Undetectable (Great Minds Thriller) (42 page)

As soon as he was back in the apartment, Kevin headed for his bedroom. He found his cell phone on the dresser, called up the contacts list, and then found the listing that would connect him to Petak.

Doctor
.

He pushed the contact and put the phone to his ear. As before, there was an answer even before the sound of ringing on the other side.

“Yes?”

Kevin recognized the voice, and he didn’t bother with pleasantries. “There’s a guy following me, Doctor.” He was immediately angry, immediately indignant. “
Following
me. Like a hound dog, this guy. But three times as fast. You said I was just paranoid. You said the voices in my head were making me think I was seeing people, seeing conspiracies that weren’t really there. But I just saw my doorman, my doorman who disappeared into thin air three nights ago when I tried to go back and talk to him, and this time he was following me in the park. Why would he be doing that, Doctor?”

There was pause on the line, and then Petak’s voice came back, calm and smooth as ever. “Let me see if I understand. You feel that doormen should not be allowed to go on jogs in the park?”

“No, that’s – ”

“It’s a Sunday afternoon,” Petak said pleasantly. “If it weren’t for our special payment arrangement,
I
might be taking a jog right now. We might even have encountered each other. Would you have suspected
me
then?”

“No, but what I’m saying is – ”

“You believe, essentially, that any person you encounter away from his or her place of business must be stalking you, correct?”

“That’s not what – ”

“Listen to what you’re saying, Kevin. There’s no – ”

“
He ran away from me!
”

That did the trick. The line went silent, and Kevin felt a brief surge of triumph. “That’s right,” he continued. “He was
trailing
me. He froze when I saw him. And then when I tried to talk to him, he sprinted away from me like a 400-meter Olympic hopeful. What do you say to
that
?”

There was a long pause, and Kevin wondered if Petak had hung up. The idea filled him with unexpected dread. He didn’t want the man gone; he just wanted an explanation. “Doctor?”

“I’m here, Kevin.” Petak’s tone had changed dramatically. “I must say, I’m very sorry to hear this.”

“What?”

The doctor sighed loudly. “It sounds to me as though the people who put you through this procedure are still interested in your… condition. And they’re following up. I can understand your distress.”

“What do you mean, following up? I thought you said I wasn’t chosen.”

“You weren’t, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to let all that data slip through their fingers.”

“Data?” Kevin glanced down at himself as if expecting to find a printout coming from a hidden slot in his chest. “What data?”

“
You
, Kevin. The side effects you’re experiencing, the steps you’re taking to handle those effects – these things are worth studying. From what you told me two months ago, the procedure you submitted to was experimental at best. Which means its long-term effects are probably not yet fully understood. I can’t say this for sure, but I’m betting your doorman – or whoever that man is – has simply been tasked with trying to keep track of you during your convalescence. In other words, to watch you and report what he sees. Not very sinister, but I can sympathize with your frustration.”

“That’s bullshit,” Kevin said angrily. He felt like throwing the cell phone across the room. “Why doesn’t he just
ask
me about it? Or ask
you
? Between the two of us, we could give him all the data he wants.

“Again, I simply don’t know. Perhaps he’s trying to record unbiased observations. To watch without interfering, though it sounds as if he’s not doing a very good job. And perhaps he
will
ask you; or he’ll ask me, or both of us. Maybe he’ll contact us in two weeks with a whole list of questions.”

“I don’t think I’ll be too eager to help out.”

“That’s certainly your prerogative,” Petak said. “And you can be sure he’ll get no information from
me
.”

“All right, so what now?”

“Try to forget about him. I’m much more concerned with
you
. How are you feeling? Have you been keeping up a schedule? Acting normal?”

Kevin smiled. “
So
normal. I’m just a regular old paranoid,
insomniac
, voice-hearing, time-stopping, steel-trap-memory guy. If you saw me on the street you wouldn’t look twice.”

“Good. And how’s your energy? You’re getting rest? How are you feeling overall?”

“Not bad. I got my ass kicked yesterday, but I seem to be healing well.”

“What?”

“Never mind. I’m fine.”

“Okay.” Petak seemed unsure whether Kevin was joking. “Call me again if you need anything.”

“Can you figure out who that doorman guy is? Get him to fuck off?”

“I wish I could,” Petak said. “Check in with me sometime this week. Give me an update.”

“I will.”

Petak waited for a slow count of five after the connection was broken, and then he was dialing another number. He could have pressed a contact on his phone, but he preferred to punch in each digit individually. He knew this one by heart.

“What?”

It was Craig.

“Are you out of your fucking
mind
?” Petak shouted.

“Oh, calm down.”

“Listen, Craig the fucking Craig, or whatever your name is.
You’re freaking him out
, do you understand? If you can’t tail a man any better than that, then cut it out. Back off immediately.”

“Sorry, Doctor. Can’t do that.”

“And why not?”

“You know why not. Because keeping tabs on him is my job. I need to know his status at all times. And right now his status is shit. Were you aware of that, by the way?”

“What are you talking about?”

“He was beaten up yesterday. It was only three guys,” Craig said with disdain. “A twelve-year-old girl could have handled herself better. And you should have seen him half an hour ago – slow as a mule.”

“He doesn’t need to be a cheetah, you asshole. He’s a tank. If he can keep his stamina up, that’s all that matters. But with you on his ass all the time, who knows if he’ll go back to the park? Who knows if he’ll even go running anymore? Do you realize how difficult it is to implant an impulse for a man that size to go for a fucking
jog
? He weighs 220, it’s completely against his nature; it’s like trying to convince a cat to swim the backstroke.”

“Fine, but that’s not the real problem.”

Petak huffed. “Please. As for the street fight, what do you expect? He’s got five days to go.
Five days
. He could learn to do open heart surgery by then if we handed him the right book. Do you have the slightest idea of how much a scrubbed agent can absorb in that much time?”

“He’s not going to – ”

“More than all the shit currently rattling around in that skull of yours,” Petak cut in. “You should see the bookcase we set up for him. You’ll never read that many books in your whole miserable
life
.”

Craig scoffed. “Not the point,” he said. “And in any case,
I’m
not responsible for an asset’s safety this coming Friday.
He’s
the one who has to be ready.
I have to make a call.”

“What? There’s nothing to report. Just give him until – ”

But the phone was dead in Petak’s hand. Craig was gone.

Craig was still on the sidewalk. He had switched directions several times after leaving the park, on the off-chance that Kevin Brooks hadn’t given up trying to track him down. But now he was walking straight downtown on Third Avenue. He had his cellphone pressed to his ear.

“It’s Craig.”

He waited for clearance.

“This is an official report,” Craig said, speaking slowly and clearly for the recorders he knew would be rolling. “He might not be ready in time. He’s currently injured. Not badly, but there’s no way to know if he’ll be 100% by Friday. And his hand-to-hand abilities are questionable.”

A pause.

“Yes,” Craig said, “improvements are likely. But my recommendation as of now is to go with the backup as lead agent.”

He waited a moment for confirmation, and then he put the phone back in his pocket. Craig hadn’t much liked Kevin Brooks during the scrubbing process; in fact, the whole concept of the program rubbed him the wrong way.

In any case, it would be safer to have career agents on this detail.

Guy would have fucked something up
, he thought.

Not All Weapons And Explosives

Kevin took an extra minute to let himself calm down after his call with Dr. Petak. He felt no less angry now, but at least what the doctor had said made sense.

Everything he says makes sense. It all fits. It’s too perfect, it’s –

But Kevin shook off these thoughts. It was just the paranoia still eating at him. Simple as that. Because Petak was right. It had been the weirdest week of his life; of
course
people would be interested in what he was going through. Of course they’d want to keep track of him. Not that having someone tailing you was an ordinary thing, but nothing about Kevin’s life had been ordinary lately. And the crazy thing, the
really
weird thing was that he knew he’d
want
to talk to them. To the doorman, to whoever else was behind all this stuff, to anyone. If that doorman guy were to show up two weeks from now with a survey in his hand, Kevin would probably want to punch him in the face… but five minutes later he’d also want to sit down and talk about everything that had happened. Everything he’d been experiencing.