The Archimedes Effect

37

Washington, D.C.

Rachel knew her car would be spotted pretty quick, so she had used her computer skills to have a military vehicle checked out to somebody else; she was in that. By the time they missed it and figured out what had happened, she’d be far away. They’d be watching local airports and train and bus stations, so she needed to get out of the area before catching a ride elsewhere. Baltimore was a good place—she could head for New York, then transfer to a flight heading west. Carruth had that place in Montana he didn’t know she knew about. She could be his girlfriend, waiting for him to meet her there; that would be good for a few days.

She needed a place and some time—she had to see if she could still broker the deal for her stolen data. If she didn’t do it quick, though, it wasn’t going to fly—now that they knew who she was, they would take her system apart and eventually unravel it and shut everything down. It would take a while, even with the best hackers working it, but they’d crack it in the end. It hadn’t been designed for an all-out armored attack, but for stealth. That was gone now.

Her own best chance to come out of this with something was to contact her potential buyer, tell him there was a ticking clock, and offer a cut-rate deal. A couple million for a door that was going to be open for a few days? At least that was something an enterprising man could do something with.

She could still pull that off, maybe.

And if not? Well, at worst, she had still cost the Army a lot of grief and a lot of money. Certainly there had been plenty of payback in that even if she didn’t make a dime herself.

If she could stay out of their hands for a little while longer, she’d be okay. She was too smart for them. Even for Gridley, the stupid bastard. She still couldn’t believe he’d turned her down.

What an idiot.

Baltimore? As good a direction as any. They weren’t going to set up roadblocks looking for her. She knew how the Army thought. They were always training to fight the last war. She was going to get away. No question.

Probably what was the most disappointing was not getting it on with Jay. She’d really been looking forward to that.

Ah, well. His loss.