Chapters (46)
- COVER PAGE
- PRAISE
- DEDICATION
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- SNEAK PEEK: EXIT .45
Andre shook his head. ‘No. You have any idea how hard it is to live like this? Off the grid? I mean like today, down at the Redondo place, with the hippie woman. I just went through her phone history, all the incoming calls, looked at them. You run it through the White Pages website and it tells you everything—who they are, where they live—and then you check it out on Google, see if it looks like a hidey-hole.’ That awful grin again: ‘Place up the back of San Luis Obispo, middle of nowhere, I thought I might be on to something. She got lucky, though—the hippie woman. Busy neighbourhood, I didn’t really want to shoot her. Good she was into her crafts, had a lot of duct tape in the house, so that turned out okay. Sometimes that’s how it goes. But you know what I mean, don’t you? Everyone’s a … everyone’s a data point now, aren’t they? You look them up, you know everything. You’re at the mercy of whoever’s looking. And why would you take that risk? Why would you take that risk, knowing what the world’s like? You don’t have to sit there, by the way. You’re free to move on.’
‘I don’t think so.’
Andre said, ‘Do you think you’ve won?’
‘Not yet I don’t. But I was hoping we could both win.’
‘Oh yeah? And how would that work?’
‘Like I said. A nice, quiet end where we both get off the train.’
Andre nodded slowly. Scepticism in his narrowed gaze. He said, ‘I’m following my own rules. Always have. I’ve never given anything up. But you’re telling me you’re going to take me on right now, all these people nearby that you’re going to put at risk. You’re going to do that, but you’re not going to sacrifice what you might call a principle. Is that right? Or you just see that as the cost of living?’
Vincent said, ‘Is this how you did it with Locke?’
‘On a train, you mean?’
Vincent said, ‘They found him at the Forsyths’ place. Dead at the kitchen table, no head. I figured you must’ve been sitting there across from him, just like we are now. Nailed him with the shotgun you’ve got in the bag.’
Andre exhaled slowly. Like a patient mentor, explaining how the world worked. ‘You can leave freely. I told you that already. I won’t say it three times. Or you want the same fate as the Marshal?’
‘No. And I don’t think it’ll come to that, either. This might’ve worked against Locke, but I’m not Locke.’