They ran out of pavement, turned sharp to the left, and headed uphill on the dirt road.
Marcus felt it in the seat before he heard it. He’d driven this in daylight a couple of times, slow, a beer between his legs. He would take it slow because of the steep drop on the left. Sam accelerated as they climbed like she was mad at the mountain.
He needed to ease them back to the conversation about what to do. It had been an hour and they were all stewing silently, avoiding the issue in front of them.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s talk about what to do. So while it’s just us —”
“It is not just us,” Vlad said. He didn’t look up from the tablet. The screen lit his face blue. “But go on.”
Marcus let it go.
“We agree that we have three options,” he said. “We delete it. We put it out for free, tonight, like Sam wants. Or we get it somewhere safe, with people who can actually protect us, so we don’t end up dead in a tent on a mountain.”
“People who can protect us,” Vlad said. Flat. “Who can do that?”
“I mean there are serious people who would —”
“Who?”
Marcus hesitated. “Maybe Daniel?”
“You don’t know who the fuck Daniel is.” Vlad looked up. “That’s not a figure of speech, Marcus. You do not know who he is. A number texted you one sentence. You’ve been writing him a love letter in your head ever since.”
Marcus kept his voice even. “He knew about Sam. He knew there were two of us before anyone knew anything. That’s not a troll.”
“No,” Vlad said. “It’s worse than a troll.” He went back to the screen.
Sam hit a bump hard and Marcus grabbed onto the grab handle and looked out the window. He took a deep breath. He wasn’t Sam. He couldn’t have built the thing in a hundred years. But he knew the general shape of it. He knew it could be worth a fortune. To good guys and to bad guys.
He sighed. He knew Vlad was right and it bugged the shit out of him. A stranger had texted him and Marcus had wanted to answer it. He still wanted to. And he knew there were others, like Daniel, out there who would jump at the chance to work with them.
“Can we not talk about this yet,” Sam said. She had both hands on the wheel, high beams lighting up the road, continuing to fly up the mountain. “Let’s get to the top of Hagerman Pass first. The last few miles are rough four wheel drive shit. I need to concentrate. Once we get there, we’ll figure out where to ditch the Jeep and find a trail to head off the road. Then, maybe, we can regroup and talk.”
Marcus shut up.
He could read a room in about four seconds, and he knew the two people in this car were not going to listen to anything he said right now. Sam had stopped listening the second the truck nearly put them in the creek. With Vlad it had been three years ago, even though Marcus only realized this a few hours ago.
The Jeep was now deep into four wheel territory, bouncing all over the place. Vlad had stopped looking at his screen and was taking slow, steady breaths in the back seat. Sam was intensely focused on the road. Nobody said anything. Marcus knew it was two to one right now and his best move was to just be quiet.
The faraday bag sat on the floor between his feet. His phone was inside it, dark, and Daniel’s message was sealed in there with it. There’s a clean version of how this goes for you and your partner.
He put his hand on the bag. Just to know it was still there.