Come and Find Me A Novel of Suspense - By Hallie Ephron Page 0,73

her password and waited for home office to come into focus.

Instead, pixel by pixel, a replica of the interior of the silo materialized. Nadia, dressed in her signature black leather jacket and red cap, was sitting in the same tulip chair that Diana sat in at that moment, facing a table covered with computer equipment arranged only slightly differently from the machines in the real-world silo.

“We gave you a new home base. I hope you don’t mind,” Daniel said.

She didn’t. They’d already demonstrated how they could control Nadia whenever they felt like it. But it was a timely and potent reminder of all the variables she’d need to take into account.

Diana maneuvered the mouse to angle the viewfinder. The interior of the silo had been replicated right down to the shading of the curved walls, from brown to white as they neared the roof, and the bent rebar ends sticking out of them. A little inset map of the space showed just one yellow dot—her avatar was alone in its virtual tower.

She quickly checked her inventories. Her libraries of “gestures,” “sounds,” and “clothing” seemed intact, but all of her “places” and “contact cards” had disappeared. Erased. Again, what she’d expected. Neither Daniel nor Jake would be so easily seduced by her promise to cooperate.

With a series of beeps, message after message popped onto her queue. She was surprised that Daniel and Jake hadn’t disabled her communications. Uh-oh. A message from PWNED caught her eye. The subject line: “Re: Phew.” Pam had sent it yesterday, after Diana had called her.

Pam’s message began, Got your message. So relieved to hear from you . . .

Had Pam missed the point of her phone call? Diana gripped the mouse and shot a look over to Daniel. He seemed engrossed in his own work.

She quickly scanned the message, realizing that it wasn’t a response to her call at all, but a reply to an electronic message appended at the bottom—a message supposedly from Diana, one that Jake or Daniel must have sent, reassuring Pam that Diana’s trip to New Hampshire had gone well and she’d be there for a while longer. Diana could only hope that Pam wasn’t fooled, and this response was her way of playing along.

She clicked reply. Her computer buzzed, like she’d entered a wrong answer, and up popped a box with the message, Unable to complete. She entered a query to see whether Pam was in-world at that moment. Another buzz. Unable to complete.

“Shit.” She said it under her breath.

Daniel snorted. Diana choked, sure that he’d heard and realized what she was trying to do. But he was slumped in his chair, his eyes half closed and his mouth slack. His chin drifted down, down, and a moment later he jerked back alert. He snorted again and straightened, ran his hand back and forth over his mouth, and stared at the screen. A minute later, his head tipped to the side again.

Diana pushed away from the table. Her chair made a nasty sound as it scraped across the floor. Daniel jumped, and the little headset fell out of his ear. She walked over to him, picked it up, and handed it to him. Gently she put her hands on his shoulders.

He gave her a wary look that softened into a smile as she started to massage his shoulders, working her thumbs at the knots of tension in his trapezius muscles. He closed his eyes and rolled his head around.

“Mmmm. That feels good.” He slipped the headset into his shirt pocket, closed his eyes, and breathed deeply.

She worked her way up and down in his neck and upper spine. Daniel’s face went calm, the lines of tension disappearing from his forehead and jaw as her thumbs circled up into what would have been his hairline if he hadn’t shaved his head. If he’d just let down his guard, he’d be dead asleep in seconds.

He grabbed her wrist. “What are you up to?”

“Idiot. You can see what I’m up to.” She wrenched her arm free and rubbed her wrist. “I killed the coffee,” she said. “You look like you could use another cup. I know I could.”

Daniel started to get up but Diana put her hand firmly on his shoulder. “Let me,” she said. He collapsed back into his chair.

She picked up his empty coffee cup and her own, still nearly full. “I think I remember how you like it. Good and strong.”

Diana prayed that Daniel wouldn’t follow her to the sink. When