Page 63 of The 9th Man

His was on silent.

He fished the unit from his pocket and saw it was Persik’s that had come alive. “I didn’t pull the battery, ’cause nobody knows I have it.”

The screen readAccess 4792 then 5214.

“I don’t like this,” Jillian said.

He punched in the code pair and the main screen appeared.

Then a ding from a text.

Take the call, Luke.

A moment later the phone rang.

“Don’t,” she said.

“We have no choice.”

He answered on speaker.

“Now do you get it?” Talley said. “You got to keep that phone because I wanted you to have it. You took it, just like I knew you would, just like I knew you clocked that helo’s tail number.”

“So what’s this lesson I’m supposed to learn?”

“That I’ll always be a step ahead of you. I knew you’d run the tail numbers. It was the only viable lead you had. But that computer you’re on will get you nowhere. Same with the files. Everything’s been wiped. And that helo’s at the bottom of the North Sea.”

He came alert. They were being watched.

Be cool.

“Okay.” He sucked a breath. “What happens next?”

“You walk to the window.”

“No, thanks,” he said.

“If I wanted you dead, it would already be done. Walk to the window.”

He did so.

“Raise your hand and hold up any number of fingers you want.”

He held up four.

Talley said, “Four fingers, left hand. I say the word and a bullet goes in your forehead.”

“I tried that one on Persik.”

“But I’m not bluffing. My man watched you walk in. Watched you crouch by the corner of the office. Watched you break off that doorknob. When you hunkered down by the back fence and waited, he was within twenty feet of you.”

“Okay, I get it. You’re a badass.”

“So are you.”

There had to be more to this. Talley was indeed a step ahead of them. And true, if he wanted them dead then dead they would be. No. This was something else entirely.

“Get to the point,” he said to Talley.

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