The Polaris Protocol Read Online Free

Mexico.”
    Carlos nodded. “I see. So it has nothing to do with the money I’m willing to pay you?”
    Fawkes looked flustered for a moment, then said, “Hey, don’t question why I’m doing this. I want it out.
Everyone
wants it out. Fuck this, man, I didn’t ask for some
Miami Vice
shit. I’ll go somewhere else.”
    Carlos said, “Calm down. I just have to make sure. If you want it out so badly, I’ll take it for free. Because I’m in Mexico, and as you say, I can get it into the world.”
    Fawkes shuffled in his chair a bit, then wiped his nose like a fifth grader. “I have what you want, but it’s not free. Understand?”
    Carlos remained silent for a moment, watching the man twitch and knowing he could get whatever he wanted without paying a dime. But he needed something more. He needed the man’s skills. He said, “Do me a favor. Run this number for me. Tell me who it belongs to.”
    Fawkes said, “A test?”
    “Perhaps. I, too, have to make sure you are who you say you are.”
    Fawkes opened up a laptop and got online. Carlos passed him the number, then waited, Fawkes’s sausage fingers racing over the keyboard. Eventually, he looked up and said, “It’s an archeological firm in Charleston, South Carolina. Not a whole lot of information tied to it. I got a Dun and Bradstreet number, some credit stuff. What in particular did you want?”
    Carlos thought about it, wondering what the hell Jack’s call could have been about.
Maybe it really was just a friend. Or maybe he’s working for the Federales.
    Carlos smiled. “I’d like you to take a closer look when you get back home. Just poke around and see if you can find anything strange.”
    Fawkes pulled his head back like a turtle, exposing the folds of his double chin. “You think this is someone after me?”
    Not after you.
“No, no. I’m just curious. Consider it a favor. How long before your product is ready?”
    “I’m not sure. It depends on a lot of different factors. They’ve just turned on the new control system, and it has some glitches. I have to wait for an aberration, and then when they call me to patch it, I can build the bridge. Shouldn’t be more than a week, though.”
    Carlos passed across a cell phone. “Call me on this when you’re ready. Don’t use it for anything else.”
    Mr. Fawkes rose unsteadily, his face glowing with a rancid glean of sweat. He skipped past Carlos, giving him a wide berth on the way out, his body odor lingering long after he closed the door.
    A few minutes later, Jack was brought in and thrown onto the floor, the gunslinger passing Jack’s wallet across.
    Carlos flipped through it and said, “Well, Mr. Jack Cahill, as I’m sure you are much more self-aware than that one wrong phone call would indicate, I’m really going to need everything you heard. I have to know what I envision is still safe.”
    “I swear to God, I thought I was investigating a drug deal. I have no idea what is going on here. I didn’t tell anyone a thing.”
    “You found this meeting somehow. Someone talked. I need to know who.”
    When Jack said nothing, Carlos motioned to one of the gunmen, who pulled him to his feet.
    Carlos said, “Don’t worry, we have plenty of time.”

6
    I could tell the voice mail was eating at Jennifer. She couldn’t listen to it because of the crappy signal and desperately wanted to go back outside where it was stronger. Unfortunately, the mission took priority.
    “He probably just wanted to say hello.”
    She brushed a hair out of her face, saying, “That’s not it. I talked to him before I left, like I always do. He knew I was out of town. He wouldn’t call unless it was important.”
    Jennifer was very close with her family, calling both of her brothers and her mother once a week just to chat. Her father was the only one she had no time for.
    I said, “Well, whatever it is, you can’t do anything immediately from seven thousand miles away, even if you could hear the voice mail.