THIRTY-FIVE

Sitting at his desk with the door closed, Werner dialed. “Where are you?” he asked when Tate’s image appeared on his phone screen.

The tall man spread his arms in frustrated abdication. “Why?”

“I’ve been trying to reach you all day.”

“Took a trip to DC. You got a problem with that?”

“When you don’t tell me about it beforehand, yes,” Werner said. “Why are you in DC?”

“You sure you want to know?”

Tate’s demeanor was off. Brash as ever, he carried himself with a heightened degree of impudence. Werner read the question as a taunt.

“Of course I should know. We have a lot of work ahead of us and I count on you being readily available.”

“Yeah, well,” Tate said with a head swagger, “look what happened when I counted on you.”

“What are you talking about?” Werner focused on Tate’s setting. “Are you at Virtu-Tech headquarters?”

“You promised me I’d get another shot at becoming an envoy. You haven’t done squat about that.”

“Not yet.”

“Yeah? When?”

Taken aback, Werner hesitated. He couldn’t tell Tate about Celia’s ban on future envoys. “Soon. I told you. We can’t move forward on your career prospects until the 6.0s are fully distributed.”

“What’s so important about those Sixes?” Tate asked. “Why wait? Don’t you trust me to tell me the whole story?”

“Where is all this coming from?” Werner asked. “What happened?”

“You blamed me for the missing Sixes.”

“I asked you about the missing Sixes,” Werner corrected. “That’s not the same thing.”

“Doesn’t matter. Why should I trust you if you aren’t going to support me?”

“I have every intention of getting you envoy status.”

Doubt worked its way across Tate’s features. “How come you haven’t kept me updated about it, then?”

“I’ve had a lot on my mind.” That was an understatement. After a calming breath, Werner said, “We can talk more about this when you return to Chicago.”

“I’ll be back in town tonight.”

“Good.” Sensing that Tate had settled down enough for calm conversation, Werner tried again. “What took you out to DC?”

“Special assignment.”

“For Virtu-Tech?”

When Tate nodded, Werner spotted it again. An increased level of smugness.

“What kind of assignment?”

“Celia wanted me to do a little housecleaning, if you catch my drift.”

Werner sat forward. “Explain.”

“Well,” Tate said, drawing the word out as he massaged his chin. “Not really sure that Celia wants me to be telling stories out of school, but the news will hit today or tomorrow anyway. Can’t really see the harm in giving you a little advance notice.”

“Get on with it, man.”

Tate glanced both ways, as though to ensure no one was listening. “That old guy, Huntington, passed out in her office. Celia asked me to make sure he was properly taken care of.” He grinned again. “If you take my meaning.”

Werner’s gut rolled over on itself. “Simon? He’s—”

“Dead, yeah.”

Drawing a sharp breath, Werner steepled his fingers in front of his mouth.

“You’ve got a weird look on your face,” Tate said.

Werner stared away. “Call me when you get back,” he finally said. “In the meantime, stay out of trouble.”

After they hung up, Werner slammed his desk with a fist. The techs working outside his office glanced up at the jolt. Werner ignored them. He sighed, rubbing his eye sockets with the heels of his hands. Emotions warred for his head and heart.

Werner stared out over the busy office, wryly noting each time a tech shot a panicked glance his way. They’d been tasked with running diagnostics on the security system in an attempt to ascertain what had gone wrong at the warehouse. Their job was to determine who switched the 6.0s and when it had happened.

With a miserable laugh, Werner resigned himself to the fact that they would undoubtedly come up empty. Why should today be any different? No matter how meticulously he planned, no matter how excruciatingly accurate his calculations, everything in his life always went wrong.

Except for Patrick, that is. His one shining success.

He rubbed the stubble on his chin and down the front of his neck. Too warm in here. Too close. The office grew smaller, tighter. Shaking off sudden light-headedness, he got to his feet and strode out the office door. If the techs looked up, he didn’t notice. He had to get away.