“You promise to stay in touch?” Guy asked.
“What do you mean? I’m just going for the evening.”
“Don’t count on it. They are going to try to talk you into staying someplace, doing a head-trip on you. You promise to call me?”
“I promise. The minute they stick me with some shrink I’m out of there.”
Grady hung up, knowing he would be climbing the walls not knowing where she’d be. When she found out she might just tell him.
Fifteen
Sam waited for Grady outside. When she came out, her jeans and T-shirt made her look like any other young woman on the more beautiful end of the gene pool, perhaps a little harder in her expression and features. They got into Sam’s metallic-blue sports car.
“Nice car. Sixty-seven Corvette? Am I right?”
“That’s what it is.”
“This car has hot shit under the hood?”
“Yup.”
“It doesn’t look or feel normal. What did you do with it?”
“It’s got a bored-out 427 adjustable boost twin turbo L 88 engine with a supercharger that brings it up to 750 to-the-wheel horsepower. We put in a six-speed transmission and re-worked the suspension with hardened axels, Eibach springs, and Bilstein adjustable shocks. We added the roll bar and put in the Brembo brakes. There were other goodies. The air conditioner didn’t work after all that. I think that’s why my friends call it the Blue Hades.”
What he didn’t tell her was that the windows were polycarbonate and would stop most bullets and the doors lined with steel and Kevlar.
“Do you really like the feel of the power or is it that you piss a lot of people off?”
“Probably both.”
“So, tell me, what do you have against stripping? I saw you looking.”
“This isn’t about me or what I like or don’t like or whether I look or don’t look. But you can start earning your pay by telling me exactly what you think I think about stripping for money.”
“You think it’s a worthless degraded profession. That we don’t respect ourselves. That we’re druggies and junkies or women who for some reason or other hate men and don’t mind taking advantage of a bunch of dumb lonely pricks who spend their money on an eyeful and a pat on the head. Oh, and you probably think it screws us up for future relationships.”
“What about the harmless entertainment angle?”
“You think a stripper has to act like a whore. Pretend sex with her body and her eyes. And that when she does that she cheapens sex and cheapens herself. And you’re wrong. Sex is good; there’s no reason but ignorance to be uptight about it.”
“So do you believe any of what you think I think or none of it?”
“You didn’t tell me what you thought.”
“That’s because I’m the paying customer here.”
That comment bought him Grady’s silence until they reached the airport, where he put the car in a hangar and boarded the Hawker 700 with her for the short flight up the coast.
The beach house was a tasteful place, slightly modern with a high side of the structure that faced the water and a roof that sloped back inland, not luxurious but stylish rustic. There was a lot of leather in the interior design. Sam had owned it for ten years.
“This is Jill, Spring’s assistant for our class,” Sam said as they walked through the door and encountered a healthy-looking brunette with curls.
Jill shook Grady’s hand and said hello.
“What’s she do? Menage a trois? And who’s Spring?”
“The teacher.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m your worst nightmare if you get out of line. You now have a chance to make ten grand for the next ten days.”
“I’m not staying anywhere for ten days with a shrink.”
“Ten grand. You can leave any time you want but you forfeit the ten grand. Yes or no? You have thirty seconds.”
“What is your last name, Sam?”
“I’m just Sam, short for Sam.”
“When you walked into the club you were Will or something, weren’t you?”
“And this place is class and PE. PE is short for physical education. You had PE in high school, didn’t you?”
Now Grady looked truly uncertain.
“You have a cell phone. Give it to me.”
“No way.”
Sam looked at her defiant eyes. “Either give me the phone or I take you back and your best chance to change your life is gone.”
He could see the hesitation, but in that instant he knew she wanted to stay. She looked to Jill, who stood by quietly and nodded almost imperceptibly.
Grady handed him the phone. Then she took out a cigarette.
“No way,” Sam said and snatched it from her lips.
“Who do you think you are?” Grady shouted as he emptied her purse on the table. Anything that could hold cocaine, including her cocaine holder, went, along with her cigarettes.
“Soon you’ll have an investment in your body and you’ll feel the same way I do. This morning when you got up and looked in the mirror you were convinced that you weren’t much. So you and I nearly agree on something.”
“Go to hell. What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’ll tell you tomorrow.”
“When do I get my phone back?”
“Whenever you want it, you just tell me that you give up.”
“Bastard.”
“You and your aunt share something anyway.”
Sam left so that Grady could begin class; he called Anna. “I’ve met Grady. She’s agreed to start a program. Which is a big deal. But of course it can go bad at any time. We had the little conflict of wills and she decided to stay.”
“Well, hello to you too. It was nice of you to call me, what with your busy schedule. Now what are you doing with Grady?”
“I have a counselor, Spring, and a trainer, Jill, and they will work on her body and mind.”
“Where is she now?”
“A beach house.”
“How long will this last?”
“We shouldn’t leave her at the beach house very long. Three or four days and we move her. Chellis and company are in all likelihood keeping tabs on her because if she ever gets on your side, your chances of getting a court order and custody of Jason increase-even in France. They’re liable to do something when they discover she’s gone.”
“You think they’ll know?”
“We have to assume they will.”
“Where will she go next?”
“The mountains, where nobody can find her.”
“Are these the mountains of your tribe?”
“My family?”
“Yeah.”
“Your contract will specify that I don’t reveal information about myself or my family.”
“I want to go with you when you take her.”
“Why?”
“She’s my niece.”
“I don’t believe that’s the reason.”
“It’s a good enough reason.”
“You’re in New York.”
“So I’ll come early.”
Sam disconnected. There’d be time enough to argue later.
Anna organized her day, first in her mind, then on a list. She made lists but never referred to them because she had exceptional recall for any writing whether a movie script or a grocery list. First on the list was to try Jason’s satellite phone. She had no idea what to expect.
“Hello, sis,” he said.
“Jason.” She was elated. “How are you?”
“Just fine. Holding them off. Crackin’ the whackers.”
“And what are the whackers these days?”
“Modeling a mind.”
“Sounds good.” She realized she’d had no idea what to say if she got hold of him.
“Did you know that at birth the brain has a hundred billion neuron cells? Each neuron is connected to ten thousand or fifteen thousand other neurons for incoming signals. Your brain, Anna, may just be the most complex thing in the universe. And here I am, thinking I’m the guy to unravel it. Ha! Me, a guy who spends his days fending off Nannites. I can see why they live in the DNA, though… Are you there?”
“I’m listening.”
“Right now I’m dealing with electrons, photons, and morons. The morons are the most difficult.”
“Chellis’s people?”