They were fifteen miles north when Walker eased off the gas and reached down to turn up the radio again. The newscasters were still talking about Jasper and the cyber threat. And for good reason.
It had ticked past the deadline for the second cyber attack.
So far nothing had been reported.
Monica had settled. She’d spent the ride watching out her side window, silent, still. Walker focused on the scene ahead with regular checks in his rear-vision mirrors. There was no sign of the Suburbans nor any other pursuing vehicles. Now it was past the deadline she was watching the radio, as though she could will some news of her brother to be broadcast. Walker had kept to suburban streets, presuming that any kind of dragnet would focus on the interstates. By now law-enforcement officers would have Monica’s ID on file and would be on the lookout. But why?
The downtown streetlights strobed above them, a yellow glow cast over the road, the shadows between them far larger than the light that spilled like stepping stones ahead, flash-flash-flash as they drove under them, the rhythm soothing.
As they slowed to a stop at a red light a car approached from behind. Low lights, a sedan, not one of the giant Suburbans. It changed lanes without indicating and pulled alongside. Cops. LAPD. There were no other cars around. No people. Monica saw them and then looked to Walker, and then dead ahead, as though unsure who her friends were now.
Walker ignored the cops until the light changed to green. He shifted his foot, and immediately the police car bleeped its siren. The passenger wound down his window and signaled to Walker to do the same.
Walker did so.
The cop smiled. “Nice ride.”
“Thanks.” Walker looked at the two uniformed police officers, ogling the car for the thing of beauty it was.
“Seventy-one?”
“Yep.”
“Nice.” The cop looked to his partner, the driver, who had turned his attention to the computer bolted to the center console.
Walker’s hands tensed a little at the wheel. The cops were listening to the radio and watching their screen. These guys were a highway patrol. Headed into town for food maybe.
Still the newscasters were saying that neither the FBI nor Homeland Security had detected a second cyber attack.
The cops were on their radio. To Walker the chatter was indistinguishable, but both cops were listening intently.
The light was still green. A car approached from behind Walker, and flashed its lights for him to proceed.
“Hey,” Walker called to the cop nearest him. “Are you guys on some kind of lookout for this next cyber attack?”
“What?”
“Like, some kind of Homeland Security protocol? Do you have to be on guard someplace?”
The cops shared a look before they shook their heads and drove off, their car lit up with lights and siren, the roar of rubber and hot fumes left in their wake.
Walker eased on the gas and wound up his window.
Monica exhaled. “What does that mean?”
“That those cops at your house got a bogus message to leave their posts.”
“So those guys in black could take me.”
“Yes.”
“Who could do that?”
“The government.”
“But I’m not the threat here!”
Walker stared out at the road ahead, and said nothing.