Okay. Think. How to get a message to her. He can get on the Internet from this phone. He can’t email her, doesn’t know her email address; they’ve only talked and texted and of course connected on social media. He checks the phone’s icons again. No Facebook or Instagram but he can download the apps by going into the iPhone’s settings to get the guy’s Apple ID. Or would he need the guy’s Apple password too? But then he’d be stuck anyway, because he doesn’t know his own Facebook or Instagram passwords; they’ve been on his phone since he got it so he hasn’t had to log in for years.

Think, think. Okay, just open new Facebook and Instagram accounts. Authentication will go to his Gmail account, and he does remember that password, Pebbles123. His dog, growing up.

But if he does all that, will she even see a message he sends? She keeps her Facebook and Instagram notifications off while she’s at work. What about Twitter? If she’s even on Twitter, and if she doesn’t use a photo of herself, and assuming she uses her own name and not just a handle, he’d have to send a public message to all twenty-five Emily Lanes, and what’s it gonna say? Hi Emily, it’s me Zack, the guy you just met. Hey I just swapped phones with a professional assassin by mistake and he might come after you so please stop what you’re doing, get up from your desk right now, leave your office, leave your job, and run for it.

Yeah, right.

And the effort would eat up so much time, and she might not see it anyway. Or see it too late.

Jesus. He can’t reach Emily to warn her. Not fast enough, anyway.

He starts to shiver. He feels his stomach tighten, start to cramp.

The guy only knows her first name and her face. Doesn’t know her last name. Doesn’t know where she lives. Zack’s pretty sure it’s not in any of the texts. His own apartment, yes—15H, come on up—but not hers.

There’s not much time until he’s due at Aldo’s. The fifteen minutes are ticking away.

Maybe he has to go to Aldo’s so the guy doesn’t move on to Emily.

And if Zack’s not going to Aldo’s, then he has to protect Emily somehow. Get to her office or her apartment before Joey does. But how is he going to protect her? Make her run too? And what, run forever?

No. He needs something else. For Emily, and for himself. Something besides running. Some plan that turns and faces it somehow. And he needs it fast. Before he’s absent from Aldo’s, leaving Joey sitting there alone. Making things even worse than they already are.

Joey’s not stupid.