More Than a Mission - Caridad Pineiro [63]
“Let me get cleaned up. Liz…Ms. Moore said she would be running some errands in town. If I can’t find her there, I’ll head for the restaurant.”
Lucia rose and said, “We’ll be there when you need us.”
Aidan had no doubt they would be. Only, if Lizzy wasn’t the Sparrow, the kind of support they could offer would do little to help the situation.
Less than half an hour later, he was back in the main part of the hotel suite, watching Lizzy in the monitors. Like him, she had showered. He wondered if, like him, she had thought of him as she’d run her hands over parts kissed during the night.
The reaction of his body was unwelcome right now given what he would shortly have to do. He muttered an expletive beneath his breath, drawing Lucia’s attention at a nearby monitor.
“You ready?” she tossed over her shoulder as her hands flew over the keys on her laptop.
He wondered what she was working on so intently and approached. “What’s up?”
“You got me thinking yesterday when you mentioned how our histories were altered. I’ve been trying to track down more info on Ms. Moore. Old info. Pre-alteration, if something like that occurred.”
He leaned his hand on her shoulder and peered at the screen. It was a listing of past students from the Leonia High School Alumni Association. “Looks normal,” he replied.
“It does, but I want to dig deeper. See if I can’t hack into the server and check out their other files,” she advised and chanced another glance at him. “You ready to go?”
He motioned with his head in Walker’s direction. “What about him?”
She shrugged while typing. “Some kind of urgent call from Corbett. Said for you to go ahead and he would be ready whenever you needed.”
Which was fine by him. He didn’t need Walker to watch his tail. He was perfectly capable of taking care of himself. Besides, first he had to meet up with Lizzy.
Returning to the far monitor, he realized she was no longer in her room. Flipping from one camera shot to the other, it became obvious that she was nowhere on the premises of either the restaurant or the cottage. Accessing the earlier images stored on the hard drive, he realized Lizzy had left the cottage. Picking up his binoculars, he scoped out the beach front and then tried to see if he could pick her out along the streets of Leonia.
Damn. Nothing. Time for him to hit the bricks.
“I’m out of here. The code word if I need assistance is…” He stopped dead, wondering what they might be discussing in those moments after he made his revelation. Lucia turned to face him as he considered it. But it suddenly occurred to him there was one last thing he wanted the Sparrow to hear if that’s how it played out. “The code word is Mitch.”
She uneasily acknowledged it with a nod and he was out the door, hurrying down the stairs and onto the main street. Where might Lizzy be headed this morning? The docks and markets for food? One of her friends’ places or the WAC?
He was closest to the latter and so he drifted by there, seemingly to check out what the WAC would be offering. The doors were closed as was the ticket office. Still, he lingered by the posted schedule, checking it out as any normal patron might. Anything to lessen attention.
After a few minutes, he ambled back in the direction of town, hands tucked into his jacket pockets. The reassuring weight of his HK Mark 23 dragged at one shoulder. At his ankle, the Glock 36 rubbed his pant leg.
He was ready for battle.
Once on the main street, he opted for Samantha’s shop, which was closest. Inside the store, calm reigned, unlike the other day during the sale. Unfortunately, Samantha had taken the morning off, her sales clerk advised.
As he stepped out of the store, he wondered if Samantha had taken the time to be with Lizzy. If so, would Kate also be in on the outing?
Hurrying up the block to the next shop, he noticed a familiar figure up ahead on the opposite side of