achieve. Guess it ran in the family.
    The Supra, which I was already starting to think of as the Misery Machine, worked like a charm. No one seemed to notice it, not even to the point of trying to avoid it. It also handled a dozen times better than before, easily sliding with my slightest movement. There was a whole assortment of weird gadgets, too; things the Mechanic shouldn't have had time to install. It made me wonder if she'd just bought an exact copy of my car and modified that instead.
    Which was a little creepy, the fact that it was a plausible thought.
    Trashy houses and graffiti-dressed buildings gave way to pretty two- and three-story