Twenty-Eight
They had passed through a new time zone a half hour ago, give or take, so the time was now an hour earlier than it was an hour ago, or something like that. Erik had always gotten confused about time zones when he was flying against the grain—that was the term somebody in his boot camp had once used and it had stuck with him ever since—and now here he was flying on an actual private jet.
He didn’t know the kind of jet and was too intimidated to ask. Besides the two pilots—who were enclosed in the cockpit—there were the two men from Holly’s apartment, Nova and James.
James hadn’t said a word this entire time, while Nova had said very little. After they’d left the apartment, they drove for nearly an hour before they reached the airfield and boarded the jet, and minutes later they were in the air and now they were somewhere over Tennessee or Kentucky, Erik didn’t know which and again was too intimidated to ask.
He’d flown before, of course, but he never once flew in a private jet, or even thought he ever would. Private jets were for movie stars and sports stars and billionaires, not for the likes of him. It felt almost obscene, the luxury of the cabin and the large comfortable chairs.
Part of him was exhausted, but another part couldn’t sleep, too wired with everything that was going on. He kept thinking of the girl whom he knew for the past year as Jen, which was apparently not her real name. This knowledge was somehow as shocking as the fact she had killed two men—the knowledge that she had been living a double life—and part of him knew he shouldn’t have agreed to come along with these two strangers, though for some reason another part instinctively trusted them. The way Erik saw it, if these men had wanted to kill him, they would have done so by now.
“Can’t sleep?”
The deep voice startled him. He’d been staring out the window, down at the dark landscape below, and now glanced over at the big man sitting in the chair across from him. Nova’s head was tilted back but his eyes were half-open, watching Erik.
Because he couldn’t think of anything else to say—and because Nova had startled him—Erik said the first thing that came to mind.
“Your boss must be loaded.”
Nova shifted in his seat, and opened his eyes fully.
“He’s not my boss.”
Erik frowned.
“But—”
Nova hooked a thumb over his shoulder, pointing to James sleeping in the seat behind him.
“He works for the man. Me … I’m simply an associate.”
Erik didn’t know what this meant and didn’t want to ask—somehow he knew he’d still be confused—so he tilted his head at James.
“Doesn’t he talk?”
Nova shook his head.
“He’s mute. Has been most of his life.”
“Does he communicate with sign language?”
“I would imagine so. Why, you know sign language?”
“I do, actually. I learned it when I was a kid. I haven’t used it for years, so I’m sure I’m rusty, but I remember some of it.”
Nova didn’t say anything to this, and glanced out his own window.
Erik said, “So can you tell me anything about what’s going on?”
Nova kept staring out his window.
“We’re flying to D.C.”
“Yeah, I get that part. And we’re going to try to find the people watching Holly’s family. But what happens when we find them?”
Nova stared out his window for another moment before glancing at Erik again.
“Look, you appear to be a smart guy, so I’m sure you get the sense I’m not really on board with having you here.”
Erik nodded but said nothing. He had certainly gotten that impression.
“If it were up to me, we would’ve left you back in that piece of shit town, probably tied up in the apartment so you couldn’t contact any of your fellow deputies. But obviously the powers that be had other ideas. Atticus isn’t my boss, but he’s a man I’ve come to trust. Every time I’ve needed help, he’s provided it.”
Erik studied Nova sitting across from him, trying to decide who the man worked for.
“Are you CIA?”
Nova smiled, and shook his head.
Erik said, “FBI?”
Nova snorted, made a face, but still said nothing.
“I’m guessing you’re not NSA, and you don’t strike me as working for another country.”
Nova said, “I’m an American boy, through and through.”
“So who do you work for?”
“I told you, chief. I don’t work for anybody. I’m just here to help out a friend.”
“Holly.”
“That’s right.”
“But shouldn’t we, you know, try to figure out what happened to her, too?”
“Atticus is working on it. The moment she was taken into custody, he was alerted. That’s how he contacted me. I was out in the middle of nowhere, had been staying at a cabin by a stream to do some fly-fishing. Atticus gave me a call, said James would meet me, and several hours later we ended up in Alden.”
“And I walked in while you were searching Holly’s apartment.”
Nova shrugged.
“We were wrapping up by the time you walked in, but yeah, basically.”
“Did you mean what you said before?”
“I guess it depends on what I said.”
“That Holly can take care of herself.”
Nova nodded, almost thoughtfully, and tilted his head so that he stared out his window again. Erik thought he might say something else, but he didn’t.
“So what are we going to do once we land?”
Nova glanced back at him, took a deep breath.
“Once we land there will be some cars waiting, and weapons, and comms. We’re going to have to split up right
