White Bone Read Free Page B

the bugs ran for cover,” Knox said. “I don’t buy you had her working in a vacuum. Why no calls? Grace can encrypt anything.”
    “Metadata,” Dulwich said. “The call, sure. But not the origin or destination tagged onto that call.”
    “Kenya is a place of corruption by degrees, John,” Winston said. “Phone lines. Airwaves. The Internet.” He shook his head. “We all agreed up front: it wasn’t worth the risk.”
    “The first forty-eight,” Knox said, referring to the critical hours after a kidnapping.
    “Not there yet. It’s not a kidnapping,” Dulwich said. “It’s not anything. It’s a fucking solar flare knocking out the Internet.”
    “Because you’re prescient.”
    “Because I only heard of this text ten minutes ago. The Internet being down, that’s for real, John.”
    “She’s been blown.”
    “We don’t know that.”
    “We’re going after her, you and I, Sarge. That’s what we do. If we’re wrong, we get a round-trip on our host here. But we’re not wrong.”
    “I’m out,” Dulwich said. “We—Rutherford—did a thing there, not even a year ago. Pissed off the Chinese—those guys are so in bed in Kenya that they’ve got monogrammed pillows. I’m tagged—no good. They have facial recognition at Jomo Kenyatta. Lots of terrorism they’re dealing with. I might make it into the country from the Ugandan side, but that’ll take days. A week, maybe. It’s overland shit.”
    “How convenient! When I just happen to be available.”
    “You don’t put an operative in jeopardy by running after him or her. If Grace is nearly blown, the worst thing we can do is show up looking for her.”
    Knox knew it was true, but was loath to admit it.
How could Sarge sit there so calmly?
he wondered. How could these two not see the obvious? She’d thrown up a smoke signal and they were turning a blind eye. Her letter warmed in his pocket.
    “Fuck,” he said. “I’m going down there. Today. Now. If you hear from her tonight, fine. I’ll ride a giraffe or whatever one does in Nairobi, and return in a day or two. Agreed?”
    “Our people can look into it, John. No need for that,” Winston said.
    “British Intelligence? And you don’t want me giving her away? Tell him, Sarge.”
    Dulwich looked trapped. He wasn’t one to play lapdog. He’d popa nun in the nose if she held out on him. But a client as important, as wealthy and powerful, as Graham Winston kept Sarge on a short leash.
    “You know the sign in the petrol station window?” Winston said in his buttery accent. “Ten bob an hour. Twelve, if you watch—”
    “Fifteen if you help,” Knox said. “Yeah. Ha-ha. So, I’m paying twelve. I’ll take a look, and then I’ll turn tail. No spooks. Don’t do that to her.”
    “What exactly would you need?” Winston asked.
    “A full download.” He addressed Dulwich. “I’m assuming tech services is tracking her mobile, her movement. If not her mobile, then her log-ins. Expenses? Credit cards?”
    “Cash,” Dulwich said.
    Winston took a neat bite of toast. “It’s toxic there, John. Corrupt police. The military, government, wildlife service, health care . . . there are degrees of corruption in every institution.”
    “You sent her in alone,” Knox said to Dulwich.
    “For computer work, John. Follow the money, like you said.”
    “And you thought, what, she’d just sit around her hotel room?” Indignant, Knox spat out pieces of food unintentionally as he spoke. “You know her! She’s been sucking up to you for two years! She wants to run the company someday! So, one or both of you provided her with local contacts and connections. I’ll need that same information, exactly what she got.”
    Knox looked down at his plate; he was eating off china, with actual silverware, and where was Grace? Tied up in some Kenyan warehouse? “I need to get down there.” He pushed back his chair and stood. “I’ll stay away from her, contact only the people you trusted, but I need