She pulled out some jackets and caps from the shopping bags. “We need to change our appearance. Just enough to fool the security cameras in the store.”
She handed Sam a long black Halloween witch’s wig.
“You’re kidding,” Sam said.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “Up close it’s obvious, but on the security cams they won’t be able to tell. Here, stick this on too.” She passed him a fake goatee.
She also put on a long black wig and pulled a short, curly blond one down over Dodge’s head, topping it off with an outsized baseball cap. She covered his black T-shirt with a padded nylon zippered jacket that Dodge wouldn’t have been seen dead wearing under any normal circumstances.
“He looks like a cross between a clown and a rap artist,” Sam muttered.
He pulled his wig on and attached the fake beard around his mouth. Vienna passed him a knitted hat and a nondescript Windbreaker, both of which he put on.
“You’re not exactly the bachelor of the year yourself,” Vienna said with a quick grin.
“I think you’re enjoying this,” Sam said.
“Having the time of my life,” Vienna said, but the grin was gone. “Where do we go once we get into the mall? You got any ideas?”
Sam shook his head. “Not yet.”
“Well, you’d better figure out something soon,” Vienna said. “It won’t take Tactical long to work out where we went.”
“Maybe we can get down to the parking levels and borrow a car,” Sam said.
“Maybe.” Vienna didn’t seem convinced.
Sam looked at Dodge. His eyes still seemed soft and vacant, and since that one word, “Vienna,” he had not spoken.
“There will be cameras everywhere,” Vienna said. “We’ll try to stay in a crowd as much as possible. Make sure you never look directly at a camera. If you can’t help it, put your hands in front of your face and pretend you’re sneezing.”
“Okay.”
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
From fifty yards away, through the growing crush of peak-hour traffic, Tyler could see the problem. They might have shut down the van, but the van was attached to the back of an A & A Towing truck.
The siren and lights made a path for them through the lanes, and he pulled up alongside the truck, ordering the driver to pull over with the van’s loudspeaker.
He was out of the van and up on the running board of the tow truck before it had even come to a halt.
“Where did you pick this up?” he shouted at the driver, although he was pretty sure he already knew.
The mall was bustling with shoppers, and it was easy to lose themselves in the thick of the crowd. To his left, Sam noticed a store with a huge three-dimensional model of a neuro-headset displayed in the window. The name of the store was NEURO-TICK, emblazoned on the wall above the store windows. The store’s slogan underneath proclaimed YOUR STORE FOR EVERYTHING NEURO.
A few yards in front, Vienna was walking with her arm around Dodge and his around hers. Her head was on his shoulder, and his head rested on hers. To a casual viewer, they looked like any boyfriend and girlfriend, with no indication that one of the couple was just a few notches above brain-dead.
A girl in a white T-shirt walked toward him, wearing a neuro-cap—a baseball cap with a built-in neuro- headset—chatting animatedly to a friend walking next to her. Sam quickly pretended to sneeze, covering his face with his hands until she was gone.
He increased his pace, moving past Vienna and Dodge and muttering out of the corner of his mouth as he did so, “It’s not just cameras we need to worry about. Keep away from anyone wearing neuro.”
Vienna said nothing, but he knew she had heard. He stopped and looked in a store window for a moment to let them get back in front.
A young couple walked past wearing matching neuro-caps. They were smiling at each other, sharing secret thoughts. They did not glance at him; they were too besotted with each other. Sam felt that he had blinked and the whole world had turned neuro. Three months ago, neuro-headsets were a rare sight, but now everybody had them.
A security guard on a raised walkway was staring straight at him. Was that uniform cap a neuro-headset too? Sam wondered.
The man looked away. It was not.
Vienna stopped in her tracks and turned toward Dodge, as if having a conversation with him, although Sam knew that was not possible. Not yet. He moved closer and glanced idly around the mall, paying no attention to them.
“ATM ahead,” Vienna said. “Wait till someone goes to use it—that’ll block the security camera.”
“Okay,” Sam said.
“Where are we heading?” Vienna asked. “Any ideas yet?”
“I’m not sure,” Sam said. “But I know we have to keep moving.”
Vienna nodded slightly, to let him know that she had heard. After a moment, a large woman with a child in a stroller and two more in tow walked up to the ATM and inserted a card. Vienna started walking at once with Dodge. Sam counted to three, then followed her. They repeated the procedure at two more ATMs as they made their way toward the large center court of the mall.
A sign caught his eye in a corridor that led off to the left.
Sam quickened his step and passed Vienna, whispering as he did so, “Follow me.”
33 | THE SEARCH
Tyler shut his eyes and flicked through the images that were neuro-feeding into his brain from Control. “That’s got to be them walking through the parking lot.”
The three figures were quite unmistakable.
“Here they are again, at the northwestern end of the lot,” Sergeant Hutchens said from the driver’s seat. “And after that, nothing. Where did they go?”
“They’re in the mall somewhere. Nowhere else to go.”
“But the entrance cameras didn’t pick them up,” Hutchens said. “Nor did any of the security cameras in the service areas.”
“They’re in the mall,” Tyler said again, certain of it. “These kids know every trick in the book. If anyone can fool a security camera, they can. We’re going in. Get mall security to man the exits while we sweep the mall. Bring in the police to maintain a cordon around the entire area.”
“Mall security,” Agent Amberly said from the rear of the van, handing Tyler a phone. “Duty manager Bruce Gordon.”
Tyler took the phone. “Gordon, my name is Special Agent Tyler from Homeland Security. Here is the situation. We have three fugitives hiding somewhere in the mall. We’re sending you photos and descriptions. One of them may be semiconscious. I want you to move all your security staff immediately to the exits. Circulate the photos to their cell phones. Also make your team aware that my men will be arriving shortly to begin a search. I want every exit covered, including trade and freight entrances. Make sure they can’t get out. Any questions so far?”
Tyler looked casually around at the men in the van, relishing the feeling of power. The go-to guy. The man in charge.
“Okay, Gordon, thank you for your cooperation. We’ll be picking up the feed from your security cameras, but it would help us if you could also watch your monitors closely.”
He handed the cell back to Amberly. “Okay, let’s move in. Handguns only and keep them in your holsters. The kids are not armed, and we don’t want to panic the public. Hutchens, can you assemble the units into search
