Page 50 of Running Scared
Bailey frowned a little, thinking of theintenseamounts of micromanaging that had gone into his jump from the airplane.“No,” he said bluntly.“He… he seemed to plan for every contingency when he was getting ready to drop me, uhm, off in the desert.”
Reg nodded as though this information didn’t contradict what he’d said at all.“Yes.He’d planned foryou,but I’m betting that his plan with Marcus consisted of….”He trailed off, and the next few moments consisted of him mimicking a conversation between Dean and Marcus—and boy, was he spot on.Mannerisms, gestures, even Dean’s trademark scowl.Bailey had no doubts as to who was who in this scenario and how scarily accurate Reg’s rendition was.
“So, we fly somewhere dangerous.”This was definitely Dean.
“Yeah, yeah.”And right there he’d nailed Marcus.
“And then we get out of the plane somehow.”
“Sure, sure.”
“And then we disable the bad guys.”
“Oh, of course.”
“And then we obtain our objectives.”
“I’m with you, bro.”
“And then we exfil to safety.”
“Brilliant!It’s a plan!”
Bailey stared at him, torn between laughter and panic.Reg had done the conversationpitch perfectly,mimicking Dean’s flat, no-nonsense tones and Marcus’s more eager, excited chorus, and changing his body posture to echo each person he mimicked.And when he hit, “Brilliant!It’s a plan!”Bailey realized that it wasall true,and that Dean and Marcus’s plan was tohave no plan.
“That’s terrifying,” he said, as the reality sank in.“It’s like you were there in the plane with them.”
“Oh, I’ve heard them talk,” Reg said grimly.“Which was why I snuck into Dean’s room three Christmases ago and stole his SIM card, planted a bug in it, and replaced it.Someday, Dean’s going to find out, and either he’ll be super pissed and never speak to me again, or I’ll be bailing him out of the shit and he’ll be fine with it.Either way, let’s see where he is, figure out what he and Marcus are doing there, and maybe plan to go get them in case they need us.”
“Wow,” Bailey said, feeling a little like he did in Dean’s presence, but even more so because gentle, quiet Reg seemed like the last place he’d find that much potential for evil.“You’re as scary as he is.”
Reg shrugged.“We’re sort of tightly knit.Even Sal, who likes to pretend he’s above us all.I’m pretty sure he and Laure have weekly conferences where they map out our love lives to see if we need any help.”
Bailey thought about Dean’s only sister, outstanding cook, mother of two teenagers, CEO of her own home-office based headhunting business.
“If I knew your sister was planning my love life, I’d beveryafraid,” he said bluntly, and Reg shrugged.
“I think Sal introduced her to her husband, and yeah, I know he died young, but it was true love.It’s like he wants to give her that moment back, and she wants him not to mourn his friend, and they’ve been doing that for a good fifteen years.”
Bailey’s eyes widened.“Wow.I… you know, for some reason I assumed she was divorced.”He took a breath.“I should talk to her,” he said after a moment.
Reg cocked his head over his plastic gas-station cup of lemonade.“Why?”
And Bailey heard himself saying it.“Because I lost somebody too.I-I guess I want to ask somebody, you know.About moving on.”
Reg’s eyes widened.“Oh.Wow.Ouch.Are you?Ready to move on?”
Bailey laughed a little, and it wasn’t entirely a happy sound.“I must be.I’m about to concoct a plan that might send me back into the desert after your brother because I don’t want to live without him.I’m pretty sure that’s a big thumbs-up!”
Reg nodded, completely equanimous, as though Bailey hadn’t just ripped open a big fat painful revelation.“Good,” he said, no irony whatsoever.“Because we can’t let on to my parents or siblings that we’re doing this.They’ll worry, and that’s no good.You and me need total commitment.”
Bailey didn’t even want to think of what they’d find if they jumped down the “track Dean’s phone” rabbit hole.But he didn’t want to think of what could happen if they didn’t.
“Or we need to be committed,” he said dryly.
“I understand those places are very peaceful,” Reg said, his lips not eventwitchingas he did so.“I brought my Tor-networked laptop.It’s in the house, where we can use the secure Wi-Fi in my parents’ office.”
“Secure like….”
