“And probably your office computer.” He was on his feet, fishing out his wallet.
“I don’t think there’s much danger of anyone accessing any of my files.” She slid out of the booth and got to her feet. “My cousin Abe is a high-end crypto talent. He has all of my stuff locked up with some industrial-strength encryption.”
“Nothing a J&J crypto couldn’t hack into. Let’s go.”
28
HER EYES WIDENED. “YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT IT WAS SOMEONE from Jones & Jones who broke in?”
“They’re the only folks I can think of who would have an interest in this case.” The adrenaline-charged sense of urgency was riding him hard now. He picked up the duffel bag and the computer case and went toward the door. “Tell Rose to forget the cops. You and I need to move.”
“Okay, okay.” She hurried after him. “Rose? Got to run. I’ll call you back later. Meanwhile, hold off notifying the cops. Jack thinks Arcane is involved, which means it wouldn’t do any good to report it, anyway. There won’t be any evidence to find. I’ll call you later.”
Jack reached the door and opened it for her. She went quickly past him. He followed her out onto the sidewalk and checked the street. There were no new cars in the motel parking lot, but that didn’t mean much. They started across the street.
“Jack, what do you think is happening?” Chloe asked.
“I think Fallon Jones somehow tumbled onto the fact that I went looking for a dreamlight talent and figured that there was only one reason I’d do that. He’s concluded that I’ve started to change. He’s got people looking for me.”
“I can’t believe that he would hire someone to murder you just because you might be developing another talent. I’m no fan of J&J, but the agency doesn’t go around killing people. Arcane can be very annoying, but it isn’t that bad. Besides, murdering a wealthy man who is as well connected as you are would draw a lot of attention. That’s the last thing the Society would want.”
“We have some time. I know Fallon Jones. He’s got his own agenda. He’ll want to play this out before he makes his move.”
“What do you mean?” she demanded.
“Everyone has a vulnerable point. You know what they say, your greatest weakness is always linked to your greatest strength.”
“From what I’ve heard, Fallon Jones’s greatest strength is his ability to see patterns and connections in situations where others see only random facts or coincidences. Something to do with his unique form of intuitive talent.”
“Technically, he’s some kind of chaos-theory-talent, but that’s just a fancy way of saying that he’s a world-class conspiracy buff. He could give lessons to the black-helicopter folks and the Area Fifty-one crowd. The problem with Jones is that, unlike other conspiracy buffs, he’s usually right.”
“You said he has a major weakness.” Chloe walked briskly beside him. “What is it?”
“To a true conspiracy theorist nothing is the result of random chance or coincidence. Everything fits into the grand scheme of things. The trick is to figure out what goes where.”
“So?”
“That means Jones’s greatest weakness is his curiosity. He needs answers the way other people need food and oxygen.”
“Got it,” Chloe said. “He’ll want to know if the lamp actually works and what effect it has.”
“Right. And he needs me to run the experiment.”
“Think he knows we’re in Vegas?”
“If he knows I hired you, then we have to assume he also knows we’re here and that we’ve got the lamp. With luck he hasn’t found us yet because we didn’t use any ID at the motel. But it won’t take him long to track us down. We need to get off the grid altogether.”
“Hmm.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking Uncle Edward,” she said.
“Your uncle who specializes in antique furniture here in town? What good can he do us? I’m not in the market for a Louis the Sixteenth commode at the moment.”
“Uncle Edward operates a little sideline with his son, Dex, and Dex’s wife, Beth. You could call it another traditional family business.”
“From what I’ve heard, the Harper family businesses usually involve fakes and forgeries.”
“Turns out one of the things Cousin Dex and Beth have a talent for is producing fake IDs,” Chloe said.
“That is very good news. The one I commissioned last year may not be good now. I wouldn’t put it past Jones to know about it.”
“Assuming you’re reading him right,” she said.
“I told you I know him, or, at least, I did at one time.”
“What went wrong with your friendship?” she asked.
“A few years ago Fallon started showing some quirks. He was never what you’d call a real social kind of guy, but more and more he began to withdraw. He’d disappear into an Arcane lab or one of the Society’s museums for weeks at a time. When he took over J&J he pretty much vanished altogether. Went to live in a small town on the Northern California coast. Lately he’s become obsessed with some shadowy conspiracy he calls Nightshade.”
“What in the world is Nightshade?” she asked.
“From what I could gather, it’s an organization run by a bunch of psychic bad actors. Apparently they’ve re-created the founder’s formula. Fallon thinks J&J is the only agency that can stop them.”
“Good grief. A group of criminal sensitives hyped up on Sylvester’s drug? Sounds like Fallon Jones has gone over the edge, all right.”
“Don’t bet on it,” he said. “This is Fallon Jones we’re talking about. I told you, he’s almost always right when it comes to his conspiracy theories. But whether or not there is such a thing as Nightshade is not my problem. All I care about is the lamp.”
He urged her through the glass doors of the motel lobby. The desk clerk leaned around the corner of the office door, gave them a bored once-over and went back to his centerfold.
There was only one player sitting in front of the slots now, not a senior citizen this time, but a man in his early twenties who looked like he spent a lot of time pumping iron and injecting steroids. He was dressed in jeans, heavy boots and a leather jacket. He didn’t pay any attention when Jack urged Chloe toward the stairs. He punched the play button.