Page 49 of Exit Strategy

“I think I’m going to let Wilson take point on this, Maddy,” he said, looking down at me.

“Oberisk,” I said.

“Pardon?”

“Oberisk,” I repeated. “If you are going to refer to everyone else in security by their last name, you should use mine as well. If you call me Maddy, then you should call Wilson by his nickname, Woody. Do you want Woody to take point? He’s been on the job less than three months. He can’t find his post some mornings, and the only thing he has going for him is that he’s six three and none of the felony counts stuck. He’s an idiot, but an intimidating one.”

“He projects confidence,” Soren countered.

“He won’t find Calanthe or Worthington,” I fired back. “I fucking will.”

“You fucking will,” he said, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “What makes you think you can find anything?”

“Because Worthington trusted me. He brought me in, and he confided in me. I beat him in hand-to-hand, and my balls are bigger than yours,” I said, standing and facing him. Confidence, physical dominance, intensity, things Kurt had taught me, I used them. I wasn’t their ideal. I wasn’t a dainty and delicate princess.

“You don’t have… those,” Soren spluttered.

“They’re so big I have to keep them in my bra,” I said. “Give me point on this, or you can kiss Worthington and Calanthe goodbye. How long do you think it will takeTMI Newsor any of the other gossip outfits to find out that Cardinal is missing, and Tomcat is flying solo?”

“One chance, Oberisk, one,” he said, pointing a finger toward my face. The training I had, before and after Kurt, made me want to grab his finger and pull his hand into a submission hold, feel that little bine grind in the joint, and the stress it would put on the nerve. He would scream and cry and possibly piss himself before I let go.

“I’ll take it,” I said.

“If you don’t bring Miss Calanthe back, you’re done. You’re out of security. You can either go work on one of the mud farms or take your chances being turned out into the city, out of New Eden completely.

“Lexy,” I said, slicing through his manly name of Alexander. “I know exactly two things – New Eden has been my life since before I can remember, and I will bring Calanthe back to you. I’ll accept your apology that day, your full apology.” I considered putting my finger in his chest, but I was angry, and I didn’t know if I could trust myself. How fuckingdarehe threaten me, expelling me from New Eden? He hadn’t been a member since he was a child. He had just showed up two years ago, been anointed by August Emerson, and suddenly was part of the inner circle, personal attaché to Arik.

“I’ll have your head if you fail, Oberisk.”

“I’ll have your balls in my hand when I bring her back, and you will thank me,” I said.

“This is why you were never accepted as a First Daughter.”

“No, this has nothing to do with it, Soren. I was too tall, by an inch. I failed the inspection in my own living room because my growth spurt started earlier than most girls. Everything after that has just been a bonus.”

I turned on my heel and walked toward the door. Outside, I grabbed two of security who I knew could be trusted and weren’t incompetent. “Cullen, Jacobson, with me.” I gestured as I was walking toward my hybrid SUV. “We’ve got work to do.”

“What’s the plan?”

“We assume the worst. Worthington is the number one suspect in the abduction of Cardinal. It is our task to find them both and bring them back here. We are not taking this to the authorities. This is staying in-house and off any devices. No texting, no calls, no email. Everything will be face-to-face. Any problem with that?”

* * *

We droveto the Nerve Center where Mackenzie and the rest of the Technology and Communications team would be working. Most of what they did was PR, programming for New Eden. They had the ludicrous job of selling people on the notion of not poisoning the one planet we can live on, and they had a hard time selling it. It boggled my mind, really. I could understand men like Soren, their egos were fragile.

Hey, let’s not set our house on fire and shit in the middle of the living room? Is that so bad?

Apparently, it was really bad because it seemed the world was dead set on setting itself on fire, and shitting on all of the furniture, and killing all of the pets. I sighed and grabbed a cup of coffee from the station. I picked up the recycled paper container next to it, organic, free trade, carbon neutral.

Good.

“What have you got for me, Mac?” I asked.

“Not much. Worthington has gone to ground. His cell is dead, the SIM card doesn’t respond to a ping, and the only way it won’t respond is if it’s buried in a dead zone or the card has been snapped in half.”

“Not conclusive,” I said.

“Agreed, we could lose a phone fairly easily, especially if it ran into something that destroyed it, like a fire, wood chipper, acid.” I gestured for her to get on with it. “Right, so I did a signal trace on his car, the sedan has a tracking device, two actually.”

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