The Destroyed

CHAPTER 34

FRIDAY, MAY 12 th, 2006 8:31 PM LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

Quinn drove to Valley Hospital as fast as traffic would allow. There, he used a forged FBI badge to get beyond the waiting area and into the main part of the facility.

Finding an empty office at this time on a Friday night wasn’t difficult. Once inside, he located a computer. Then, using a little of what he’d paid good money to learn, he bypassed the standard security and gained access to the hospital’s system. Once he was in, he created a record for one Naomi Reese, noting that she had been dead on arrival at the ER. He listed the preliminary cause of death as heart failure, and used a line of code from his own private server to schedule the record to appear in the system the follow morning. When it did show up, it would be buried so deeply that it’d only be found if someone was looking for it specifically. There was at least a ninety-five-percent chance no one at the hospital would ever even set eyes on it.

As soon as he was done and the computer was back in its original condition, he called Jergins.

“I’m sta-”

“She’s just been spotted,” Jergins cut him off. “Over at the Manhattan Hotel.”

The blood drained from Quinn’s face. “What are you talking about?”

“Kovacs’s man found her. They’re converging there now.”

“That’s…not possible. I’m standing next to the body right now. She’s dead.” There was a big part of him that knew he should have kept his mouth shut. These were words that could easily come back and haunt him, but he was already committed so he couldn’t back down now.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’m looking at her now,” Quinn said, his gaze fixed on nothing. “I’ll have her out before daybreak, and dispose of her as planned.”

“Then who the hell did they see?”

“I have no idea, but I guarantee you it’s not the target.”

Jergins swore under his breath. “I’ll send them a message, but if they’re chasing this other person, it’ll probably be awhile before they get it. Hopefully they’ll back off when they realize it’s not her.” He paused. “You’ve got her. I’m declaring end of mission and bugging out.”

“See you next time,” Quinn said.

“Hope it goes smoother for you than it has for the rest of us.”

“Yeah. Me, too.”

Quinn left the hospital, and drove to the Strip.

How in the world had they seen Mila? She should have been in the sub-basement safe room where no one would find her. No one.

He tried to reach Julien, but the call went straight to voice mail.

“Where are you?” he yelled, then hung up.

He knew for a fact that he and Mila had reached the Manhattan unobserved. From there it should have been simple. In through the garage, downstairs, hide. Even if, God forbid, she had shown her face in the casino for a reason Quinn couldn’t possibly imagine, who would have seen her? The spotter should have been driving around lost while Kovacs was at Planet Hollywood.

He tried Julien again. Voice mail.

The only thing more frustrating than not being able to get through to his friend was the traffic, which had gone from bad to horrible.

He made a snap decision and pulled into the entrance for Caesar’s Palace. Twenty feet in, he stopped along the side of the road and jumped out, leaving the engine still running. Horns blared at him, but he ignored them as he weaved through the cars trying to get to the hotel, and made his way to the sidewalk.

There, he turned south toward the Manhattan and ran.